Wednesday, July 27, 2005

My theory of Superstition

I have always been fascinated by unexplained phenomena... 'unexplained' meaning not satisfactorily explained by the current body of scientific knowledge... From my childhood days, I've been listening to innumerous 'superstitious' beliefs; for example, they say that a black cat crossing your path is bad omen. I've always wanted to learn the truth behind such beliefs. Is there a possible credibility hiding in those beliefs somewhere? This post is my (far stretched) scientific reasoning of one such belief.
First, lets look at what Webster means by 'superstition':
1a : a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation
1b : an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from superstition
2 : a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary

'a belief resulting from ignorance'... ignorance!! - ignorance of what?
Is superstition the belief resulting from the ignorance of some science that supposedly disproves it, that is, provides 'evidence to the contrary'!?? Or is superstition the belief termed so due to the ignorance of any science that could possible explain it?!

Let's consider the superstitious belief that, "when you accidentally bite your tongue, it means somebody cursed you or expressed some grudge on you". Now, what kind of science can explain that??!!

Our body's nervous system supports the continuous passage of electrical signals. This should induce an electrical field in/around our body. We know that every electric field has a magnetic field coupled with it. That means, we could also have a magnetic field around our body at all times. When we interact with other people (who also have such magnetic fields), our fields may be interacting. So there could be some kind of information being gathered through this interaction. Our mind could be registering the variations in the magnetic field of the other person based on their varying thoughts during an interaction. Suppose someone was insulted by our words or in some way felt bad about something we said, and lets say that it created a specific type of variation in the interacting magnetic fields that our sub-conscious mind could register. But somehow, the sub-conscious mind has not yet conveyed this information to the conscious mind. At a later time, when our mind is going through random thoughts, let's say somehow the information previously stored in the sub-conscious mind gets triggered. So, the sub-conscious mind could make an attempt to notify the conscious mind by making us bite our own tongue!!...
Far-stretched science... Is it really?!!

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Whoa, nelly. Much of life can't be explained, only to be witnessed!!! Do you believe...I believe...ahahahaah!

BobChoi

Thu Jul 28, 10:26:00 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Please read "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, "Kitchen Table Wisdom" by Dr. Naomi Remen and Road Less Travelled by Dr. Scott Peck. Which path do you want to walk on? Choice...dilemna...life is beautiful through the good, bad, happy or sad eh? Peace.

BChoi

Thu Jul 28, 10:34:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Swami said...

Hey BChoi,
True. Much of life can't be explained! But sometimes, one needs reasons to reinforce one's beliefs. Reasons that conform to some form of logical/scientific reasoning. Anyway, I'll read those books you suggested as soon as I can and then we can talk more ;)...

Mon Aug 01, 05:00:00 PM EDT  

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