Dr. Mattias Desmet devotes a page or two of his excellent book THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TOTALITARIANISM to the well-documented cases of people who died after believing a shaman had "cursed" them. The Fear Porn that has dominated the news for two years is causing people to lose hope and to die from psychosomatic illnesses. And, of course, there is the poison that most have allowed to be injected into themselves since COVID was introduced to the world.
We have known about the power of suggestion for generations. Until Covid we confidently believed "our" cultures were beyond gross superstition. Wrong. In our systems of thought superstition is scientific. Further many books have been written on how propaganda works best on educated audiences. Clearly the beliefs change from culture to culture but human psychology operates and reason is the tail on this dog.
Dr. Mattias Desmet devotes a page or two of his excellent book THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TOTALITARIANISM to the well-documented cases of people who died after believing a shaman had "cursed" them. The Fear Porn that has dominated the news for two years is causing people to lose hope and to die from psychosomatic illnesses. And, of course, there is the poison that most have allowed to be injected into themselves since COVID was introduced to the world.
We have known about the power of suggestion for generations. Until Covid we confidently believed "our" cultures were beyond gross superstition. Wrong. In our systems of thought superstition is scientific. Further many books have been written on how propaganda works best on educated audiences. Clearly the beliefs change from culture to culture but human psychology operates and reason is the tail on this dog.