EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE- RELIGIOUS RIGHT

by Paul Schroeder

Evolution is still touted as the Devil’s tool, debated and refused as required curriculum in science classrooms by religious fundamentalists who refute scientific findings.

Bacterial strains, now able to resist antibiotics, only fifty years in use, and malaria’s total resistance to any of the last fifteen years’ known cures, surely both illustrate and represent evolution, in its clearest sense.

Such minds assert and retort that the Devil plants dinosaur bones to confound us and that our Earth, as the Bible states, is merely 6,000 years old- Carbon 14 dating be damned- that man coexisted, lived with dinosaurs.

What can science do to deter such minds who deny the fossil record and who see, “The Flintstones”, as a documentary?

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Family Of Man: Evolution and The Human Genome Project

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‘Surprisingly, they may find it hard to deny DNA research findings.

Why?

Because even if they will not admit science into their classrooms or churches, they will admit it into their living rooms!

Through television crime stories, they’re well acquainted with how DNA mirrors an individual’s unique identity and now from genome research we also know it reflects how closely related we all really are to one another and to all Earth life.

The Human Genome Experiment Research Project has determined that the DNA relationships among ALL of Earth’s organisms, are almost as alike as we are to all other humans.’

Be it Old Testament God, or E.T.s in UFOs, who are our creators, we are still ‘looking up’, for divine, celestial help.

‘DNA, Deoxyribonucleic acid, the building tool of living tissues and all of  their functions, has molecular codes that regulate the output of genes, the timing and extent of protein-making, and these are remarkably identical and alike in almost all aspects from the oak tree to a human being, from a whale to a worm, with only negligible differences.

Despite the fact that we LOOK different, from each other, all over the world, or seem different from a tree or a whale, we, all of life, are a family almost exactly identical in our DNA!

The genetic difference between individual humans today is minuscule – about 0.1%, on average.

What about being a “monkey’s uncle”?

Darwin never imagined E.T.s.

(graphic: Earthfiles.com)

Was Darwin onto something?

Surprisingly, the species of African great apes, including humans, has a closer kinship bond with one another than the African apes have with orangutans or other primates.

DNA research cemented that fact.

““If we are going to teach creation science as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction.” Judith Hayes”

The scientific surmise and prediction that was made in 1871 – that human evolution began in Africa, has been upheld by DNA research, as well.

Intelligent design theorists persist and flourish.

 

Because of many billions of years of constant evolution, humans share genes with each other and all living Earth organisms.

The raw percentage of genes or DNA that organisms share, records their similarities.

Of course, we share more genes with organisms that are more closely related to us, but only a smidgen more.

Today’s humans belong to the unique biological group known as Primates, and are classified with the great apes, one of the larger groups of the primate evolutionary tree.

Besides our distinct similarities in anatomy and behavior, our close biological brotherhood with other primate species is clearly indicated by DNA research evidence.

It clearly confirms that our closest living biological relatives are indeed chimpanzees with whom we share many common traits.

However,we did not evolve directly from any of the primates living today.’

Why do religious right folks use the Old Testament, so much?

 

Preachers, at revival meetings get, “AMEN!” when they hollar from the pulpit:

“Iff’en evolution is a happen’en, why don’cha see monkeys STILL a changin’ to people, these a days!?”

As well as common-sense scientific data ignored, larger

spiritual truths, are also widely biblical neglected.

‘

‘DNA evidence from research clearly shows that our species and chimpanzees diverged from a common ancestor species that lived between 8 and 6 million years ago.

Also, the terminal, last common ancestor of monkeys and apes lived about 25 million years ago.

Our species’ almost negligible genetic DNA variation reveals a common African root for all people living today.

The movement of humans, the permanent migration dispersal to other continents, from Africa, began only a mere 60,000 years ago.’

The Bible relates an intervention of a demanding, rule-insistent “God”, whom ancient man saw “descending from the Heavens”.

‘Human beings differ widely in skin color and other facile, superficial features, but these characteristics occur as gradients, not as separate geographic clusters; the pygmy and tall Nordic basketball player are closest DNA brothers.

Research into ancient DNA reveals amazing insights about ancient forms of mankind before Homo Sapiens.

Ancient DNA has been found, recovered and analyzed in Neanderthal fossil remains.

These ancient preserved  DNA molecules disclose the status of Neanderthals as a separate species, some characteristics of Neanderthal physical appearance, their likely speech capabilities, and population structure.

One species of humankind, living worldwide, is my family of mankind,
an amazingly adaptable creature, Homo sapiens; written into our genes, and into the fossil and behavioral evidence, is our Family Story.’

Whom the truth authors of our beings are and were is still controversial.

Evolution’s rudiments, can be proved and explained remarkably easily, to any open mind: Ontology recapitulates Phylogeny. It’s that simple.

That is, the stages of development of an embryo, from a unicellular entity, to a fishlike

 

entity with gills, to an amphibean-like entity, to a primate with a tail, within utero,

 

mirror and reflect all the stages of evolution from our beginnings in the oceans, to our upright status now, as developing, evolving creatures.

I just heard you say,”Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!”

All forms of life farmed throughout the Universe may well be seen as an enormous

 

molecular nanotech creation by a intelligent Creator using amino- acid -thoughts, expressed mathematically.

Crick, DNA’s discoverer, perhaps, said it best:

“Life did not evolve first on Earth, a highly advanced civilization became threatened so they devised a way to pass on their existence.

They genetically-modified their DNA and sent it out from their planet on bacteria or meteorites with the hope that it would collide with another planet.

It did, and that’s why we’re here.

The DNA molecule is the most efficient information storage system in the entire universe.

The immensity of complex, coded and precisely sequenced information is absolutely staggering.

 

The DNA evidence speaks of intelligent, information-bearing design.

Complex DNA coding would have been necessary for even the hypothetical first ‘so-called’ simple cell(s).

Our DNA was encoded with messages from that other civilization.

 

They programmed the molecules so that when we reached a certain level of intelligence, we would be able to access their information, and they could therefore “teach” us about ourselves, and how to progress.

(graphic: Earthfiles.com)

For life to form by chance is mathematically virtually impossible.”
(Crick)

QUOTES

“The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop.”
Conklin, Edward

Bookmark quote

“Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous.”
Ehrenreich, Barbara

“Darwinian man, though well-behaved, at best is only a monkey shaved.”
Gilbert, W. S.

“The pre-human creature from which man evolved was unlike any other living thing in its malicious viciousness toward its own kind. Humanization was not a leap forward but a groping toward survival.”
Hoffer, Eric

“I believe that our Heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey.”
Twain, Mark

“We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship.”
Wald, George

A DOORWAY FOR DEATH: PARANORMAL MIRRORS

Paranormal Mirrors, A MIRROR Doorways For Death..

by Paul Schroeder

“Mirrors are the doorways through which Death enters the world.

Stare long enough into a mirror, and you will see Death at work.” — Jean Cocteau.

I received a letter from a man with a haunted mirror, who was seeking a solution to the ghostly presence troubling his sleep with nightmares and his waking mind with disbelief and trepidation:

“My floors creak all over the house.

 

Sometimes at night, I hear creaking when no one is up. 

I sometimes see shadows as well but I thought those might be hallucinations from lack of sleep. 

I glanced up and noticed what looked like a face in a large bedroom mirror we have.

It looked like someone had drawn a detailed picture of a scruffy man on the mirror.

It had no colors; it was basically what it looks like when you smudge your finger on clean glass.

 

That man now comes and go’s. 

He seems to come out of and back into that mirror.

 

I have heard noises come from the mirror and quite often cold just emanates from its surface.

I have seen images in this mirror of the man.

When my family saw me take this out of the attic all I heard was, “Oh No” or “I thought you got rid of that thing, years ago!”

I guess the resident of the mirror decided to honor me with an appearance when I was snapping the pictures. ”

 

The  ghostly man in the photographs looked tortured and frightened, just like the man who had written me seeking help.

(from a communique) 

 He had, he had written me, brought that mirror into his house in September of 1998. 

His brother – an interior decorator – had found the mirror in the attic of a house that was being renovated.

He had given the mirror to Robert M., because he knew his brother liked antiques.

The owners of the renovated house knew nothing of the people who had lived there before them and could when contacted, shed no light  upon the mystery of the haunted mirror and the desperate and creepy face trapped and concealed behind its looking glass.

Through the looking glass, is sometimes capable of being another dimensional world.

From a reader (Nancy Smith):

“My daughter for many years hated mirrors, for her they were portals, no doubt about it. One day in junior high at her school, a young girl that had killed herself in that bathroom, which was later confirmed in a confidential conversation with me by a school teacher, spreading blood trails across the wall, appeared in the mirror.

This of course was a horrific experience for my girl, who NEVER went to the bathroom again at that school, those kind of memories tend to linger long after the experience.

She has had other ghostly encounters with mirrors, and doesn’t like them in her room. All I can do is offer an ear and a shoulder ..”

Mirrors have throughout ancient history long been suspected of having magical qualities, and

inter dimensional attributes. 

Mirrors visualized, in one’s mind, surrounding one, protectively, can have the same evil spirit deterrent effect as physically having mirrors that face doorways; it is believed that the troublesome entity entering, sees itself , to then be saddened, and to be repulsed, by its own sheer ugliness, its  demonic unholiness, enough to avoid entering, again, to yet do more mischief.

Surely you must have heard about many people who have seen a ghostly person in a mirror, a phantom person they couldn’t see when they turned around?

That’s is surely one of the scariest experiences that one can EVER have when it comes to mirrors and seeing ghosts’ presences in a house.

 

 

Mirrors remain a mystery as to how spirits can be seen through and by them, but not be detected visually, more directly.

Mirrors that are haunted, can be ofttimes portals into another close-by dimension and are therefore considered, by some, to be dangerous.

Mirrors can act as a doorway that allow the gangster fringe element of the spirit world access and egress to our lives, and all the while, we are unaware.Many religions and cultures retain some remnant wisdom of mirrors as doorways, portals to the paranormal, in that these cultures, today, require that one quickly cover all mirrors in a house of the recently dead, especially one of a close friend or a beloved relative.

Many believe that one must cover mirrors with sheets, towels or covered white with rubbed soap, after someone has died in that dwelling and  if their image was once reflected in that mirror.

The recent dead’s, often likely confused spirit, now a wandering spirit and still present in those rooms, must be persuaded to go on to its rest, for it is held that

if the ghost sees its reflection in a mirror, it will instead persist to stick around, convinced to the contrary, that it is most certainly, still alive.

Folklore thousands of years old, led one to believe that the mirror can and will also capture  that dead person’s soul, thus preventing its entry into the light of heaven.

Some ancient oral traditions state that the Devil invented mirrors just for this specific purpose, to deter and mislead ghosts.

“Mirror … Mirror on the wall you make my skin creep and crawl. Who’s the ghost that resides within?… The spirts of the dead, the lost or my next of kin! ”

Since ancient times, mirrors were said to have odd magical powers, including the power to foretell the future and were once considered devices of the ‘gods’, which we stole, and then mistakenly tried to copy.

 

 

Bad luck, it was said, arrived by  breaking such a haunted mirror:

Breaking such a mirror, it was believed, would end its powers to retain trapped souls and would release the gangster fringe element of the spirit world, into our reality, to bring untold miseries and misfortunes upon the one, whose reflection it had last held.

A mirror could, it was said, also damn an already trapped spirit to a glassy Hell, that only the Devil himself, knew existed.

Mirrors are odd visual doorways in that one can see one’s reversed face in the mirror as well as the entire room also reversed behind one in the background.

That mirror is not mere glass, but is also an open doorway into that visible space.

 

Birds, thus deluded, will try to fly through a mirror, or through a shiny glass window reflecting the sky, similar to the way ghosts are deluded.

All IS ENERGY

Some cultures see mirrors as nighttime hazards to our spiritual energies.

Japanese Feng Shui holds that any mirror facing the bed releases destructive feng shui, and that

any large mirror facing the bed directly will deplete your astral energy, over time, when you oddly and especially need it the most, at nighttime, when your body is genetically programmed to do repair work.

Mirrors, they believe, allow entities entrance to your sleeping form and act directly, to drain you of energy.

You thus awaken more exhausted, than you were, before going to bed, for

your spiritual energy drained, goes on to cause bodily somatic diseases.

Japanese energy scholars, who tout the importance of unseen flowing energy through one’s house and one’s body, state that any mirror facing your bed is also said to bring the energy of an unwanted third party, a marriage-breaker- into your most intimate relationship.

In feng shui,

a mirror which faces the bed is most destructive if it reflects your body while you are in bed.

Remedy the situation with a mirror which is

reflecting your bed, and find a different spot for it.

One can also use mirrors to improve the feng shui in own’s home.

Mirrored closet doors can be disarmed with simple draperies/curtains that can be closed at night over the reflecting glass.

This system allows positive mirror energy in daytime to get all the light and freshness for the bedroom that mirrors can provide, and at nighttime, allows one to close the curtains that cover the mirrored closet doors that face the bed..

The entrance vestibule of one’s house is tantamount, in feng shui energy flow teachings.

It is the place where one lingers when one enters or leaves the house and thus

one gets energy from the chi, that is flowing through this space.

If the entrance hall has no doors or windows and is enclosed, then it can lead to stagnant chi.

A mirror, can solve this problem.

From Wikipedia:

“A formerly widespread tradition held that young women gazing into a mirror in a darkened room could catch a glimpse of their future husband’s face in the mirror—or a skull personifying Death if their fate was to die before they married.

Another form of the tale, involving the same actions of gazing into a mirror in a darkened room, is used as a supernatural dare in the tale of “Bloody Mary”.

Here, the motive is usually to test the adolescent gazers’ mettle against a malevolent witch or ghost, in a ritual designed to allow the scryers’ easy escape if the visions summoned prove too frightening.

While, as with any sort of folklore, the details may vary, this particular tale (Bloody Mary) encouraged young women to walk up a flight of stairs backwards, holding a candle and a hand mirror, in a darkened house.

 

As they gazed into the mirror, they were supposed to be able to catch a view of their future husband’s face.

There was, however, a chance that they would see the skull-face of the Grim Reaper instead; this meant, of course, that they were destined to die before they married.

Another form of Bloody Mary starts with a legend with a young woman named Mary, living in a small village in England.

 

She was the most beautiful woman in her village and she spent hours looking at herself in the mirror. Eventually, a young witch grew jealous of Mary and cast a curse on her.

The curse caused Mary to lose all of her beauty and it disfigured her horribly.

One day, Mary cast a spell on her looking glass, and walked through it. She vowed that she would disfigure anyone who tried to summon her back out.

This also involves gazing into a mirror in a darkened room and chanting “Bloody Mary” three times while spinning around”

EPILOGUE:

“ Mirrors are the doorways through which Death enters the world. Stare long enough into a mirror, and you will see Death at work.”

 

— Jean Cocteau.

“When people talk of Ghosts I don’t mention the Apparition by which I am haunted, the Phantom that shadows me about the streets, the image or specter, so familiar, so like myself, which lurks in the plate glass of shop-windows, or leaps out of mirrors.

 

-Logan Pearsall Smith​

The mathematician, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), posed a child’s honest question about mirrors in one of his best-known books, “Through the Looking-Glass”, that gets at the heart of the reality of the trouble:

 

“Is mirror milk any good to drink?”

SUPERSTITIONS’ ETYMOLOGY AND NUMERICAL MAGIC

by Paul Schroeder

 Phantoms fill the air around us, electromagnetic energy fogs with memories and identity, and superstitions have arisen, as forms of protection against the evil unseen.

Numbers, as supernatural protection, intersect with paranormal magic when the intent of the person’s energy attaches to such numbers.

Seven has always been considered an exponentially lucky number used against that present yet unseen evil.

The Old Testament Bible is the original source that holds seven as a magic number:

-the seventh son of a seventh son,

-seven times around the walls of Jericho,

-the seven seas-

– the seven wonders of the world,

-seven years of good prosperity and seven years of famine,

-the seven ages of man,

-the seven deadly sins,

and culturally:

-seven years bad luck for breaking a silver mirror,

-seven lucky temples of the Arabians,

-seven as a winning throw in dice,

-seven ancient original planets (six and the sun as the seventh),

-seven stars in His hand (Revelations),

-seven days to create the Earth and Heaven, and rest

-seven Brethren to make a perfect lodge,

-and beyond the Bible:

– the seven dwarfs,

-the seven orders of architecture,

-the seven sisters of the Pleiades,

-The 7 Lucky Artifacts:

• wishbone
• rabbit’s foot
• white elephant charm
• key with heart-lock
• four-leaf clover
• swastika (the symbol is pre-Hitlerian)
• horseshoe,

-the Chinese seven valuables, and so on, ad infinitum.

Rabbit’s feet were always considered lucky and were carried in Ancient and Medieval pockets of garments as a guaranteed ward against bad luck.

Today, one can purchase a dyed novelty item rabbit’s foot for a key-chain, but it will be of a front paw, useless, as only a rabbit’s rear foot has value magically.

It was well known that wild rabbits will rapidly thump their hind foot as an approach signal of danger, to warn  other rabbits in their warren, in much the same way that beavers slap their tails onto the water to alert their families of approaching danger.

Remember ‘Thumper’, of Disney ilk?

So, too, it was thought in ancient times,  that if one carried the rear paw of a wild rabbit hidden in one’s garment or pocket, that the paw would ‘thump’ within, to apprise one of impending imminent or approaching danger, just as the paw did, in life.

However, the rabbit’s foot available today, is the front paw of a domestic rabbit and only a wild rabbit’s hind paw, will suffice as a ward against danger and bring one magical good luck. 

Knocking on wood originated in England with the people who built Stonehenge, the ancient Druids, who believed in human sacrifices and also that good spirits dwelled in Pine trees.

Their belief held that if such a Pine tree were brought into one’s home and ‘knocked on’, that the good spirits dwelling within it, would then be released into the home, thus bringing magical good luck.

Modern Christians on Christmas who bring Pine trees into the house and decorate them, are following this ancient pagan Druid’s rite which the Church tried unsuccessfully to extinguish.

This ancient Druid pagan holy day, was originally on December 25th.

The Church stole and supplanted this Druid holiday date in an attempt to substitute it and replace it with their own Holy Day of Christ’s Mass, (Christmas) symbolically representing December 25th as the date of the ‘birth of Christ’ instead of the pagan holy date.

 It is an a’ priori fact that nobody had known, has known, or ever will  know, the true date, of Our Savior’s birth for

 only uneducated, superstitious people, without historical knowledge, believe this birth of Christ date as fact.

Ancient Druids exchanged gifts with each other in their pagan celebration of that Roman agricultural holiday, on December 25th.

 Christians today exchange gifts, still following that pagan ritual, which has nothing to do with what the church tried hard to impose, as Christianity.

The church was patently unable to erase this gift giving Druid element of pagan celebration, despite prodigious efforts to punish those who did.

Mistletoe was revered by these ancient Druids such that it was never allowed to touch the floor and instead was hung from eves, above doorways, and from ceilings.

In their pagan rites, revered and valued mistletoe was used as an aphrodisiac,  a sexual stimulant, for under its horny influence hundreds of young Druid women and young Druid men would go into the fields (‘children of the corn’) to lasciviously and licentiously copulate in public in great numbers, to excite and thus encourage the ‘Gods’, to do likewise, a type of Godly pornography.

Druids believed that the rains which enriched the fields at this holiday time, which fell from the sky, were the ‘seeds of the Gods’, or God’s sperm, which fell down to earth from Godly sexual unions, and were essential in order to stimulate agricultural growth.

Christians who still hang mistletoe are displaying the vestigial remnants of this shameless sexual rite of the pagan Druids, as on Christmas, one can kiss anyone who stands under this herb, without owning guilt or shame.

 The Church was unable to extinguish this Druid magical pagan practice.

Outside of the Church, superstitions of magic also held innate spiritual truths, attached to them.

Black cats were  firmly believed to be  witches’ ‘familiars’, creatures possessed  by demons, evil inhuman creatures,  summoned into black  cats, to do evil; if a black cat crossed your path, it was no accident, but a curse.

Thus, black cats  were virtually exterminated from England.

Breaking a mirror, as a portent of bad luck, originated with prehistoric man, who held that his reflected image was not merely his image, but an actual picture of his spirit and  inner soul, itself.If such a primitive saw his reflection in a puddle or in a pond’s surface, it would cause certain bad luck or even likely death to disrupt that image, by tossing a pebble or stone into it causing ripples.

Interrupting the ‘image’, interrupted life, itself, and thus the mirror shattering superstition prevailed.

Certain African tribes, Middle Eastern as well as American Mennonites consider the taking of their picture with a photograph to be a ‘soul stealing’ intrusive  and unacceptable event.

The number 13, has long been considered bad luck for millennia;  today one will not likely see a number for a 13th airline flight or a designated 13th floor in a city skyscraper; one will likely see 12a or 12b as a utility floor, instead.

This fear of 13 as magical evil goes back into ancient history.

Prehistoric man counted with the only calculator that he had, his two hands with a total of ten fingers and his two feet, counted as not having ten toes, but as each foot being a single digit.

Twelve represented that which could be ‘known’ and

prehistoric man knew therefore that twelve was natural,

considered good and known, twelve months to a year, twelve people on a jury, and so on.

 Thirteen represented and symbolized that beyond which could be counted, or known and  thus , since

prehistoric man feared anything unknown, that number was considered magical and evil and still remains so.

The unknown has always been considered sinister and worthy of being feared.

This precedes the  myth notion that the Last Supper (a Jewish Passover dinner) had 12 disciples and that Judas who betrayed Him, was the unlucky 13th.

However, the number 13 is considered very lucky by the Chinese and Jewish cultures both of whom respectively have thirteen lunar months in their calendars.

The Chinese also have thirteen valuable talisman:  gold, silver, copper, bronze, jade, ivory, amber, wood, water, moon, fire, silk and ruby.

Superstitions’ magic in avoiding bad luck, reminds me of the quote,”I wondered why the baseball seemed to be growing so much larger in size, and then.. it hit me.”

Nine is good magic from the novena, the Catholic prayer that extends to nine days, as is three on a match, is considered bad luck ; from combat experience,  a sniper could on seeing an enemy’s distant flame, from the first smoker, to get aim, the second smoker, to get range and the third person lost his face and cigarette to a bullet.

Throwing things at people, is also considered magical, and

throwing certain things,  considered good luck.

Throwing rice at wedding was, from ancient times, considered a sign of good luck, as rice was so prolific, that tossing a handful into a puddle caused it to germinate within a few days.

Throwing rice, therefore, was thought to bring good marital reproductive luck,  to magically cause the bride to have many healthy babies.

If one doesn’t like the groom,  one may throw five pound bags of rice, in an attempt to seriously wound him.

Throwing coins into a wedding fountain accompanied by good wishes and throwing bridal bouquets also are both magically attributed with bringing good luck.

Throwing salt over one’s left shoulder, prevents evil from approaching, as salt is magical, absorbs negative energy and is reputed to kill witches.

It’s called the ‘spice of life’.

 Before refrigeration, salt was widely used to preserve any perishable food.

In Roman times, a soldier’s pay was given in bag measures of salt, (saline) instead of in coin money and thus the word,’ salary’ comes from the word ‘salt’, given as payment for military services rendered.

Salt that is blessed and left in a continuous line to encircle a house troubled with loathsome spirits, can create an effective ward or barrier to protect those inside from more harassment.

I know from personal experience, that this particular aspect of blessed salt is positively true, and not at all mere superstition. 

Salt is so valuable and so magical that if one spills salt accidentally, one is left unprotected by its magic, and evil ones approach at once over one’s left shoulder.

Throwing salt over one’s left shoulder into evil’s face reestablishes salt’s protection for your aural/astral energies, against evil ones.

The very word for ‘left’, in French is ‘gauche’ which literally means ‘wrong’.

A left handed handshake was always considered very sinister.

‘Right’, on the other hand, to coin a pun, is considered good; one seats one’s most favored guests at a wedding to the right of one on a dais and one’s ‘right hand man’ is more than one’s best friend.

In fact for the first 100 years of our country’s educational system children were forced to write with their right hand if they were naturally southpaws, as left handedness was then surely considered a sign of the devil.

One is still hard pressed to find any left handed desks for pupils to write with today in too many modern classrooms.

Directions aside, finally, magic exists in ladders.

If one leaves a high open ladder in evidence in the middle of a busy city street, many people will  avoid walking under it.

Walking under a ladder as a sign of bad luck originated in England in the 17th century, when pickpockets were hung from the neck  until death, from tall ladders,  publicly, capital punishment for the minor crime of being a pickpocket.

Pickpockets roamed and picked pockets, and worked those crowds who had assembled to witness such executions,  a grim reminder that capital punishment, as a deterrent, simply doesn’t ever work.

It was believed that should someone walk under that ladder, after the hanged criminal’s body was removed,  the ghostly spirit of the dead criminal lingering there would attach to and follow one home, to cause havoc and eventually spiritual possession, in an attempt  to continue to steal, but this time, the most valuable of assets, one’s soul.

Are these foolhardy assumptions, contrary to science or do they point towards remnants of lost spiritual truths, about how the Universe reacts to evil, bad luck and unseen sinister entities?

Science stumbles when the paranormal, magic or spirit is discussed, however,

the laws of the unseen all around us , extend within the paranormal and the mind’s superstitions mixed with the mind’s intent, can indeed often  protect against it.

EPILOGUE:

—=Additional superstitions that have defied my etymological research:

Put almonds in your pocket when you need to find something.

Scatter chili peppers around your house to break a curse.

Never blow out the first candle you lit before you blow out the others or bad luck will follow.

Throw rice in the air to make it rain.

Ask an orange a yes or no question and count the seeds. An even number of seeds means no and an odd number means yes.

In a photograph of three, the person in the middle will die first.

Walk through the branches of a maple tree to have a long life.

Carry peach wood to have a long life. Eat a peach to assist in making a tough decision.

Mix salt and pepper together and scatter it around your house to repel evil.

Do not whistle at night.

Eat mustard seed to ensure fertility.

Place chips of cedar wood in a box with some coins to draw money to you.

If you bite your tongue, someone is talking about you or thinking of you.

Hanging up a new calendar before the year is over will bring bad luck