I had a sweet little old lady come into the Vitamin Shoppe this morning who was asking me about CoQ10 and other supplements.  After I gave her the spiel on all the supplements, she asked me sweetly if I would help her test them.

I thought that she was implying the question of whether I would be willing to keep track of what she told me worked for her and what did not.  It’s not in the job description, but hey, if I suffer from memory loss when I’m her age I would hope that some kind young lady working at my favorite supplement shop would do the same for me, right?  So I agreed.

But when I did so, she immediately grasped the bottle of Co-Q10 to her sternum with her left hand and stiffly held out her right arm, fist clenched.  Then she closed her eyes.  I was dumbfounded.  Peeking out of her right eye when I didn’t respond in the slightest, she said, “Um?  Push my arm down.”  Like it was the most natural thing to say at such a time as this.  I asked her what she meant, and she just repeated herself; so, not wanting to abuse this fragile woman, I used the two first fingers on my right hand and  gingerly pushed down on her wrist, whereupon her arm didn’t move.  She then corrected me, “No, push it down—hard!”

What?

So I did, right?  It was difficult to press down her arm, but she eventually let it fall, then proceeded to test another package of Co-Q10, this time by taking the blister pack out of the box and clutching it to her bosom again.  We repeated the procedure.

She explained to me afterward that if the medicine would work for her, I wouldn’t be able to easily push the arm down; but if not, her arm would fall immediately.

What—?

When I had rung her up, she proceeded to give me a tract about God’s Simple Plan of Salvation from so-and-so Baptist church.  I do not hesitate to point out that this is nowhere in Christendom, especially not in Baptist churches; it struck me as peculiar precisely because this seemed more similar to something like a Wiccan superstition, in which the magnetic energies would react in our bodies to those in the supplements or some such thing.

When I later asked my manager about it, he said that there were at least one or two people who had a similar superstition who came in every other day or so.  Some of them did the arm thing, but most of them would only close their eyes and hold the supplement to their bosom to see if they fell backwards; if so, it would not work for them, but if they held their ground, it would work.

I have not been able to find anything on this via Google, mostly because I don’t know what to Google for.  Queries such as “ridiculous superstitions” and “superstition medicine hold to chest” and such don’t seem to produce much of anything.  So my question to you is, have you ever heard of this?  And, if so, would you be so kind as to explain its origins?

Technorati Tags: [1] supplementation, [2] superstition

I had a sweet little old lady come into the Vitamin Shoppe this morning who was asking me about CoQ10 and other supplements.  After I gave her the spiel on all the supplements, she asked me sweetly if I would help her test them.

I thought that she was implying the question of whether I would be willing to keep track of what she told me worked for her and what did not.  It’s not in the job description, but hey, if I suffer from memory loss when I’m her age I would hope that some kind young lady working at my favorite supplement shop would do the same for me, right?  So I agreed.

But when I did so, she immediately grasped the bottle of Co-Q10 to her sternum with her left hand and stiffly held out her right arm, fist clenched.  Then she closed her eyes.  I was dumbfounded.  Peeking out of her right eye when I didn’t respond in the slightest, she said, “Um?  Push my arm down.”  Like it was the most natural thing to say at such a time as this.  I asked her what she meant, and she just repeated herself; so, not wanting to abuse this fragile woman, I used the two first fingers on my right hand and  gingerly pushed down on her wrist, whereupon her arm didn’t move.  She then corrected me, “No, push it down—hard!”

What?

So I did, right?  It was difficult to press down her arm, but she eventually let it fall, then proceeded to test another package of Co-Q10, this time by taking the blister pack out of the box and clutching it to her bosom again.  We repeated the procedure.

She explained to me afterward that if the medicine would work for her, I wouldn’t be able to easily push the arm down; but if not, her arm would fall immediately.

What—?

When I had rung her up, she proceeded to give me a tract about God’s Simple Plan of Salvation from so-and-so Baptist church.  I do not hesitate to point out that this is nowhere in Christendom, especially not in Baptist churches; it struck me as peculiar precisely because this seemed more similar to something like a Wiccan superstition, in which the magnetic energies would react in our bodies to those in the supplements or some such thing.

When I later asked my manager about it, he said that there were at least one or two people who had a similar superstition who came in every other day or so.  Some of them did the arm thing, but most of them would only close their eyes and hold the supplement to their bosom to see if they fell backwards; if so, it would not work for them, but if they held their ground, it would work.

I have not been able to find anything on this via Google, mostly because I don’t know what to Google for.  Queries such as “ridiculous superstitions” and “superstition medicine hold to chest” and such don’t seem to produce much of anything.  So my question to you is, have you ever heard of this?  And, if so, would you be so kind as to explain its origins?

Technorati Tags: [3] supplementation, [4] superstition