Daily Strange's Tricky Tuesday: The Deadly Magic of Believing

Daily Strange's Tricky Tuesday: The Deadly Magic of Believing

From the days of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to modern times in Haiti, Australia, Africa, and elsewhere, healthy people have turned sick and died because a hex, curse, or spell was put upon them. There is a considerable body of literature on the subject.

The methods of declaring the curse are many and varied. It can be done by making an effigy of the victim and piercing it with pins or burning it. Wax, wood, clay, cloth, and straw have all been used for the purpose. Hair or fingernail parings from the victim can be ritually hexed. Chants and singing can declare a curse. Stones or weapons can be magically charged, or a container of magically endowed powders or herbs can be used to cast a spell.

Although methods differ, the magic works when there is sufficient belief in its power. The sorcerer must have absolute confidence in his powers, the victim must believe that his magic is unassailable, and the community at large must subscribe to the belief. The latter is especially important. One can imagine the effect in the cultures where the community looks upon the victim as dead from the moment the curse becomes known. The victim may cease to eat and drink (as befits the dead), which serves to hasten the end.

One well-documented method of killing by suggestion is “bone pointing,” a form of ritual execution occasionally practiced by the aborigines of Australia. There is no physical contact with the victim, but his fate is usually as firmly sealed as if he were run through the heart with a spear.

The pointing weapon can be made of bone, wood, or stone. Belief in its magic is what counts. A graphic description of the effects of bone pointing is given in Dr. Herbert Basedow's book The Australian Aboriginal, published in 1925:

A man who discovers that he is being boned by an enemy is, indeed, a pitiable sight. He stands aghast, with his eyes staring at the treacherous pointer, and with his hands lifted as though to ward off the lethal medium, which he imagines is pouring into his body. His cheeks blanch and his eyes become glassy, and the expression of his face becomes horribly distorted.... He attempts to shriek, but usually the sound chokes in his throat, and all one might see is froth at his mouth. His body begins to tremble and the muscles twist involuntarily. He sways backwards and falls to the ground, and for a short time appears to be in a swoon; but soon after he begins to writhe as if in mortal agony, and, covering his face with his hands, begin [sic] to moan. After a while he becomes more composed and crawls to his wurley (hut). From this time onwards he sickens and frets, refusing to eat, and keeping aloof from the daily affairs of the tribe. Unless help is forthcoming in the shape of a counter-charm, administered by the hands of the “Nangarri,” or medicine-man, his death is only a matter of a comparatively short time. If the coming of the medicine-man is opportune, he might be saved.

A possible physiological explanation for the victim s response to bone pointing has been suggested. The consequences of extreme fear are similar to those of great rage: the adrenal glands increase their production of adrenalin, reducing the blood supply to the less essential parts of the body in order to ensure an adequate supply to the muscles, upon whose efficiency, for flight or fight, the life of the subject may depend. Adrenalin produces this result by constricting the small blood vessels in those parts of the body that can temporarily survive a reduced blood supply.

The advantage acquired in this way, however, is gained at some cost. When blood supply is reduced, so is the supply of oxygen, which is carried in the blood by the red corpuscles. When the fine capillary blood vessels are deprived of oxygen, they become more permeable to the blood plasma, which seeps into the tissue surrounding the blood vessel. The consequence of this, in a prolonged condition of fear or anger, is an overall reduction in the volume of circulating blood.

This, in turn, reduces the blood pressure, and a potentially disastrous cycle can then be established. The reduced blood pressure adversely affects those parts of the body responsible for maintaining the circulation of the blood, and the reduced circulation further reduces the blood pressure. This sequence of events, if unchecked, will be fatal.

That a hex, spell, or curse can rate such physiological disorders is mystery enough. Even more puzzling arc cases of death in which medical examination reveals no evidence of either reduced blood pressure or an abnormal accumulation of red blood cells. One example is that of Kinjika, the Mailli tribesman whose death is described on pages 107-08. Another is a report by a Dr. P.S. Clarke concerning a Kanaka tribesman in North Queensland, Australia, who said that he was going to die soon because a spell had been put on him. The doctors examinations revealed no medical problems, but a few days later the man was dead.

It would seem that in societies where the effects of a curse are accepted as common knowledge, there is no question that the spear of thought can kill.

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