One windy day in the spring of 1942, somewhere in Virginia, park ranger Roy Sullivan received a direct lightning strike, which struck his right leg and punctured his shoe.

Here the story seems normal and may happen to anyone, but Roy was not anyone, but can be considered a "devil" in the literal sense of the word, as during the next thirty-five years, he will be struck by six more lightning strikes in separate places!

Roy's story is considered one of the rare and amazing stories, so that his name was included in the Guinness Book of Records in 2001 as the only person who survived seven bolts of lightning!

(1)

A short film based on Roy Sullivan's story called Don vs Lightning was produced in 2021, and his story was published in many international newspapers.

Here we must ask: What misfortune befell this man that he was struck by lightning seven times, when it is rare for a person to be struck by lightning even once?

What about the other, more ordinary occurrences of our daily life;

Like missing the bus at the last minute, or your favorite kind of donut always runs out before you get it, or you find a broken ATM and you desperately need to withdraw some cash?

What is the truth about the misfortune that we sometimes think haunts us?

Don vs. Lightning - Short Film

A short history of luck

"Unplanned, influential events are not rare, they are everyday events. Coincidence is not accident. Coincidence is everywhere."

(John Krumboltz, American psychologist)

You must have had similar accidents repeatedly, got a lot of frustration and maybe blamed your bad luck for what happened to you, and maybe you are one of the "unlucky" people who always know that things won't go smoothly because their luck is always bad.

In fact, this is not a completely modern phenomenon, but luck and jinx are two phenomena rooted in human history, mixed with the superstitions and metaphysical beliefs of many peoples of the world until this moment.

The most famous beliefs related to luck are related to broken mirrors, black cats, blue beads, and “grasping wood.” These are not only local legends in the Arab world, but have roots in various ancient cultures.

Read more: Hold wood and black cats .. Why do people tend to believe myths?

You can spot the blue anti-envy bead hanging on the car mirrors, the walls of the convenience stores, the walls and the doors of the houses, and you can easily notice the lady who talks about her graces and then holds the wooden armrest of the seat firmly so that she is not envious and the bliss goes away from her.

And do not forget the sign of the palm or the "five and five" that the Egyptians raise in the face of those who fear that they will envy them, and the warning of grandmothers not to open the scissors at night so as not to bring problems to the house.

You can spot the blue anti-envy bead hanging on car mirrors, store walls, and house walls and doors to prevent envy.

But if luck and jinx are really superstitions, why is this happening to you?

And why do some people seem to have significantly worse luck than others?

Psychology offers us a different set of answers based on scientific experiments, away from myths.

lucky factor

“Although lucky and unlucky people have almost no idea what the real reasons are behind their good or bad luck, it is their thoughts and behavior that are responsible for most of their luck.”

(Richard Wiseman, English psychologist)

To study it scientifically, Richard Wiseman, an English psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, decided to put luck to the test and explore the depths of people who consider themselves lucky versus those who consider themselves unlucky.

During the ten-year study period, Wiseman contacted nearly 400 people who considered themselves either very lucky or very unlucky, of all ages and professions.

Wiseman interviewed the participants, subjected them to intelligence and personality tests, and invited them to conduct experiments in his lab (2).

In a cute experiment, Wiseman asked the participants to count the pictures in a newspaper he gave them.

The unfortunate took - on their own terms - about two minutes to finish the task, while the lucky ones only took a few seconds, for the simple reason that on the second page of the newspaper, Wiseman put a message written in very large font that said: "Stop counting, there are 43 pictures in this newspaper." ".

Wiseman put another message in the middle of the newspaper saying, "Stop counting, tell the tester you saw this letter and win $250."

Wiseman took matters even further, and his experiments resulted in the "luck factor" theory, which he wrote an entire book to explain in 2003 under the title "The Luck Factor: The Four Essential Principles."

Wiseman noticed in another experiment that the unfortunate may miss out on good opportunities because they are so focused on something that they can't see the bigger picture and the slightly different opportunities, so they miss seeing the giant message in the newspaper.

On the other hand, the lucky ones enjoy an open and relaxed view, which gives them the opportunity to see all the opportunities that exist and pick out the golden ones even if they are not what they are really looking for.

The Luck Factor: The Four Fundamental Principles - Richard Wiseman

Wiseman calls this the “chance opportunity” principle, and sees lucky people share specific scores in three main traits: “extroversion,” “neuroticism,” and “openness.”

In order to understand the relationship of personality to luck, let's imagine an extrovert who loves to talk to strangers and meet new faces, and seeks jobs that provide more social contact. Study, unlike an introvert who doesn't mix with people much, is usually unlucky.

In the previous experiment, the unlucky people failed to see both messages, while the lucky ones succeeded in seeing them in most cases, due to the person's position in the neurotic spectrum.

Wiseman believes that lucky people generally score low on neuroticism, meaning they are calm and relaxed, while the unfortunate score high levels of neuroticism, meaning they suffer from anxiety and tension, which cause them to distract themselves from the opportunities before their eyes, especially when they are not expected to happen.

And do not forget the actual role of chance in the course of events.

Wiseman tells in his book about a strange coincidence in which the character of Mr. Barnett Helzberg can never have a role.

In 1994, as Mr. Hillsberg, the owner of a famous chain of jewelry stores, was walking down a New York street past the Plaza Hotel, he heard a woman calling someone next to him "Mr. Buffett", and wondered if this was Mr. Warren Buffett, the businessman and giant investor himself. .

Hillsberg was about to retire and was contemplating the fate of his chain, so he took advantage of this one-off chance and introduced himself to Mr. Buffett and offered to buy his chain, which it did.

Some may call this good luck, but only the laws of chance can explain this incident, and let us add to it the wit and openness of Mr. Hillsberg, who, as soon as he saw the opportunity, was quick to seize it and turn it to his advantage.

Control Center

“I am not what happened to me, but what I choose to be.”

(Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist)

In the 1950s, American psychologist Julian Rotter developed the "Locus of control" theory, which explains people's belief in the source of good and bad events that happen to them.

Some people believe that the control center of events is located outside (external locus), which means that they have no control over what happens in their lives, so they believe strongly in luck, and they attribute any tragic accident to their bad luck, and refuse to accept responsibility for their actual role in what happened .

They usually suffer from destructive behaviors such as excessive smoking, alcohol and reckless driving, which in themselves increase the incidence of accidents and diseases, which reinforces their belief that they are unlucky (3).

On the other hand, believers in their internal locus do not believe in luck much, but rather believe that their actions are directly responsible for the events that happen to them.

Although they do not believe in luck, they may seem to the outside observer very lucky, they are optimistic people, work hard to achieve their goals, and do not give up easily when facing life's difficulties, and thus achieve success in study and work at better rates than the other category.

So in a way, believers in the inner control center make their own fortune and do not rely on external sources of metaphysics for their support (4).

Those who believe that the control center is within them do not believe in luck so much, but that their actions are directly responsible for the events that happen to them.

faith in luck

"You make your own luck."

(Ernest Hemingway, American writer)

Going back to Wiseman's experiences, we find another aspect of luck, which is simply that lucky people always expect good luck.

The difference between the lucky and the unfortunate according to Wiseman's research is the way they think about themselves and their life path.

Weizmann found, through the questionnaires provided by the participants, that those who consider themselves lucky tend to expect good things in the future, and they have an optimistic view of what is to come, unlike those who consider themselves unlucky.

In addition, they expect things to go well, whether they can control the supposed event or not, that is, whether the control center is internal or external.

To confirm the result, Wiseman gave the participants another questionnaire in which they were asked to rate how likely it was that negative things would happen to them in the future, such as being robbed or suffering from insomnia for a week.

The result was in support of the previous experiment, where it was found that the lucky ones expect exposure to various negative scenarios in the questionnaire at a much higher rate than the lucky ones.

As a result, Wiseman concluded, luck is nothing more than your ability to seize opportunities, using your positive personality traits, with optimism and always expecting the best, by trusting your intuition, and always seeing the glass half full.

In the same context, the theory of "self-fulfilling prophecy" developed by the American sociologist Robert Merton intervenes, adding a new interpretation of the game of chance.

Did you ever predict something and come true?

Like predicting your failure in physics?

Or to miss the train, for example?

In fact, your pessimistic expectation in itself may be the reason why you fail or miss the train. Your expectations may have caused you to become more nervous and unfocused in answering the exam questions, or you forgot to set the alarm well before the train time, so your prediction of failure itself was the reason. failure to occur later.

An optimist expects success in his endeavours, even if all circumstances indicate otherwise, but this does not discourage him from exerting his full effort in order to achieve his endeavour.

By stretching things straight, your expectations for a dark future may make your present itself dark, and prevent you from trying to change your circumstances for the better. Therefore, the inevitable result in the future will be your failure in what you expected to fail in, so what is the point of working for a future in which we do not see light?

If you expect to fail the exam, why study?

If you expect that you will fail in your romantic relationships, why make an effort to improve yourself?

On the other hand, the optimistic person expects success in his endeavors even if all circumstances indicate the opposite, but this does not discourage him from exerting his full effort in order to achieve his endeavor (5).

The popular magical concept of good luck may seem more exciting than the more realistic scientific concept, but the good news here is that the luck in your life is you and what you do, meaning that you can change your luck without using magic by changing your behavior and thoughts.

Knowing the characteristics of the lucky ones, you can strive to be one of them by making some effort to change your view of life and yourself, and change your perspective on your responsibility for what happens to you.

The proverb says: "The unfortunate is unlucky, even if they hang a lantern on his head," but psychology says that the unlucky can become lucky by his will, because the whole thing begins there, inside you.

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Sources

1- Guinness world records 2001

2- A ten-year scientific study into the nature of luck has revealed that, to a large ex-tent, people make their own good and bad f

3- Locus of Control: Meaning, Types and Influence |

Psychology

4- Locus of Control and Beliefs about Superstition and Luck in Adolescents: What's their Relationship

5- The Luck Factor