Talk:Aleister Crowley/@comment-142.122.90.137-20200111181356/@comment-68.5.80.179-20200304012516

It's fairly simple actually. The curse makes any of his endevors fail. In your example, if he was the one trying to gain information, say from another person, the curse might bring about a fate where the other person dies before he could. However if he has someone else collect that information for their own reasons, then he can use the information gathered.

The idea was that he set up Academy City in a way that he would never have to attempt to do anything ever again, as doing such would end in failure. The people living in it all are researching things for their own benefit, but in doing so end up helping Aleister.