The Power of Suggestion

A few years ago I had my palm read at a Hindu festival and although I could barely understand the man who did the reading, I think he said I was going to be sick or ill or something in 5 years. I had just had knee surgery the day before so I was not in the best shape and was hobbling around with a cane. I asked him if I would live and I think he said "yes". Of course, how many palm readers will say that you are going to die? Anyway, I have periodically thought of that reading and keep wondering how many years ago it was done.

Last week I was at my dreaded market days booth selling stuff left over from my defunct shop and adding garage sale items to fill in the empty space - can you tell I'm really bought into this venture? I had some things like a juggling set, dousing wand kit, and sushi making book sitting near the front of the booth. None of those are big sellers but I figured if people glanced at the items they might also notice me sitting in my booth surrounded by other "cool" stuff they might want - or not.

To my surprise, a woman quickly grabbed the dousing wand kit and purchased it. Her friend happened to have her own dousing wand in her purse and took it out to show me. I thought a dousing wand was just to find water but I came to find out that it is also a prediction tool- like a Ouija board. So I began to tell them about my palm reader and his predication and I asked the dousing wand (attached to the woman's hands) if I was going to get sick - it said "yes". Yikes!! I also asked it if I was going to get married again and it's answer was neutral. The woman filled in the next question "Does she want to get married again?" and the wand said "no". Now wait a minute, I hadn't made up my mind on that point - or had I? I had to ask it one more question "Will I be alive next year?" and it said "yes". Thank goodness because I'm too disorganized to die that soon! They told me that if I had anymore questions, they would be walking around the market. Well, I did have more questions like "should I believe you, Mr or Ms Dousing Wand?" or "Will I win the lottery"? but I decided that as long as I was going to be alive next year, I'd deal with the rest. Dang, I wish I knew that I had such a powerful predicting tool in my booth! Do I believe? I'm not sure. . .

Two days later, I was heading to the airport at 5 am. I always do a quick check of my tires when I get in my car just to be sure I don't have a flat. Yet within 5 minutes of leaving my house the "low air in tire" light came on. At that time of the morning there was nowhere for me to stop and I didn't have time to go back home so I kept driving. I was tense and planning in my head what I could do. There was a Walmart on the way to the airport where I could stop and get some tire goop but I might also have some in my trunk. As a part-time procrastinator, I ended up just driving to the airport without stopping. When I got out of the car, I pushed on each tire and thought maybe one was a little low.

Two days later I arrived back in Austin at about midnight and went out to the parking lot to my car. The first thing I did was give the tires a quick look - they were all relatively round - so I headed home. Right away the light came on again - this time it looked brighter. Now I was really worried and thought about the reasons for my problem tire. Maybe I ran over a nail when I drove through my front yard (to make space in my driveway for visitor's cars), or I might have lost that little valve cover that covers the air valve on my tire. I'm sure air leaks out of that hole! I could feel my car starting to pull and felt like I didn't have good control over the steering. I drove slower so I wouldn't skid off of the road if my tire blew. This time I was going to stop at Walmart!
About 10 minutes later, the light went off.

In my head, I had believed in that light so much that I actually thought I felt the car weaving and pulling. Once the light was off, the car drove like a dream and I made it home without a problem. And I haven't had a problem since.

Intellectually, I know that palm readers, dousing wands and the occasional loose idiot lights do not have powers of prediction, (well maybe that light would have, if it had worked). I also realized that the power of suggestion is a scary thing. It can make things happen just by giving them credence in our minds.

The next time I want to know what is going to happen in the future, I will look in my calendar, look at my "bucket list" and get that dang light fixed!