Ever heard of it? Sympathetic Magic – an anthropological term that has been used to characterize a variety of primitive beliefs about how spiritual or magical artifacts and rituals might have effects upon other objects (this guy Beck who wrote the book Unclean – consequently, I wish that’s how citing worked).

Beck posits that Sympathetic Magic was once characteristic of primitive peoples. How could modern people be subject to primitive magic – but according to Beck – ‘recent psychological research has repeatedly shown, modern scientifically literate people often make judgments of just this sort…..Magical thinking tends to override reason.’

He gives tons of examples and makes his point – you’re going to have to get the book if you want those. I can accept the fact that at times, I think this way.  I wouldn’t even pride myself as being a rational thinker all the time – because my post-graduate work has taught me that I am not. Beck gives example to explain his point – but I have real world examples of how primitive magic drives my thinking and my behavior. It makes life messy at times, and I can own that.

I can’t know when I’m being irrational or illogical. When you’re in the middle of it – it’s hard to see. I guess that’s why it’s so good to have people around me that tell me these things.  I really appreciate the people that love me enough to tell me these things – because I’m sure there are people that talk about it but not with me. That makes me sad, but I have enough people to love me through my irrational and illogical messiness.