At a dinner party the other night, an acquaintance of mine looked around frantically ? and futilely ? for somewhere to park her rather commodious handbag. Finally she balanced it on her lap. Clearly, with plate in one hand and fork in the other, she was uncomfortable. ?Why not just put it on the ground next to you?? I asked. ?Oh no,? she replied, ?if you put your bag on the floor, you will lose all your money!? I thought I knew what she meant. On one occasion, when I was having a cup of coffee with a friend in a restaurant, I had, as many women do, placed my bag on the floor at my feet. By the time coffee and chat were over and we were ready to leave, I found to my horror that my bag had been stolen. Though highly unlikely that her bag would be pinched at a dinner party in a friend?s house, she obviously, I thought, did not want to risk it.

However, what she was referring to was a superstition. When she spoke of losing her money, she was not talking of the money in her bag but all her worldly wealth. When she told me this, my heart sank. Here was yet another superstition that I would have to keep track of, yet another addition to a long list of taboos that clutter up my life.

Not that I am superstitious! Certainly not! Like many of you, I know that most superstitions are totally irrational. Yet, a small inner voice asks me, aren?t there always some things beyond the realms of rationality, things that cannot be explained. Just in case there is something to them, it asks, is it worth taking the risk? I may be able to talk myself out of such superstitious strictures as not letting a black cat cross my path or not walking under a ladder. I am also unlikely to change the spelling of my name to have the letters add up to a lucky number. But what about those superstitions that have been evolved through their own experience and then passed on by family and friends? Don?t sign anything important on a Thursday, a friend insists. Don?t start a journey on a Tuesday, an aunt warns. Don?t cut your nails after it gets dark. Don?t cross over the outstretched legs of a reclining person. Don?t break a mirror. Do I really want to court possible disaster by breaking these taboos?

The truth is that all superstitions are based on the need to make the world a safer place for oneself. Our rational minds may tell us that we do not have the power to shape the future by succumbing to superstition but nevertheless we derive a certain comfort from the belief that we may be able to control a situation by doing or not doing something. There is also another reason. Superstition is like a prayer. When you indulge in it, you are sending up a prayer to give you what you want.