Do you know that a curse is a form of double-bladed witchcraft that brings evil to the person it is directed to and, at the same time, to the one saying or thinking about it?

Yes, a curse can be cast even in the mind, even without moving one's lips, according to Jennifer LeClaire, the director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and senior editor at Charisma magazine.

When we speak ill of other people or ourselves—saying things like "they will never hold down a job acting like that"; "their marriage is bound to fail the way he treats her"; "the doctors said he's going to die in 30 days. Isn't that sad?"; "I catch that flu every year!"; "I'll never get a raise at this dead-end job"—we are actually cursing these other people and ourselves, thus "opening the door to the devil" to harm us, LeClaire says in Charisma News.

She says when we think unkind thoughts, "we're getting on the devil's side and allowing him to feed our minds ammunition that will eventually come out of our mouths and become a word curse."

LeClaire says people who are angry and upset usually end up spewing curses.

She says negative thoughts affect the people all around us. "Have you ever walked into a room and the atmosphere was tense or gloomy? And then when you speak to the person in the room, you discover they are tense or gloomy. Could it be possible that their thoughts have impacted the atmosphere in the room? I believe so," she says.

"If thoughts are powerful to change our own mind, they must be powerful enough to change the atmosphere around us and may be powerful enough to release witchcraft at people," she writes.

LeClaire says people who harbour jealousy, anger, fear, revenge and other negative thoughts are no better than witches who launch "intentional psychic attacks."

She says combating curses starts in the mind. "If we're cursing ourselves in our thoughts, we need to intentionally think the opposite of what the enemy is telling us, what people say about us, or what we think about our own shortcomings. We need to declare the truth out of our mouths," she says.

At the same time, "we need to guard our thoughts about others," she adds.

On the other hand, if you feel like you are at the receiving end of curses, LeClaire says the best thing to do is to employ "the Luke 6:28 principle—bless those who curse you even if you don't know who they are."

"Next, bind thought curses and word curses in the name of Jesus with the Matthew 16:19 key. Finally, take authority over every demonic thought that has been formed against your life and gird up the loins of your mind, for that is where the root of the battle really lies," LeClaire says.