adidasss

I think I'm generally a pretty rational person, but on the other hand, I 100% believe in some totally irrational things...

Like for example, I honestly believe you can jinx yourself by expecting and especially by saying out loud some good thing will happen to you. And then if someone does "tempt their luck" by saying these things out loud I try to counteract the bad juju by "knocking on wood".

What about you? Are you also a little nuts?

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“Think of what a paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise.” - Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle.

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SGR

I honestly believe the opposite (affirmations). I think vocalizing that you'll achieve something or some desirable outcome helps ingrain it in your mind and also serves to notify others, to give you motivation to keep your word.

I'm not particularly superstitious in general, but I have found that when I bragged about how long I've gone without being sick, I'd be sick soon after. Probably coincidence, but I no longer talk about it to others.

rubber soul

I believe in things happening in threes. If two crappy things happen I think of a third, ordinarily trivial thing, and lump in is as the third crappy thing, and things usually are okay the rest of the day.

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adidasss

Oh I do something similar to try to avoid bad things happening. Like if there are several possible scenarios that might happen I believe I reduce the chances of the undesired outcomes by visualizing them (it also prepares me psychologically for all the options). I don't know if this is the catholic in me or just my island upbringing, but I always expect the worst in life so I figure if I can already think of the worst life can throw at me I have the jump on it and it has to think of something else.

__________________
“Think of what a paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise.” - Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle.

Last.fm

LEGALISE DRUGS AND MURDER

I'm not superstitious I'm psychotic

Guybrush

The way I see it, it takes effort to be rational, so unless you work at it, you're gonna occasionally slide into superstition or magical thinking. I try not to be superstitious and generally fight it on the occasions when it rears its head. As a result, I consider myself to be one of the least superstitious people I know.

Weird things happen, but that is also the case in a universe without supernatural explanations.

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Something Completely Different

LEGALISE DRUGS AND MURDER

I can read minds supernaturally

bob_32_116

If someone believes that Friday the 13th is unlucky, because they have been told so, and they have a bad accident on Friday the 13th, they are likely to think "Well, that proves Friday the 13th is unlucky".

If that accident occurs on Monday the 9th, or Tuesday the 24th, they will take no special notice of the date. Why would they?

This is how superstitions, once they are started, get reinforced:

Stephen

I considered buying a tattslotto ticket but then I had the thought that what if I use all my luck on the lotto and my wife doesn’t survive because of it and as stupid as that thought was I couldn’t buy a ticket after that.

jadis

When I still took soccer to heart, I had some version of that. "Mustn't get cocky and jinx it, better think bad thoughts" during matches etc.

Somehow makes sense that a lot of professional sportspeople are superstitious and have little rituals for when they go out on the pitch or the final training before the match or whatever btw