Although the fact that the I Ching can reveal dates and even the time of the day seems impressing, the practical use is hard to go anywhere beyond that of a fortune teller forecast, or the one described by Carl Jung, a way to explore the unconscious.

The main practical use of this system is that it would allow us to recognize the effect of our present actions in future states, that is it gives us feedback necessary to enhance our actions and redirected if necessary towards ways that will lead to the achievements we are looking for. Otherwise, what is the main reason to toss coins and think for hours, scratching the head trying to find relationships among stars, elements, combos, et cetera?.

If the I Ching is to be relied as a practical tool towards the pursuit of a happy and successful life, it is necessary to recognize how far we can trust it and to diminish the vagueness of its forecasts.

Let's take a medication as an example, at the beginning certain amount of people uses a plant to treat a disease with variable results, but in general it will have some positive result on the overall population. Then science comes in: identifies substances, extracts them and study the amount of each that is to be given to maximize the desired result and minimize the adverse effects.

The I Ching can be treated in a similar way to enhance its function as a feedback for our decisions. Inside all this rules, translations, stars and elements may lay some hidden principles that can be trusted always and are far from a subjective (not necessarily bad) interpretation. Otherwise the only thing we can expect of it, is the same interpretations that will give variable results without a clue of what to do to improve its practical use.

I invite the people that have been working with the I Ching to design experiments, to extract what is necessary and to allow us get better results and a trustworthy feedback.

Hello DarHba,

Not trying to pop the balloon here, but you'll need several people together in order to get this experiment of yours setup. With at least ONE person among them who is "OK" with I Ching usage. And that isn't easy to come by.

What you'll find is that those that are not of Eastern origin, or had extensive backgrounds in the Far East, or trained by someone from the Far East, usually have heard a little about such arts and after a bit of extensive searching, found the material provided by Alex.

Now the problem is, there are quite a bit of chunks missing from Alex's material that is very easy to come by in the Far East; is completely wrong according to everything known in the Eastern world; or doesn't have the advanced techniques that are occasionally strewn in the books found in the East. Those that become adept with Alex's materials are often found to be wanting by those who have studied the material available in the East.

To further compound this problem, there is a bit of snobbery in the Eastern society that views the Western worlds view and use of the I Ching as backwards, simple, or "not as advanced as theirs". And many also like to keep the air of mystery around their skills too, especially those who have obtained a certain level of skill with the I Ching and want to keep the divide between Easterners and Westerners. Making it very difficult to obtain such people to help provide another line of research you are thinking off.

Also, this research will likely require that reader to take control of everything and consult you on what is needed to be done research and breakdown wise, but everything else left to them. As they are the ones that will be familiar already with what can be and what can't be done, and subsequently, they will be the ones putting it into a more broken down methematical form.

Finally, I doubt it will be finished in a short space of time either. Probably best if you can find someone who has spare time, or is still studying. Others like myself who have to work now can't affort to spend the time we have always helping people when we are having our own troubles with life.

Anyway, wishing you the best of luck with this experiment of yours.

UK Anon Hotmail User