What ever happened to eye contact? This morning on my way into the office, I made some mental notes about how many people would studiously avoid making even fleeting eye contact with me. Perhaps it was my clothing, body language or choice of hat? While seated on the train the odds were almost down to zero. I know from the experience of riding the subway in New York this is tantamount to putting your life on the line and an urban superstition of some power, but even in laid back Los Angeles it’s becoming just as bad. At a time when we should be joining together, smiling into each others eyes and reaching out, it’s becoming a progressively bleak picture. Why? The superstition that someone staring at you and thereby giving you “The Evil Eye” goes back thousands of years and I suppose even further if you want to include the kind of thing that happens between primates if they stare at each other. Try going to the zoo and having eye contact a male baboon in their cage – they go berserk .

I have seen signs on zoo cages warning not to provoke them this way and when I worked as a wild animal trainer, I was warned never to stare or have eye contact with chimpanzees for over a milli-second. Tradition says that it all has to do with jealousy and coveting something from someone else. In the case of the baboon cage, its tied into a mating ritual that spills over into that man/ape relationship we share. Professor Alan Dundes who teaches at The University of California at Berkeley covers the subject quite well:

“Almost everywhere that the evil eye belief exists, its effects are said to occur as an inadvertent side-effect of envy or praise. A typical account of such a mishap might be: “I dressed the baby in new clothes and took him to town and a woman who has no children saw him and said, ‘Oh, what a pretty child!’ and as soon as we got home he began to vomit!” The “evil” in these accounts of the evil eye indicate that it is thought to be situational in nature and that it is caused by a failure to restrain envy within proper social bounds.”

There are hundreds of books on the subject. Far too much information for me to attempt to go into here. These beliefs are as entrenched as throwing salt over your shoulder. Well, …maybe not your shoulder, but you get my drift. Today we have a version of this juju where we hear about psychics claiming to be able to get someone to turn their head around by simply staring at the back of their neck.

Pssssshaw. I try it everyday on the train and I know it NEVER works. Let’s see someone step up to Randi’s million dollar challenge on that one. That should be easy enough for even the lowest totem on the psychic totem pole to be able to replicate. It’s not happening. It never has happened and I’m challenging anyone out there who says they can do it to prove it or admit it’s likely it never will happen. These superstitions are with us day to day and haunt our thinking. There I sat, knowing better and yet staring intently at the back of some random woman’s head when I could have been putting that same intensity of thought on world hunger or alternative energy. Silly me. A small thought, but like someone said about other things, one thought here, another there and pretty soon you have a whole lot of thoughts. In the case of The Evil Eye: centuries of wasted thought.

We can look and see The Evil Eye every where if we choose to. Pattern recognition and pareidolia examples aside, go on line and witness hundreds of businesses peddling pendants, tattoos, bracelets, charms and amulets in every shape and form. If it makes you feel safe wearing one of these, it’s no different than a rabbit’s foot. Belief is everything, but logic and skepticism should tell us it wasn’t very lucky for the rabbit was it?

There’s a whole reality show in there somewhere too.

Black magic, sorcery, figure casting, witchcraft and toying with The Evil Eye all have at their source the one main ingredient that makes all these charms, curses and fetishes work: FEAR. It’s all down to that in our supposedly sophisticated and intellectually advanced society isn’t it? The “All-Knowing All Seeing Eye” that brings to mind Orwell and Big Brother still works it’s primal magic on us. Don’t think so? Think you are immune? No way. Take a look at the world’s most infamous network logo:

So can that all seeing eye turn itself in on itself and take a close look at the ancient cults, invocations and countless subliminal links it has made to all of our subconscious minds since it was first introduced into our living rooms back in 1951? I might be asking too much here and posing a rhetorical question like trying to operate on your own eye or fixng your own teeth, but there’s a method to my madness. Is the CBS logo supposed to be watching out for us or at us? CBS logo designer William Golden has stated that the logo had shaker roots, but I’m putting my money on a much more ancient and far more decidedly sinister lineage. But then again, …that’s just me. Nonetheless, if you fancy yourself The Modern Television Executive In the Know, it might be best to cover all your bases and eschew the rabbit’s foot by spending six bucks for one of these:

As the executive who may indeed be in need of the proper etiquette and occult use of such bewitchery, please allow me to help you in the ways of the paranormal. As a member of “The Skeptologists” team of qualified experts, I hereby offer my personal services to help unearth the truth behind the myths and misconceptions which may have grown to enormous proportions within your august corporate community. With your endorsement, I will travel to your headquarters and provide discrete consultation on the full import of your situation. In the interests of professionalism and conformity to established standards of good or proper behavior and in accordance with all conventional political correctness, I promise to avoid any mention or use of grave dirt, nail parings, voodoo candles or locks of hair.

I await as your obedient servant.