Behind the curse

Anthony North: It can get to you. It can grip you, turn you inside out, and even kill you. At least, that�s what some people believe. But even if you don�t believe, the idea of the curse can still send a frightening tingle down the spine. From witches sticking pins in an effigy, to the Voodoo bokor placing a curse on you, occult literature is full of incidences of successful curses, driving people mad and making them have accidents. But is there a reality to the curse? Coincidence: The usual sceptic�s answer to the curse is that life is full of coincidences, and some time, some place, life will throw up incidences that suggest a curse could be at work. But in reality, it is nothing at all. It�s just the inevitability of chance.Those who take a Jungian view would add synchronicity to coincidence. Here, coincidences become meaningful, as if your own mind is affecting the world about you. In this scenario, if you believe a curse can work, then you make it happen yourself.And then there are the people who just seem to have bad luck. Obstacles rise up before them, and they can form an attitude that they are cursed throughout life. Studies suggest luck is all to do with being able to calculate odds. Is this important to the issue?

A calculating mind: Clearly if you can calculate odds better than the average, good luck will seem to cling to you; and equally clearly, if you cannot, then you'll go through life from one disaster to another. In one sense, this can be related to an optimistic or pessimistic state of mind.For instance, the optimist tends to walk through life, whilst the pessimist expects to see disaster and so he does. Indeed, pessimism can have an effect if you think you're cursed. And it is all to do with a feeling of absolute hopelessness.There is a medical term called �vegal inhibition.� This is a state where a sense of hopelessness slowly shuts down the autonomic nervous system. If it goes to the ultimate, death can be the result. A belief in a curse can, it seems, be a killer.

View: Full Article | Source: Beyond the Blog