Combatting Voodoo: If Only Medicine Could So Easily Solved

The following is response to a long email from a woman whose husband is convinced a relative had voodoo worked on him five years ago which has caused a host of severe medical ailments that the doctors have not been able to identify. She is looking for a magical cure for this Voodoo.

Personally, I am not a big believer in people being able to cause that sort of acute harm through magic, particularly to strangers. Magic doesn't come out of nowhere. Energy is never created or destroyed. It merely changes form. Big results therefore require big input. Muttering some words over stones or herbs or bones is not going to cause major health failure for years to come in someone the caster does not even know. As such, I also don't believe in the cures for such things.

The power of curses is largely in the threat of them, not the actual use. How does he know "that the effects of the voodoo are still upon him"? Gut feeling? Personally, I think that's more likely the power of suggestion.

If you're determined to seek medical remedies, I would suggest searching for things that expel negative influences and encourage health and protection.

I personally understand how frustrating undiagnosed medical issues are, as I've dealt with them for most of my life. I suffer from fibromyalgia, but it was years before any of my doctors even knew that term, much less how to make use of knowing about it. When test results come back negative for me, people often say "well, I bet you're glad about that!" No, I'm not. When test results indicate a clear problem, they can often fix the problem. Tests coming back negative do not suddenly make my problems vanish! It would be nice to blame my medical peculiarities on magic. That would make some question marks vanish and give me someone to blame. It would give me the impression of having control over my health. But just because the doctors can't define all of my problems doesn't mean the problem still isn't medical. We're not all-knowing. The body is a frustratingly complex object.