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After reading the article “Do You Believe in Magic?” in this week’s edition of the Science Times I became overwhelmed with a plethora of unanswered questions. Seeing that I now have a captive audience I would like to draw on your opinions and ideas. The article described magical thoughts as a way of soothing everyday fears and mental distresses; basically a way to relieve insecurity and form simple hypotheses in uncertain situations. Most people are aware that their magical beliefs and rituals are irrational, but there are those whose magical thoughts develop into delusion or psychosis. My question is at what point do these “magical thoughts” or superstitions move from the internal self to the physical self? Is there a point where a thought will manifest itself into a physical hindrance? I then recalled the concept of the evil eye. Many of you are probably not familiar with the evil eye, but coming from a superstitious Italian family I have been forewarned of its consequences and will share them with you. The folklore of the evil eye is present in many cultures and the most basic form is a result of envy elicited by the good fortune of a person eventually resulting in their misfortune. The envious person will unknowingly bestow a curse on a victim with a malevolent stare. In some cases the evil eye will cause misfortune and in others it may result in illness and even death (my grandmother insists it is the cause of her migraines).

The fact that this concept is present in a variety of cultures, in my mind, gives it a certain degree of validity, but that doesn’t make it fact. In my opinion, the wishes or thoughts of one person couldn’t possible effect another in the way described. I’m not saying that if you think about harming someone that it can’t happen because nothing is preventing you from getting up and physically hurting a person. In this case, could the noted physical ailments be the result of the internal anxiety of the fortunate person. It would be much more believable for me to assume that the thoughts of a person can manifest themselves physically in that person, and not in another. But can a thought, anxiety or desire of a person result in an illness? And what about other thoughts and beliefs that are said to manifest themselves physically, like stigmata? Is this further evidence of the idea, or just an easy way to connect two phenomena?