Superstitions & Urban Legends

Release Date: October 14, 2022

DISCLAIMER: Some hard and difficult topics. If you are easily offended, this may not be for you. There are sometimes some hard topics and hard truths, and if you are not ready for it, i suggest maybe to revisit at a later time when you do feel more prepared.

Superstitions & Urban Legends

Black cats, ladders, umbrellas? Why do we believe in superstitions? Do they actually have an effect on unrelated events or are they simply to make you feel better? Which demographics are most likely to believe in superstitions? A light fun conversation about how we have handled superstitions in the past. How to make other feel validated about their superstitions without ridicule. And if you would ever challenge a superstition.

Audio

Video

WELCOME TO ECLIPSED VIEWS

Where we take difficult topics and try to identify what’s blocking your view. Try to unlearn and rewash and possibly rewire our brains since we don’t seem to be having much luck changing other people’s views. Full Topics List

STREET EPISTEMOLOGY - SOCRATIC QUESTIONING

I got interested in doing these podcasts through Street Epistemology, which is a mode of Socratic questioning. You are asked questions to challenge your views, to see if the method you used to reach that conclusion is a reliable method to arrive at a conclusion.

• How did you come to that stance?

• Are those reasons legitimate enough to continue to hold that stance?

• Is this process a useful and efficient process to figuring out the truth

CONJECTURE

Conjecture - inference or opinion formed based on insufficient evidence.

How often do we form opinions based on insufficient evidence? How do you know when you have enough evidence to form an opinion?

BIASES

Bias - a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment

We are all citizens, colleagues, professionals, consumers, friends, family-members, teachers, learners, human beings first. How aware are you of your biases when forming opinions? Does a credential or life-experience make a person more or less credible? Can you keep the same level of open-mindedness after learning such a thing?

WHAT’S BLOCKING YOUR VIEW?

So we form an opinion. What would it take for you to change your opinion? If it has changed, what DID it take? Could it change again?

Topic - Superstitions & Urban Legends

Scenario - Scale from 1-100.

State your position. At the end we come back and see if the needle moved at all.

1. You’re faced with a challenging situation that is out of your control. How likely are you to rely on a superstition? 0 definitely not relying on a superstition, and 100 definitely relying on a superstition.

   • Roger - 80/30

   • Leasette - 0/0

   • Sal - 0/0

   • Vero - 70/40

Questions to think about?

1. Define Superstitions:

• a: belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation

• b: an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from superstition

2: a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary

1. Urban Legend: an often lurid story or anecdote that is based on hearsay and widely circulated as true.

2. Common Superstitions

   • Friday the 13th

   • Umbrellas inside

   • Crossing your fingers

   • Make a wish on a wishbone

   • Knock on wood

   • 666

   • Breaking Mirrors

   • Black Cats

   • Bad luck comes in 3’s

   • Walking under a Ladder

3. Which American groups are most likely to be superstitious?

4. How do you make superstitious people feel validated?

5. Would you ever deliberately challenge a superstition? Why and how?

6. Did you have any superstitions?

7. What would be a modern superstition?

8. Conjecture. How do you know when you have enough evidence to form an opinion?

9. How aware are you of your biases when forming opinions?

10. What is blocking your view? What is keeping you from changing your mind?What are your thoughts? How do you handle expectations and its outcomes.

What about you? What are your thoughts? Let us know.