Russian superstitions in fiction. Where did modern superstitions come from? Superstitions and prejudices
With the development of social consciousness, the ideas of globalization and cosmopolitanism, new achievements of scientific and technological progress and, in general, the progress of civilization, modern society, nevertheless, increasingly persistently preserves and outlines the traditional ethnic mode in the sphere of superstitions and prejudices.
As a rule, the degree to which they are retained in modern mass consciousness is most obviously connected with the historical and mental processes of the natural “aging” of the myth of a given ethnic group or, on the contrary, a sharp, often violent, transition of a given society to the next stage of historical, ideological, political and religious development.
Slavic mythology most often analyzed and characterized precisely as the mythology of a society of the second type, that is, as an interrupted mythology that has not reached the highest point of its development and, therefore, has not aged naturally, has not been overcome in the Slavic mentality, psychology, mass consciousness and collective unconscious.
This situation is best described by the term P.N. Milyukova "dual faith", and most accurately, in our opinion, it was applied to the study of the current state of the Slavic mentality D.S. Likhachev And S.S. Averintsev. In their works, the idea of dual faith is analyzed not as secret idolatry after the adoption of Christianity, but primarily as mythological ideas that have gone, “descended” into the lower spheres of everyday, everyday consciousness. It is everyday life, as the most conservative, traditional and even inert environment of the social structure, that has preserved for more than a thousand years the main Slavic mythologems and mythological structures in the form of superstitions. At the same time, most likely, the degree of stability, rootedness in the ethnic mass consciousness, and therefore the degree of preservation of superstitious ideas is associated with the period, the meaningful stage of development of the mythological system, within which these ideas were formed, which later degenerated into superstitions.
Term "superstition" seems to us the most neutral, convenient for avoiding the evaluative connotations that the concept of “prejudice” or classification contains IN AND. Dahl(“true superstitions and false prejudices”); as well as the most voluminous, combining narrower concepts such as “signs”, “fortune telling”, “belief in witchcraft and damage”.
It is not our task to evaluate superstitions from the point of view of any religious system. It seems logical and relevant to us an attempt to systematize modern superstitions from the point of view of their original mythological roots. This is all the more interesting because in the modern functioning of superstitions, in our opinion, the principle of their genesis, defined K. Lévi-Straussom How bricolage principle. This work will be devoted to the study of this phenomenon.
From those identified in studies E. Tylor, J. J. Fraser, V. Toporov, C. Lévi-Strauss, A.F. Loseva, L. Lévy-Bruhl, M. Eliade the main content stages of the development of myth as a whole, as a type of thinking and worldview, the most important are identification, totemism, fetishism, animism, personification and anthropomorphism. Some researchers identify a separate stage of magic in the development mythological consciousness. It seems to us more fair to understand magic as a necessary component of cult-ritual practice, beginning already with the stage of totemism, and accompanying all of the listed periods.
Apparently, the adoption of Christianity found Slavic mythology at a stage of development animistic personification . This probably explains such a developed and voluminous lower demonology of the Slavs during the pantheons that had just begun to take shape in the 8th-9th centuries (the Zbruch Idol, the Novgorod Temple of the Lizard, the pantheon of Vladimir). At the same time, the Proto-Slavic gods most often do not acquire a strictly anthropomorphic appearance and image.
Perhaps here lies one of the reasons for the persistence of superstitions in the collective unconscious of the Slavs. The mythological ideas of the Slavs by the 10th century had not reached, so to speak, their critical point; they were still in the stage of absolute trust and did not raise questions and problems from within that would decompose the integrity of the mythological worldview (one of such essential questions is the boundaries of mythological consciousness M.K. Mamardashvili believed, for example, the emergence in the consciousness of an ancient man of a question, from the act of asking which “the birth of philosophy and thought dates back to - not myth, not ritual, but thought. The question is: why is there something in the world and not nothing?”) [1, p.73]. Besides, Slavic mythology, having not reached the stage of developed anthropomorphism, and practicing rather syncretic (ritual, visual, choreographic, etc.) than verbal forms of myth, thereby avoided the two most significant reasons for the so-called "mythological self-denial".
In modern superstitions, which are also more likely associated not with the verbal entertainment, not with the aesthetic sphere, but with the syncretic area of everyday life, practical life, we can still observe the features and rudiments of totemism, fetishism, and animism.
Residual totemism most often associated with belief in harmful animals, the appearance or participation of which in a person’s life means danger or misfortune: a black cat, a black goat, a black rooster, the voice of a night owl, fortune telling about life expectancy by cuckooing, a bird flying into a room, bringing news of a loved one death, etc.
The principle is already obvious here bricolage(from the French bricolage - the rebound of a ball in billiards, colage - collage, connection, gluing), a-priory C. Lévi-Strauss, the universal mutual reflection that occurs in myth when binaries change places: signifier and signified, goal and means.
Myth, using a limited set of objects, phenomena, means that are “at hand”, playing the role of both material and instrument, used the same images (for example, totemistic images of patron animals) either as a goal of worship or as a means sacrifices for new purposes; sometimes as magically saving, sometimes as magically harmful; sometimes as sacred, sometimes as profane. Images of outdated myths are “suitable” for explaining and resolving new contradictions. A previous precedent can be used as a basis for explaining the next one, to create a new precedent. And the images that already have symbolic meaning, already used within the framework of the mythological system, can be “put into circulation” again. With the bricolage way of thinking, the desired goals and means of achieving them change places in a circle, “mythological logic achieves its goals as if inadvertently, in a roundabout way, with the help of materials not specifically intended for this.” [2, p.169]
It is not surprising that the former totem animals that evoked fear of veneration, animals in relation to which the entire logic of the behavior of ancient man as part of a collective was built, now themselves serve as a means for “guessing” the profane fate of a person.
According to the same logic of bricolage, tales about animals, for example, they not only profane former totemic images, but ridicule them, emphasizing the wit, cunning and intelligence of humans in comparison with animals, transferring human shortcomings to former idols. Of course, the bricolage change in the meanings of animal images in superstitions was influenced by the adoption of Christianity. All former mythological images and symbols, having become “filthy paganism,” began to be assessed as dark, devilish (the black color of harmful animals), harmful, bringing and promising numerous troubles and premature death. But due to the fact that with the sharp change from polytheism to monotheism, mythological logic turned out to be quite stable and subconsciously fixed, these images did not leave Slavic everyday life, but were only modified in a bricolage manner. Moreover, the bricolage transformation itself, apparently, began to occur earlier, already during the periods of fetishism and animism, totemic images should have gradually begun to adapt to the new goals of ritual practice (which ensured the stability of these beliefs in a changed form and content even after the adoption of Christianity) .
One of the striking examples of such stability is superstitious custom born in the womb of totemism, and preserved to this day: throwing coins into water - either “for good luck”, or “for a happy and safe return home after a trip”, or “for returning to your favorite place of travel again” (the bricolage of the structure is already obvious in the scattering of the purposes of the ritual). Academician B.A. Rybakov rightly indicates that this custom replaced the former ritual of sacrifice to the totem. The practice of lowering the remains of victims into water, for example, those brought to the eight bonfires of the island of Lizard, in the Volkhov River near Novgorod, in the 10th century was replaced by the custom of throwing jewelry (including coins from monist) to the altar of Perun (which simply replaced Lizard): “Around Perun, as the ancient legend says, an unquenchable fire burned; Excavations discovered eight fires around the idol. Until the twentieth century, the residents of Novgorod retained the belief that when sailing past Peryn, you need to throw a coin into the water, as if as a sacrifice to the ancient god" [3, p.530-531]
An example of even more polar bricolage is given to us by a sign that appeared relatively recently: supposedly, if the driver will manage to run over a cat, dog or hedgehog - this means good luck on the way. Gorlovka healer A. Aksenov even insists on the “incorrectness” of the sign: in his opinion, on the contrary, death attracts death, and killing an animal cannot be a sign of good luck. We can only imagine how many times during its existence this sign has “turned over”, denoting the appearance of a hedgehog or a dog on a person’s path, either as a sign that the totem requires sacrifices for itself, or as a sign of the special distinction of those who meet them on the way, or as a sign of happiness, then misfortune, then death; in the end, from a sign it turned into a means of primitive magical influence on fate: but now it is no longer the animal that must be sacrificed “to appease”, but the animal itself must be sacrificed “for good luck” to a person.
Much more often in modern superstitions there are remnants fetishistic beliefs. Perhaps the most automatic, unconscious superstitious signs of our daily behavior are spitting over your shoulder, knocking on wood, the simplest spell “Keep away from me!” and "bump in your pocket" against the evil eye. All of them have, to varying degrees, a clearly visible ancient fetishistic phallic nature.
Our ancestors placed chura pillars on the border of their agricultural holdings not only as a sign of protection and an analogue of property rights, but above all as a symbol of phallic fertilization by the sun's rays and rain streams of the sacred Mother Earth. The same naturally erotic symbolic meaning was originally carried by finger twisting. shisha, figs: these symbols were used in a sexual, fertilizing meaning. N.R. Guseva points to the fact that in the Russian north, shishami were symbolic phallic images for happiness and female luck for girls: for them, spinning wheels were made in the shape of a phallus with a “sacred” word, so that the thread would run alive and warm; wedding cakes were decorated with baked “wedding cones”, etc. [4, p.158-160]
The custom, apparently, also has a totemic-fetishistic nature. knock on wood so as not to jinx it. Touching plant totems has always had a sacred-magical meaning, a reproduction of a fertilizing precedent, the act of the very origin of life. This is not a symbolic touch, but a direct connection, ritual intercourse. With the transformation of plant (for example, tree) totems into pillar fetishes, the erotic-cosmogonic content turns into the meaning of a talisman. Now the touch, indeed, has the character of a primary, unconscious metaphor: what I was born from is able to protect me in repeated repetitions of touching, as if reminding the tree of our former unity and kinship. Then the mythological “metaphor” bricolageously turns the lost totemic goal (the complicit kinship of a person with a tree) into a means. The tree is now a talisman, a necessary magical means to achieve a new goal - protecting a person by intimidating evil spirits. Now it is not the tree as an ancestor, a blood relative, but the knock as a former reminder - the main content of the sign. Knocking on wood should save a person in his most important, and therefore secret, endeavors from the evil eye of evil forces, and drown out innermost desires from the harmful “evil ear.”
The erotic content has also changed "crazy and shisha" : if what is said today “Keep away from me!” retains its protective meaning (albeit with a bricolage effect from the opposite: not “Keep away from me!”, but “Keep away from me!”, in the sense of “God forbid!”, “Under no circumstances!”), then mentioning it idol (“chock”) and the use of the shisha symbol, rather, carry abusive connotations. What served as a talisman, a fetish for the forces of fertility, now protects only in magical acts of intimidation, having itself become an object of intimidation.
The logic of bricolage is also obvious in the change relationship to the left side . In myth, the opposition “right - left” is usually perceived as “sacred - profane” or “one’s own - someone else’s”, “safe - dangerous” without additional meanings “good - bad”. The most ancient Slavic apotropaia, faces looking “on all four sides”, protecting from evil located in front and behind, right and left, protected ancient Slav from the main carriers of evil - the “evil winds”. In an apotropaic fetish (which is the Zbruch idol) all sides are necessary and important, and the left side is rather the most vulnerable, the one that requires the greatest magical participation (the side of the heart).
In this case, it can also be regarded as ambiguous spitting. Everything related to breathing (spirit, soul) among the Slavs served as an object of special, secret conservation (which, in fact, already indicates animistic ideas). Thus, many fortune-telling signs were associated with sneezing , it is no coincidence that Russian epics note with surprise the despair of the Novgorod princes, who did not believe “neither in sleep nor in choke.” And today, as if protecting the “flying spirit” of a person in a sneeze, we pronounce the reduced text of the former conspiracy: "Be healthy!" . The magical practice of spitting, for example, at crossroads, in places open to any danger (in the absence of apotropaia), was intended not so much to “brand” evil forces as to protect oneself, to preserve one’s innermost (breath, soul, life, “belly”, heart ). This meaning is still fully preserved today in the superstitious habit of spitting over the left shoulder so as not to jinx it; although the modern Slav rather fills this sign with the meaning of confronting some forces rather than with the meaning of a talisman.
Of course, here too the change in ancient semantics affected the period of Christianization, when all idols, including Chura and Shishi, apotropaic pillars, began to be perceived as something what should you get rid of; when the left side began to be associated with the demonic, and spitting over the left shoulder with hitting the devil in the face.
All the more indicative against this background are the bricolage shifts in semantics. In our opinion, it was the bricolage mobility of the mythological structure, the ability for a consistent layering of meanings that allowed ancient images to gain a foothold in the everyday practice of superstition. This same feature is apparently emphasized by N.I. Tolstoy, when he talks about the process of “secondary ritualization” of objects of Slavic ritual practice in the everyday life of subsequent eras as a guarantee of their stability. But modern observations confirm not only secondaryity, but also ternary, quaternary, etc. changes, and rather not of objects, but of mythological motifs and archetypal structures.
Bricolage, which ensures the consistency of the structure and its stability, can serve as an explanation for the coexistence of superstitions and signs that are essentially opposite to each other. The image itself and the mythological model are preserved, filled with new content on a new turn of the spiral. Yes, existing needle and thread fetish today it can be interpreted both as a talisman and as one of the most harmful, “damaging” means that can even lead to death. Such models of superstitions mention a needle and thread, a girl sewing, the possibility of “sewing someone to yourself forever,” or “sewing illness, misfortune, death to yourself.”
Numerous spells with thread and knots. The process of tying is interpreted as a process of inducing or removing damage: “a thread is tied around a sick person, therefore the disease is tied up, the person is tied up - the disease is tied up, the thread is removed from the person, and the disease is removed with it; the thread is thrown, buried in the ground, placed in the hole of a tree, which is then clogged, the associated disease is thrown with the thread and buried in the ground” [5, p.174]. And if there is a belt, a red thread on the arm, etc. - amulets, then threads tied in knots and found on clothes are a sign of damage to death. Sewing on yourself means illness, but white thread, which you need to hold in your mouth while sewing, looks like salvation. New signs also appear - supposedly you can’t sew on an airplane, during a flight, in the air. Probably, negative connotations of the method of causing damage by piercing a doll with a picture of a person with a needle(or photographs), although traditionally “sharp objects contained defensive force, they were used to outline, for example, a magic circle around a herd” [5, p.154].
Let us also remember the death of Koshchei, concluded, according to the fairy tale version, in a needle (function magic amulet). According to the brilliant justification of academician. B.A. Rybakova, translation of the Greek concept "mythos" in the Russian version of pre-Christian Rus' - "blasphemous"- fable, legend. “To blaspheme” only after the adoption of Christianity will begin to mean “to cast a spell, to tell obscene things” (from where - to blaspheme). "Koschei" literally means mythological deity, a former idol, and taking into account Christian connotations, “koschnoe” acquires semantic shades of pitch darkness, the underworld, where Koschey, Koschui is its ruler. The amulet of such a mythological deity itself begins to be revalued as a fetish for harmful, corruptive magic, an object of witchcraft, but is preserved as an image in superstition. Probably, in any case, the memory of the magical properties of a needle and thread, two important fetishes of Slavic ritual practice, is entrenched in the collective unconscious as a form, and its content is layered in bricolage.
Magic fetishism has been preserved in a modified way in the still popular superstition about the misfortunes and quarrels that entail spilled salt . Let us recall that salt, an expensive and rare food additive in ancient times, was assessed as a magical fetish. On the night of the Slavic spring New Year, salt was burned in the oven, accompanying this process with appropriate spells for health and well-being. Then they left it on the table in a pile and in the morning they guessed from the shape of the slide (changed or unchanged) about the fate of the family in the coming year. The same salt was added to ritual-funeral solar breads (pancakes, koloboks, Easter cakes) baked the next morning. Naturally, spilled salt in this context meant a bad omen. It is interesting that in many areas of western Ukraine the custom of burning salt and adding it to Easter cakes is still preserved, but now it is dedicated to Easter. This salt is given to all family members to try “for their health” and is added to livestock feed to protect them “from the evil eye.”
We can see the same kind of lost semantics with preserved external attributes in the sign of a bad omen of broken beads . But if in ancient times beads made of red berries served as a talisman, in which even the number of berries-beads was compiled for girls by sorcerers-priestesses, based on the girl’s name, time of birth, etc., then, of course, the loss of such a sacred fetish was read as a symbol of future losses in life. Today we only preserve the memory of the external form, once filled with mythological content.
The fetishism of superstitions is quite productive. And today they are very popular “lucky” talismans, belief in “lucky clothes”(in which everything goes well, for example, exams are passed), faith in "lucky items for good luck"(for example, in statements like “It’s time to change this notebook, but I won’t, I’m starting to have bad luck with it, I’m afraid I’ll spoil my luck”). Magic fetishism is still preserved in the faith in damage, which “guide” a person’s personal belongings. In fact, the modern situation is when people often turn to Orthodoxy not because of sincere faith, but because of the fashion for the attributes of faith (in the series eastern horoscopes, fortune telling on tarot cards, Buddhist mantras, etc.), even icons, texts of prayers and pectoral crosses, unfortunately, can only act as fetishes.
In our opinion, the greatest mark on the system of superstitions was left by the period personified animism.
Our existence even today takes place in a living, animated space, filled with our animistic “neighbors”: brownies and merman, guardian angels and our own “devils” (who are addressed, for example, when losing things: “Devil, devil, play and give it back!” "), kikimoras and goblins, mermaids and cones. The modern situation not only practically does not narrow, but expands this list due to mythological new formations such as little drums, aliens, Bigfoot, etc. We have already pointed out the probable reason for the high degree of preservation of such images. In our opinion, it is connected with the fact that it was in the stage of personalized animism that the Slavic consciousness strengthened most significantly at the time of the adoption of Christianity. And no matter how Orthodoxy influenced the pagan essence of these beliefs, the Slavs for centuries passed on the rules of magical coexistence with beast spirits, the laws of life in their immediate everyday, everyday neighborhood.
The bricolage principle also affected the essence of animist beliefs. Slavic beasts, par excellence, are spirits of dead ancestors , whose cult forms the very foundations of Slavic ritual practice. They were not only revered, but in their direct presence the entire life of the ancient Slav took place: sacrificial feasts, heroic funeral funerals, matchmaking spring round dances and games, Kupala “weddings,” harvest festivals, initiations, new moons and new year rituals. Their encouraging support was provided at one time by such tragic and terrible rituals from a modern point of view as the Kupala sacrifices of brides, the sacrifice of the firstborn and the New Year's sacrifices of old people - “grandfathers”. Russian and Ukrainian fairy tales still remember them in obligatory initial beginnings about grandfather and woman.
With the gradual “settlement” of the spirits of ancestors along the tiers of the world tree, with their foundation in dwellings, wells, under the threshold, windows and gates of the house, in rivers, forests, swamps, Slavs diversified ritual practice behavior with them, influencing them in order to provide help or non-interference of spirits, appeasing them. And even with the change in attitude towards “evil spirits” during the period of Christianization of Rus', the essence of signs and superstitions retains the basic pathos of former rituals: you can be afraid of brownies and goblins, you can scare each other with them, but you can’t make them angry, they still need to bring something something (actually, as a sacrifice), to appease.
Modern signs regarding brownies, are mostly bricolage. So, if the brownie himself was a protective spirit, and sharp objects denoted defensive strength, then today’s sign states that under no circumstances should knives be left on the table. This will allegedly make the brownie very angry, and he may even stab or strangle someone in his sleep. There is a replacement of protective meanings with frightening ones.
But as usual put a knife under the threshold , before bringing a newborn into the house, in order to thereby deprive the harmful power of the spirits lurking on the border between one’s own and someone else’s world, one can discover the remnants of the ancient protective semantics of sharp fetishes (a knife as a talisman for a baby) with more obvious layers of magical semantics of scaring away evil forces.
Slavic animistic images are extremely stable not only in everyday superstitions and works of art, but also in modern mass culture. For example, such a sphere of popular culture as advertising, focused primarily on the subconscious principle of influence, is extremely partial to such images. And here the fact of bricolage is indicative.
For example, a brownie, initially former custodian house and its inhabitants, who then became a fearsome figure, is again depicted in the advertisement as a good-natured old man, pouring tea for everyone in the household. Now his image is devoid of both the pagan greatness of his ancestor and Christian rejection evil spirits. It is again bricolageously used as an empty structure, a matrix filled with the content necessary for a new stage of culture: comfort and home warmth.
The same bricolage chain can be traced in the images of mermaids. Former Kupala altars, given as brides to underwater grooms, priestesses of Dana-Devonia, one of the most ancient and powerful Proto-Slavic water goddesses (who gave the names to most of the rivers known to the Slavs), mermaids became in Christian Rus' symbols of demonic debauchery, the shameful death of men who succumb to their damned spell. Russian and Ukrainian folklore has also retained a different attitude towards mermaids: they are called upon in Kupala songs with requests for fertilization of the earth, for rain, but these songs are always with a tragic connotation of motives of violent death, dying, and danger. In the texts of modern mass culture (advertising, films, TV series, pop songs), images of mermaids are again actively involved in their erotic connotations, but, of course, without the previous mythological sacralization and aura of sacrifice.
Thus, the principle of bricolage mosaic maintains the stability of Slavic superstitions, which already “preserved” totemic, fetishistic and animistic ideas about the world to a fairly high degree of preservation. This principle allows mythological images that are losing their relevance to be transformed into archetypal structures, forms, and means that can be used again.
In an effort to regain their roots, and thereby substantiate their legitimacy, modern mass culture is increasingly turning to autochthonous mythological images and symbols, bricolageously replacing them with modern stereotypes and brands: the sports team “Borisfen” (one of the Slavic names of the Dnieper), beer “Sarmat” and “Slavutich” (the name of the ethnic group that inhabited the modern territory of Donbass, and the second name of the Dnieper), kvass “Yarilo” ( pre-Slavic solar deity), cosmetic brand "Lada" (the oldest pre-Slavic solar goddess, former androgyne Lado - Lad - Lada), homemade pickles "Veres" (Slavic deity of fertility Veles-Volos), drink "Tarhun" (Hittite deity of fertility Tarhunt, Tarhu ) and so on. But to the greatest extent such stereotyping affected the system of superstitions.
It is fair to say I.P. Smirnova, “totemism and animism testify not so much to the narcissistic character of the first thinker who gave birth to them, but to his lack of character, his refusal to occupy a unique position in the world” [6, p.17]. In this logic we are still today we protect superstitions in their typism, in the reluctance to stand out from the world, to take responsibility for the consequences of independent actions, a decisive step, one’s own fateful decisions (it is no coincidence that when a brownie appears, one must ask the question: “For worse or for good?”, thus relying entirely on him, and not on own will). But in such “spinelessness” of modern man there is probably another semantic component. Superstition serves as a kind of guarantee of the stability of one’s own destiny. in a world of entropy, in a world of information overload, in a world that has catastrophically lost both integrity and selfhood, in a world of mental stress and depression. And it is even more significant that in such an anti-mythological situation, the collective unconscious uses traditional mythological structures that ensure conservatism, stability and traditional culture.
E. V. Taranenko
Bulletin of Donetsk University. – Series B – Humanities – 2003 – No. 2
REFERENCES M. Mamardashvili. Introduction to philosophy (Phenomenology of philosophy) // New Circle – 1992 – No. 2 – p. 56-73 Lévi-Strauss K. The structure of myths. // “Questions of Philosophy” – 1970 – No. 7 – p.152-164 Rybakov B.A. Kievan Rus and Russian principalities of the 12th-13th centuries. – M.: Nauka, 1993 Guseva N.R. Slavs and Aryans: The Path of Gods and Words. – M.: Grand, 2002 Eleonskaya E.N. Fairy tale, conspiracy and witchcraft in Russia. – M.: “Indrik”, 1994 Smirnov I.P. System of folklore genres // Lotmanov collection. – Issue 2 – M.: “O.G.I.”, 1997SUBJECT: SUPERSTITIONS AND PREJUDICES
TO OUR DAYS
“Traditional healers” - what is the benefit of their treatments?
Therapeutic fasting - what is it? The candidate of medical sciences, priest Andrei Sukhovsky, tells the story.
And where that house is is hidden from everyone;
Whether he is far away is hidden.
What I left in it is forgotten,
But it will be found again,
When cured from earthly spells,
I'll turn my face there
Where - the heart knows - I will be met
The Father who waited for me.
Vyacheslav Ivanov. We thank you.
Suffering God, whose cup we thirst for,
For whom we burn!
I am in You, I am suffering with You, -
Thank you!
For being Yours, and in a passion-bearing robe,
The world is beautiful;
Because Life is from an inexhaustible Chalice
Drinks from Your Chalice;
For the fact that the Night is pierced to all ends
Rays of the Cross,
Because everyone calls and kisses everyone
Your Mouth:
We, who are drawn from the suns of separation
We create Your Cross, -
You, separated from Myself on the Tree,
Thank you!
For the pain of love, for the cry of gratitude,
For a night of losses,
For the first cry, and the mortal heart of the struggle,
And the door of death, -
Zane the rebellious surf dies
At meek Feet, -
Zane from the abyss sees suffering,
What is God with us, -
For You, for Whom we suffer in separation,
We see separation -
God is thirsty, whose passionate
We thirst for the cup, - Thank you!
I. Bunin. Evening.
And happiness is everywhere. Maybe it's
This autumn garden behind the barn
And clean air flowing through the window.
In the bottomless sky with a light white edge
The cloud rises and shines. For a long time
I'm watching him... We see little, we know,
And happiness is given only to those who know.
The window is open. She squeaked and sat down
There is a bird on the windowsill. And from books
I look away from my tired gaze for a moment.
The day is getting dark, the sky is empty.
The hum of a threshing machine is heard on the threshing floor...
I see, I hear, I am happy. Everything is in me...
I. Bunin. Day and night.
I read the Old Book on long nights
With a lonely and quietly trembling fire:
“Everything is fleeting - both sorrow and joy,
Only God is eternal. He's in the unearthly night
silence.”
I see a clear sky through the window at dawn.
The sun rises, and the mountains call to the azure:
“Leave the Old Book on the table until sunset.
The birds sing about the joy of the eternal God!”
Superstition is a false belief. What a pity for those who live in lies and do not know the light of truth. But the Lord sends so many testimonies of true faith...
Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov) tells the story.
THE MIRACLE OF THE DESCENT OF FIRE AT BAPTISM
It was in an Altai village, in Asia. I was a suffragan bishop in the city of Sevastopol. Lived in the Kherson monastery.
One Altai man was baptized in the temple. There was a large vat of water in which he was to be baptized. His godfather was an uncle, also an Altai, already baptized.
While the priest was reading a prayer invoking the Holy Spirit on that water, the newly baptized person was calm. And his uncle suddenly shouted in horror and surprise:
Was this the case with me too? Was this the case with me too?
It turns out that at that moment he saw that fire had descended from the dome of the Church onto the water.
The baptizing priest then questioned him in detail and reported to the bishop. He sent Father Innocent to clarify this, which was confirmed.
The Holy Spirit descended on the water, just as on the day of Pentecost on the apostles.
BLESSED XENIA OF PETERSBURG
SAVES FROM BOMBING
(narrated by Marfa, the singer of the Smolensk Church)
During the siege of Leningrad, the chapel was closed. Few people had the strength to be here - people were so exhausted. But the memory of blessed Xenia was kept sacred. People turned to her in prayer, especially in difficult times.
I think that she simply saved me. This happened during the most difficult period of the nine-hundred-day siege of the city. She appeared to me at night, wearing her usual white scarf, with a staff in her hand. Said:
Don't sleep at home the next night.
And she disappeared as suddenly as she appeared.
In the evening I went to spend the night with relatives in another area. And that night the Nazis bombed the house to the ground. Even the shelter in which people tried to hide collapsed under the pressure of deadly fire.
This is how Orthodox saints help those who believe in God and honor their memory.
Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote: “ There are no non-believers. He who does not believe in God worships idols.”
And indeed! So many things, at first glance, that are correct and seductive! We don’t substitute anything for faith.
Superstitions. They can be found all over the planet. Some preserve them as part of their cultural heritage. For others, these are curious episodes that add variety to life. In the West, they are treated with some skepticism; in African countries, superstitions, on the contrary, greatly influence people’s lives.
In Latin, the word superstition comes from “super,” meaning “above,” and “stare,” meaning “to stand.” Warriors who survived battles were called "superstites" because, once alive, they literally stood over the corpses of their comrades. Webster's Dictionary describes the concept of superstition as: “Beliefs or customs arising from ignorance, fear of the unknown, belief in magic or chance, misunderstanding of cause and effect.”
Some superstitions have become so commonplace that they are even considered signs of attention or politeness. For example, someone sneezed, those around them instantly react: “Be healthy”! In the USA, folklore researchers have found that in many countries there is a belief that at the moment of sneezing, “the soul leaves the human body,” and a “protective phrase” is used for this.
The birth of twins has always been an extraordinary event. In some ancient cultures, such an event was seen as the birth of deities, so twins were worshiped. Elsewhere, the birth of twins was seen as a misfortune. Often, one of the newborns was killed.
These examples show that some superstitions can seem strange and harmless. Others, without exaggeration, can pose a deadly danger. In fact, superstition is a kind of disguised religion, the basis of which is blind faith in the inexplicable, supernatural. No matter how ridiculous these traditional beliefs may seem, many people know them. In the United States alone, researchers have collected about a million examples of superstition.
Superstitions common in different countries of the world:
- A black cat crossed the road - to failure.
- Chopsticks sticking out in a cup of rice means someone will die.
- If a candle goes out during the ceremony, evil spirits are nearby.
- Putting a hat on the bed means trouble.
- The ringing of bells drives away evil spirits.
- If you blow out all the candles on your cake at once on your birthday, your wish will come true.
- If you lean a broom against a bed, the evil forces in the broom will cast a spell on the bed.
- A picture of elephants hung opposite the door will bring good luck.
- Horseshoe over front door- for luck.
- Walking under a ladder is bad luck.
- Breaking a mirror means seven unlucky years.
- Scattering pepper means a quarrel with your best friend.
- Spilling salt is a bad omen unless you throw a pinch of salt over your left shoulder.
- If you get out of a rocking chair and leave it rocking, demons will sit in it.
- Leaving shoes upside down is bad luck.
- When someone dies, the windows must be opened so that the soul can fly away.
- Seeing an owl during the day is a bad omen.
- The umbrella fell on the floor - there will be a murder in the house.
- A fork falls - someone will come.
- Ivy entwining a house will protect against evil.
Prejudices were fought with prohibitions and various educational methods, but they have not yet been eradicated. For example, one resident of Shanghai, dissatisfied with the decree prohibiting the ritual of burning fake money at the graves of ancestors, said: “We burned 19 billion yuan (about three billion dollars). This is a tradition. This is how they appease the gods.”
Even in our time, most people reluctantly admit that deep down they still believe in a couple of superstitions that contradict all logic. It becomes obvious that for many people there are double standards: in public they say one thing, in secret they do something else. The reason is simple - fear of appearing stupid and ignorant. Therefore, people prefer to call superstitions customs and traditions. Athletes, for example, claim that they have their own special “traditional” rituals before a game.
One journalist spoke ironically about emails sent to people asking them to forward the same emails to others. Usually, the one who passes on such a letter is promised happiness, and the one who interrupts this chain is supposedly in danger of trouble. Having become another link in such a chain, this journalist said: “I’m not doing this because I’m superstitious. I just don’t want any trouble.”
Why does this happen even in our time filled with information? Some argue that superstitions are inherent to humans. Others claim that the tendency to superstition is in the genes.
But are people really born with the habit of knocking on wood, or crossing a threshold when they take something or, on the contrary, give something? Obviously they are learning this!
Where did numerous superstitions come from? From deciphered inscriptions of antiquity, it became known that people, trying to find out the future, used various objects that they received from “magicians, soothsayers, fortune-tellers...”. Naturally not for free. Nowadays, promises with predictions of the future are easy to find on the Internet.
Gamblers are known to be superstitious. One such amateur remarked: “I’m sure the church knows very well how superstitious gamblers are, which is why you can always see nuns with donation boxes at the races. How can a believer hope to win at the races if he refuses to give to his “sister”? You have to sacrifice. And if you’re lucky on this day, you usually show special generosity, hoping for further success.”
The World Book Encyclopedia notes: “Superstition will not disappear until people ... are confident about the future.” Superstitions thrive because they are rooted in the inherent fear of the future in all people and are supported by various religious beliefs. It is worth concluding that superstitions bring benefit or harm?
Superstition- a prejudice consisting in the fact that a person accepts as reality unknown forces that can foretell future events and even influence them. Contains the assumption, often unconscious, that one can find protection from these forces or reach a compromise acceptable to a person with them. As a rule, it manifests itself at the behavioral level in reduced ritual forms: wearing talismans, tattooing, magical gestures etc. Special place signs occupy: certain events are assigned prognostic significance.
The concept of “superstition,” as well as the concepts of Truth, Falsehood, Misconception, Prejudice, is not clearly defined in principle, and the attribution of a particular idea to superstition is largely subjective. As a rule, superstitions include ideas that connect objects and phenomena between which it is impossible to establish an objective connection (for example, it is difficult to establish a connection between luck and the number 13, given the conditional nature of any ordinal counting).
The psychological specificity of the exceptional stability of superstitions is due to the fact that cases of their confirmation are firmly recorded, and facts of obvious fallacy are repressed. Superstitions have deep historical roots and are unsystematized; ancient religious beliefs, of which they were part, are long gone. Primary intentions - the desire to look into the near future, avoid unfavorable situations, etc. - are preserved in the psyche and can contribute to the spread of superstitions, especially in extreme circumstances.
Philosophy and medicine have made man the most intelligent of animals, fortune telling and astrology the most insane, superstition and despotism the most unfortunate.
Year after year, day after day, we become witnesses of more and more scientific discoveries and technical inventions. It’s already difficult to surprise us with anything. But here’s what’s interesting - regardless of social status, number of diplomas and titles, people still superstitiously continue to spit over their left shoulder and knock on a piece of wood, “so as not to jinx it.” Not everyone will risk going on a long journey without sitting down on the path. And, probably, even the most notorious skeptic, upon seeing broken mirror the thought will flash that this is not good.
For a European, knowledge of signs and superstitions may not have much practical value, but in Russia they are necessary. We must admit that the Komi-Permyaks, like many other peoples inhabiting our Motherland, are very superstitious. This trait of their character was probably inherited from their pagan ancestors.
Every day, the Komi-Permyak spits over his left shoulder, knocks on wood, and keeps silent about his achievements, just so that no one will jinx him. Why does a person trust such circumstances? What makes him act this way and not otherwise?
In the process of searching for answers to the questions posed, we identified a hypothesis for further research: if people have believed in omens and superstitions since time immemorial, then prejudices still have an impact on our lives.
Relevance research work: in our time, many people remain superstitious, signs and prejudices have become so integrated into our lives that they have become an integral part of our nature. I'm surrounded by the most different people. They differ in age, attitude to religion, level of education, and interests. From time to time they knock on wood, are afraid of breaking a mirror and meeting a black cat - they are superstitious to varying degrees. And me too.
Goal of the work: study of the characteristics of the signs and superstitions of the Perm Komi, determination of the influence of signs and superstitions on the life of a modern person, clarification of the belief in signs and superstitions by students of our school.
To achieve the purpose of the study, the following were identified: tasks:
Work through theoretical material about signs and superstitions.
Find out what superstitions are, where they came from and in what forms they exist.
To prove that the superstitions that have appeared in recent decades are also essentially pagan.
Conduct a sociological study at school. Present the results of a survey of schoolchildren on the subject of superstition. The theoretical and practical significance of the work lies in the fact that the results of the study can be used in history lessons as additional material when studying paganism in Rus', world artistic culture, social studies, and literature.
An object: signs and superstitions
Subject: studying the influence of superstitions and prejudices on the lives of modern people.
Research methods: questionnaire, searching for information on the Internet, classification, generalization, sociological survey, scientific experiment, study of scientific and popular science literature on this topic.
When working on this topic, we used Internet resources, dictionaries, and literature on our chosen issue.
It should be noted that the issue of superstitions and signs is not fully studied. In our research, we relied on the opinions of people around us, as well as on data from the literature we used.
Signs and superstitions are part of the life of the Komi-Permyaks
The concept will also accept superstitions. Before we begin to consider the topic of superstitions and omens, it is necessary to separate these two concepts. What is a sign and what is a superstition. Despite the fact that these concepts: folk signs and superstition are closely related to each other, nevertheless, they are different in essence.
Expert in the great and mighty Russian language V.I. Dahl explains superstition as “an erroneous, false belief in something; belief in cause and effect, where there is no connection.” And although many of us claim that we do not believe in “grandmother’s signs,” in reality, everything is different. Superstitions have become firmly entrenched in our lives.
The word “superstition” is formed using the adverb “vain”, or “in vain” - “in vain, in vain, in vain, in vain.” There is a narrower, church definition: vanity - “the opposite of our eternal good, spiritual life.” We say about a person “vain”, about life - “sheer vanity”.
Superstition is an individual prejudice that represents the belief in the possibility of predicting the future and influencing it through the use of some otherworldly forces. Superstition manifests itself at the behavioral level in ritual forms: the use of talismans, tattoos, magical gestures, etc. Signs occupy a special place: certain events are assigned prognostic significance.
Folk signs are kind of hints - warnings that attentive people noticed, recorded in their minds and passed on from generation to generation. This includes observation of the behavior of animals before a “sudden disaster”, and certain, repeated changes in nature, which predetermined, for example, what kind of winter it would be, or whether drought should be expected, or, on the contrary, whether summer would be rainy and cold.
After all, in the modern world there is such a science as meteorology, air flows are monitored and analysis is carried out.
In ancient times there was nothing like this. But drought or another element that could lead to the destruction of the crop, and, consequently, doom them to starvation, forced people to be more attentive to the events that preceded the misfortunes. That is, in such folk signs ah, there is nothing mystical, magical or unknown.
Superstitions have a different origin. When faced with something inexplicable, but influencing an event, or radically changing it, regardless of the consequences (positive or negative), a person, unable to change or prevent the “inevitable”, began to note to himself that it is better not to fight the “inexplicable “, it is much more effective to take it into account and not do anything that could negatively affect further events, or, on the contrary, act in such a way as to obtain positive consequences.
This approach to defining the concepts of signs and superstitions can be called scientific, but what are the prerequisites for the appearance of these phenomena?
Signs and superstitions are part of the life of the Komi-Permyaks
“You can’t change a habit,” says popular wisdom.
Where does this strange feature of the collective consciousness of an entire people come from, which does not depend on the level of education of a person - to believe in omens and superstitions?
Let us remember the features of nature, the harsh climate, the history of the people, and the penchant for mysticism. A lot comes from people's faith in dark forces, into devilry that could disrupt their plans and interfere with the normal course of life.
You can believe or not believe signs, but to this day they mean a lot, giving our lives a special flavor.
Until now, many peoples, including the Perm Komi, are afraid of the evil eye (hence the “evil eye”) and to protect against it they wear a cross on their body or pins in the seams of their clothes (especially women).
Often people are afraid of frightening and angering fate, they are afraid of other people's envy, etc. If suddenly a Komi-Permyak talks about wonderful plans for the future or about his unexpected luck, or that “he has no problems,” then most likely, out of fear of jinxing his well-being, he will knock on wood or spit over his left shoulder three times. He will spit three times even if salt was accidentally spilled - this is a sign of a future quarrel and he will try to correct his mistake.
Many signs are associated with the right or left side. The left side is considered lucky and the right side is considered unlucky. Remember, to remove the evil eye, you need to spit over your left shoulder. The left eye itched - to joy, the right eye itched - to tears. Your left hand itches to receive money, but if your right hand itches, it means you have to give it away. Stumbled on the left foot - to future success, on the right - to failure.
It’s funny that even educated people, even if they don’t believe all these “old wives’ tales,” nevertheless know them well. They laugh at themselves or at other people, but just in case, they spit three times over their left shoulder or knock on a piece of wood and count the numbers on the ticket.
Superstitions, prejudices, belief in omens and other devilry are part of national psychology, closely connected with folklore, the history of the people and their culture, and therefore worthy of interest and attention.
Folklore, like any other phenomenon of social and spiritual life, has come a long way of historical development. Oral poetry played a huge role in the life of the Komi-Permyak people. Legends, fairy tales, proverbs, sayings, signs were the most important part of the spiritual culture of the people, they were mentors and the “book of life” for the younger generation.
The sources of today's superstitions are:
Superstitions of ancestors (historically established superstitions);
Pagan rituals and traditions, traditions and legends (idol worship);
Fear of the unknown;
Fear of death;
Fear of receiving a curse, evil eye, illness, etc.
Signs, like any folklore genre, carry within them the peculiar ideas of the people about the world around them.
Signs and sayings are the oldest genre of oral folk art. Signs are characteristic of all peoples of the world.
The sources of sayings and sayings are very diverse, but the most important thing is still people’s direct observations of life, the world around them, nature and natural phenomena.
The concept of “sign” among the Perm Komi comes from the word “notice”, that is, to observe, and expresses a constant relationship between any phenomena and events.
Mari researcher of folk signs M.E. Kitikov points out that “in their totality, signs are folk science, for they are a unique system of folk knowledge about nature and its phenomena. This folk knowledge is in constant use.”
The developed complexes of the people's worldview were ideas about celestial bodies, elements, natural phenomena and weather. For example, when performing household work, the phases of the moon were taken into account. This knowledge is constantly being updated.
The subject matter of the signs being studied (Bacheva O. T.) allows us to distinguish the following groups:
Signs associated with religious holidays;
Signs that mention animals;
Signs associated with various natural phenomena;
Signs associated with the seasons.
When considering the signs of the first group, we found that the Easter holiday is most often found in signs. The Komi-Permyaks considered Easter the greatest and most solemn holiday of the year. The Komi-Permyaks prepared thoroughly for this holiday. IN folk calendar Easter was associated with the spring awakening of the forces of nature after a long winter sleep. For example: “If the north wind blows during Easter week, then the year will be good.” “If the north wind blows during Easter week, the earth moves towards the day. But if the south wind blows, then the earth moves towards night, then a cold year will come.”
When considering the signs of the second group, it can be revealed that nature has awarded many animals with a “meteorological sense”, which in some cases has received scientific justification. They respond to changes in air pressure, temperature and humidity. This is reflected in the following signs: “If cranes fly high and scream in the fall, then the year will be dry.” “If a woodpecker drums in the spring, then there will be a short spring.” “When the ant grows wings, then you need to sow winter crops.” Long-term observation of the behavior of representatives of the animal world makes it possible to establish signs that, in some cases, are highly likely to predict changes in the weather.
In the signs of the third group, it can be revealed that clouds, clouds, lightning, thunder, rainbows, wind, dew, snow and other natural phenomena actively influence the weather - some to a greater extent, others to a lesser extent. The Komi-Permyaks attached particular importance to clouds, as they affect precipitation and temperature changes: “If the clouds rise from the north, then wonderful things are ahead. But if clouds rise from the south, there will be rain and snow in winter.” “If the clouds rise individually, then you need to plant potatoes.” Much attention was paid to other natural phenomena: “If there is fog on the ground in the morning, then the day will be good.” “If it rains at night, it will rain continuously.” “If thunder thunders after Semenov’s day, then autumn will be warm.”
Consideration of the signs of the fourth group led to the conclusion that folk weather science is not only an original source of knowledge, it is an element of our cultural heritage. Just as we divide the year into seasons, so signs can be systematized according to seasonal characteristics: “If the autumn is rainy, then the barley will be harvested with a full ear.” “If it snows on a frosty day in winter, then on the corresponding day in summer it will rain with thunder. If this winter day is New Year’s Day, then this summer day is Peter’s Day.”
Thus, the features of the surrounding world are reflected in the signs, language, behavior, customs, rituals, traditions and way of life of the Komi-Permyaks. Signs are a kind of treasury of folk knowledge about nature and its phenomena. And this is their value.
Signs and superstitions in the lives of schoolchildren
We wanted to find out what signs and superstitions the students of our school believe in. To do this, we conducted a survey among students of the MAOU “Gurinskaya Secondary School”.
92 people, students from 5th to 11th grade, took part in the survey. We compiled the questionnaire in the form of a table (Appendix 1). The questionnaire “Do you believe?”, in which the guys entered data on whether they believe in omens and superstitions, how they can protect themselves from danger, and noted what other omens they themselves believe in.
Based on the results of the study, a table was compiled. From this table it follows that 70% (64 people) of those surveyed believe in omens and superstitions, while 14% (13 people) do not believe, and 16% (15 people) doubt it. To the next question of the questionnaire, “What other signs do you believe in?” It was observed:
1) 77% (71 people) of respondents believe in a black cat, and 23% (21 people) do not believe.
2) 32% (29 people) believe in the superstition of returning from the road, and 68% (63 people) do not.
3) When they see a shooting star, 41% (38 people) make a wish, and 59% (54 people) do not believe in this superstition.
4) 73% (67 people) of respondents believe in dreams, and 27% (25 people) do not believe. 5) 41% (38 people) of the guys believe that a nickel under their heel will help during an exam or test, but 59% (54 people) do not believe this.
5) 68% (62 people) believe in otherworldly forces and ghosts, and 32% (30 people) do not believe in this superstition.
Answering the last question of the questionnaire, students talked about the signs that their relatives believe in. 82% (75 people) of respondents indicated that if any utensil (fork, spoon, knife) falls from the table, then it is for the guests. 73% (67 people) believe that they will say hello if their right palm itches and will receive money if their left palm itches. 50% (46 people) of the guys know that you can’t give an even number of flowers, and 9% (8 people) expect rain if swallows fly low above the ground. 27% (25 people) believe that cats wash guests.
New superstitions and their pagan character
New superstitions.
Several decades ago, new superstitions appeared. This was facilitated by interest in eastern calendars and horoscopes, zodiac signs.
We constantly hear about the special energy of the elements, people, flowers, stones, etc. The goal of the fashionable teaching of Feng Shui is to search for favorable flows of qi energy and use them for the benefit of a person. Healers offer relief from diseases with the help of magic.
The new holiday Halloween is an ancient Celtic holiday. Valentine's Day originates from the Lupercalia of Ancient Rome.
Ufology is a hobby that arose in the 1950s in many countries.
Science and religion about superstitions
Psychologists say that following superstitions has its positive sides. A person hopes that if he does something or does not do something, he will gain power over events.
Psychologist T. Mizinova believes that “... superstitions and belief in omens are a manifestation of our unconscious fears.” On the reasons for superstitious behavior: “...we become very superstitious precisely at those moments when we experience some difficulties in life.” On the other hand, the psychologist warns, superstitions “...are dangerous, harmful and destructive, because superstitions give rise to phobias.
Therefore, it still seems to us that a modern person, a person of the 21st century, can openly believe in Christ, this has been given to him. And it’s still better to be a mocker of the Voltairean type than to live in the grip of gloomy superstitions.”
Back in 1975, 186 of the world's leading scientists, including 18 Nobel laureates, expressed concern about the media's exposure to astrology and other pseudosciences. In Russia, since 1998, there has been a Commission to Combat Pseudoscience and Falsification of Scientific Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Priest and historian Georgy Chistyakov suggests: “... let us once and for all come to the conclusion that any superstitions are fragments of paganism.” “Where do superstitions come from? They become superstitious because of their ignorance, because, having come to the Church, they are not looking for Christ in Her, but for the satisfaction of their material, emotional and other mundane needs.”
Prejudice, or prejudice, is an attitude that prevents the adequate perception of a message or action; it is a judgment before any clarification of the true state of affairs. Prejudice combines affect (feelings), behavioral tendency (the tendency to act in a certain way), and knowledge (beliefs).
Usually a prejudice is an unjustifiably negative attitude. A person often is not aware or does not want to be aware of his bias and views his attitude towards the object of the warning as a consequence of an objective or independent assessment.
Prejudice (prejudice) can be the result of hasty and unfounded conclusions based on personal experience, as well as the result of an uncritical assimilation of standardized judgments accepted in a particular social group. Often prejudice is used to justify certain, sometimes unseemly, actions. Psychologically, the ground for prejudice is created by the following:
factors. Unequal status of people: history shows that economic relations of inequality between groups have been fertile ground for the emergence of prejudices and stereotypes; socioeconomic discrimination perpetuates prejudice. Religion: religiosity contributes to the suggestibility of people, and this applies to any beliefs, including prejudices, precisely because of the factor of faith, and not the factor of knowledge. Favoritism: this is partiality towards one's group, the opposition between “us” and “them”. “We” are good, “they” are bad.
Conformism; it makes it easier for individuals to follow the line of least resistance and think automatically “like everyone else.” In this case, once a prejudice has arisen, it is preserved by inertia.
Institutional support: This is the spread of prejudice through the efforts of social institutions, for example, political parties, movements, and the media.
Like stereotypes, prejudices are very persistent. Superstition is a prejudice consisting in the fact that an individual accepts as reality unknown forces that can foretell events and even influence them. Signs occupy a special place - thanks to them, certain events are assigned prognostic significance.
Superstition involves the assumption, often unconsciously, that these unknown forces can provide protection if one enters into an alliance with them. Superstition usually manifests itself at a behavioral level, usually in ritual forms - wearing talismans, tattoos, magical gestures or actions.
The exceptional stability of superstitions is psychologically explained by the fact that cases of their confirmation are firmly recorded, and facts of obvious fallacy are repressed from consciousness. The spread of superstitions is facilitated by people's desire to look into the near future, especially in extreme circumstances.
Control questions:
1. What is the essence of self-concept?
2. What is the structure of the self-concept?
3. What is the psychological meaning of the concepts “real self”, “ideal self”, “mirror self”?
4. Expand the psychological content of the concepts “social beliefs” and “social judgments”.
5. What is the essence of the psychological “attribution effect”?
6. What is a “dominant”?
7. Show, using examples of personal experience or observation, how social attitudes determine individual behavior patterns.
8. What are three conditions under which attitudes predict behavior?
9. Expand the content of the concept “social stereotype”.
10. What are the stereotypes?
11. Expand the content of the concepts of “prejudice” (“prejudice”) and “superstition”.
12. What is the psychological nature of prejudice?
Psychological workshop
Game "Take what you want"
Purpose of the game: Show different ways to receive nonverbal information.
A chair is placed in the center of the circle, on which an object is placed, for example, a watch or a pen. Each participant should imagine that there is something extremely important to him on the chair, be it the fulfillment of a cherished desire, a large amount of money, a relationship with someone, etc. Everyone in turn approaches the chair and takes this something important to him, not to mention its meaning. The rest carefully observe this process: how a person takes an object - hastily or slowly, deliberately or spontaneously, purposefully or frivolously; maybe he puts something in return.
Discussion: Participants analyze different ways of behaving. To one, something in the behavior of the other will seem alien and incomprehensible, and someone might want to learn how the other participant gets his way.
Game “Imagine yourself as a tree”
Purpose of the game: explore the positions of the “I” in the social world through the projective technique.
On the way home, on foot or in public transport, it is useful to try to imagine yourself as a tree - any kind you like, with which it is easier to identify yourself. It is advisable to imagine and feel in detail the image of this tree in your mind, for example, its powerful and flexible trunk, intertwining branches, leaves fluttering in the wind, the openness of the crown to the sun's rays and the moisture of the rain, the circulation of nutritious juices along the trunk, roots firmly rooted in the ground, and so on.
Discussion: It is advisable to try to answer the following questions:
What thoughts does this exercise evoke?
What exactly does the imaginary image of a tree “suggest”?
Game "Disidentification"
Purpose of the game: learn to effectively manage everything with which our “I” identifies, as well as control and use everything with which a person does not identify. Learning will provide constructive creative contact and release the energy of the higher “I” for personal growth and self-development.
The presenter explains that any person is influenced by everything with which his “I” identifies. At the same time, constant influences of different nature can clog the consciousness and lead to false identification of the individual. To achieve a clear and distinct self-awareness, it is necessary not to identify oneself with the content of consciousness.
Identification with a part of oneself is usually associated with the leading role that a person plays in his life. Some ideas identify themselves with their body, others with feelings, others immediately, etc. Such identification with some part of the personality can satisfy a person to a certain extent, but it can also interfere with the awareness of one’s true “I”, oneself in its entirety. Long-term identification of oneself with a leading role often leads to a feeling of loss and despair when the possibilities for this identification are exhausted, for example, with the onset of old age, with physical or mental injuries and losses, etc., i.e. with the onset of fundamentally new life circumstances, when any attempts to maintain the same, outgoing quality are doomed to failure.
The only solution to such a problem can sometimes be a second “birth”, i.e. a new and broader approach to identification. Often this requires a certain breakdown of the entire personality. The ability to “disidentify” and “self-identify” helps to achieve this.
The presenter invites the game participants to close their eyes, relax, concentrate entirely on their inner world and go through three stages of disidentification.
The first stage is disidentification with your body. The following text is mentally spoken: “I have a body, but I am not this body. My body may be in different states, but it does not replace my true “I”. My body is a precious tool, but only a tool. I have a body, but I am not this body.”
The second stage is disidentification with your emotions. The text is spoken mentally: “I experience some emotions, but I am not these emotions. My emotions are diverse, they can change and even become their opposite, but my essence and my true “I” remain unchanged. I am able to observe my emotions, understand their origins, I can learn to manage them and harmonize them. I experience some emotions, but I am not these emotions.”
The third stage is disidentification with your mind. The text is spoken mentally: “I have a mind, but I am not this mind. My mind is a most valuable tool of knowledge and self-expression, but it is not the essence of myself. He is in continuous development, but he is not me. I have a mind, but I am not my mind.” Next, the presenter proposes to carry out the identification stage. Also, when fully concentrating on one’s inner world, one mentally recites the text: “I am the center of absolute self-awareness. I am the center of absolute will. With this I am able to observe and subjugate all mental processes and control them. I am the center of absolute self-awareness and will.”
The presenter explains that achieving a certain skill that allows you to quickly go through all the stages of disidentification and then focus on your “I” for a certain period. - a powerful psychological resource. It enables a person at any moment to separate the true “I” from harmful emotions, thoughts, exhausted roles and, having assessed the situation, its meaning and origins, find new, more effective ways out of difficult life circumstances, new ways of behavior from the position of, as it were, outside observer.
Test "Thinking Styles"
Brain research shows that there are two different ways of thinking associated with the anatomical features of the brain: left-brain (“cold”, analytical) and right-brain (“hot”, emotional, sensual). In addition, there are two main lines of thinking: from the general to the particular (deductive) and from the particular to the general (inductive).
Depending on the extent to which a particular test statement corresponds to your thinking style, rate it in points (1, 2, 4, 5, three is excluded) on the scale:
5 - to a large extent (very typical);
4 ~ moderately;
2 - to a small extent;
1 - to a slight extent (uncharacteristic).
Form to fill out
No. Point No. Point Sh. Point No. I Point 1
question question question question
1. I have developed intuition.
2. I think logically.
3. I am interested in philosophical problems and systems of thought.
4. I like to use diagrams when explaining something to someone.
5. I prefer to learn something through a visual example.
6. In my work, I am more focused on the task at hand, and not on the people around me.
7. I prefer to think in images, imagine pictures.
8. I like to analyze something particularly complex.
9. As a rule, I “collect vibrations” emanating from other people.
10. I am an expert in organizing complex and intricate cases.
11. I am interested in unconventional and unusual ideas.
12. Planning and executing complex projects is a joy for me.
13. I come to a certain decision only when I check everything with my feelings and understand that it is right for me.
14. I prefer work that requires a gradual and methodical approach.
15. I am oriented toward literature, art, and music.
16. I understand a situation best when I look at it from different sides and different points of view.
17. It is important for me to know how others think.
18. I decide anything based on specific facts and logic.
19. I am interested in various mystical problems.
20. Abstract and theoretical problems are my element.
Thinking styles:
EI - emotional inductive;
AI - analytical inductive;
ED - emotional deductive;
AD - analytical deductive.
The degree of expression of quality is determined by counting points in the columns in the form to fill out:
5-11 - low, 12-18 - medium, 19-25 - high.
Test “Stereotypes of destructive thinking”
1. Usually you select negative aspects and manipulate them, filtering out all the positive aspects of the situation.
2. Most often, things seem to you either black or white, either good or bad. No middle, no halftones.
3. As a rule, you strive for a generalized solution based on a single incident. If something bad happens, you expect it to happen again and again.
4. Without relying on facts, you almost always judge people and “know” why they act the way they do. You are able to determine how people feel towards you.
5. You often expect misfortune. When you hear about someone else’s problems, you immediately think: “What if I have the same thing?”
6. Very often it seems to you that the thoughts, words and deeds of other people are some kind of reaction to you. You compare yourself to others, trying to determine who looks better, etc.
7. If you feel external control, then you feel helpless, you feel like a victim of the inevitable. You attribute internal control errors to fear and random actions.
8. You usually get indignant if people don’t agree with what you think is completely fair.
9. As a rule, you consider other people responsible for your experiences and blame them. Or you blame yourself for every problem.
10. You have your own set of rules that dictate how you and others should act. People who break these rules threaten you. And you yourself feel guilty if you deviate from the rules.
11. You automatically believe that your feelings are infallible. So, if you are bored, it means your partner is a boring person.
12. You strongly believe and expect that other people will change according to your requirements if you