The Grim is getting grimmer...

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 123405


>vmonte responds:
It's not the grim that kills the wizard/witch. The grim portends
their death. Basically, it's a bad sign if you see one.

>Finwitch:
You know that - it's what Trelawney tells us. (Having just told Harry
he has the Grim -- actually Sirius' animagi-form? That cup - read by
Trelawney - had to do a lot with Harry's 5th year. And er -
everything else she said, besides giving out her lessonplan - 'is
your grandmother well? I wouldn't be so sure'. (
Hermione, however, upon hearing Ron's comment about Uncle Bilius who
saw a Grim and died less than a day later... 'you see, everyone's so
scared of it they die of fright - it's not an omen of death, it's the
cause of it!' (But I don't believe Hermione on this one)

vmonte again:
Sorry, Finwitch. I didn't reralize that Hermione had said this. I do
remember though watching a TV special once (I cannot remember the 
name of the show) about Voodoo culture. In that special there were 
case studies of people who had died of fright because they found out 
that someone had put a voodoo curse on them. No kidding! The people 
in this culture are so superstitious, that just finding out you have 
been cursed is sometimes enough to kill you.

I found this online:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/strange/20000209-
1210strange2.html

Voodoo curses, explained


By Bill Sones and Rich Sones

February 2, 2000

Q. If somebody puts a voodoo curse on you, might it kill you?

A. If you think it might, it might.

"In Essentials of Psychology, Exploration and Application, 6th Ed.,
Dennis Coon tells of a terrified young woman admitted to a hospital
because she believed she was going to die. A midwife had predicted
that the woman's two sisters would die on their 16th and 21st
birthdays, and that the woman herself would die on her 23rd birthday.

Her sisters had died as predicted, and now it was three days before
her 23rd birthday. Then the following day the woman was indeed found
dead in her hospital bed, "an apparent victim of her own terror."

There are other cases of people dying of fright, such as soldiers in
particularly savage battles, or of people being stricken at very
emotional times, such as Louis Armstrong's widow suffering a heart
attack during a memorial concert for her husband just as the final
chord of "St. Louis Blues" was played.

Such victims may die in one of two ways: Physiologically,
the intense arousal causes a sharp rise in blood sugar, the heart
beats faster, digestion slows or stops, blood flow to the skin is
reduced. These "fight- or-flight" reactions generally increase the
chances of survival in an emergency, but in an older person or
someone in bad health, they can kill.

And if the initial emotion doesn't prove fatal, "parasympathetic
rebound" might: Following heightened arousal, the body works to calm
all the accelerated processes and, in doing so, may go too far: Even
in a young, vigorous person, the counter-slowdown may actually stop
the heart."


Strange but true, wait, maybe that was the name of the special...

Vivian