Magical curses: misremembered encounters with diseases?

Post Reply New Topic

At one point, I thought that magical curses and diseases were two completely different things. That was, until I heard that certain types of cancer can be carried over to other family members, just like how those magical curses in fantasy films, books and video games, carry over to the rest of the family of the individual who is cursed.

Was the word "curse" invented during ancient times to refer to what what is now known as diseases? When was the word "disease" invented?

A curse is something that you wish basically bad luck or malevolent things on someone.
A disease is an illness.
The etymology for curse is unknown, but the etymology for disease is: dis = Latin = to imply reversal + ease.

Besides which, curses are real. You can harm someone by cursing them, and those negative emotions will spread. Honestly, if people knew how much their thoughts affected everyone on the planet, they wouldn't leave the house.

I learned the bit about thoughts from Caroline Myss. Far fetched? You're conversing with a fairy kitty crystal child! By all science and logic, I'm impossible! The Universe is made of illogical stuff and paradoxes.

A "curse" is nothing more than a prayer or a ritual invocation expressing a wish that harm, misfortune, injury, great evil, et cetera, be brought upon another person, place, thing, clan, nation, et cetera. People are also said to be "cursed" if harm comes to them regularly or in seeming disproportion to the rest of us.

"Curses" seem to have been a regular part of primitive cultures and may have originated as a way to frighten enemies and explain the apparent injustices of the world. There is no evidence that anyone has successfully invoked occult powers to do harm to others, but there is evidence that those who believe they have been "cursed" can be made miserable by exploiting that belief. Fear and the human tendency to confirmation bias and selective thinking often lead believers to self-fulfill the "curses" that they believe have been laid on them.

(And, as we all know, belief proves nothing.)

Belief in "curses" make it easier for people with big imaginations and little knowledge to explain why bad things often happen to good people: they may believe that they are "cursed" because of some bad thing an ancestor did, for example. A little bit of educated reasoning usually reveals that this is not a satisfactory explanation at all. Whether it is a god or nature doing the "cursing", neither seems very just in punishing children for the sins of their mothers or fathers.

One person's belief in "curses" makes it possible for other people to pose as psychics, gypsies, clairvoyants, and other similar fraudsters who claim to be capable of removing "curses" (for a fee, of course). Removing the "curse" often involves requiring the client to give money or jewelry to the con artist for a elaborate "cleansing ritual". It works like "magic" - the client is cleansed of his money and jewelry, and the con artist disappears.

Why anyone still believes in "curses" in today's Information Age defies all logic and reason.

^Yes!! !! !! That's it!! !! !! !! ! I DEFY ALL LOGIC AND REASON!! ! I'M THE IMPOSSIBLE CAT! Aren't I wonderful?