Curses: from home exorcisms to the power of the mind

Curses: exorcisms, amulets, and the power of the mind

A man describes two years in which, according to his account, problems have become almost weekly: housing, health, studies, and money. Everything is worsening at once. The cause he points to dates back twenty years: an argument at a seaside restaurant in Valencia, Spain, when he was a child, involving a woman who got angry because a table she was saving had been taken. Since then, he claims, bad things have peine to him. Before, it was once or twice a year. Now, he says, it is almost every week. And he antiestéticars for his physical safety.

The question he poses—how to break a curse—has more answers than could fit in a confessional. And none of them agree.

Is it a curse or a self-fulfilling prophecy?

The psychological perspective is gaining ground in the conversation. If you believe you are cursed, you are; if not, you are not. The idea is repeated in different ways: the brain seeks to confirm what it already antiestéticars and ends up reading every setback as proof of punishment. You create what you believe, summarizes one of the most cited messages. Another calls it directly self-suggestion and proposes an exposure exercise: mentally returning to the moment of the alleged curse and laughing at the scene. No one can curse someone who refuses to grant the curse legitimacy.

There is a more philosophical variant. What happens is neither good nor bad in itself; it is each person's response that gives it meaning. Losing a parent and inheriting are two sides of the same coin. Attitude decides whether that becomes a misfortune or a simple circumstance.

Prayers, exorcisms, and the book discouraged by the exorcists' association

The religious path occupies a large part of the exchange. Recommendations include praying to San Miguel (Saint Michael), confession, communion, the rosary, and the anointing of the sick. One message asks to do it out loud, because, it claims, it has more power than doing it mentally. Another proposes consecrating oneself to Jesus Christ and praying the Our Father. And a specific title appears: Las seis puertas del enemigo (The Six Gates of the Enemy), by the Spanish exorcist Javier Luzón, presented as a self-exorcism manual with downloadable prayers. A striking detail: according to one of the messages, the international association of exorcists recently discouraged it. The interpretation given to this fact is that there is a campaign against exorcists and against the training of the faithful in these matters.

The opposite warning is also present: non-Christian rituals, amulets, and folk healers may provide apparent relief but can open even worse doors. The recommendation is to turn to the diocesan exorcist, who acts with the authority of the bishop.

The law of attraction and the advice to stop judging

Another line of response is mental control. The proposal is radical: stop thinking about the bad, think of a blank slate, and stop judging what happens for a while. Sooner or later, says its defender, bad things will stop happening or will be reduced to the ordinary: losing keys, being late. The underlying argument is that sustained attention on the problem feeds it.

The initial message responds to this path with an uncomfortable fact: he has one thousand icons of virgins, saints, sculptures, and crucifixes at home, and claims it is as if he were dancing with evil twenty-four hours a day. He also acknowledges, later on, a partial improvement: since he began kneeling, praying, and falling asleep while praying, he feels more relaxed at home, where he previously felt he was sinking.

Amulets, astral charts, and the plot that was a war zone

Folk remedies appear: two Turkish eyes or nazar stones facing the entrance of the house, egg cleansings, or rue baths. One message says they placed two nazar stones at the door and the streak of bad luck stopped. Another recommends consulting which amulet protects you according to your zodiac sign, with the eagle as a totem for Leo. Someone clarifies that an astral chart only provides glimpses of personality and does not determine anything.

The original author adds an element that shifts the diagnosis: the plot of land where his building stands was a war zone before it was constructed, so he speculates that there were rapes, murders, and bombings there. The response he receives is that if the apartment was used for occult practices, the matter is complicated; if not, ignoring it and praying with devotion should gradually mitigate the problem.

The advice no one disputes: examine your own behavior

There is an uncomfortable point of consensus. Before looking for external culprits, look at how you behave with others and whether you have done to someone else what is happening to you. Most of what one receives, says this school of thought, is what one generates, although the possibility of karma from past lives is admitted. The tendency to see the speck in someone else's eye and not the beam in one's own is cited as the fundamental error.

The closing of the original story resolves nothing. The man continues to repent for everything, joking about becoming an eternal penitent and needing a scourge, and he is grateful for the partial improvement. The curse, if it exists, still has no technical name. And the answers, twenty days later, still fail to reach an agreement.