Do superstitious People really believe the Nonsense they are talking about?

In the past days I have written to you about funny superstition all around my friend Govind’s accident and his stay in the hospital. A lot of my readers were amazed that people would really believe having a surgery on a Thursday would increase the risk of having to undergo surgery again. What I read a few times especially from western readers, where people are less superstitious, was the question: ‘Do people really believe this?’ I thought this question would be worth a personal analysis in today’s diary entry.

I think, no, I would even be confident enough to say I know that they are aware that this kind of superstition is nonsense. Maybe in the smallest villages in the most rural areas such superstition is really believed to be true. When it comes to people who live in the modern world however, who are aware of the fact that there are millions of people who don’t believe in this, I don’t think reality has not reached them. So why, if they know deep inside that it is just nonsense, do they nevertheless talk about it and even act accordingly?

It is a kind of collective decision to believe something that everybody has always accepted. It is tradition, it is normal, it is what everybody thinks. It was never questioned and even if someone questioned it, the doubts had to be rejected because that is simply ‘what we believe’. It is beyond being questioned or proofed. Hundreds or thousands of people can show proof that the superstition is simply not true but they only need one person, one individual who tells a story of how he was lucky on a Tuesday or how something was repeated on a Thursday and they will see it as the ultimate proof.

The best answer to any argument against superstition is simply ‘Yes, well, you can be right, but I believe in this.’ They know you are right but decide to suppress this, pack it away in the darkest corner of their minds and be happy with their superstition. After all there is still this fear, if they really leave it, that something horrible could really happen! It is easier to just follow the superstition and it is always good ‘to be on the safe side’. You need courage to come out of this preconditioned nonsense.

You may be wondering how I can call Govind my best friend if he obviously believes in superstition that I so strongly talk against in my blog. I know his thought and what he believes in and he knows what I believe in or what I don’t believe in. It is very clear in between us but nevertheless we have a strong friendship.

We are like the rail tracks – we are going parallel and we need each other to function well but at the same time our thoughts and ideas will never reach the same point. We cannot convince each other in so many topics but we are nevertheless walking next to each other.

We share our hearts, we share our love. We have been together for a great period of our lives. Many things have changed but changes in philosophy and belief have not affected our love and I trust that they will never. I know that he and I will always be friends, no matter what we both believe in.

I will start to Agra now in order to finally pick Govind up and bring him home.