Episode 234: What’s the REAL DEAL with Reiki?

Carolina were pretty tough. There was a lot of fighting that went on back then, and I didn't even realize just how violent many of my school experiences were until I met my wife Lauren, and she was like, nothing like that ever happened when I went to school. So anybody who went to the schools I went to during the years I to them has seen some pretty bloody fights, and I have been in some of them. That was

just the way it was. And now, frankly, I have always been or growing up, I was always large for my age, so that helped me quite a bit. But on the other hand, you know, when you're a freshman in high school and you're up against three seniors, that's scary. You need to you need to have a little extra understanding of how to defend yourself. And things really started getting rough in middle school and then you know right there.

I remember one day I was in middle school and the teacher came running in and the middle school was next to the high school, and they just locked everything down. Cops were all over the place because there were gang wars and stuff like that, believe it or not. Yeah, in the mountains of western North Carolina. So I when I was quite young, I started studying the martial arts, and I was very good at it. As a matter

of fact. You know, as I got older, I started doing some wrestling in high school and I usually won. And one day, when I was sixteen years old, I went into this bookstore. This is right after I got my driver's license so I could go wherever I wanted. So I went to this bookstore in Asheville and they

had a big, nice section of martial arts books. So as I was standing there perusing the books, there was a woman who came in also to look at the books, and she looked like she was maybe in her late twenties or something like that, but she was wearing a gee, which is, you know, like the robe with the belt that somebody would put on to exercise martial arts. And so we started talking to each other, and she brought

up the topic of chi chi. And I had heard about she and read about she before when I was younger, but I didn't I never really had any kind of

a personal interaction with itch Key Prada. It's the idea that there is some kind of a bio energy field around your body, and that that field is connected to your physical wellbeing, and that another person who has a certain talent, certain skill, can take his or her chi and sort of project it onto your body in various ways in order to well kind of heal you or

clear your chakras or help you in some way. And she started talking to me about all these chi exercises and she said, here, put your hand out, So I put out my hand and then she held her right hand over top of my hand and put her left hand below my hand, and then she goes, all right, are you ready? I said yeah, And in about two seconds,

it felt like my hand was in an oven. My eyes lit up because I looked at her and I thought, I understand people have body heat, but it's like she flipped this switch, so to speak, and her bio energy fieled and I felt this very significant heat and it lasted for about ten seconds and then she shut it off and I was like wow, and I was just instantly amazed. That's one of the most That was one of the most exciting moments of my life, to be honest with you, to be you know, to experience something

like that at that age. And she started talking to me about the reality of how you can train and use this kind of energy field. And then of course later on I ended up meeting Grandmaster Tom Cameron, who's been on all these TV shows like Ripley's Believe it or not, and we became friends, and he does these demonstrations where he projects chi and can affect scientific instruments, and he even goes so far as to do these these demonstrations where he he appears to knock people down

without touching them. The reality of that is debatable, but I could do a whole show about Tom Cameron and some of the amazing things that I was able to document by working with him. And of course this idea of having a human bio energy field especially appeals to me because I've always been a big fan of Star Wars and it's it's similar in a way to the Force. And you know, here, if you just look up the Force on Wikipedia, it says the as a metaphysical, mysterious,

and ubiquitous power. In the Star Wars fictional universe, characters refer to the Force as an energy that interconnects all living things in the universe, maintaining cosmic balance. Particularly force sensitive characters, usually through rigorous, self disciplined training and mindfulness, are able to connect to the Force and thus access

and willed certain superpowers. You know, it's interesting because they go on to say, and of course I wrote this book called Use The Force, a Jedi's Guide to the Law of Attraction, which you can read for free if you go to Joshua Peewarren dot com and just you'll see the book cover there somewhere and just click on it,

and it's multiple languages. But it says here that that when Lucas he interjected the Force into his work, that he wanted to quote awaken a certain kind of spirituality end quote in young audiences, suggesting a belief in God, without endorsing any specific religion. And it says he developed the Force as a non denominational religious concept distilled from the essence of all religions, premised on the existence of

God and distinct ideas of good and evil. Okay, well, that's getting a little in depth here in terms of how you make sense of all this. But you can see again how that this concept was appealing to me to think that we do have this subtle energy field, and you might be able to control your field, and you might be able to well improve your body, help other people, heal other people, move object all that kind

of stuff. And of course, if you know, I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church, and if any of you have a Christian upbringing. Were actually in many many religions.

You've probably heard of the laying on hands. That's a religious practice, and let's see, it's used as both a symbolic and formal method of invoking the Holy Spirit, primarily during baptisms and confirmations, healing services, blessings, an ordination of priests, ministers, elders, deacons, and other church officers, along with a variety of other church sacraments and holy ceremonies. And of course you know

the idea, and again this spans many different religions. There's a whole list of them, and not they're even African traditional medicine, Navajo religious ceremonies. It's not just a Christian thing. The idea is that you can place your hands on someone under certain circumstances and it's beneficial. It's a sacred thing, some kind of power is being transmitted there. So all of this kind of ties into this thing that I started hearing about many many years ago called reiki and reiki.

If this is brand new to you, it's spelled r ei ki. And there were people who would come to me and say, oh, I'm a reiki master, So what does that mean I say, oh, well, I can do this. I can. I can give you this reiki session where you just relax and basically I will use my hands to manipulate your energy field in a positive and therapeutic way. And there have been times where people would give me like, I don't know, maybe a sixty second reiki sample, but

I didn't know what to think about that. Well, recently I've had people emailing me saying, Josh, what exactly is the real deal with reiki? Can you do a deep dive on this? So I was like, you know what, Yeah, that's a good I think it's time I want to go and get an actual, in depth reiki treatment from a professional reiki person here in the Las Vegas area. But before I do that, well, I'm going to share with you some of the what I've learned so far about the reality of this and how it may or

may not work. And then I'm going to ask some of you to give me tips if you know anything about like where I should go because I don't want to go get a reiki treatment and it sucks. And then I come on the show and be like, oh, Reiki's a bunch of baloney. I want to make sure you know if I do it, I do it right. So we're gonna do this deep dive into reiki and if it might be able to actually help you and me and all of us if we open our minds a little bit more than usual. Hey, do you like

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you sign up for that newsletter. I am Joshua P. Warren and you are listening to strange things on the iHeartRadio and Coach to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network, and I will be right back. Welcome back to Strange Things. Call the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network. I'm your host, a wizard of weird, beaming into your wormhole brain from my studio in Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada, where every day is golden and every night is silver

Gietato Zume. And I'm telling you I believe in this bio energy force. I believe there is such a thing as chi or key or prana or oregon. There are different names for it and different aspects of it. But what is the reality of walking into a studio a spa. I'm not sure a place where someone says I have trained in this, I'm a level this or level that you just relax and I'm gonna wave my hands around you here and you're gonna feel better after this. How

realistic is that? And look, I always like to do this. Let me just go straight back to Wikipedia and tell you what Wikipedia says. Now, well, you should understand something. Wikipedia is a convenient compendium of knowledge, and I think Wikipedia is great if you are going to go and look up kind of widely known mainstream facts like how tall is Mount Rushmore or what year was Alexander the Great born and when did he die? And you know

stuff like that, especially old stuff. Wikipedia, however, despite their claims, the way it's edited by people collaborating it is very, very biased when it comes to at least three things. Number one is any kind of a current event. Number

two is anybody who is alive right now. And number three is anything that whoever the editors are at any given time, anything that they think does not fit within the current superficial, mainstream scientific view, which is usually about you know, fifty years old, going back to the way the world is supposed to work. So, in other words, if anything that is paranormal or supernatural or even any I mean even things that involve spirituality and belief in God,

there's always like a bias against that stuff. It's a very superficial, materialistic approach that's taken by the people who choose to be to contribute to Wikipedia articles. And so anytime you go and you look up any of these strange things that I talk about, it's just like, oh, this is bis and I mean it's like I don't

have a Wikipedia page which is fine with me. But if somebody did create a Wikipedia page about me, it would say, Oh, Joshua pe Warren, he is he is a He's an insane man who makes dubious claims about obvious pseudo scientific beliefs in ghosts and UFOs and psychic activity and wishing machines. And he's just a horrible person. You know. I think I'm gonna write my own Wikipedia article and save them some time in trouble Someday that'd

be funny. I'm gonna get some friends and they're gonna put together the most horrific Joshua p. Warren is the biggest Well, I can't cuss on this show. Coast won't let me. But anyway, bear that in mind because they obviously take a very negative spin on reiki. Here's the very first thing it says. Reiki is a pseudo scientific form of energy healing, a type of alternative medicine originating

in Japan. Reiki practitioners use a technique called palm healing or hands on healing, through which, according to practitioners, a universal energy is transferred through the palms of the practitioner to the client to encourage emotional or physical healing. It is based on chi, which practitioners say as a universal life force, although there is no empirical evidence that such

a life force exists. Okay, sure, yeah, how to we're just running around here dancing and singing and telling jokes without any kind of a life force involved at all. All right, let's get back to the article. Reiki is used as an illustrative example of pseudoscience and scholarly text

and academic journals. The marketing of reiki has been described as quote fraudulent misrepresentation and itself as a quote nonsensical method, with a recommendation that the American government agency NCCAM should stop funding reiki because it has no substantiated health value and lacks a scientifically plausible rationale. Wow, they're not holding back on Ricky, are they. Clinical research shows it as not effective as a treatment for any medical condition. Blah

blah blah. All right, so I think you see they're saying this is this article is saying there's nothing to this the etymology. And by the way, I got an email a while back from an unpleasant lady in my opinion, who said, well, I think every time you say etymology, it sounds like you're saying entomology. Maybe it's just your Southern accent or whatever, but she's telling me entomology is the study of insects and etomologists, like, I know that, and maybe it is my Southern accent. But amazing that

people will take the time to email you something. The etymology reiki comes from a combination of let's see Japanese word rey r ei, which means universal, and key, which means vital energy. Okay, so universal vital energy, simple enough, and says Reiki's teachings and adherents claim that she is a physiological force. It could be manipulated to treat a disease or a condition. There is no evidence that she exists. Reiki is thus classified as pseudoscientific. How many times is

it's going to say pseudoscientific? Then they of course they refer to some skeptoid podcast, says technique. A session usually lasts for approximately one hour. A Level one practitioner places their hand or hands on or near various parts of the body for several minutes. During this time, a vital energy is meant to flow from the practition into the client's body. Level two practitioners alternatively may offer their services at a distance with no skin contact. That's interesting. We

will come back to that later. So they placed their hands very lightly on you or just near you. It seems like, so where did all this come from? Well, okay, so Wikipedia says, here's what and again and again I'm going to go back and I think clarifying correct some things. But Wikipedia says that this man and I have no idea how to pronounce his name, This Japanese man named Mikhail Usui originated the practice in Japan, and he was born in eighteen sixty five and he died in nineteen

twenty six. And it says, according to the inscription on his memorial stone, sue he taught his system of reiki to more than two thousand people during his lifetime. And then while teaching reiki and fukuyama, he suffered a stroke and died. He was only sixty years old. Now that's kind of interesting because this is a man who is practicing, you know, this healing art in his in his opinion, and yeah, he has a stroke and dies when he's sixty.

Now you might look at that and say, well, that's obvious, as an obvious piece of evidence that this is not working to help keep you healthy. But you also could alternatively say that this guy had a limited amount of chi he could tap into in his life, and he's projecting it to thousands of people all the time. He's giving his own life force away and cut his own life short. I don't know which angle sounds more reasonable. But does that mean that if you are a reiki

practitioner you're prone like not a reiki patient. But if you're a practitioner, does that mean that you are prone to die earlier? That would be an interesting study to see if there is a list of reiki masters over the past I don't know, fifty years or whatever it's out there, and see how old they were where they died. Did they die at a young age because they were

giving up their life force for others? And then it goes on to say the first reiki clinic in the United States was started in nineteen seventy by a student of mikail Usui. That man's name was The first was started by okay It was started by a student of a student. So basically, mikhao Usui had this student named Chujiro Hayashi, and then Chujiro Hyashi had a student who really took it sort of more mainstream in nineteen seventy. But what's interesting is, so you have this progression of minute.

I know that you're probably not keeping up with this, and that's totally fine. But what's interesting is that the guy who they're saying came up with this, he taught it to this other guy named Chujiro. And Chujiro died when he was fifty nine, and he died of suicide. He committed sepulcha. Now, why in the world did he do that? So the disciple of the guy who invented the guy who invented reiki died of a stroke when he was sixty. His student who went on to popularize this,

committed suicide at fifty nine. We got to take a break. When we come back, I'm gonna tell you why he did this. It's a wild story, and then we're gonna dig even deeper. I'm Joshua P. Warren. You're listening to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal podcast Network, and I will be back after these important messages. Welcome back to Strange Things called the iHeartRadio

and Coast to Coast am Paranormal Podcast Network. I'm your host, Joshua P. Warren, and this is the show where the unusual becomes usual. So they're saying here that the guy who developed reiki as we know it was born in eighteen sixty five and then in nineteen twenty six he died of a stroke, and then he taught it. One of his disciples was as this other guy named Chujiro Hayeshi,

and he was born in eighteen eighty. He died in nineteen forty from sepeka, a Japanese form of ritual suicide seppuku, and usually when a Japanese person commits sepucha, the person takes a large knife or a sword and just disembowels him or herself. It was originally reserved for samurai and their code of honor. And now, of course that's a horrible, horrible thought, isn't it to just take a take a big blade and just cut your guts, you know, just

shove in there and slide it across your guts. But sometimes I've I believe I've read that, you know, you might have a buddy there with a big sword who will just after you do that, go ahead and chop your head off to prevent further suffering. And I thought, well, why why did this guy who was like a stepping stone and bringing reiki over toward the west, why did

he do that? And so I said, hey, Grok, because it didn't say in the artist article why he did Why would he do the groc You know my favorite search engine now Grock, I said, why did this guy commit suicide? Interesting? Says that he took his own life on May eleventh, nineteen forty. The reasons for his decision are rooted in a combination of cultural, personal, and historical factors.

Says he was a retired naval officer and physician who dedicated much of his later life to developing and spreading reiki, including his own clinic. He went to Hawaii from nineteen thirty seven to nineteen thirty eight, where he taught reiki alongside a woman named Hawaiiu Takata, and this was a significant moment in bringing reiki to the West. However, upon returning to Japan, he faced a profound dilemma as World

War II loomed. The Japanese military, aware of his time in Hawaii and his naval background, reportedly pressured him to provide strategic information about millilitary targets such as warehouses and installations in Honolulu ahead of the impending conflict with the United States. As a pacifist who had embraced Reiki's healing properties and principles, Hayashi was deeply opposed to participating in war efforts or betraying the trust of those he had

taught and healed in Hawaii. So, refusing to comply with the Japanese military's demands, he was labeled a trader, a grave accusation, and that to honor bound culture and in this context losing face, bringing shame to himself and family. This was intolerable. So sepacha was offered as a way to preserve his honor and avoid further dishonor So how

about that. So here is this guy who apparently I guess he was in good shape, sounds like it anyway, probably that they were asking him for some type of participation and the war effort there, and he says, no, I'm not going to do that, and so he commits suicide.

But then his student was a woman named Hawaiio Takata, Japanese American woman who was born in Hawaii and They say that she was a huge part of actually popularizing all the reiki stuff in the US, and says that she actually lived to be a fairly fairly old lady. She was born in nineteen hundred. She died in nineteen eighty, so she was almost eighty years old. They say her cause of death is not exactly known, but the grox as some sources suggest that heart disease may have been

a factor. Thank you, all right, Now, this is sort of like an overview I've given you of me trying to understand, like where did this come from? And sort of watch the story. But trust me, I'm not the kind of guy who does research just from what kind of free stuff I can find on the web. Now, if I want to do research, I go out. I'm not a cheap scale. I spend money. I buy books. I sometimes hire professional researchers to go and dig up files for me from courthouses. And I mean, honestly, that's

how I grew up. When I was doing research writing my book Haunt at Ashville, I spent tons of time in the libraries and the courthouses and in special collections and learning my way around that world to go, you know, get authentic stuff. So here's one book that I bought.

It's supposed to be a reiki master book here, and it's called Simply Enough Reiki for Beginners, The step by step guide to unlock Reiki's self healing and aura cleansing secrets for deep healing, peace of mind, and spiritual growth. This is by someone named row heat Sahu, and I have nothing to do with this book or this author or this publishing company. This is just something I bought off of Amazon, like anybody else can, And I just think it's interesting to go to what is supposed to be,

you know, an authoritative guide from a reiki master. It says here, have you ever sensed the calming vibe of another person? May feel it may feel warm, comforting, and very therapeutic. And have you ever felt the same energy inside yourself, whether in times of peace or during yoga practice, when you can sense your own life or it'swhirling within you. Reiki works similarly. It's a kind of energy healing that goes back to the late eighteen hundreds, yet its advantages

easily apply to the modern world. Reiki is a compliment reform of energy healing that originated in Japan. It is a gentle but strong, hands on energy healing technique that has grown in popularity over the past century. And then, but here's something that's kind of interesting. Even though this book starts out saying like the same thing that Wikipedia did, that it goes back to the eighteen hundreds. Later on, it says reiki's origins may be traced back to ancient

Chinese and Japanese medicine based on chi. It says people have been practicing reiki for over twenty five hundred years. So I guess that it's sort of like, you know, the fella I was talking about, kind of focused on it and branded it properly, and so they talked a little bit about him in this book. Okay, So here's something else that I didn't see online. Reiki principles. These are five principles according to this book, and see if you how do you feel about these five principles. Number one,

just for today, I release angry thoughts. Number two, just for today, I release thoughts of worry. Number three, just for today, I'm grateful. Number four, just for today, I expand my consciousness. And number five, just for today, I'm gentle with all beings. Number six is tomorrow, I'm going to beat the crap out of everybody. I'm joking. So sounds nice, doesn't it. You think you could do that

just for a day. Focus on the reminds you of the hippono pono, which, of course all also is interesting because it comes from Japanese roots, and so there's a there's a great similarity perhaps in the way that the Japanese culture treats their envisioning of the physical reiki energy, and how that treats all of this as a as a mental experience. Another section of the book, I Mark says, there is a totally non physical component of you that you may refer to as your spirit or soul. This

is the everlasting higher portion of you. It is a multi dimensional and exists beyond the three dimensional realm in which your body resides. Soul connects you to higher realms such as creation, source, God, and divinity. The soul is in charge of inherent abilities such as inspiration, intuition, creativity, love, compassion, kindness, and humility. And the last thing I'll read you from

this because I can't read the whole book myths. It says myth number one, reiki is a form of massage, and they say that this does not that's a myth because reiki does not intel bone or tissue manipulation. Healers employ a gentle touch with their hands on their shoulders or over the completely clothed bodies of their guests. They say. Another myth is that reiki is a new age practice with no scientific basis, and they say that they provide

their argument against that. They say. Another myth is that it's very complicated practice. They say, no, it's not. Another myth reiki is capable of curing anything. They say, it's not a cure for anything. It just aids in the induction of relaxation, response, and promotion of a mind body balance favorable to healing. Another myth is that the benefits of reiki are instantly felt. It says it can take more than a single therapy session. So anyway, those are

some of the the myths. And they also say a myth is giving reiki to others will deplete my energy. Oh, there you go. They're saying that's a myth as well. So anyway, Yeah, this book is called Reiki for Beginners, And when we come back, I'm going to wrap up this Reiki conversation, and then I got an email from a listener that I want to share with you about something that happened during a snowstorm that I don't know.

It's kind of cool, maybe a little bit eerie. And then I might also have some time for some mental man out. Why do you think actors say to each other? Break a leg? I'm Joshua Pete Warren. You're listening to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM para normal podcast network, and I'll be right back. Welcome back to the final segment of this edition of Strange Things, Oh the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM paranormal podcast Network.

I am your host, Joshua P. Warren. And I received a lot of emails every week, and I do my best to read every single one of them, but it would be impossible for me to reply to all of them. Having said that, I do want to go get a bonafide, credible reiki session to report back to you on. And so if you really know you know the behind the scenes on reiki and like what I should be looking for. I live in Las Vegas. I would like to visit

somebody in the Las Vegas area. Email me and let me know what I should be looking for to find somebody credible so that I can have the best experience possible and not go get like scammed somewhere and come back and give it like a bad review. And also, I mean, it is very weird. They do say in some of these books and whatnot that there are people who can practice reiki long distance. And that is where a lot of people say, Okay, that ends my suspension

of disbelief. I can't go that far. But he goes back to what I was saying about how we define you know, legitimate science these days, because if you talk to quantum physicists, they will tell you the craziest stuff you've ever heard is real. You know, entanglement, non locality cats, it's you know, Schrodinger's cat, I mean, Heisenberg uncertainty theory in a principle, all that stuff. So hey, look, you got you gotta have a very open mind and just

try things out. And look if I go and have an experience and it doesn't work at least, oh no, and I'll have something that I can talk about. So shoot me an email. Go to Joshua Pwarren dot com. Scroll down at the bottom and you will find my email address. Here is an interesting email that I received from a woman named Susan Bossman, and this is about incident that happened in Germantown, Wisconsin in nineteen seventy nine.

She said, I was driving home in a blizzard at night as I approached an intersection where a tavern, an old log cabin, a church, and an old cemetery were located. I was out in the country where three roads cross. The snow was almost blinding, but I could see the outline of a person waving his arms up and down frantically. I thought the person was trying to warn me that there was an accident at the intersection. If this was

the case, I needed to help out. As we were in the middle of nowhere, I pulled my car quickly over to the side and it slid into the ditch. I was scared, but I knew I could run to the accident scene to get some help. I hurried over to the intersection in the deep deep snow to find there was snow man, not even footprints, just silence and the flake's falling snow. I was enraged as I felt

someone had played a senseless trick on me. I went back to my car and was able to rock it back and forth to get it out of the ditch. A decade later, I attended a church in the same intersection for the grand opening of a museum of local history, and taped to the front door was a news article from approximately five years earlier saying that motorists should be aware of a ghost who plays with the traffic in

the intersection. For ten years, I had been mad, thinking some mean person had played a trick on me that winter's night. This ghost allegedly also ventures into a tavern in the intersection and throws dishes around. After reading this article, I was almost embarrassed that I'd been so angry at the stranger, now knowing it was a ghost. Well, thank you for that report, Susan. And hey, well your anger was warranted because that's a mean ghost. The ghost should

not have done that to you. Makes you wonder, though, is this a conscious ghost that's playing a trick or is it an imprint of some kind. Some of the most haunted places I've investigated are theaters where you have live actors who have performed on stage in some cases for decades or even centuries, and I think they get up on stage and they create this. They imagine things

so vividly, they create some kind of a tulpa. And when I was in high school, going back to how much I did not enjoy much of my high school experience, even though I mean I was I had a lot of friends, I was well liked. I just hated a feeling confined. And I've always had a problem with condescending authority figures. But I liked opportunities to do creative things

and escape from it. And so I got involved with theater, and I would do plays when I was in high school, and I learned pretty early on that it was bad luck to talk well, to say the word Macbeth in a movie theater. I'm sure some of you know that. Instead you say, oh, the Scottish play and the Scottish play or the Bard's play. Those are what they call them euphemisms. Words you would say instead of saying Macbeth.

You know, William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. And the reason is that, according to theatrical superstition called the Scottish curse, speaking the name Macbeth inside a theater other than has called for in the script while rehearsing or performing will cause disaster.

And apparently this goes back to the fact that, well, I don't know if you've ever seen Macbeth, but it's Macbeth is about partly about a coven of witches, and the traditional origin is said to be a curse that was put on the play by a coven of witches angry at Shakespeare for using a real spell in his play.

And one hypothesis for the origin of this superstition is that Macbeth, being a popular play, was commonly put on by theater as in financial trouble, or that the high production cost of Macbeth put theaters in financial trouble, and hence an association was made between productions of Macbeth and

theaters going out of business. That's interesting, isn't it. And there are even places where this has taken so seriously that when the name of the play is spoken in a theater, tradition requires the person who spoke it has to leave perform a cleansing ritual and then be invited back in, and those rituals ward off the evil that uttering the play's name is feared to bring on and that's true. I've been in theater enough to know that that's true. In some places, that's taken very seriously, and

I started, I don't know. I was thinking about that idea the other day that it's how interesting is it that Shakespeare, he's a mysterious guy anyway in history, that he may have somehow observed or come across this real witch's spell that he had adapted into his play, and that was like such a betrayal to those witches that they put this curse on him. But there's a lot of superstition, like, for example, for good luck, you often say to an actor or a similar performer, break a leg,

and that's supposed to bring on good luck. Now why is that? You know? If you look it up and you start digging into it, there's no one solid, good, proven explanation. One person here, let's see, who was an expert on superstitions, wrote this published it in nineteen twenty one in a British magazine. The stage is perhaps the most superstitious institution in England, after the race course. The latter is so superstitious that to wish a man luck

on his way to a race is considered unlucky. Instead of saying good luck, you should say something insulting, such as, may you break your leg? So they were so concerned possibly that saying something good would jinx it, that you would say the opposite. But it may be more like this. Here's another resource that I found that's also kind of interesting. I've never heard of this before, and I doubt you

have either. One of the more common theories about why you say break a leg refers to the early days of the theater, when the actors were cue to perform. There is a line called a leg line, and if actors, it's like an imaginary line on the stage. If the actors were not performing, they had to stay behind the leg line, which also meant they would not get paid. But if you were to tell the actor break a leg, then you were wishing them an opportunity to step across

that line to perform and get paid. So the sentiment remains the same today, the term means good luck, give a good performance. That kind of makes more sense to me, actually, that there is this boundary because you know, everything is worked out in rehearsal, and if you get that chance to break through, well, you break a leg. All right, my friends, here it is Relax. Listen to the good Fortune tone. That's it for this edition of the show.

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