Sure thing fear weds you to superstition and then keeps you there. But IMO superstitions also help keep people's 'crazyiness' in check for otherwise they would never manage their behaviour. Like you said some scientific facts slowly became superstition because people were just too stupid to get it. Though of course superstitions can also be so stupid. O.K I'm a little confused now..

:)

Hi Elsie

I'm not sure that superstitions do keep craziness in check. And anyway is it not better to rid yourself of the craziness than 'manage' it?

Superstitions cant keep craziness in check because since they dont address the fear at the root of the superstition, the fear continues to grow and the superstitions continue to multiply. It can eventually all lead to a breakdown, even madness. However most of all superstitions keep you from experiencing life in a healthy, relaxed and joyous way, keeping you instead in a constant state of stress and anxiety.

Anusheh,

This is a really good one! I just can't stand superstitions. Black cats are such a beuuty to watch with their green eyes shining like the emerald.

Here's an example of how we bring together sexuality and superstition. When I was a kid I loved to whistle. I would whistle tunes of many songs, perfect on them, try to make the whistling sound as clear as possible. I would whistle and my sis would guess the song. It was a game.

Often my mom would come a tell me don't whistle. Young girls don't whistle, only road side romeos whistle. But I just couldn't stop whistling. Then I was told that if you whistle then thieves will come at night and rob your house. I asked what did my whistling have to do with robbers. I was told that theives are always lurking around and they might think that my whistle is a sign from their other partners. This scared me and I stopped whistling. Even if I did by mistake I would rush outside the house and check out if there was anybody suspicious lurking around. Then there was another one... If you whistle rag pickers will come and kidnap you (!!!)Makes no sense right?!

As I grew up I realised what hogwash this is and I resumed my whistling and expalined to my parents that this is something that I enjoy, a teeny-weeny talent of mine that I cherish and stopping it would mean hurting my feelings. Thank God they understood and my sis and I resumed our whistling game.

Hi Elsie,
IMO when we follow superstition our entire behavioural pattern is subsumed by fear and many times it has been seen that people who are excessively involved in regulating their activities according to superstitious beliefs become obssessive and in extreme cases neurotic (in other words 'crazy')

Interesting post on something as common as a cold :) True when one thinks about it we are all full of superstitions of one kind or the other. I mean even the so called intellectuals have superstitions. But as you say its because we all have fears and superstitions act as a cover.

Though I wonder if menstruating women have not seemed more like a threat to man because its linked to the power of creation and the mystery of women's bodies. Creating taboos around them was some way of demeaning their power as creators. Of course women have been stupid enough to not see through this and follow so many mindless superstitions blindly. But I guess that's how they manage their fears. IMO it also helps curb women's sexuality for men have always feared ( not really understood it). What do you think?

Interesting Read, Anusheh! ; - )

I won't say much because i don't have any personal opinions in this matter. But yes, it's fear/ignorance which leads to superstitions.

Cheers, Rohit

Hi Ananya

Definitely. There are more than one reasons for the superstitions that were created around menstruation and the ones you put forward perhaps far more central than the one I mentioned.
Thanks for bringing that up.

Hi Rohit:-)

Interesting post Anusheh!

I guess whether one looks at the dark side of life or the light side ( spirituality etc) we have amazing abilities to plant superstitions everywhere. Truly fear if not rooted out in and of itself manages to plant itself in every direction of our life. While 'bad luck' dogs us for all our material attachments/posessions/aspirations similarly sin/bad karma dogs us in spiritual spheres. Even serious seekers/practitioners for the longest time are unaware of how 'superstition' binds them to many rituals and practices.

I guess schools such as Zen and Tantra are unique in that they attack the root of fear first to enable a being to search for his/her 'infinite' self. That must be why they are so exacting in defining the 'unfettered' and labelling everything on the Path including the Buddha a block which must be dropped.

Anusheh when I see people flinch at seeing a cat or a dog, especially black ones, and say that they are bad omen, it really pisses me off. I mean look at the nerve of such people. They can't handle their own fears and silly anxieties and instead take out all their frustration on animals.

I have heard that in some cultures birth of twin children are considered as bad omen and the mother a witch. I mean can you imagine! This shows the height to which illiteracy and unawareness can take you.

Thanks for the piece! To end with how bizzare superstitions can be... I have heard that menstruating women should not touch pickles because this apparently spoils the pickle!!!!!!

I wonder if there are superstitions which exclusively cater to men? Any of the guys out there know of any such superstitions that you have feared?

We have lived in the dark ages for quite a long time.We all want good things to happen to us.So the rituals and superstitions were invented so that we dont have to deal with the unfortunate.Even now most of the Indians believe that by doing some kind of ritual or following some kind of obessive pattern would somehow make the bad luck go away.Instead of focussing inside and finding out the ways to deal with any problem and evolving as a spiritual being these shortcuts have become more popular.

Dear Anusheh,

Superstitions are things we devise to understand and classify chaos.

life's rules and permutations are chaotic. so we decide that for a good deed to take place we might have to behave in this way or if we behave that way a bad deed might happen for nothing in life is predictable.

life is filled with chaos. calsifying the same has been the eternal endeavour.

lots of love

oops its classifying. :)

Hi Diya and Aachi,

Aachi calsifying is perhaps freudian lol because superstition truly does calsify chaos and fear. I dont think it provides any management skills. Yes in our perception life's rules are extremely chaotic but thats only because we keep the whole picture hidden from ourselves. The day one decides to remove the veil all makes absolute sense and is in perfect harmony;-)

lots of love

Dear Anusheh,
great piece and excellent website.Thankfully I have become less and less superstitious over the years. its amazing how much rubbish is drummed into us from childhood and if and when we finally come to realise that its all 'poppycock' the feeling is liberating at the very least.Life throws enough challenges at all of us and we foolishly create further unneccesary barriers for ourselves by following superstitions- i'm sure you'll agree!
love to both you and Jasjit.
Sangeet.

Hi Sangeet

Thanks. Its good to see you here.

love

hi ppl,

saw this blog on superstition and thought i'd ask - today is 06/06/06 ... any thoughts on this (remember - "the omen 666" ??)

any significance of this date ... ??? there must be something someone might have to say to this ... is there?

looking fwd to some nice answers.

:)

i also want to know the significance of 666..the only thing is the movie OMEN is releasing on 6.06.06..

Hi Diya and :-)

666 is associated with the number of the devil. Here's why.

Apparently the number 666 had significant importance in the pagan rituals of the Babylonian Religion. The priests of Babylon taught astrology as well as numerology and considered the 666 number to have magical powers. Eventually the priests moved to rome and settled in such large numbers there so that Rome began to be called the 'New Babylon". When christianity came along it incorporated the practices and beliefs of the Babylonian priests. This made it easy for the followers of the Babylonian religion to convert to christianity.

The Book of revelation speaks of the number 666 with negative connotations and condemns Babylon because of the incorporation of pagan practices into the church.Though the bible was clearly against pagan practices the church brought them in regardless and the priests of Babylon continued to make amulets based on numerology.

"Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number
of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six."
-Revelations chapter 13, Verse 18

This was basically the beginning of the propaganda around 666 as far as I know. If both of you manage to find something else I would be very interested to know.:-)

thanx Anusheh...
I think even the friday the 13 th being a unlucky day has sprung out from similar propaganda

Hi Diya, yeah you're right about friday the thirteenth. That one has to do with thirteen people at the Last Supper (Christ) and the thirteenth one was Judas who apparently betrayed Christ and so we have Friday the thirteenth.

:-)

Anusheh what a post!

So it seems like Ektaaaaa Kapoor carries some strong fear within her. Why? Well just read in the papers that she chooses her actors not on the grounds of their acting skills but... hold your breath... on the grounds of whether their Kkkkkundali matches that of Balaji productions and her own! Man! Now that is what I call being Superstitious!

Hi Simran

Glad you found the post interesting. Well yes Ekta definitely sounds superstitious. The info you've provided explains a lot about her serials:-). Cant say I'm a fan of hers.

But who isnt superstitious? Some more obviously out there like Ekta and then others carry more subtle kinds of superstitions. But I think they hit all of us at some level or the other, what do you think?

I guess your'e right. All of us at some level are superstitious. What is interesting to note is that many subtler superstitions have got so ingrained in us that they have become a part of our instinctual habit! Jaisey ki koi agar kahin nikalney se pehle cheek mare toh woh khudba khud kuch der key liye ruk jata hain. Meaning we do it as an instant reaction.

Good point Simran

Superstition has to turn into mindless habit because its so deeply ingrained in us.