From: UFO UpDates - Toronto <post.nul>
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:39:48 -0400
Archived: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:39:48 -0400
Subject: Are Americans Superstitious?




Source: Forbes Magazine - New York New York, USA

http://tinyurl.com/8dpszm

03.09.09


Are Americans Superstitious?
Karlyn Bowman

Surprising numbers believe in omens, UFOs and government
conspiracies.


Officially, the term "ides" refers to the 15th day of certain
months in the old Roman calendar. But March 15 has a special,
inopportune significance - as every reader of Julius Caesar
knows.

In an attempt to quantify how superstitious Americans are,
pollsters have explored our beliefs about prophecies like the
soothsayer's warning about Caesar's imminent death. They've also
studied what we think about all things supernatural and
fantastical.

Gallup began a battery of questions this way: "Some people are
superstitious and try to behave in such a way as to avoid bad
luck or jinxing themselves, and others are not. How
superstitious are you?" One percent of respondents admitted to
being very superstitious, 24% somewhat so, 28% not very and 47%
not at all.

The follow-up questions revealed that around a quarter of us are
superstitious about knocking on wood, 13% about a black cat
crossing a path, 12% about walking under a ladder, 11% about
breaking a mirror, 9% about the number 13 - and 9% of
respondents believed that speaking ill of a person makes it come
true.

A small collection of questions on paranormal phenomena exist in
the survey archives. Again, turning to Gallup's findings, 63% of
respondents to one poll indicated they believe in d=E9j=E0 vu.

In questions asked in 1996 and then a decade later, slightly
more than four in 10 believed in ESP, around 30% in telepathy
and about a quarter in clairvoyance. Sixty percent said they had
had the feeling of d=E9j=E0 vu, and 18% in another question said
they had felt they were in touch with someone who had already
died.

In November, Harris updated a broader question about "various
things some people believe in." Substantial majorities believed
in God (80%), miracles (75%) and heaven (73%) - to name just a
few of the religious items the polling firm included. But
significant numbers also believed in ghosts (44%) and witches
(31%). The responses have held steady since Harris first asked
the questions in 2005.

In a Gallup question, a third said houses could be haunted, 16%
said they had been in such a house and 9% said they had been in
the presence of a ghost.




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