Do Superstitions Influence Your Daily Choices?

[zoobyshoe]

Do you, despite your intelligence, education, and scientific bent, have any superstitious beliefs or habits?

I'm not sure if this would be considered a superstition or OCD, but whenever I am mailing anything I am compelled to take it directly to the Post Office. I don't leave it for the mail man, and do not trust mailboxes.

Do you have a lucky shirt? Something unlucky you avoid?

 

[BicycleTree]

Okay, I just took a final today, and it went rather well, but I did not need to know that today is Friday May 13.

 

[Moonbear]

Just some good luck voodoo charms in the lab. But that's more of a joke. We've also added a piggy bank...when you screw up something, you get to put some coins in the piggy bank. When it's full, we'll have a party.

As for trusting the mail, I guess it depends on where you live and what sort of mailbox you have. Taking bills and checks out of the mail is one way crooks steal identities, so it might not be such a bad idea to make sure anything with account numbers on it goes straight to the post office. I don't have a problem trusting the mail carrier, so I just put my mail out close to the time I know he comes around, or drop it in a mailbox. Yeah, I often just drop it in the one outside the post office since I pass it in the one direction I can drive to work.

I didn't even notice today is the 13th until someone sent me an email entitled Friday the 13th. Maybe that's why the cells I grew up overnight got carried away on me (they seem like such happy cells, and I don't want them to be quite that happy, the colonies all grew together!) Uh, yeah, or maybe that means I plated too much of the culture. I think that gets a quarter to the piggy bank.

 

[Padford]

Nay, I'm irish, good luck flows!

 

[arildno]

Nay, I'm irish, good luck flows!

Have a brownie.

 

[infinitetime]

Thanks a lot

Right when I read this thread, my printer stopped in the middle of printing something extremely important And nothing is telling me what's wrong with the printer...

It's all your fault!

J/K

Boo-hoo

______________

I.T. came from the sky!

 

[moose]

I was born on a Friday 13th.

I don't believe in any type of luck or superstitions.

 

[Gale]

TODAY SUCKED!

GAH

i spent the whole morning doing more linear algebra stuff, that i still don't get, and sucked and ugh... and then i found out that i failed physics UGH! I'm sooooo screwed... i though my grades would be low, but alright this semseter, I'm afriad they'll be quite worse than i imagined... I'm soooo nauseus right now... god i hate myself... stupid friday the 13th... if it was the 14th or something... ya... things'd've been different I'm sure...
UGH...
the only thing worse is that my mum's picking bringing me home from school... and it's not going to be pleasant explaining this to her... I'm sure the whole weekend will be spent with various people yelling at me, and dragging me around to find a job... (there's no way I'm going to get a stress free summer now.. augh)

 

[LeBrad]

The only thing Friday the 13th means is that there will probably be a horror movie marathon.

 

[JamesU]

The only thing Friday the 13th means is that there will probably be a horror movie marathon.

Yes! I've got something to do! (I love horror movies)

 

[ShawnD]

I didn't know it was the 13th until I saw this thread, but it would sure explain the string of good luck I've been having today. Everybody else's luck has to go somewhere doesn't it?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Everybody else's luck has to go somewhere doesn't it?

There are two Fridays a year that fall on the 13th, aren't there? I guess that's so everyone in the world doesn't have a bad day all at once.

 

[Evo]

I knock on wood.

 

[arildno]

I knock on wood.

Yes, I agree, it's one of Bowie's classics.

 

[Huckleberry]

I think the 13th is more likely to fall on a Friday than any other day. I don't think it's an unlucky number in all cultures. I think in China it is a lucky number, but I could be thinking of the number 6.
Time for some googling. Where does Friday the 13th come from?
http://people.howstuffworks.com/friday-thirteenth.htm

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th.

http://skepdic.com/paraskevidekatriaphobia.html

I'm afraid of that word.

 

[arildno]

There also exists a long word which means:
"Pathological need to coin long, incomprehensible Graeco-Latin words"

Unfortunately, I've forgotten that particular word..

 

[zoobyshoe]

paraskevidekatriaphobia

I so wish I had used this as the thread title.

 

[zoobyshoe]

There also exists a long word which means:
"Pathological need to coin long, incomprehensible Graeco-Latin words"

Unfortunately, I've forgotten that particular word..

There's no such word. However, I feel the pathological need to coin one:

sesquepedaliophilia

 

[Huckleberry]

Hellenologophobia- Fear of Greek terms or complex scientific terminology.

Ahhhh, help me!
I'm afraid of any word with 13 or more letters.

 

[MillionYrsFromNow]

I am here on a cold 14th, I don't know if Australia has turned back the clock for 12 hours late or not, I hope not anyway...
I truly love nature and many more...

 

[Evo]

fear of long words - Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia and Sesquipedalophobia

 

[Evo]

fear of purple nocturnal roving jellyfish - Porphyronyctotropocnidariazoobiephobia

 

[zoobyshoe]

fear of purple nocturnal roving jellyfish - Porphyronyctotropocnidariazoobiephobia

This one's going on my tombstone somewhere.

 

[JamesU]

Arachibutyrophobia-fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth

Cacophobia- Fear of ugliness

Chaetophobia- Fear of hair

Cholerophobia- Fear of anger or the fear of cholera

Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation

Coprophobia- Fear of feces

Dikephobia- Fear of justice

Epistemophobia- Fear of knowledge

Eurotophobia- Fear of female genitalia

Francophobia- Fear of France or French culture

Geniophobia- Fear of chins

Hedonophobia- Fear of feeling pleasure

Hellenologophobia- Fear of Greek terms or complex scientific terminology

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words

Hyelophobia or Hyalophobia- Fear of glass

Japanophobia- Fear of Japanese

Lachanophobia- Fear of vegetables

Levophobia- Fear of things to the left side of the body

Merinthophobia- Fear of being bound or tied up

Metrophobia- Fear or hatred of poetry

Myxophobia- Fear of slime

Neophobia- Fear of anything new

Nudophobia- Fear of nudity

Numerophobia- Fear of numbers

Oneirophobia- Fear of dreams

Oneirogmophobia- Fear of wet dreams

Ouranophobia or Uranophobia- Fear of heaven

Patroiophobia- Fear of heredity

Pediophobia- Fear of dolls

Phengophobia- Fear of daylight or sunshine

Porphyrophobia- Fear of the color purple

Rhabdophobia- Fear of being severely punished or beaten by a rod, or of being severely criticized. Also fear of magic

Scatophobia- Fear of fecal matter

Spacephobia- Fear of outer space

Stygiophobia or Stigiophobia- Fear of hell

Triskaidekaphobia- Fear of the number 13<-----

Urophobia- Fear of urine or urinating

Venustraphobia- Fear of beautiful women

Xanthophobia- Fear of the color yellow or the word yellow

Xerophobia- Fear of dryness

Zelophobia- Fear of jealousy

Yes, they're in alphabetical order. for more, go http://phobialist.com/#A-

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Well, I don't really have any superstitions, but today I lost my prescription and didn't know it until I was standing in front of the pharmacist. Then I totaled the lawnmower with about 5 minutes of mowing left; tore the skin off my thumb, got a really bad haircut, and then the fax machine ate my insurance forms. Nothing on the job that I'm working went well. And finally, my plumber has abandoned me; presumably for a bigger job. Oh yes, and I found out that an old friend just had quintuple bypass surgery. So it seems that even though my day was much better than my buddy's, I am doing my best to perpetuate the myth.

Not a superstition, but at times I will opt for a seemingly illogical decision based on instincts. And this has served me well more often than not. In fact some of my biggest successes began with a blind leap of faith.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Not a superstition, but at times I will opt for a seemingly illogical decision based on instincts. And this has served me well more often than not. In fact some of my biggest successes began with a blind leap of faith.

Intuition is when you know exactly what you're up to, but don't have time to explain it to your conscious mind.

 

[Huckleberry]

Then I totaled the lawnmower with about 5 minutes of mowing left;

I would say only mowing to the left is pretty superstitious.

That reminded me of a woman in England that can only make left turns. I saw that on Ripleys.

And then there was a Seinfield episode about only turning left.

I watch too much tv. I can't seem to turn the knob to the left.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Intuition is when you know exactly what you're up to, but don't have time to explain it to your conscious mind.

There was an interesting study discussed on SCI or some similar channel, in which subjects could recognize missing or incorrect details without being able to identify the problem. They knew that something was wrong with the picture they were shown, where some small detail was deleted or changed from the original, but they couldn't say what the problem was. IIRC, about a third of those tested scored significantly higher than the rest.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I would say only mowing to the left is pretty superstitious.

That reminded me of a woman in England that can only make left turns. I saw that on Ripleys.

And then there was a Seinfield episode about only turning left.

I watch too much tv. I can't seem to turn the knob to the left.

There was a short time during which employess of Ford [or GM?] were banned from making left hand turns in company cars. In principle, accident statistics justified this policy. Of course in practice it was impractical and impossible to enforce, and so the policy was short lived.

 

[Huckleberry]

The left hand has a bad reputation in history. This stigma developed long ago, before the invention of toilet paper.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Geniophobia? Fear of chins? I don't see the threat at all.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Hey, I just remembered my one and only panic attack. When we moved here from LA, one night I had this strange panic attack while thinking of the miles of nothing surrounding us; no cars or truck, no traffic lights, helicopters, cop cars, 7-11s, no buildings, no concrete jungle... It felt as if I had fallen off the edge of the world; a bit like agoraphobia I would think.

 

[ShawnD]

I've had that feeling before. Truly the worst feeling in the world.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Agorophobia means, literally, "fear of the market place". As a modern phobia it means "fear of public places". What people with agorophobia are afraid of, in particular, is what strangers may be thinking about them. So an agorophobic might have felt quite at ease on your drive. You need to find the greek word for "countryside" and tack "phobia" on the end of it.

 

[stoned]

i have been riding my bicycle today and black cat crossed my path...i'm ok

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Agorophobia means, literally, "fear of the market place".

The definition included fear of open places, but maybe that means crowded open places?

I like this one: Phagophobia- Fear of swallowing or of eating or of being eaten.

Unless swimming in the ocean or visiting the Zoo, how can one fear being eaten?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Two words:

"Hello Clarice."

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Two words:

"Hello Clarice."

Yikes!

Okay, I can see that.

 

[Moonbear]

i have been riding my bicycle today and black cat crossed my path...i'm ok

One of my neighbors has a black cat that they allow to roam freely, thus my path is crossed by a black cat on a fairly regular basis. Might explain a lot.

 

[zoobyshoe]

OK, we're both somewhat off the mark about agoraphobia but you may be closer than me:

"Anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult (or embarrasing) or in which help may not be available in the event of having an unexpected or situationally predisposed Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms. Agoraphobic fears typically involve characteristic clusters of situations that include being outside the home alone; being in a crowd or standing in a line; being on a bridge; and traveling in a bus, train, or automobile."

That's from the DSM-IV.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Well, whatever the name, as ShawnD said, it is a very uncomfortable feeling. And it was so strange since nothing like this ever happened before or since.

What do you call a fear of people who play banjos; esp Dualing Banjos?

 

[Moonbear]

What do you call a fear of people who play banjos; esp Dualing Banjos?

Normal?

 

[zoobyshoe]

What do you call a fear of people who play banjos; esp Dualing Banjos?

Jimbobbubaphobia

 

[Evo]

Normal?

If they've seen "Deliverance"

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The left hand has a bad reputation in history. This stigma developed long ago, before the invention of toilet paper.

Btw, in case anyone missed this, left turns in the U.S. are more dangerous than right turns, and the opposite is true for the U.K. - this since you have to cross traffic to make the turn. So this is not a matter of superstition.

 

[Huckleberry]

It is when you can only make left turns

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It is when you can only make left turns

Well, that may be an extreme reaction, but it may not seem so if you've been in a bad accident. And as I said, this was considered a reasonable response to the statistics [the opposite situation of course] by at least one large U.S. auto company.

 

[Soilwork]

haha talk about a bad day.
Well I have no superstitions about friday the 13th, but it was one of those days on Friday.
There was a burst water-main on the freeway to the city which turned a 20 minute drive into almost a 3 hour drive.
As well as this the water ran through the underground parking lots and my brother's car was severely damaged.

 

[infinitetime]

Well, the bad luck is over guys....it's saturday the 14th!

 

[Evo]

Well, the bad luck is over guys....it's saturday the 14th!

I loved that movie! Saturday the 14th staring Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentis. The only show on tv was the Twilight Zone, all channels, all the time. It was a funny spoof of horror films.