Probably none of the superstitions that arose thousands of years ago were as widespread as the belief in the "evil eye."
If a person unexpectedly fell ill with an unknown disease, then it was believed that he was jinxed. If the chickens stopped laying, the cows did not give milk, the cattle fell, the house caught fire - the “evil eye” of some local witch was to blame.
Belief in this phenomenon was especially strong in Europe in the Middle Ages. In all countries, the fires of the Inquisition burned, thousands of women were burned, accused of causing harm through the "evil eye".
The belief in the "evil eye" is ubiquitous in our time. Many people are ashamed to admit it. Nevertheless, having entered into trust, one can hear the most amazing stories about cases of the "evil eye" from the lips of highly educated and respected people.
Besides the evil eye, the people believe in the "slip of the tongue". For example, a child grows up quite healthy, but suddenly a neighbor meets him and says to his mother: "What a healthy guy you have grown up!" These words are pronounced “at a bad hour,” and from that time on, the child begins to get sick, lose weight and wither.
Not only his enemies, but also close people can stipulate a person (for example, his own mother can cause such harm to a child). In rare cases, a person may even slander himself. Therefore, in conversation, peasants often insert: "At the hour to speak", "I would not make a reservation," etc. It is believed that these words-sayings prevent slander.
In his book On Nature, Avicenna wrote: "Often the soul affects someone else's body in the same way as its own - as, for example, when exposed to the evil eye."
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Even in the Middle Ages, the most advanced scientists guessed that the human eye is capable of emitting the mysterious energy of "od", which can affect others. This energy was only discovered 120 years ago, after photography was invented.
One of the first who recorded the mysterious radiation of the eyes on a photographic plate was the Parisian artist Pierre Boucher. This happened by accident. As he himself said, in the evening he "got drunk to hell." All night in a drunken delirium he dreamed of devils chasing him with pitchforks. Early in the morning, not getting enough sleep, he went to the laboratory: the customers could not wait, and therefore it was necessary to urgently develop the films shot the day before.
Cassettes, both exposed and blank, lay interspersed on the work table. Boucher did not begin to figure out which of them to show, which not - he showed everything. And he was dumbfounded: from photographic plates the same disgusting faces of night guests with pitchforks looked at him.
Scientists became interested in this phenomenon and soon the first publications about "psychic photographs" appeared in print.
Signs of people with the evil eye
The belief that the gaze has a mysterious power that can harm other people, pets and plants, from time immemorial has been common among all peoples living on earth.
Even in the Ancient Roman Empire, there was a law according to which a person guilty of the evil eye could be sentenced to death. The "evil eye" is spoken of in Arab fairy tales, Scandinavian sagas, and in the traditions of the Australians and Aztecs.
The belief in the "evil eye" has survived to this day. And since people are afraid of the evil eye, they want to know from whom it can come, and therefore they seek to find outward signs that distinguish the person whom one should beware of.
What are these signs? How can you tell if a person is capable of harming you with their gaze?
Methods for identifying the owner of the "evil eye" are different for different nations. But it is always assumed that the person with the "evil eye" is betrayed by either conspicuous physical defects or strange behavior and appearance. So, in ancient times, the Romans and Greeks were wary of people with strabismus (by the way, strabismus is one of the signs of telepathic abilities), people with bulging eyes, and persons with deep-set small eyes. People whose irises had different colors (for example, one eye was blue and the other brown) was especially suspicious.
The inhabitants of the southern regions of the Earth, where black-eyed aborigines lived predominantly, usually avoided blue-eyed and gray-eyed people, and, conversely, people from the north were afraid of people with dark eyes.
A feeling of fear was caused by people with lush eyebrows, as well as those whose eyebrows have grown together.
Other signs by which you can distinguish people with the "evil eye":
1. One-eyed people (since a one-eyed person will always envy a person with two eyes; this is probably why among many peoples the forces of evil are always embodied by a one-eyed giant).
2. Toothless people or people with unpleasant body odor.
3. People whose complexion differs from normal (yellowish, earthy).
4. People suffering from thinness.
5. People seeking solitude (lonely, withdrawn, silent).
6. People talking to themselves.
7. Monks of mendicant orders (Italy), monks with long and flowing beards (Naples), blacksmiths, ropemen, coopers (Brittany) and in general all beggars (Brittany) and in general all the beggars were ranked among people capable of jinxing, in some countries.
At all times, it has been widely believed that ugly old women have a "bad eye" and are witches. Even Pythagoras advised not to go anywhere and stay at home if an ugly old woman met at the door.
Evil eye of the witch
During the Inquisition, the owners of the "evil eye" were searched for throughout Europe and mercilessly burned at the stake. The concepts of "evil eye" and "witch" have always been inseparable from each other. There were more and more processes over witches and sorcerers. A scientific basis for the charges was required, and it was not long in coming. All the major philosophers and theologians of that time were engaged in the study of witchcraft.
One of them was Saint Thomas Aquinas. Through philosophical reflections, he came to the conclusion that “due to strong mental stress, changes and displacements occur in the elements of the human body.
They are mainly associated with the eyes, which through special radiation contaminate the air at a considerable distance."
Thomas Aquinas was convinced that the gaze of people inclined to evil is poisonous and corrupts. First of all, it harms children who are very impressionable. Saint Thomas added that "with God's permission or for some other hidden reason, it does not do here without the malice of the devil, if a woman entered into an alliance with him."
In the Middle Ages, it was believed that menstruating women were most often the owners of the "evil eye". "New and clean mirrors become cloudy when a woman looks in them during menstruation" - this opinion was widespread in many countries. Some authors talked about cases when in the presence of such women the strings of musical instruments were torn, cucumbers and pumpkins wilted.
In December 1484, Pope Innocent VIII promulgated a bull, which said that many people in Germany and some other countries “by their witchcraft, spells, spells and other terrible superstitious vicious and criminal acts inflict premature birth on women, send spoilage to offspring of animals, grain cereals, grapes on vines and fruits on trees, as well as spoil men, women, domestic animals and other animals, as well as vineyards, orchards, meadows, pastures, fields, bread and all earthly growth; that they mercilessly torment men, women and pets with both internal and external terrible pains; that they prevent men from producing and women from having children and depriving husbands and wives of the ability to fulfill their marital duty; that, moreover, they renounce faith itself with blasphemous lips,received at holy baptism, and that, at the instigation of the enemy of the human race, they dare to commit an infinite number of all kinds of unspeakable atrocities and crimes, to the destruction of their souls, to an insult to divine greatness and to temptation for many multitudes of people."
The struggle against witches in Germany and France was led by members of the Dominican order, professors of theology G. Institoris and J. Sprenger. They not only led the investigations and executions of thousands of people, but also compiled a manual for the Inquisition "Hammer of the Witches", which told about the methods of witchcraft and the signs by which one could guess the witch. The same book also spoke of the evil eye.
“It may happen,” wrote G. Institoris and J. Sprenger, “that a man or a woman, casting a glance at the boy's body, makes some changes in it with the help of an evil eye, imagination or sensual passion.
Sensual passion is combined with a known change in the body. The eyes, on the other hand, easily perceive impressions. Therefore, it often happens that internal bad excitement gives them a bad impression. The power of the imagination is easily reflected in the eyes due to their sensitivity and the proximity of the center of the imagination to the senses.
If the eyes are full of harmful properties, it can happen that they impart bad qualities to the surrounding air. By air, they reach the eyes of the boy they are looking at, and through them reach his internal organs. As a result, he is deprived of the opportunity to digest food, develop bodily and grow.
Experience allows us to see this with our own eyes. We see that a person suffering from an eye disease can, from time to time, with his gaze cast damage on the one who looks at him. This is because eyes full of evil properties contaminate the surrounding air, through which the healthy eyes of the one who looks at them becomes infected.
Infection is transmitted in a straight line … In this case, the imagination of those who believe that they can become infected is of great importance."