I love the hypnotic effects of urban myths… Urban myths are the ultimate meme… The ultimate group hypnosis of a thouht or a story that flies around a classroom, through an office and into communities and neighbourhoods and groups of friends…
They are not quite like old wives tales… Things like eating carrots helps you see in teh dark, eating your crusts will make your hair curly and that sort of stuff… Although that stuff does tend to stick often… I want to show you some crazy mass hypnotic thought processes that are working their way through towns and villages near you…
In the world today there is a real sense of ‘Obamania’… There is a false myth spreading that Illinois Senator Barack Obama is a radical muslim and will not recite the pledge of allegiance… Though there is also a true urban legend going around that Obama sang the National Anthmem without his hand over his heart… There are photos to prove it…
Those circulating about John McCain are just as interesting… The one about him not being a natural-born US citizen because he was born in Panama…There are true recounts of his diovorce from his first wife circulating the web and a false claim that he announced in a 60 minue interview that he was a war criminal who “bombed innocent women and children.” … These myths spread so dynamicly, fuelled with belief…
Blimey how this stuff spreads… As a kid I heard the one about aligators growing in the sewers… My brother once told me that the filling of After Eight chocolate mints was made from horse saliva, him and I both believed that nonsense for a couple of years… Hahaha… I bet recently you’ve had an email claiming that if it is forwarded you’ll get money from Bill Gates and Microsoft… Some of the testimonials from friends seem very true, don’t they?
What hypnosis!? Nothing demonstrates hypnotic influence and principle better.
I’d love to hear more about some of these, there seem to be so many mind-viruses floating around… One that is certainly going to make its way around my local pub is about New world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko.
Apparently, he has revealed the secret ingredient to recovering from a hard title fight– his son’s wet nappies.
Klitschko, who returned to the ring after four years of injury-enforced retirement to take the WBC heavyweight title from Nigeria’s Samuel Peter on October 11, told a German newspaper that he wraps his fists with nappies soaked with the wee of his three-year-old son Max to combat post-fight swelling.
Reuters reports the champ revealed baby urine is the ideal cure for bruised fists because it doesn’t smell and contains no toxins. The nappies’ ability to seal in liquid keep the urine from leaking onto his hands.
Whenever I find a story or a claim hard to believe, I always say “Oh yeah, don’t tell me… A bloke down the pub told you that, so it must be true…” With an ironic tone. You have to love the power of urban legends…
Carbs are evil! Or is it fat that’s evil? Maybe all dairy too. And carrots. They’re high GI so they must be bad for you. Water is good. But not tap water because of the fluoride. Or bottled water because of the plastic 😉
The nappies might not be that far-fetched…when I read that story yesterday I was thinking that it might be true. Urea (present in urine) is a great emollient/moisturiser and is used in commercial preparations like Eucerin. And goes back to old wives tales too. My mum once told me that goat pee would be good for my eczema when I was a child and we were at a petting zoo. I gracefully declined and opted for cream from a tube. But maybe I should have listened!
I like the old superstitions about things like breaking mirrors, black cats, and walking under ladders. I know in my rational mind that they are not really going to bring me bad luck and grave misfortune, but the subconscious association is deeply rooted, and I still go out of my way not to walk under ladders or break mirrors, and although I love cats, I still have to mentally “shake it off” when a black cat darts across the road in front of me.
I’ve actually worked with a client to collapse an old belief that he was “unlucky,” and installed the new belief that he was “fortunate,” which was the word he liked as a replacement. Well, his luck really did change after that. Call it attraction or just that his subconscious filters were open more to positive things after that, and so he stopped sabotaging himself. But it made a big difference. So i think a lot of urban myths and wive’s tales are made true through the power of the mind.
But no matter how hard the ignorant email forwarder believes, Obama will probably never be a Muslim. Sadly, it would wreck his political career.
Gráinne, sometimes I worry that you know too much… and think it a shame that you never truly opened your mind to the goat pee idea… As a fully grown woman, are you any more open to the idea?
Eric, I never open my umbrella in the house…
Thank you both 🙂
Luckily, my eczema has hardly bothered me at all for the last couple of years. I have no idea why it’s gone into a kind of remission….but not complaining! I will certainly consider chasing a goat if it does flare up again!
As for knowing too much, I only hope that I can shift the balance from pointless trivia to exam knowledge in time for my fellowship exams in 3 weeks. Eek!!!