# What was the weirdest belief you ever personally held? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 19, 2026, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398 "2026-04-19T15:12:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/81 "2026-04-22T07:42:10Z")
My brother was convinced that lovebugs were venomous, but I didn’t listen to him on that one. He was walking outside the house in a place that had a lot of lovebugs and he got painfully stung. My theory is that there was a wasp hiding amongst them that had flimsy-looking yet dark black wings like lovebugs do and he got them confused. Looking at Wikipedia I see that some spider wasps look vaguely lovebuggish and I seem to remember other wasps looking that way as well. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/82 "2026-04-22T11:05:32Z")
My wife as a child believed that all dogs were boys and all cats were girls. Other than thinking that magical and super abilities could manifest themselves IRL if you trained, studied, or worked hard enough at it, I can’t remember any other real weird stuff I believed from when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/83 "2026-04-22T12:25:00Z")
Did you read The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar? I believed that was a true story. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/84 "2026-04-22T12:25:29Z")
When I was 6, my aunt, who often stayed with us, called out to me, “Archie is on!” It was after 8 PM, yet I thought it was Archie and the kids from Riverdale. The cartoon. Of course, it was a 2nd season episode of “All in the Family”. ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/85 "2026-04-22T12:30:06Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > While in kindergarten, I saw a Keebler Elf Cookie Tree display inside the vestibule of the Kroger supermarket at its grand opening. So I used to think cookies came from trees. > > I was corrected in rather spectacular fashion when my teacher asked us for examples of things that grew on trees. > > When I gave my answer, I was sent to sit in the corner. You would have loved the BBC spaghetti tree video. [Spaghetti-tree hoax - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax) ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/86 "2026-04-22T12:39:05Z")
The theme of this thread is supposed to be _weird things_ you believe in, not demonstrably true things you subscribe to. Being able to hex a field goal kicker is every bit as normal as the ‘loser-rays’ I exude every time I watch my home team Lions play. Yes, I can make the Lions lose any time I choose. All I have to do is watch more that 30 seconds of a game (sometimes even less!) and it is virtually certain that the Lions will lose that particular game. If I don’t watch, there’s a fair chance they may win (oftentimes because of some spectacular play that I missed), but if I do watch, well… I don’t believe in magic, so I figure the strong positive correlation between these two factors is best explained as being caused by reflected sunlight shining back from Saturn. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/87 "2026-04-22T13:31:01Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > I don’t believe in magic, so I figure the strong positive correlation between these two factors is best explained as being caused by reflected sunlight shining back from Saturn. This is like the ‘cold rays’ that the moon emits. It’s demonstrably observable: clear night, full moon visible - it’s usually cold… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/88 "2026-04-22T14:42:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > When I was a little kid, I thought that if I closed my eyes, no one could see ME, either. Were you the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal? ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/89 "2026-04-22T18:32:27Z")
Save that question for when R comes up in Botticelli. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/90 "2026-04-22T19:07:11Z")
In kindergarten, I believed President Lincoln had freed the sleighs (which I assumed had somehow gotten stuck in the snow), thus saving Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![motu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/motu/32/259_2.png) [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/91 "2026-04-22T23:11:23Z")
Originally, I thought the color was graple. Once I learned purple I never said it again, much to the disapointment of one of my aunts. My ten year older brother saw me being fascinated with the frost on the living room windows one early winter morning. He quickly warmed a spot so I could see out. He pointed to figure of in the distance carrying a bag. That’s who frosted the windows, that is Jack Frost. I was shocked that he let me in on this secret. Years later I realized he was just a hard working newspaper delivery boy. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/92 "2026-04-23T02:03:58Z")
My wife would say my belief until up into my twenties that I was too unattractive to get more than one date every couple of years. I mean I didn’t, but physical unattractiveness wasn’t the reason. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/93 "2026-04-23T02:25:25Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > As a kid, I was always skeptical of airplanes. Not as in having a fear of flying (which I actually loved), but as in wondering if they were actually, well, flying… On the subject of flying, my parents were always train-goers, partly I think because of my mother’s fear of flying. When we went from eastern Canada to visit my brother in California, we had no choice but to fly. I got my Dad to sit in the window seat, while my Mom did her best to pretend to be elsewhere – anywhere but on an airplane! It was late February and along most of the way Dad kept commenting on how much snow there was down there. It took a long time to persuade him that he was actually seeing cloud tops, not snow. I also remember that on the return flight home, Mom gave me a hug of relief when we landed and she heard the rumble of the wheels on the ground. Probably just as well she didn’t fully appreciate that several hundred tons of airplane careening down a runway at a couple of hundred miles per hour is not yet exactly “safe” until it slows down a whole lot more! ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/94 "2026-04-23T03:45:22Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > lovebugs TIL that “lovebug” is more than just a term of affection or a Volkswagen named Herbie. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/95 "2026-04-23T12:07:36Z")
While a pre-schooler, I watched my Dad and Grandpa doing something with an electric water pump. This particular one required the operator to press and hold a button for the pump to run. Releasing the button stopped the flow. Since it was the only pump I’d seen, I assumed that the town’s “water company” must have one of these for each house. And that a worker somewhere had to hold down a button every time we ran water through a faucet. I started warning my sister that “the man’s thumb is getting tired!” when she ran lots of water in the tub or sink. My parents heard this and after querying me, explained that the water company didn’t need individual employees pressing buttons for each house’s running water. Weird I know, but I was extrapolating from the only information I had. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/96 "2026-04-23T12:22:03Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > TIL that “lovebug” is more than just a term of affection or a Volkswagen named Herbie. > [@Ever experienced a swarm of "love bugs?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-experienced-a-swarm-of-love-bugs/1020497): > > I saw this news item today There is also something in the US called “love bugs”, and googling shiws that they are the same genus as the Asian ones. We don’t get them in deep inland South Carolina, but they are on the coast. I remember a time driving through Hollywood, SC when we ran into a massive swarm of them. I remember passing through the town center and seeing people on the sidewalks trying to bat away clouds of them like the people in Korea. We had to stop at a car wash and wash the w… ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/97 "2026-04-23T19:07:37Z")
It was’t that weird I guess, except for how elaborate my thoughts got… The village we lived in had an old church, with a set of church bells. These played the [Westminter Quarters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Quarters), so a tune every 15 minutes then 'BONG’s for the hours, from something like 8am until around 10pm- we moved away when I was 11, I can’t remember the exact timing. The church also had a bellringing group, who played for weddings and events and practiced one evening a week. I knew this, because they once invited my brownie group (UK version of junior girl scouts) to come and have a go at the bells one evening. Obviously, I then assumed that someone was therefore employed to ring the bells every 15 minutes all day. I couldn’t decide if it was a good job or not, but I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Playing with the bells was fun, but the hours were clearly very long, including weekends (though they did get a break of a few hours when the bellringing group was playing), and it probably got boring after a bit. Also, you had to be really precise, it was always bang on time. On the plus side you only had to do a minute or so’s work then you got a 14 minute break and you probably just got a really good sense of time after a while. You probably didn’t need to just sit there- if you timed it well, you could probably nip out to the shop, or even go to the takeaway on the square or even the pub, place an order, nip back in to do the chimes then back to pick up the order. I spent some time looking out my bedroom window, from which you could just see the church door, in case if I could ever catch the bellringer running back in just before the time the chimes were due. I never did. I vividly remember waking up one night, with the sudden realisation that there was probably just a clockwork mechanism which could be turned on and off… ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/98 "2026-04-23T19:13:38Z")
Thank you for reminding me of one of my favorite Shaggy Dog stories, which comes with a Shaggy Puppy addendum! ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/99 "2026-04-23T19:46:00Z")
Without knowing or hearing about it from any other source, i thought of re-incarnation. This was when I was probably 5 or 6. It just seemed so natural. Your body grows a consciousness, where does that consciousness go when your body dies? To new babies being born, of course. I held this belief so long that I had trouble letting it go once I realized that, logically, it was BS. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2026, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398/100 "2026-04-23T21:32:48Z")
When I was a kid, I thought table salt would cool down your really hot food. For some reason, I got this from salt melting ice. Beats me how they connect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-weirdest-belief-you-ever-personally-held/1029398.md?page=6)