Why am I still irrational/supersticious? Need some help :(

[jimmorrisonbabe]

I'm trying to avoid psychotherapy, as I don't believe I really need it and I have gotten through this many times before, but my birth coincidence (which you can read about on my previous topic viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4838) still haunts me, as I'm only looking at all the supernatural explanations. the scientific explanation... the clock battery ran out, which is consistent with reality, but why so close to my birth time? i still see it as a prediction. Who can help me look at this empirically?

I know this seems ABSOLUTELY crazy, and sometimes I do think i have OCD, but i need to know that there is NO possibility of any supernatural outside influence, that it just landed on that time and had no knowledge of my birth. I'm so sorry guys, it still appears I am a skeptic in training.

[Tank]

To answer your question requires a piece of information, how close to your birth time was the clock's time?

[jimmorrisonbabe]

My parents aren't totally sure, but they remember that the clock in the labour ward was stuck the whole time at about 5 mins around 6:08pm, which is my birth time. Maybe 6:03, the clock read, something like that.

[Tank]

So we are talking +- 5 minutes then for it to be interestingly coincidental.

There are 1,440 minutes in a day so the odds of the times being coincidental are 10/1440 or 1/144. So on average 1 in 144 people have the same situation. So of the 7 billion people on Earth 49 million people could be in the same boat as you, just by coincidence.

[pinkocommie]

Was there even really a coincidence?  The clock didn't stop on your time of birth, just a few minutes close to it, right?  Consider approaching your own story as if it came from someone else - would you be so willing to accept that someone else had some sort of supernatural experience because a clock in the emergency room had stopped around the time they were born?  As to why you can't get past it, that's something only you can really know.  Maybe you have regarded the situation as supernatural for so long it's hard to think about it any other way or maybe you're hyper focused on it for some other reason that actually has little to do with the clock/birth scenario.  Maybe your brain is wired for superstition, there seems to be some new information coming out that says we have religious centers in our brains.  There's a thread on the forum about it, I can find a link if you're interested/haven't read it yet.  If it's somehow an impediment to your daily life, I might seek some counseling.  Again, you're the only one who really knows what you need.  Regardless, I hope you feel better/find some clarity soon.

[jimmorrisonbabe]

1 in 144? Woh, that makes it seem a lot less special and prediction-like, but does that calculation count the clock being stuck previously? And if its that common, why have i never heard anyone with the same story?

[Tank]

1 in 144? Woh, that makes it seem a lot less special and prediction-like, but does that calculation count the clock being stuck previously? And if its that common, why have i never heard anyone with the same story?

If a clock sticks regularly it probably sticks for a perfectly valid reason?  Don't know. It would appear you're just an ultra pattern matcher, you're seeing things with a greater surety that other people do. We are all unique and if there were not people like you I would be extremely surprised. If there is a trait that runs through humans it's almost bound to be variable. There will be those who are poor pattern matchers and those that take it to the extreme. When you are compared to other people with average pattern recognition you are unusual. No big deal.

[Cecilie]

Okay, I feel like an idiot for asking, but what is this about? All I got from this is that someone was born at a certain time and a clock was broken. What's the problem?

[jimmorrisonbabe]

Basically, when my mom was giving birth to me there was a clock which was stuck/had its battery ran out at about 6:03, sometime like that. when i was born the real time was 6:08pm, so it was almost like, even tho the clock wasnt spot on, it was 5 minutes away from appearing as if it predicted my birth time. ive never met anyone else whos had the same thing happen.

[Cecilie]

Basically, when my mom was giving birth to me there was a clock which was stuck/had its battery ran out at about 6:03, sometime like that. when i was born the real time was 6:08pm, so it was almost like, even tho the clock wasnt spot on, it was 5 minutes away from appearing as if it predicted my birth time. ive never met anyone else whos had the same thing happen.

But what if you were born at 6:13. Would it have predicted your birth then too?

[joeactor]

So we are talking +- 5 minutes then for it to be interestingly coincidental.

There are 1,440 minutes in a day so the odds of the times being coincidental are 10/1440 or 1/144. So on average 1 in 144 people have the same situation. So of the 7 billion people on Earth 49 million people could be in the same boat as you, just by coincidence.

Less interesting still...

It was probably an analog clock.  No AM/PM, so it's really 720 minutes.  With the +- 5 minutes, that puts the odds at:

1 in 72

Now, think about how many people are born in rooms with a broken clock (include the third world too).

We're nowhere near the Lottery Odds.

[joeactor]

... as a side note, if you haven't read the "Birthday Problem" here's a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem

In a group of at least 23 randomly chosen people, there is more than 50% probability that some pair of them will have the same birthday.  Don't believe it?  Read the article...

[Tank]

So we are talking +- 5 minutes then for it to be interestingly coincidental.

There are 1,440 minutes in a day so the odds of the times being coincidental are 10/1440 or 1/144. So on average 1 in 144 people have the same situation. So of the 7 billion people on Earth 49 million people could be in the same boat as you, just by coincidence.

Less interesting still...

It was probably an analog clock.  No AM/PM, so it's really 720 minutes.  With the +- 5 minutes, that puts the odds at:

1 in 72

Now, think about how many people are born in rooms with a broken clock (include the third world too).

We're nowhere near the Lottery Odds.

Yep!

[jimmorrisonbabe]

But here's the problem I have.... although it may be more of a common occurence than i once thought, making this coincidence appear a lot less of a 'special' happening, it still doesn't mean to say the clock isn't 'predicting' a special child in some way. i have a problem rationalizing with what caused the clock to get stuck, although maybe the probability argument disproves any 'prediction' criteria as well.. maybe im just having more of a problem understanding it in my anxious state, like, what are the chances of actually being one of those babies? 1 in 72 yes, but because i'm subjectively one of those babies, it feels less likely.

[Davin]

All I can see from your story is that some clock broke and you were born sometime around the time of day displayed on the clock.

What does this mean?

Why is this important?