I do not believe in the supernatural, magic, ghosts or anything like that. However, I can be very superstitious about tempting fate and won’t make jokes or flippant remarks that could be interpretted as such.
For example, my partner made a dark joke about how she’d rather have cancer than such and such. I begged her not to say such things, not because the thought of her having cancer upset me (although it did), but because it feels as if saying stuff like that could make it happen.
My job sees me putting a lot of really heavy objects on trailers, vehicles, boats and trains.
You must say “She ain’t going nowhere” and tap the load with your hand or else she is going somewhere you don’t want.
I swear by it. Every time I or one of my subordinates has forgotten the phrase its been a disaster. So we say it every time now and make sure the new guys do it to. Or else.
I’m going to make my wife read this so she stops groaning every time I say it.
Don’t worry, bro, she ain’t going nowhere!
yeah because saying it gives you a moment to reflect on whether you properly pulled all the brakes, etc. .
Don’t touch anything in production on a Friday
But I’m supposed to be working …!
I do not believe in the supernatural […] However, I can be very superstitious
You do believe in the supernatural.
Nah, I’m just a scared pattern seeking monkey.
knocks on wood
Or they have ocd.
Weird ritual stuff is also pretty common if you’re autistic. I too have random things that I have to do or something just ain’t right, and I am well aware it doesn’t make any sense. The worst one requires closing my eyes for a moment, which leads to weird side effects like I cannot look at any clocks while driving a car, so I don’t have to do the stupid ritual and crash
I work in 911 dispatch, and there’s definitely something about full moons.
It’s not that we’re busier, or that the calls I get are more serious, but everything is just a little bit off when the moon is full. It’s subtle, I don’t think it would even be reflected in the types of calls we’re entering, but a lot of our callers just get weirder.
Yes there is a correlation, its been studied scientifically I believe. It is also the origin of the word “Lunacy”, because the moon (Lune in French, Luna in Latin) is associated with madness
TIL Lune from Expedition 33 was insane
I heard from someone that works in a hospital that the ER gets weirder cases when the moon is full
Cloud tax is real.
In astrophotography, when you buy a new piece of equipment you have to pay the cloud tax. That is: after receiving your new gear it will be cloudy so you can’t use it. The number of cloudy days is directly related to the value of the new gear you got. If you buy something expensive it can be months before you can use it.
Similarly with modding your car. The second you do fun work on it, something expensive breaks and you can’t even give it the beans. How catastrophic the new failure is is directly correlated to how excited you were to do the fun mod.
I wonder if that is perhaps frequency bias at play
(read the alt-text!)
Fairies, throwing spilled salt over my shoulder, giving away bad money before it can turn other money bad, not telling strangers my whole name, just a grab-bag of European folkways in general
Whenever I drive (which is rare) and I go through an intersection on a yellow light, I punch the ceiling of the car. I’ll even punch the air above my head if I run a yellow on my bicycle.
Someone told me back in high school that it’s bad luck not to do so, and for some reason it stuck with me.
I’m pretty sure only steering with one hand means a lot worse luck in a potentially dangerous situation.
At least that’s my takeaway from watching Canadas Worst Driver.
Same here. Don’t believe in ghosts, the supernatural, or any of that, but there have been very specific occasions where I’ve made utterances tempting fate and had that very thing happen, so now I try not to say those things or at the very least find some wood to knock on as if that’s going to do anything for me.
A longer piece of code that compiles and runs without obvious problems. It usually hides something horrible under the surface.
Made my hands sweaty just by reading this.
I get superstitions about being cocky or headstrong. Nearly every time I do, the universe corrects my behavior, typically by me failing in some huge, embarrassing fashion.
This is it for me but for acknowledging good things in my life out loud. I can go weeks with something pleasant and the second I start telling people in my life about it it evaporates within the week.
To the point that get sorta dodgy when bestie asks me for life updates, I’m in my head like is this too good to actually share? Am I ready to let this go?
I just want to share nice things :(
yeah i do the same thing. i imagine supernatural beings are listening to what i say and making it come true; i suspect it’s my own subconscious steering me in a way.
I have a fear of heights. In fear, I go back to what I was taught during childhood. I pray to God to save me even though I’m an agnostic now.
Does that count as a superstition?
Good question. I also share a fear of heights, and although heights can be dangerous, having to stand 5 feet behind the overlook railing is just as unreasonable as avoiding black cats.
noo, actually, it makes sense evolutionarily. on high mountains and near cliffs and such, the winds can be unexpectedly strong. one moment you’re standing perfectly still 1 feet from the cliff, the next moment you fall over because the wind is pushing you. it’s really unexpected.
My fear of heights kind of makes sense – heights make me lightheaded, even woozy. If I were to suddenly faint I might fall to my death. Having that thought when I’m near a high ledge makes me lightheaded, even woozy
Same here. With my kids, I really struggled to get stuff ready for their birth because it gent like tempting fate. Cue scrambling to get everything ready once the baby was back home.
In smaller stuff, always knock on wood. Fake wood counts as wood.
Anecdotal, but in my experience fake wood does not count. Just on Friday I said knock on wood and used some fake vinyl bullshit. Cut to 5 hours later, the exact thing I was trying to ward off happened.
I believe there’s a connection between conscious minds that is not connected to the senses.
It originates off some legend that a large team of monks gathered to meditate and pray together on a given day. The city’s crime rate drastically fell on that day.
It sometimes seems to manifest in other stories, like family knowing immediately that something bad happened to a family member (before getting a call about it) or animal keepers having an emotional bond with their creatures without being able to communicate.
It originates off some legend that a large team of monks gathered to meditate and pray together on a given day. The city’s crime rate drastically fell on that day.
Probably the claimed “Maharishi effect” in 1974. The Transcendental Meditation organisation (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) said that the quality of life would noticeably improve if at least the square root of 1% of the population practised the TM technique. They claimed the crime rate fell in some cities in 1974 because of it.
IMO It’s some pretty dubious stuff, but you may find stuff about The Global Consciousness Project interesting.
I think that is not uncommon. I do the knock on wood stuff. Not because I actually think it will make a difference but its just kinda a thing. Its like when you have something that is not above the 95th percentile and you are hoping and like “trusting” in luck. Like right now I feel that way about my car. Its also like the “there are no athiests in foxholes”. When at deaths door its easy to reach out to supernatural help since its pretty clear your effed natural world wise.
