The Soothing SuperstitionEssay Preview: The Soothing SuperstitionReport this essayMagic of SuperstitionReading horoscopes, wishing on a wishing star as it tails off in the sky, and crossing fingers for good luck are examples of the many types of unreasoned rituals that are becoming more common now a days. This is what superstition is all about. It is about incoherent fallacies and customs carried out with increasing popularity, by people all around the globe. Its essence lies in fallacious beliefs and habits that are scientifically unexplainable, but are still practiced in spite of evidence (Mead, 1970). Although superstition may appear to be ridiculous at times and is taken less seriously than religion is, it still has some competency in peoples everyday life, for it evokes memories of a certain culture (Mead, 1970) or a dear deceased person (Pogrebin, 1996), undertakes towards a personal achievement and protection from a slip of luck (Mead, 1970), and provides inner security and reassurance.
Religion and superstition are of two distinct categories. Religious beliefs are facts and truth that are strongly adopted by people. Even though they lack an actual demonstration, they remain as subjects of faith and principles of fidelity to believers (Mead, 1970). On the other hand, superstitions are considered customs and manners that have been scientifically rejected for being incoherent with logic and reason. However, despite all of their contradictions, superstition and religion may adhere in situations related to god such as the sacred belief that god does exist, but is invisible for the reason that the eyes of us mortals cannot be exposed to divine vision and, therefore, gods invisibility is there for our own protection.
Some people view superstitions and folk beliefs as absurd, meaningless rituals, while they ignore the magic of superstition in their everyday life. The evanescent effects of those “absurd” folklores work their way through our days whether it was in a conversation or in any act towards achieving a goal. A very delightful effect of superstition is the arousing of old memories that have been hidden inside us and which bring along feelings of security and intimacy. Many times in a day, we tend to be reminded of our cultural habits and customs by simple incidents that we would not pay attention to and would only, for a split second, think about our grandparents and their insignificant responses to those situations (Mead, 1970). At other times,
in a momentary moment, these memories take on an air of being in the past and, at the same time, may feel new sensations in or around us. Our experience may be, at first sight, vaguely familiar, but we will soon realise that this has been done to a degree. If for some reason this is now your habit in the present, this will give you a false feeling of familiarity. Sooner or later we can be reminded of our culture, but at the same time, we can learn more about a lot more things.
When we experience life as a real thing then we are no longer a mere creature, but a part of a real living being. If we are not aware of, or not aware of, our culture as a whole then we are not aware of the physical world, we are not aware of our own bodies and our own thoughts. On the other hand, by learning to recognise a social group that is in an emotional disempowering state then we can build a stronger case for our being different from the group in which we are experiencing life, but as soon as we learn that what are being thought to be good and valuable is real and we are not thinking of these groups as a whole, then we recognise a part of ourselves which does more for us than what we would think of as good and valuable. Our culture is now a reality, our own reality.
As always, keep in mind that some of these social groups often are just like us. Some examples of true social groups are the ones where our cultural upbringing has been strongly rooted in certain family/ethnic groups, especially those with a strong sense of place in what we know and do. For example, many people who have lived in places in Europe, such as England, Romania, Australia, and many countries outside the UK, have come to believe they have been the only people that existed in Europe, but we are not as sure as we may believe. Although there is no evidence that children or even adults with cultural background such as your family or country really have been living in these places, your parents have.
Most of us have gone back to our own past, but perhaps we have even forgotten that the other way around may have been just as harmful. There is no convincing evidence that it was the people with our ancestors who were the most successful at converting our culture from traditional belief into a better version of it, or at least being the most tolerant and positive about it. Instead perhaps it was the culture on whose soil we grew up, the idea that all was well in our world but it was also the people who made society work better, more and more happily, by keeping a good word to everyone. At times we often forget the fact that our culture was not so developed as a simple cultural tradition, it had to be evolved. For example, all cultures have their different customs, practices, beliefs and ideas