http://mindhacks.com/2009/04/22/the-medieval-senses-and-the-evil-eye/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:47:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://mindhacks.com/2009/04/22/the-medieval-senses-and-the-evil-eye/#comment-5781 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:27:30 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/the-medieval-senses-and-the-evil-eye/#comment-5781 The eye as transmitter is found worldwide, as is a prohibition against staring at people. Even in our society you don’t look directly at someone for any length of time without speaking. People in prison avoid eye contact since it’s seen as an aggressive act. Young children believe that the eye is a transmitter and that the eye beams of people can mix or clash. In the comics, Superman is able to heat a hotdog or open a safe with his eye beams. The eye objectifies, which is why we speak of “sex objects”. Not enough attention has been given to the way in which cultures train people to use their senses. In medieval times the dictum was “fides ex auditu” (faith comes from hearing) but by the Renaissance the Protestants were reading the Bible. Another medieval dictum was “nil intellectu quod non prius in aliquodo modo in sensibus”. There is nothing in the mind which is not first, in some manner, in the senses.

]]> http://mindhacks.com/2009/04/22/the-medieval-senses-and-the-evil-eye/#comment-5780 Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:55:12 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/the-medieval-senses-and-the-evil-eye/#comment-5780 Philip Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, hired an “evil eye” in the 1930s to attend games and “put the whammy” on opposing teams.

]]> http://mindhacks.com/2009/04/22/the-medieval-senses-and-the-evil-eye/#comment-5779 Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:57:19 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/the-medieval-senses-and-the-evil-eye/#comment-5779 It’s interesting that the evil eye, as superstition, outlasted the science behind it by hundreds of years. Even in my childhood, European adults were blowing away the evil eye.

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