The Earthquake Shirt

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One sunny afternoon in Southern California, my brother (Aspie) put on a canary yellow shirt that was given to him by my mother for his birthday. Within an hour there was a 5.2 earthquake. He immediately took off the shirt and hasn't worn it since. As 'rational' as he is, he honestly believes that this shirt was some kind of 'cause' for the quake. I thought this idea was insane -- until in recent years, I began to have the same problem.

As an otherwise "rational" person, I found it odd that when I bought a turquoise necklace from a vendor on a Native American reservation and listened to the story behind its tear-drop shape (supposed to help you avoid being caught in storms or being hit by lightning), I thought it quaint and interesting. As time went on, I soon noticed that every time severe weather was in the area, as long as I had the necklace on, I (obviously) survived the onslaught of a storm. When I would observe storms coming in on the doppler radar, many of the storm cells would literally split in half as they came close to our house. I thought it odd, but dismissed it.

In 2002, a tornado went past our apartment building. After I emerged from my hiding spot in the bath tub (nowhere else to go at the time), I went outside to survey the damage. (I'd been wearing the necklace at the time). After an inspection of the damage to the neighborhood, I saw that the track of the tornado started out heading straight for the complex I lived in, then suddenly veered off by about 400 yards and then swung back around, regaining its perfectly straight south to north track about a quarter mile from my apartment. The tornado was close enough that I heard the impossibly loud screaming noise as it drew near, but miraculously enough, it missed us. For whatever reason, after seeing that, I began to believe that the necklace had something to do with the tornado missing us. After that, I have worn the necklace every day throughout the spring and the fall, which are the times of the most turbulent weather in our area. I also wear it during the height of hurricane season.

Even though I KNOW it's ridiculous, I can't bring myself to take off the necklace when a storm is near. Does anyone else out there have a similar object or 'totem' that they feel has the ability to affect them in terms of bad or good luck, or like my brother's 'Earthquake Shirt' & my Apache Teardrop necklace, do you feel a certain object has a real effect on the environment?

I wonder if this is an Aspie trait, or just a 'generally crazy' trait?

I'm rational in about 99.99% of all other things. Really, I am.

Maybe its just down to we seem to have a better sense than NTs.. maybe because we are a little different we have developed areas NTs have not, who knows

I'm neurotypical but I had 'lucky socks' I wore to exams through highschool and university.

Helen

I wouldn't think it's an Aspie trait particularly, as lot of NTs are superstitious about certain objects/actions. For instance, knocking on wood to ward off bad luck is very common. Or people might have certain lucky items.

In one of the "Wayside School" books (humorous children's books by Louis Sachar), a hobo one of the kids had brought to class explained why he didn't wear socks by saying that one day when he hadn't worn socks, he had done particularly well on a spelling test. Since then, he never wore socks. After hearing this, the children in the classroom all took off their socks for the spelling test later that day.

Hmmm... I just thought I'd post the question. I don't think it's an aspie thing, either, which is part of the reason for my concern. Oh well, have to schedule another visit to the therapist.

Thanks guys, for your replies-

In a manner of speaking, it's not irrational at all. I mean, each time you wear the thing, bad weather avoids you. Seems empirical enough to me Just like gravity, for example - it's perfectly rational to believe in gravity because you se it's effects. On the other hand, a mysterious, invisible force that causes things to move towards the ground? What? In that case, why not a mysterious invisible force that moves bad weather around?

(Don't worry, I'm hedging bets that the necklace is just a necklace too - I just felt like being obtuse )

I've got an unlucky hat somewhere about in my house. Narky crap happens every time I put it on - and it's a nice hat, too. Sigh.

I used to have a set of "charms" that i took and had to have in order to take a test.
it consisted of a rabbits foot, a key, a pendant from a necklace with a holographic eye in it, and something else.
it stood for luck, the key to knowledge, seeing what i might have missed, and something else.

once i analysed why i kept it, i stopped taking it to tests (i also started doing worse on tests).
I guess it worked like a focus object, like in harry potter, when ron takes the "luck" potion. He thinks he is lucky, therefore he is.

Aspie or not, I think it's VERY cool!

I love synchronicity and I think it happens way more often than most people notice. I think aspies tend to pay more attention to things and see more patterns around us.

Keep wearing the necklace!

Haha, I've always had things like this. I have a buddha necklace that was given to me by a Thai friend, it's from a Buddhist temple there and has apparently been blessed. I always wear it, day and night... not sure why really, but apparently it's lucky so I wear it.

As a child I would always be attached to various items. If I went out without the right shoes on (ones for school, ones for friends, ones for shopping etc) then the day would be doomed from the start because I would be putting the 'wrong foot forward'.

I have a couple of wristbands on from music festivals three years ago that I haven't taken off yet because they were from two of the best weeks of the summer, so if I leave them on then I'll keep having awesome weeks. If I take them off then the music will stop, so to speak.

I don't have anything in particular these days like your necklace though. At High School if I didn't find a four-leaf-clover on the way to school I would panic because I thought it meant I wouldn't have any luck in my classes. I found one most days though, so did ok. On the days I didn't I did badly - arguably because I thought I would, having not found the clover...