#1 March 4th, 2005 07:43 AM

wantingscott

Member

'bad luck' beliefs

a little survey. although i don't think Miranda will get 7 years of bad luck, i'm glad she didn't walk under a ladder, for example (that one i believe).

i also follow funny feelings i get and will sometimes take a different route to work based on a gut feeling. anyone else superstitious?

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that's the way it goes. but don't forget, it goes the other way too.

jimmioz

Member

Re: 'bad luck' beliefs

a little survey. although i don't think Miranda will get 7 years of bad luck, i'm glad she didn't walk under a ladder, for example (that one i believe).

i also follow funny feelings i get and will sometimes take a different route to work based on a gut feeling. anyone else superstitious?

i wouldn't consider myself superstitious but i do believe people can have a run of good or bad luck whether they follow their feelings or not. not sure if that falls under the superstitious category but i know recently i had a run of about 7 days when everything went right but then had three days where everything seemed to go wrong - mostly related to things beyond my control - unexpected car problems etc...

i could influence the good things for those 7 days to some degree, but the 3 bad days i couldn't really do anything different to change what was going on...

GusTheMynahBird

Member

Re: 'bad luck' beliefs

i wouldn't consider myself superstitious but i do believe people can have a run of good or bad luck whether they follow their feelings or not. not sure if that falls under the superstitious category but i know recently i had a run of about 7 days when everything went right but then had three days where everything seemed to go wrong - mostly related to things beyond my control - unexpected car problems etc...

i could influence the good things for those 7 days to some degree, but the 3 bad days i couldn't really do anything different to change what was going on...

I think that runs of good/bad luck are a perceptual illusion, the result of the human brain's tendency to find patterns in things, and also to filter out, forget or dismiss counterexamples that go against a belief like "I'm having a run of bad luck".

Then again, such is the power of the mind that if you do start believing that you're having good luck, you will have good luck, in the sense that you'll subconsciously behave in a way that opens up and makes the most of opportunities. Conversely, if you believe that you're unlucky, that's enough to make your mind miss opportunities and sabotage efforts.