talkmagic.co.uk

A major personal quirk is that if I start writing something and make a mistake within the first few lines, I have to throw that page away and start fresh. Not sure whether this is a superstition as such -- I don't expect horrible things to happen if I keep writing on the "spoiled" page. I'm not generally obsessive-compulsive, except on this one particular point.

Blapsing_Beard wrote:Indeed - I've experimented with it as part of my degree. Facinating stuff, I feel

Aw, lucky. I wish I did more behavioural stuff like that when I did psychology in my first year at uni. All the other stuff is just dull!

I used to have a lucky pair of pants. Well, silk boxer shorts actually. They were very lucky (if you know what I mean and I think that you do), but then one day they disintergrated in the washing machine. And that was that.

themagicwand wrote:I used to have a lucky pair of pants. Well, silk boxer shorts actually. They were very lucky (if you know what I mean and I think that you do), but then one day they disintergrated in the washing machine. And that was that.

and the moral of this tale is..


your lucky pants will never let you down, if you always do it by hand.

daleshrimpton wrote:

themagicwand wrote:I used to have a lucky pair of pants. Well, silk boxer shorts actually. They were very lucky (if you know what I mean and I think that you do), but then one day they disintergrated in the washing machine. And that was that.

and the moral of this tale is..


your lucky pants will never let you down, if you always do it by hand.

The only thing I have is that I don't like opening a packet of crisps from the bottom, but I rarely eat crisps anyway (apart from a taste test of the new Walkers ones with workmates). Bor-ing!

Blapsing_Beard wrote:
absolutely no superstitions for me - none at all.

What about phobias? Technically they are just strong superstition.

kolm wrote:

Blapsing_Beard wrote:Indeed - I've experimented with it as part of my degree. Facinating stuff, I feel

Aw, lucky. I wish I did more behavioural stuff like that when I did psychology in my first year at uni. All the other stuff is just dull!

we got to choose an experiment to conduct...I did luck

phobias?

I'm claustrophobic, but only when I am actually trapped

example

I climbed into a cuboard that was smaller than me, so it was farely cramped. I was fine with it. As soon as somebody locked me in, that is where I freaked.

So I guess it is the feeling of entrapment that I don;t like, as opposed to small spaces.

I don;t think that that would class as a superstition though

A phobia is an irrational fear but what's a genuine fear called - other than 'fear'? I can understand people being afraid of spiders for no reason referred to as a phobia but if someone's been bitten, stung and generally attacked by spiders, then it's no longer irrational !

I've got claustrophobia and vertigo.

From what I've seen and read, superstitions come from making false connections. By that I mean the human thought proses is created by connecting stimuli from the five senses. You connect the sound 'red' with the colour, to create the concept of 'colour'.

Superstitions happens when someone tells you walking under a ladder is bad luck, you then either believe that without evidence, or you walk under a ladder then falsely connect some inevitabe bad thing that happens as being a result of walking under a ladder.

I got my vertigo from my dad who also has it, he would freak out anytime I went near the ledge of a high place, so I learned at a young age 'high places were dangerous'.

I got my claustrophobia from my mum, my umbilical cored got wrapped around my neck while I was in the womb and I had to be circumcised. So I made a 'false connection' of 'trapped in a small place and dieing'.

My point is, no matter how logical we try to be, over a hundred billion years of evolution has given our body and brains an arsenal of hormones and survival instincts that turn our logical thoughts to s***.

Fears are of course more powerful than superstitions but basically your 'superstition' is 'it's bad luck to be locked in a cupboard.'

i don't believe being locked in a cuboard is bad luck, or a superstition. I don't think that me being locked in a cuboard would make me fail my exams, for example

I just didn't like the fact that I couldn't move - I don't see that as a superstition

Otherwise, that would be like saying "My friend James is superstitious - he doesn't like being punched in the face"

Can I be a terrible pedant on two points?

First, though I can see the interpretation of phobic reactions as an extreme superstition, phobic reactions are generally caused either by matching a current situation to an extreme event, usually in childhood, or as in the case of my own arachnophobia, by classical conditioning from being constantly exposed to my mum's arachnophobia. I chose Ariadne, my Mexican red-kneed tarantula, as a pet to desensitise myself again. Now I think Mexican red-knees are cute, but the rest of the arachnid kingdom still gives me problems!

Second, acrophobia is the term for a fear of heights. Vertigo is actually the medical term for dizziness.

Sorry.

I always thought it was weird that fear of heights was didn't end in 'phobia'.
And I agree its stretching it a bit but as you said, "matching a current situation to an extreme event" which is what I call 'false connections'. And superstitions either happen due to someone believing they see evidence of the superstition working or through social conditioning the same as phobias.

Mandrake wrote:A phobia is an irrational fear but what's a genuine fear called - other than 'fear'? I can understand people being afraid of spiders for no reason referred to as a phobia but if someone's been bitten, stung and generally attacked by spiders, then it's no longer irrational !

Rational fear!

I was once in a room with a Goliath Bird Eating spider the size of a dinner plate at the start of my desensitisation to arachnids. I know it was that size because it was on the front of its tank. After a few attempts, I finally placed my hand on the outer surface of the glass and it's leg span was wider than I could stretch. The handler wouldn't take it out because it was so vicious. Goliath Bird Eaters regularly take on poisonous snakes in the wild for food Luckily, they live in the Amazon.

Tomo wrote:I was once in a room with a Goliath Bird Eating spider the size of a dinner plate at the start of my desensitisation to arachnids.

I think I'll keep my arachnophobia, ta

I've never quite understood having a fear of spiders. Most phobias seem to have at least a somewhat sane basis behind them (you'll fall to your death at a great height, you might get trapped and run out of oxygen if in a small enclosure) but I can't for the life of me say why I dislike spiders... they just freak me out

Maybe arachnophobia is a superstition? Maybe I'm just repeating Jean's point?

Blapsing_Beard wrote:I don't think that me being locked in a cuboard would make me fail my exams

It would if you were locked in there for long enough.