Back in my engineering college days, I was labelled as the person with the ability to make things come true (unfortunately, only bad things) by saying them. It has happenned more than once that I would make a thoughtless comment and it would just come true.
Once a friend(Sankar) was going back home from college and I asked him to drive carefully. He met with an accident on the way.
Another time, I asked a friend (Smitha) if she was scared of getting a shock from the various current sources in the electrical machines lab. We were preparing for the exam when I asked her this and she said that she was not scared at all. She really wasn't but she did get an electric shock on the day of the exam. ( Nothing bad happenned but she was convinced that I had the power to make terrible things come true by saying them :D )
There are more, but I'll limit the examples to two.
Whenever I think about these incidents, I get stuck in a loop of cause and effect.
Could they have been related?
There are 3 possibilities/explanations:
1: Because I said it, these incidents occurred.
Cause - I said it
Effect - The incidents took place.
Explanation: Because I said it, a seed of doubt was somewhere planted in their minds which led to the wavering moment when the incidents took place.
To put this another way, by the law of Attraction explained in "The Secret" by Rhonda Bryne, listening to my words probably attracted those things into their lives!
I have black dotted tongue which is generally associated with witch-like powers according to legend. The fear it might have unconsciuosly intstilled in my friends (who are aware of the legend and of the color of my tongue) might have been strong and therefore, the seed of doubt might have been quite fertile.
2: Because they were going to happen (and I am very sharp to read the signs ;) ), I said it.
Cause - The incidents were going to happen.
Effect - I sensed it and said it.
Explanation: - Though I might have said it thoughtlessly, I may have picked up signs from their general demeanor, which I was not consciously aware of, but led me say those things. For eg, Sankar might have looked tired/sleepy or excited when he said bye before going home or Smitha was tensed about the lab exam, so I sensed the nervousness which might have actually caused the shock.
3: These are noise and there is absolutely no causality.
For reasons attributed to our genetic constitution, option number 3 may not be interesting to explore. Read more about this in Fooled By Randomness by Nicholas Nissam Taleb.
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