Luck, says Richard Wiseman, isn't something to be left to chance. He should know. The British psychologist has spent 10 years studying lucky and unlucky people. And though luck is by definition unpredictable, his research findings have convinced him that people nevertheless can determine their own luck.

It sounds paradoxical, but Wiseman insists it's not. "Luck often means being in the right place at the right time," explained Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire. Lucky people, according to studies he summarizes in a new book, "The Luck Factor," live life in ways that tend to put them in that place and time.

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Cool story Gareth,

I found this intresting

"Religious beliefs underlie some luck-associated superstitions. Knocking on wood was thought to bring good luck because of ancient beliefs in benevolent tree gods. The number 13 is thought unlucky because 13 people were at Christ's Last Supper. Walking under a ladder is unlucky, or so the thinking goes, because a ladder leaning against the wall forms a triangle and walking under it would break the Holy Trinity the triangle symbolizes."

I always figured that ladders were unlucky because they're usually standing against a wall because someone is painting etc. Walking underneath someone who is painting increases your chances of getting splattered with paint. What's that Holy Trinity connection? People are soooo weird.

I believe in luck. Luck is not being in the right place at the right time by unconscious manipulation... that is definitely psychology.

Luck to me is having something happen to you that couldn't possibly have been in any way premeditated or arrived at by circuitous machinations. Eg. luck is walking down the road and finding a £10 note on the floor when nobody else is around...

...which rarely happens to me... so I guess I'm not that lucky. Pish.

I do believe in luck esp after our 'lucky' escape earlier in the year......
as for the luck you describe LB, nope not had that but always looking out for it...

I agree Holy Trinity! what ever next.......... Saint Neo?


but this made me laugh silly cos my Dad says the same thing

QUOTE

that ladders were unlucky because they're usually standing against a wall because someone is painting etc. Walking underneath someone who is painting increases your chances of getting splattered with paint.

I've always wondered about the idea that black cats are
unlucky. It's seems unlucky for the cat, since their black
coat makes it hard to see them in the dark(like near the highway).