For some reason, I cannot keep a whole pair of shoes under my bed.
I think somewhere when I was little, I read it in a book someone had, and it forever haunted me. I have NO IDEA why, but I always do it.
Anyone happen to know WHY that's bad? O__o


And again, with shoes, I CANNOT keep two pairs on the floor close to any position that one's feet could be in standing. I always think that a ghost will step in them or something.... Though I think I made myself think that.


I also HATE mirrors. unfortunately, our mirror is on a door, and the person I live with is a strong beliver in the boogieman or something, thus, the closet MUST be closed to sleep. Curse us and our contradicting fears!
I'm always afraid I'm going to see something in them that isn't there. I don't know if that's a superstition or just plain fear, but mirrors are evil. Evil I say.
I'm honestly surprised I don't hallucinate and think I see things. >__<

Tamago wrote:

I believe that black cats are unlucky for very different reasons than you would think, every black (or mostly black) kitten I have ever had has either died soon after birth or on the road...

That's almost as creepy as the so-called widowers... Is that right? Widowers?

allegoriest wrote:

For some reason, I cannot keep a whole pair of shoes under my bed.
I think somewhere when I was little, I read it in a book someone had, and it forever haunted me. I have NO IDEA why, but I always do it.
Anyone happen to know WHY that's bad? O__o


And again, with shoes, I CANNOT keep two pairs on the floor close to any position that one's feet could be in standing. I always think that a ghost will step in them or something.... Though I think I made myself think that.


I also HATE mirrors. unfortunately, our mirror is on a door, and the person I live with is a strong beliver in the boogieman or something, thus, the closet MUST be closed to sleep. Curse us and our contradicting fears!
I'm always afraid I'm going to see something in them that isn't there. I don't know if that's a superstition or just plain fear, but mirrors are evil. Evil I say.
I'm honestly surprised I don't hallucinate and think I see things. >__<

Perhaps you're hallucinating and thinking you're not seeing things?  Hehe, pleasant dreams...

Trench Kamen wrote:

I'm also check my bag ten times to make sure I have my wallet, keys, cell phone, and keycard. I'm never convinced they are there. Same for homework I have to turn in.

Oh god. I never believe I have everything. It takes me forever to get out the door.

allegoriest wrote:

For some reason, I cannot keep a whole pair of shoes under my bed.
I think somewhere when I was little, I read it in a book someone had, and it forever haunted me. I have NO IDEA why, but I always do it.
Anyone happen to know WHY that's bad? O__o


And again, with shoes, I CANNOT keep two pairs on the floor close to any position that one's feet could be in standing. I always think that a ghost will step in them or something.... Though I think I made myself think that.


I also HATE mirrors. unfortunately, our mirror is on a door, and the person I live with is a strong beliver in the boogieman or something, thus, the closet MUST be closed to sleep. Curse us and our contradicting fears!
I'm always afraid I'm going to see something in them that isn't there. I don't know if that's a superstition or just plain fear, but mirrors are evil. Evil I say.
I'm honestly surprised I don't hallucinate and think I see things. >__<

Oh I remember something about the shoes!

I was always told that if you have your shoes placed how you stand next to your bed, that whatever ghosts or monsters were there would be able to see/find me in my bed. But if you jumble your shoes around it confuses the ghost or monster and they won't be able to find me.  Sometimes I would turn a shoe upside down for good measure.

I remember playing Bloody Mary once. I was the only one brave enough to do it. I stood there for a long time after saying her name to the mirror, and my face kinda turned green. I always associated that with just not blinking, and having afterimages in my vision. So yeah, Bloody Mary never worked for me.

One thing I do pretty often is if I'm on my side when I fall asleep, I put a hand or arm over the ear that is facing up. I have this irrational fear that a spirit of some sort will come scream in my ear.

tohubohu wrote:

I do all the knocking wood and throwing salt over my shoulder things.  I've got some weird other things:

- After dark, the windows must have their shades or blinds closed.  I can't stand to have a blank dark window in a room.  I was scarred at a very young age by excerpts from The Amityville Horror.

- Similarly, I have a lot of trouble sitting in a room with a dark doorway facing me.  That one came from a particularly terrifying episode of In Search Of...

Me too! I just can't sleep unless all the doors are closed! However, for me, it's because my family's always practiced Feng Shui since we're an Asian family. All of our mirrors face the windows to repel bad energy. Also, we never have a television set face the bed. It causes uneasiness because T.V.s give off negative ions. That's why I can never get any good sleep while in a hotel room. Last but not least, we never have a bed face a doorway. It's just bad. We don't really use the tools or anything but just the simple principles to reduce bad energy.

Stormcrow wrote:

Here's one:  My dad just called to tell me that I should put a bucket next to my bed tonight, because both of my brothers have just become ill in a messy but non-life-threatening way.  One of them lives in Hollywood, so what's that got to do with me?

Possibly the mysterious association with blood relations. We'll never know, will we?
Put the bucket and see what happens
Then, you can tell us, too.

I also HATE mirrors. unfortunately, our mirror is on a door, and the person I live with is a strong beliver in the boogieman or something, thus, the closet MUST be closed to sleep. Curse us and our contradicting fears! 
I'm always afraid I'm going to see something in them that isn't there. I don't know if that's a superstition or just plain fear, but mirrors are evil. Evil I say.
I'm honestly surprised I don't hallucinate and think I see things. >__<

I cannot stand mirrors either! It is impossible for me to sleep in a room if a mirror is present. I also refuse to be in a pitch dark room if a mirror is present in said room. I think it has something to do with my irrational childhood fear of Bloody Mary.

My door must always be shut before I go to bed and same with my closet and I have no real reason for this since I never had a boogeyman problem.

I always carry a minature buddha figure with me wherever I go for luck. I also have a buddha in my car. I seriously believe that buddha has saved me from several car accidents since I have had several near misses ^.^' Utah drivers are the worst.

I don't think this really counts as a superstition but it is neat nontheless. Every Friday the 13th I remember I always run into a black cat. Nothing bad really happens ever except one time when I was 15, I was walking home from a friends house on Friday the 13th. I took a shortcut through an orchard and I happened to walk past a black cat that happened to be mutilated. Rather unlucky for the black cat and it me being frightened would be an understatement.

meh those are the only superstitions I can think of off the top of my head.

Another one I just remembered.  Whenever I'm waiting for something to happen, be it a phone call, my food to arrive at a restaurant, or the arrival of a guest, I go to the bathroom.  I figure these things are more likely to happen when I'm in there, just becaues it would be less convenient that way.  Surprisingly effective, actually.

Loving the thread!

About siblings marrying within the same year: it's also a common superstition in Spain; besides, a bride has to wear something new and something lent (usually by a friend or her mother).

It's bad luck to celebrate birthday before the actual date.

About theater: I don't know if it's common in the US, but here you cannot wear anything yellow while in scenario. It comes after Molière death while performing "The Imaginary Invalid" (he was wearing yellow).

I didn't know about Negative Thinking, but I have always believed in Murphy's Law: if something can go wrong, it will go worse (or something along these lines).

In Catalonia we also have that "breaking a mirror equals 7 years bad luck". Number 7 is also present in the following superstition: If you dream about someone's death, you actually elongate his/her life for seven years.

Also, I have heard about a Jewish superstition that says that after clipping your toenails, you have to burn them. If not, after your death your ghost will spend all eternity searching for them. I'm not sure if it's the same with hair, though...


Not that I usually do it, but as Stormcrow says, people tend to arrive to an appointment when I return from bathroom

Pretty basic stuff for me, like knocking on wood. Which I do more out of habit then any actual belief. Oh, and as an excuse to knock people on their heads.

I also agree with Tamago, in a way. It's not that I want to believe it, but I've noticed that whenever something good happens, there has to be a bad event to balance it out. And I'm not talking about feeling good the whole day and then getting upset because someone looked at me badly, just because I can't bear the fact that I had a good day. I'm talking about finally boosting my ego out of the pit of hate, just so that something else can shoot it down. It's like, "Hey Mew! You're not allowed to feel good about yourself. *boom* "

There was also something else, but I forgot. Oh yes! But I'm not sure does it count as superstition. And it sounds ridiculous, to say the least. I wholeheartedly believe that one of my friends is an angel. I don't care how strange and creepy it might be, especially considering that religion and me aren't really on good terms, so I might not even believe in the existence of angels. But it just, I dunno, makes sense in my head. Or something. /:

Murphy's Law
The story I heard was that Murphy was working with an army research team studying human impact tolerance.  The test subject, Col. Stapp, was to sit in a rocket sled that was to be crashed into a cement barricade.  Sensors on the sled would then measure the force absorbed at the moment of impact.  Murphy designed the sensors, but had an assistant install them on the sled.  When the sled was tested on a chimpanzee, the sensors failed to register anything at all.  The assistant had installed each one upside down.  Stories conflict on exactly how Murphy's "Law" was originally stated, but the essence was that because it was possible to install the sensors upside down, the assistant had done so.

If I remember correctly, when Col. Stapp conducted the actual experiment, he absorbed 45 gravities at the instant of impact, which was sufficient to tear his retinas from his eyeballs...  [/]