What is the Evil Eye?

Bibliography:
Lukas Licka, “Approaches to the Extramission Postulate in 13th Century Theories of Vision,” in Medieval Perceptual Puzzles, Brill 2020.

Roland Betancourt, “Why Sight is Not Touch: Reconsidering the Tacility of Vision in Byzantium,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 70, Dec 2016.

Van de Ven, Zeelenberg, and Pieters, “Warding off the Evil Eye: When the Fear of Being Envied Increases Prosocial Behavior,” Psychological Science, Volume 21, Issue 11.

Antioch mosaic: see Levi, The Evil Eye and the Lucky Hunchback," Antioch Mosaic Pavements, 28-34

Gadi Sagiv, “Dazzling Blue: Color Symbolism, Kabbalistic Myth, and the Evil Eye in Judaism,” Numen 64 (2017) 183-208.

Giacomantonio et. al., “The evil eye: Eye gaze and competitiveness in social decision making,” European Journal of Social Psychology, August 2017.

[rimkokoa]

My mom definitely told me something similar to this evil eye belief, she used to say to me stuff “if something good happened to you don’t tell anyone or they could ruin it for you”

[greatscott]

I'm Dominican-American and when I was younger my mother would have me wear a small azabache black hand bracelet which was supposed to defend again the evil eye ("mal de ojo" in Spanish). My mother was also just telling me the other day about how, in the old days, my grandmother would sew little pouches full of camphor which babies would then wear around their neck to help protect them from the eye.

[ohshanana]

I’m west African a lot of us believe in the concept of evil eye. When I was young my grandmother told me very wise words “don’t celebrate something yet to come, don’t celebrate until you have achieved it.” If you get married and have a wedding don’t post it to all of social media. Because divorce could be around the corner. Post your vow renewal not your wedding. Celebrate your delivery not the pregnancy. Celebrate your promotion, not your hiring. Celebrate the graduation not your acceptance. Anything that is yet to be achieved do not tell others of it, or they could foil your success

[vaishnavnegi]

One of the vivid memories from my early teens is that of the huge evil eye that we hung in our hall, just bursting into a million pieces out of nowhere. My family was going through very tough times back then and it scared us even more.
We thought even the trinket is at capacity to dispel away the problems.
I'm north Indian BTW and we call it "Nazar lagna", it's when someone envies your success and possessions.

[anagoncalves]

My mom isn’t religious or superstitious at all but being from a culture where the evil eye is kinda treated just like a fact of life, she’s always been insistent in taking salt water baths after dealing with people whose vibe just kinda sucks. It’s the tried and true family recipe for getting rid of any lingering “curses”. Dunno if it really works but definitely makes her (and me too, to be honest) feel better.

[dzmitry_k]

My grandma actually believed in this. When we were children, she believed we needed to be protected from evil eye (the actual Ukrainian word she used was наврочити 'to put an evil eye on someone, to curse someone').

There was some sort of ritual she one performed to remove the supposed effect, something about lighting a match, and then putting that match into water and giving that water to us to drink. You can actually find info about similar rituals in the internet, so that's probably a living tradition.

Also, a way to ward evil eye for her was to wear some item of clothing wrong side out, or to have a red string (I think she said wearing any red piece of clothing in general would work, too).

My parents never believed that, and I myself don't believe that either. However, when I accidentally put my T-shirt wrong way out, my first thought was "well, at least no one can put an evil eye on me". xD

[edibbl]

I like how much the beliefs about the evil eye vary from region to region. My grandmother is from the cyclades and she once said a specific prayer under her breath after I yawned, saying that it was a sign that someone had given me the evil eye.

[AnarchicOrder]

I don't believe in magic, however I believe in the power of belief itself. I had a falling out with a very toxic and judgmental person whom I worked with, and I started wearing an evil eye necklace, it gave me relief throughout the day. I'm sure that a lot of the psychological impact of magical practices can have influence on the mind and therefore the body. For example, a pregnant woman wears an evil eye necklace to repel negative stares. That relief she experiences in her belief can have an impact on her body, reducing stress and helping to ensure a safer birth. I have always loved the Evil Eye and the culture behind it, thank you for the video!

[nova]

The meaning of the “🧿” emoji always kept me awake at night, thank you for explaining 🙏 😭

[MSanchez]

A video on how the evil eye “mal de ojo” is presented in the Latin community would be cool 😊
Babies in Mexico wear red bracelets to protect them from the evil eye.

I have a bracelet on my ankle for the same reason, once the bracelet comes loose, or the eye cracks you need to take it off

[jholloway]

The evil eye gave hard rock music its definitive gesture, the devil horns🤘. It was popularized by Ronnie James Dio when he was with the band Black Sabbath, but he adopted it from his Italian grandmother who performed it as the "malocchio", a traditional gesture to ward off the evil eye.

[nohaelgamal]

As an Egyptian, i get so excited when you talk about something related to Egypt in your channel, and evil eye is a big part of our culture

[s-a-r-a-h]

I have Constantinople Greek family and my great grandmother from Turkey took evil eye pendants very seriously - there's even a weird superstition where blue-eyed people can cast curses. I was always scared of the evil eye growing up!

[Melodymist]

When I was a kid I had an encounter with a stranger on my way to a picnic; two hours after that, I suddenly started to feel absolutely awful in the weirdest way. A splitting headache so strong my eyeballs hurt, my skin was on fire and oversensitive, and I felt very nauseous. Thankfully one of our family friends who was with us knew what to do and made a remedy, using campfire coals, a cup of spring water and a prayer. She made me drink the water in a specific way, and I had no clue what was happening but I was desperate for relief. Once I drank it, I got better right away. I asked what was that, and they told me it was an evil eye remedy. To this day, I have never experienced anything similar, and the timing and intensity of it all was too much of a coincidence for me to dismiss it.

[m.richman]

Hello from Greece! Both my grandmothers and virtually every old lady I know off around my area use evil eye apotropaic measures. Headache? Bad moods? Economic misfortune? Some issues with your significant other maybe? Look no further! The evil eye apotropaic ritual is your first line of defense against all evil and malaise! All you need is olive oil, a glass of water and a very secret chant that old ladies share with each other only in a very special occasion I don't know off! (your channel is great btw)

[themelonsoup]

I think the evil eye being a protection against jealous people makes a lot of sense because jealously is the root of so many issues

[loganchase]

The evil eye or drochshúil is committed in Gaelic folklore. To this day elderly people in Irish speaking regions will often say "bail ó Dhia ort" or "God bless you" when passing a stranger to protect from the evil eye.

[Salvatoreguglielmo_]

Among the Italian diaspora the belief in malocchio (evil eye) is very strong. I always saw the evil eye as something akin to magic that was malicious in nature. I was always told that it can be cast on another willingly or unwillingly. My grandmother recalled a time when the evil eye was cast onto her womb which required rituals to remove it.

[spongebobthemax]

My grandmother told the story of how after she had a son there would be times where spontaneously he would have fevers frequently. She bought him to a benzedeira(faith healer) and she told my grandmother someone was putting an evil eye on him. She told her to watch carefully for when someone visited and if he showed signs of a fever the next day she’s know who it was and to say certain words( can’t remember which) to break it. Turns out it was her daughters godmother. Who would visit and talk about how lucky my grandmother was to have such a beautiful son. According to my grandmother after she said the the frase to break the evil eye, her son never developed another fever. After I met this woman I most defiantly believed the story. She had such a dark energy to her and her eyes were very scary to look into. She didn’t cast it willingly but when she wanted something she couldn’t have things usually just didn’t go well for another person.

[jenb]

I had to laugh when you mentioned sight as physical touch. My son was an energetic and curious toddler. When I warned him to look with his eyes not his hands he would tell that he would touch with his eyes!