Your Superstitions and Strange Beliefs - or how to ward off bad luck, wicked juju, and the evil eye

[Aiōn]

What's interesting to me about these is how virtually unknown they are compared to terminal lucidity and deathbed visions, even though they're FAR more common. I've heard (probably optimistic, but still) estimates of up to 50% of terminally ill patients.

That could have something to do with DMT which is a psychedelic chemical that is released by the brain at the time of death.

I personally believe that God has a hand in what a person sees though.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

That could have something to do with DMT which is a psychedelic chemical that is released by the brain at the time of death.

I personally believe that God has a hand in what a person sees though.

NDEs are possibly related to DMT, although the experiences themselves are supposedly closer (but not identical) to the effects of ketamine.

Deathbed visions are something that usually start 4-6 weeks before death though. That doesn't disprove it being a chemical phenomenon, of course, but it doesn't seem to be the SAME phenomenon as NDEs.

 

[weegrumpy]

I am a bit OCD so i always put things in the same place and that place is where that thing goes, period. What i've experienced a lot is putting something where i always put it but then when i need it again i don't find it, i go crazy because i always put it where it belongs, i scrape every inch of the place i always put it and every place close to it and nothing, after i give up i come back, the thing is in the same place it always was, as if it was there all along. Its happens every once in a while and makes me feel insane, glitch in the matrix sort of thing.

Like deja vu?
but as said throughout the thread, Ive seen terminally I’ll patients, look up at the corner of the room, and smile and wave. I’ll be respectful, an d enquire if things are all good.
the idea of a psychic network isn’t so goofy. IIRC that the theory by a Wiccan professor who was called Issac Bonewits, He was the first to have an academic qualification from Berkeley in the 70s.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

but as said throughout the thread, Ive seen terminally I’ll patients, look up at the corner of the room, and smile and wave.

Yeah, that's exactly the sort of thing that happens in deathbed visions. Seeing people in the room with them, usually dead relatives. Other people like doctors or visitors don't see them, but to the dying person, they are THERE. The dead may not be there physically, but in mental terms it doesn't really match hallucinations in the conventional sense either. It's not the same as, say, schizophrenia. It's very weird and mysterious.

 

[.iota.]

There are people that are legitimate ghouls (cannibalistic corpse munchers). You can at it’s just me hating on the homeless and the poor but beady eyes, jagged teeth, and stringy hair with a skinny body and a portly belly.

a skinny body with a portly belly, especially on an older man, tends to be a sign of chronic alcohol consumption. that's not their belly, that's their liver. the eyes, the teeth, the hair, and the homelessness are just more obvious signs.

incidentally, this reminds me of my unreasonable distrust of people with small teeth and prominent gums.

 

[PandaChai]

Should the thread be expanded to include signs & omens? Because I sinned last night and awoke to this, this morning:

 

[Aiōn]

Should the thread be expanded to include signs & omens? Because I sinned last night and awoke to this, this morning:

I made myself some popcorn a few years ago and as I went to go upstairs with it I tripped over a plastic crate containing shoes, I was quite upset because it hurt and I silently wondered why I deserved it. Then later on I was meal prepping, leaning over the stove and I stepped to one side to consult the recipe on my laptop and almost immediately a big wall of flame shot up from the pan in a mini grease fire.

So I guess scraping my shin was a reminder that I should be grateful that I didn't lose my face.

 

[Lady Bizness]

Whenever the dread of someone dying unexpectedly creeps up on me, my mother always told me it would never be the person I could think of. Luckily I don't often have panic attacks that my loved ones might die in a car crash or wild mongoose stampede, but when I do, I go through a list of people I care about in my head.

Anyway, my apologies to my 6th grade teacher and one former coworker.

 

[Gollum Grindset]

I actually believe it takes hard work to be successful, which is why I'm not successful

 

[Aiōn]

A few things I took with me when I read up about Taoist magic:

You should avoid accepting free things, there is a hidden exchange taking place when you accept something that is free. Even if you offer much less than the value of the goods, by giving nothing you just haven't agreed on a limit on what the cost might be. If a company gives you a free pen, you will unconsciously think of them whenever you see it and send them your energy.

If a professional, such as a mechanic quotes you a price but then asks for more money, do not insult them by assuming they are a criminal trying to con you. It is much better to pay a bit more and have them enjoy the work they did for you and send you good energy by viewing you as a good customer than being a cheap ass trying to save a few measly dollars.

I also follow the The Ten Precepts for the most part because I tend to get instant karma.

 

[Susanna]

If a professional, such as a mechanic quotes you a price but then asks for more money, do not insult them by assuming they are a criminal trying to con you. It is much better to pay a bit more and have them enjoy the work they did for you and send you good energy by viewing you as a good customer than being a cheap ass trying to save a few measly dollars.

Not great advice if you’re a woman. A couple of times I’ve had my car in for service and the mechanic shows up with some filthy filter and suggests I get that changed, but when I ask him to show me where on the car he took it from he gets indignant. I’m all for being polite and friendly and a good customer, but sometimes people really do try to take advantage of you when they can tell you don’t understand the work as well as they do.

 

[Aiōn]

Not great advice if you’re a woman. A couple of times I’ve had my car in for service and the mechanic shows up with some filthy filter and suggests I get that changed, but when I ask him to show me where on the car he took it from he gets indignant. I’m all for being polite and friendly and a good customer, but sometimes people really do try to take advantage of you when they can tell you don’t understand the work as well as they do.

The person who I heard that teaching from also said that customers trying to show they are knowledgeable as the professional to not got conned is another example. However I'm sure that there are some bad apples out there, I guess research the expert before you seek out their services to ensure that they are professional in their dealings.

 

[Power Appreciator]

I believe they glow in the dark and you can drive them over with your car

 

[Otterly]

where it belongs, i scrape every inch of the place i always put it and every place close to it and nothing, after i give up i come back, the thing is in the same place it always was, as if it was there all along.

The same thing happens to me. I once read something about this and the explanation was this: When you search for something you have a mental image of it in your head and the ‘scanning’ of your vision will only find it if the mental vision matches the way it’s exposed to your vision. So for example a credit card - you picture it level and face up. If your brain is scanning the room and sees it upside down, and at an angle it doesn’t ‘register’ and you overlook it without recognition. I think there’s something to this. I play a lot of Lego with my kids and we have a couple of huge crates of it from when I was a kid. If I’m looking for a specific bit or two, in those huge crates, I can swish right past one while I’m mentally picturing the other.

have had several dreams that have come true

I have too, but all were things I can logically rationalise (more or less.) but… the weirdest thing was a kind of reverse deja vu. I was in my hometown and I knew that if I went around this corner I would see someone very specific, it was like a memory playing in my head. The I went round the corner and they were there, wearing, carrying and doing exactly what I’d ‘seen.’ I’ve thought about it often and tried to think of logical ways it could have worked - maybe they’d passed me before and I’d not consciously recognised them. I actually spoke to them about it afterwards and checked all this - and no. They’d parked in an underground carpark, never worn that shirt before, it was new, and were carrying something I’d never seen before. They’d literally got out of the car a minute before, our paths hadn’t crossed, and neither had our journeys into town.
It’s genuinely one of the weirdest things that’s ever happened to me - similar had happened 2-3 times now and it’s really disconcerting. I felt like I’d had a fit or something afterwards.
Oh and another one - sometimes I’m thinking of someone and they call and I KNOW they’re going to call. It’s not a song on the radio we’ve heard or a specific trigger but the number of times I’ve called them and the phones engaged becasue they’re calling me is bizzarre.
I think we are connected to the world on ways we don’t understand.

 

[NoReturn]

A few things I took with me when I read up about Taoist magic:

You should avoid accepting free things, there is a hidden exchange taking place when you accept something that is free. Even if you offer much less than the value of the goods, by giving nothing you just haven't agreed on a limit on what the cost might be. If a company gives you a free pen, you will unconsciously think of them whenever you see it and send them your energy.

If a professional, such as a mechanic quotes you a price but then asks for more money, do not insult them by assuming they are a criminal trying to con you. It is much better to pay a bit more and have them enjoy the work they did for you and send you good energy by viewing you as a good customer than being a cheap ass trying to save a few measly dollars.

I also follow the The Ten Precepts for the most part because I tend to get instant karma.

I have one that I try to maintain that's kind of the opposite, and I know people don't like it, but something about it holds true for me:
If someone offers you a gift, accept it graciously, but do not hold in your heart that you owe them anything because that "corrupts" the gift.
BUT ALSO
If you give someone else a gift, they owe you nothing. Only give things freely if you truly intend to do so with no thought of payment.
That last part can be difficult, because for a lot of people you aren't even doing it consciously. You just think "maybe this will come back to me some way" or "now this person will like me more".
This holds especially true for magical creatures, offerings to spirits and gods, etc. You can't "buy" favors from faeries, and if you try they're going to be pissed about it.

 

[Aiōn]

I have one that I try to maintain that's kind of the opposite, and I know people don't like it, but something about it holds true for me:
If someone offers you a gift, accept it graciously, but do not hold in your heart that you owe them anything because that "corrupts" the gift.
BUT ALSO
If you give someone else a gift, they owe you nothing. Only give things freely if you truly intend to do so with no thought of payment.
That last part can be difficult, because for a lot of people you aren't even doing it consciously. You just think "maybe this will come back to me some way" or "now this person will like me more".

Yeah I guess giving a gift to a loved one is different because you are already experiencing an energetic exchange with one another and you won't mind being reminded of them when you look at the object, I meant more like free gits from companies whose presence is unwelcome in your home.

I certainly don't give so that I can take but if someone has given me something but I will try to give them something back whether material or immaterial.

And yeah I am far too God fearing to make any demands or expectations, it's like you are asking to be humbled.

 

[std::string]

NDEs are possibly related to DMT, although the experiences themselves are supposedly closer (but not identical) to the effects of ketamine.

The DMT theory doesn't really hold up. Your body doesn't have enough of the precursors to suddenly produce enough to make you trip. It also can't be stored in the brain side of the blood-brain barrier since MAOs break it down immediately. So that's pretty much out.

It's interesting that you brought up ketamine though since if there is a physiological explanation for this it's most likely a switch that flips and downregulates your NMDA receptors hard and causes you to dissociate.

There's a piece in The Body Keeps the Score (which is interesting as hell even though I don't agree with all of it) about diary entries from a guy who was exploring Africa and was taken by a tigress to her den. He recounted how he felt no pain and felt at peace. Also couldn't move or really felt like he needed to. He crawled away eventually but that sounds like nature's own K-hole to me.

 

[NoReturn]

Save spiders. Protect spiders. Scoop up spiders and take them outside.
Put a cup over baby spiders and put them in a bush. Take photos of pretty spiders. Give spiders food. Spray spiderwebs with water to keep them from getting dehydrated. Look at spiders on your walk. Toss swatted mosquitos into webs...

 

[Susanna]

Save spiders. Protect spiders. Scoop up spiders and take then outside.
Put a cup over baby spiders and put them in a bush. Take photos of pretty spiders. Give spiders food. Spray spiderwebs with water to keep them from getting dehydrated. Look at spiders on your walk. Toss swatted mosquitos into webs...

Spiders disgust and horrify me.
But they eat mosquitos so they're alright.

 

[std::string]

Save spiders. Protect spiders. Scoop up spiders and take them outside.
Put a cup over baby spiders and put them in a bush. Take photos of pretty spiders. Give spiders food. Spray spiderwebs with water to keep them from getting dehydrated. Look at spiders on your walk. Toss swatted mosquitos into webs...

This post brought to you by a spider.