Mojo

[captain58sailin]

Sometimes the vessel has to throw a tantrum, just so you don't take her for granted.

[Chrisc]

Finally, I think I'm beginning to understand this mojo thing.
I think a mojo is that small voice that rises unbidden from the subconscious that says 'go for it, you're on the right track' or ' watch out, if you carry on like that then you're going to be in deep do-do.
Its what people of my generation used to call a hunch or a gut feeling or intuition. If I remember my studies correctly, Intuition first began to be clinically examined in the 20's and by the 60's and 70's had taken on a scientific respectability and referred to as a non conscious cognitive affective process. In other words that little voice whispering in you head has it origins in your learning and life experience. Recent brain scan research validates this,showing intuition to be almost global in its cerebral activity.
Interestingly, about the same time as intuition became a proven process, the mojo began to emerge as a, what, mystic alternative? Granted the mojo was a feature of african tribalism for centuries (according to Mr Internet) but is a recent phenominon in western cultures.
This then begs the question, do people of a more scientific frame of mind have intuition which is a clearly identifiable thought process based on learning and past experience, and to people who are a bit more wihimsical have a mojo?

[weavis]

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Chrisc

This then begs the question, do people of a more scientific frame of mind have intuition which is a clearly identifiable thought process based on learning and past experience, and to people who are a bit more wihimsical have a mojo?

Well, I am a physical scientist and have a good intuition that I can clearly identify with a process based on learning and past experience. I rely on this intuition heavily, and consciously work hard to keep it fed and sharp.

I also have a mojo, and when it leaves me, nothing goes right until I get it back.

Haven't you ever had one of those days, or longer periods of time, when just nothing goes right. No matter what you do or how correctly you do it? When it seems like you are just on the short end of the stick and the short end of the odds constantly? When every piece of toast you drop lands with the butter side down defying all short and medium term probabilities? When you can positively count on something bad happening even though the real odds are very, very slim? When it seems like you are fighting the whole universe?

That's your mojo not working. Intuition won't help you there.

Mark

[Chrisc]

Mark,
I had to think long and hard about what you wrote for two reasons (1) I admit to being biased against the idea of a mojo and (2) I have a Cluster A personality, which is supposedly a defect but to those of us with it, it's a real blessing. We are considered eccentric in that, amongst other things, we work on in my case anyway 99% logic and 1% emotion, which is probably item (1) above again.
In all truthfulness I have not had a day or time period such as you describe. When things continually go belly-up it is usually traceable to a cause and the logical approach is to then deal with the cause or abandon the activity until a more suitable time. Carrying on reinforces the mindset and will lead to further disasters, further reinforcing the mindset, ad infinitum.
I think a good example of the 'mojo effect' is the time honored hoping you don't break a shoelace when putting on you shoes and bingo, the lace breaks. Research proves the breaking shoelace thought to have originated as an audial or visual stimuli from possibly the last time you put your shoes on. Although we have forgotten that we noticed the lace look a bit worn, sighting the shoes again is all the stimuli needed to dredge that recollection from the subconscious.
Perhaps emotionally challenged eccentrics with a high analytical quotient are the only ones without a mojo?

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by Chrisc

... Perhaps emotionally challenged eccentrics with a high analytical quotient are the only ones without a mojo?

I think we have a winner. It puts the anal back in analytical.

... psychopaths do not react normally to stimuli because they rely more on the left hemisphere of their brains, which uses a more verbal-analytic strategy than the right side does.

What Creates Serial Killers and Psychopaths: Genetics or Environment? - Raven's name

[Chrisc]

BlueCrab,
Your opinion of me is entirely your own affair and of no consequence to me.
The subject of my posts is to question the existence or otherwise of a mojo. If you are able, make your decision based on available evidence.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Chrisc

When things continually go belly-up it is usually traceable to a cause and the logical approach is to then deal with the cause or abandon the activity until a more suitable time. Carrying on reinforces the mindset and will lead to further disasters, further reinforcing the mindset, ad infinitum.

The subject of my posts is to question the existence or otherwise of a mojo. If you are able, make your decision based on available evidence.

Well as a medical/science based person myself with a rational approach to analysis, I dont subscribe to the metaphysical/religious/superstition of "mojo" per se.

However, there are days when our abilities for whatever hormonal/chemical/ physical/emotional reason are not firing the same. There are days when whatever we do will not be happening as we hoped for or in the worst case scenario, all go against us. Rational analysis of a situation MIGHT tell us why a particular thing is not working, but it will not explain why EVERYTHING is going wrong. An overview might give the answer, but the reality is......as you stated "abandon the activity until a more suitable time. Carrying on reinforces the mindset and will lead to further disasters, further reinforcing the mindset, ad infinitum."

Simple folk and those that recognise the signs of adverse circumstances that will only compound in their negativity.... abandon and give up till another day or time without deeper analysis than that.

Its easier to say that at that time, "we lost our Mojo" (got bad luck, unfortunate circumstances, things not going our way etc) and allow the phrase to carry the understanding to others that right now... nothing is working out for us. It may very well be that repair jobs we have put off all came together to malfunction at the same time..... but it still is a loss of mojo regardless and we have embedded ourself in the state where resistance is futile.

[captain58sailin]

I guess this would be a bad time to trot out the "We are all connected" thought, or that there is an interconnection with all things including the energy of the universe, and that there is an ebb and flow of positive and negative energy. Once things get out of balance that there is a move to regain balance, the further out of balance things get; the stronger the move to regain balance is. If one has the ability to perceive these things then apply a label to it like "Mojo" , juju, joss etc... weavis, being of the medical sort, can you explain the increase in the emergency room visits, and police arrests around the time of the full moon. Do you believe we are immune to the effects that can change the tidal range up to 30' in 6 hours, yet we are a large percentage of water. What about the spark that is our consciousness, or spirit, or soul? Simply electromagnetic impulses firing in a predetermined fashion? Perhaps you can explain why the Japanese believe that children conceived under the Aurora Borealis are special? I don't know if there are any statistics regarding the number of above average children born to people who conceived a child during the northern lights, but it would be interesting to find out. I am not challenging anything that has been presented here, only offering food for thought. I was raised in a place where the hard facts of life are a day to day reality, and accept the harsh realities of life, and personal responsibility for our actions. I also think there is the unknown, and the unknowable.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by Chrisc

BlueCrab, ... The subject of my posts is to question the existence or otherwise of a mojo. If you are able, make your decision based on available evidence.

Adequate examples of mojo and juju have been cited.

The substance of your posts is to be argumentative. That's yer special mojo working. It's a common internet forum approach seen here on CF everyday.

[IMHO] That Cluster A deal is unfortunate, and renders you unable to see the irony in your assertion that it is a benefit. I'd wager that Cluster A is a dead end evolutionary pathway. See Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976). Your ancestors missed the cut, as it were.

That's my view of the Cluster A presentation. I was just having fun with the psychopath post. I read that many non-criminal Cluster A folk are very successful people and perhaps that's "simply" because they may not be "burdened" with the 360° of consciousness the rest of us have, and must work through second by second.

In sum, I fully grok your disbelief in mojo but think you are in error. Yer mojo is working just fine. Peace brother. No personal insults intended.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

Adequate examples of mojo and juju have been cited.

The substance of your posts is to be argumentative. That's yer special mojo working. It's a common internet forum approach seen here on CF everyday.

[IMHO] That Cluster A deal is unfortunate, and renders you unable to see the irony in your assertion that it is a benefit. I'd wager that Cluster A is a dead end evolutionary pathway. See Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976). Your ancestors missed the cut, as it were.

That's my view of the Cluster A presentation. I was just having fun with the psychopath post. I read that many non-criminal Cluster A folk are very successful people and perhaps that's "simply" because they may not be "burdened" with the 360° of consciousness the rest of us have, and must work through second by second.

In sum, I fully grok your disbelief in mojo but think you are in error. Yer mojo is working just fine. Peace brother. No personal insults intended.

So... am I to presume from the above analysis of yours that Cluster A people... being 'Lefties'... do NOT suffer Cluster F moments...

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

See Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976).

You are the only other person I have ever met that has read that book! Keep in mind that it discusses only hypotheses and has not had any experimental support yet. They are staggeringly eye-opening and mind-boggling hypotheses though.

Mark

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by boatman61

So... am I to presume from the above analysis of yours that Cluster A people... being 'Lefties'... do NOT suffer Cluster F moments...

I dunno. I suspect C-A people do not have C/F moments (multiple things actually going wrong) because they have fewer inputs to process, ergo fewer things to worry about (or more precisely, factor in to the decision-making).

But things going wrong still goes to juju rather than mojo. Mojo is more about the possibility/certainty of things going wrong, I think.

Weavis characterized mojo as: there are days when our abilities for whatever hormonal/chemical/ physical/emotional reason are not firing the same.

Some of us would attribute that to a whisper from the gods or similar. Others would take a more measurable view. Doesn't much matter. Many of us who did not heed those warnings have regretted it.

I think the OP's tale was right on, and he obviously did the right thing.

Inability to perceive mojo could be perilous, and hardly beneficial.

I bet many a boat has been abandoned or lost when the voyage took place or pressed on due to scheduling or whatever, when a skipper's mojo skipped out.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by colemj

You are the only other person I have ever met that has read that book! Keep in mind that it discusses only hypotheses and has not had any experimental support yet. They are staggeringly eye-opening and mind-boggling hypotheses though. Mark

Yepper.

When I found a copy in the library of my last ex on the night I met her I thought: "Dang! this gal could be my soulmate."

'Course that's another story.

[Kenomac]

Mojo follow up. Garrucha to Cartegena today in the same Oyster 53... boat was perfect, weather good, everything just fine. Completely the opposite to 3 days ago when everything that could go wrong... did go wrong.

Ken