Superstitious Minds was noted as great post-trick-or-treating viewing for tonight by Alex Strachan in the the Ottawa Citizen:
Halloween isn’t just for the kiddies, and not all Halloween TV fare is eye candy for the fevered brain. The self explanatory Doc Zone documentary Superstitious Minds asks why, if we’re living in an age of rapid scientific advances and technological change, westernized society is more superstitious than ever. If you can get past the condescending narration – a persistent and annoying Doc Zone signature – Superstitious Minds raises compelling questions about that murky area where faith and reason intersect.
Superstitious Minds takes us first to Mexico, where superstition and Catholicism merge on El Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead – spread over three days, actually, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. The Day of the Dead is not focused on ghostly spectres and things that go bump in the night, as the movies and Halloween episodes of CSI would have us believe. It’s a time when family and friends gather, remember and pay homage to acquaintances and loved ones who have died, a traditional celebration timed to coincide with the Roman Catholic triduum – threeday observance – of All Hallows’ Eve, All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day.
The academics weigh in, as they often do in documentaries. “Superstition is definitely on the uprise,” Stuart Ryse, a professor of psychology in New London, Conn., says early in the program. “There’s always that crazy bit of uncertainty about what might happen, and that’s the gap into which superstition goes.” There’s empirical evidence to back that up. Each year, nearly 10 million rabbits’ feet are sold in North America, we’re told. Many of us believe bad things happen on Friday the 13th, and not just lousy movies.
The number 13 just can’t get a break, Superstitious Minds reminds us, even if for every 13th day doom-crier there’s a celebrity like Taylor Swift who insists the number 13 is lucky. For her, anyway.
Superstitious Minds is a little scattered at times, flitting from one anecdote to another, from El Dia de Los Muertos to Montreal Canadiens’ goalie Patrick Roy’s on-ice ritual before a key game. It makes for good post-trick-or-treating viewing, though, a Halloween program the whole family can get a kick out of. (9 p.m., CBC)
Also mentioned by John Doyle in the Globe and Mail:
What unfolds tonight is explained somewhat in Superstitious Minds (CBC, 9 p.m. on Doc Zone) a new documentary that is, obviously, about superstition. Halloween is explained as, “A spooky game of disguise rooted in an ancient superstition – that for one day, the dead walk among the living.”
Indeed. The program presents some interesting facts and issues. Well, they’re not all deeply interesting. Personally, I don’t care if Taylor Swift believes 13 is a very lucky number.
However, the heft of the doc is an assertion that superstitions should not be dismissed as ignorant or silly beliefs: “New studies are starting to shed light on why we are superstitious: because it works. Psychologists argue that superstition is good – it helps us deal with life, and scientists say it’s hard-wired into our brains.”
It is asserted that today people are getting more superstitious, and that those under the age of 30 are the most superstitious of all. Kids today.
There are lengthy explanations of the locker-room superstitions of athletes and fishermen. Guy Carbonneau, formerly of the Montreal Canadiens, gives us the gist and we’re told how Patrick Roy was obsessively superstitious when he was a player. Fishermen in Newfoundland have a long list of superstitious beliefs and it is asserted that the more dangerous the occupation, the more intense the belief in luck, bad luck and signals about impending doom.
A lot of time is spent on feng shui, the Chinese system of harmonizing existence with the surrounding environment. Here it’s described by one expert as “a spiritual discipline”, not as a superstition. A case is made for the pragmatism of using this system. But it’s a tad outrageous to suggest that the profits of the Whole Foods chain are high because they use feng shui in their store designs.
A good deal of what’s presented in Superstitious Minds (directed by Adrian Wills and produced by Kenneth Hirsch) is a crock. It’s just that you can’t persuade people to abandon bizarre beliefs. Like those held by members of the Senate.