It's Time to Stop Knocking on Wood
You know you have said it, you know you have done it, but did you really need to?
Knocking on wood is a practice with several hypothesized origins. Some believed knocking on trees would wake the spirits that lived in them for protection, while others thought knocking on wood chased away evil spirits. The rules for a game called Tiggy Touchwood included touching wood as a way of being safe. In many cultures, knocking on wood was thought to either bring good fortune or prevent bad luck.
In contemporary times, saying the phrase “knock on wood”, knocking on anything made of wood, or even knocking on things not made of wood, such as your own head, might follow a statement made about something good happening or about to happen. For example, “I haven’t been sick in two years” or “work has been going really well lately”. The behavior is meant to avoid tempting fate.
Knocking on wood is a behavior brought on by magical thinking. Magical thinking is a belief that our thoughts, or words, can influence or cause something to occur in our external physical environment. This can create an irrational fear of having certain thoughts or saying certain phrases; and as a result, a feeling that we have to complete the knocking on wood behavior in order to prevent something bad from happening.
However, our thoughts and words have no causal link to the actual outcome. If I say that I am going to win the lottery, does it actually happen or prevent it from happening? In the same way, if I say things are going well at work does it cause something to go horribly wrong at work? No, our thoughts and words are simple thoughts and words. They do not control the outcome. If they did, it would be something that we could prove scientifically, repeating the same cause and effect repetitively. If I think I’m going to fall, then I should fall every time I have that thought. Or if I say I haven’t been sick in years and don’t knock on wood, then I should get sick every time.
Unfortunately, the knocking on wood behavior continues because we believe we are doing something to control the outcome, without any comparison to show what happens if we don’t knock on wood. Does something different happen, or do we end up getting the same result? We assume the knocking on wood is effective and therefore continue believing it is necessary.
To conquer magical thinking, we need to be curious and seek out what happens when we allow ourselves to have thoughts and say phrases without doing a behavior to counteract it. This creates a learning opportunity to see what really happens and also a sense of freedom as we do not have to try to control our internal experiences in such a rigid way. So next time you get the urge to knock on wood, try not to, and see what happens.
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