Superstitious?

[The New Nonsense]

Okay, here's a scenario. Say you're at an airport awaiting a flight (tickets nonrefundable nor transferable). While you wait you grab some Chinese in the airport's food court. After your meal you open a fortune cookie. The fortune reads, "Don't get on the plane.".

So. Would you ignore it and still get on the plane?

I like to think I'm a pretty rational guy, but receiving a message like that just before embarking on a flight stretches the limits of coincidence. In this case it would be a warning worth considering, at least to me. I don't think I'd get on the plane.

This is a more dramatic scenario of something that happened to me this afternoon. All morning I was contemplating purchasing a very expensive book. I couldn't decide; kept going back and forth. Then for lunch I had, you guessed it, Chinese. The fortune cookie read, "You shouldn't overspend at the moment. Frugality is important." No kidding. I put off buying the book.

[G. S. Carnivals]

Quote Originally Posted by The New Nonsense

Okay, here's a scenario. Say you're at an airport awaiting a flight (tickets nonrefundable nor transferable). While you wait you grab some Chinese in the airport's food court. After your meal you open a fortune cookie. The fortune reads, "Don't get on the plane.". So. Would you ignore it and still get on the plane? I like to think I'm a pretty rational guy, but receiving a message like that just before embarking on a flight stretches the limits of coincidence. In this case it would be a warning worth considering, at least to me. I don't think I'd get on the plane. This is a more dramatic scenario of something that happened to me this afternoon. All morning I was contemplating purchasing a very expensive book. I couldn't decide; kept going back and forth. Then for lunch I had, you guessed it, Chinese. The fortune cookie read, "You shouldn't overspend at the moment. Frugality is important." No kidding. I put off buying the book.

I, too, would walk to my destination. And then there's that old Twilight Zone episode as a reminder why...

[The Black Ferris]

There is a magickal technique known as "Drifting" or d'erive. Without going into a long description, it is essentially the practice of engaging and interacting with the local spirits to see what they can do for you.
And it pretty much happens just like that.
A piece of graffiti.
Song lyrics from a passing car.
A discarded sunglass lense, cracked in three, that reflects a single streetlight as three seperate objects.
A fortune cookie.
The Drift can be used as a method of collecting potent ingredients and materials for sorcery werkings, or to seek answers to divinatory questions.
The practical applications are myriad. It can be performed in virtually any location and at a moment's notice.
However, the drift is considered a high risk occult practice as far as sanity is concerned. Before you know it, YOU could be the madman speaking with invisible beings on Main Street and going through dumpsters looking for the secrets of the universe.
That sort of thing is par for the course in this sort of werk, so it's good to learn how to switch it on and off.
Coincidence are only that. Co-incidents. Events occurring simultaneously.
If you're feeling superstitious, your switch is on. Pay attention. See what happens as a result. You can always laugh it off later.

Sin cerely,
The Black Ferris

[Odalisque]

It's hard to say what I'd do. I last boarded an aeroplane in 1965, and will probably never board another. What is more, I've never seen a "fortune" in a cookie that ventured anything that might be interpreted as advice. The ones distributed in England seem far more bland than: "You shouldn't overspend at the moment. Frugality is important" let alone "Don't get on the plane".

But am I superstitious? Whenever I see a solitary magpie, I'm sure to salute it (to ward off the bad luck). I don't walk under ladders... And so on... There's probably nothing in any of this, but why take unnecessary chances?

Friday 13th is another matter. The most conspicuous piece of ill fortune to come my way on a Friday 13th was being stuck in a tube train stopped in a tunnel for an hour and a half. The tube stock in question relies on the movement of the train for ventilation. It's fair to say that it became very hot and airless -- most unpleasant. The cause was that two stops ahead someone had thrown him or herself under a train. There was a train at the next station, so my train couldn't go forward. And it was very difficult for it to go back (although that's what happened eventually) because the London Underground safety systems are designed (amongst other things) to prevent trains going backwards. From time to time since then, I've wondered whether it was entirely a coincidence that this befell on a Friday 13th. The person who leapt in front of a train was presumably aware of the date, and this may have affected the person's state of mind. There are such things as self-fulfilling prophecies.

[Russell Nash]

I would get on the plane. In fact, there is more probability to die in a car accident that on a plane. A plane crashes once in a while killing 100 people, but thousands are killed just by driving a car.

Superstition is perhaps a vestige of childhood fears. I cannot say "a vestige of religion", since some atheists tend to be superstitious too.

Even if what you read happens I would attribute it to blind chance that to a real prediction.

[The Black Ferris]

Yeah, maybe.
I would be more inclined to think about that moment for a bit before doing anything.
After all, up to this point, you KNEW you were getting on the plane, just accepted it as another event on the road of your life.
Now, however, by whatever means it got there, chance or fate, that silly, little fortune cookie message is causing you to stop and consider the consequences of your actions.
Maybe the plane isn't going to crash. Maybe you'll get on the plane and after you leave, a relative ends up in some kind of trouble or your dog or mom dies while you're on your trip. Maybe you're getting on the plane to go to a job interview for a position that is going to cause you to relocate, but if you don't you run into Mr.Cash Mummy and Dr. Bankenstein who can make it so that you are never for want again.
All you have to do is be (have ya heard this one?) in the right place at the right time.
Yes, you could chalk it up to chance and go on with your life, never giving a thought to what might have been.
But most of us have a story where if we had gone the other way, none of this would ever have happened.
I would say that fortune cookie isn't a prediction so much as an alert to pay attention to yourself and the universe.
To hear God clearly, turn down the world's volume. ;E

I once got a fortune cookie that read
"You are about to"

and so I am.
Sin cerely,
The Black Ferris

[hopfrog]

I would probably throw the rune bones I carry around in a little pouch so as to authenticate the cookie's tip. Bones are far more reliable than yem delicious cookies (I especially like Ginger-tainted fortune cookies -- yum!).

[Odalisque]

Quote Originally Posted by The Black Ferris

I once got a fortune cookie that read "You are about to"

Just that? Without telling you what you were about to...?

[The Black Ferris]

Yeah, and I've often wondered how many other people enjoyed that same printing mistake.
I also wonder what the odds are that this particular strip of paper was the only one that didn't print correctly, making me the only person in the world to recieve this fortune.
My life is kind of like that.
Still, it sort of screws up the whole "in bed " thing.

[vegetable theories]

Quote Originally Posted by The Black Ferris

There is a magickal technique known as "Drifting" or d'erive. Without going into a long description, it is essentially the practice of engaging and interacting with the local spirits to see what they can do for you. And it pretty much happens just like that. A piece of graffiti. Song lyrics from a passing car. A discarded sunglass lense, cracked in three, that reflects a single streetlight as three seperate objects. A fortune cookie. The Drift can be used as a method of collecting potent ingredients and materials for sorcery werkings, or to seek answers to divinatory questions. The practical applications are myriad. It can be performed in virtually any location and at a moment's notice. However, the drift is considered a high risk occult practice as far as sanity is concerned. Before you know it, YOU could be the madman speaking with invisible beings on Main Street and going through dumpsters looking for the secrets of the universe. That sort of thing is par for the course in this sort of werk, so it's good to learn how to switch it on and off. Coincidence are only that. Co-incidents. Events occurring simultaneously. If you're feeling superstitious, your switch is on. Pay attention. See what happens as a result. You can always laugh it off later. Sin cerely, The Black Ferris

I'm really interested in the idea of this Drifting or D'erive technique. I can't find anything about it on the internet.
Could you direct me to some literature or website where I might learn more ?
Thanks a lot