Beyond common sense, or how superstition differs from faith. How is faith different from superstition? Russian signs about nature
Foreword
A person is a person, his existence is a private process, a million people are a million private processes, intersecting on any basis (linguistic, territorial) - they form a group (state, ethnic group, race, etc.). This group is for them (for this million) a kind of super-process embracing them, of which they are a part by unifying features. When looking at a group in a complex (eg ethnos), we consider it as a separate process, which is also able to combine with other super-processes. So citizens form - ethnos; ethnic groups form - a race, races form - humanity, which as a whole is part of the diversity of species of living organisms united in the biosphere. The spheres, uniting according to the signs of mutual location and interchange, form a planet (Reference: the planet consists of many spheres: the stratosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, etc.). The planets form the solar system, the solar system is part of the galaxy, the galaxy is part of the universe, the universe is part of the universe. The universe was created by the Creator - the supermundane objective reality. Any part of the objective Creature Universe is subjectively cognizable. The Providence of the Creator, with respect to the objective universe, is just as cognizable as any part of the universe, because the Providence of the Creator is an algorithm according to which the universe and the entire hierarchy of mutually embedded systems exist in it.
Signs and superstitions, what's the difference?
Signs- this is a subjective reaction of the cognizing human mind to objective phenomena, trying to identify the relationship between mutually nested processes, the result of the work of the human mind. Those. a person constantly feels that everything in the world is interconnected, the observation of some people and their ability to understand this leads to the identification of stable relationships between individual processes, and as a result, to the emergence of stereotypes for recognizing these relationships, which takes the form of folk signs. There is a process in a person's life, one way or another it affects some other process that a person notices, for example, weather-related processes. This is how omens appear.
An example of a sign
omen: If the water in the puddles bubbles during the rain - to a lingering rain?
Physics of the phenomenon: A large raindrop falls on the surface of the water and forms a deep funnel. The funnel "collapses" and an air bubble forms on the surface. The bubble shell is held together by the surface tension of water and the absence of evaporation. The bubbles float on the surface of the water and do not burst instantly when very low atmospheric pressure and the surface tension of the water have enough strength to hold the air. At high atmospheric pressure, bubbles do not form when it rains. In puddles, after hitting a large drop on the surface of the water, columns of liquid just jump.
Relationships: Large bubbles - usually formed during a shower and persist for quite a long time, and showers, as a rule, are short-lived and fall from high cumulonimbus clouds. Atmospheric pressure is very low, air humidity is up to 100%, surface evaporation is practically absent. Small bubbles in puddles - are formed, as a rule, during prolonged rain, when the drop is not so large, there is relatively little, the atmospheric pressure is not as low as during a downpour, and the humidity is much less than 100%.
Unlike superstition, Signs- this is the result of the conscious activity of a person of high culture and possessing a certain methodology for cognizing the surrounding objectivity. The carriers of such a culture can consciously choose the sphere of interrelation sampling, form signs (recognition stereotypes of interrelationships) and change them in the event of an objective change in the interrelationships between the processes under consideration. In this case, Man is the master of signs, and not a slave of superstition.
Tell me, have you ever stopped in front of a running black cat or knocked on wood three times?
superstition- almost (!) the same as omens, but in the absence of a person in general any methodology for cognition and awareness of the interconnections in the universe. And in this case, any mutually influencing processes objectively take place, but the personal culture of the carrier of superstitions is such that he is not able to recognize these relationships, and the presence in the culture of society of signs already created by someone is used by him as a kind of dead dogma, sometimes even completely having nothing to do with the place in life where it is applied by such a person. Therefore, a black cat in such a person is always to blame for his unsuccessful journey.
Signs and superstitions in culture
To date, most modern people use Signs created by mankind many centuries ago, practically without introducing any new noticed relationships into culture. Yes, and they use these Signs without any awareness and analysis, which translates them into the category of superstitions, driving people into methodological slavery from all sorts of interpreters of these superstitions.
This kind of superstition also includes the newfangled Feng Shui in the interior of the home today. Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, it was the science of field processes generated by material objects in the interior and their relationship with the field structures of the people in it. It was expressed as a collection of Living Signs and recommendations for their practical and methodological application. Today, this science has completely, without a trace, degraded into superstition. Few people today are able to bring new knowledge into Feng Shui, moreover, gradually Signs that become obsolete due to changes, the development of the original objective processes, are replaced by outright lies - superstitions created for the needs of the public, aimed at extracting slaves dependent on these superstitions from the pocket, their material resources. Master healers of Feng Shui earn a lot of money exploiting methodological illiteracy, interpreting various superstitions for their own benefit or ordered from outside.
I found such a text on the Internet, in my opinion, this is the clearest example of methodological slavery, I quote: “You know, there is such a good sign: if the left palm itches, then expect money to arrive. This is due to the fact that a special zone on the human body is activated, which receives impulses from the energy space.They indicate the imminent flow of energy substances in the form of banknotes.So, if you just scratch your left palm from time to time, it will begin to scan this energy space in search of a source of money.So you can attract their entry into your life."
In contrast, driven into the subconscious folk wisdom gave birth to such a "joking" Sign: "Going to work - to the money."
All this means only one thing, that the spiritual culture of modern mankind has extremely degraded compared to the culture that existed in Rus' a thousand years ago in the so-called "dark times".
Absolutely everyone can become a bearer of a methodological culture that allows one to correctly see the interconnections of the parts of objective being that have fallen into the field of attention of such a person at a given moment, it is only necessary to educate this culture in oneself. This is precisely the culture of human mental activity, and not some kind of esoteric extrasensory abilities, which are, in fact, random anomalies. Unlike extrasensory anomalies, culture is accessible to everyone and can be passed on from generation to generation through knowledge and education of appropriate morality, far different from the degrading culture that takes place among the masses today.
But everything is in our hands. Unfortunately, the modern school instills in new people precisely this, modern, degrading culture, and this state is getting worse and worse every year, which is expressed in a series of personal, social and man-made disasters, the number of which today has exceeded any reasonable level.
This state of affairs is extremely beneficial for the ruling circles, because people with an absent methodology for cognizing the surrounding reality are essentially slaves, no matter how many candy wrappers they are allowed to have in their wallets, robbing those who, for one reason or another, are signs , properties turned out to be weaker than them. The ruling elite, shearing coupons from everyone, to the extent of their stratigraphic (caste, netocratic) distribution, with all their might supports such a state of affairs, which cannot be called otherwise than slavery.
She maintains this state of affairs, solely thanks to the education system, completely controlled by them (through the RAS, MANA, UNESCO, etc.) and which almost irrevocably cripple the psyche of people, producing from year to year from young individuals - biorobots, instead of Homo sapiens, who they are supposed to be according to the Creator's plan. Thus, entering into a constant confrontation with the Providence of the Creator, which cannot end in anything good for humanity, according to the definition of the nesting of the processes of being, because the Creator is the highest embracing process of the entire universe, and humanity is just a nested system, which is almost at the lowest level of mutual nesting , even below the biosphere of the planet. And if a system of such a low level one day enters into dissonance with a more powerful system embracing it, then it will inevitably be destroyed due to the objectivity of the ongoing processes in the universe. And the fact that humanity has come to the limiting point of such confrontation is not now felt (at least subconsciously by its gut) only by a completely humanoid being.
The way out of this situation is quite simple. Since the education system is not capable of educating a Human in us, it means that we ourselves must undertake this. And this process is called self-education. No one can forbid you to read several books on history, physics, chemistry and, turning to your Conscience and inner instinct (which everyone has and over which no one has power except the person himself), analyze what they read and correlate it with those observed in life phenomena, thus building a worldview adequate to the Creation, which will form the basis of all further higher nervous activity. It is clear that all official history textbooks have been edited for the sake of the ruling elite, but as a rule, the relationships between factology are edited there, it is quite difficult to tell factology itself, here, as they say, a fact is a fact. Disliked facts simply do not fit into books, but the inquisitive mind and conscience of a person in the process of self-education are able to rebuild the relationship between available facts to more adequate ones. In addition, today, with the development of telecommunications systems (Internet), more and more individual facts become available for review, it remains only to learn how to build adequate relationships between them.
You can start with what is (first of all) vital you need to stop the hustle and bustle in your life, the pursuit to snatch a bit of slavish pleasures from the master's garbage dump, and purposefully, by an effort of will, set aside time in your life for the process of self-education and knowledge of the world created by the Creator.
And then you, all of us, will become the masters of Signs, i.e. managers of the processes that surround us, and not slaves of superstition and the flow of many circumstances that we do not control.
Folk signs today
Some of our contemporaries, people with a sense of humor - good humor, who have not yet completely exterminated the real, Human culture with the "joys of civilization" in their kind, but due to the received zombie education they cannot reveal it in themselves, and therefore they themselves do not understand the importance of their actions - showed the world quite a lot of supposedly "comic and humorous" Signs. This folk art, perceived by the crowd as anecdotes, is in fact a sign that the methodological culture of good morality, genetically inherent in Man, the creation of God, cannot be destroyed, and it constantly makes attempts to break through the fog of obsessions of modern immorality and malevolence.
Below is a small collection of such "comic" modern Signs, collected by me on the net. This is exactly the case when they say: "in every joke there is a share of a joke" ...
Comic folk omens
The better the chest is visible, the worse the face is remembered.
. If a woman is cheating on you, it means that she cares about you.
. If you again recovered by 5 kg in a week, then this diet was advised to you by your best friend.
. If a woman suddenly fell silent, then she wants to say something.
. If suddenly all the girls began to lose weight, then spring is coming.
. If you brush the crumbs from the table onto the floor with your hand - to a quarrel with your wife.
. If a husband opens the car door for his wife, then either new car or a new wife.
. The probability of meeting acquaintances increases if you go with a person whose acquaintance you would not like to advertise.
. If you take an umbrella with you, just in case, it will not rain.
. Catching up with the tram, not seeing the number, it turns out that this is not your tram.
. If you threw a stone into the water and do not see circles, then winter has come.
. If the smoke spreads along the ground - go back and turn off the iron, if it rises in a column - you can no longer return.
. If the empty yogurt is in the sink, then the spoon must be in the trash.
. If you spit three times over your left shoulder, then the probability of getting hit on the head from the left rear increases exactly three times.
. If children go to school dressed up and bring flowers, then soon they will have to dig potatoes.
. If on Friday the 13th a black cat crossed your path with empty buckets filled with fragments of a broken mirror - don't expect happiness!
. When hands are dirty, something always itches.
. If the head hurts, then it is.
. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
. Going to work means money.
. High level IQ does not mean that you will be able to fill out a tax return from start to finish on your own.
. Lighting up a dark alley with an iPhone is a bad omen.
. The morning is kinder, the closer it is to Friday evening.
Let's try, together, to find out the true meaning of such a comic Sign given above: "Illuminating a dark alley with an iPhone is a bad omen."
The vast majority will see in this phrase only a superficial meaning, that if you illuminate the road in a dark alley with the screen of an expensive gadget, then drug addict hooligans can see it, attack and take away the phone.
But everything is much deeper, this is a phrase about human egocentrism. Everyone thinks only of himself, he considers only himself "the navel of the earth" and is ready to spend quite a lot of money to amuse this egocentrism of his. And it's all so neglected that even now, many do not guess what it is about.
We are ready to walk through dark alleys, breaking our legs and being in constant danger of being maimed, but only with an iPhone, instead of buying a simpler thing, if it is still necessary, and investing extra funds in public amenities. To chip in with their own neighbors and repair this terrible alley by society, to light it up. But no, someone has to do it for us.
We make expensive repairs in our Personal apartments, but we get into them through the crap entrances, we build tall fences along our houses, hoping to hide behind them, and we get into our Personal home through a dirty street dug up with sewers. We go to the forest park, eat Personal kebabs, litter, the mothers of those who have been there before us... Only slaves who are angry at the life and property of the owner do this. That's what this supposedly "joking" folk omen is about...
Afterword
I really hope that someday we, all together, will understand this, and not only understand, but make a real, and not declared, moral choice in favor of goodwill and assistance real Divine Providence, and not religious and cult dogmas, and we will finally become Humans, and not humanoid subhumans.
Sakharov R. Simferopol, 2012
The word superstition comes from the Slavic word “in vain” - “in vain”, “in vain” ... in other words, superstition is “vain faith”, in contrast to faith in God, which a person needs (in any case, for centuries people have been sure of this) . Now we use this word as a collective name for all kinds of beliefs that are not related to religion (however, militant atheists also talk about "religious superstition").
First of all, superstitions include belief in omens. As a rule, a sign is a statement of some kind of causal relationship, which cannot be explained. Sometimes such a connection could have a very real basis. So, for example, the immune system is very weak - and the baby can get sick from any accidental infection that is not dangerous for an adult, therefore the child does not need extra contacts with strangers - today any pediatrician will tell you this ... but our ancestors, nothing who knew neither about germs nor about antibodies, they simply said: baby jinx it!"
In the same way, the ancient man did not understand the connection between natural phenomena- for example, swallows fly low - it means it will rain. Today we know the mechanisms of such connections (humidity prevents insects from flying high, which swallows feed on) and do not consider “weather” signs to be superstitions, but in ancient times, ignorance of these mechanisms led to real superstitions - “vain faith”. For example, frogs get out on land before the rain (when they are not in danger of dehydration of the skin) - and on land it is much easier to kill a frog than in water ... this is how the Bulgarian sign was born: to kill a frog - to rain (do I need to say that this is not the same the case when the sum does not change due to a change in the places of the "terms"!).
But signs are not only the result of observations, they are also the product of the “logic of myth”. One of the main laws of mythological thinking is “like gives rise to like”, and not only ancient signs are based on it, but also such a product of later times: if the bride and groom are photographed separately at the wedding, it means that they will soon divorce.
Of considerable importance in mythological thinking are also boundaries - in time, in space ... say, the boundary of a house is nothing more than the boundary of an inhabited space, the world of people, beyond which completely different creatures live - most often dangerous(even if they look like people)… it’s risky to communicate with such a creature, and if you really have to do it, it’s better if it enters “our” space and becomes “their own”… now it’s clear why it’s not recommended to greet through the threshold?
As you can see, the study of signs and beliefs is a very exciting activity, it can tell a lot about how our ancestors lived, how they thought, how they perceived the world ... it's as interesting as looking at old clothes in a museum. But it wouldn’t occur to you to go on in bast shoes or in an ancient Roman toga, right? But the desire to "try on" signs arises for many very often.
Why do our contemporaries believe in omens?
Paradoxically, signs, which we also call "prejudices" - i.e. “preceding reason”, “existing before it” - it is from this very reason that they come. Human thinking is always and always looking for logic - there is no thinking without logical connections ... and therefore there is no worse situation for our thinking than the “realm of chances" - this unsettles it ... But chances are everywhere ... But even within the limits of patterns, we are not always able to to control the situation (after all, there are many circumstances that are beyond our control) - this also puts a person in the position of a fragile ship sailing at the behest of raging waves ... A sign creates the illusion of logic where it does not exist, and the illusion of control where it is impossible to control.
Here is a familiar example: a student on an exam. Suppose this is a conscientious student, he has learned everything - but it is still impossible to know all the material equally well, a person is a person, not a computer, he remembers something better, something worse ... what ticket will come across? This is a matter of chance, which cannot be influenced ... but if I pull the ticket with my right hand, and even at the same time I say “Pull, my hand, what the head knows” - the one that I know better will certainly come across ... I believe that I control the situation - and I'm calmer!
That is why the most "superstitious" professions are those that are associated with danger (military, pilots, sailors) or depend on many accidents (stage people). Students are also prone to superstition ... in addition to the already mentioned "protection from chance" in the exam, this is also due to the fact that students - to be honest! - they love to get a “credit” without doing anything ... it’s not for nothing that a certain immaterial substance called a “freebie” plays a big role in student superstitions ... of course, it is much easier to make some manipulations with a record book than attending lectures for the whole semester, answering seminars, sitting for hours over textbooks...
However, there is hardly a person on Earth of any profession who has never shied away from a black cat in his life, has not postponed cleaning due to the fact that someone close to him is on the way ... And no matter how hard you try to explain the danger of superstitions, they even penetrate into her. Yes, there are superstitions around the church! Until now, during the wedding, numerous guests, instead of praying for the happiness of the young, are watching who will be the first to step on the towel - the bride or groom! And what horror parents come to if a wax ball with a child’s cut hair, thrown into the font after baptism, accidentally sinks! And try to pass a candle to some especially “enlightened” old woman in the temple not with your right hand, but with your left!
Superstitions truly have no number ... but that's why we are reasonable people to look for true connections between phenomena, and not illusory ones. And if we also consider ourselves Christians, then we must believe in God, and not in the 13th!
Lev Uspensky
Have you read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Once Huck Finn, sitting in the evening at the mezzanine of the Widow Douglas, sadly reflected alone on the sad fate of well-bred boys.
“Suddenly it seemed to me,” he recalls, “as if I heard the groan of a dead man ... My heart sank with fear ... As if on purpose, a spider crawled over my shoulder. I brushed it off, and - right on the candle, it immediately flared up and cringed.
I knew perfectly well - this is a very bad omen: it foreshadowed trouble! I was completely scared, instantly pulled off my dress, twisted three times on one heel, each time crossing myself, and then tightly tied a strand of my hair with a thread to drive away evil spirits. But he couldn't calm down.
All these tricks are useful if you have found and lost a horseshoe again. But how could I know what to do to drive away trouble if you were so unfortunate that you killed the spider? .. "
It's funny to you? And I'm rather sad. The brave, intelligent little boy suddenly became completely stupefied: he spins naked in an empty room on one leg, crosses himself, ties a crest on his head, and all out of absurd fear. How! Something terrible happened: he accidentally crushed the spider! What happens to Gek?
It was his belief in omens that made him so.
Re-read once again the magnificent book of Mark Twain, and you yourself will be horrified. Huck Finn felt sorry for the "educated boys" because they were bound hand and foot by all sorts of propriety. But in reality, he himself and his best friends were entangled in an even more annoying web of the most senseless prejudices, and, moreover, terribly gloomy and ominous.
When you see a thin sickle of a new moon in the sky, you either admire it or don’t pay any attention to it at all. And bold Huckleberry would immediately feel a shiver of horror.
“I always knew,” he says, “that there is nothing crazier than looking at the new moon over the left shoulder. Old Gank Becker did it somehow and even boasted of his courage. But what? In less than a couple of years, how once, having drunk drunk on a railcar, he fell off the tower and hurt himself into a cake! And all because he was looking at the moon over his left shoulder ... "
You are dying of laughter: well, this Huck is an eccentric! A drunk climbs onto the roof and hurts himself, and the month he looked at "a couple of years ago" is to blame! What nonsense! But Huck is by no means stupid; he is superstitious. It's true, it's worth it.
It is difficult for such a person to live in the world. Everything around threatens with trouble, some terrible, secret meaning is hidden in everything.
An owl screamed - someone in the house would surely die. A nightjar flew by - even worse. A stray dog howled - and this is a big disaster. It is necessary to quickly find out to whom she stood with her tail, and to whom her muzzle: that is what is in danger of misfortune!
Overturning the salt shaker is a bad sign. Shake off the tablecloth after sunset - yes, it's better to hang yourself! Starting a business on Friday is crazy: Friday is a "hard day"; you are bound to fail. So remember all this and spin around here so that nothing bad happens!
A sane person is not only funny, he is just annoyed to read about it. You understand the great mocker Twain, who mocked such nonsense all his life.
But the heroes of Mark Twain have at least some excuse that they were ignorant American boys of the 19th century.
But tell me frankly: in your class or in your house, among the children and adults, are there no Gecks and Jims who, in signs, "ate the dog"?
I know a young man who is finishing high school. The guy seems to be not stupid, but he is firmly convinced that any exam can be passed with an A without learning anything, unless you wash your face. It is disgusting to look at him in the spring: there is a black collar around his neck, his hands are as if in gloves ... But the exams are still not going well: the teachers must not know this sign. However, he himself explains the failures by the fact that he is not, no, and they will force him to wash up.
I also know one girl. She won't go anywhere if a cat crosses her path. And if you really need to go, say, to the cinema, then before crossing the “fatal trail of the beast”, she spins like Huck Finn three times on the heel.
But the younger sister of this girl is not afraid of cats, but on the other hand, if she goes to school and is afraid that she will be asked in mathematics, she sits down on the textbook three times in a big way. But according to her, after such an exercise, in fact, it doesn’t matter how to answer: the top five is provided. Such a handy omen!
I have a familiar family where it is not so pleasant to come. Everyone's nervous system is out of order. And it's understandable why. Mom will hear that her son was whistling in the room, she is worried: clearly, now there will be no money in the house! The daughter is in despair: she cut off the petals of a chamomile, I turned out to have an even number of petals on the flower, which means they don’t like her. Grandmother walks angry: she was presented with a silver knife for fruit, and the donated knives are unfortunately.
Fu you, the abyss! How can you live if you believe in all this! And, one asks, what are these unfortunate signs? Where did they come from? Do they have any power or meaning?
I'll try to answer these tricky questions.
First of all, the sign will accept discord. More precisely, there are two kinds of omens: reasonable and absurd. And they must be able to distinguish.
Pushkin has a magnificent poem, and entitled -
Signs
Try to observe various signs:
Shepherd and farmer in infancy,
Looking up at the sky, at the western shadow,
They already know how to predict both the wind and the clear day,
And May rains, young fields of joy,
And mrazov early cold, dangerous grapes.
So, if the swans, in the bosom of still waters
Splashing in the evening, they will call your arrival,
Or the bright sun sets into sad clouds,
Know that tomorrow the roaring rain will wake the sleepy maidens
Or the hail beating through the windows ...
In these wonderful verses, the poet speaks of wise and useful signs. The phenomena of the world are interconnected: often one of them inevitably entails another. By noticing the first, you can predict the second in advance, when it has not yet happened. Sometimes this connection is very simple, anyone can notice it. The sky is overcast; it will probably rain soon. Lightning flashed - this is a sure sign that now you will hear a thunderclap. It is so easy to "predict" such things that no one sees anything special here, no "signs".
But there are phenomena that are not so simply and closely related to each other. Before the rain, swallows begin to circle over the ground and water. Before good sunny weather, on the contrary, they cheerfully write out their turns high in the sky. The flight of swallows has long been a sign of the weather. Our ancestors in ancient times noticed the connection between these phenomena, but they did not know how to explain it.
And now we know: swallows do not just "dance" in the air, they chase insects, and insects are designed so that their delicate bodies are excellent "hygrometers". They feel the change in air humidity long before our rough skin notices it. The approaching dampness presses insects to the ground - swallows descend here for them.
Our observant and intelligent ancestors, not yet knowing any science, saw such connections. They began to predict what had not yet happened, but should happen. And such predictions were often almost infallible. Even now it is easy to meet experienced connoisseurs of such real signs among people close to nature - collective farmers, hunters, fishermen, sailors.
But often something else happened.
Once upon a time in ancient times, people believed that everything in nature is spiritualized, everything has a mysterious life hidden from us. They thought that things, plants, animals talk to each other, make friends, and quarrel. Man is born and dies, but they live forever. Probably ancient stones or fast-flowing rivers wiser than man. So, maybe they can know better than us the secrets of the future? And the one who learns to unravel their slurred speech will be able to predict the future.
And our ancestors really wanted to master this art. Isn't it convenient to know everything in advance? Seeing that experienced and wise people would be able to foresee the course of natural phenomena, they attributed this ability to magic. And since this is magic, then why, predicting such a trifle as tomorrow's rain, the magician cannot say anything about what is most important to me in the world: I or my enemy will die in battle, will my daughter marry soon, will it be possible Can I get wealth? The sorcerer judges the rain by some "signs". Well, so I will judge by "signs" what should happen to me. And what can serve as such a "sign"? Yes, apparently, absolutely everything unusual, unfamiliar, rare, and especially everything mysterious and creepy.
This reasoning helped and here's what. If you do not know the real causes of the phenomenon, it is not easy to establish which of them depend on each other and which do not.
A storm broke out. A few days later, the flood began. It happened after a thunderstorm and, obviously, as a result of a thunderstorm: a downpour caused the rivers to overflow. Here the conclusion is correct.
But two days later the war began. She, too, burst out after a thunderstorm! Why not assume that the thunderstorm and war foreshadowed?
Many signs, absurd and harmful, have developed just like that. Our distant ancestors were not yet able to distinguish between phenomena that randomly follow each other, from those that are connected with each other, as a cause and effect. Much later, people noticed this important difference and came up with a wise saying: “After this, it doesn’t always mean“ because of this ”! mountains, endless distances, centuries-old trees, terrible animals, unarmed people were so weak and helpless!And a particularly overwhelming fear seized them in the impenetrable darkness of the night, when they could not see anything.
It is very curious, therefore, that in all kinds of "bad omens" it is the black color, the color of darkness, the color of darkness, as well as all kinds of creatures and phenomena associated with the night, that play an important role.
Black cats and bats fluttering only at night faithfully serve witches and sorceresses in fairy tales. Black dogs, especially when they howl at the dead of midnight, supposedly portend misfortune. In many nations, black is considered the color of sadness and mourning. Even in human fiction - cards - even the black suit is considered a bad, unsuccessful suit. Silent owls, fast nightjars, and the cutest harmless mice - they all appear in gloomy signs, because their life is connected with the darkness of the night.
Ignorance and timidity before the forces of nature have given rise to most of these superstitious signs.
So is it worth believing in these signs?
Everyone knows a funny and even poetic fortune-telling: the cuckoo cuckoos in the bright May forest, and the girls think: how many times she shouts out her sonorously sad “cuckoo!”, so many years they will have to live in the world.
It would seem, how to know: what if it's true ?! But consider this: the voice of a cuckoo on a fine, quiet day is heard in a circle with a diameter of about a kilometer. In such a circle in a populated place, dozens, sometimes even hundreds of people hear it at the same time, different people: children and gray-bearded elders, young strong men and dying patients, desperate bullies and quiet girls. And what, now all of you will have to die together just because it was one cuckoo that blew them?
As a child, I learned this sign: if a red cow goes to the village in the evening in front of the herd, it will be clear if it is black, it means rain. I really wished the sun would shine more often. Every evening I ran out to meet the herd and without fail drove some "beauty" forward, leaving behind all its black-colored companions. My grandmother noted with pleasure that the red heifer arrived first, and the next day she said: “You see ... The sun, of course, is frying at full speed!” If it was raining (which also happened often), she immediately forgot about this sign and put forward another: "Well, it's understandable: it was not for nothing that my bones ached yesterday!" Grandmother did not even suspect that I was in charge of the changes in the weather.
Let me give you a third example, from a completely different area.
Three middle-aged women happened to be sitting at the dinner table: a Russian, a German and an Armenian. A spoon fell to the floor.
– Aha! - the Russian was delighted. - Another woman will appear: the spoon has fallen, - Why a woman? the German was surprised. - There is such a sign, but what fell? Spoon! "Der loeffel" is masculine. A guest should come - a man ...
- Well, what are you! - the Russian was indignant. - For a man to come, the knife must fall.
The German did not agree.
- Knife? Not true! Knife in German neuter: "Das Messer"! The Armenian woman did not understand anything in this conversation at all. The fact is that in the Armenian language there are no genders: neither masculine, nor feminine, nor neuter, just like in English, just like in Turkish. For these peoples, such a sign simply could not have developed.
So it seems to me that these examples show quite well all the groundlessness and frivolity of such signs. Of course, there is no connection between the fall of a knife or fork and the arrival of a guest, and there cannot be.
Any such sign is, as it were, a small fortune-telling. Many signs have grown out of various fortune-telling, are closely connected with them. But divination is a special and very complex kind of the most harmful superstition. It is worth talking about them separately: they have their own past, their own long history. We'll do it some other time.
Drawings by E. Vedernikov.
Despite the fact that mankind has been cut off from nature for a long time and the 21st century is characterized mainly by technological progress, signs and superstitions are still often included in our everyday life and even skeptics sometimes, without noticing it, use them.
We will not describe in detail all the signs and superstitions in this article - many books and Internet resources are devoted to them (for example,). In the article, we will only touch on their main types and illustrate them with several examples, as well as look at the differences between the very concepts of "omen" and "superstition".
omen
A sign is a subjective reaction of the cognizing mind of a person, trying to identify the relationship between mutually nested processes, to objective phenomena. Thus, a sign is the result of the work of the mind of a person who feels that everything in the world is interconnected. The observation of some people and their ability to understand this leads to the identification of stable relationships between individual processes, and, as a result, to the emergence of stereotypes for recognizing these relationships, which takes the form of folk signs.
Most often, this type includes weather and agricultural signs. Basically, such signs are based on the observations of several generations of people over nature and the identification of some patterns. Many of these signs are still used by tourists, fishermen, villagers and other people who need to quickly assess the surrounding situation without the ability to use special devices.
An example of such signs can be given:
- “When the earth crumbles easily, they go out to plow.” (This means that the land is dry enough and not wet, i.e. the most suitable for plowing.)
- “In winter, pillars diverge across the sky from the sun - to frost.” (“Sun pillars” is a well-known optical effect caused by hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the air.)
These folk omens were passed down from generation to generation, corrected, and with the spread of printing, their collections began to be published. An example is .
Superstition
Superstition (derived from "vain" - in vain (without understanding the reasons) and "faith", lit. "vain belief") - a prejudice, which is a belief in any otherworldly forces. It contains an assumption, often unconscious, that one can find protection against these forces or reach a compromise acceptable to a person with them.
Most superstitions have deep historical roots, some are ancient religious beliefs. Features of the human psyche contribute to the spread of superstitions, especially in extreme circumstances:
- desire to look into the near future;
- the desire to avoid adverse situations;
- impulses to comfort a person;
- the desire to tell a person the right behavior: or with the help of fear negative consequences, or beckoning with positive consequences.
Superstitions are often confused with omens because they are very similar in their construction. But there are significant differences between the two concepts. The sign for the most part carries information about obvious causal relationships between one natural phenomenon and others, and superstition has a mystical connotation.
Although this is also not entirely true. Most superstitions have mystical overtones only external, while carrying a deep meaning. Here is an interesting story as an example:
“Once I managed to ask a very old village woman who lived under the king: “What is the sign connected with - not to cut a new loaf of bread after sunset?” “My great-grandmother used to tell me this…” she began. I expected to hear a common book version about round bread, as a symbol of the sun among the Slavs, which cannot be cut after sunset, and if it is cut, then it is necessary to cut it in the middle and cut off pieces from the middle in order to combine again when the meal is over. But no! “... that the crust, if weathered overnight, will remain so crispy, and the flesh will become stale overnight and it will be unpleasant to eat,” she finished.
In this way, a huge part of superstitions can be considered, and they will turn out not only to be devoid of mystical coloring, but also quite logical, at least for their time.
Household superstitions
These superstitions are aimed at ensuring that the owner and mistress of the house monitor their home, keep it in order and cleanliness. From an early age, the child was taught to manage the household, so that, having reached a certain age, he could easily determine how to act in a given situation. To enforce the superstition, mystical effects were often attributed to it. Sometimes mysticism appeared in the description of superstition after several generations, when it was observed thoughtlessly and the true reasons for such behavior were forgotten.
Typically, such superstitions contain instructions regarding housekeeping: how to sweep the floor, how to store bread, not to forget to look after the stove and the house, when to take off the laundry, how to store household utensils, etc.
The mystical significance of these superstitions is usually poorly marked. As a rule, it was simply said that, if you did not follow this rule, you could offend the brownie and / or lose money, quarrel with a dear person, or simply get an abstract “misfortune”.
Examples of such superstitions are:
- "Do not sweep the table with your hand - there will be no prosperity." (Sweeping a wooden surface with your hand, you can get hurt, this method also does not allow you to clean the table of all crumbs and drops, so cockroaches and other animals can start)
- “If the loaf breaks in the hands when cut, this portends a family quarrel.” (If the bread crumbles, a family quarrel may arise about poorly baked bread or improper storage, as well as poorly sharpened knives. The sign was needed so that the owner and hostess would not allow the above incidents in their house.)
- "The resin was melted out of the hut into the street - for worse." (The sign is aimed at forcing the owner of the house to “carry out preventive maintenance” of the structure and prevent this from happening, since this leads to disastrous consequences.)
- “If doors that have never creaked suddenly creak, there will be trouble.” (A household sign is aimed at ensuring that the owner of the house follows the loops and lubricates them in time)
- "In the open dishes left on the table in the evening, evil spirits frolic at night." (Various insects, carriers of various diseases, can crawl in the left open dishes.)
- "The broom should be kept behind the door with the handle down - from evil spirits." (In this position, the broom does not break and does not get in the way underfoot.)
Children's superstitions
These superstitions are primarily aimed at protecting the child from wrong actions leading to unnecessary injuries, and contain instructions on how to behave with sharp objects, keep order in the house and not cause unnecessary inconvenience to adults. Such superstitions rarely have mystical overtones.
This also includes superstitions related to etiquette. They are aimed primarily at children who, growing up, transfer this knowledge into the life of an adult. Also rarely associated with mystical creatures or beliefs.
- "Don't start eating a sardine (and any other fish) from the head - you'll call trouble." (It is most convenient to butcher a fish from the tail. Butchering it from the head is more likely to injure a bone.)
- "To play with a knife - to trouble" (in some variations - to a quarrel). (Playing with a knife can cut you.)
- "Shake tea in a teapot - invite a quarrel." (Tea teas and solid sediment rises. Pouring such tea into cups can cause a quarrel with those who will drink this tea)
- “If you were in a hurry to go somewhere, but had to return, take a look in the mirror.” (If you are in a hurry somewhere, then there is a high probability of looking untidy, besides, while you look in the mirror, there is a chance to remember what else you have forgotten so as not to come back again).
- "Sit before the road." (This ritual helps to calm down and for the last time before going out to focus and remember - have you forgotten anything.)
- "Spill salt to quarrel." (Salt was very expensive and rare, and it was really possible to quarrel with the one who bought this salt)
Some superstitions were such, because not every person knew how the things around him were arranged. Those. they were precisely "marked causal relationships", shrouded in a mystical character.
Household superstitions with implicit practical significance
The above categories can be attributed in some way closer to omens than to superstition, since they did not have direct mystical overtones. The following examples are more likely to belong to the section of pure superstition, however, they can also have a practical explanation:
- “If a mirror falls and breaks, this is a sure sign of imminent death in the family.” It was believed that the mirror reflects not the body of a person, but his soul, therefore, if the mirror is broken, the human soul is also broken. Mirrors were difficult to manufacture and were relatively expensive, so you need to be careful with this piece of furniture, besides, you can cut yourself with fragments. (It is also possible that this superstition was associated with the technology of making mirrors - before 1835, mercury was used in the manufacture of mirrors, which was released when the mirror was broken.)
- "To stop hiccuping, moisten your index finger right hand saliva and cross the toe of the left shoe three times, repeating "Our Father" in reverse. (The cause of hiccups is sharper than usual contractions of the diaphragm. All folk methods of treating hiccups are based on rebuilding the rhythm of breathing - this is air retention, an attempt to drink in an uncomfortable position, a sharp fright. In these cases, a person focuses on his actions and involuntarily holds his breath.)
Superstitions "ruling" reality
The following superstitions are psychological in nature. They arise, as a rule, completely irrationally. A person likes to imagine that by observing some signs, he can influence his life, avert troubles and call for happiness. There are a lot of such superstitions - some came to us from antiquity (they, as a rule, have quite interesting stories occurrence), others were born already in modern times. This category also includes superstitions observed in the circle of representatives of various professions (most often, speaking of professional superstitions, they recall artists and sailors). Superstitions of this type, as a rule, are accompanied by rituals that can prevent impending troubles. Examples:
- "Knock on wood so as not to jinx it."
- "A black cat crosses the road - to failure." (It was believed that a witch could turn into a cat)
- "A woman with an empty bucket met - unfortunately." (Perhaps this sign can be attributed to the previous section. A woman could return from the well with empty buckets only if some kind of misfortune happened.)
There is also a set of signs that have a mystical meaning only in modern world, whereas initially the meaning was completely pragmatic, but over time it lost its relevance.
Modern science and superstition
As shown in the previous sections, superstitions arise due to the peculiarities of the human psyche, and psychology and its branches are engaged in their study. At the moment, many effects have been discovered and studied that describe the principles of human reaction and behavior patterns. For example, speaking of superstitions, it is worth mentioning the effect called by the American psychologist R. Rosenthal the “Pygmalion effect”. This psychological phenomenon, which consists in the fact that the person's expectations of the realization of the prophecy largely determine the nature of her actions and the interpretation of the reactions of others, which provokes the self-fulfillment of the prophecy. R. Curtis and K. Miller illustrated this process and conducted the following experiment. A group of college students, none of whom knew each other, were divided into pairs. One person in each pair, chosen at random, received special information. Some students in a couple were told that their partner liked them, and some that they did not. The pairs of students were then given the opportunity to meet and talk to each other. As predicted by the researchers, those students who thought they liked their partner behaved more pleasantly towards their partner; they were more frank, expressed less disagreement on the topics discussed, and, in general, their manner of communication was more cordial and pleasant than that of students who felt that they did not like their partner. Moreover, those who believed that the partner liked them really liked him much more than those who believed that the partner had antipathy for them. That is, partners showed a tendency to copy the behavior of another person in a pair.
Also partially here can be attributed, for example, the Hawthorne effect and the Barnum effect. The concept of the Hawthorne effect is to change the behavior of people if they know that they are being studied. Those. in this case, people are working harder to do their daily work, knowing that supernatural forces are constantly watching them.
The Hawthorne effect is a condition in which novelty, interest in an experiment, or increased attention to a given issue lead to a distorted, often too favorable, result. The participants in the experiment act differently only because they realize that they are involved in the experiment.
This effect was discovered by a group of scientists led by Elton Mayo during the so-called "Hawthorne experiments" (1924-1932).
It has two meanings:
- positive changes in people's behavior caused by attention given to them, which people themselves interpret as benevolent participation;
- in experimental psychology, changes in an observed phenomenon that occur as a result of the very fact of observation.
The Barnum effect is a general observation that people highly value the accuracy of descriptions of their personality that they assume are personalized for them, but that are in fact vague and general enough to be equally applicable to others. many other people.
Social psychology studies and reveals general tendencies in people's thinking, their peculiarities of perception of certain situations. And no matter how unique each individual is, in most cases people think the same way.
One of the examples of similar behavior of different people can serve as cognitive distortions. These are systematic errors in thinking or pattern deviations in judgment that occur in certain situations. The existence of most cognitive distortions has been described by scientists, and many have been proven in psychological experiments. In particular, an example of a cognitive bias is the illusion of control—the tendency for people to believe that they can control, or at least influence, the outcomes of events that they cannot actually influence. There are many other examples, most of them are described in the relevant literature, and lists are given in public sources.