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do you believe in any superstitions?

I had no idea about whistling at night invites ghosts..... what.....

I sometimes knock on wood to make sure if I joke about something going wrong that it doesn't happen.

I also own a black cat and my life is a blessing with her companionship :)
 
I sometimes say 'touch wood' as a figure of speech and then I will actually touch wood just because it seems weird to say that and then not do it, but I don't actually believe in any superstitions.
 
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I'm a weird mixed bag about superstition, I suppose.

I definitely do the whole thing where you say "knock on wood" while knocking on wood if it's present so as to try to prevent jinxing myself. Does my rational mind think it actually does anything? No. But I do it anyway.

I also throw a bit of salt over my shoulder if I happen to spill salt while I'm measuring it out while cooking or baking or just generally when using salt while eating.

You won't see me walking under a ladder...but why would anyone anyway?

I don't consider myself a superstitious person in general though. I don't see any deeper meaning in the synchronicity of 11:11 or other such numbers aligning. I don't think the number 13 or the date Friday the 13th are unlucky; in fact, I like the number 13, think Friday the 13th is cool, and my favorite number is 31 which is just 13 in reverse. Black cats are cool and if one crossed my path I will simply admire it, and if I ever got a pet cat then I'd want a black one. The 27 Club is just a depressing coincidence rather than anything supernatural. I don't think good luck charms bring you good luck, whether it be four-leaf clovers, lucky rabbit's foot, whatever.

If I were to travel abroad and there were local superstitions, then I'd just go along with them, as long as they're not harming anybody, to be respectful.

Ultimately, like with my relation to religion, I would consider myself agnostic on these matters. Do I think they're real? No. Do I know that any particular superstitions aren't real? I can't guarantee it with 100% certainty. So I just hedge my bets.
 
Going to admit that before this thread, I had no clue that the phrase "knock on wood" literally meant you're supposed to knock on wood. I went my whole life not even knowing what people were saying when they used the phrase, since I never had it explained.
Also, I've been reminded of black cats. I used to have one. I loved her. I don't really associate them with bad luck. I even have Kiki in multiple Animal Crossing games.
 
if magical thinking affects your life in negative ways or plagues you with anxiety, stress, compulsive behavior or irrational behavior, you should consider professional intervention. it's fine to engage in these cultural rituals if you don't actually believe these things affect reality and are being respectful of spiritual or cultural beliefs, or you just find a little suspension of disbelief enriches life with a sense of magic and agnostic openness

but if for instance if you failed to follow one and something bad happens, and from that point on you compulsively do the ritual out of fear, this conclusion you have drawn is a weak correlation with some tangential risk assessment at best. for instance, walking under a ladder is not generally a safe thing to do, and if someone has poor risk assessment skills in general, they are going to take unnecessary risks doing other things. it might appear to be bad luck, but someone's bad luck is the result of a chain of cause and effect in which you are a cause or the object of the affect. because we have difficulty perceiving the world operating on that scale you tend to see the world as happening to you rather than a state of being and place you interact with and are hardwired by your brain to make connections and seek patterns. but a pattern isn't inherently a valuable observation. and most of us know that, and generally the only superstitious views most of us hold are just harmlessly distracting ourselves from intrusive thoughts or ancestral fears.

so on the chance you were thinking this post was aimed at me being a certain animal slur and making a mockery of various neurodivergent behaviors, neopeagan beliefs, coping with trauma, or being a smug pseudo-intellectual skeptic mean girl via a sardonic armchair psychology analysis on social media, no. i just want to illustrate the difference between being superstitious in a colloquial sense (self-aware magical thinking that doesn't affect your life and goals and desires) and the point you should be aware signifies that maybe you are dealing with something more beneath a magical thought. religious ritual is not lumped in with this because they are belief systems to explain things out of your control, the opposite of superstition, in a sense

now, i have no sincere, certain beliefs in things science is incompatible with. what i do find interesting are the history behind superstition and when they parallel something we realized later. or how some cultures adapt to widespread superstition such as avoiding a 13th floor.

i have never heard the whispering thing before, but that is interesting, i'd like to know the origins of that
 
Idk man angel numbers are cool & all but when i look at the time i somehow land on the very specific number of 13:37 more often than i can count and go Hey it's the gamer number 13:37. Neat. Probably more than a hundred times atp. Coincidendenct? I dont think so.
 
Oh, I also find myself somewhat-but-not-really-but-maybe believing in signs. Like, a week ago I got all dressed up for an interview, was walking to the car in my heels, and then one of my heels broke!! And it was in that moment that I thought, "well.. i don't think i'm getting this job now.." I did fine in the interview, but I didn't get the job.
This! My logic brain has a hard time believing in such things, but I have an equally strong curiosity of the unknown, so when I get random gut feelings like that that come true or similarly strange coincidences, I can't help but go "👀 HMMMMM that was a lil weird we may be onto something here"

Some superstitions are just absolutely stupid, though. Like other people have mentioned, I had a black cat as a pet and he was the best cat I've ever known.
 
i don't think i really believe superstitions i hear around here like breaking a mirror will give you 7 years bad luck but at the same time i feel they're so ingrained how we casually speak, that i find myself referring to them. i love things like angel numbers and reading up on my horoscope, but again, that's something just feels like more fun and it draws more upon the power of manifestation! which i totally think is something i can wrap my head around better for sure!

i do however think i believe that evil eye is real, but that might just be years of my family hammering that into my head. however part of me does question if i like "fully" believe it or it's something that's been referenced so much that i just am more familiar with the concept? if that makes any sense. maybe it boils down to me wanting to be wary of other forces that are at play and my hopes to protect myself and the ones i love from them~
 
Not at all, but I do make a wish when I have a lose eyelash. I rather believe in "manifestation" because to me it's moreso about confidence and commitment to doing something.
 
'Don't point at pumpkins they will die'

A superstition I read in one of my moms books and after my dad pointed at all his growing pumps, they died. So yeah, don't point at pumpkins.

Also fully believe walking under a ladder is bad. Maybe not bad luck, but you are asking for danger when you walk under one. I don't even like walking under one when it's on the ladder rack of a truck, folded up.

Also I refuse to open an umbrella indoors. I knock on wood or the closet thing to wood at the time, don't tell anyone your wish or it won't come true. Throw salt over your shoulder if you spill some. I make wishes on eyelashes also. Don't even know where I got that one from.

I don't believe bad things will happen if I do, but who am I to tempt fate? I'd like to keep the bad luck out.
 
'Don't point at pumpkins they will die'

A superstition I read in one of my moms books and after my dad pointed at all his growing pumps, they died. So yeah, don't point at pumpkins.

Also fully believe walking under a ladder is bad. Maybe not bad luck, but you are asking for danger when you walk under one. I don't even like walking under one when it's on the ladder rack of a truck, folded up.

Also I refuse to open an umbrella indoors. I knock on wood or the closet thing to wood at the time, don't tell anyone your wish or it won't come true. Throw salt over your shoulder if you spill some. I make wishes on eyelashes also. Don't even know where I got that one from.

I don't believe bad things will happen if I do, but who am I to tempt fate? I'd like to keep the bad luck out.
I heard the eyelash one. My grandma and my mom use to say it but idk where it came from either. It must be old cuz my grandma said my great grandma told her it.
 
i don't know it it's a superstition but i believe in jinxing oneself, it happens to me all the time LOL. but im just mad unlucky
 
My bedroom has a ladder on the ceiling leading to the attic and I have a broken mirror on my door. I sleep every night in a room of superstitions. 😈 I also regularly feed a stray black cat that roams my backyard sometimes. 🖤🐱 There are good superstitions too, you know. Few mentioned some in this thread. I don't believe in any superstitions but I do like messing around with people who do. 🤭 I'll do certain funny things for "good luck" or deliberately choose/do something "unlucky" to scare others. 👻😝
 
I'm not sure if this is related, but my mom hung these old dream catchers around the house. I began having these awful and vivid nightmares. She said they were supposed to catch nightmares, not cause them. These continued until they were gone.

Otherwise, I'm not too sure how I feel about superstition. They sure are interesting and albeit a little creepy to read.
 
I do "knock on wood". I don't share my dreams with others unless they're really close or I feel the dream doesn't have a ton of super significant personal info about myself. I do believe there are a lot of synchronizations in our day to day life that we don't really notice or acknowledge typically, "omens" or "signs" of things if you will. I guess that sort of falls under the realm of superstitions.
 
My best friend is vietnamese and told me it's normal to believe in ghosts in her culture. She always hangs a piece of clothing over the mirrors during the night. They are like a connection path between the ghost world and the mortal one. If you look into a mirror in the dark it's possible something/someone looks back 😭

So... Now I am afraid of mirrors during the night. I try to avoid to look into them lol I know it's not true but I am still scared haha
 
I don't believe in superstitions now, maybe I used to as a kid, just because they were shown on TV...

However, my mom told me that I had a relative who was superstitious, and she would hang red colored decorations around the house in order to ward off evil spirits.
 
she would hang red colored decorations around the house in order to ward off evil spirits.
Come to think of it, there's at least one Mario item (figure, plush, game, etc.) in all four sides of my bedroom. Mario wears red. Do you think he's keeping all the boos and goombas away from me? 🍄👻 If that's the case, I better start hanging Wario's all over my walls and attract money! 🤑💰
 
I'm not superstitious but I'm a little stitious.

Jokes aside, I would not consider myself superstitious. I do think some things are difficult to explain, but not to the point where certain aspects of life relate to or cause these "events".
 
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