The science behind your (irrational) fear of Friday the 13th

[Leigha]

But, just to be on the safe side, don't walk under any ladders today, and avoid black cats.

https://www.livescience.com/63032-friday...tions.html

The science is clear: Friday the 13th is a normal day. Yet, people continue to think this is destined to be a bad day. "It helps people to reduce anxiety," said Neil Dagnall, a parapsychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University. "Superstition generally serves as a mechanism to provide reassurance," he said.

[C C]

I've already had two desktop computers simultaneously go haywire in the office (well, one my have actually gone bonkers overnight rather than this morning, but close enough). Still, the problems are familiar in terms of resolving them.

[Leigha]

I've already had two desktop computers simultaneously go haywire in the office (well, one my have actually gone bonkers overnight rather than this morning, but close enough). Still, the problems are familiar in terms of resolving them.

See? <_<

Should have started your day with a brief incantation to ward off any evil spirits.

[Magical Realist]

I once had Betty (a witch I used to know on Webtv) tell me to place a dime over my front door frame to get money. Within weeks out of the blue my sister sent me $10,000! I am not usually superstitious, but magick and synchronicity? Yeah...it happens occasionally, oftentimes unexpectedly.

[Leigha]

I once had Betty (a witch I used to know on Webtv) tell me to place a dime over my front door frame to get money. Within weeks out of the blue my sister sent me $10,000! I am not usually superstitious, but magick and synchronicity? Yeah...it happens occasionally, oftentimes unexpectedly.

That’s quite a coincidence!

I’ve read a few books on the “left hand path,” all very intriguing. Not nearly as “dark” as many believe. Think there’s this idea that such beliefs have its followers dancing around pentagrams, sacrificing goats under a full moon. Lol I suppose some might be.

[Syne]

That sort of superstition doesn't sound specifically "left hand path." No more than a horseshoe over the door.

[Leigha]

No, I mentioned it because MR brought up a “witch” he had a connection with, and it reminded me of LHP.

[Magical Realist]

No, I mentioned it because MR brought up a “witch” he had a connection with, and it reminded me of LHP.

Superstitious rituals and omens definitely blur into the general area of magical thinking and sympathetic magick (flashing back now to my old paperback of the Golden Bough) Just as there are lucky charms and protective rituals in superstition, so there are talismans and spells and hexes in the realm of magick and paganism. It is the same basic assumption of everything being at root a metaphor or symbolic connection to some possibility of physical happening..of manipulating the semiotic energies underlying reality towards one's expressed intention.

[C C]

I once had Betty (a witch I used to know on Webtv) tell me to place a dime over my front door frame to get money. Within weeks out of the blue my sister sent me $10,000! I am not usually superstitious, but magick and synchronicity? Yeah...it happens occasionally, oftentimes unexpectedly.

Generative principles prior in rank to the sensible world might anonymously supervene on material circumstances as chains of extraordinary coincidences. But (in that speculative context) they should always covertly fit into or convert to the natural scheme in terms of having such physical causes or being attributable to statistical probability.

Alternatively, it can be construed that the only thing doing the "supervening" on the events is the human interpretation of a transcendent communication or intervention occurring. A cognitive receptivity to conceive that due to the beliefs.

If _X_ were responsible, it could already have been pre-established in the unfolding of the world's happenings. Rather than meddling incognito in the immediate moments, like some external video game player intruding in the game's order via his/her decisions, their will converted to the game's "usual" sequences of causes/effects. (Though a video game player actually does that constantly, not intermittently or rarely.)

[Syne]

Speaking of synchronicity, one day, years ago, I went out to pick up some fast food. First drive-thru was out of what I wanted, second didn't have some condiment or something I wanted, and the third messed up my order. At that point, I accepted the order and went home. I realized that the only commonality between all those was me, and whatever mental baggage I might have been carrying around.