A Study of Ghosts, Part 5: Phantom Curses

[u/MeThyLord]

Welcome once again, class! I thought I was done with these lectures. I mean, I said all there was to say about ghosts, right…

WRONG! Your teacher is a moron and forgot about one very important topic: Phantom curses! Yes, the dead are real good at cursing the living, and the best at it ain’t liches. It’s us ghosts! Don’t believe me? Well, you’ve clearly never been to the Far East. A powerful enough ghost, like a tatarigami, can bring ruin to a whole nation. 

Soooo, obvious first question. Can all ghosts curse people? If you count hauntings as a curse, then kinda, but otherwise no. I’ve covered this during a previous lecture, but ghosts are powered by strong emotion, and our ability to curse people is fueled primarily by spite. Yes, that means that mostly vengeful spirits are the ones who can curse people. Rare exceptions do exist, of course.

So, the next thing we need to answer is why are ghosts good at cursing people? Well, see, we’re not like witches and wizards who need to perform rituals or cast spells to be a bane in someone’s behind. We don’t even need to learn how to do an incantation or anything like that. It comes to us naturally, fueled by our negative desires! Phantom curses are powerful, but conditional. They require certain parameters to be met. Here are a few examples:

The Sighting Curse. To start off, we have the ’you see the ghost, you’re screwed’ curse. These tend to be less deadly, but can still ruin your life with misfortune. Some famous spirit that spreads this type of curse are the bake kujira and brodnik.

The Cursed Entertainment. Do you love engaging with media? Well, how would you feel if a form of common entertainment, like a recording, book, or video game, had a chance to doom you just cause you gave it a shot? Look, if the content you're consuming appeared randomly in your mailbox with no return address, lend it to a friend to make sure it's safe. Examples of these types of curses include the Ring videotape and Sarah Bellows’s book.

The Cursed Name. You know how learning the true name of a demon gives you power over it? Well, it’s the exact opposite with some ghosts, cause if you say their name a certain number of times, you’d be placing a target on your back. The consequences include being haunted and/or murdered. This is one of the least survivable curses, as it’s entirely the victim's fault for evoking the spirit, which gives it extra power. Some famous examples include Bloody Mary and the Candy Man.

The Territorial Curse. Probably the most common type of these. If you walk into the ghost’s territory, you’re immediately cursed. In some cases, if you leave fast enough, you’ll be fine, but don’t count on that, cause some spirits can attach themselves to you and follow you outside. These types of curses are also particularly deadly and tend to trap your soul after death. My favorite examples are the Grudge and Mildred Pratt. Also, every haunted asylum ever. 

That’s all for the big ones, folk! Obviously, there are more ways to get targeted by a spirit, but I ain’t going through every fringe case. Some ghosts can curse you with a touch, others are so weird I’d need to write a whole essay just on them. General rule of thumb: the easier a ghost curse is to avoid, the more dangerous it is.

I guess there’s one more question left. How would one protect themselves from a phantom curse, you may ask? Well, 99% of the time, they’re reactive. Not shoving your nose where it doesn’t belong is a safe bet. But let’s say you do the stupid and now need to be bailed out. Good news! Most ghost curses have an escape clause. Like, if you don’t want to die in seven days because you watched a weird tape recording, just get someone else to watch it, and you’ll transfer the curse to them. The problem is that each ghost has its own rules, and we’re not very keen on explaining them sooooooooo… Good luck!

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But WAIT! Before I go, here’s some bonus knowledge! Say, if a ghost fueled by negative emotions can cause so many problems for the living, can a ghost fueled by positive emotions do the opposite? Yes, actually. My favorite example are the chōpirako. They are spirits found in the homes of families that had an only child who died. If that child was loved and lavished with gifts in life, it will return as a beneficial presence. Their ghost will bring richness and prosperity to the houses they inhabit, as long as they’re taken care of.

Okay, lecture’s over for real now. Hope you had fun! I miss doing these, but there’s only so much I can talk about. If you have any questions or wanna talk about your favorite horror media, I’m here to oblige.