Law of contagion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The law of contagion is a type of magical thinking that suggests that once two objects have been in contact, they continue to affect each other even when their contact is broken. This "law" is the basis for the belief in things like voodoo dolls (where a doll made with the hair or clothing of a victim is purportedly used to affect the victim) and many methods of clairvoyance, where an article of clothing or other personal item is used by the medium as a "focus" for seeing or communicating with the (deceased or missing) owner.