Superstitions have existed for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never understood what it is that makes sane, intelligent persons fall prey to irrational mind control. I suppose that most of us have succumbed to such silliness at some time or another, and often it appears to be harmless and humorous.

For example, what does breaking the breastbone of a chicken have to do with one’s wishes coming true? Or, how is stepping on a crack associated with breaking your mother’s back? Does knocking on wood or walking around, instead of under a ladder really circumvent catastrophe?

Nevertheless, we’ve probably all felt a tinge of anxiety when a black cat crosses our path, or when we’ve broken a mirror. I recall as a young girl in elementary school skipping over cracks in the sidewalk while chanting with my small indoctrinated friends, “Step on a crack---break your mother’s back”. We hadn’t a clue why we were saying or doing it, only that we’d heard the phrase time and time again, and to some extent had believed it .We knew we had stepped on cracks before and had found Mom healthy and up-right upon arriving home from school, so why had we persisted in our ritual? The best I can ascertain is that as little girls, it was fun and we were blissfully ignorant to the vices of mental manipulation. Harmless---I’m not so sure. Look around and you will see the effects of mind control everywhere.

Turn on the television to watch a sporting event and one can witness the evidence of our helplessness to overcome the clutches of superstition. You will likely see players on the baseball field wearing their caps sideways, chewing gum, and wearing red armbands around their wrists because one, or some of the players had done all these things in a previous game and they had won. Ultimately, the win was attributed to the rituals. I saw an interview done with one professional ball player who admitted to the interviewer that he’d worn the same unwashed socks for the last twenty games because he felt they were “lucky” and had actually helped his team be successful! It is mind-boggling to know what individuals will do due to this sort of mind-altering mania.

No one in my family would ever admit to being superstitious. But, whenever a big football game came on you’d see the same shirts or caps they’d worn watching the last victorious game even if it was the following day. Coincidence? I doubt it! Although we had been taught that superstition was silly and nothing to be feared, I fell victim to the tenuous tenets occasionally. I didn’t want to take a chance! I broke a mirror once and was depressed for days dreading what many had said were the “inevitable consequences”. Also, when I was pregnant with my son, a close friend who was steeped in religious superstition, almost had me convinced that I must wear a safety pin attached to my pants during the pregnancy so that my baby wouldn’t be deformed. I was shocked to find that my sane, intelligent friend believed in such nonsense. I soon learned that there are many who do, and not only that, but many wear charms, crystals, or amulets to attract good fortune or repel evil.

Some believe that if they carry a rabbit’s foot around with them, they’ll have good luck (Although the rabbit probably feels a little cheated). Others search for hours in a field or meadow to find a four-leaf clover which is also supposed to bring good fortune to its finder. These seemingly harmless acts are curiously comical on the surface, but there

are some more serious repercussions connected to superstition.

Fear of the number thirteen has haunted many, even causing the omittance of a thirteenth floor in office buildings and hotels all across the country. Because the notion that the number thirteen itself has to do with impending doom, airplanes will sometimes leave out the thirteenth aisle. Some are wary, or even petrified of Friday falling on the thirteenth day of the month. Psychologists have noticed that persons will actually cause bad things to happen by adopting this idea and focusing on those things, which are indeed unfortunate.

Breaking a mirror has left many quaking in their shoes because they have been told they will have bad luck because of it. This concept originated with the idea that the reflection is a representation of the soul, so therefore, damaging the reflection meant damaging the soul. It sounds very inane and incongruent , yet it is powerful in the minds of those who believe it. While many unfounded beliefs and rituals are innocuous and easily cast off, some are downright scary and debilitating!

To live in constant fear of anticipatory calamity that is out of one’s control has to be a dismal existence. Who knows when a black cat will cross one’s path or when the reflective piece of glass may be broken due to some misfortunate accident one has caused. No wonder we suffer many phobias now. The power of suggestion in itself alone is enough to control how some live, or rather don’t live their lives.

There are some folks in America, particularly in the southern Appalachian area that are extremely prone to such drastic tenets according to a posting on Carson Brewer’s website. One superstition he cited was that if a bird flew through your house, a close friend or a relative would die shortly. Another was that if a baby saw itself in a mirror before the age of six months, it would die before its first birthday. These kinds of beliefs are potentially life controlling in that one’s every waking moment is consumed in dread of great ruin or destruction. And, there are still other ways in which superstition may be harmful to the believer, Take for instance, the belief that a person born after the death of his father possesses healing power, and think about the potential fatality to those who lend it credence! I wonder how many have relied on such non-sense when someone close to them has fallen ill and the medical attention that was so badly needed was foregone. We’ve heard these kinds of stories on the evening news where someone dies due to lack of care. We’ve also questioned the intentions and intelligence of those involved in the incident. How could someone possibly be so deceived? Or, why didn’t someone seek help from the medical professionals that have been trained to administer the care their loved one so desperately needed? One logical conclusion is that sometime in their lives, they had succumbed to the false sense of security passed on to them in a religious creed or family tradition that was so powerful as to render their own common sense useless. This has happened to intelligent, well-meaning people more often than any of us would like to think. The important question is still ----WHY? What drives a person to ignore reality and cling to flimsy fables offering nothing other than yarns based on circumstance and fear that are passed from generation to generation?

The major ingredient in the equation is fear. You can control a multitude with it. All of us are vulnerable to some degree, but we shouldn’t continue to allow it to completely dominate our lives. We need only to stop and realize, as intelligent grounded people that superstition is based on ignorance, illusion, circumstance, and fear. No longer should superstition be a factor in our lives. Some few brave souls have ventured out and tested the waters in this sea of madness and have proven that just because a group of people choose to believe and be controlled by mind manipulation doesn’t make their beliefs valid. Just because someone said that knocking on wood would prevent misfortune, or that carrying a rabbit’s foot would bring good fortune does not make it true. Think about it! There are those who have and they aren’t afraid of the number thirteen, walking under a ladder, or distressed over a broken mirror. To them I say thanks. Thank you for bringing some sanity into this fear-filled fury, and I’m glad I’m one of you. Knock on wood----just kidding!