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  • P&S Moderators: Xorkoth | Madness

Are You Superstitious?

LandsUnknown

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 3, 2014
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1,077
Do you tend to believe in things that have no scientific basis or even evidence that would necessarily make it appear to be true? Not talking about legitimate supernatural phenomena like psychic abilities (clearly observed them myself), ghosts (also experienced them myself and there's what appears to be legitimate photographs), and extraterrestrials (essentially proven due to the sheer volume of photographs, eyewitness reports, and irrefutable evidence, though people simply choose not to believe due to the probable government cover-up and brainwashing that ETs aren't real, also seen them myself and have had some truly mind blowing experiences with them which I discuss on here).

I'm referring to dumb and meaningless stuff like stepping over cracks in the sidewalk, being worried about accidentally opening umbrellas indoors, not walking under ladders, etc. I do all of this stuff, and I once got truly quite worried when an umbrella accidentally opened inside. To be honest, even though one part of me feels like superstitions like this are meaningless and that it's dumb to worry about them...... there's another part of me that wonders if perhaps they are true. Thus, I find myself paranoid about it if I accidentally do something that could potentially bring harm as a result of various superstitions. Admittedly, even as a teenager, I avoided stepping over cracks in the sidewalk and only stopped paying all that much attention when I was like 18-19, simply because I walked a lot and it became rather inconvenient. And since nothing happened when I did step over the cracks in the sidewalk (obviously), I just kind of forgot about it for the most part. Though, if I actively notice cracks....... I avoid them. Though, I rarely think about it. But still, stuff like an umbrella opening instead honestly kinda freaks me out. If it were to happen, I'd be a bit paranoid about something bad happening....... and there's part of me that honestly believes that one. Although, I realize there's most likely no basis for it.
 
This reminds me of a great friend of mine. He always had this thing where if you were walking next to each other you "never split a pole." Like if there's a sign or barrier in the way, you always go on the same side as your friend. After years of him yanking me around poles it's been ingrained in me and even though I don't enforce it like he did, it makes me laugh thinking about it.
 
I used to do that a lot when I was young. It was almost OCD-like, I felt like I had to do everything an even number of times. I felt like I had to take an even number of steps inside each sidewalk square, and within each "type" of ground surface, and also an even number of pairs of 2. So, like, I'd step twice in each sidewalk square, and definitely not step on the cracks, and if I had to step across a section of grass, I'd wait until I had stepped on 2, 4, 6, 8 or some other even number of squares before crossing into the "new area", and then I had to take an even number of steps in that area. I also always had to lead with my right foot. Other stuff too. When I was quite young it would really bother me if I didn't do this, I felt like something bad was going to happen. As I got a little older (like mid grade school) I started just being annoyed if I didn't successfully step the way I thought I should, but I could shrug it off. To this day, I still semi-consciously count my steps and stuff but I don't care at all whether I actually do any particular thing with it. It's just sort of become a an autonomous mental exercise. Honestly I think it made me really good at math and thinking about numbers, so it was a good thing, even though it's probably a big part of the reason I got picked on for being a weird kid when I was young (at one point I had a stage where I actually would repeat everything I said under my breath right after I said it so I would say things twice).
 
Xorkoth said:
I actually would repeat everything I said under my breath right after I said it so I would say things twice

I used to do that too! In fact, when I'm anxious I still do it. I also find myself compulsively counting when anxious though I think it's less about OCD and more about blocking troubling thoughts when anxious or under stress.

I'm pretty
superstitious and do things I know that are patently absurd but do them anyway. Things like never opening an umbrella inside, or always being in pictures with an even number of people so no one is in the middle (a Japanese superstition).
 
This reminds me of a great friend of mine. He always had this thing where if you were walking next to each other you "never split a pole." Like if there's a sign or barrier in the way, you always go on the same side as your friend. After years of him yanking me around poles it's been ingrained in me and even though I don't enforce it like he did, it makes me laugh thinking about it.
I also had a friend like this. Now I get an anxious feeling when I split a pole with someone , YEARS later. I sometimes make a point NOT to split the pole . Not because I really believe it's bad , but maybe to avoid my anxious feelings . I feel like what appears to be LUCK is often based on karma . Past life karma as well.
I wonder how these superstitions came to be. Like I think I figured out the "don't spill the salt" one. Salt is the purest substance on Earth , it gives off positive ions when heated which can clean the air . It also wards away malevolent beings. Bathing in it raises your vibration and sooths muscles.
So I can see why someone would say it's bad to spill it...
I guess...
 
Superstition is the word of an arrogant man, he who ridicules that which he does not understand. We are at war with nature and therefor are broken and disconnected from it. We build machines in a foolish attempt to understand that which only being at one with nature can teach us. I am of the opinion that we are a very weak and stupid society at this point in time. With the passage of many moons may we come to the realization that our efforts to force answers are fruitless, maybe not.
 
I basically agree with your assessment of our shocking lack of wisdom as a society. I also think that a lot of people look down their noses at whomever disagrees with or has simply not learned the status quo scientific sureties. However I do think the idea of superstition can be used in a valid way, too, not just a condescending one. To quote a late, great and wonderful man... when you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. I don't think it's always true, and really we all believe in things we don't truly understand, whether it's through science or otherwise. But when understanding is not attempted to be achieved, or even suppressed, with a mandate of blind belief without evidence or question, it can be truly bad. I think the reason some people so strongly rail against their idea of superstition is because, with science, we HAVE learned a lot that has made our lives better and more understandable. That's also the reason for the "war on nature", as you put it. For centuries and millenia, nature killed and maimed us, made us freeze to death, blew away our houses, ate us. And then once agriculture happened, we stopped knowing how to live with nature and instead tried to bend it to our will. The reason for this wasn't evil, or disdainful, or intentional... it was simply the need to survive and for our families to survive.
 
Yes, I relate to this. I used to avoid stepping on cracks as a child. I clearly remember walking to school and doing this. I didn't know exactly how doing this would bring harm upon me or anyone else, but I figured if this cultural meme got passed along, it must have some merit. I eventually realized that the real reason I was doing this was to avoid thinking certain thoughts. Specifically, at a young age I was taken with the spiritual ramifications of swearing an oath. I believed that even if my inner monologue accidentally began a sentence with "I swear", that this was a binding commitment, and my eternal destiny hinged on making good on this oath, even if it was something pointless or impossible. I have a very cringey memory of my 8 or 9 year old self jumping from slab to slab over the sidewalk in my neighborhood and saying over and over in my head with every giant step "I don't swear anything". I have never shared this with anyone before now, and never thought I would. I eventually realized that I stopped being afraid to step on cracks when I realized that a fleeting thought in my head couldn't possibly do any harm, and that an oath to myself is only binding when I deliberately choose it to be so.

This all came back to me when I was in my intro to psychiatry course in medical school, and was learning about OCD. I learned that basically people with compulsive behaviors, addictions, and personality disorders all have something very important in common: they are trying with all their might to not think about something. They are rebelling against a thought that they cannot abide, by using a coping mechanism that does more harm than the unwanted thought it pushes away. I have a strong family history of mental health problems, particularly depression, OCD, and ADHD. But a thought pattern only becomes a mental illness when it leads to you failing at life in some way. (Any looser definition of mental illness is way too normative for my tastes!) The most important thing I learned in psych was this: mental illnesses are simply too much or too little of completely normal human mentations.

I still say a prayer ("Om Ganesh, helper of students and remover of obstacles") every time I see 11:11 on a digital clock. I picked up this superstition somewhere in early adulthood. I find it grounding, and have no intention of giving it up. It may not accomplish anything. But so far I can't see it hurting in any way.
 
When I was about 10 someone told me that if you see 2 Magpies together its good luck and if you see 1 its bad luck, but if you salute when you see the lone Magpie it reverses the bad luck.

Mind you I was 10 and had no clue about what a superstition was, well I went around saluting lone Magpies for years on the fly and still do sometimes. I can say without a doubt even If I refuse salute a lone Magpie its the first thing that crops into my head whenever I see one.
 
Personally, I consider all those "legitimate" examples to be just as much perversions of logic, reason, science and evidence as people who think certain numbers are unlucky or whatever.

But yes, I have my own superstitions, I mean, rationally I know that are virtually certain to be untrue, but I tend to follow them anyway for psychological reasons.

For example, I'll generally never say that I'm sure some good outcome will happen in life, because I'm superstitious that saying it will make it less likely to happen. Rationally I know it's certainly not literally true. But also I know that I will irrationally feel a sense of responsibility for something bad happening if I'd previously let myself feel confident that it would not.

So, I know that my irrational superstitions have equally irrational emotional impacts, and that knowing it's irrational doesn't make me feel much better. And so it seems a lot easier to just assume the worst, so then I can either be right, or pleasantly surprised.

So, I'm superstitious in that kind of way. Stuff that I know is almost certainly untrue, but that I know will impact how I feel regardless. Minor OCD stuff like that.
 
One of my irrational superstitions that I know makes no difference but I do anyway is that, when I am hoping for something in the mail that I would be excited to get, I look away from the mailbox as I open it and feel around in there without looking, because it feels like if I look as I'm opening it, it's less likely to be there.
 
In certain small dumb ways, like when im playing the pokies (slot machines) or gambling in general i dont like to focus my mind on winning too much lol. It sounds retarted and it is xD but basically i try to downplay what might happen like tell myself in my head
"i wont win anyway" hoping that ill win ahaha.

Or anything that involves getting excited in general. Basically that its more like to happen, the less on my mind the more likely to happen.
 
I laugh in the face of superstition. I'm the cunt that will deliberately walk under ladders and smash mirrors just to prove it's a load of bullshit. I distinctly remember in my very first year of school aged 5, one of them Christian kids telling me that if I asked god to kill me, I'd die instantly. So I said "god, kill me". I'm still fuckin here...
 
I laugh in the face of superstition. I'm the cunt that will deliberately walk under ladders and smash mirrors just to prove it's a load of bullshit. I distinctly remember in my very first year of school aged 5, one of them Christian kids telling me that if I asked god to kill me, I'd die instantly. So I said "god, kill me". I'm still fuckin here...


I like your style bro haha, its all bullshit.
 
I believe that everything is connected and that anything is possible, so yes, I may be considered way more than a little stitious, I suppose.
 
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