The Insightful Mortal

by Shivam

  These counts of superstition are pretty less in Christian countries, while in a country like India, Pakistan, it is uncountable. Right from the birth of a child to puberty to death, each of them has superstitious belief attached to it. The Indians are superstitious in the extreme- believers in dreams and observers of omens. No enterprise is inaugurated, nor is journey commenced by them, without consulting of signs and portents.

  The first thing that many parents in the west will do when they know that a baby is on its way is to buy a set of clothes. Parents here would never do this. Why? Because it is believed that you should not dress your newborn baby in new clothes for approximately one and a half months. Babies will wear only old clothes, worn by their siblings, relatives or friends. If there are no old clothes in the house, people take old sheets or adult clothes, cut them in pieces and sew something for the baby which is then not new but already worn.

  Then there is all the things that people believe a new mother should do or better not do. The first 45 days after the birth of the child are a time in which the mother is not allowed to enter the kitchen. She will actually stay in one room and eat and sleep there. Just like in the time of menstruation, this time after childbirth is a time in which she is ‘impure’. The most interesting thing is that it is still being followed in most part of India, despite of people being fully aware and educated, as if Indian minds are forced not to think of their own, just follow the traditions blindly.

  The taboo of menstruation in India causes real harm. Women in some tribes are forced to live in a cowshed throughout their periods. There are health issues, like infections caused by using dirty rags, and horror stories, like that of one girl who was too embarrassed to ask her mother for a clean cloth, and used one she found without knowing it had lizard eggs in it. When you menstruate, don’t cook food because you will pollute it. Don’t touch idols because you will defile them. Don’t handle pickles because they will go rotten with your touch.

  Superstition is a really big problem in India. I think it is much worse than what would be predicted purely by the poverty level. I wonder why. Another difference is that while in the US, and I imagine in most countries, superstitious beliefs decline sharply with education level, the correlation seems mild or nonexistent in India. There are many people in my family with one or more post-college degrees, and they are just as superstitious as anyone else.

  According to record, 80 percent of the population of India is Hindus and the Hindus have caste system among themselves which is deeply rooted in superstitious belief. Now, there are not 1-2 caste prevalent in India, but there are lots of them, and guess what, there are subcategories in that too, caste within caste within religion. What is this, a casteption?

  The division gets interesting here. People were divided according to the basis of their work, when this all started. So, a person doing religious work was put under one genre, person washing clothes under one, cobblers under another category and so on. You can calculate the no. of possible castes now. This is all in order. The person doing religious work, or “Pundit” was the sacred of them all, and apparently “nearest to GOD”, and the distance from God increases with the level. This is some complex ordering, I must say. I mean, seriously, people can’t digest the existence of God, and there are people fighting over distance from God. So, the people from lower castes are not supposed to hang out with person of lower caste, because apparently they are “impure”. Not cool, bro!!

  Nearer to God, more humble one becomes. “I belong to higher caste and you belong to lower caste; I am holier than thou” is not the voice of humanity but of Lucifer. There is no superlative degree of human class. If certain human beings are untouchable lest to be defiled by the touch, such persons are lower than animals such as snakes, monkeys, rates etc. which are worshipped as sacred animals. Any human being is higher than all living creatures in the world.

  Now read this!! According to Nagaland Post August 29. 2013 “A Dalit was killed. His house was destroyed and his family including a 10 year old was thrown out. The upper caste members did not like his audacity to hoist the national flag on the Independence Day at a disputed property which they appropriated forcibly.

  The discrimination is the bane of India where the caste prejudiced Hindus constitutes 80 percent of the population. The story of the Dalit came to light because one TV channel highlighted it. Otherwise thousands of dalits undergo similar rigors every day. They face the arrogance and power of upper caste. And there is not light at the end of the tunnel.”

  The Irony, all these things are happening in a developing country like India, whose only aim should now be too overcome poverty, illiteracy, and so many problems like that. But still, caste system is highly functional here, People actually feel good and try to suppress the people of lower caste, even now. There are caste-based politics, caste based division. People from lower caste are not able to live in an equal environment because the society won’t approve of them. Eventually, they live in slums, without schooling, and the whole new generation goes on the same way.

  See the change involved here, it all started with religion, and it has firmed its root so deep, that there is no stopping it. The newer generation has a tough task in hand, to actually upset the trend and try to think of their own, rather than following the same principles over and over again.

  The funniest superstitious belief ever heard ought to be this: How does our enormous Earth stand flat?

  According to some Sahih Hadith (authentic tradition), Hazrat Abdullah Muslim asked Muhammad: “Ya Rasul Allah! Please tell us, on what does this vast earth is standing?” Muhammad replied: “Allah has placed this seven-layered, huge earth on the horn of a cow. This cow has four thousand such horns, and the distance from one horn to another is a journey of five hundred years. This gigantic cow is standing on the back of a giant fish. This fish is floating on glutinous water; the depth of this water is the distance of a journey of forty years. The glutinous water is resting on floating air. This air or atmosphere is resting on darkness. The darkness rests upon the Hell and that Hell is placed on a massive stone. This massive stone is resting on the head of an enormous Farishta (angel); the Farishta is standing on wind and the wind is resting on the empty world of Allah’s Kudrat (glory).

  Seriously?? This is the most mind blowing piece of fiction I have ever heard. Firstly, The Earth is not flat and gigantic cows!! This has really got too far. The guy who wrote the Quran must have smoked a few puff of marijuana or ganja before he could invent such a complicated explanation on the structure of the earth system.

  There is another pretty funny superstition on how the Sun was created? Take a read.

  Intense darkness prevailed on earth when Adam and Eve were sent. Adam and Eve passed three hundred years under this darkness, when one morning, Allah granted their prayer and forgave their sins. Then, to express his gratitude Adam promptly offered two prostrations to Allah. When Adam raised his head from the prostration he beheld the sun rising from the East. The entire world was dazzling under the brilliant sunlight. From that very day the sun has been rising every day.

  Subhan Allah! What a great scientific truth I have learned through these Islamic teachings!

 

 

  CHAPTER 4

  SATAN

  "The atheist does not say 'there is no God,' but he says 'I know not what you mean by God; I am without idea of God'; the word 'God' is to me a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation. ... The Bible God I deny; the Christian God I disbelieve in; but I am not rash enough to say there is no God as long as you tell me you are unprepared to define God to me."

  -- Charles Bradlaugh, 'Plea for Atheism'

  “All atheists worship and believe in Satan”- Anonymous

  Here’s the thing. Atheists are not believer of anything “supernatural” and things which cannot be explained, and if you can understand, Satan comes under that category too. So, the whole basis
of this quote goes wrong. Atheists neither believe in God nor Satan.

  That’s how it started, a/c to some mythological books, Satan was once an angel sent by God to Earth and he started enjoying his life, got into divergence, and so he became Satan, symbol of evil. Seriously? If you enjoy your life, you will be a representative of Satan, what happened to YOLO dude!! And by that logic, every person on this Earth becomes Satan. Wait What?? And there’s another saying that “God” exists under each one of us. That means, we are Satans and we have God inside us. Great Paradox!!

  Now people have this general question, if Satan doesn’t exist, what do you say about all the paranormal activities and demon possession inside a human body taking place every day?

  Well, I would say, that’s a very good question, and to the contrary of your thoughts, everything has a scientific base behind these activities. This chapter will highlight the scientific reasoning behind each of the activities. Behind every shadow, poltergeist, and disembodied voice, there’s a perfectly rational explanation.

  10. Electric Simulation of the Brain-

  Frightened witnesses all over the world have seen shadows copying their moves. These dark beings are glimpsed out of the corner of the eye only to vanish when confronted. Many believe them to be demons and some think they’re astral bodies, here for a second and gone. However, scientists have a different view on that.

  When Swiss scientists electrically stimulated an epileptic patient’s brain, things got really spooky. The patient reported a shadow person sitting behind her, copying her every move. When she sat up, it also sat up. When she bent forward and grabbed her knees, it reached around her body and held her. The doctors then told her to read a card, but the shadow person tried to take it out of her hand.

  What happened was the scientists had stimulated the left temporoparietal junction, the part of the brain that defines the idea of self. By interfering with the area that helps us tell the difference between ourselves and others, the doctors screwed up the brain’s ability to understand its own body, thus leading to the creation of a copycat shadow person. Researchers are hoping this is the key to understanding why so many people, both schizophrenic and healthy, encounter shadow beings and other creatures like aliens.

  9. Ideomotor Effect-

  The Spiritualist movement was pretty big in the 1840s and 1850s. It provided a way for people to talk to their dead loved ones. One method of communication was the Ouija board. Still popular today, the board was covered in letters, numbers, and simple words (like “yes” or “no”). People would then place their hands on a wooden piece called a planchette and ask the spirits a question. A ghost would respond by moving the planchette from letter to letter, spelling out a response (or unleashing Captain Howdy).

  Another creepy method for interacting with spirits was table tilting. During a séance, people would gather round a table and place their hands on the tabletop. To everyone’s surprise, the table would start moving by itself. It might tilt up on one leg, levitate off the ground or scoot around the room.

  Con men were definitely involved in some of these incidents, but were all these encounters frauds? Renowned physicist Michael Faraday wanted to find out. Through clever experimentation, Faraday discovered that the tables were often moving thanks to the ideomotor effect. This is when the power of suggestion causes our muscles to move unconsciously. People expected a table to move so they unintentionally moved it. A similar event took place in 1853 when four doctors held an experimental séance. When they secretly told half the participants the table would move to the right and half it would move left, the table didn’t budge. But when they told everyone it would move in one direction, the ideomotor effect struck again! This same principle applies to the Ouija board. It’s our own muscles that are doing the spelling, not the spirits.

  8. Infrasound-

  After seeing a gray ghost near his desk, researcher Vic Tandy was worried his laboratory might be haunted. But the next day, Tandy made an interesting discovery. While preparing for a fencing match, Tandy placed his sword in a vise. He then noticed the blade was vibrating on its own. All of a sudden, everything clicked. He realized the force causing his sword to shake was the same force haunting his lab. Vic Tandy was dealing with infrasound.

  Humans can hear sounds up to 20,000 Hertz, but we’re unable to detect anything lower than 20 Hz. These “silent” noises are called infrasound, and while we can’t hear them, we can feel them in the form of vibrations. Dr. Richard Wiseman says we can feel these waves, especially in our stomachs, and this can create either a positive feeling (such as awe) or a negative feeling (such as unease). In the right surroundings, this might create a sense of panic.

  Infrasound can be produced by storms, wind, weather patterns, and even everyday appliances. Returning to Vic Tandy, after witnessing his wobbling sword, he learned that a new fan had been installed in his laboratory, and sure enough, it was issuing vibrations of about 19 Hz. Since our eyeballs have a resonant frequency around 20 Hz, the infrasound was vibrating Tandy’s eyeballs and creating images that weren’t really there. When Tandy turned off the fan, presto: no more ghost.

  Similarly, Dr. Wiseman believes these vibrations are responsible for paranormal activity in “haunted” locations. For example, when investigating two underground sites, he discovered evidence of infrasound coming from the traffic overhead. Wiseman thinks this explains the ghostly figures and creepy footsteps in these areas, proving there’s nothing good about these vibrations. No you can understand why all these horror movies are filmed in terrible weather conditions.

  7. Automatism-

  What do witch doctors and Shirley MacLaine have in common? They’re all big into channeling! Channeling is one of mankind’s oldest attempts to reach the spirit world. The idea is to clear the mind, connect with some sort of cosmic consciousness and let a centuries-old spirit possess your body, which doesn’t sound creepy at all. The shamans of ancient religions were believed to channel the dead, TV psychic John Edward says he can speak to those who’ve crossed over, and medium J.Z. Knight claims she channels a spirit named Ramtha, a 35,000-year-old spirit from Atlantis. Obviously, there are quite a few frauds in the channeling community, but what about the people who sincerely believe in what they’re doing?

  The answer is automatism, an “altered state of consciousness” where people say things and think things they’re not aware of. So when a psychic clears his mind, he starts searching for a friendly spirit guide. The spirit guide is supposed to enter his body and then provide secret knowledge about the universe. When the psychic clears his mind, random ideas and images start popping up in his head, and the medium assumes these thoughts are coming from another entity. However, these ideas are just coming from his mind. Our brains are capable of coming up with all kinds of crazy stuff without any conscious effort on our part. How many times has something inspired you out of the blue? How many times have you had totally bizarre nightmares or daydreams? That’s not the work of an otherworldly guide. That’s your brain, working overtime all the time.

  6. Drafts

  You’re exploring a creepy, run-down mansion in the middle of the night when suddenly the air grows cold. However, if you take a few steps to the left or right, the temperature returns to normal. This is what parapsychologists call a cold spot. According to ghost hunters, a cold spot is a sign of paranormal activity. When a ghost has nothing better to do than appear out of thin air and scare people to death, it needs energy. So the ghost draws heat from its surroundings (including people) in order to manifest.

  However, scientists have a much simpler (and much more boring) explanation. When skeptics investigate “haunted” houses, they usually find cool air entering the house through a chimney or window. But even if the room is sealed off, there’s still a perfectly rational explanation. Every object has its own temperature, and some surfaces are hotter than others. In an attempt to equalize the room temperature, the objects try to lose heat in a process called convection. This is where h
ot air rises, and cool air drops. Similarly, when dry air enters a humid room, the dry air sinks to the floor and the humid air rises to the ceiling. This swirling air will feel cool against a person’s skin, giving the impression of a cold spot. Next time you feel a ghostly presence, turn on the heater.

  5. Camera Issues

  Ghost hunters have a love-hate relationship with orbs. These glowing balls of light are supposedly the spirits of people who’ve passed away, but haven’t quite passed on. Invisible to the eye, orbs can only be seen in photographs, and that’s where things get tricky. Skeptic Brian Dunning says when a dust speck or bug is too close to the camera, it will show up in the photo as a blurry, out-of-focus circle. And thanks to the camera flash, the orb will appear to be glowing and is thus mistaken for a ghost. Perfectly reasonable mistake, right?

  Even most believers are pretty skeptical about orb photography. While she thinks some real photos exist, parapsychologist Pamela Heath points out several natural causes of orbs such as fine hairs, dirty or wet lenses, lens reflection, or movement during exposure. Many paranormal websites have stopped accepting these photos because they say there are just too many false ones. So thanks to a basic understanding of how technology works, orb photos seem to be giving up the ghost.