Marc Berry: I have met two jinxes in my life. The first was a fellow I went to school with, and continued to have occasional association with for years afterwards. I didn't really think about, or even notice, the effect he was having until the last year or two of our association. For that matter, I didn't really want to, for he was a friend. However, every time I saw him, my wife and I would fight. Every single time, whether or not she knew we had met, and often over nothing at all. It took some time, but I eventually began to notice the pattern, and as I slowly excised him from my life, the fights diminished to the more normal, infrequent arguments that occur in marriage. Certainly nothing like what we had been experiencing. It also bears noting that this man's personal relationships with the fairer sex were unilaterally disastrous. I met the second only recently, but am equally certain that he is also a jinx. Bad luck and misfortune swirl around him, a miasmic cloud of impending misery and frustration just waiting to pounce upon the unwary. It seems to manifest somewhat differently than that of my former friend, though. This man's effect is one of creating frustration, usually in the form of an accident requiring time and effort to clean up. A distraction from other, more important things that need to get done, and an almost vampiric draining of energies.

The counter point to a jinx would be a charm. I'm sure that there are people out there who are charms, but if I have ever met one, I didn't notice. I imagine that a charm would spread good luck and positivity wherever they go. The question is, can we decide which we want to be? I think so. A jinx is a jinx because of some decision they have made, an energy that they have cultivated throughout their lives that breeds and encourages the spread of negative energies. So then it follows that a charm would follow the same pattern, and yet there seem to be depressingly few around.

There is no doubt that we have an influence on our environment, and the people we encounter. It's just that negativity seems to spread at an exponential rate, while positivity crawls upstream with bricks on its feet. Why? Honestly, I don't know, but I do know that we are wired for stress. Human beings live on a fight or flight basis, reacting to fear and threat faster than love and faith. And yet love is what ultimately drives the universe, creating all that is good and worthy of our attention and devotion. Perhaps it is that fear and stress are immediate and short term, leading to short term solutions, while love and courage are long term, and as such do not yield immediate results. It's hard to feel like you are making progress when there is no progress to be seen.Here's the catch, though: the jinx ultimately self destructs. Destroyed relationships, failed careers, and general misery at every turn. The charm, though beset by the same misfortunes, will ultimately succeed, if we define success as happiness. A charm may not become a gazillionaire, but they will never lack. They may not make CEO, but they will have job satisfaction. Most importantly, their relationships will be rich, rewarding and a never ending source of strength and joy.

Jinx or charm, your energy is your own responsibility. It stems from your day to day decisions and actions, your cultivated attitudes and the people that you choose to enrich your life with. It is up to you to make the upstream swim, bricks and all, for to give in to the prevailing attitudes of negativity is to drown in an ocean of misery, alone in the crowd. Love is the only real survival strategy. Are you a survivor?

MBerry is co-founder of NewBranes.com, a blog covering all aspects of the paranormal.
His ultimate long term goal is to discover the General Unified Theory of Everything Weird.

This reminds me of everyday jinx in a workplace.
Surely, to argue with them is useless.
But try to show them in a nice way that they are idiots.
You are going to see your charms.
Priceless !

Not sure about being a jinx, but I do think I am a catalyst. If there is an underlying stress or problem, when I come into the picture it busts wide open. I have had friends tell me that I am a strong woman, and they think I will have their back? I'm not sure. Most times I have not clue what has happened until after the fireworks. One time I met up with a guy I worked with in a bar. I hadn't seen him for like 10 years and I said "hi" and we talked about people we both new. His girlfriend was talking to me, too all nice and smiling. I was getting into my car and when they came out of the store they were fighting. Maybe it was coincidence, but this has happened before. And no, I did not flirt with him, he was thirty years older than me at least, and I had always thought of him as an uncle type.

Hmmm...ask all jealous type woman. They accept no reason.

Jealousy is such a silly emotion, If I was feeling the least bit jealous, I would ask myself why, if I felt insecure in a relationship, then obviously that relationship wasn't for me and I would say 'goodbye' and leave. No need for it IMO.

While this fellow was an idiot, that wasn't the nature of the misfortunes that he seemed to bring with him. In the year and a half that I have worked there, there have been no serious incidents. The very night he started, $200 worth of merchandise was destroyed, and olive oil spill that took about an hour to clean up. The following week, both the power jack and the high lifter malfuctioned within an hour of each other, both spitting sparks. A few nights later a 3000 lb bale of cardboard burst, again taking an hour or so to clean up. Etc, etc... When he left us, it all cleared up. That's the kind of jinx that I'm talking about.

My wife and I have speculated that there are different types of "jinxes", some of which are "catalysts", as you call them. This type of jinx isn't really a jinx at all, but more of a blessing in disguise, the kind that is seldom appreciated until it is well and truly passed. Perhaps the spat your friend had woth his girlfriend enabled them ot work out some issues that had been holding their relationship back? Speculation, again, but we can hope :-)

I've been around a few people that simply drain positive energy. I don't know if I would call them jinxes. It just seems that their entire atmosphere is like a huge vacuum, where every good feeling and deed is replaced with negativism.

In particular, a former co-worker who has since retired was a huge energy-sucker. Everything revolved around her. She constantly gossiped and it was always negative information. You had to be careful of what you said to her, because she angered quite easily. She expressed an interest in becoming my friend, and I made a go of it. However, after a few lunches together, I just felt myself pulling away because of how she brought me down. She never had a kind word to say about anyone. I'm very glad she's gone on to greener pastures.

On the flip side, the few people I have meant that I would consider counter-jinxes--or a positive force, usually are extremely spiritual people who live their beliefs through their actions. They are the people who think of others before themselves. They are happy in their life choices, and a inner light seems to glow from them. Sadly, these people are too few and far between. I wish I was one.

She sounds like a psychic vampire to me.

Wishing to be one may be a good start to becoming one :-D

Yes--that could be it! I never thought of that before. It's like a big black cloud hovers around her and sucks you in if you're not careful. I'll have to check out more about psychic vampires--I've heard about them before, just never considered it.

I totally agree with this! There are people who seem to spread misfortune... I think it's all a matter of whatever their primary feeling is (happy/content/love versus sad/angry/discontent) rubs off subconsciously on you and then it reflects back onto other people. They may not know you were with the person, but they can see the resulting affect by how you act after being around the 'jinxed' or 'charmed' person. But I am happy to say that I was fortunate enough to know a 'charmed' woman growing up. She was my best friend's mother, and she positively radiated happiness and love. You could talk to her about anything, and she would listen and never judge, no matter what. She had breast cancer a total of 4 times, and through it all, she maintained her positive demeanor. Though it finally won the battle, she's still remembered for her positive spirit and happiness.