Is Friday the 13th Unlucky?

Many people live in fear of the number 13.  The technical term for this is Triskaidekaphobia.  Yes, it is a real word - check out the Wikipedia entry if you don't believe me.
The word for those who are afraid of Friday the Thirteenth is paraskevidekatriaphobia.  It's a not-uncommon fear.

But is it all just superstition or is there some valid basis behind this fear?

There are many articles and experts who can help you draw conclusions regarding the origin of such concerns, but the history is at best sketchy.  Is it, then, part of some retained ancient wisdom that is able to highlight the days on which evil could triumph?  Or is it rather the foolish man's misunderstanding of various unrelated stories fashioned into popular myth?

The biggest problems with Friday the 13th lie with two fundamental issues.

Firstly, the number of fingers that we have.
And secondly, the absence of better telescopes.

Let me explain.

Firstly, the fingers.

Human kind has ten fingers.  Because of this we work with what is called a base-10 numbering system.  In other words, once we get to nine, we then start afresh from zero with a one (1) before it all.  Thirteen, therefore is represented as 10 plus 3 -> 13.  This counting system is quite significant. Computers use binary (0, 1, 10, 11, 100 etc) for example.

But if we had only 8 fingers, then once we got to seven we would then introduce that one (1) and restart from zero again.  Consider the following table which shows the numbers from one to thirteen in both base-10 as well as base-8:

Number	Base-10	Base-8	Base-2 (Binary)
one	1	1	1
two	2	2	10
three	3	3	11
four	4	4	100
five	5	5	101
six	6	6	110
seven	7	7	111
eight	8	10	1000
nine	9	11	1001
ten	10	12	1010
eleven	11	13	1011
twelve	12	14	1100
thirteen	13	15	1101

As you see, with base-8 we would get to '13' quickly as the written equivalent of eleven. Similarly, thirteen would be written as '15'.

Of course, in base-2 i.e. binary, thirteen must be written as 1101 and there is in fact no meaning in the word "13" since only ones (1) and zeroes (0) are used.

Now that throws numerology and other systems off somewhat.

So if we had been born with 8 fingers (or in fact 9 or 11 etc) then our understanding of 13 would be massively different.

Then, there is the problem of the absence of better telescopes.

The main reason that the seven day week was chosen was in part (at least) due to the significance of the number seven, and specifically because there were seven known planets.

Sun, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Moon, Jupiter, Saturn

Poor old Pluto and Neptune had not been discovered!

If they had then we might well have had 9 day weeks which, apart from giving us either a very long working week (or a very long weekend!) would also have affected the days on which our current Friday the Thirteenth occurs. In other words, because the weeks would be 9 days long, the day which we currently associate with Friday the Thirteenth would probably be a Monday instead. Or a Saturday. Or a Gooday or a Gnomeday..... or whatever they chose to call the extra two days.

The practical upshot of all this is that the whole association that we have with a day being a Friday and the 13th of a month is completely arbitrary and totally unrelated to fate or evil or whatever.

So therefore, there can be no sensible way in which we can assume that any Friday the Thirteenth is unlucky!

Beyond Life

Most people will agree that there are two highly important stages that the average person experiences and that these are:

• Birth.
• Death.

Unfortunately, from there on it becomes highly complicated.

For example, we all agree that we were born but what does that actually mean?  Being born is, after all, just a transitional change from living in one environment (the womb) to living in another (the world).  Should we perhaps be talking about conception?  Or is that too dangerous?  Are we at risk with such thinking?  Whose body is it, for example, one second after conception?

Let's leave 'birth' and try death.

Death, of course, presents us with different problems.  First of all, there is the simple question of when death occurs.  You might think that death occurs four minutes after the brain is starved of oxygen.  What then of those whose brain does not function but who are being kept alive by machine?  What if brain cells could be frozen and then thawed without cellular collapse - could a person be brought back to life?  Would they have actually died?

Many years ago, a solution for epilepsy was trialled.  Severe victims of this condition had the left and right sides of the brain separated.  It was no longer possible for the two sides of the brain to pass messages between them.  They did not die.  They experienced some very strange effects, but they still lived.  How could a single person survive with two half-brains?  

And we haven't even touched what might happen after death.

The point of this is to draw attention to the fact that - despite people having very clear cut opinions about life and death - there is really very little clear cut about it.  When even the point-of-entry and the point-of-exit are so difficult to pin-point, then it seems unreasonable for people to then make statements such as 'there is no life after death'.

Or before conception.

The paranormal is about questioning our experiences in life and trying to find sense in them.  Things happen to us that might fit very neatly into the small-box of alleged rationality.  But then, sometimes things happen that do not fit.
All about us is a world that we still hardly understand.  The dead and the unborn - which might yet turn out to be the same - still have many secrets, as do the living.  Strange powers, ghostly apparitions, terrifying feelings, aliens - the human imagination is full of explanations for the less tangible and very odd shaped pegs that will not fit into our very square holes.   Yet, until events are fully understood; until some better explanation arises, it is foolish to discard such labels even though they have been somewhat tarnished by entertainment and scary stories.

Science often rolls its eyes at the paranormal and uses words like 'proof'.  Yet much of science is not built on proof but on hypothesis, on theory and on accepted conjecture.  Man does not - can not - know everything or prove everything.  To reject the concept of the paranormal is, in fact, unscientific.  There is no evidence to prove its non-existence.

Whether any one person's experiences are paranormal or not can be a difficult call.  Even something that seem to be paranormal may one day be explained.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  But somethings will never be explained away - in the conventional sense - and there's nothing wrong with that either.  Despite our best efforts, the word 'haunting' might be the best description of a problem.

We cannot pin down the beginnings of life.
We cannot pin down the endings of life.
We cannot even be sure about the bits in the middle - the physical.
Because some things go beyond the physical.  Beyond life.

It's No Laughing Matter!

Imagine this.  It's the middle of the night and you hear strange noises.  You investigate cautiously, but there's no one there.  The same thing happens again.  And again.  Without apparent cause.

By morning you have had little or no sleep, are very on edge and yet beginning to wonder if it was just your imagination.  The next night it happens again.  And again, there is no explanation.

So you talk to your friends.  You tell them that something strange is happening in your house.  Maybe something unnatural.  And what do they do?  They laugh.

It is no laughing matter.

The cause of your problems might be quite rational and simple - or it might be far more complex and harder to define.  But the effect that is is having on you, on the other hand, is clearly far from humorous.  Unexplained phenomenon - especially in your own home - can be a terrifying ordeal and it is quite inappropriate for your friends to respond to your calls for help with laughter.

The problem is, that most people don't believe in the paranormal.  Or to be more accurate, most people are terrified of the paranormal.  Laughter at ghosts and ghoulies and long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night is most often related to childhood fear of such things.

In this case, laughter can be a coping mechanism used by the subconscious to cover up the fears and worries that we are suppressing.  Laugh at something and you rob it of its power.  Laugh at your fears and you are more easily able to cope with them.

What you need is support.  You don't need someone to roll up with magic incantations dressed up like a reject from a fortune-tellers' convention.  But neither do you need to be laughed at.  You need someone to help you work out what is going on, and - if necessary - to stop it.

Remember, whether there is a 'normal' explanation or an 'abnormal' explanation, your health and quality of life are at stake.  It's no laughing matter.