Why did it take so long to arrange for the study to take place?

Planning the study while being a college student was not easy. I had to think thoroughly about the study procedure and how it would be carried out. One of my biggest concerns was how to ensure that the volunteers who are seen by me are not subject to any possible harm or inconvenience. This includes that volunteers' answers regarding their health must remain anonymous, that only persons 18 years and older may volunteer for the study, and that the volunteers may not find out what my answers were. I had to design the paperwork and arrange a location for the study and check with permits. Find participants for the practical assignments of the study, and coordinate everyone's schedules. Three independent readings and a first larger-scale study have now taken place, and I am already planning a second study in the case that the claim is not falsified once the results from the first study come in.

Are you stalling on purpose, or perhaps subconsciously, keeping the study and the test from ever happening, perhaps afraid to find out that there is no ability?

This question is one of the JREF Forum members' favorites when they become impatient with the slow progress. No I am not stalling on purpose. I am just being very careful not to rush through this investigation to not make any mistakes in the quality of the investigation. I try to ensure a high enough quality in the investigation so that I don't have to go back and "re-do a study" because "oh I just realized I forgot to add something on the questionnaire" or "I did it wrong". I want to ensure that I am only working in the forward direction and never have to go back to undo something, or to redo something that wasn't done properly the first time. Another reason is that I still lack the amount of experience I would like to have with the medical perceptions and with checking for their accuracy and that is a slower process since I will only express my perceptions in a careful study- or test environment rather than to approach people and let them know what I perceived. This, of course, to avoid causing harm to persons. I am also very careful in my planning to ensure that I have any necessary permits and that my procedure ensures no inconvenience to anyone who is involved, whether me, the participants, volunteers, or anyone else involved. I intend quality, and that is what complicates things. Regardless of the slow progress I am quite eager to continue with the study and to have the tests as soon as possible. This paranormal claim is also not as simple as a claim of telepathy or like many other paranormal claims that, really, could be completed much faster. My claim involves people, and health problems, and that complicates things somewhat. Which brings us to the next question...

Why don't you do the cereal tests? You were doing them for a while and then stopped when the results became negative and when the cereal test protocol was improved on?

The cereal test came about since I claim to have walked by a cereal aisle and detected a very strong white-blue vibrational aspect coming from a cereal box that just didn't feel like cereal does. I knew there would be something very special in there, and from reading the box I found out it contains Lactobacillus. And on another occasion I met a friend who I had only met once before and was stunned since I detected a highly unusual occurrence of bright, round small bacteria in his stomach. He had taken Lactobacillus supplement since I last saw him. So I put this to the test, placed one sample of such cereal with the bacterial supplement in one container and had two or three others with just plain cereal to see whether I could identify the bacteria by their feeling through the container. I have posted the results of these cereal tests, as they came to be called, on the JREF Forum in my Vision From Feeling Thread. Here are some of the posts with results of individual cereal tests. I do warn that there may be more such posts there that I have not accounted for here.
Post #161 (Find the results table at the bottom of this wall of text.)
Post #200
The cereal tests required that I make forced attempts to detect the bacteria, rather than detecting it on its own as is normally the case, and also to make forced detection repeatedly over a period of several minutes up to an hour. I started to develop strong headaches and nausea and normally I have neither. The way I did these cereal tests, I did as many trials as I can until my discomforts were too overwhelming and I had to stop. The misses at the end of these tests were in fact due to my discomforts. It is not the case that I stopped the tests once I failed a few trials. Of course if this is my claimed performance I should be able to prove this statement in a repeated cereal test with witnesses. I am however reluctant (or even fearful) of having more cereal type of tests, including coin detection and other chemical detection tests of this type since they make me very uncomfortable. Some say I became uncomfortable because I made failed trials but that is not true. I know for a fact that the headache came first and then the failed trials in the cereal tests. Why do I not do one cereal test trial at a time and separated by time and then add them together? Because the claim I am investigating is medical perceptions.

Why are you even investigating?

I've experienced interesting and compelling cases of accuracy in my medical perceptions, where I've known things about people's health that I shouldn't have been able to know. I must make it clear that I hold several possible final conclusions of this investigation in mind. For instance, I might be picking up on subtle and external clues without realizing it and that translate synesthetically into corresponding images and felt information. The cases of accuracy I've had so far compel me to find out. I find plenty reason to investigate this experience.

How do you know you are not delusional or mentally ill?

This question is asked a lot on the JREF Forums, when certain Skeptics run out of other questions to bring up, and I have answered it many times already. And here is how I would answer it: First of all, I do not feel mentally ill. The color- and vibrational perceptions that I experience do not interfere with my mental functioning or with the way I live my life. They are rarely a distraction diverting me from our mutual experienced world, unless I perceive a serious health problem that continues to capture my attention, such as if I perceive the image of liver worms or that a man has a particularly bad heart. Most of the day I do not perceive any of these things at all. I do not constantly have color and vibrational perception. For most of the time I perceive the world in the very same way that I think we all do. In the same, actual colors, sound, and without any vibrational information that we don't all agree to be there. So I do understand that my experiences are subjective to me. I know fully well that everyone doesn't immediately perceive red when they think of hydrogen, so I know that my experience is not considered "normal" because of that, "normal", as in typical, or ordinary.
I have not had myself diagnosed with synesthesia but I do strongly suspect that I have it. I do show its symptoms, such as that the association is consistent, for instance nitrogen is always the same neon green and isn't one day blue. And that the association is automatic and involuntary rather than chosen or brought from memory. Synesthesia is rare, and comes in many forms among different synesthetes. Some people associate sound with taste, for instance. Synesthesia is by definition not a mental illness. Its' experience is in general not distractive to life, and is rather very often a source of inspiration, and creativity, as well as an increased ability of learning and memorization. I do find it very useful when I learn science subjects, and in the way that I relate to science. With it, science concepts are not just logical facts, but also come in color, shape, vibration, and character, which helps me to get to know them, and to better use them in real life situations.
I can clearly distinguish between my subjective experience and with what is the real mutual world as well as what is the experience of others. I do not hold automatic belief or sense of reality to any of my unusual perceptions, regardless of how realisticly or vividly I do experience them in some cases. I hold them to myself, and have no need of expressing or of convincing others of their occurrence or authenticity. At times I have curiosity about the medical perceptions that I have. For instance, why do I so clearly see and feel a certain pain, or bodily discomfort, in another person? When the situation is right, I will ask the person, and so far I receive confirmation of accuracy. I do not demand correlation, I do not even always expect correlation, but it happens. At times what I perceive with association is surprising to me, I look at the person with my eyes and try to reach the same conclusion by ordinary means and just can't believe what I am sensing. Such as when I sensed that one of our neighbors would have at one time seriously crushed their skull from the top. I saw no external symptoms and there was no reason to suspect such a thing. It is at times like these when I become extra compelled to check for accuracy, thinking that I just might finally experience the first case of inaccuracy, and obtain some kind of understanding of what this is. But so far, I have never been verified as being incorrect. I am fully open for inaccuracy. I do not reach my conclusions by dialogue, and the less input from outside sources I have for obtaining information, the happier I am to do this, since I prefer less distraction such as eyecontact with the person, dialogue, or observing movement or external clues about their health. According to my experience, the medical perceptions are not based on external or visual information. They are formed based on what I feel in the person as a vibrational pattern.
These unusual experiences do not distract me, I do not take them out into the real world. I do not tell people what I sense in them other than in certain situations such as with close friends and family. They are not confusing, distracting, or disturbing. There is no reason to worry about my well-being. They are rather, beautiful, colorful, and interesting experiences of color and vibration patterns, and I am sure most synesthetes would agree that we would not want to give up the way we experience the world.

What do you do if tests conclude that the perceptions don't have correlation with reality?

I would be pleased to finally conclude this investigation and to have reached a final answer. My objective is not to hope for one explanation over another, because regardless of what the answer is, I get to keep the experience and nothing changes really. I would not be embarassed if I failed a scientific paranormal test. I have not invested emotionally or otherwise in passing a paranormal test.

Why a paranormal investigation? Why not just an investigation?

Good question. Perhaps since one of the possible conclusions on my list is extrasensory perception. To my knowledge, no extrasensory perception or paranormal ability has been verified as existing by science, so obviously it is not reasonable to expect a paranormal occurrence. But in the way that I experience the medical perceptions, to me I am not guessing, I am not inventing, I am not imagining, to me I am feeling vibrational patterns, and visual images form as a result, and I confirm compelling correlation with the real world. Perhaps since "paranormal" could mean so many things, since I do not quite know what hypothesis to form based on my experience. Many say this is not reminiscent of known expressions of synesthesia. Regardless of what the investigation is called, paranormal investigation, psychology investigation, or something else, I am sure that the final outcome will be the same.

Why did you have to have a study before a test?

I came into this investigation having only everyday experiences with the medical perceptions. Everyday experiences took place under what ever conditions were at hand at that time when I had the perception, for instance I spoke my perception rather than writing it down, eyecontact was available, and other circumstances that I am removing in the study process as I bring the perceptions to a test situation. These everyday experiences are nowhere near acceptable conditions for a test that intends to find out what the source of my perceptions are or if paranormal. Me and the IIG were in protocol negotiations, working out the details of the test procedure for my claimed experience of medical perception but progress was prevented when I realized that I do not know under what test conditions the perceptions would persist. Since I only have the everyday experience of the medical perceptions, I have no way of answering questions such as, "How far away from the person can I be?", "Out of how many times when an ailment is known to occur among persons can I be expected to detect it, to know how many I would miss." And many other questions. And when I met with the local skeptics they quickly realized to advise me to learn more about my claim before a test can be designed around it. The study intends to answer these questions and for me to try out various test conditions. It does delay progress overall, but in my opinion it ensures the quality of the investigation. My objective is not to pass a paranormal ability, but to find out what exactly the perceptions are and to learn more about them.

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