Superstitions: Mind over Matter When was the last time you picked a penny up off the ground? Did it bring good luck? After scoring high on your exam in high school, did you adopt that pen as ‘your lucky pen?’ I am guilty; I look to superstition for luck, guidance, answers – anything to help me decide the many paths life will take. Are we irrational for believing something we cannot prove? Society has accumulated many superstitions over the course of history. Most people have their own reasons for the beliefs which link back to myths and prophecies of the past. Whether it is scientific, philosophical or religious ideas that help us individually to understand things better, it is impossible for us individually to accept each to be true. However, it is simple to understand our reasons.
Superstitions help us to protect our thoughts, create basis for things we cannot comprehend, and share in each of our hopes for good fortune and survival. Our inner most secret senses push our minds to appreciate the few (or many) irrational ideas we have for uncertainty of the future. In an evidence-filled era, society still allows superstitions to reign. First off, the mind, an intricate clockwork of thoughts, constantly wonders and sees things both consciously and unconsciously. It is a collaboration of the most colourful memories and the darkest recollections. We have all seen the edges of insanity.
The Essay on The Mind
The objective of The Mind is to provide the reader with a unique overview of the thinking of human kind. Self-understanding is one of humankinds most ancient quests. Who am I? What is my relationship to the world around me? These questions marked the beginnings of philosophy. They are initiations in the search for mind, for, at least in the one respect; we are unique among all creatures. Only we ...
Work-overload, stress, uncertainty, threat – I have experienced them all. It is human nature to naturally develop ways to mask these overwhelming emotions to ensure we protect ourselves individually. Superstitiously, we find ways to overcome these obstacles. Some of us look to God in religious practices. Who would have though religion was considered a superstition? What is and is not considered to be superstitious is relative. An unreligious person views religious beliefs as a mere superstition.
However, a Priest of a Church would view unorthodox practices to be just the same: a mere superstition. Neither is wrong as they both encompass the same result of helping us express our emotions. We constantly speculate what the future will hold, sometimes enough to look to horoscopes and astrology for satisfaction. Our minds crave fortune, happiness and stability.
Whether or not we believe that horoscope in the newspaper this morning, we are prepared to protect ourselves mentally throughout the day for any troubles which have been forecasted. Our fear of the unknown has created a basis for superstitions in our life. Whether they prove to aid in our luck, they prove to protect our minds, enabling us to continue forward into our undecided futures. Secondly, our intellectual ideas help us comprehend things we do not understand. Of all my track and field days, why did it so prevalently pour rain on four of the six meets? I can’t decide whether to blame it on that spider I killed the day before, the fact I am prone to bad luck, or just the weather. Well, it definitely can’t be the weather – how could it so coincidentally rain not once, not twice, but four times of all the seven days in a week? And my poor luck is much too simplistic for such an odd occurrence, so it must have been the spider.
I hate spiders anyway! This is exactly what superstitions help us with: understanding things beyond our comprehension. As humans, we like to make connections between things. In reality, these may not have any relationship to one another, but in our minds they allow us to search for answers before deciding they do not exist. Perhaps the number 13 really does have a significant power, and maybe the planets really do have an influence on our lives. Without wonder, we cannot further extend the knowledge we already know today. Thus, superstitions give us foundation for concepts we cannot explain, but incorporate theory, relationship and understanding into our beliefs.
The Essay on Meaning of Life and Happiness
I do not think that there is a single person in the world who can say that knows what happiness actually is and, more importantly, that knows how to achieve it. We sometimes get the glimpse of pure happiness but those moments are so rare and so intense that we only recognise them too late. Each of us understands this feeling in a different way…I, for instance, see it as the one that can make you ...
Finally, the development of personal superstitions allows each of us to aspire good fortune and survival. Those cracks on the sidewalk sure scared me when I was young. I feared the rhyme, “don’t step on the crack, or you ” ll break your mother’s back!” I didn’t want to break my mother’s back! It’s no wonder it took me so long to walk home from the bus stop in grade one (and though my mom never understood, I did it all in her credit. ) A black cat often is viewed at as being evil as opposed to a white one.
Good luck charms are owned by people world-wide. Society practices superstitions on a regular basis, all in the hopes of a positive outcome. Our ambition is to be successful in life, yet we can only control the course our lifelong roads will take to such an extent. This is where superstitions provide us with further comfort in achieving our goals, and can help us travel further in life by simply believing the impossible.
Good fortune and survival do not promise consistent gratification, but help create an optimistic feeling in life. The same remains true for superstitions; they may not be 100% reliable, but assist in the search for happiness in life. Consequently, superstitions allow us to feel secure in the journey for good luck, happiness and survival in life. In conclusion, superstitions are instrumental in the lives of human beings.
We rely on them to protect our minds during times of uncertainty. We also rely on superstitions to help us grasp ideas which science cannot prove, but theory can understand. Finally, our superstitious ideas give us satisfaction in our search for happiness, fortune and survival. It is obvious these deeply influential beliefs, which have evolved over time from early history, are shared even amongst the most cynical people in the world. Our uncertainty will remain a mystery, as superstitions continue to remain the truth..
