Mickey Mouse Methods


Unlike the sound statistical techniques used in the work reported here, there are many authors who (probably unintentionally) use Mickey Mouse methods. Using these methods one can find almost any so-called 'message' of interest, in any sufficiently large text.

Gaining clarity about this helps us to avoid some critical pitfalls and to appreciate the truly interesting cases in the Torah.

Mickey Mouse methods include: Not all of these elements are necessary at once in order to create Mickey Mouse codes; in fact the last two can be used to produce very impressive-appearing tables in non-Torah texts.

This is exactly what the code critics do, for example in the Hebrew translation of the novel War and Peace. They then try to characterize all legitimate work in the Torah the same way.

To obscure the issues further, many beginners and not-so-beginners do use these Mickey Mouse methods in the Torah. The internet and bookstores contain many such examples. The picture looks impressive, and it is simply used as is, without calculating the statistics properly. The authors hope thereby to prove the identity of the Messiah, predict World War III, or back their political beliefs.

Adding chaos to confusion, it is easy to miscalculate something that is ordinary (say 1 chance in 3) as a 1 in a million occurrence! (details in the final FAQ.) The math seems right, and supports the author's thesis, so he uses it, fooling himself and many others.

We all agree that it does not make much sense to read into the Mickey Mouse ELS's that this famous rodent was or will be president. It is important to apply that same reasoning to much of what we see published today on the codes. The codes have no real "say" on any one specific topic. Perhaps in a number of decades we'll be able to derive clear messages, but today we simply don't know how.

Despite this limitation, we can show the reality of the overall phenomenon. If this sounds like a contradiction, here is a quick analogy.

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