Magical thinking springs up everywhere. Some irrational beliefs (Santa Claus?) are passed on to us. But others we find on our own. Survival requires recognizing patterns—night follows day, berries that color will make you ill. And because missing the obvious often hurts more than seeing the imaginary, our skills at inferring connections are overtuned. No one told Wade Boggs that eating chicken before every single game would help his batting average; he decided that on his own, and no one can argue with his success. We look for patterns because we hate surprises and because we love being in control.
From Matthew Hutson‘s fascinating Psychology Today article, “Magical Thinking.”
educating alice 
Magical thinking is somehow connected with Celtic traditions of two worlds existing in the same space where those who are willing believers move back and forth, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not–right?
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