Superstition with Numbers

[Tyrantus1212]

There are quite a few numbers that I am superstitious about, in terms of good and bad luck. I'm wondering if it's OCD-related. First of all, I heard 13 was considered unlucky. It happens to be personally unlucky too because September 13th was one of the nadirs of my life, won't go into detail about it since it'd be off-topic. So now the number just plain sucks - but personally it also means that I have a bad association with any numbers that are divisible by 13. I know for a fact that 1001 is divisible by it, so should 1001 also be considered unlucky?

A prominent bad association I have is between numbers and times on the clock. Because of September 13th, I don't ever do anything when the clock shows 9:13 - I wait for it to pass. I don't call my mother at home, for example, because I don't want to send any sort of bad luck her way. I wait until 9:14.

Now, here comes the number 19. My grandmother died on the 19th of October, and was born on 1919 - so I consider it Grandma's Number. Due to my pessimism though, I associate 19 with her death date more, thus also considering it unlucky, as well as any numbers that are divisible by 19. This all adds up to my avoidance of the number 247, a.k.a. 13 x 19. I saw on here that I have 247 messages so far and it prompted me to quickly add a new 248th one. I also don't do anything when the clock shows 2:47, I just sit by and wait for it to strike 2:48.

I also don't like the number 911, because I associate it with the 9/11 attacks and "call 911". I treat the time 9:11 exactly the same way; I wait it out. I have also heard that 616 is the real devil's number, so 6:16 is an unlucky time. Other examples include 225 (my father's systolic blood pressure when he was very ill), 78 (the age at which my grandma died AND it's divisible by 13), 3 (my cousin's tragic demise was on October 3rd), but somehow I don't consider every 3 numbers to be unlucky because it'd be too much. Heck, I even consider 223 to be bad because it was the classroom number of a teacher who's been mean to me.

There are numbers I do consider lucky because I simply heard about them being considered lucky - 7 and 12 come to mind. I used to think of 3 as lucky until October 3rd arrived. These lucky numbers trigger some OCD symptoms in me - I have to drink exactly 7 gulps of water, and any time that has 12 minutes in it like 4:12 is considered lucky - like if I call my mother at home during such a time then it'd guarantee not to bring her bad luck. I also like the number 31 because it's the reverse of 13, and 49 because it's 7 squared (a lot of them time I bring the volume up on the computer to 49 instead of 50).

I still take 666 as being unlucky though, and its 3-digit factors like 222 - so that must mean that I wait until 2:21 (221 is divisible by 13), 2:22 AND 2:23 (because of the mean teacher)...AND 2:25 (because of the blood pressure) are all gone by. Similarly, I wait until 9:10 (910 is divisible by 13), 9:11 (the 911 reason) and 9:13 are all gone by. With 9:12 it's cool because it has 12 in it although 912 is divisible by 19.

Anyway these are just some examples that I thought I'd share, and I'm also wondering if anyone else here has superstitions, good and bad, about certain numbers?

 

[Momo]

I do the same thing! I was told that 4 is an unlucky number, but of course me being me, I just decided it was misunderstood and now it's my lucky number, and most even numbers, or at least numbers related to four like eight or two for some reason have also become lucky. I just think seven and three are too overrated, evil greedy numbers. But to make thirteen lucky you just flip it upside down, works a charm. Basically this weird obsession with numbers has too, overtaken my life.

 

[xudo]

I don't like odd numbers, but I couldn't honestly tell you why. My favourite number is 6, but I have no reason for that either. I like things to be even, to the point that the Trivago logo really annoys me.



Why would you have the first three letters (I get that it's 'tri' so that's why) in one colour and then two in another and two in another.....why not have two then three then two?? It irritates the living hell out of me every time the advert is on.

 

[OlLiE]

13 is actually considered lucky in Italy, to believe in unlucky numbers you would have to believe there is an identifiable and specific causality between a certain number and an unfavourable outcome

this is where things become complicated, say that you lose a lot of money in a 'coin flip' bet (i.e. random outcome) on 13 december, year 1313, at 13:13:13 'o'clock,

ok that was an unlucky event for you, but a lucky event for the person you lost to, so its good for one person and bad for another at the same time, i.e. the luck thing is just random and not caused by the number 13

 

[Ambi]

I don't have superstitions around numbers, but when I was a kid, the numbers had personalities and relationships. This caused me to like some numbers and disapprove of others, lol. Though my feelings never spilled over into math class. What a naturally judgmental person I was, that even as a child I was looking down my nose at 7 and 9.

 

[Tyrantus1212]

I used to also study certain numbers and what they're divisible by, and so that made way for many more favorable and unfavorable numbers.

 

[Ronin82]

All the numbers I use have to be divisible either by 2 or 5. If they aren't, I won't use them...unless its one of my favorite firearm calibers, then I'll use that in its entirety, like 762 or 357. I can't stand the number 666, and will avoid it at all costs. The only reason I like my phone number is because there is a poetry behind the numbers that are odd.

 

[Katleya]

I have numerous superstitions about numbers, but I'm afraid of what would happen if I listed them here, then counted them out, and ended up with a "bad" number. They do follow intricate rules that have logic only to me.

I can relate to a lot of what you said about the clock showing certain hours, the number of gulps (mine follows a pattern with 3 acceptable number of gulps, along with some of their combinations), the number shown on the sound volume, etc. I also have personal lucky numbers, but everyone, spectrum or not, has that to some extent, don't they?
I only send work emails at certain hours, so sometimes I'd craft a bunch of lengthy replies and shoot all of them within the same minute. If I schedule the delivery of a text message, there are only certain acceptable minutes.
Oh, and my alarm clock? You'd never catch me setting it up on the dot. It will be something weird that follows The Rules.

The gulps is the only thing that ever yielded to anxiolytics. Came back the minute my body became accustomed to the dosage.