Vendedor:sidewaysstairsco✉️(1.180)100%,
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Número de artículo:204424532344CAMPANA BOLA DE CRISTAL DE MANO DORADA adivino orbe psíquico decoración mística de Halloween. Omnidirectional lens. The Renaissance. The emotionalist approach to magic is associated with the English anthropologist Robert Ranulph Marett, the Austrian Sigmund Freud, and the Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski. Check out our other new and used items>>>>>HERE! (click me) FOR SALE: An elegant home decor item for Halloween or any time 6.5" GOLDEN HAND CRYSTAL BALL DISPLAY CLOCHE DETAILS: Your gateway to mystical realms and beautiful decor! Unlock
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conversation starter, a source of wonder, and a symbol of the enigmatic. Dimensions: Approximately 4" (L) x 3-3/4" (W) x 6-1/2" (H) (inches). Seasonal, hard to find, and possibly retired! The "fortune teller crystal ball cloche" by Horizon Group USA was made available
for purchase only during the 2022 Halloween season, at select Target retail
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online or in store as it has been retired - making it a rare find now. CONDITION: New; shrink wrapped. The shrink wrap may have slits and/or tears. Please see photos. *Candle/light is not included.* To ensure safe delivery all items are carefully packaged before shipping out. THANK YOU FOR LOOKING. QUESTIONS? JUST ASK. *ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SIDEWAYS STAIRS CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.* "Halloween
or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween,[5] All Hallows'
Eve,[6] or All Saints' Eve)[7] is a celebration observed in many
countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All
Saints' Day. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide,[8] the time in
the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints
(hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.[9][10][11][12] One
theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic
harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are
believed to have pagan roots.[13][14][15][16] Some go further and
suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow's Day,
along with its eve, by the early Church.[17] Other academics believe
Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All
Hallow's Day.[18][19][20][21] Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for
centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants took many Halloween customs to
North America in the 19th century,[22][23] and then through American
influence Halloween had spread to other countries by the late 20th and
early 21st century.[24][25] Popular Halloween activities include
trick-or-treating (or the related guising and souling), attending
Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into
jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games,
playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and
watching horror or Halloween-themed films.[26] Some people practice the
Christian religious observances of All Hallows' Eve, including
attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the
dead,[27][28][29] although it is a secular celebration for
others.[30][31][32] Some Christians historically abstained from meat on
All Hallows' Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain
vegetarian foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes,
and soul cakes.[33][34][35][36] Etymology "Halloween" (1785) by Scottish poet Robert Burns, recounts various legends of the holiday. The
word Halloween or Hallowe'en ("Saints' evening"[37]) is of Christian
origin;[38][39] a term equivalent to "All Hallows Eve" is attested in
Old English.[40] The word hallowe[']en comes from the Scottish form of
All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows' Day):[41] even is the
Scots term for "eve" or "evening",[42] and is contracted to e'en or
een;[43] (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en became Hallowe'en. History Christian origins and historic customs Halloween
is thought to have influences from Christian beliefs and
practices.[44][45] The English word 'Halloween' comes from "All Hallows'
Eve", being the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows'
Day (All Saints' Day) on 1 November and All Souls' Day on 2
November.[46] Since the time of the early Church,[47] major feasts in
Christianity (such as Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) had vigils that
began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows'.[48][44] These
three days are collectively called Allhallowtide and are a time when
Western Christians honour all saints and pray for recently departed
souls who have yet to reach Heaven. Commemorations of all saints and
martyrs were held by several churches on various dates, mostly in
springtime.[49] In 4th-century Roman Edessa it was held on 13 May, and
on 13 May 609, Pope Boniface IV re-dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to "St
Mary and all martyrs".[50] This was the date of Lemuria, an ancient
Roman festival of the dead.[51] In the 8th century, Pope Gregory
III (731–741) founded an oratory in St Peter's for the relics "of the
holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors".[44][52] Some
sources say it was dedicated on 1 November,[53] while others say it was
on Palm Sunday in April 732.[54][55] By 800, there is evidence that
churches in Ireland[56] and Northumbria were holding a feast
commemorating all saints on 1 November.[57] Alcuin of Northumbria, a
member of Charlemagne's court, may then have introduced this 1 November
date in the Frankish Empire.[58] In 835, it became the official date in
the Frankish Empire.[57] Some suggest this was due to Celtic influence,
while others suggest it was a Germanic idea,[57] although it is claimed
that both Germanic and Celtic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at
the beginning of winter.[59] They may have seen it as the most fitting
time to do so, as it is a time of 'dying' in nature.[57][59] It is also
suggested the change was made on the "practical grounds that Rome in
summer could not accommodate the great number of pilgrims who flocked to
it", and perhaps because of public health concerns over Roman Fever,
which claimed a number of lives during Rome's sultry summers.[60][44] On
All Hallows' Eve, Christians in some parts of the world visit
cemeteries to pray and place flowers and candles on the graves of their
loved ones.[61] Top: Christians in Bangladesh lighting candles on the
headstone of a relative. Bottom: Lutheran Christians praying and
lighting candles in front of the central crucifix of a graveyard. By
the end of the 12th century, the celebration had become known as the
holy days of obligation in Western Christianity and involved such
traditions as ringing church bells for souls in purgatory. It was also
"customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a
bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Christians to remember
the poor souls".[62] The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing soul
cakes for all christened souls,[63] has been suggested as the origin of
trick-or-treating.[64] The custom dates back at least as far as the
15th century[65] and was found in parts of England, Wales, Flanders,
Bavaria and Austria.[66] Groups of poor people, often children, would go
door-to-door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes, in exchange
for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers' friends
and relatives. This was called "souling".[65][67][68] Soul cakes were
also offered for the souls themselves to eat,[66] or the 'soulers' would
act as their representatives.[69] As with the Lenten tradition of hot
cross buns, soul cakes were often marked with a cross, indicating they
were baked as alms.[70] Shakespeare mentions souling in his comedy The
Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593).[71] While souling, Christians would
carry "lanterns made of hollowed-out turnips", which could have
originally represented souls of the dead;[72][73] jack-o'-lanterns were
used to ward off evil spirits.[74][75] On All Saints' and All Souls' Day
during the 19th century, candles were lit in homes in Ireland,[76]
Flanders, Bavaria, and in Tyrol, where they were called "soul
lights",[77] that served "to guide the souls back to visit their earthly
homes".[78] In many of these places, candles were also lit at graves on
All Souls' Day.[77] In Brittany, libations of milk were poured on the
graves of kinfolk,[66] or food would be left overnight on the dinner
table for the returning souls;[77] a custom also found in Tyrol and
parts of Italy.[79][77] Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh
linked the wearing of costumes to the belief in vengeful ghosts: "It was
traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the
earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last
chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to
the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that
might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or
costumes".[80] In the Middle Ages, churches in Europe that were too poor
to display relics of martyred saints at Allhallowtide let parishioners
dress up as saints instead.[81][82] Some Christians observe this custom
at Halloween today.[83] Lesley Bannatyne believes this could have been a
Christianization of an earlier pagan custom.[84] Many Christians in
mainland Europe, especially in France, believed "that once a year, on
Hallowe'en, the dead of the churchyards rose for one wild, hideous
carnival" known as the danse macabre, which was often depicted in church
decoration.[85] Christopher Allmand and Rosamond McKitterick write in
The New Cambridge Medieval History that the danse macabre urged
Christians "not to forget the end of all earthly things".[86] The danse
macabre was sometimes enacted in European village pageants and court
masques, with people "dressing up as corpses from various strata of
society", and this may be the origin of Halloween costume
parties.[87][88][89][72] In Britain, these customs came under
attack during the Reformation, as Protestants berated purgatory as a
"popish" doctrine incompatible with the Calvinist doctrine of
predestination. State-sanctioned ceremonies associated with the
intercession of saints and prayer for souls in purgatory were abolished
during the Elizabethan reform, though All Hallow's Day remained in the
English liturgical calendar to "commemorate saints as godly human
beings".[90] For some Nonconformist Protestants, the theology of All
Hallows' Eve was redefined; "souls cannot be journeying from Purgatory
on their way to Heaven, as Catholics frequently believe and assert.
Instead, the so-called ghosts are thought to be in actuality evil
spirits".[91] Other Protestants believed in an intermediate state known
as Hades (Bosom of Abraham).[92] In some localities, Catholics and
Protestants continued souling, candlelit processions, or ringing church
bells for the dead;[46][93] the Anglican church eventually suppressed
this bell-ringing.[94] Mark Donnelly, a professor of medieval
archaeology, and historian Daniel Diehl write that "barns and homes were
blessed to protect people and livestock from the effect of witches, who
were believed to accompany the malignant spirits as they traveled the
earth".[95] After 1605, Hallowtide was eclipsed in England by Guy Fawkes
Night (5 November), which appropriated some of its customs.[96] In
England, the ending of official ceremonies related to the intercession
of saints led to the development of new, unofficial Hallowtide customs.
In 18th–19th century rural Lancashire, Catholic families gathered on
hills on the night of All Hallows' Eve. One held a bunch of burning
straw on a pitchfork while the rest knelt around him, praying for the
souls of relatives and friends until the flames went out. This was known
as teen'lay.[97] There was a similar custom in Hertfordshire, and the
lighting of 'tindle' fires in Derbyshire.[98] Some suggested these
'tindles' were originally lit to "guide the poor souls back to
earth".[99] In Scotland and Ireland, old Allhallowtide customs that were
at odds with Reformed teaching were not suppressed as they "were
important to the life cycle and rites of passage of local communities"
and curbing them would have been difficult.[22] In parts of Italy
until the 15th century, families left a meal out for the ghosts of
relatives, before leaving for church services.[79] In 19th-century
Italy, churches staged "theatrical re-enactments of scenes from the
lives of the saints" on All Hallow's Day, with "participants represented
by realistic wax figures".[79] In 1823, the graveyard of Holy Spirit
Hospital in Rome presented a scene in which bodies of those who recently
died were arrayed around a wax statue of an angel who pointed upward
towards heaven.[79] In the same country, "parish priests went
house-to-house, asking for small gifts of food which they shared among
themselves throughout that night".[79] In Spain, they continue to bake
special pastries called "bones of the holy" (Spanish: Huesos de Santo)
and set them on graves.[100] At cemeteries in Spain and France, as well
as in Latin America, priests lead Christian processions and services
during Allhallowtide, after which people keep an all night vigil.[101]
In 19th-century San Sebastián, there was a procession to the city
cemetery at Allhallowtide, an event that drew beggars who "appeal[ed] to
the tender recollectons of one's deceased relations and friends" for
sympathy.[102] Gaelic folk influence An early 20th-century Irish Halloween mask displayed at the Museum of Country Life Today's
Halloween customs are thought to have been influenced by folk customs
and beliefs from the Celtic-speaking countries, some of which are
believed to have pagan roots.[103] Jack Santino, a folklorist, writes
that "there was throughout Ireland an uneasy truce existing between
customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated
with religions that were Irish before Christianity arrived".[104] The
origins of Halloween customs are typically linked to the Gaelic festival
Samhain.[105] Samhain is one of the quarter days in the medieval
Gaelic calendar and has been celebrated on 31 October – 1 November[106]
in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.[107][108] A kindred festival
has been held by the Brittonic Celts, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan
Gwav in Cornwall and Kalan Goañv in Brittany; a name meaning "first day
of winter". For the Celts, the day ended and began at sunset; thus the
festival begins the evening before 1 November by modern reckoning.[109]
Samhain is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature. The names
have been used by historians to refer to Celtic Halloween customs up
until the 19th century,[110] and are still the Gaelic and Welsh names
for Halloween. Snap-Apple Night, painted by Daniel Maclise in 1833,
shows people feasting and playing divination games on Halloween in
Ireland.[111] Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and
beginning of winter or the 'darker half' of the year.[112][113] It was
seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the
Otherworld thinned. This meant the Aos Sí, the 'spirits' or 'fairies',
could more easily come into this world and were particularly
active.[114][115] Most scholars see them as "degraded versions of
ancient gods [...] whose power remained active in the people's minds
even after they had been officially replaced by later religious
beliefs".[116] They were both respected and feared, with individuals
often invoking the protection of God when approaching their
dwellings.[117][118] At Samhain, the Aos Sí were appeased to ensure the
people and livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink,
or portions of the crops, were left outside for them.[119][120][121] The
souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking
hospitality.[122] Places were set at the dinner table and by the fire to
welcome them.[123] The belief that the souls of the dead return home on
one night of the year and must be appeased seems to have ancient
origins and is found in many cultures.[66] In 19th century Ireland,
"candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the
dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin".[124] Throughout
Ireland and Britain, especially in the Celtic-speaking regions, the
household festivities included divination rituals and games intended to
foretell one's future, especially regarding death and marriage.[125]
Apples and nuts were often used, and customs included apple bobbing, nut
roasting, scrying or mirror-gazing, pouring molten lead or egg whites
into water, dream interpretation, and others.[126] Special bonfires were
lit and there were rituals involving them. Their flames, smoke, and
ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers.[112] In some
places, torches lit from the bonfire were carried sunwise around homes
and fields to protect them.[110] It is suggested the fires were a kind
of imitative or sympathetic magic – they mimicked the Sun and held back
the decay and darkness of winter.[123][127][128] They were also used for
divination and to ward off evil spirits.[74] In Scotland, these
bonfires and divination games were banned by the church elders in some
parishes.[129] In Wales, bonfires were also lit to "prevent the souls of
the dead from falling to earth".[130] Later, these bonfires "kept away
the devil".[131] photograph A plaster cast of a traditional Irish Halloween turnip (rutabaga) lantern on display in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland[132] From
at least the 16th century,[133] the festival included mumming and
guising in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales.[134] This
involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise),
usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. It may have
originally been a tradition whereby people impersonated the Aos Sí, or
the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf, similar
to 'souling'. Impersonating these beings, or wearing a disguise, was
also believed to protect oneself from them.[135] In parts of southern
Ireland, the guisers included a hobby horse. A man dressed as a Láir
Bhán (white mare) led youths house-to-house reciting verses – some of
which had pagan overtones – in exchange for food. If the household
donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not
doing so would bring misfortune.[136] In Scotland, youths went
house-to-house with masked, painted or blackened faces, often
threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed.[134] F. Marian
McNeill suggests the ancient festival included people in costume
representing the spirits, and that faces were marked or blackened with
ashes from the sacred bonfire.[133] In parts of Wales, men went about
dressed as fearsome beings called gwrachod.[134] In the late 19th and
early 20th century, young people in Glamorgan and Orkney
cross-dressed.[134] Elsewhere in Europe, mumming was part of
other festivals, but in the Celtic-speaking regions, it was
"particularly appropriate to a night upon which supernatural beings were
said to be abroad and could be imitated or warded off by human
wanderers".[134] From at least the 18th century, "imitating malignant
spirits" led to playing pranks in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands.
Wearing costumes and playing pranks at Halloween did not spread to
England until the 20th century.[134] Pranksters used hollowed-out
turnips or mangel wurzels as lanterns, often carved with grotesque
faces.[134] By those who made them, the lanterns were variously said to
represent the spirits,[134] or used to ward off evil spirits.[137][138]
They were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in the
19th century,[134] as well as in Somerset (see Punkie Night). In the
20th century they spread to other parts of Britain and became generally
known as jack-o'-lanterns.[134] Spread to North America The annual
New York Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, is the
world's largest Halloween parade, with millions of spectators annually,
and has its roots in New York’s queer community.[139] Lesley
Bannatyne and Cindy Ott write that Anglican colonists in the southern
United States and Catholic colonists in Maryland "recognized All
Hallow's Eve in their church calendars",[140][141] although the Puritans
of New England strongly opposed the holiday, along with other
traditional celebrations of the established Church, including
Christmas.[142] Almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no
indication that Halloween was widely celebrated in North America.[22] It
was not until after mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th
century that Halloween became a major holiday in America.[22] Most
American Halloween traditions were inherited from the Irish and
Scots,[23][143] though "In Cajun areas, a nocturnal Mass was said in
cemeteries on Halloween night. Candles that had been blessed were placed
on graves, and families sometimes spent the entire night at the
graveside".[144] Originally confined to these immigrant communities, it
was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and was celebrated
coast to coast by people of all social, racial, and religious
backgrounds by the early 20th century.[145] Then, through American
influence, these Halloween traditions spread to many other countries by
the late 20th and early 21st century, including to mainland Europe and
some parts of the Far East.[24][25][146] Symbols At Halloween,
yards, public spaces, and some houses may be decorated with
traditionally macabre symbols including skeletons, ghosts, cobwebs,
headstones, and scary looking witches. Development of artifacts
and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. Jack-o'-lanterns
are traditionally carried by guisers on All Hallows' Eve in order to
frighten evil spirits.[73][147] There is a popular Irish Christian
folktale associated with the jack-o'-lantern,[148] which in folklore is
said to represent a "soul who has been denied entry into both heaven and
hell":[149] On route home after a night's drinking, Jack
encounters the Devil and tricks him into climbing a tree. A
quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark, thus
trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a bargain that Satan can never claim
his soul. After a life of sin, drink, and mendacity, Jack is refused
entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to
let Jack into hell and throws a live coal straight from the fires of
hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a hollowed
out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his
lantern have been roaming looking for a place to rest.[150] In
Ireland and Scotland, the turnip has traditionally been carved during
Halloween,[151][152] but immigrants to North America used the native
pumpkin, which is both much softer and much larger, making it easier to
carve than a turnip.[151] The American tradition of carving pumpkins is
recorded in 1837[153] and was originally associated with harvest time in
general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the
mid-to-late 19th century.[154] Decorated house in Weatherly, Pennsylvania The
modern imagery of Halloween comes from many sources, including
Christian eschatology, national customs, works of Gothic and horror
literature (such as the novels Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
and Dracula) and classic horror films such as Frankenstein (1931) and
The Mummy (1932).[155][156] Imagery of the skull, a reference to
Golgotha in the Christian tradition, serves as "a reminder of death and
the transitory quality of human life" and is consequently found in
memento mori and vanitas compositions;[157] skulls have therefore been
commonplace in Halloween, which touches on this theme.[158]
Traditionally, the back walls of churches are "decorated with a
depiction of the Last Judgment, complete with graves opening and the
dead rising, with a heaven filled with angels and a hell filled with
devils", a motif that has permeated the observance of this triduum.[159]
One of the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish
poet John Mayne, who, in 1780, made note of pranks at Halloween; "What
fearfu' pranks ensue!", as well as the supernatural associated with the
night, "bogles" (ghosts),[160] influencing Robert Burns' "Halloween"
(1785).[161] Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn
husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated
with these types of symbols around Halloween. Halloween imagery includes
themes of death, evil, and mythical monsters.[162] Black cats, which
have been long associated with witches, are also a common symbol of
Halloween. Black, orange, and sometimes purple are Halloween's
traditional colors.[163] Trick-or-treating and guising Main article: Trick-or-treating Trick-or-treaters in Sweden Trick-or-treating
is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in
costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or
sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "trick"
implies a "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their
property if no treat is given.[64] The practice is said to have roots in
the medieval practice of mumming, which is closely related to
souling.[164] John Pymm wrote that "many of the feast days associated
with the presentation of mumming plays were celebrated by the Christian
Church."[165] These feast days included All Hallows' Eve, Christmas,
Twelfth Night and Shrove Tuesday.[166][167] Mumming practiced in
Germany, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe,[168] involved masked
persons in fancy dress who "paraded the streets and entered houses to
dance or play dice in silence".[169] Girl in a Halloween costume in
1928, Ontario, Canada, the same province where the Scottish Halloween
custom of guising was first recorded in North America In England,
from the medieval period,[170] up until the 1930s,[171] people
practiced the Christian custom of souling on Halloween, which involved
groups of soulers, both Protestant and Catholic,[93] going from parish
to parish, begging the rich for soul cakes, in exchange for praying for
the souls of the givers and their friends.[67] In the Philippines, the
practice of souling is called Pangangaluluwa and is practiced on All
Hallow's Eve among children in rural areas.[26] People drape themselves
in white cloths to represent souls and then visit houses, where they
sing in return for prayers and sweets.[26] In Scotland and
Ireland, guising – children disguised in costume going from door to door
for food or coins – is a traditional Halloween custom.[172] It is
recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise
carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be
rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money.[152][173] In Ireland, the most
popular phrase for kids to shout (until the 2000s) was "Help the
Halloween Party".[172] The practice of guising at Halloween in North
America was first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston,
Ontario, Canada, reported children going "guising" around the
neighborhood.[174] American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley
of Massachusetts wrote the first book-length history of Halloween in
the US; The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the
chapter "Hallowe'en in America".[175] In her book, Kelley touches on
customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered
them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have
been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in the United
States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other
countries".[176] While the first reference to "guising" in North
America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween
appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in
1920.[177] The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat"
appears in 1927, in the Blackie Herald, of Alberta, Canada.[178] An automobile trunk at a trunk-or-treat event at St. John Lutheran Church and Early Learning Center in Darien, Illinois The
thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th
century and the 1920s commonly show children but not
trick-or-treating.[179] Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a
widespread practice in North America until the 1930s, with the first US
appearances of the term in 1934,[180] and the first use in a national
publication occurring in 1939.[181] A popular variant of
trick-or-treating, known as trunk-or-treating (or Halloween tailgating),
occurs when "children are offered treats from the trunks of cars parked
in a church parking lot", or sometimes, a school parking lot.[100][182]
In a trunk-or-treat event, the trunk (boot) of each automobile is
decorated with a certain theme,[183] such as those of children's
literature, movies, scripture, and job roles.[184] Trunk-or-treating has
grown in popularity due to its perception as being more safe than going
door to door, a point that resonates well with parents, as well as the
fact that it "solves the rural conundrum in which homes [are] built a
half-mile apart".[185][186] Costumes Main article: Halloween costume Halloween
costumes were traditionally modeled after figures such as vampires,
ghosts, skeletons, scary looking witches, and devils.[64] Over time, the
costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction,
celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses. Halloween shop in Derry, Northern Ireland, selling masks Dressing
up in costumes and going "guising" was prevalent in Scotland and
Ireland at Halloween by the late 19th century.[152] A Scottish term, the
tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn
by the children.[173] In Ireland and Scotland, the masks are known as
'false faces',[38][187] a term recorded in Ayr, Scotland in 1890 by a
Scot describing guisers: "I had mind it was Halloween . . . the wee
callans were at it already, rinning aboot wi’ their fause-faces (false
faces) on and their bits o’ turnip lanthrons (lanterns) in their haun
(hand)".[38] Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in
the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children, and when
trick-or-treating was becoming popular in Canada and the US in the 1920s
and 1930s.[178][188] Eddie J. Smith, in his book Halloween,
Hallowed is Thy Name, offers a religious perspective to the wearing of
costumes on All Hallows' Eve, suggesting that by dressing up as
creatures "who at one time caused us to fear and tremble", people are
able to poke fun at Satan "whose kingdom has been plundered by our
Saviour". Images of skeletons and the dead are traditional decorations
used as memento mori.[189][190] "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" is a
fundraising program to support UNICEF,[64] a United Nations Programme
that provides humanitarian aid to children in developing countries.
Started as a local event in a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood in
1950 and expanded nationally in 1952, the program involves the
distribution of small boxes by schools (or in modern times, corporate
sponsors like Hallmark, at their licensed stores) to trick-or-treaters,
in which they can solicit small-change donations from the houses they
visit. It is estimated that children have collected more than $118
million for UNICEF since its inception. In Canada, in 2006, UNICEF
decided to discontinue their Halloween collection boxes, citing safety
and administrative concerns; after consultation with schools, they
instead redesigned the program.[191][192] The yearly New York's
Village Halloween Parade was begun in 1974; it is the world's largest
Halloween parade and America's only major nighttime parade, attracting
more than 60,000 costumed participants, two million spectators, and a
worldwide television audience.[193] Since the late 2010s, ethnic
stereotypes as costumes have increasingly come under scrutiny in the
United States.[194] Such and other potentially offensive costumes have
been met with increasing public disapproval.[195][196] Pet costumes According
to a 2018 report from the National Retail Federation, 30 million
Americans will spend an estimated $480 million on Halloween costumes for
their pets in 2018. This is up from an estimated $200 million in 2010.
The most popular costumes for pets are the pumpkin, followed by the hot
dog, and the bumblebee in third place.[197] Games and other activities In
this 1904 Halloween greeting card, divination is depicted: the young
woman looking into a mirror in a darkened room hopes to catch a glimpse
of her future husband. There are several games traditionally
associated with Halloween. Some of these games originated as divination
rituals or ways of foretelling one's future, especially regarding death,
marriage and children. During the Middle Ages, these rituals were done
by a "rare few" in rural communities as they were considered to be
"deadly serious" practices.[198] In recent centuries, these divination
games have been "a common feature of the household festivities" in
Ireland and Britain.[125] They often involve apples and hazelnuts. In
Celtic mythology, apples were strongly associated with the Otherworld
and immortality, while hazelnuts were associated with divine
wisdom.[199] Some also suggest that they derive from Roman practices in
celebration of Pomona.[64] Children bobbing for apples at Hallowe'en The
following activities were a common feature of Halloween in Ireland and
Britain during the 17th–20th centuries. Some have become more widespread
and continue to be popular today. One common game is apple bobbing or
dunking (which may be called "dooking" in Scotland)[200] in which apples
float in a tub or a large basin of water and the participants must use
only their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking
involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and
trying to drive the fork into an apple. Another common game involves
hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be
eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an
activity that inevitably leads to a sticky face. Another once-popular
game involves hanging a small wooden rod from the ceiling at head
height, with a lit candle on one end and an apple hanging from the
other. The rod is spun round and everyone takes turns to try to catch
the apple with their teeth.[201] Image from the Book of Hallowe'en (1919) showing several Halloween activities, such as nut roasting Several
of the traditional activities from Ireland and Britain involve
foretelling one's future partner or spouse. An apple would be peeled in
one long strip, then the peel tossed over the shoulder. The peel is
believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's
name.[202][203] Two hazelnuts would be roasted near a fire; one named
for the person roasting them and the other for the person they desire.
If the nuts jump away from the heat, it is a bad sign, but if the nuts
roast quietly it foretells a good match.[204][205] A salty oatmeal
bannock would be baked; the person would eat it in three bites and then
go to bed in silence without anything to drink. This is said to result
in a dream in which their future spouse offers them a drink to quench
their thirst.[206] Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a
darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of
their future husband would appear in the mirror.[207] The custom was
widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards[208] from the
late 19th century and early 20th century. Another popular Irish
game was known as púicíní ("blindfolds"); a person would be blindfolded
and then would choose between several saucers. The item in the saucer
would provide a hint as to their future: a ring would mean that they
would marry soon; clay, that they would die soon, perhaps within the
year; water, that they would emigrate; rosary beads, that they would
take Holy Orders (become a nun, priest, monk, etc.); a coin, that they
would become rich; a bean, that they would be poor.[209][210][211][212]
The game features prominently in the James Joyce short story "Clay"
(1914).[213][214][215] In Ireland and Scotland, items would be
hidden in food – usually a cake, barmbrack, cranachan, champ or
colcannon – and portions of it served out at random. A person's future
would be foretold by the item they happened to find; for example, a ring
meant marriage and a coin meant wealth.[216] Up until the 19th
century, the Halloween bonfires were also used for divination in parts
of Scotland, Wales and Brittany. When the fire died down, a ring of
stones would be laid in the ashes, one for each person. In the morning,
if any stone was mislaid it was said that the person it represented
would not live out the year.[110] Telling ghost stories,
listening to Halloween-themed songs and watching horror films are common
fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and
Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children)
are commonly aired on or before Halloween, while new horror films are
often released before Halloween to take advantage of the holiday. Haunted attractions Main article: Haunted attraction (simulated) Humorous tombstones in front of a house in California Humorous display window in Historic 25th Street, Ogden, Utah Haunted
attractions are entertainment venues designed to thrill and scare
patrons. Most attractions are seasonal Halloween businesses that may
include haunted houses, corn mazes, and hayrides,[217] and the level of
sophistication of the effects has risen as the industry has grown. The
first recorded purpose-built haunted attraction was the Orton and
Spooner Ghost House, which opened in 1915 in Liphook, England. This
attraction actually most closely resembles a carnival fun house, powered
by steam.[218][219] The House still exists, in the Hollycombe Steam
Collection. It was during the 1930s, about the same time as
trick-or-treating, that Halloween-themed haunted houses first began to
appear in America. It was in the late 1950s that haunted houses as a
major attraction began to appear, focusing first on California.
Sponsored by the Children's Health Home Junior Auxiliary, the San Mateo
Haunted House opened in 1957. The San Bernardino Assistance League
Haunted House opened in 1958. Home haunts began appearing across the
country during 1962 and 1963. In 1964, the San Manteo Haunted House
opened, as well as the Children's Museum Haunted House in
Indianapolis.[220] The haunted house as an American cultural icon
can be attributed to the opening of The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland
on 12 August 1969.[221] Knott's Berry Farm began hosting its own
Halloween night attraction, Knott's Scary Farm, which opened in
1973.[222] Evangelical Christians adopted a form of these attractions by
opening one of the first "hell houses" in 1972.[223] The first
Halloween haunted house run by a nonprofit organization was produced in
1970 by the Sycamore-Deer Park Jaycees in Clifton, Ohio. It was
cosponsored by WSAI, an AM radio station broadcasting out of Cincinnati,
Ohio. It was last produced in 1982.[224] Other Jaycees followed suit
with their own versions after the success of the Ohio house. The March
of Dimes copyrighted a "Mini haunted house for the March of Dimes" in
1976 and began fundraising through their local chapters by conducting
haunted houses soon after. Although they apparently quit supporting this
type of event nationally sometime in the 1980s, some March of Dimes
haunted houses have persisted until today.[225] On the evening of
11 May 1984, in Jackson Township, New Jersey, the Haunted Castle (Six
Flags Great Adventure) caught fire. As a result of the fire, eight
teenagers perished.[226] The backlash to the tragedy was a tightening of
regulations relating to safety, building codes and the frequency of
inspections of attractions nationwide. The smaller venues, especially
the nonprofit attractions, were unable to compete financially, and the
better funded commercial enterprises filled the vacuum.[227][228]
Facilities that were once able to avoid regulation because they were
considered to be temporary installations now had to adhere to the
stricter codes required of permanent attractions.[229][230][231] In
the late 1980s and early 1990s, theme parks entered the business
seriously. Six Flags Fright Fest began in 1986 and Universal Studios
Florida began Halloween Horror Nights in 1991. Knott's Scary Farm
experienced a surge in attendance in the 1990s as a result of America's
obsession with Halloween as a cultural event. Theme parks have played a
major role in globalizing the holiday. Universal Studios Singapore and
Universal Studios Japan both participate, while Disney now mounts
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party events at its parks in Paris, Hong
Kong and Tokyo, as well as in the United States.[232] The theme park
haunts are by far the largest, both in scale and attendance.[233] Food Pumpkins for sale during Halloween On
All Hallows' Eve, many Western Christian denominations encourage
abstinence from meat, giving rise to a variety of vegetarian foods
associated with this day.[234] A candy apple Because in the
Northern Hemisphere Halloween comes in the wake of the yearly apple
harvest, candy apples (known as toffee apples outside North America),
caramel apples or taffy apples are common Halloween treats made by
rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by
rolling them in nuts. At one time, candy apples were commonly
given to trick-or-treating children, but the practice rapidly waned in
the wake of widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items
like pins and razor blades in the apples in the United States.[235]
While there is evidence of such incidents,[236] relative to the degree
of reporting of such cases, actual cases involving malicious acts are
extremely rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nonetheless,
many parents assumed that such heinous practices were rampant because of
the mass media. At the peak of the hysteria, some hospitals offered
free X-rays of children's Halloween hauls in order to find evidence of
tampering. Virtually all of the few known candy poisoning incidents
involved parents who poisoned their own children's candy.[237] One
custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often
nowadays, the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish: báirín breac), which is a
light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin, and other charms are
placed before baking.[238] It is considered fortunate to be the lucky
one who finds it.[238] It has also been said that those who get a ring
will find their true love in the ensuing year. This is similar to the
tradition of king cake at the festival of Epiphany. A jack-o'-lantern Halloween cake with a witches hat List of foods associated with Halloween: Barmbrack (Ireland) Bonfire toffee (Great Britain) Candy apples/toffee apples (Great Britain and Ireland) Candy apples, candy corn, candy pumpkins (North America) Chocolate Monkey nuts (peanuts in their shells) (Ireland and Scotland) Caramel apples Caramel corn Colcannon (Ireland; see below) Halloween cake Sweets/candy Novelty candy shaped like skulls, pumpkins, bats, worms, etc. Roasted pumpkin seeds Roasted sweet corn Soul cakes Pumpkin Pie Christian religious observances The Vigil of All Hallows' is being celebrated at an Episcopal Christian church on Hallowe'en On
Hallowe'en (All Hallows' Eve), in Poland, believers were once taught to
pray out loud as they walk through the forests in order that the souls
of the dead might find comfort; in Spain, Christian priests in tiny
villages toll their church bells in order to remind their congregants to
remember the dead on All Hallows' Eve.[239] In Ireland, and among
immigrants in Canada, a custom includes the Christian practice of
abstinence, keeping All Hallows' Eve as a meat-free day and serving
pancakes or colcannon instead.[240] In Mexico children make an altar to
invite the return of the spirits of dead children (angelitos).[241] The
Christian Church traditionally observed Hallowe'en through a vigil.
Worshippers prepared themselves for feasting on the following All
Saints' Day with prayers and fasting.[242] This church service is known
as the Vigil of All Hallows or the Vigil of All Saints;[243][244] an
initiative known as Night of Light seeks to further spread the Vigil of
All Hallows throughout Christendom.[245][246] After the service,
"suitable festivities and entertainments" often follow, as well as a
visit to the graveyard or cemetery, where flowers and candles are often
placed in preparation for All Hallows' Day.[247][248] In Finland,
because so many people visit the cemeteries on All Hallows' Eve to light
votive candles there, they "are known as valomeri, or seas of
light".[249] Halloween Scripture Candy with gospel tract Today,
Christian attitudes towards Halloween are diverse. In the Anglican
Church, some dioceses have chosen to emphasize the Christian traditions
associated with All Hallow's Eve.[250][251] Some of these practices
include praying, fasting and attending worship services.[1][2][3]
O LORD our God, increase, we pray thee, and multiply upon us the gifts
of thy grace: that we, who do prevent the glorious festival of all thy
Saints, may of thee be enabled joyfully to follow them in all virtuous
and godly living. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who liveth and
reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world
without end. Amen. —Collect of the Vigil of All Saints, The Anglican
Breviary[252] Votive candles in the Halloween section of Walmart Other
Protestant Christians also celebrate All Hallows' Eve as Reformation
Day, a day to remember the Protestant Reformation, alongside All
Hallow's Eve or independently from it.[253] This is because Martin
Luther is said to have nailed his Ninety-five Theses to All Saints'
Church in Wittenberg on All Hallows' Eve.[254] Often, "Harvest
Festivals" or "Reformation Festivals" are held on All Hallows' Eve, in
which children dress up as Bible characters or Reformers.[255] In
addition to distributing candy to children who are trick-or-treating on
Hallowe'en, many Christians also provide gospel tracts to them. One
organization, the American Tract Society, stated that around 3 million
gospel tracts are ordered from them alone for Hallowe'en
celebrations.[256] Others order Halloween-themed Scripture Candy to pass
out to children on this day.[257][258] Belizean children dressed up as Biblical figures and Christian saints Some
Christians feel concerned about the modern celebration of Halloween
because they feel it trivializes – or celebrates – paganism, the occult,
or other practices and cultural phenomena deemed incompatible with
their beliefs.[259] Father Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist in Rome, has
said, "if English and American children like to dress up as witches and
devils on one night of the year that is not a problem. If it is just a
game, there is no harm in that."[260] In more recent years, the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has organized a "Saint Fest" on
Halloween.[261] Similarly, many contemporary Protestant churches view
Halloween as a fun event for children, holding events in their churches
where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and get candy
for free. To these Christians, Halloween holds no threat to the
spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality, and
the ways of the Celtic ancestors actually being a valuable life lesson
and a part of many of their parishioners' heritage.[262] Christian
minister Sam Portaro wrote that Halloween is about using "humor and
ridicule to confront the power of death".[263] In the Roman
Catholic Church, Halloween's Christian connection is acknowledged, and
Halloween celebrations are common in many Catholic parochial schools in
the United States.[264][265] Many fundamentalist and evangelical
churches use "Hell houses" and comic-style tracts in order to make use
of Halloween's popularity as an opportunity for evangelism.[266] Others
consider Halloween to be completely incompatible with the Christian
faith due to its putative origins in the Festival of the Dead
celebration.[267] Indeed, even though Eastern Orthodox Christians
observe All Hallows' Day on the First Sunday after Pentecost, The
Eastern Orthodox Church recommends the observance of Vespers or a
Paraklesis on the Western observance of All Hallows' Eve, out of the
pastoral need to provide an alternative to popular celebrations.[268] Analogous celebrations and perspectives Judaism According
to Alfred J. Kolatch in the Second Jewish Book of Why, in Judaism,
Halloween is not permitted by Jewish Halakha because it violates
Leviticus 18:3, which forbids Jews from partaking in gentile customs.
Many Jews observe Yizkor communally four times a year, which is vaguely
similar to the observance of Allhallowtide in Christianity, in the sense
that prayers are said for both "martyrs and for one's own family".[269]
Nevertheless, many American Jews celebrate Halloween, disconnected from
its Christian origins.[270] Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser has said
that "There is no religious reason why contemporary Jews should not
celebrate Halloween" while Orthodox Rabbi Michael Broyde has argued
against Jews' observing the holiday.[271] Purim has sometimes been
compared to Halloween, in part due to some observants wearing costumes,
especially of Biblical figures described in the Purim narrative.[272] Islam Sheikh
Idris Palmer, author of A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding
Islam, has ruled that Muslims should not participate in Halloween,
stating that "participation in Halloween is worse than participation in
Christmas, Easter, ... it is more sinful than congratulating the
Christians for their prostration to the crucifix".[273] It has also been
ruled to be haram by the National Fatwa Council of Malaysia because of
its alleged pagan roots stating "Halloween is celebrated using a
humorous theme mixed with horror to entertain and resist the spirit of
death that influence humans".[274][275] Dar Al-Ifta Al-Missriyyah
disagrees provided the celebration is not referred to as an 'eid' and
that behaviour remains in line with Islamic principles.[276] Hinduism Hindus
remember the dead during the festival of Pitru Paksha, during which
Hindus pay homage to and perform a ceremony "to keep the souls of their
ancestors at rest". It is celebrated in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada,
usually in mid-September.[277] The celebration of the Hindu festival
Diwali sometimes conflicts with the date of Halloween; but some Hindus
choose to participate in the popular customs of Halloween.[278] Other
Hindus, such as Soumya Dasgupta, have opposed the celebration on the
grounds that Western holidays like Halloween have "begun to adversely
affect our indigenous festivals".[279] Neopaganism There is no
consistent rule or view on Halloween amongst those who describe
themselves as Neopagans or Wiccans. Some Neopagans do not observe
Halloween, but instead observe Samhain on 1 November,[280] some
neopagans do enjoy Halloween festivities, stating that one can observe
both "the solemnity of Samhain in addition to the fun of Halloween".
Some neopagans are opposed to the celebration of Hallowe'en, stating
that it "trivializes Samhain",[281] and "avoid Halloween, because of the
interruptions from trick or treaters".[282] The Manitoban writes that
"Wiccans don't officially celebrate Halloween, despite the fact that 31
Oct. will still have a star beside it in any good Wiccan's day planner.
Starting at sundown, Wiccans celebrate a holiday known as Samhain.
Samhain actually comes from old Celtic traditions and is not exclusive
to Neopagan religions like Wicca. While the traditions of this holiday
originate in Celtic countries, modern day Wiccans don't try to
historically replicate Samhain celebrations. Some traditional Samhain
rituals are still practised, but at its core, the period is treated as a
time to celebrate darkness and the dead – a possible reason why Samhain
can be confused with Halloween celebrations."[280] Geography Main article: Geography of Halloween Halloween display in Kobe, Japan The
traditions and importance of Halloween vary greatly among countries
that observe it. In Scotland and Ireland, traditional Halloween customs
include children dressing up in costume going "guising", holding
parties, while other practices in Ireland include lighting bonfires, and
having firework displays.[172][283][284] In Brittany children would
play practical jokes by setting candles inside skulls in graveyards to
frighten visitors.[285] Mass transatlantic immigration in the 19th
century popularized Halloween in North America, and celebration in the
United States and Canada has had a significant impact on how the event
is observed in other nations.[172] This larger North American influence,
particularly in iconic and commercial elements, has extended to places
such as Brazil, Ecuador, Chile,[286] Australia,[287] New Zealand,[288]
(most) continental Europe, Finland,[289] Japan, and other parts of East
Asia." (wikipedia.org) "Witchcraft,
as most commonly understood in both historical and present-day
communities, is the use of alleged supernatural powers of magic,
generally stereotyped[1][need quotation to verify] as doing harm or
evil.[2] A practitioner of witchcraft is a witch (predominantly for
women), though men may sometimes be referred to as a warlock. The belief
in witchcraft has been found in a great number of societies worldwide.
Anthropologists have applied the English term "witchcraft" to similar
and related beliefs in occult practices in many different cultures, and
societies that have adopted the English language have often internalised
the term.[3][4][5] In medieval and early modern Europe, where
belief in witchcraft traces back to classical antiquity, accused witches
were usually women who were believed to have used maleficium or black
magic against their own community, and often to have communed with evil
beings. It was thought witchcraft could be thwarted by protective magic
or counter-magic, which could be provided by cunning folk or folk
healers. Suspected witches were also intimidated, banished, attacked or
killed. Often they would be formally prosecuted and punished, if found
guilty or simply believed to be guilty. European witch-hunts and witch
trials in the early modern period led to tens of thousands of
executions. In some regions, many of those accused of witchcraft were
cunning folk,[6] folk healers or midwives.[7][8][9] European belief in
witchcraft gradually dwindled during and after the Age of Enlightenment. As
with the cunning-folk in Europe, Indigenous communities that believe in
the existence of witchcraft define witches as the opposite of their
healers and medicine people, and the latter are sought out for
protection against witchcraft.[10][11][12] Modern witch-hunting takes
place in parts of Africa and Asia. In contemporary Western
culture, adherents of some neo-pagan religions, most notably Wicca, as
well as some followers of New Age belief systems, may self-identify as
"witches", and use the term "witchcraft" for their self-help, healing,
or divination rituals.[13][10][14][15][excessive citations] Other
neo-pagans avoid the term due to its negative connotations.[16] Concept The Magic Circle by John William Waterhouse, 1886 The
concept of witchcraft and the belief in its existence have persisted
throughout recorded history. The concept of malevolent magic has been
found among cultures worldwide,[3][17] and it is prominent in some
cultures today.[18] Most societies have believed in, and feared, an
ability by some individuals to cause supernatural harm and misfortune to
others. This may come from mankind's tendency "to want to assign
occurrences of remarkable good or bad luck to agency, either human or
superhuman".[19] Historians and anthropologists see the concept of
"witchcraft" as one of the ways humans have tried to explain strange
misfortune.[19][20] Some cultures have feared witchcraft much less than
others, because they tend to have other explanations for strange
misfortune; for example that it was caused by gods, spirits, demons or
fairies, or by other humans who have unwittingly cast the evil eye.[19]
For example, the Gaels of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands
historically held a strong belief in fairy folk, who could cause
supernatural harm, and witch-hunting was very rare in these regions
compared to other regions of the British Isles.[21] Ronald Hutton
outlined five key characteristics ascribed to witches and witchcraft by
most cultures that believe in the concept. Traditionally, witchcraft
was believed to be the use of magic to cause harm or misfortune to
others; it was used by the witch against their own community; it was
seen as immoral and often thought to involve communion with evil beings;
powers of witchcraft were believed to have been acquired through
inheritance or initiation; and witchcraft could be thwarted by defensive
magic, persuasion, intimidation or physical punishment of the alleged
witch.[22] Historically, the Christian concept of witchcraft
derives from Old Testament laws against it. In medieval and early modern
Europe, many common folk who were Christians believed in magic. As
opposed to the helpful magic of the cunning folk, witchcraft was seen as
evil and associated with the Devil and Devil worship. This often
resulted in deaths, torture and scapegoating (casting blame for
misfortune),[23][24] and many years of large scale witch-trials and
witch hunts, especially in Protestant Europe, before largely ending
during the European Age of Enlightenment. Christian views in the modern
day are diverse and cover the gamut of views from intense belief and
opposition (especially by Christian fundamentalists) to non-belief. Many
cultures worldwide continue to have a belief in the concept of
"witchcraft" or malevolent magic. During the Age of Colonialism, many
cultures were exposed to the modern Western world via colonialism,
usually accompanied and often preceded by intensive Christian missionary
activity (see "Christianization"). In these cultures, beliefs about
witchcraft were partly influenced by the prevailing Western concepts of
the time. Witch-hunts, scapegoating, and the killing or shunning of
suspected witches still occur in the modern era.[25[27] are two examples
of often-lethal infectious disease epidemics whose medical care and
containment has been severely hampered by regional beliefs in
witchcraft. Other severe medical conditions whose treatment is hampered
in this way include tuberculosis, leprosy, epilepsy and the common
severe bacterial Buruli ulcer.[28][29] From the mid-20th century,
"Witchcraft" was adopted as the name of a neo-pagan movement, including
religions such as Wicca.[30] Its creators believed in the witch-cult
theory, that accused witches had actually been followers of a surviving
pagan religion, but this witch-cult theory is now discredited.[31] Etymology Further information: Witch (word) The
word is over a thousand years old: Old English formed the compound
wiccecræft from wicce ('witch') and cræft ('craft').[32] The masculine
form was wicca ('male sorcerer').[33] According to the Oxford
English Dictionary, wicce and wicca were probably derived from the Old
English verb wiccian, meaning 'to practice witchcraft'.[34] Wiccian has a
cognate in Middle Low German wicken (attested from the 13th century).
The further etymology of this word is problematic. It has no clear
cognates in other Germanic languages outside of English and Low German,
and there are numerous possibilities for the Indo-European root from
which it may have derived. Another Old English word for 'witch'
was hægtes or hægtesse, which became the modern English word "hag" and
is linked to the word "hex". In most other Germanic languages, their
word for 'witch' comes from the same root as these; for example German
Hexe and Dutch heks.[35] In colloquial modern English, the word
witch is generally used for women. A male practitioner of magic or
witchcraft is more commonly called a 'wizard', or sometimes, 'warlock'.
When the word witch is used to refer to a member of a neo-pagan
tradition or religion (such as Wicca), it can refer to a person of any
gender.[36] Practices Preparation for the Witches' Sabbath by
David Teniers the Younger. It shows a witch brewing a potion overlooked
by her familiar spirit or a demon; items on the floor for casting a
spell; and another witch reading from a grimoire while anointing the
buttocks of a young witch about to fly upon an inverted besom. Where
belief in malicious magic practices exists, practitioners are typically
forbidden by law as well as hated and feared by the general populace,
while beneficial magic is tolerated or even accepted wholesale by the
people—even if the orthodox establishment opposes it.[37] In some
definitions, witches differ from sorceresses in that they do not need
to use tools or actions to curse; their maleficium is believed to flow
from some intangible inner quality, may be unaware of being a witch, or
may have been convinced of their nature by the suggestion of others.[38]
This definition was pioneered in 1937 in a study of central African
magical beliefs by E. E. Evans-Pritchard, who cautioned that it might
not match English usage.[39] Historians have found this definition
difficult to apply to European witchcraft, where witches were believed
to use physical techniques, as well as some who were believed to cause
harm by thought alone.[4] Probably the best-known characteristic
of a witch is their ability to cast a spell—a set of words, a formula or
verse, a ritual, or a combination of these, employed to do magic.[40]
Spells traditionally were cast by many methods, such as by the
inscription of runes or sigils on an object to give that object magical
powers; by the immolation or binding of a wax or clay image (poppet) of a
person to affect them magically; by the recitation of incantations; by
the performance of physical rituals; by the employment of magical herbs
as amulets or potions; by gazing at mirrors, swords or other specula
(scrying) for purposes of divination; and by many other
means.[41][42][43] Strictly speaking, necromancy is the practice
of conjuring the spirits of the dead for divination or prophecy,
although the term has also been applied to raising the dead for other
purposes. The biblical Witch of Endor performed it (1 Samuel 28th
chapter), and it is among the witchcraft practices condemned by Ælfric
of Eynsham:[44][45][46] "Witches still go to cross-roads and to heathen
burials with their delusive magic and call to the devil; and he comes to
them in the likeness of the man that is buried there, as if he arises
from death."[47] Witchcraft and cunning-craft Main article: Cunning folk A painting in the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria, condemning witchcraft and traditional folk magic Traditionally,
the terms "witch" and "witchcraft" had negative connotations. Most
societies that have believed in harmful witchcraft or 'black' magic have
also believed in helpful or 'white' magic.[48] In these societies,
practitioners of helpful magic provided services such as breaking the
effects of witchcraft, healing, divination, finding lost or stolen
goods, and love magic.[49] In Britain they were commonly known as
cunning folk or wise people.[49] Alan McFarlane writes, "There were a
number of interchangeable terms for these practitioners, 'white',
'good', or 'unbinding' witches, blessers, wizards, sorcerers, however
'cunning-man' and 'wise-man' were the most frequent".[50] Ronald Hutton
prefers the term "service magicians".[49] Often these people were
involved in identifying alleged witches.[48] Hostile churchmen
sometimes branded any magic-workers "witches" as a way of smearing
them.[49] Englishman Reginald Scot, who sought to disprove witchcraft
and magic, wrote in The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), "At this day it
is indifferent to say in the English tongue, 'she is a witch' or 'she
is a wise woman'".[51] Folk magicians throughout Europe were often
viewed ambivalently by communities, and were considered as capable of
harming as of healing,[52] which could lead to their being accused as
"witches" in the negative sense. Many English "witches" convicted of
consorting with demons may have been cunning folk whose supposed fairy
familiars had been demonised;[53] many French devins-guerisseurs
("diviner-healers") were accused of witchcraft,[54] over half the
accused witches in Hungary seem to have been healers,[55] and the "vast
majority" of Finland's accused witches were folk healers.[56] Hutton,
however, says that "Service magicians were sometimes denounced as
witches, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused in any area
studied".[48] Thwarting witchcraft A witch bottle, used as counter-magic against witchcraft Societies
that believed in witchcraft also believed that it could be thwarted in
various ways. One common way was to use protective magic or
counter-magic, of which the cunning folk were experts.[48] This included
charms, talismans and amulets, anti-witch marks, witch bottles, witch
balls, and burying objects such as horse skulls inside the walls of
buildings.[57] Another believed cure for bewitchment was to persuade or
force the alleged witch to lift their spell.[48] Often, people would
attempt to thwart the witchcraft by physically punishing the alleged
witch, such as by banishing, wounding, torturing or killing them. "In
most societies, however, a formal and legal remedy was preferred to this
sort of private action", whereby the alleged witch would be prosecuted
and then formally punished if found guilty.[48] This often resulted in
execution. Accusations of witchcraft Alleged witches being accused in the Salem witch trials Éva Pócs writes that reasons for accusations of witchcraft fall into four general categories:[20] A person was caught in the act of positive or negative sorcery A well-meaning sorcerer or healer lost their clients' or the authorities' trust A person did nothing more than gain the enmity of their neighbors A person was reputed to be a witch and surrounded with an aura of witch-beliefs or Occultism She identifies three kinds of witch in popular belief:[20] The "neighborhood witch" or "social witch": a witch who curses a neighbor following some dispute.
The "magical" or "sorcerer" witch: either a professional healer,
sorcerer, seer or midwife, or a person who has through magic increased
her fortune to the perceived detriment of a neighboring household; due
to neighborhood or community rivalries, and the ambiguity between
positive and negative magic, such individuals can become branded as
witches. The "supernatural" or "night" witch: portrayed in court narratives as a demon appearing in visions and dreams.[58] "Neighborhood
witches" are the product of neighborhood tensions, and are found only
in village communities where the inhabitants largely rely on each other.
Such accusations follow the breaking of some social norm, such as the
failure to return a borrowed item, and any person part of the normal
social exchange could potentially fall under suspicion. Claims of
"sorcerer" witches and "supernatural" witches could arise out of social
tensions, but not exclusively; the supernatural witch often had nothing
to do with communal conflict, but expressed tensions between the human
and supernatural worlds; and in Eastern and Southeastern Europe such
supernatural witches became an ideology explaining calamities that
befell whole communities.[59] The historian Norman Gevitz has written:
[T]he medical arts played a significant and sometimes pivotal role in
the witchcraft controversies of seventeenth-century New England. Not
only were physicians and surgeons the principal professional arbiters
for determining natural versus preternatural signs and symptoms of
disease, they occupied key legislative, judicial, and ministerial roles
relating to witchcraft proceedings. Forty six male physicians, surgeons,
and apothecaries are named in court transcripts or other contemporary
source materials relating to New England witchcraft. These practitioners
served on coroners' inquests, performed autopsies, took testimony,
issued writs, wrote letters, or committed people to prison, in addition
to diagnosing and treating patients.[60] European witch-hunts and witch-trials Main articles: Witch-hunt and Witch trials in the early modern period A 1613 English pamphlet showing "Witches apprehended, examined and executed" In
Christianity, sorcery came to be associated with heresy and apostasy
and to be viewed as evil. Among the Catholics, Protestants, and secular
leadership of the European Late Medieval/Early Modern period, fears
about witchcraft rose to fever pitch and sometimes led to large-scale
witch-hunts. The key century was the fifteenth, which saw a dramatic
rise in awareness and terror of witchcraft, culminating in the
publication of the Malleus Maleficarum but prepared by such fanatical
popular preachers as Bernardino of Siena.[61] In total, tens or hundreds
of thousands of people were executed, and others were imprisoned,
tortured, banished, and had lands and possessions confiscated. The
majority of those accused were women, though in some regions the
majority were men.[62][63] In early modern Scots, the word warlock came
to be used as the male equivalent of witch (which can be male or female,
but is used predominantly for females).[64][65][66] The Malleus
Maleficarum, (Latin for 'Hammer of The Witches') was a witch-hunting
manual written in 1486 by two German monks, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob
Sprenger. It was used by both Catholics and Protestants[67] for several
hundred years, outlining how to identify a witch, what makes a woman
more likely than a man to be a witch, how to put a witch on trial, and
how to punish a witch. The book defines a witch as evil and typically
female. The book became the handbook for secular courts throughout
Renaissance Europe, but was not used by the Inquisition, which even
cautioned against relying on The Work.[68] It is likely that this caused
witch mania to become so widespread. It was the most sold book in
Europe for over 100 years, after the Bible.[69] Johann Weyer
(1515–1588) was a Dutch physician, occultist and demonologist, and a
disciple and follower of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. He was among the
first to publish against the persecution of witches. His most
influential work is De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantationibus ac
Venificiis ('On the Illusions of the Demons and on Spells and Poisons';
1563). In 1584, the English writer Reginald Scot published The
Discoverie of Witchcraft, a book intended as an exposé of early modern
witchcraft. Scot believed that the prosecution of those accused of
witchcraft was irrational and not Christian, and he held the Roman
Church responsible. Popular belief held that all obtainable copies were
burned on the accession of James I in 1603.[70] In 1597, King
James VI and I published a treatise, Daemonologie, a philosophical
dissertation on contemporary necromancy and the historical relationships
between the various methods of divination used from ancient black
magic. It was reprinted again in 1603 when James took the throne of
England. The widespread consensus is that King James wrote Daemonologie
in response to sceptical publications such as Scot's book.[71] European
witch-trials reached their peak in the early 17th century, after which
popular sentiment began to turn against the practice. Friedrich Spee's
book Cautio Criminalis, published in 1631, argued that witch-trials were
largely unreliable and immoral.[72] In 1682, King Louis XIV prohibited
further witch-trials in France. In 1736, Great Britain formally ended
witch-trials with passage of the Witchcraft Act.[73] Modern witch-hunts Main article: Modern witch-hunts Belief
in witchcraft continues to be present today in some societies and
accusations of witchcraft are the trigger for serious forms of violence,
including murder. Such incidents are common in countries such as
Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal and Tanzania.
Accusations of witchcraft are sometimes linked to personal disputes,
jealousy, and conflicts between neighbors or family members over land or
inheritance. Witchcraft-related violence is often discussed as a
serious issue in the broader context of violence against
women.[74][75][76][77][78] In Tanzania, about 500 old women are murdered
each year following accusations of witchcraft or accusations of being a
witch.[79] Apart from extrajudicial violence, state-sanctioned violence
also occurs in some jurisdictions. For instance, in Saudi Arabia
practicing witchcraft and sorcery is a crime punishable by death and the
country has executed people for this crime in 2011, 2012 and
2014.[80][81][82] Children who live in some regions of the world,
such as parts of Africa, are also vulnerable to violence that is
related to witchcraft accusations.[83][84][85][86] Such incidents have
also occurred in immigrant communities in the UK, including the much
publicized case of the murder of Victoria Climbié.[87][88] Historical and religious perspectives Near East beliefs The
belief in sorcery and its practice seem to have been widespread in the
ancient Near East and Nile Valley. It played a conspicuous role in the
cultures of ancient Egypt and in Babylonia. The latter tradition
included an Akkadian anti-witchcraft ritual, the Maqlû. A section from
the Code of Hammurabi (about 2000 BC) prescribes: If a man
has put a spell upon another man and it is not justified, he upon whom
the spell is laid shall go to the holy river; into the holy river shall
he plunge. If the holy river overcome him and he is drowned, the man who
put the spell upon him shall take possession of his house. If the holy
river declares him innocent and he remains unharmed the man who laid the
spell shall be put to death. He that plunged into the river shall take
possession of the house of him who laid the spell upon him.[89] Abrahamic religions Hebrew Bible Main article: Witchcraft and divination in the Hebrew Bible According to the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia:
In the Holy Scripture references to sorcery are frequent, and the
strong condemnations of such practices found there do not seem to be
based so much upon the supposition of fraud as upon the abomination of
the magic in itself.[90] Saul and the Witch of Endor (1828) by William Sidney Mount The
King James Version uses the words witch, witchcraft, and witchcrafts to
translate the Masoretic כָּשַׁף kāsháf (Hebrew pronunciation:
[kɔˈʃaf]) and קֶסֶם (qésem);[91] these same English terms are used to
translate φαρμακεία pharmakeia in the Greek New Testament. Verses such
as Deuteronomy 18:11–12[92] and Exodus 22:18 ("Thou shalt not suffer a
witch to live"[93]) thus provided scriptural justification for Christian
witch hunters in the early modern period (see Christian views on
magic). The precise meaning of the Hebrew כָּשַׁף, usually
translated as witch or sorceress, is uncertain. In the Septuagint, it
was translated as pharmakeía or pharmakous. In the 16th century,
Reginald Scot, a prominent critic of the witch trials, translated
כָּשַׁף, φαρμακεία, and the Vulgate's Latin equivalent veneficos as all
meaning 'poisoner', and on this basis, claimed that witch was an
incorrect translation and poisoners were intended.[94] His theory still
holds some currency, but is not widely accepted, and in Daniel 2:2[95]
כָּשַׁף is listed alongside other magic practitioners who could
interpret dreams: magicians, astrologers, and Chaldeans. The Bible provides some evidence that these commandments against sorcery were enforced under the Hebrew kings:
And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and
two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I
pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit,[note 1] and bring me
him up, whom I shall name unto thee. And the woman said unto him,
Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that
have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then
layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?[97] New Testament See also: Christian views on magic The
New Testament condemns the practice as an abomination, just as the Old
Testament had.[98] The word in most New Testament translations is
sorcerer/sorcery rather than witch/witchcraft. Judaism See also: Witchcraft and divination in the Hebrew Bible Jewish
law views the practice of witchcraft as being laden with idolatry
and/or necromancy; both being serious theological and practical offenses
in Judaism. Although Maimonides vigorously denied the efficacy of all
methods of witchcraft, and claimed that the Biblical prohibitions
regarding it were precisely to wean the Israelites from practices
related to idolatry. It is acknowledged that while magic exists, it is
forbidden to practice it on the basis that it usually involves the
worship of other gods. Rabbis of the Talmud also condemned magic when it
produced something other than illusion, giving the example of two men
who use magic to pick cucumbers.[99] The one who creates the illusion of
picking cucumbers should not be condemned, only the one who actually
picks the cucumbers through magic. However, some of the rabbis
practiced "magic" themselves or taught the subject. For instance, Rava
(amora) created a golem and sent it to Rav Zeira, and Hanina and
Hoshaiah studied every Friday together and created a small calf to eat
on Shabbat.[100] In these cases, the "magic" was seen more as divine
miracles (i.e., coming from God rather than "unclean" forces) than as
witchcraft. Judaism does make it clear that Jews shall not try to
learn about the ways of witches[101] and that witches are to be put to
death.[102] Judaism's most famous reference to a medium is undoubtedly the Witch of Endor whom Saul consults, as recounted in 1 Samuel 28. Islam Main article: Islam and magic See also: Islam and astrology and Superstitions in Muslim societies Divination
and magic in Islam encompass a wide range of practices, including black
magic, warding off the evil eye, the production of amulets and other
magical equipment, evocation, casting lots, and astrology.[103] Legitimacy
of practising witchcraft is disputed. Most Islamic traditions
distinguish between good magic and black magic. Miracles belong to licit
magic and are considered gifts of God. Magical incantations for healing
purposes generally received support as long as they do not contain
polytheism.[104] al-Razi and Ibn Sina describe that magic is merely a
tool and only the outcome determines whether or not the act of magic was
legitimate or not.[105] Al-Ghazali, although admitting the reality of
magic, regards learning all sorts of magic as forbidden.[105] Ibn
al-Nadim argues that good supernatural powers are received from God
after purifying the soul, while sorcerers please devils and commit acts
of disobedience and sacrifices to demons.[106] Whether or not sorcery is
accessed by acts of piety or disobedience is often seen as an indicator
whether magic is licit or illicit.[107] Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, a
disciple of Ibn Taimiyya, the major source for Wahhabism, disregards
magic, including exorcisms, entirely as superstition.[108] Ibn Khaldun
brands sorcery, talismans, and prestidigitation as forbidden and
illegal.[109] Tabasi did not subscribe to the rationalized framework of
magic of most Ash'arite theologians, and offered a wide range of rituals
to perform sorcery. Yet he agrees that only magic in accordance with
sharia is permissible.[105] The reality of magic is confirmed by
the Quran. The Quran itself is said to bestow magical blessings upon
hearers and heal them, based on al-Isra.[110] Solomon had the power to
speak with animals and jinn, and command devils, which is only given to
him with God's permission.[Quran 27:19][111] Surah Al-Falaq is used as a
prayer to God to ward off black magic and is, according to
hadith-literature, revealed to Muhammad to protect him against Jann, the
ancestor of the jinn.[112] The Quran also reports Muhammad being
accused of being a magician by his opponents, and denounces these
accusations as false.[Quran 10:2][113] The idea that devils teach magic
is confirmed in Al-Baqara. A pair of fallen angels, Harut and Marut, are
also mentioned to tempt people into learning sorcery. Scholars
of religious history have linked several magical practises in Islam with
pre-Islamic Turkish and East African customs. Most notable of these
customs is the Zār.[114][115] By region This section
should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{lang}},
{{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for
phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's
multilingual support templates may also be used. See why. (August 2021) Africa Further information: Witchcraft accusations against children in Africa See also: Azande witchcraft The Kolloh-Man[116] Much
of what witchcraft represents in Africa has been susceptible to
misunderstandings and confusion, thanks in no small part to a tendency
among western scholars since the time of the now largely discredited
Margaret Murray to approach the subject through a comparative lens
vis-a-vis European witchcraft.[117] While some colonialists tried
to eradicate witch hunting by introducing legislation to prohibit
accusations of witchcraft, some of the countries where this was the case
have formally recognized the reality of witchcraft via the law. This
has produced an environment that encourages persecution of suspected
witches.[118] Cameroon In eastern Cameroon, the term used for
witchcraft among the Maka is djambe[119] and refers to a force inside a
person; its powers may make the proprietor more vulnerable. It
encompasses the occult, the transformative, killing and healing.[120] Central African Republic Every
year, hundreds of people in the Central African Republic are convicted
of witchcraft.[121] Christian militias in the Central African Republic
have also kidnapped, burnt and buried alive women accused of being
'witches' in public ceremonies.[122] Democratic Republic of the Congo As
of 2006, between 25,000 and 50,000 children in Kinshasa, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, had been accused of witchcraft and thrown out of
their homes.[123] These children have been subjected to often-violent
abuse during exorcisms, sometimes supervised by self-styled religious
pastors. Other pastors and Christian activists strongly oppose such
accusations and try to rescue children from their unscrupulous
colleagues.[124] The usual term for these children is enfants sorciers
('child witches') or enfants dits sorciers ('children accused of
witchcraft'). In 2002, USAID funded the production of two short films on
the subject, made in Kinshasa by journalists Angela Nicoara and Mike
Ormsby. In April 2008, in Kinshasa, the police arrested 14
suspected victims (of penis snatching) and sorcerers accused of using
black magic or witchcraft to steal (make disappear) or shrink men's
penises to extort cash for cure, amid a wave of panic.[125] According
to one study, the belief in magical warfare technologies (such as
"bulletproofing") in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo serves
a group-level function, as it increases group efficiency in warfare,
even if it is suboptimal at the individual level.[126] The authors of
the study argue that this is one reason why the belief in witchcraft
persists.[126] Complimentary remarks about witchcraft by a native Congolese initiate:
From witchcraft [...] may be developed the remedy (kimbuki) that will
do most to raise up our country.[127] Witchcraft [...] deserves respect
[...] it can embellish or redeem (ketula evo vuukisa)."[128] The
ancestors were equipped with the protective witchcraft of the clan
(kindoki kiandundila kanda). [...] They could also gather the power of
animals into their hands [...] whenever they needed. [...] If we could
make use of these kinds of witchcraft, our country would rapidly
progress in knowledge of every kind.[129] You witches (zindoki) too,
bring your science into the light to be written down so that [...] the
benefits in it [...] endow our race.[130] Ghana Main article: Witchcraft in Ghana In
Ghana, women are often accused of witchcraft and attacked by
neighbours.[131] Because of this, there exist six witch camps in the
country where women suspected of being witches can flee for safety.[132]
The witch camps, which exist solely in Ghana, are thought to house a
total of around 1000 women.[132] Some of the camps are thought to have
been set up over 100 years ago.[132] The Ghanaian government has
announced that it intends to close the camps.[132] Arrests were
made in an effort to avoid bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when
twelve alleged penis snatchers were beaten to death by mobs.[133] While
it is easy for modern people to dismiss such reports, Uchenna Okeja
argues that a belief system in which such magical practices are deemed
possible offer many benefits to Africans who hold them. For example, the
belief that a sorcerer has "stolen" a man's penis functions as an
anxiety-reduction mechanism for men suffering from impotence, while
simultaneously providing an explanation that is consistent with African
cultural beliefs rather than appealing to Western scientific notions
that are, in the eyes of many Africans, tainted by the history of
colonialism.[134] Kenya It was reported that a mob in Kenya had burnt to death at least eleven people accused of witchcraft in 2008.[135] Malawi In
Malawi it is common practice to accuse children of witchcraft and many
children have been abandoned, abused, and even killed as a result. As in
other African countries, both a number of African traditional healers
and some of their Christian counterparts are trying to make a living out
of exorcising children and are actively involved in pointing out
children as witches.[136] Various secular and Christian organizations
are combining their efforts to address this problem.[137] According
to William Kamkwamba, witches and wizards are afraid of money, which
they consider a rival evil. Any contact with cash will snap their spell
and leave the wizard naked and confused, so placing cash, such as
kwacha, around a room or bed mat will protect the resident from their
malevolent spells.[138] Nigeria In Nigeria, several
Pentecostal pastors have mixed their evangelical brand of Christianity
with African beliefs in witchcraft to benefit from the lucrative
witch-finding and exorcism business—which in the past was the exclusive
domain of the so-called witch doctor or traditional healers. These
pastors have been involved in the torturing and even killing of children
accused of witchcraft.[139] Over the past decade,[when?] around 15,000
children have been accused, and around 1,000 murdered. Churches are very
numerous in Nigeria, and competition for congregations is hard. Some
pastors attempt to establish a reputation for spiritual power by
"detecting" child witches, usually following a death or loss of a job
within a family, or an accusation of financial fraud against the pastor.
In the course of "exorcisms", accused children may be starved, beaten,
mutilated, set on fire, forced to consume acid or cement, or buried
alive. While some church leaders and Christian activists have spoken out
strongly against these abuses, many Nigerian churches are involved in
the abuse, although church administrations deny knowledge of it.[140] In
May 2020, fifteen adults, mostly women, were set ablaze after being
accused of witchcraft, including the mother of the instigator of the
attack, Thomas Obi Tawo, a local politician.[118] Sierra Leone Among
the Mende (of Sierra Leone), trial and conviction for witchcraft has a
beneficial effect for those convicted. "The witchfinder had warned the
whole village to ensure the relative prosperity of the accused and
sentenced ... old people. ... Six months later all of the people ...
accused, were secure, well-fed and arguably happier than at any
[previous] time; they had hardly to beckon and people would come with
food or whatever was needful. ... Instead of such old and widowed people
being left helpless or (as in Western society) institutionalized in old
people's homes, these were reintegrated into society and left secure in
their old age ... Old people are 'suitable' candidates for this kind of
accusation in the sense that they are isolated and vulnerable, and they
are 'suitable' candidates for 'social security' for precisely the same
reasons."[141] In Kuranko language, the term for witchcraft is
suwa'ye[142] referring to 'extraordinary powers'. Tanzania In
Tanzania in 2008, President Kikwete publicly condemned witchdoctors for
killing albinos for their body parts, which are thought to bring good
luck. 25 albinos have been murdered since March 2007.[143] In Tanzania,
albinos are often murdered for their body parts on the advice of witch
doctors in order to produce powerful amulets that are believed to
protect against witchcraft and make the owner prosper in life.[144] Zulu In
Zulu culture, herbal and spiritual healers called sangomas protect
people from evil spirits and witchcraft. They perform divination and
healing with ancestral spirits and usually train with elders for about
five to seven years.[145][146] In the cities, however, some offer
trainings that take only several months, but there is concern about
inadequately-trained and fraudulent "sangomas" exploiting and harming
people who may come to them for help.[147][148][149][150] Another type
of healer is the inyanga, who heals people with plant and animal parts.
This is a profession that is hereditary, and passed down through family
lines. While there used to be more of a distinction between the two
types of healers, in contemporary practice, the terms are often used
interchangeably.[151][152][153] Americas British America and the United States Massachusetts Examination of a Witch by T. H. Matteson, inspired by the Salem witch trials In
1645, Springfield, Massachusetts, experienced America's first
accusations of witchcraft when husband and wife Hugh and Mary Parsons
accused each other of witchcraft. At America's first witch trial, Hugh
was found innocent, while Mary was acquitted of witchcraft but sentenced
to be hanged for the death of her child. She died in prison.[154] In
1648 Margaret Jones (Puritan midwife) was the first person to be
executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay Colony. From 1645 to 1663,
about eighty people throughout England's Massachusetts Bay Colony were
accused of practicing witchcraft. Thirteen women and two men were
executed in a witch-hunt that lasted throughout New England from 1645 to
1663.[155] The Salem witch trials followed in 1692–93. These witch
trials were the most famous in British North America and took place in
the coastal settlements near Salem, Massachusetts. Prior to the witch
trials, nearly three hundred men and women had been suspected of
partaking in witchcraft, and nineteen of these people were hanged, and
one was "pressed to death".[156] Despite being generally known as
the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted
in a variety of towns across the province: Salem Village (now Danvers),
Salem Town, Ipswich, and Andover. The best-known trials were conducted
by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town.[157][citation
needed][158] The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatized and partially
fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Maryland In Maryland,
there is a legend of Moll Dyer, who escaped a fire set by fellow
colonists only to die of exposure in December 1697. The historical
record of Dyer is scant as all official records were burned in a
courthouse fire, though the county courthouse has on display the rock
where her frozen body was found. A letter from a colonist of the period
describes her in most unfavourable terms. A local road is named after
Dyer, where her homestead was said to have been. Many local families
have their own version of the Moll Dyer affair, and her name is spoken
with care in the rural southern counties.[159] Pennsylvania Margaret
Mattson and another woman were tried in 1683 on accusations of
witchcraft in the Province of Pennsylvania. They were acquitted by
William Penn after a trial in Philadelphia. These are the only known
trials for witchcraft in Pennsylvania history. Some of Margaret's
neighbors claimed that she had bewitched cattle.[160] Charges of
practicing witchcraft were brought before the Pennsylvania Provincial
Council in February 1683 (under Julian calendar).[161] This occurred
nineteen years after the Swedish territory became a British common law
colony and subject to English Witchcraft Act 1604.[162] Accused by
several neighbors, as well as her own daughter in law, Mattson's alleged
crimes included making threats against neighbors, causing cows to give
little milk,[163] bewitching and killing livestock and appearing to
witnesses in spectral form. On February 27, 1683, charges against
Mattson and a neighbor Gertro (a.k.a. Yeshro) Jacobsson, wife of
Hendrick Jacobsson, were brought by the Attorney General before a grand
jury of 21 men overseen by the colony's proprietor, William Penn. The
grand jury returned a true bill indictment that afternoon, and the cases
proceeded to trial.[161] A petit jury of twelve men was selected by
Penn and an interpreter was appointed for the Finnish women, who did not
speak English.[164] Penn barred the use of prosecution and defense
lawyers, conducted the questioning himself, and permitted the
introduction of unsubstantiated hearsay.[163] Penn himself gave the
closing charge and directions to the jury, but what he told them was not
transcribed. According to the minutes of the Provincial Council, dated
February 27, 1683, the jury returned with a verdict of "Guilty of having
the Comon Fame of a Witch, but not Guilty in manner and Forme as Shee
stands Endicted."[163][165] Thus Mattson was found guilty of
having the reputation of a witch, but not guilty of bewitching animals.
Neither woman was convicted of witchcraft. "Hence the superstitious got
enough to have their thinking affirmed. Those less superstitious, and
justice minded, got what they wanted."[166] The accused were released on
their husbands' posting recognizance bonds of 50 pounds and promising
six months' good behavior.[167][161] A popular legend tells of
William Penn dismissing the charges against Mattson by affirming her
legal right to fly on a broomstick over Philadelphia, saying "Well, I
know of no law against it."[163] The record fails to show any such
commentary, but the story probably reflects popular views of Penn's
socially progressive Quaker values.[168] Tennessee Accusations of witchcraft and wizardry led to the prosecution of a man in Tennessee as recently as 1833.[169][170][171] Latin America Main article: Witchcraft in Latin America When
Franciscan friars from New Spain arrived in the Americas in 1524, they
introduced Diabolism—belief in the Christian Devil—to the Indigenous
peoples of the Americas.[172] Bartolomé de las Casas believed that human
sacrifice was not diabolic, in fact far off from it, and was a natural
result of religious expression.[172] Mexican Indians gladly took in the
belief of Diabolism and still managed to keep their belief in
creator-destroyer deities.[173] Witchcraft was an important part
of the social and cultural history of late-Colonial Mexico, during the
Mexican Inquisition. Spanish Inquisitors viewed witchcraft as a problem
that could be cured simply through confession. Yet, as anthropologist
Ruth Behar writes, witchcraft, not only in Mexico but in Latin America
in general, was a "conjecture of sexuality, witchcraft, and religion, in
which Spanish, indigenous, and African cultures converged."[174]
Furthermore, witchcraft in Mexico generally required an interethnic and
interclass network of witches.[175] Yet, according to anthropology
professor Laura Lewis, witchcraft in colonial Mexico ultimately
represented an "affirmation of hegemony" for women, Indians, and
especially Indian women over their white male counterparts as a result
of the casta system.[176] The presence of the witch is a constant
in the ethnographic history of colonial Brazil, especially during the
several denunciations and confessions given to the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith of Bahia (1591–1593), Pernambuco and Paraíba
(1593–1595).[177] Brujería, often called a Latin American form of
witchcraft, is a syncretic Afro-Caribbean tradition that combines
Indigenous religious and magical practices from Aruba, Bonaire, and
Curaçao in the Dutch Caribbean, Catholicism, and European
witchcraft.[178] The tradition and terminology is considered to
encompass both helpful and harmful practices.[179] A male practitioner
is called a brujo, a female practitioner, a bruja.[179] Healers may be
further distinguished by the terms kurioso or kuradó, a man or woman who
performs trabou chikí ("little works") and trabou grandi ("large
treatments") to promote or restore health, bring fortune or misfortune,
deal with unrequited love, and more serious concerns. Sorcery usually
involves reference to an entity referred to as the almasola or homber
chiki.[180] Navajo There are several varieties of Navajo
witches. The most common variety seen in horror fiction by non-Navajo
people is the yee naaldlooshii (a type of 'ánti'įhnii),[181] known in
English as the skin-walker. They are believed to take the forms of
animals in order to travel in secret and do harm to the innocent.[181]
In the Navajo language, yee naaldlooshii translates to 'with it, he goes
on all fours'.[181] (Navajo: áńt'į́, literally 'witchery' or
'harming') is a substance made from is used by witches to curse their
victims.[5] Traditional Navajos usually hesitate to discuss things like
witches and witchcraft with non-Navajos.[182] As with other traditional
cultures, the term "witch" is never used for healers or others who help
the community with their ceremonies and spiritual work.[183] Asia Main article: Asian witchcraft This
section should include a summary of, or be summarized in, another
article. See Wikipedia:Summary style for information on how to
incorporate it into this article's main text, or the main text of
another article. India Main article: Witch-hunts in India Belief
in the supernatural is strong in all parts of India, and lynchings for
witchcraft are reported in the press from time to time.[184] Around 750
people were killed as witches in Assam and West Bengal between 2003 and
2008.[185] Officials in the state of Chhattisgarh reported in 2008 that
at least one hundred women are maltreated annually as suspected
witches.[186] A local activist stated that only a fraction of cases of
abuse are reported.[187] In Indian mythology, a common perception of a
witch is a being with her feet pointed backwards. Nepal Main article: Witch-hunts in Nepal In
Nepali language, witches are known as Boksi (Nepali: बोक्सी). Apart
from other types of violence against women in Nepal, the malpractice of
abusing women in the name of witchcraft is also prominent. According to
the statistics in 2013, there was a total of 69 reported cases of abuse
to women due to accusations of performing witchcraft. The perpetrators
of this malpractice are usually neighbors, so-called witch doctors, and
family members.[188] The main causes of these malpractices are lack of
education, lack of awareness, and superstition. According to the
statistics by INSEC,[189] the age group of women who fall victims to the
witchcraft violence in Nepal is 20–40.[190] Japan Okabe – The cat witch, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi In
Japanese folklore, the most common types of witch can be separated into
two categories: those who employ snakes as familiars, and those who
employ foxes.[191] The fox witch is, by far, the most commonly seen
witch figure in Japan. Differing regional beliefs set those who use
foxes into two separate types: the kitsune-mochi, and the
tsukimono-suji. The first of these, the kitsune-mochi, is a solitary
figure who gains his fox familiar by bribing it with its favourite
foods. The kitsune-mochi then strikes up a deal with the fox, typically
promising food and daily care in return for the fox's magical services.
The fox of Japanese folklore is a powerful trickster in and of itself,
imbued with powers of shape changing, possession, and illusion. These
creatures can be either nefarious; disguising themselves as women in
order to trap men, or they can be benign forces as in the story of "The
Grateful Foxes".[192] By far, the most commonly reported cases of fox
witchcraft in modern Japan are enacted by tsukimono-suji families, or
'hereditary witches'.[193] Philippines Main article: Philippine witches In
the Philippines, as in many of these cultures, witches are viewed as
those opposed to the sacred. In contrast, anthropologists writing about
the healers in Indigenous Philippine folk religions either use the
traditional terminology of these cultures, or broad anthropological
terms like shaman.[11] Philippine witches are the users of black
magic and related practices from the Philippines. They include a variety
of different kinds of people with differing occupations and cultural
connotations which depend on the ethnic group they are associated with.
They are completely different from the Western notion of what a witch
is, as each ethnic group has their own definition and practices
attributed to witches. The curses and other magics of witches are often
blocked, countered, cured, or lifted by Philippine shamans associated
with the Indigenous Philippine folk religions.[12][194] During
the 1580s in Manila, Philippines, the wife of the ex-governor (Guido de
Labezaris) of the Philippines, Inés Álvarez de Gibraleón and their
daughter Ana de Monterrey were put on trial for being accused of
witchcraft and black magic. It resulted in two trials, however, due to
there being no personal investigations, the ecclesiastical investigation
was the result of hearsay. There is a record of this trial in the
Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City. However, the civil trial
involving Ana de Monterrey and her husband Captain Juan de Morón
disappeared.[195] Saudi Arabia Main articles: Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia, Freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia, and Human rights in Saudi Arabia Saudi
Arabia continues to use the death penalty for sorcery and
witchcraft.[196] In 2006 Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali was condemned to death
for practicing witchcraft.[197] There is no legal definition of sorcery
in Saudi, but in 2007 an Egyptian pharmacist working there was accused,
convicted, and executed. Saudi authorities also pronounced the death
penalty on a Lebanese television presenter, Ali Hussain Sibat, while he
was performing the hajj (Islamic pilgrimage) in the country.[198] In
2009, the Saudi authorities set up the Anti-Witchcraft Unit of their
Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice
police.[199] In April 2009, a Saudi woman Amina Bint Abdulhalim Nassar
was arrested and later sentenced to death for practicing witchcraft and
sorcery. In December 2011, she was beheaded.[200] A Saudi man has been
beheaded on charges of sorcery and witchcraft in June 2012.[201] A
beheading for sorcery occurred in 2014.[82] Islamic State See also: Human rights in ISIL-controlled territory In
June 2015, Yahoo reported: "The Islamic State group has beheaded two
women in Syria on accusations of 'sorcery', the first such executions of
female civilians in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
Tuesday."[202] Europe Main articles: European witchcraft and Witch trials in Early Modern Europe Witchcraft
in Europe between 500 and 1750 was believed to be a combination of
sorcery and heresy. While sorcery attempts to produce negative
supernatural effects through formulas and rituals, heresy is the
Christian contribution to witchcraft in which an individual makes a pact
with the Devil. In addition, heresy denies witches the recognition of
important Christian values such as baptism, salvation, Christ, and
sacraments.[203] The beginning of the witch accusations in Europe took
place in the 14th and 15th centuries, but as the social disruptions of
the 16th century took place, witchcraft trials intensified.[204] A
1555 German print showing the burning of witches. Current scholarly
estimates of the number of people executed for witchcraft in Europe vary
between 40,000 and 100,000.[205] The number of witch trials in Europe
known to have ended in executions is around 12,000.[206] In Early
Modern European tradition, witches were stereotypically, though not
exclusively, women.[62][207] European pagan belief in witchcraft was
associated with the goddess Diana and dismissed as "diabolical
fantasies" by medieval Christian authors.[208] Throughout Europe, there
were an estimated 110,000 witchcraft trials between 1450 and 1750 (with
1560 to 1660 being the peak of persecutions), with half of the cases
seeing the accused being executed.[209] Witch-hunts first appeared in
large numbers in southern France and Switzerland during the 14th and
15th centuries. The peak years of witch-hunts in southwest Germany were
from 1561 to 1670.[210] It was commonly believed that individuals
with power and prestige were involved in acts of witchcraft and even
cannibalism.[211] Because Europe had a lot of power over individuals
living in West Africa, Europeans in positions of power were often
accused of taking part in these practices. Though it is not likely that
these individuals were actually involved in these practices, they were
most likely associated due to Europe's involvement in things like the
slave trade, which negatively affected the lives of many individuals in
the Atlantic World throughout the fifteenth through seventeenth
centuries.[211] Early converts to Christianity looked to
Christian clergy to work magic more effectively than the old methods
under Roman paganism, and Christianity provided a methodology involving
saints and relics, similar to the gods and amulets of the Pagan world.
As Christianity became the dominant religion in Europe, its concern with
magic lessened.[212] The Protestant Christian explanation for
witchcraft, such as those typified in the confessions of the Pendle
witches, commonly involves a diabolical pact or at least an appeal to
the intervention of the spirits of evil. The witches or wizards engaged
in such practices were alleged to reject Jesus and the sacraments;
observe "the witches' sabbath" (performing infernal rites that often
parodied the Mass or other sacraments of the Church); pay Divine honour
to the Prince of Darkness; and, in return, receive from him
preternatural powers. It was a folkloric belief that a Devil's Mark,
like the brand on cattle, was placed upon a witch's skin by the devil to
signify that this pact had been made.[213] Oceania Cook Islands In
pre-Christian times, witchcraft was a common practice in the Cook
Islands. The native name for a sorcerer was tangata purepure (a man who
prays).[214] The prayers offered by the ta'unga (priests)[215] to the
gods worshiped on national or tribal marae (temples) were termed
karakia;[216] those on minor occasions to the lesser gods were named
pure. All these prayers were metrical, and were handed down from
generation to generation with the utmost care. There were prayers for
every such phase in life; for success in battle; for a change in wind
(to overwhelm an adversary at sea, or that an intended voyage be
propitious); that his crops may grow; to curse a thief; or wish ill-luck
and death to his foes. Few men of middle age were without a number of
these prayers or charms. The succession of a sorcerer was from father to
son, or from uncle to nephew. So too of sorceresses: it would be from
mother to daughter, or from aunt to niece. Sorcerers and sorceresses
were often slain by relatives of their supposed victims.[217] A
singular enchantment was employed to kill off a husband of a pretty
woman desired by someone else. The expanded flower of a Gardenia was
stuck upright—a very difficult performance—in a cup (i.e., half a large
coconut shell) of water. A prayer was then offered for the husband's
speedy death, the sorcerer earnestly watching the flower. Should it fall
the incantation was successful. But if the flower still remained
upright, he will live. The sorcerer would in that case try his skill
another day, with perhaps better success.[218] According to
Beatrice Grimshaw, a journalist who visited the Cook Islands in 1907,
the uncrowned Queen Makea was believed to have possessed the mystic
power called mana, giving the possessor the power to slay at will. It
also included other gifts, such as second sight to a certain extent, as
well as the power to bring good or evil luck.[219] Papua New Guinea A
local newspaper informed that more than fifty people were killed in two
Highlands provinces of Papua New Guinea in 2008 for allegedly
practicing witchcraft.[220] An estimated 50–150 alleged witches are
killed each year in Papua New Guinea.[221] Slavic Russia Among the Russian words for witch, ведьма (ved'ma) literally means 'one who knows', from Old Slavic вѣдъ 'to know'.[222] Spells Pagan
practices formed a part of Russian and Eastern Slavic culture; the
Russian people were deeply superstitious. The witchcraft practiced
consisted mostly of earth magic and herbology; the specific herbs were
not as important as how these herbs were gathered. Ritual centered on
harvest of the crops, and the location of the sun was very
important.[223] One source, pagan author Judika Illes, tells that herbs
picked on Midsummer's Eve were believed to be most powerful, especially
if gathered on Bald Mountain near Kiev during the witches' annual revels
celebration.[224] Botanicals should be gathered "during the seventeenth
minute of the fourteenth hour, under a dark moon, in the thirteenth
field, wearing a red dress, pick the twelfth flower on the right."[225] Spells
also served for midwifery, shape-shifting, keeping lovers faithful, and
bridal customs. Spells dealing with midwifery and childbirth focused on
the spiritual well-being of the baby.[225] Shape-shifting spells
involved invocation of the wolf as a spirit animal.[226] To keep men
faithful, lovers would cut a ribbon the length of his erect penis and
soak it in his seminal emissions after sex while he was sleeping, then
tie seven knots in it; keeping this talisman of knot magic ensured
loyalty.[227] Part of an ancient pagan marriage tradition involved the
bride taking a ritual bath at a bathhouse before the ceremony. Her sweat
would be wiped from her body using raw fish, and the fish would be
cooked and fed to the groom.[228] Demonism, or black magic, was
not prevalent. Persecution for witchcraft mostly involved the practice
of simple earth magic founded on herbology by solitary practitioners
with a Christian influence. In one case, investigators found a locked
box containing something bundled in a kerchief and three paper packets,
wrapped and tied, containing crushed grasses.[229] Most rituals of
witchcraft were very simple—one spell of divination consists of sitting
alone outside meditating, asking the earth to show one's fate.[230] While
these customs were unique to Russian culture, they were not exclusive
to this region. Russian pagan practices were often akin to paganism in
other parts of the world. The Chinese concept of chi, a form of energy
that often manipulated in witchcraft, is known as bioplasma in Russian
practices.[231] The western concept of an "evil eye" or a "hex" was
translated to Russia as a "spoiler".[232] A spoiler was rooted in envy,
jealousy and malice. Spoilers could be made by gathering bone from a
cemetery, a knot of the target's hair, burned wooden splinters, Placing
these items in a sachet in the victim's pillow completes a spoiler. The
Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and ancient Egyptians recognized the
evil eye from as early as 3,000 BCE; in Russian practices it is seen as
a sixteenth-century concept.[233] Societal view of witchcraft The
dominant societal concern about those practicing witchcraft was not
whether it was effective, but whether it could cause harm.[229] Peasants
in Russian and Ukrainian societies often shunned witchcraft, unless
they needed help against supernatural forces. Impotence, stomach pains,
barrenness, hernias, abscesses, epileptic seizures, and convulsions were
all attributed to evil (or witchcraft). This is reflected in
linguistics; there are numerous words for a variety of practitioners of
paganism-based healers. Russian peasants referred to a witch as a
chernoknizhnik (a person who plied his trade with the aid of a black
book), sheptun/sheptun'ia (a 'whisperer' male or female), lekar/lekarka
or znakhar/znakharka (a male or female healer), or zagovornik (an
incanter).[234] There was universal reliance on folk healers—but
clients often turned them in if something went wrong. According to
Russian historian Valerie A. Kivelson, witchcraft accusations were
normally thrown at lower-class peasants, townspeople and Cossacks.
People turned to witchcraft as a means to support themselves. The ratio
of male to female accusations was 75% to 25%. Males were targeted more,
because witchcraft was associated with societal deviation. Because
single people with no settled home could not be taxed, males typically
had more power than women in their dissent.[229] The history of
Witchcraft had evolved around society. More of a psychological concept
to the creation and usage of Witchcraft can create the assumption as to
why women are more likely to follow the practices behind Witchcraft.
Identifying with the soul of an individual's self is often deemed as
"feminine" in society. There is analyzed social and economic evidence to
associate between witchcraft and women.[235] Russian witch trials Main article: Witch trials in Russia Witchcraft
trials frequently occurred in seventeenth-century Russia; as the
witchcraft-trial craze swept across Catholic and Protestant countries
during this time, Orthodox Christian Europe also partook in the
so-called "witch hysteria". This involved the persecution of both males
and females who were believed to be practicing paganism, herbology, the
black art, or a form of sorcery within and/or outside their community.
Very early on, witchcraft legally fell under the jurisdiction of the
ecclesiastical body, the church, in Kievan Rus' and Muscovite
Russia.[236] Sources of ecclesiastical witchcraft jurisdiction date back
as early as the second half of the eleventh century, one being Vladimir
the Great's first edition of his State Statute or Ustav, another being
multiple references in the Primary Chronicle beginning in 1024.[236] Goya's drawing of result of a presumed witch's trial: "[so she must be a witch]"[237] The
sentence for an individual who was found guilty of witchcraft or
sorcery during this time, as well as in previous centuries, typically
included either burning at the stake or being tested with the "ordeal of
cold water" or judicium aquae frigidae.[236] The cold-water test was
primarily a Western European phenomenon, but it was also used as a
method of truth in Russia both prior to, and post, seventeenth-century
witchcraft trials in Muscovy. Accused persons who submerged were
considered innocent, and ecclesiastical authorities would proclaim them
"brought back", but those who floated were considered guilty of
practicing witchcraft, and they were either burned at the stake or
executed in an unholy fashion. The thirteenth-century bishop of
Vladimir, Serapion Vladimirskii, preached sermons throughout the
Muscovite countryside, and in one particular sermon revealed that
burning was the usual punishment for witchcraft, but more often the cold
water test was used as a precursor to execution.[236][238] Although
these two methods of torture were used in the west and the east, Russia
implemented a system of fines payable for the crime of witchcraft
during the seventeenth century. Thus, even though torture methods in
Muscovy were on a similar level of harshness as Western European methods
used, a more civil method was present. In the introduction of a
collection of trial records pieced together by Russian scholar Nikolai
Novombergsk, he argues that Muscovite authorities used the same degree
of cruelty and harshness as Western European Catholic and Protestant
countries in persecuting witches.[236] By the mid-sixteenth century the
manifestations of paganism, including witchcraft, and the black
arts—astrology, fortune telling, and divination—became a serious concern
to the Muscovite church and state.[236] Tsar Ivan IV (reigned
1547–1584) took this matter to the ecclesiastical court and was
immediately advised that individuals practicing these forms of
witchcraft should be excommunicated and given the death penalty.[236]
Ivan IV, as a true believer in witchcraft, was deeply convinced[citation
needed] that sorcery accounted for the death of his wife, Anastasiia in
1560, which completely devastated him, leaving him heartbroken and
depressed.[236] Stemming from this belief, Ivan IV became majorly
concerned with the threat of witchcraft harming his family, and feared
he was in danger. So, during the Oprichnina (1565–1572), Ivan IV
succeeded in accusing and charging a good number of boyars with
witchcraft whom he did not wish to remain as nobles. Rulers after Ivan
IV, specifically during the Time of Troubles (1598–1613), increased the
fear of witchcraft among themselves and entire royal families, which
then led to further preoccupation with the fear of prominent Muscovite
witchcraft circles.[236] After the Time of Troubles,
seventeenth-century Muscovite rulers held frequent investigations of
witchcraft within their households, laying the groundwork, along with
previous tsarist reforms, for widespread witchcraft trials throughout
the Muscovite state.[236] Between 1622 and 1700 ninety-one people were
brought to trial in Muscovite courts for witchcraft.[236] Although
Russia did partake in the witch craze that swept across Western Europe,
the Muscovite state did not persecute nearly as many people for
witchcraft, let alone execute a number of individuals anywhere close to
the number executed in the west during the witch hysteria. Present day Further information: § By region A
2022 study found that belief in witchcraft, as in the use of malevolent
magic or powers, is still widespread in some parts of the world. It
found that belief in witchcraft varied from 9% of people in some
countries to 90% in others, and was linked to cultural and socioeconomic
factors. Stronger belief in witchcraft correlated with poorer economic
development, weak institutions, lower levels of education, lower life
expectancy, lower life satisfaction, and high religiosity.[239][240] It contrasted two hypotheses about future changes in witchcraft belief:[240]
witchcraft beliefs should decline "in the process of development due to
improved security and health, lower exposure to shocks, spread of
education and scientific approach to explaining life events" according
to standard modernization theory "some aspects of development,
namely rising inequality, globalization, technological change, and
migration, may instead revive witchcraft beliefs by disrupting
established social order" according to literature largely inspired by
observations from Sub-Saharan Africa. Prevalence of belief in witchcraft by country[240] Prevalence of belief in witchcraft by country[240] Socio-demographic correlates of witchcraft beliefs[240] Socio-demographic correlates of witchcraft beliefs[240] In
the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian state media claimed that
Ukraine was using black magic against the Russian military, specifically
accusing Oleksiy Arestovych of enlisting sorcerers and witches as well
as Ukrainian soldiers of consecrating weapons "with blood
magick".[241][242] Witches in art and fiction Further information: European witchcraft § Witches in art, and European witchcraft § Witches in fiction Albrecht Dürer c. 1500: Witch riding backwards on a goat Witches
have a long history of being depicted in art, although most of their
earliest artistic depictions seem to originate in Early Modern Europe,
particularly the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Many scholars
attribute their manifestation in art as inspired by texts such as Canon
Episcopi, a demonology-centered work of literature, and Malleus
Maleficarum, a "witch-craze" manual published in 1487, by Heinrich
Kramer and Jacob Sprenger.[243] Witches in fiction span a wide array of
characterizations. They are typically, but not always, female, and
generally depicted as either villains or heroines.[244] Wicca This
section may contain material unrelated or insufficiently related to the
topic of the article. Please help improve this section or discuss this
issue on the talk page. (July 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this
template message) Main article: Wicca See also: Neopagan witchcraft During
the 20th century, interest in witchcraft rose in English-speaking and
European countries. From the 1920s, Margaret Murray popularized the
'witch-cult hypothesis': the idea that those persecuted as 'witches' in
early modern Europe were followers of a benevolent pagan religion that
had survived the Christianization of Europe. This has been discredited
by further historical research.[245][246] From the 1930s, occult
neopagan groups began to emerge who called their religion a kind of
'witchcraft'. They were initiatory secret societies inspired by Murray's
'witch cult' theory, ceremonial magic, Aleister Crowley's Thelema, and
historical paganism.[247][248][249] They do not use the term
'witchcraft' in the traditional way, but instead define their practices
as a kind of "positive magic". Various forms of Wicca are now
practised as a religion with positive ethical principles, organized into
autonomous covens and led by a High Priesthood. A survey published in
2000 cited just over 200,000 people who reported practicing Wicca in the
United States.[250] There is also an "Eclectic Wiccan" movement of
individuals and groups who share key Wiccan beliefs but have no formal
link with traditional Wiccan covens. Some Wiccan-inspired neopagans call
their beliefs and practices "traditional witchcraft" or the
"traditional craft" rather than Wicca." (wikipedia.org) "A
crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball commonly used in
fortune-telling. It is generally associated with the performance of
clairvoyance and scrying in particular. Other names include crystal
sphere, gazing ball, shew stone, and show stone. In neopaganism it is
sometimes called an orbuculum. In more recent times, crystal
balls have been used for creative photography. In this context they are
sometimes referred to as lensballs.[1][2] History By the fifth
century CE, scrying using crystal balls was widespread within the Roman
Empire and was condemned by the early medieval Christian Church as
heretical.[3] John Dee was a noted British mathematician,
astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.
He devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic
philosophy, of which the use of crystal balls was often included.[4] Crystal
gazing was a popular pastime in the Victorian era, and was claimed to
work best when the Sun is at its northernmost declination. Immediately
before the appearance of a vision, the ball was said to mist up from
within.[3] The use of crystal balls for divination also has a
long history with the Romani people.[5] Fortune tellers, known as
drabardi,[6] traditionally use crystal balls as well as cards to seek
knowledge about future events.[7] Art of scrying Main articles: Scrying and Crystal gazing Photograph of a quartz crystal ball of the type commonly used for divination or scrying The
process of scrying often involves the use of crystals, especially
crystal balls, in an attempt to predict the future or otherwise divine
hidden information.[8] Crystal ball scrying is commonly used to seek
supernatural guidance while making difficult decisions in one's life
(e.g., matters of love or finances).[9][10] When the technique of scrying is used with crystals, or any transparent body, it is known as crystallomancy or crystal gazing. In stage magic Crystal
balls are popular props used in mentalism acts by stage magicians. Such
routines, in which the performer answers audience questions by means of
various ruses, are known as crystal gazing acts. One of the most famous
performers of the 20th century, Claude Alexander, was often billed as
"Alexander the Crystal Seer".[11] Ball lens properties A
crystal ball is an optical lens. In particular, a ball lens (or
"lensball") is a bi-convex spherical lens with the same radius of
curvature on both sides, and diameter equal to twice the radius of
curvature. The same optical laws may be applied to analyze its imaging
characteristics as for other lenses. As a lens, a transparent
sphere of any material with refractive index ( n ) greater than air ( n =
1.00 ) bends rays of light to a focal point; for most glassy materials
the focal point is only slightly beyond the surface of the ball. Ball
lenses have extremely high optical aberration, including large amounts
of coma and field curvature compared to conventional lenses. The
refractive index of typical materials used for crystal balls ( quartz: n
= 1.46 ; window glass: n = 1.52 ), focus infinity to a point just
outside the surface of the sphere, on the side of the ball diametrically
opposite to where the rays entered.[citation needed] Omnidirectional lens Since
a crystal ball has no edges like a conventional lens, the image-forming
properties are omnidirectional (independent of the direction being
imaged). This effect is exploited in the Campbell–Stokes recorder, a
scientific instrument which records the brightness of sunlight by
burning the surface of a paper card bent around the sphere. The device,
itself fixed, records the apparent motion and intensity of the sun
across the sky, burning an image of the sun's motion across the
card.[citation needed] The omnidirectional burning glass effect
can occur with a crystal ball that is brought into full sunlight. The
image of the sun formed by a large crystal ball will burn a hand that is
holding it, and can ignite dark-coloured flammable material placed near
it.[12] Lensball photography Experimental landscape photograph taken through a lensball by Danish photographer Hanstholm Fyr Ball
lenses are used by photographers to take novel extreme wide-angle
photos.[1][2][10] The ball lens (or "lensball") is placed fairly close
to the camera and the camera's own lenses are used to focus an image
through the lensball. If the camera is close to the ball lens, the
background around the ball will be completely blurred. The further the
camera lies from the ball lens, the better the background will come into
focus.[13] Ball lenses of extremely refractive glass For
materials with refractive index greater than 2, objects at infinity form
an image inside the sphere. The image is not directly accessible; the
closest accessible point is on the sphere's surface directly opposite
the source of light. Most clear solids used for making lenses have
refractive indices between 1.4 and 1.6; only a few rare materials have a
refractive index of 2 or higher (cubic zirconia, Boron nitride (c‑BN
& w‑BN), diamond, moissanite). Many of those few are either too
brittle, too soft, too hard, or too expensive to for practical lens
making (columbite, rutile, tantalite, tausonite). For a refractive index
of exactly 2.0, the image forms on the surface of the sphere, and the
image may be viewed on an translucent object or diffusing coating on the
imaging side of the sphere.[citation needed] Famous crystal balls in history The Sceptre of Scotland has a crystal ball in its finial, honoring the tradition of their use by pagan druids.[14] Philadelphia's
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (also
called Penn Museum for short) displays the third largest crystal
ball[15] as the central object in its Chinese Rotunda. Weighing 49
pounds (22 kg), the sphere is made of quartz crystal from Burma and was
shaped through years of constant rotation in a semi-cylindrical
container filled with emery, garnet , and water. The ornamental treasure
was purportedly made for the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) during
the Qing dynasty in the 19th century, but no evidence as to its actual
origins exists. In 1988, the crystal ball and an ancient Egyptian
statuette[16] which depicted the god Osiris were stolen from the Penn
Museum but were recovered three years later with no damage done to
either object.[17] A crystal ball was among the grave-goods of
the Merovingian King, Childeric I (c. 437–481 AD).[18] The grave-goods
were discovered in 1653. In 1831, they were stolen from the royal
library in France where they were being kept. Few items were ever
recovered. The crystal ball was not among them." (wikipedia.org) "A
witch ball is a hollow sphere of glass. Historically, witch balls were
hung in cottage windows in 17th and 18th century England to ward off
evil spirits, witches, evil spells, ill fortune and bad spirits.[1] The
Witches ball is still today used extensively[citation needed]
throughout Sussex, England and continues to hold great superstition with
regard to warding off evil spirits in the English counties of East
Sussex and West Sussex. The tradition was also taken to overseas British
colonies, such as the former British colonies of New England, and
remains popular in coastal regions. Examples of the Witches ball in use
can be seen in the windows of houses throughout the counties anywhere
from small rural villages to coastal towns and cities. Examples can also
be seen in shop windows as well, often not for sale as they are so
highly prized. Origin The witch ball originated among cultures
where harmful magic and those who practiced it were feared. They are
one of many folk practices involving objects for protecting the
household. The word witch ball may be a corruption of watch ball because
it was used to ward off, guard against, evil spirits. They may be hung
in an eastern window, placed on top of a vase or suspended by a cord (as
from the mantelpiece or rafters). They may also be placed on sticks in
windows or hung in rooms where inhabitants wanted to ward off evil.[2] Superstitious
European sailors valued the talismanic powers of the witch balls in
protecting their homes. Witch balls appeared in America in the 19th
century and larger, more opaque variations are often found in gardens
under the name gazing ball. This name derives from their being used for
divination and scrying where a person gazes into them dreamily to try to
see future events or to see the answers to questions. However, gazing
balls contain no strands within their interior. Glass studios
traditionally make a witch ball as the first object to be created in a
new studio.[citation needed] Purpose There are several
variations relating to the purpose of witch balls. According to folk
tales, witch balls would entice evil spirits with their bright colours;
the strands inside the ball would then capture the spirit and prevent it
from escaping. Another tradition holds that witch balls or spherical
mirrors prevented a witch from being in a room, because witches
supposedly did not have a reflection or could not bear seeing their own
reflection.[1] Yet another variation contends that witch balls were used
to avert the evil eye, by attracting the gaze of the eye and preventing
harm to the house and its inhabitants.[3] In the 17th century,
witch balls and witch bottles were filled with holy water or salt.[4]
Balls containing salt were hung up in the chimney to keep the salt dry.
Salt was a precious commodity, and breaking the ball or bottle was
considered bad luck.[5] Types An example of a blue witchball Witch
balls sometimes measure as large as seven inches (18 cm) in diameter.
The witch ball is traditionally, but not always, green or blue in colour
and made from glass (others, however, are made of wood, grass, or twigs
instead of glass). Some are decorated in swirls and brilliant stripes
of various colours. Witch balls normally have a hole in the top where a
peg can be inserted; string is then attached to the peg so the ball can
be hung in a chimney or over a window. Early witch balls often had a
short neck sealed by a stopper.[5] The gazing balls found in many of
today's gardens are derived from the silvered witch balls that acted as
convex mirrors, warding off evil by reflecting it away. In the
Ozark Mountains, another kind of witch ball is made from black hair that
is rolled with beeswax into a hard round pellet about the size of a
marble and is used in curses. In Ozark folklore, a witch that wants to
kill someone will take this hair ball and throw it at the intended
victim; it is said that when someone in the Ozarks is killed by a
witch's curse, this witch ball is found near the body.[6] In the
Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, tradition holds that witch balls were
made by rolling cow or horse hair into a small ball. A witch would draw
a picture of the intended victim, then throw the ball at the part of
the victim they wished to injure.[7] Christmas ornament Patrick
Leigh-Fermor mentions the daughters of a gasthof (guest house) owner
hanging witch balls on the Christmas tree, Boppard, Germany, 1933, which
suggests a link to modern baubles." (wikipedia.org) "Magic,
sometimes spelled magick,[1] is an ancient practice rooted in rituals,
spiritual divinations, and/or cultural lineage—with an intention to
invoke, manipulate, or otherwise manifest supernatural forces, beings,
or entities in the natural world.[2] It is a categorical yet often
ambiguous term which has been used to refer to a wide variety of beliefs
and practices, frequently considered separate from both religion and
science.[3] Although connotations have varied from positive to
negative at times throughout history,[4] magic continues to have an
important religious and medicinal role in many cultures today.[citation
needed] Within Western culture, magic has been linked to ideas of
the Other,[5] foreignness,[6] and primitivism;[7] indicating that it is
"a powerful marker of cultural difference"[8] and likewise, a
non-modern phenomenon.[9] During the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century, Western intellectuals perceived the practice of magic to be a
sign of a primitive mentality and also commonly attributed it to
marginalised groups of people.[8] In modern occultism and
neopagan religions, many self-described magicians and witches regularly
practice ritual magic;[10] defining magic as a technique for bringing
about change in the physical world through the force of one's will. This
definition was popularised by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an
influential British occultist, and since that time other religions (e.g.
Wicca and LaVeyan Satanism) and magical systems (e.g. chaos magick)
have adopted it. Etymology One of the earliest surviving accounts of the Persian mágoi was provided by the Greek historian Herodotus. The
English words magic, mage and magician come from the Latin term magus,
through the Greek μάγος, which is from the Old Persian maguš.
(𐎶𐎦𐎢𐏁|𐎶𐎦𐎢𐏁, magician).[11] The Old Persian magu- is derived from
the Proto-Indo-European megʰ-*magh (be able). The Persian term may have
led to the Old Sinitic *Mγag (mage or shaman).[12] The Old Persian form
seems to have permeated ancient Semitic languages as the Talmudic
Hebrew magosh, the Aramaic amgusha (magician), and the Chaldean maghdim
(wisdom and philosophy); from the first century BCE onwards, Syrian
magusai gained notoriety as magicians and soothsayers.[13] During
the late-sixth and early-fifth centuries BCE, this term found its way
into ancient Greek, where it was used with negative connotations to
apply to rites that were regarded as fraudulent, unconventional, and
dangerous.[14] The Latin language adopted this meaning of the term in
the first century BCE. Via Latin, the concept became incorporated into
Christian theology during the first century CE. Early Christians
associated magic with demons, and thus regarded it as against Christian
religion. This concept remained pervasive throughout the Middle Ages,
when Christian authors categorised a diverse range of practices—such as
enchantment, witchcraft, incantations, divination, necromancy, and
astrology—under the label "magic". In early modern Europe, Protestants
often claimed that Roman Catholicism was magic rather than religion, and
as Christian Europeans began colonizing other parts of the world in the
sixteenth century, they labelled the non-Christian beliefs they
encountered as magical. In that same period, Italian humanists
reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to express the idea of
natural magic. Both negative and positive understandings of the term
recurred in Western culture over the following centuries. Since
the nineteenth century, academics in various disciplines have employed
the term magic but have defined it in different ways and used it in
reference to different things. One approach, associated with the
anthropologists Edward Tylor (1832–1917) and James G. Frazer
(1854–1941), uses the term to describe beliefs in hidden sympathies
between objects that allow one to influence the other. Defined in this
way, magic is portrayed as the opposite to science. An alternative
approach, associated with the sociologist Marcel Mauss (1872–1950) and
his uncle Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), employs the term to describe
private rites and ceremonies and contrasts it with religion, which it
defines as a communal and organised activity. By the 1990s many scholars
were rejecting the term's utility for scholarship. They argued that the
label drew arbitrary lines between similar beliefs and practices that
were alternatively considered religious, and that it constituted
ethnocentric to apply the connotations of magic—rooted in Western and
Christian history—to other cultures. White, gray and black Main articles: White magic, Gray magic, and Black magic White
magic has traditionally been understood as the use of magic for
selfless or helpful purposes, while black magic was used for selfish,
harmful or evil purposes.[15] With respect to the left-hand path and
right-hand path dichotomy, black magic is the malicious, left hand
counterpart of the benevolent white magic. There is no consensus as to
what constitutes white, gray or black magic, as Phil Hine says, "like
many other aspects of occultism, what is termed to be 'black magic'
depends very much on who is doing the defining."[16] Gray magic, also
called "neutral magic", is magic that is not performed for specifically
benevolent reasons, but is also not focused towards completely hostile
practices.[17][18] High and low Historians and anthropologists
have distinguished between practitioners who engage in high magic, and
those who engage in low magic.[19] High magic, also known as theurgy and
ceremonial or ritual magic,[20] is more complex, involving lengthy and
detailed rituals as well as sophisticated, sometimes expensive,
paraphernalia.[19] Low magic and natural magic[20] are associated with
peasants and folklore[21] with simpler rituals such as brief, spoken
spells.[19] Low magic is also closely associated with sorcery and
witchcraft.[22] Anthropologist Susan Greenwood writes that "Since the
Renaissance, high magic has been concerned with drawing down forces and
energies from heaven" and achieving unity with divinity.[23] High magic
is usually performed indoors while witchcraft is often performed
outdoors.[24] History Main article: History of magic Mesopotamia See also: Mesopotamian divination, Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana, Maqlû, and Zisurrû Bronze protection plaque from the Neo-Assyrian era showing the demon Lamashtu Magic
was invoked in many kinds of rituals and medical formulae, and to
counteract evil omens. Defensive or legitimate magic in Mesopotamia
(asiputu or masmassutu in the Akkadian language) were incantations and
ritual practices intended to alter specific realities. The ancient
Mesopotamians believed that magic was the only viable defense against
demons, ghosts, and evil sorcerers.[25] To defend themselves against the
spirits of those they had wronged, they would leave offerings known as
kispu in the person's tomb in hope of appeasing them.[26] If that
failed, they also sometimes took a figurine of the deceased and buried
it in the ground, demanding for the gods to eradicate the spirit, or
force it to leave the person alone.[27] The ancient Mesopotamians
also used magic intending to protect themselves from evil sorcerers who
might place curses on them.[28] Black magic as a category did not exist
in ancient Mesopotamia, and a person legitimately using magic to defend
themselves against illegitimate magic would use exactly the same
techniques.[28] The only major difference was that curses were enacted
in secret;[28] whereas a defense against sorcery was conducted in the
open, in front of an audience if possible.[28] One ritual to punish a
sorcerer was known as Maqlû, or "The Burning".[28] The person viewed as
being afflicted by witchcraft would create an effigy of the sorcerer and
put it on trial at night.[28] Then, once the nature of the sorcerer's
crimes had been determined, the person would burn the effigy and thereby
break the sorcerer's power over them.[28] The ancient
Mesopotamians also performed magical rituals to purify themselves of
sins committed unknowingly.[28] One such ritual was known as the Šurpu,
or "Burning",[29] in which the caster of the spell would transfer the
guilt for all their misdeeds onto various objects such as a strip of
dates, an onion, and a tuft of wool.[29] The person would then burn the
objects and thereby purify themself of all sins that they might have
unknowingly committed.[29] A whole genre of love spells existed.[30]
Such spells were believed to cause a person to fall in love with another
person, restore love which had faded, or cause a male sexual partner to
be able to sustain an erection when he had previously been unable.[30]
Other spells were used to reconcile a man with his patron deity or to
reconcile a wife with a husband who had been neglecting her.[31] The
ancient Mesopotamians made no distinction between rational science and
magic.[32][33][34] When a person became ill, doctors would prescribe
both magical formulas to be recited as well as medicinal
treatments.[33][34][35] Most magical rituals were intended to be
performed by an āšipu, an expert in the magical arts.[33][34][35][36]
The profession was generally passed down from generation to
generation[35] and was held in extremely high regard and often served as
advisors to kings and great leaders.[37] An āšipu probably served not
only as a magician, but also as a physician, a priest, a scribe, and a
scholar.[37] The Sumerian god Enki, who was later syncretized
with the East Semitic god Ea, was closely associated with magic and
incantations;[38] he was the patron god of the bārȗ and the ašipū and
was widely regarded as the ultimate source of all arcane
knowledge.[39][40][41] The ancient Mesopotamians also believed in omens,
which could come when solicited or unsolicited.[42] Regardless of how
they came, omens were always taken with the utmost seriousness.[42] Incantation bowls Main article: Incantation bowl See also: Jewish magical papyri Mandaic-language incantation bowl A
common set of shared assumptions about the causes of evil and how to
avert it are found in a form of early protective magic called
incantation bowl or magic bowls. The bowls were produced in the Middle
East, particularly in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria, what is now Iraq and
Iran, and fairly popular during the sixth to eighth centuries.[43][44]
The bowls were buried face down and were meant to capture demons. They
were commonly placed under the threshold, courtyards, in the corner of
the homes of the recently deceased and in cemeteries.[45] A subcategory
of incantation bowls are those used in Jewish magical practice. Aramaic
incantation bowls are an important source of knowledge about Jewish
magical practices.[46][47][48][49][50] Egypt Ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus amulet In
ancient Egypt (Kemet in the Egyptian language), Magic (personified as
the god heka) was an integral part of religion and culture which is
known to us through a substantial corpus of texts which are products of
the Egyptian tradition.[51] While the category magic has been
contentious for modern Egyptology, there is clear support for its
applicability from ancient terminology.[52] The Coptic term hik is the
descendant of the pharaonic term heka, which, unlike its Coptic
counterpart, had no connotation of impiety or illegality, and is
attested from the Old Kingdom through to the Roman era.[52] heka was
considered morally neutral and was applied to the practices and beliefs
of both foreigners and Egyptians alike.[53] The Instructions for
Merikare informs us that heka was a beneficence gifted by the creator to
humanity "... in order to be weapons to ward off the blow of
events".[54] Magic was practiced by both the literate priestly
hierarchy and by illiterate farmers and herdsmen, and the principle of
heka underlay all ritual activity, both in the temples and in private
settings.[55] The main principle of heka is centered on the power
of words to bring things into being.[56]: 54 Karenga[57] explains the
pivotal power of words and their vital ontological role as the primary
tool used by the creator to bring the manifest world into being. Because
humans were understood to share a divine nature with the gods, snnw ntr
(images of the god), the same power to use words creatively that the
gods have is shared by humans.[58] Illustration from the Book of the Dead of Hunefer showing the Opening of the Mouth ceremony being performed before the tomb Book of the Dead Main article: Book of the Dead The
interior walls of the pyramid of Unas, the final pharaoh of the
Egyptian Fifth Dynasty, are covered in hundreds of magical spells and
inscriptions, running from floor to ceiling in vertical
columns.[56]: 54 These inscriptions are known as the Pyramid
Texts[56]: 54 and they contain spells needed by the pharaoh in order to
survive in the Afterlife.[56]: 54 The Pyramid Texts were strictly for
royalty only;[56]: 56 the spells were kept secret from commoners and
were written only inside royal tombs.[56]: 56 During the chaos and
unrest of the First Intermediate Period, however, tomb robbers broke
into the pyramids and saw the magical inscriptions.[56]: 56 Commoners
began learning the spells and, by the beginning of the Middle Kingdom,
commoners began inscribing similar writings on the sides of their own
coffins, hoping that doing so would ensure their own survival in the
afterlife.[56]: 56 These writings are known as the Coffin
Texts.[56]: 56 After a person died, his or her corpse would be
mummified and wrapped in linen bandages to ensure that the deceased's
body would survive for as long as possible[59] because the Egyptians
believed that a person's soul could only survive in the afterlife for as
long as his or her physical body survived here on earth.[59] The last
ceremony before a person's body was sealed away inside the tomb was
known as the Opening of the Mouth.[59] In this ritual, the priests would
touch various magical instruments to various parts of the deceased's
body, thereby giving the deceased the ability to see, hear, taste, and
smell in the afterlife.[59] Amulets Main article: Amulet The
use of amulets, (meket) was widespread among both living and dead
ancient Egyptians.[60][56]: 66 They were used for protection and as a
means of "...reaffirming the fundamental fairness of the universe".[61]
The oldest amulets found are from the predynastic Badarian Period, and
they persisted through to Roman times.[62] Judea In the Mosaic
Law, practices such as witchcraft (Heb. קְסָמִ֔ים), being a soothsayer
(מְעוֹנֵ֥ן) or a sorcerer (וּמְכַשֵּֽׁף) or one who conjures spells
(וְחֹבֵ֖ר חָ֑בֶר) or one who calls up the dead (וְדֹרֵ֖שׁ
אֶל־הַמֵּתִֽים) are specifically forbidden as abominations to the
Lord.[63] Halakha (Jewish religious law) forbids divination and
other forms of soothsaying, and the Talmud lists many persistent yet
condemned divining practices.[64] Practical Kabbalah in historical
Judaism, is a branch of the Jewish mystical tradition that concerns the
use of magic. It was considered permitted white magic by its
practitioners, reserved for the elite, who could separate its spiritual
source from Qliphoth realms of evil if performed under circumstances
that were holy (Q-D-Š) and pure (טומאה וטהרה, tvmh vthrh[65]). The
concern of overstepping Judaism's strong prohibitions of impure magic
ensured it remained a minor tradition in Jewish history. Its teachings
include the use of Divine and angelic names for amulets and
incantations.[66] These magical practices of Judaic folk religion which
became part of practical Kabbalah date from Talmudic times.[66] The
Talmud mentions the use of charms for healing, and a wide range of
magical cures were sanctioned by rabbis. It was ruled that any practice
actually producing a cure was not to be regarded superstitiously and
there has been the widespread practice of medicinal amulets, and folk
remedies (segullot) in Jewish societies across time and geography.[67] Although
magic was forbidden by Levitical law in the Hebrew Bible, it was widely
practised in the late Second Temple period, and particularly well
documented in the period following the destruction of the temple into
the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries CE.[68][69][70] China Taoism in ancient times until the modern day has used rituals, mantras, and amulets with godly or supernatural powers. Taoist worldviews were thought of as magical or alchemical.[71] Greco-Roman world Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess of magic Main articles: Magic in the Greco-Roman world and Sorcery (goetia) The
English word magic has its origins in ancient Greece.[72] During the
late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE, the Persian maguš was
Graecicized and introduced into the ancient Greek language as μάγος and
μαγεία.[14] In doing so it transformed meaning, gaining negative
connotations, with the magos being regarded as a charlatan whose ritual
practices were fraudulent, strange, unconventional, and dangerous.[14]
As noted by Davies, for the ancient Greeks—and subsequently for the
ancient Romans—"magic was not distinct from religion but rather an
unwelcome, improper expression of it—the religion of the other".[73] The
historian Richard Gordon suggested that for the ancient Greeks, being
accused of practicing magic was "a form of insult".[74] This
change in meaning was influenced by the military conflicts that the
Greek city-states were then engaged in against the Persian Empire.[14]
In this context, the term makes appearances in such surviving text as
Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Hippocrates' De morbo sacro, and Gorgias'
Encomium of Helen.[14] In Sophocles' play, for example, the character
Oedipus derogatorily refers to the seer Tiresius as a magos—in this
context meaning something akin to quack or charlatan—reflecting how this
epithet was no longer reserved only for Persians.[75] In the
first century BCE, the Greek concept of the magos was adopted into Latin
and used by a number of ancient Roman writers as magus and magia.[14]
The earliest known Latin use of the term was in Virgil's Eclogue,
written around 40 BCE, which makes reference to magicis... sacris (magic
rites).[76] The Romans already had other terms for the negative use of
supernatural powers, such as veneficus and saga.[76] The Roman use of
the term was similar to that of the Greeks, but placed greater emphasis
on the judicial application of it.[14] Within the Roman Empire, laws
would be introduced criminalising things regarded as magic.[77] In
ancient Roman society, magic was associated with societies to the east
of the empire; the first century CE writer Pliny the Elder for instance
claimed that magic had been created by the Iranian philosopher
Zoroaster, and that it had then been brought west into Greece by the
magician Osthanes, who accompanied the military campaigns of the Persian
King Xerxes.[78] Ancient Greek scholarship of the 20th century,
almost certainly influenced by Christianising preconceptions of the
meanings of magic and religion, and the wish to establish Greek culture
as the foundation of Western rationality, developed a theory of ancient
Greek magic as primitive and insignificant, and thereby essentially
separate from Homeric, communal (polis) religion. Since the last decade
of the century, however, recognising the ubiquity and respectability of
acts such as katadesmoi (binding spells), described as magic by modern
and ancient observers alike, scholars have been compelled to abandon
this viewpoint.[79]: 90–95 The Greek word mageuo (practice magic)
itself derives from the word Magos, originally simply the Greek name for
a Persian tribe known for practicing religion.[80] Non-civic mystery
cults have been similarly re-evaluated:[79]: 97–98 the
choices which lay outside the range of cults did not just add additional
options to the civic menu, but ... sometimes incorporated critiques of
the civic cults and Panhellenic myths or were genuine alternatives to
them. — Simon Price, Religions of the Ancient Greeks (1999)[81] Katadesmoi
(Latin: defixiones), curses inscribed on wax or lead tablets and buried
underground, were frequently executed by all strata of Greek society,
sometimes to protect the entire polis.[79]: 95–96 Communal curses
carried out in public declined after the Greek classical period, but
private curses remained common throughout antiquity.[82] They were
distinguished as magical by their individualistic, instrumental and
sinister qualities.[79]: 96 These qualities, and their perceived
deviation from inherently mutable cultural constructs of normality, most
clearly delineate ancient magic from the religious rituals of which
they form a part.[79]: 102–103 A large number of magical papyri,
in Greek, Coptic, and Demotic, have been recovered and translated.[83]
They contain early instances of: the use of magic words said to have the power to command spirits;[84] the use of mysterious symbols or sigils which are thought to be useful when invoking or evoking spirits.[85] The practice of magic was banned in the late Roman world, and the Codex Theodosianus (438 AD) states:[86]
If any wizard therefore or person imbued with magical contamination who
is called by custom of the people a magician...should be apprehended in
my retinue, or in that of the Caesar, he shall not escape punishment
and torture by the protection of his rank. Middle Ages Part of a series on Hermeticism Hermes Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus Hermetic writings Historical figures Modern offshoots vte Further information: Medieval European magic and Sorcery (goetia) Magic
practices such as divination, interpretation of omens, sorcery, and use
of charms had been specifically forbidden in Mosaic Law [87] and
condemned in Biblical histories of the kings.[88] Many of these
practices were spoken against in the New Testament as well.[89][90] Some
commentators say that in the first century CE, early Christian authors
absorbed the Greco-Roman concept of magic and incorporated it into their
developing Christian theology,[77]and that these Christians retained
the already implied Greco-Roman negative stereotypes of the term and
extented them by incorporating conceptual patterns borrowed from Jewish
thought, in particular the opposition of magic and miracle.[77] Some
early Christian authors followed the Greek-Roman thinking by ascribing
the origin of magic to the human realm, mainly to Zoroaster and
Osthanes. The Christian view was that magic was a product of the
Babylonians, Persians, or Egyptians.[91] The Christians shared with
earlier classical culture the idea that magic was something distinct
from proper religion, although drew their distinction between the two in
different ways.[92] A 17th-century depiction of the medieval writer Isidore of Seville, who provided a list of activities he regarded as magical For
early Christian writers like Augustine of Hippo, magic did not merely
constitute fraudulent and unsanctioned ritual practices, but was the
very opposite of religion because it relied upon cooperation from
demons, the henchmen of Satan.[77] In this, Christian ideas of magic
were closely linked to the Christian category of paganism,[93] and both
magic and paganism were regarded as belonging under the broader category
of superstitio (superstition), another term borrowed from pre-Christian
Roman culture.[92] This Christian emphasis on the inherent immorality
and wrongness of magic as something conflicting with good religion was
far starker than the approach in the other large monotheistic religions
of the period, Judaism and Islam.[94] For instance, while Christians
regarded demons as inherently evil, the jinn—comparable entities in
Islamic mythology—were perceived as more ambivalent figures by
Muslims.[94] The model of the magician in Christian thought was
provided by Simon Magus, (Simon the Magician), a figure who opposed
Saint Peter in both the Acts of the Apostles and the apocryphal yet
influential Acts of Peter.[95] The historian Michael D. Bailey stated
that in medieval Europe, magic was a "relatively broad and encompassing
category".[96] Christian theologians believed that there were multiple
different forms of magic, the majority of which were types of
divination, for instance, Isidore of Seville produced a catalogue of
things he regarded as magic in which he listed divination by the four
elements i.e. geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, and pyromancy, as well as
by observation of natural phenomena e.g. the flight of birds and
astrology. He also mentioned enchantment and ligatures (the medical use
of magical objects bound to the patient) as being magical.[97] Medieval
Europe also saw magic come to be associated with the Old Testament
figure of Solomon; various grimoires, or books outlining magical
practices, were written that claimed to have been written by Solomon,
most notably the Key of Solomon.[98] In early medieval Europe,
magia was a term of condemnation.[99] In medieval Europe, Christians
often suspected Muslims and Jews of engaging in magical practices;[100]
in certain cases, these perceived magical rites—including the alleged
Jewish sacrifice of Christian children—resulted in Christians massacring
these religious minorities.[101] Christian groups often also accused
other, rival Christian groups such as the Hussites—which they regarded
as heretical—of engaging in magical activities.[95][102] Medieval Europe
also saw the term maleficium applied to forms of magic that were
conducted with the intention of causing harm.[96] The later Middle Ages
saw words for these practitioners of harmful magical acts appear in
various European languages: sorcière in French, Hexe in German, strega
in Italian, and bruja in Spanish.[103] The English term for malevolent
practitioners of magic, witch, derived from the earlier Old English term
wicce.[103] Ars Magica or magic is a major component and
supporting contribution to the belief and practice of spiritual, and in
many cases, physical healing throughout the Middle Ages. Emanating from
many modern interpretations lies a trail of misconceptions about magic,
one of the largest revolving around wickedness or the existence of
nefarious beings who practice it. These misinterpretations stem from
numerous acts or rituals that have been performed throughout antiquity,
and due to their exoticism from the commoner's perspective, the rituals
invoked uneasiness and an even stronger sense of dismissal.[104][105] An excerpt from Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, featuring various magical sigils (סגולות segulot in Hebrew) In
the Medieval Jewish view, the separation of the mystical and magical
elements of Kabbalah, dividing it into speculative theological Kabbalah
(Kabbalah Iyyunit) with its meditative traditions, and theurgic
practical Kabbalah (Kabbalah Ma'asit), had occurred by the beginning of
the 14th century.[106] One societal force in the Middle Ages more
powerful than the singular commoner, the Christian Church, rejected
magic as a whole because it was viewed as a means of tampering with the
natural world in a supernatural manner associated with the biblical
verses of Deuteronomy 18:9–12.[further explanation needed] Despite the
many negative connotations which surround the term magic, there exist
many elements that are seen in a divine or holy light.[107] The
divine right of kings in England was thought to be able to give them
"sacred magic" power to heal thousands of their subjects from
sicknesses.[108] Diversified instruments or rituals used in
medieval magic include, but are not limited to: various amulets,
talismans, potions, as well as specific chants, dances, and prayers.
Along with these rituals are the adversely imbued notions of demonic
participation which influence of them. The idea that magic was devised,
taught, and worked by demons would have seemed reasonable to anyone who
read the Greek magical papyri or the Sefer-ha-Razim and found that
healing magic appeared alongside rituals for killing people, gaining
wealth, or personal advantage, and coercing women into sexual
submission.[109] Archaeology is contributing to a fuller understanding
of ritual practices performed in the home, on the body and in monastic
and church settings.[110][111] The Islamic reaction towards magic
did not condemn magic in general and distinguished between magic which
can heal sickness and possession, and sorcery. The former is therefore a
special gift from God, while the latter is achieved through help of
Jinn and devils. Ibn al-Nadim held that exorcists gain their power by
their obedience to God, while sorcerers please the devils by acts of
disobedience and sacrifices and they in return do him a favor.[112]
According to Ibn Arabi, Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yusuf al-Shubarbuli was able to
walk on water due to his piety.[113] According to the Quran 2:102, magic
was also taught to humans by devils and the fallen angels Harut and
Marut.[114] Frontispiece of an English translation of Natural Magick published in London in 1658 During
the early modern period, the concept of magic underwent a more positive
reassessment through the development of the concept of magia naturalis
(natural magic).[77] This was a term introduced and developed by two
Italian humanists, Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola.[77] For them, magia was viewed as an elemental force
pervading many natural processes,[77] and thus was fundamentally
distinct from the mainstream Christian idea of demonic magic.[115] Their
ideas influenced an array of later philosophers and writers, among them
Paracelsus, Giordano Bruno, Johannes Reuchlin, and Johannes
Trithemius.[77] According to the historian Richard Kieckhefer, the
concept of magia naturalis took "firm hold in European culture" during
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,[116] attracting the interest of
natural philosophers of various theoretical orientations, including
Aristotelians, Neoplatonists, and Hermeticists.[117] Adherents of
this position argued that magia could appear in both good and bad
forms; in 1625, the French librarian Gabriel Naudé wrote his Apology for
all the Wise Men Falsely Suspected of Magic, in which he distinguished
"Mosoaicall Magick"—which he claimed came from God and included
prophecies, miracles, and speaking in tongues—from "geotick" magic
caused by demons.[118] While the proponents of magia naturalis insisted
that this did not rely on the actions of demons, critics disagreed,
arguing that the demons had simply deceived these magicians.[119] By the
seventeenth century the concept of magia naturalis had moved in
increasingly 'naturalistic' directions, with the distinctions between it
and science becoming blurred.[120] The validity of magia naturalis as a
concept for understanding the universe then came under increasing
criticism during the Age of Enlightenment in the eighteenth
century.[121] Despite the attempt to reclaim the term magia for
use in a positive sense, it did not supplant traditional attitudes
toward magic in the West, which remained largely negative.[121] At the
same time as magia naturalis was attracting interest and was largely
tolerated, Europe saw an active persecution of accused witches believed
to be guilty of maleficia.[117] Reflecting the term's continued negative
associations, Protestants often sought to denigrate Roman Catholic
sacramental and devotional practices as being magical rather than
religious.[122] Many Roman Catholics were concerned by this allegation
and for several centuries various Roman Catholic writers devoted
attention to arguing that their practices were religious rather than
magical.[123] At the same time, Protestants often used the accusation of
magic against other Protestant groups which they were in contest
with.[124] In this way, the concept of magic was used to prescribe what
was appropriate as religious belief and practice.[123] Similar claims
were also being made in the Islamic world during this period. The
Arabian cleric Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab—founder of Wahhabism—for
instance condemned a range of customs and practices such as divination
and the veneration of spirits as sihr, which he in turn claimed was a
form of shirk, the sin of idolatry.[125] The Renaissance Main article: Renaissance magic Renaissance
humanism saw a resurgence in hermeticism and Neo-Platonic varieties of
ceremonial magic. The Renaissance, on the other hand, saw the rise of
science, in such forms as the dethronement of the Ptolemaic theory of
the universe, the distinction of astronomy from astrology, and of
chemistry from alchemy.[126][page needed] There was great
uncertainty in distinguishing practices of superstition, occultism, and
perfectly sound scholarly knowledge or pious ritual. The intellectual
and spiritual tensions erupted in the Early Modern witch craze, further
reinforced by the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation, especially in
Germany, England, and Scotland.[126][page needed] In Hasidism,
the displacement of practical Kabbalah using directly magical means, by
conceptual and meditative trends gained much further emphasis, while
simultaneously instituting meditative theurgy for material blessings at
the heart of its social mysticism.[127] Hasidism internalised Kabbalah
through the psychology of deveikut (cleaving to God), and cleaving to
the Tzadik (Hasidic Rebbe). In Hasidic doctrine, the tzaddik channels
Divine spiritual and physical bounty to his followers by altering the
Will of God (uncovering a deeper concealed Will) through his own
deveikut and self-nullification. Dov Ber of Mezeritch is concerned to
distinguish this theory of the Tzadik's will altering and deciding the
Divine Will, from directly magical process.[128] In the nineteenth
century, the Haitian government began to legislate against Vodou,
describing it as a form of witchcraft; this conflicted with Vodou
practitioners' own understanding of their religion.[129] In the
sixteenth century, European societies began to conquer and colonise
other continents around the world, and as they did so they applied
European concepts of magic and witchcraft to practices found among the
peoples whom they encountered.[130] Usually, these European colonialists
regarded the natives as primitives and savages whose belief systems
were diabolical and needed to be eradicated and replaced by
Christianity.[131] Because Europeans typically viewed these non-European
peoples as being morally and intellectually inferior to themselves, it
was expected that such societies would be more prone to practicing
magic.[132] Women who practiced traditional rites were labelled as
witches by the Europeans.[132] In various cases, these imported
European concepts and terms underwent new transformations as they merged
with indigenous concepts.[133] In West Africa, for instance, Portuguese
travellers introduced their term and concept of the feitiçaria (often
translated as sorcery) and the feitiço (spell) to the native population,
where it was transformed into the concept of the fetish. When later
Europeans encountered these West African societies, they wrongly
believed that the fetiche was an indigenous African term rather than the
result of earlier inter-continental encounters.[133] Sometimes,
colonised populations themselves adopted these European concepts for
their own purposes. In the early nineteenth century, the newly
independent Haitian government of Jean-Jacques Dessalines began to
suppress the practice of Vodou, and in 1835 Haitian law-codes
categorised all Vodou practices as sortilège (sorcery/witchcraft),
suggesting that it was all conducted with harmful intent, whereas among
Vodou practitioners the performance of harmful rites was already given a
separate and distinct category, known as maji.[129] Baroque period This
section is in list format but may read better as prose. You can help by
converting this section, if appropriate. Editing help is available.
(December 2021) Writers on occult or magical topics during this
period include Michael Sendivogius (1566–1636), Tommaso Campanella
(1568–1639), Jakob Böhme (1575–1624), Jan Baptist van Helmont
(1577–1644), Franz Kessler (1580–1650), Adrian von Mynsicht (1603–1638),
Sir Kenelm Digby (1603–1665), Johann Friedrich Schweitzer (1625–1709)
and Isaac Newton (1642–1727), (see Isaac Newton's occult studies). Modernity Main article: Ceremonial magic By
the nineteenth century, European intellectuals no longer saw the
practice of magic through the framework of sin and instead regarded
magical practices and beliefs as "an aberrational mode of thought
antithetical to the dominant cultural logic – a sign of psychological
impairment and marker of racial or cultural inferiority".[134] As
educated elites in Western societies increasingly rejected the efficacy
of magical practices, legal systems ceased to threaten practitioners of
magical activities with punishment for the crimes of diabolism and
witchcraft, and instead threatened them with the accusation that they
were defrauding people through promising to provide things which they
could not.[135] This spread of European colonial power across the
world influenced how academics would come to frame the concept of
magic.[136] In the nineteenth century, several scholars adopted the
traditional, negative concept of magic.[121] That they chose to do so
was not inevitable, for they could have followed the example adopted by
prominent esotericists active at the time like Helena Blavatsky who had
chosen to use the term and concept of magic in a positive sense.[121]
Various writers also used the concept of magic to criticise religion by
arguing that the latter still displayed many of the negative traits of
the former. An example of this was the American journalist H. L. Mencken
in his polemical 1930 work Treatise on the Gods; he sought to critique
religion by comparing it to magic, arguing that the division between the
two was misplaced.[137] The concept of magic was also adopted by
theorists in the new field of psychology, where it was often used
synonymously with superstition, although the latter term proved more
common in early psychological texts.[138] In the late nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, folklorists examined rural communities across
Europe in search of magical practices, which at the time they typically
understood as survivals of ancient belief systems.[139] It was only in
the 1960s that anthropologists like Jeanne Favret-Saada also began
looking in depth at magic in European contexts, having previously
focused on examining magic in non-Western contexts.[140] In the
twentieth century, magic also proved a topic of interest to the
Surrealists, an artistic movement based largely in Europe; the
Surrealism André Breton for instance published L'Art magique in 1957,
discussing what he regarded as the links between magic and art.[141] The
scholarly application of magic as a sui generis category that can be
applied to any socio-cultural context was linked with the promotion of
modernity to both Western and non-Western audiences.[142] The
term magic has become pervasive in the popular imagination and idiom.[7]
In contemporary contexts, the word magic is sometimes used to "describe
a type of excitement, of wonder, or sudden delight", and in such a
context can be "a term of high praise".[143] Despite its historical
contrast against science, scientists have also adopted the term in
application to various concepts, such as magic acid, magic bullets, and
magic angles.[7] Many concepts of modern ceremonial magic are heavily influenced by the ideas of Aleister Crowley. Modern
Western magic has challenged widely-held preconceptions about
contemporary religion and spirituality.[144] The polemical discourses
about magic influenced the self-understanding of modern magicians,
several whom—such as Aleister Crowley —were well versed in academic
literature on the subject.[145] According to scholar of religion Henrik
Bogdan, "arguably the best known emic definition" of the term magic was
provided by Crowley.[145] Crowley—who favoured the spelling 'magick'
over magic to distinguish it from stage illusionism[1]—was of the view
that "Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in
conformity with Will".[145] Crowley's definition influenced that of
subsequent magicians.[145] Dion Fortune of the Fraternity of the Inner
Light for instance stated that "Magic is the art of changing
consciousness according to Will".[145] Gerald Gardner, the founder of
Gardnerian Wicca, stated that magic was "attempting to cause the
physically unusual",[145] while Anton LaVey, the founder of LaVeyan
Satanism, described magic as "the change in situations or events in
accordance with one's will, which would, using normally acceptable
methods, be unchangeable."[145] The chaos magic movement emerged
during the late 20th century, as an attempt to strip away the symbolic,
ritualistic, theological or otherwise ornamental aspects of other occult
traditions and distill magic down to a set of basic techniques.[146] These
modern Western concepts of magic rely on a belief in correspondences
connected to an unknown occult force that permeates the universe.[147]
As noted by Hanegraaff, this operated according to "a new meaning of
magic, which could not possibly have existed in earlier periods,
precisely because it is elaborated in reaction to the "disenchantment of
the world"."[147] For many, and perhaps most, modern Western magicians,
the goal of magic is deemed to be personal spiritual development.[148]
The perception of magic as a form of self-development is central to the
way that magical practices have been adopted into forms of modern
Paganism and the New Age phenomenon.[148] One significant development
within modern Western magical practices has been sex magic.[148] This
was a practice promoted in the writings of Paschal Beverly Randolph and
subsequently exerted a strong interest on occultist magicians like
Crowley and Theodor Reuss.[148] The adoption of the term magic by
modern occultists can in some instances be a deliberate attempt to
champion those areas of Western society which have traditionally been
marginalised as a means of subverting dominant systems of power.[149]
The influential American Wiccan and author Starhawk for instance stated
that "Magic is another word that makes people uneasy, so I use it
deliberately, because the words we are comfortable with, the words that
sound acceptable, rational, scientific, and intellectually correct, are
comfortable precisely because they are the language of
estrangement."[150] In the present day, "among some countercultural
subgroups the label is considered 'cool'"[151] Sorcery is a legal
concept in Papua New Guinea law, which differentiates between legal
good magic, such as healing and fertility, and illegal black magic, held
responsible for unexplained deaths.[152] Conceptual development According
to anthropologist Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, magic formed a rational
framework of beliefs and knowledge in some cultures, like the Azande
people of Africa.[153] The historian Owen Davies stated that the word
magic was "beyond simple definition",[154] and had "a range of
meanings".[155] Similarly, the historian Michael D. Bailey characterised
magic as "a deeply contested category and a very fraught label";[156]
as a category, he noted, it was "profoundly unstable" given that
definitions of the term have "varied dramatically across time and
between cultures".[157] Scholars have engaged in extensive debates as to
how to define magic,[158] with such debates resulting in intense
dispute.[159] Throughout such debates, the scholarly community has
failed to agree on a definition of magic, in a similar manner to how
they have failed to agree on a definition of religion.[159] According
with scholar of religion Michael Stausberg the phenomenon of people
applying the concept of magic to refer to themselves and their own
practices and beliefs goes as far back as late antiquity. However, even
among those throughout history who have described themselves as
magicians, there has been no common ground of what magic is.[160] In
Africa, the word magic might simply be understood as denoting
management of forces, which, as an activity, is not weighted morally and
is accordingly a neutral activity from the start of a magical practice,
but by the will of the magician, is thought to become and to have an
outcome which represents either good or bad (evil).[161][162] Ancient
African culture was in the habit customarily of always discerning
difference between magic, and a group of other things, which are not
magic, these things were medicine, divination, witchcraft and
sorcery.[163] Opinion differs on how religion and magic are related to
each other with respect development or to which developed from which,
some think they developed together from a shared origin, some think
religion developed from magic, and some, magic from religion.[164] Anthropological
and sociological theories of magic generally serve to sharply demarcate
certain practices from other, otherwise similar practices in a given
society.[92] According to Bailey: "In many cultures and across various
historical periods, categories of magic often define and maintain the
limits of socially and culturally acceptable actions in respect to
numinous or occult entities or forces. Even more, basically, they serve
to delineate arenas of appropriate belief."[165] In this, he noted that
"drawing these distinctions is an exercise in power".[165] This tendency
has had repercussions for the study of magic, with academics
self-censoring their research because of the effects on their
careers.[166] Randall Styers noted that attempting to define
magic represents "an act of demarcation" by which it is juxtaposed
against "other social practices and modes of knowledge" such as religion
and science.[167] The historian Karen Louise Jolly described magic as
"a category of exclusion, used to define an unacceptable way of thinking
as either the opposite of religion or of science".[168] Modern
scholarship has produced various definitions and theories of magic.[169]
According to Bailey, "these have typically framed magic in relation to,
or more frequently in distinction from, religion and science."[169]
Since the emergence of the study of religion and the social sciences,
magic has been a "central theme in the theoretical literature" produced
by scholars operating in these academic disciplines.[158] Magic is one
of the most heavily theorized concepts in the study of religion,[170]
and also played a key role in early theorising within anthropology.[171]
Styers believed that it held such a strong appeal for social theorists
because it provides "such a rich site for articulating and contesting
the nature and boundaries of modernity".[172] Scholars have commonly
used it as a foil for the concept of religion, regarding magic as the
"illegitimate (and effeminized) sibling" of religion.[173] Alternately,
others have used it as a middle-ground category located between religion
and science.[173] The context in which scholars framed their
discussions of magic was informed by the spread of European colonial
power across the world in the modern period.[136] These repeated
attempts to define magic resonated with broader social concerns,[9] and
the pliability of the concept has allowed it to be "readily adaptable as
a polemical and ideological tool".[123] The links that intellectuals
made between magic and those they characterized as primitives helped to
legitimise European and Euro-American imperialism and colonialism, as
these Western colonialists expressed the view that those who believed in
and practiced magic were unfit to govern themselves and should be
governed by those who, rather than believing in magic, believed in
science and/or (Christian) religion.[8] In Bailey's words, "the
association of certain peoples [whether non-Europeans or poor, rural
Europeans] with magic served to distance and differentiate them from
those who ruled over them, and in large part to justify that rule."[6] Many
different definitions of magic have been offered by scholars,
although—according to Hanegraaff—these can be understood as variations
of a small number of heavily influential theories.[170] Intellectualist approach Edward
Tylor, an anthropologist who used the term magic in reference to
sympathetic magic, an idea that he associated with his concept of
animism The intellectualist approach to defining magic is
associated with two prominent British anthropologists, Edward Tylor and
James G. Frazer.[174] This approach viewed magic as the theoretical
opposite of science,[175] and came to preoccupy much anthropological
thought on the subject.[176] This approach was situated within the
evolutionary models which underpinned thinking in the social sciences
during the early 19th century.[177] The first social scientist to
present magic as something that predated religion in an evolutionary
development was Herbert Spencer;[178] in his A System of Synthetic
Philosophy, he used the term magic in reference to sympathetic
magic.[179] Spencer regarded both magic and religion as being rooted in
false speculation about the nature of objects and their relationship to
other things.[180] Tylor's understanding of magic was linked to
his concept of animism.[181] In his 1871 book Primitive Culture, Tylor
characterized magic as beliefs based on "the error of mistaking ideal
analogy for real analogy". [182] In Tylor's view, "primitive man, having
come to associate in thought those things which he found by experience
to be connected in fact, proceeded erroneously to invert this action,
and to conclude that association in thought must involve similar
connection in reality. He thus attempted to discover, to foretell, and
to cause events by means of processes which we can now see to have only
an ideal significance".[183] Tylor was dismissive of magic, describing
it as "one of the most pernicious delusions that ever vexed
mankind".[184] Tylor's views proved highly influential,[185] and helped
to establish magic as a major topic of anthropological research.[178] James Frazer regarded magic as the first stage in human development, to be followed by religion and then science. Tylor's
ideas were adopted and simplified by James Frazer.[186] He used the
term magic to mean sympathetic magic,[187] describing it as a practice
relying on the magician's belief "that things act on each other at a
distance through a secret sympathy", something which he described as "an
invisible ether".[183] He further divided this magic into two forms,
the "homeopathic (imitative, mimetic)" and the "contagious".[183] The
former was the idea that "like produces like", or that the similarity
between two objects could result in one influencing the other. The
latter was based on the idea that contact between two objects allowed
the two to continue to influence one another at a distance.[188] Like
Taylor, Frazer viewed magic negatively, describing it as "the bastard
sister of science", arising from "one great disastrous fallacy".[189] Where
Frazer differed from Tylor was in characterizing a belief in magic as a
major stage in humanity's cultural development, describing it as part
of a tripartite division in which magic came first, religion came
second, and eventually science came third.[190] For Frazer, all early
societies started as believers in magic, with some of them moving away
from this and into religion.[191] He believed that both magic and
religion involved a belief in spirits but that they differed in the way
that they responded to these spirits. For Frazer, magic "constrains or
coerces" these spirits while religion focuses on "conciliating or
propitiating them".[191] He acknowledged that their common ground
resulted in a cross-over of magical and religious elements in various
instances; for instance he claimed that the sacred marriage was a
fertility ritual which combined elements from both world-views.[192] Some
scholars retained the evolutionary framework used by Frazer but changed
the order of its stages; the German ethnologist Wilhelm Schmidt argued
that religion—by which he meant monotheism—was the first stage of human
belief, which later degenerated into both magic and polytheism.[193]
Others rejected the evolutionary framework entirely. Frazer's notion
that magic had given way to religion as part of an evolutionary
framework was later deconstructed by the folklorist and anthropologist
Andrew Lang in his essay "Magic and Religion"; Lang did so by
highlighting how Frazer's framework relied upon misrepresenting
ethnographic accounts of beliefs and practiced among indigenous
Australians to fit his concept of magic.[194] Functionalist approach The
functionalist approach to defining magic is associated with the French
sociologists Marcel Mauss and Emile Durkheim.[195] In this approach,
magic is understood as being the theoretical opposite of religion.[196] Mauss
set forth his conception of magic in a 1902 essay, "A General Theory of
Magic".[197] Mauss used the term magic in reference to "any rite that
is not part of an organized cult: a rite that is private, secret,
mysterious, and ultimately tending towards one that is forbidden".[195]
Conversely, he associated religion with organised cult.[198] By saying
that magic was inherently non-social, Mauss had been influenced by the
traditional Christian understandings of the concept.[199] Mauss
deliberately rejected the intellectualist approach promoted by Frazer,
believing that it was inappropriate to restrict the term magic to
sympathetic magic, as Frazer had done.[200] He expressed the view that
"there are not only magical rites which are not sympathetic, but neither
is sympathy a prerogative of magic, since there are sympathetic
practices in religion".[198] Mauss' ideas were adopted by
Durkheim in his 1912 book The Elementary Forms of the Religious
Life.[201] Durkheim was of the view that both magic and religion
pertained to "sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and
forbidden".[202] Where he saw them as being different was in their
social organisation. Durkheim used the term magic to describe things
that were inherently anti-social, existing in contrast to what he
referred to as a Church, the religious beliefs shared by a social group;
in his words, "There is no Church of magic."[203] Durkheim expressed
the view that "there is something inherently anti-religious about the
maneuvers of the magician",[196] and that a belief in magic "does not
result in binding together those who adhere to it, nor in uniting them
into a group leading a common life."[202] Durkheim's definition
encounters problems in situations—such as the rites performed by
Wiccans—in which acts carried out communally have been regarded, either
by practitioners or observers, as being magical.[204] Scholars
have criticized the idea that magic and religion can be differentiated
into two distinct, separate categories.[205] The social anthropologist
Alfred Radcliffe-Brown suggested that "a simple dichotomy between magic
and religion" was unhelpful and thus both should be subsumed under the
broader category of ritual.[206] Many later anthropologists followed his
example.[206] Nevertheless, this distinction is still often made by
scholars discussing this topic.[205] Emotionalist approach Further information: Magical thinking and Psychological theories of magic The
emotionalist approach to magic is associated with the English
anthropologist Robert Ranulph Marett, the Austrian Sigmund Freud, and
the Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski.[207] Marett
viewed magic as a response to stress.[208] In a 1904 article, he argued
that magic was a cathartic or stimulating practice designed to relieve
feelings of tension.[208] As his thought developed, he increasingly
rejected the idea of a division between magic and religion and began to
use the term "magico-religious" to describe the early development of
both.[208] Malinowski similarly understood magic to Marett, tackling the
issue in a 1925 article.[209] He rejected Frazer's evolutionary
hypothesis that magic was followed by religion and then science as a
series of distinct stages in societal development, arguing that all
three were present in each society.[210] In his view, both magic and
religion "arise and function in situations of emotional stress" although
whereas religion is primarily expressive, magic is primarily
practical.[210] He therefore defined magic as "a practical art
consisting of acts which are only means to a definite end expected to
follow later on".[210] For Malinowski, magical acts were to be carried
out for a specific end, whereas religious ones were ends in
themselves.[204] He for instance believed that fertility rituals were
magical because they were carried out with the intention of meeting a
specific need.[210] As part of his functionalist approach, Malinowski
saw magic not as irrational but as something that served a useful
function, being sensible within the given social and environmental
context.[211] Ideas about magic were also promoted by Sigmund Freud. The
term magic was used liberally by Freud.[212] He also saw magic as
emerging from human emotion but interpreted it very differently to
Marett.[213] Freud explains that "the associated theory of magic merely
explains the paths along which magic proceeds; it does not explain its
true essence, namely the misunderstanding which leads it to replace the
laws of nature by psychological ones".[214] Freud emphasizes that what
led primitive men to come up with magic is the power of wishes: "His
wishes are accompanied by a motor impulse, the will, which is later
destined to alter the whole face of the earth to satisfy his wishes.
This motor impulse is at first employed to give a representation of the
satisfying situation in such a way that it becomes possible to
experience the satisfaction by means of what might be described as motor
hallucinations. This kind of representation of a satisfied wish is
quite comparable to children's play, which succeeds their earlier purely
sensory technique of satisfaction. [...] As time goes on, the
psychological accent shifts from the motives for the magical act on to
the measures by which it is carried out—that is, on to the act itself.
[...] It thus comes to appear as though it is the magical act itself
which, owing to its similarity with the desired result, alone determines
the occurrence of that result."[215] In the early 1960s, the
anthropologists Murray and Rosalie Wax put forward the argument that
scholars should look at the magical worldview of a given society on its
own terms rather than trying to rationalize it in terms of Western ideas
about scientific knowledge.[216] Their ideas were heavily criticised by
other anthropologists, who argued that they had set up a false
dichotomy between non-magical Western worldview and magical non-Western
worldviews.[217] The concept of the magical worldview nevertheless
gained widespread use in history, folkloristics, philosophy, cultural
theory, and psychology.[218] The notion of magical thinking has also
been utilised by various psychologists.[219] In the 1920s, the
psychologist Jean Piaget used the concept as part of his argument that
children were unable to clearly differentiate between the mental and the
physical.[219] According to this perspective, children begin to abandon
their magical thinking between the ages of six and nine.[219] According
to Stanley Tambiah, magic, science, and religion all have their own
"quality of rationality", and have been influenced by politics and
ideology.[220] As opposed to religion, Tambiah suggests that mankind has
a much more personal control over events. Science, according to
Tambiah, is "a system of behavior by which man acquires mastery of the
environment."[221] Ethnocentrism This section may be
unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by
adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the
talk page. (May 2020) The magic-religion-science triangle
developed in European society based on evolutionary ideas i.e. that
magic evolved into religion, which in turn evolved into science.[196]
However using a Western analytical tool when discussing non-Western
cultures, or pre-modern forms of Western society, raises problems as it
may impose alien Western categories on them.[222] While magic remains an
emic (insider) term in the history of Western societies, it remains an
etic (outsider) term when applied to non-Western societies and even
within specific Western societies. For this reason, academics like
Michael D. Bailey suggest abandon the term altogether as an academic
category.[223] During the twentieth century, many scholars focusing on
Asian and African societies rejected the term magic, as well as related
concepts like witchcraft, in favour of the more precise terms and
concepts that existed within these specific societies like Juju.[224] A
similar approach has been taken by many scholars studying pre-modern
societies in Europe, such as Classical antiquity, who find the modern
concept of magic inappropriate and favour more specific terms
originating within the framework of the ancient cultures which they are
studying.[225] Alternately, this term implies that all categories of
magic are ethnocentric and that such Western preconceptions are an
unavoidable component of scholarly research.[222] This century has seen a
trend towards emic ethnographic studies by scholar practitioners that
explicitly explore the emic/etic divide.[226] Many scholars have
argued that the use of the term as an analytical tool within academic
scholarship should be rejected altogether.[227] The scholar of religion
Jonathan Z. Smith for example argued that it had no utility as an etic
term that scholars should use.[228] The historian of religion Wouter
Hanegraaff agreed, on the grounds that its use is founded in conceptions
of Western superiority and has "...served as a 'scientific'
justification for converting non-European peoples from benighted
superstitions..." stating that "the term magic is an important object of
historical research, but not intended for doing research."[229] Bailey
noted that, as of the early 21st century, few scholars sought grand
definitions of magic but instead focused with "careful attention to
particular contexts", examining what a term like magic meant to a given
society; this approach, he noted, "call[ed] into question the legitimacy
of magic as a universal category".[230] The scholars of religion
Berndt-Christian Otto and Michael Stausberg suggested that it would be
perfectly possible for scholars to talk about amulets, curses, healing
procedures, and other cultural practices often regarded as magical in
Western culture without any recourse to the concept of magic
itself.[231] The idea that magic should be rejected as an analytic term
developed in anthropology, before moving into Classical studies and
Biblical studies in the 1980s.[232] Since the 1990s, the term's usage
among scholars of religion has declined.[228] Witchcraft Main articles: Witchcraft and Sorcery (goetia) The
historian Ronald Hutton notes the presence of four distinct meanings of
the term witchcraft in the English language. Historically, the term
primarily referred to the practice of causing harm to others through
supernatural or magical means. This remains, according to Hutton, "the
most widespread and frequent" understanding of the term.[233] Moreover,
Hutton also notes three other definitions in current usage; to refer to
anyone who conducts magical acts, for benevolent or malevolent intent;
for practitioners of the modern Pagan religion of Wicca; or as a symbol
of women resisting male authority and asserting an independent female
authority.[234] Belief in witchcraft is often present within societies
and groups whose cultural framework includes a magical world view.[235] Those
regarded as being magicians have often faced suspicion from other
members of their society.[236] This is particularly the case if these
perceived magicians have been associated with social groups already
considered morally suspect in a particular society, such as foreigners,
women, or the lower classes.[237] In contrast to these negative
associations, many practitioners of activities that have been labelled
magical have emphasised that their actions are benevolent and
beneficial.[238] This conflicted with the common Christian view that all
activities categorised as being forms of magic were intrinsically bad
regardless of the intent of the magician, because all magical actions
relied on the aid of demons.[94] There could be conflicting attitudes
regarding the practices of a magician; in European history, authorities
often believed that cunning folk and traditional healers were harmful
because their practices were regarded as magical and thus stemming from
contact with demons, whereas a local community might value and respect
these individuals because their skills and services were deemed
beneficial.[239] In Western societies, the practice of magic,
especially when harmful, was usually associated with women.[240] For
instance, during the witch trials of the early modern period, around
three quarters of those executed as witches were female, to only a
quarter who were men.[241] That women were more likely to be accused and
convicted of witchcraft in this period might have been because their
position was more legally vulnerable, with women having little or no
legal standing that was independent of their male relatives.[241] The
conceptual link between women and magic in Western culture may be
because many of the activities regarded as magical—from rites to
encourage fertility to potions to induce abortions—were associated with
the female sphere.[242] It might also be connected to the fact that many
cultures portrayed women as being inferior to men on an intellectual,
moral, spiritual, and physical level.[243] Magicians The Magician card from a 15th-century tarot deck Many
of the practices which have been labelled magic can be performed by
anyone.[244] For instance, some charms can be recited by individuals
with no specialist knowledge nor any claim to having a specific
power.[245] Others require specialised training in order to perform
them.[244] Some of the individuals who performed magical acts on a more
than occasional basis came to be identified as magicians, or with
related concepts like sorcerers/sorceresses, witches, or cunning
folk.[245] Identities as a magician can stem from an individual's own
claims about themselves, or it can be a label placed upon them by
others.[245] In the latter case, an individual could embrace such a
label, or they could reject it, sometimes vehemently.[245] Economic
incentives can encourage individuals to identify as magicians.[135] In
the cases of various forms of traditional healer, as well as the later
stage magicians or illusionists, the label of magician could become a
job description.[245] Others claim such an identity out of a genuinely
held belief that they have specific unusual powers or talents.[246]
Different societies have different social regulations regarding who can
take on such a role; for instance, it may be a question of familial
heredity, or there may be gender restrictions on who is allowed to
engage in such practices.[247] A variety of personal traits may be
credited with giving magical power, and frequently they are associated
with an unusual birth into the world.[248] For instance, in Hungary it
was believed that a táltos would be born with teeth or an additional
finger.[249] In various parts of Europe, it was believed that being born
with a caul would associate the child with supernatural abilities.[249]
In some cases, a ritual initiation is required before taking on a role
as a specialist in such practices, and in others it is expected that an
individual will receive a mentorship from another specialist.[250] Davies
noted that it was possible to "crudely divide magic specialists into
religious and lay categories".[251] He noted for instance that Roman
Catholic priests, with their rites of exorcism, and access to holy water
and blessed herbs, could be conceived as being magical
practitioners.[252] Traditionally, the most common method of
identifying, differentiating, and establishing magical practitioners
from common people is by initiation. By means of rites the magician's
relationship to the supernatural and his entry into a closed
professional class is established (often through rituals that simulate
death and rebirth into a new life).[253] However, Berger and Ezzy
explain that since the rise of Neopaganism, "As there is no central
bureaucracy or dogma to determine authenticity, an individual's
self-determination as a Witch, Wiccan, Pagan or Neopagan is usually
taken at face value".[254] Ezzy argues that practitioners' worldviews
have been neglected in many sociological and anthropological studies and
that this is because of "a culturally narrow understanding of science
that devalues magical beliefs".[255] Mauss argues that the powers
of both specialist and common magicians are determined by culturally
accepted standards of the sources and the breadth of magic: a magician
cannot simply invent or claim new magic. In practice, the magician is
only as powerful as his peers believe him to be.[256] Throughout
recorded history, magicians have often faced skepticism regarding their
purported powers and abilities.[257] For instance, in sixteenth-century
England, the writer Reginald Scot wrote The Discoverie of Witchcraft, in
which he argued that many of those accused of witchcraft or otherwise
claiming magical capabilities were fooling people using illusionism."
(wikipedia.org) "Magic,
which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up
magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are
entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible
feats, using natural means.[1][2] It is to be distinguished from
paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through
supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the
world. Modern entertainment magic, as pioneered by 19th-century
magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, has become a popular theatrical art
form.[3] In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, magicians such as
John Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant, Howard Thurston, Harry Kellar,
and Harry Houdini achieved widespread commercial success during what has
become known as "the Golden Age of Magic".[4] During this period,
performance magic became a staple of Broadway theatre, vaudeville, and
music halls. Magic retained its popularity in the television age, with
magicians such as Paul Daniels, David Copperfield, Criss Angel, Doug
Henning, Penn & Teller, David Blaine, and Derren Brown modernizing
the art form.[5] The world's largest-selling publication for
magicians, Magic magazine,[6] curated a list of the "100 most
influential magicians of the 20th century" to have contributed to the
modern development of the art of magic.[7] According to the
magician-culled list titled "Those Who Most Affected The Art in
America", Harry Houdini holds the first rank, followed in decreasing
order by Dai Vernon, David Copperfield, Harry Blackstone Sr., Doug
Henning, Harlan Tarbell, Cardini, Mark Wilson, Siegfried & Roy, and
Howard Thurston. History Main article: History of magic The
term "magic" etymologically derives from the Greek word mageia
(μαγεία). In ancient times, Greeks and Persians had been at war for
centuries, and the Persian priests, called magosh in Persian, came to be
known as magoi in Greek. Ritual acts of Persian priests came to be
known as mageia, and then magika—which eventually came to mean any
foreign, unorthodox, or illegitimate ritual practice. To the general
public, successful acts of illusion could be perceived as if it were
similar to a feat of magic supposed to have been able to be performed by
the ancient magoi. The performance of tricks of illusion, or magical
illusion, and the apparent workings and effects of such acts have often
been referred to as "magic" and particularly as magic tricks. One
of the earliest known books to explain magic secrets, The Discoverie of
Witchcraft, was published in 1584. It was created by Reginald Scot to
stop people from being killed for witchcraft. During the 17th century,
many books were published that described magic tricks. Until the 18th
century, magic shows were a common source of entertainment at fairs. The
"Father" of modern entertainment magic was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin,
who had a magic theatre in Paris in 1845.[8] John Henry Anderson was
pioneering the same transition in London in the 1840s. Towards the end
of the 19th century, large magic shows permanently staged at big theatre
venues became the norm.[9] As a form of entertainment, magic easily
moved from theatrical venues to television magic specials. Performances
that modern observers would recognize as conjuring have been practiced
throughout history. For example, a trick with three cups and balls has
been performed since 3 BC.[10] and is still performed today on stage and
in street magic shows. For many recorded centuries, magicians were
associated with the devil and the occult. During the 19th and 20th
centuries, many stage magicians even capitalized on this notion in their
advertisements.[11] The same level of ingenuity that was used to
produce famous ancient deceptions such as the Trojan Horse would also
have been used for entertainment, or at least for cheating in money
games. They were also used by the practitioners of various religions and
cults from ancient times onwards to frighten uneducated people into
obedience or turn them into adherents. However, the profession of the
illusionist gained strength only in the 18th century, and has enjoyed
several popular vogues since....Modern stage magic Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, pioneer of modern magic entertainment The
"Father" of modern entertainment magic was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin,
originally a clockmaker, who opened a magic theatre in Paris in 1845.[8]
He transformed his art from one performed at fairs to a performance
that the public paid to see at the theatre. His speciality was
constructing mechanical automata that appeared to move and act as if
alive. Many of Robert-Houdin's mechanisms for illusion were pirated by
his assistant and ended up in the performances of his rivals, John Henry
Anderson and Alexander Herrmann. John Henry Anderson was
pioneering the same transition in London. In 1840 he opened the New
Strand Theatre, where he performed as The Great Wizard of the North. His
success came from advertising his shows and captivating his audience
with expert showmanship. He became one of the earliest magicians to
attain a high level of world renown. He opened a second theatre in
Glasgow in 1845. John Nevil Maskelyne, a famous magician and illusionist of the late 19th century. Towards
the end of the century, large magic shows permanently staged at big
theatre venues became the norm.[9] The British performer J N Maskelyne
and his partner Cooke were established at the Egyptian Hall in London's
Piccadilly in 1873 by their manager William Morton, and continued there
for 31 years. The show incorporated stage illusions and reinvented
traditional tricks with exotic (often Oriental) imagery. The potential
of the stage was exploited for hidden mechanisms and assistants, and the
control it offers over the audience's point of view. Maskelyne and
Cooke invented many of the illusions still performed today—one of his
best-known being levitation.[16] The model for the look of a
'typical' magician—a man with wavy hair, a top hat, a goatee, and a
tailcoat—was Alexander Herrmann (1844–1896), also known as Herrmann the
Great. Herrmann was a French magician and was part of the Herrmann
family name that is the "first-family of magic". The escapologist
and magician Harry Houdini (1874–1926) took his stage name from
Robert-Houdin and developed a range of stage magic tricks, many of them
based on what became known after his death as escapology. Houdini was
genuinely skilled in techniques such as lockpicking and escaping
straitjackets, but also made full use of the range of conjuring
techniques, including fake equipment and collusion with individuals in
the audience. Houdini's show-business savvy was as great as his
performance skill. There is a Houdini Museum dedicated to him in
Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Magic Circle was formed in London in 1905 to promote and advance the art of stage magic.[17] As
a form of entertainment, magic easily moved from theatrical venues to
television specials, which opened up new opportunities for deceptions,
and brought stage magic to huge audiences. Famous magicians of the 20th
century included Okito, David Devant, Harry Blackstone Sr., Harry
Blackstone Jr., Howard Thurston, Theodore Annemann, Cardini, Joseph
Dunninger, Dai Vernon, Fred Culpitt, Tommy Wonder, Siegfried & Roy,
and Doug Henning. Popular 20th- and 21st-century magicians include David
Copperfield, Lance Burton, James Randi, Penn and Teller, David Blaine,
Criss Angel, Hans Klok, Derren Brown and Dynamo. Well-known women
magicians include Dell O'Dell and Dorothy Dietrich. Most television
magicians perform before a live audience, who provide the remote viewer
with a reassurance that the illusions are not obtained with
post-production visual effects. Many of the principles of stage
magic are old. There is an expression, "it's all done with smoke and
mirrors", used to explain something baffling, but effects seldom use
mirrors today, due to the amount of installation work and transport
difficulties. For example, the famous Pepper's Ghost, a stage illusion
first used in 19th-century London, required a specially built theatre.
Modern performers have vanished objects as large as the Taj Mahal, the
Statue of Liberty, and a space shuttle, using other kinds of optical
deceptions. Types of magic performance A magician, from the point
of view of the audience, seemingly igniting fire out of nowhere from the
palm, which can be deemed either stage or shock magic. It can even
promote religion. Magic is often described according to various specialties or genres. A mentalist on stage in a mind-reading performance, 1900 Stage illusions Stage
illusions are performed for large audiences, typically within a theatre
or auditorium. This type of magic is distinguished by large-scale
props, the use of assistants and often exotic animals such as elephants
and tigers. Famous stage illusionists, past and present, include Harry
Blackstone, Sr., Howard Thurston, Chung Ling Soo, David Copperfield,
Lance Burton, Silvan, Siegfried & Roy, and Harry Blackstone, Jr. Parlor magic Parlor
magic is done for larger audiences than close-up magic (which is for a
few people or even one person) and for smaller audiences than stage
magic. In parlor magic, the performer is usually standing and on the
same level as the audience, which may be seated on chairs or even on the
floor. According to the Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians by T.A.
Waters, "The phrase [parlor magic] is often used as a pejorative to
imply that an effect under discussion is not suitable for professional
performance." Also, many magicians consider the term "parlor" old
fashioned and limiting, since this type of magic is often done in rooms
much larger than the traditional parlor, or even outdoors. A better term
for this branch of magic may be "platform", "club" or "cabaret".
Examples of such magicians include Jeff McBride, David Abbott, Channing
Pollock, Black Herman, and Fred Kaps. Close-up magic Close-up
magic (or table magic) is performed with the audience close to the
magician, sometimes even one-on-one. It usually makes use of everyday
items as props, such as cards (see Card manipulation), coins (see Coin
magic), and seemingly 'impromptu' effects. This may be called "table
magic", particularly when performed as dinner entertainment. Ricky Jay,
Mahdi Moudini, and Lee Asher, following in the traditions of Dai Vernon,
Slydini, and Max Malini, are considered among the foremost
practitioners of close-up magic. Escapology Escapology is the
branch of magic that deals with escapes from confinement or restraints.
Harry Houdini is a well-known example of an escape artist or
escapologist. Pickpocket magic Pickpocket magicians use magic
to misdirect members of the audience while removing wallets, belts,
ties, and other personal effects. It can be presented on a stage, in a
cabaret setting, before small close-up groups, or even for one
spectator. Well-known pickpockets include James Freedman, David Avadon,
Bob Arno, and Apollo Robbins. Mentalism Mentalism creates the
impression in the minds of the audience that the performer possesses
special powers to read thoughts, predict events, control other minds,
and similar feats. It can be presented on a stage, in a cabaret setting,
before small close-up groups, or even for one spectator. Well-known
mentalists of the past and present include Alexander, The Zancigs, Axel
Hellstrom, Dunninger, Kreskin, Deddy Corbuzier, Derren Brown, Rich
Ferguson, Guy Bavli, Banachek, Max Maven, and Alain Nu. Séances Theatrical
séances simulate spiritualistic or mediumistic phenomena for theatrical
effect. This genre of stage magic has been misused at times by
charlatans pretending to actually be in contact with spirits or
supernatural forces. For this reason, some well-known magicians such as
James Randi[18][19] (AKA "The Amazing Randi") have made it their goal to
debunk such paranormal phenomena and illustrate that any such effects
may be achieved by natural or human means. Randi was the "foremost
skeptic" in this regard in the United States.[20] Children's magic Amateur magician performing "children's magic" for a birthday party audience Children's
magic is performed for an audience primarily composed of children. It
is typically performed at birthday parties, preschools, elementary
schools, Sunday schools, or libraries. This type of magic is usually
comedic in nature and involves audience interaction as well as volunteer
assistants. Online magic Online magic tricks were designed to
function on a computer screen. The computer screen affords ways to
incorporate magic from the magician's wand to the computer mouse. The
use of computing technologies in performance can be traced back to a
1984 presentation by David Copperfield, who used a Commodore 64 to
create a "magic show" for his audience. More recently, virtual
performers have been experimenting with captivating digital animations
and illusions that blur the lines between magic tricks and reality. In
some cases, the computer essentially replaces the online magician. In
a 2008 TED Talk, Penn Jillette discussed how technology will continue
to play a role in magic by influencing media and communication.
According to Jillette, magicians continue to innovate in not only
digital communication but also live performances that utilize digital
effects. The 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns ushered onto the world stage a
surge of online magic shows. These shows are performed via video
conferencing platforms such as Zoom. Some online magic tricks
recreate traditional card tricks and require user participation, while
others, like Plato's Cursed Triangle, are based on mathematical,
geometrical, and/or optical illusions. One such online magic trick,
called Esmeralda's Crystal Ball,[21] became a viral phenomenon that
fooled so many computer users into believing that their computer had
supernatural powers, that the fact-checking website Snopes dedicated a
page to debunking the trick.[22] Mathemagic Mathemagic is a
genre of stage magic that combines magic and mathematics. It is commonly
used by children's magicians and mentalists. Corporate magic Corporate
magic or trade show magic uses magic as a communication and sales tool,
as opposed to just straightforward entertainment. Corporate magicians
may come from a business background and typically present at meetings,
conferences and product launches. They run workshops and can sometimes
be found at trade shows, where their patter and illusions enhance an
entertaining presentation of the products offered by their corporate
sponsors. Pioneer performers in this arena include Eddie Tullock[23] and
Guy Bavli.[24][25] Gospel magic Gospel magic uses magic to
catechize and evangelize. Gospel magic was first used by St. John Bosco
to interest children in 19th-century Turin, Italy to come back to
school, to accept assistance and to attend church. The Jewish equivalent
is termed Torah magic. Street magic Street magic is a form of
street performing or busking that employs a hybrid of stage magic,
platform, and close-up magic, usually performed 'in the round' or
surrounded by the audience. Notable modern street magic performers
include Jeff Sheridan and Gazzo. Since the first David Blaine TV special
Street Magic aired in 1997, the term "street magic" has also come to
describe a style of 'guerilla' performance in which magicians approach
and perform for unsuspecting members of the public on the street. Unlike
traditional street magic, this style is almost purely designed for TV
and gains its impact from the wild reactions of the public. Magicians of
this type include David Blaine and Cyril Takayama. Bizarre magic Bizarre
magic is a branch of stage magic that creates eerie effects through its
use of narratives and esoteric imagery.[26] The experience may be more
akin to small, intimate theater or to a conventional magic show.[27]
Bizarre magic often uses horror, supernatural, and science fiction
imagery in addition to the standard commercial magic approaches of
comedy and wonder.[28] Shock magic Shock magic is a genre of
magic that shocks the audience. Sometimes referred to as "geek magic",
it takes its roots from circus sideshows, in which 'freakish'
performances were shown to audiences. Common shock magic or geek magic
effects include eating razor blades, needle-through-arm, string through
neck and pen-through-tongue. French comedy magician Éric Antoine Comedy magic Comedy
magic is the use of magic in which is combined with stand-up comedy.
Famous comedy magicians include The Amazing Johnathan, Holly Balay, Mac
King, and Penn & Teller. Quick change magic Quick change
magic is the use of magic which is combined with the very quick changing
of costumes. Famous quick-change artists include Sos & Victoria
Petrosyan. Camera magic Camera magic (or "video magic") is
magic that is aimed at viewers watching broadcasts or recordings. It
includes tricks based on the restricted viewing angles of cameras and
clever editing. Camera magic often features paid extras posing as
spectators who may even be assisting in the performance. Camera magic
can be done live, such as Derren Brown's lottery prediction. Famous
examples of camera magic include David Copperfield's Floating Over the
Grand Canyon and many of Criss Angel's illusions. Classical magic Classical
magic is a style of magic that conveys feelings of elegance and skill
akin to prominent magicians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Mechanical magic Ambigram
Magic / Dream with a handheld pattern giving a reversed shadow by
mirror symmetry. "It's all done with smoke and mirrors," as we say to
explain something baffling. Mechanical magic is a form of stage
magic in which the magician uses a variety of mechanical devices to
perform acts that appear to be physically impossible. Examples include
such things as a false-bottomed mortar in which the magician places an
audience member's watch only to later produce several feet away inside a
wooden frame.[29] Mechanical magic requires a certain degree of sleight
of hand and carefully functioning mechanisms and devices to be
performed convincingly. This form of magic was popular around the turn
of the 19th century—today, many of the original mechanisms used for this
magic have become antique collector's pieces and may require
significant and careful restoration to function. ...Misuse of the term
"magic" Some modern illusionists believe that it is unethical to
give a performance that claims to be anything other than a clever and
skillful deception. Most of these performers therefore eschew the term
"magician" (which they view as making a claim to supernatural power) in
favor of "illusionist" and similar descriptions; for example, the
performer Jamy Ian Swiss makes these points by billing himself as an
"honest liar".[40] Alternatively, many performers say that magical acts,
as a form of theatre, need no more of a disclaimer than any play or
film; this policy was advocated by the magician and mentalist Joseph
Dunninger, who stated "For those who believe, no explanation is
necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will
suffice."[41] These apparently irreconcilable differences of
opinion have led to some conflicts among performers. For example, more
than thirty years after the illusionist Uri Geller made his first
appearances on television in the 1970s to exhibit his self-proclaimed
psychic ability to bend spoons, his actions still provoke controversy
among some magic performers, because he claimed what he did was not an
illusion. On the other hand, because Geller bent—and continues to
bend—spoons within a performance context and has lectured at several
magic conventions, the Dunninger quote may be said to apply. In
2016, self-proclaimed psychic The Amazing Kreskin was barred from
sending fraudulent letters to solicit money from the elderly. "This
settlement ends these efforts to cheat Iowa's most vulnerable people,"
stated Attorney General Tom Miller. "The letters were shamelessly
predatory and manipulative, variously promising riches, protection from
ill-health, and even personal friendship to each recipient – all to get
the victim to send money."[42] Less fraught with controversy,
however, may be the use of deceptive practices by those who employ stage
magic techniques for personal gain outside the venue of a magic
performance. C. Alexander wrote about the trickery in con-men
exploiting their sworn spiritual magic to rip off each cilent they swung
in The Dr. Q. Book. However, a group of people believe Alexander to be a
con-man too. Fraudulent mediums have long capitalized on the
popular belief in paranormal phenomena to prey on the bereaved for
financial gain. From the 1840s to the 1920s, during the greatest
popularity of the spiritualism religious movement as well as public
interest in séances, a number of fraudulent mediums used stage magic
methods to perform illusions such as table-knocking, slate-writing, and
telekinetic effects, which they attributed to the actions of ghosts or
other spirits. The great escapologist and illusionist Harry Houdini
devoted much of his time to exposing such fraudulent operators.[43]
Magician James Randi, magic duo Penn & Teller, and the mentalist
Derren Brown have also devoted much time to investigating and debunking
paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims.[44][45] Fraudulent
faith healers have also been shown to employ sleight of hand to give the
appearance of removing chicken-giblet "tumors" from patients'
abdomens.[46] Con men and grifters too may use techniques of
stage magic for fraudulent goals. Cheating at card games is an obvious
example, and not a surprising one: one of the most respected textbooks
of card techniques for magicians, The Expert at the Card Table by
Erdnase, was primarily written as an instruction manual for card sharps.
The card trick known as "Find the Lady" or "Three-card Monte" is an old
favourite of street hustlers, who lure the victim into betting on what
seems like a simple proposition: to identify, after a seemingly
easy-to-track mixing sequence, which one of three face-down cards is the
Queen. Another example is the shell game, in which a pea is hidden
under one of three walnut shells, then shuffled around the table (or
sidewalk) so slowly as to make the pea's position seemingly obvious.
Although these are well known as frauds, people still lose money on
them; a shell-game ring was broken up in Los Angeles as recently as
December 2009." (wikipedia.org) "A
magician, also known as an archmage, mage, magus, magic-user,
spellcaster, enchanter/enchantress, sorcerer/sorceress, warlock, witch,
or wizard, is someone who uses or practices magic derived from
supernatural, occult, or arcane sources.[2]: 54 Magicians are common
figures in works of fantasy, such as fantasy literature and role-playing
games, and enjoy a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction, and
folklore. Character archetypes The Enchanter Merlin, by Howard Pyle, from The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903) People
who work magic are called by several names in fantasy works, and
terminology differs widely from one fantasy world to another. While
derived from real-world vocabulary, the terms: magician, mage, magus,
enchanter/enchantress, sorcerer/sorceress, warlock, witch, and wizard,
each have different meanings depending upon context and the story in
question.[3]: 619 Archmage is used in fantasy works to indicate a
powerful magician or a leader of magicians.[3]: 1027 The Love Potion by Evelyn De Morgan (1903) Enchanters
typically practice a type of imbued magic that produces no permanent
effects on objects or people, and are temporary, or of an indefinite
duration, or which may require some item or act, to nullify or reverse.
For example, this could include enchanting a weapon or tool to be more
(or less) effective, enchanting a person or object to have a changed
shape or appearance, creating illusions intended to deceive the
observer, compelling a person to perform an action they might not
normally do, or attempting to charm or seduce someone.[3]: 318 For
instance, the Lady of the Green Kirtle in C. S. Lewis's The Silver Chair
can transform herself into a large green serpent. She also enchants
Rilian, compelling him to forget his father and Narnia. And when that
enchantment is broken, she attempts further enchantments with a
sweet-smelling smoke and a thrumming musical instrument to attempt to
baffle him and his rescuers into forgetting them again.[4] The
term sorcerer has moved from meaning a fortune-teller, or "one who
alters fate", to meaning a practitioner of magic who can alter reality.
They are also sometimes shown as able to conjure supernatural beings or
spirits, such as in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Due to this perception of
their powers, this character may be depicted as feared, or even seen as
evil. In sword and sorcery works, typically the hero would be the
sword-wielder, thus leaving the sorcery for his opponent. Villainous
sorcerers were so crucial to pulp fantasy that the genre in which they
appeared was dubbed "sword and sorcery".[3]: 885 Witch (an—often
female—practitioner of witchcraft) and wicked (an adjective meaning
"bad, evil, false") are both derivative terms from the word, wicca (an
Old English word with varied meaning, including: soothsayer, astrologer,
herbalist, poisoner, seductress, or devotee of supernatural beings or
spirits). L. Frank Baum combined these terms in naming the Wicked Witch
of the West, and other witches in the Land of Oz. Baum named Glinda the
"Good Witch of the South" in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In The
Marvelous Land of Oz, he dubbed her "Glinda the Good," and from that
point forward and in subsequent books, Baum referred to her as a
sorceress rather than a witch to avoid the term that was more regarded
as evil.[5] In modern fiction, a witch may be depicted more neutrally,
such as the female witches (comparable to the male wizards) in the Harry
Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling. In medieval chivalric
romance, the wizard often appears as a wise old man and acts as a
mentor, with Merlin from the King Arthur stories being a prime
example.[6]: 195 Wizards such as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and
Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter are also featured as mentors, and
Merlin remains prominent as both an educative force and mentor in modern
works of Arthuriana.[3]: 637 [7] Wizards can be cast similarly
to the absent-minded professor: being foolish and prone to misconjuring.
They can also be capable of great magic, both good or
evil.[2]: 140–141 Even comical magicians are often capable of great
feats, such as those of Miracle Max in The Princess Bride; although he
is a washed-up wizard fired by the villain, he saves the dying hero.[8] Other
wizards, such as Saruman from The Lord of the Rings or Lord Voldemort
from Harry Potter, can appear as hostile villains.[6]: 193 Ursula
K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea explored the question of how wizards
learned their art, introducing to modern fantasy the role of the wizard
as protagonist.[9] This theme has been further developed in modern
fantasy, often leading to wizards as heroes on their own quests.[10]
Such heroes may have their own mentor, a wizard as well.[3]: 637 In role-playing games Magicians
in role-playing games often use names borrowed from fiction, myth and
legend. They are typically delineated and named so that the game's
players and game masters can know which rules apply.[3]: 385 Gary Gygax
and Dave Arneson introduced the term "magic-user" in the original
Dungeons & Dragons as a generic term for a practitioner of magic (in
order to avoid the connotations of terms such as wizard or warlock);
this lasted until the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons,
where it was replaced with mage (later to become wizard). The exact
rules vary from game to game.[citation needed] The wizard or mage, as a
character class, is distinguished by the ability to cast certain kinds
of magic but being weak in combat; sub-classes are distinguished by
strengths in some areas of magic and weakness in others.[11] Sorcerers
are distinguished from wizards as having an innate gift with magic, as
well as having mystical or magical ancestry.[12] Warlocks are
distinguished from wizards as creating forbidden "pacts" with powerful
creatures to harness their innate magical gifts. Appearance White-haired and white-bearded wizard with robes and hat Due
to their traditional image as a wise old man or wise old woman,
magicians may be depicted as old, white-haired, and in some instances
with their hair (and in the case of male wizards, beards), being long
and majestic enough to occasionally host lurking woodland creatures.
This depiction predates the modern fantasy genre, being derived from the
traditional image of wizards such as Merlin.[7][13] In fantasy, a
magician may be shown wearing a pointed hat, robes, and/or a cloak. In
more modern stories, a magician may be dressed similarly to a stage
magician, wearing a top hat and tails, with an optional cape. Several
golden hats adorned with astronomical sequences have been found in
Europe. It has been speculated by archaeologists and historians that
they were worn by ancient wizards.[14] The similarities shared with a
fantasy magician's hat shape may mean that it is ultimately derived from
them. Golden Hat of Schifferstadt, circa 1,400-1,300 BC, Historical
Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer, Germany. Terry Pratchett
described robes as a magician's way of establishing to those they meet
that they are capable of practicing magic.[15] In the Dragonlance
campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game,
wizards show their moral alignment by the colour of their robes.[16] Magical implements The
Crystal Ball by John William Waterhouse (1902): showing implements used
for magical purposes; the crystal, a book, a skull, and a wand A magician's crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball commonly associated with clairvoyance, fortune-telling, or scrying. Wands
and staves have long been used as requirements for the
magician.[6]: 152 Possibly derived from wand-like implements used in
fertility rituals, such as apotropaic wands, the earliest known instance
of the modern magical wand was featured in the Odyssey, used by Circe
to transform Odysseus's men into animals. Italian fairy tales put wands
into the hands of powerful fairies by the Late Middle Ages.[17] Today,
magical wands are widespread in literature and are used from Witch World
to Harry Potter. In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf refuses to surrender
his own staff, breaking Saruman's, which strips the latter of his
power. This dependency on a particular magical item is common, and
necessary to limit the magician's power for the story's sake – without
it, the magician's powers may be weakened or absent entirely.[18] In the
Harry Potter universe, a wizard must expend much greater effort and
concentration to use magic without a wand, and only a few can control
magic without one; taking away a wizard's wand in battle essentially
disarms them.[citation needed] In the Enchanted Forest
Chronicles, Patricia Wrede depicts wizards who use magic based on their
staves, and magicians who practice several kinds of magic, including
wizard magic;[clarification needed] in the Regency fantasies, she and
Caroline Stevermer depict magicians as identical to wizards, though
inferior in skill and training. Education The Alchemist by William Fettes Douglas (1853): studying for arcane knowledge Magicians
normally learn spells by reading ancient tomes called grimoires, which
may have magical properties of their own.[3]: 126 Sorcerers in Conan
the Barbarian often gained powers from such books, which are demarcated
by their strange bindings. In worlds where magic is not an innate trait,
the scarcity of these strange books may be a facet of the story; in
Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, Prince Rupert seeks out the books
of the magician Prospero to learn magic. The same occurs in the Dungeons
and Dragons-based novel series Dragonlance Chronicles, wherein Raistlin
Majere seeks out the books of the sorcerer Fistandantilus. In JK
Rowling's Harry Potter series, wizards already have skills of magic but
they need to practise magic in Wizarding Schools in order to be able to
use it properly. Some magicians, even after training, continue
their education by learning more spells, inventing new ones (and new
magical objects), or rediscovering ancient spells, beings, or objects.
For example, Dr. Strange from the Marvel Universe continues to learn
about magic even after being named Sorcerer Supreme. He often encounters
creatures that haven't been seen for centuries or more. In the same
universe, Dr. Doom continues to pursue magical knowledge after mastering
it by combining magic with science. Fred and George Weasley from Harry
Potter invent new magical items and sell them as legitimate defense
items, new spells and potions can be made in the Harry Potter Universe;
Severus Snape invented a variety of jinxes and hexes as well as
substantial improvements in the process of making potions; Albus
Dumbledore, along with Nicolas Flamel, is credited with discovering the
twelve uses of dragon's blood. Limits on magic To introduce
conflict, writers of fantasy fiction often place limits on the magical
abilities of magicians to prevent them from solving problems too
easily.[3]: 616 A common motif in fiction is that the ability to
use magic is innate and often rare, or gained through a large amount of
study and practice.[3]: 616 In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, it is
mostly limited to non-humans, such as the Istari (more commonly known as
wizards), or elves crafting magical items. In many writers' works, it
is reserved for a select group of humans,[citation needed] such as in
Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels, JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels or
Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy universe. A common limit invented by
Jack Vance in his The Dying Earth series, and later popularized in
role-playing games is that a wizard can only cast a specific number of
spells in a day.[3]: 385 In Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away, once an
area's mana is exhausted, no one can use magic.[3]: 942 The
extent of a magician's knowledge is limited to which spells a wizard
knows and can cast.[18] Magic may also be limited by its danger; if a
powerful spell can cause grave harm if miscast, magicians are likely to
be wary of using it.[2]: 142 Other forms of magic are limited by
consequences that, while not inherently dangerous, are at least
undesirable. In A Wizard of Earthsea, every act of magic distorts the
equilibrium of the world, which in turn has far-reaching consequences
that can affect the entire world and everything in it. As a result,
competent wizards do not use their magic frivolously.[18] In
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the Law of Conservation of Reality
is a principle imposed by forces wanting wizards to not destroy the
world, and works to limit how much power it is humanly possible to
wield.[citation needed] Whatever your means, the effort put into
reaching the ends stays the same. For example, when the wizards of
Unseen University are chasing the hapless wizard Rincewind in the forest
of Skund, the wizards send out search teams to go and find him on foot.
The Archchancellor beats them to it by using a powerful spell from his
own office, and while he gets there first by clever use of his spell, he
has used no less effort than the others.[citation needed] Magic
may require rare and precious materials, such as rare herbs or flowers
(often selected by prescribed rituals), minerals or metals such as
mercury, parts of creatures such as the eye of a newt, or even fantastic
ingredients like the cool of a soft breeze on a summer's day. Even if
the magician lacks scruples, obtaining the materials in question may be
difficult.[19] This can vary by fantasy work. Many magicians require no
materials at all;[3]: 617 or those that do may require only simple and
easily obtained materials. Role-playing games are more likely to require
such materials for at least some spells for game balance
reasons.[20][self-published source?] Use of magic in society Nevertheless,
many magicians live in pseudo-medieval settings in which their magic is
not put to practical use in society; they may serve as mentors, act as
quest companions, or even go on a quest themselves,[3]: 1027 but their
magic does not build roads or buildings, provide immunizations,
construct indoor plumbing, or do any of the other functions served by
machinery; their worlds remain at a medieval level of technology.[21] Sometimes
this is justified by having the negative effects of magic outweigh the
positive possibilities.[2]: 8 In Barbara Hambley's Windrose Chronicles,
wizards are precisely pledged not to interfere because of the terrible
damage they can do. In Discworld, the importance of wizards is that they
actively do not do magic, because when wizards have access to
sufficient "thaumaturgic energy", they develop many psychotic attributes
and may eventually destroy the world. This may be a direct effect or
the result of a miscast spell wreaking terrible havoc.[2]: 142 In
other works, developing magic is difficult.[citation needed] In Rick
Cook's Wizardry series, the extreme danger presented by magic and the
difficulty of analyzing the magic have stymied magic and left humanity
at the mercy of the dangerous elves until a wizard summons a computer
programmer from a parallel world — ours — to apply the skills he learned
in our world to magic. At other times, magic and technology do
develop in tandem; this is most common in the alternate history
genre.[citation needed] Patricia Wrede's Regency fantasies include a
Royal Society of Wizards and a technological level equivalent to the
actual Regency; Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy series, Robert A.
Heinlein's Magic, Incorporated, and Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos all
depict modern societies with magic equivalent to twentieth-century
technology. In Harry Potter, wizards have magical equivalents to
non-magical inventions; sometimes they duplicate them, as with the
Hogwarts Express train. The powers ascribed to magicians often
affect their roles in society.[original research?] In practical terms,
their powers may give them authority; magicians may advise kings, such
as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and Belgarath and Polgara the
Sorceress in David Eddings's The Belgariad. They may be rulers
themselves, as in E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros, where both the
heroes and the villains, although kings and lords, supplement their
physical power with magical knowledge, or as in Jonathan Stroud's
Bartimaeus Trilogy, where magicians are the governing class.[3]: 1027
On the other hand, magicians often live like hermits, isolated in their
towers and often in the wilderness, bringing no change to society. In
some works, such as many of Barbara Hambly's, they are despised and
outcast specifically because of their knowledge and powers.[3]: 745 In
the magic-noir world of the Dresden Files, wizards generally keep a low
profile, though there is no explicit prohibition against interacting
openly with non-magical humanity. The protagonist of the series, Harry
Dresden, openly advertises in the Yellow Pages under the heading
"Wizard" and maintains a business office, though other wizards tend to
resent him for practicing his craft openly. Dresden primarily uses his
magic to make a living finding lost items and people, performing
exorcisms, and providing protection against the supernatural.[22] In
the series Sorcerous Stabber Orphen human forms of life should have
only been capable of acquiring divine magic powers through individual
spiritual development, whereas the race of human magicians with inborn
magical ability ended in conflict with pureblood human society, because
this race appeared as a result of an experiment of mixing humans with
non-human sentient Heavenly Beings that acquired magic powers not
through spiritual development, but through deep studying of laws of
nature and by falsely causing the world’s laws to react to actions of
the Heavenly Beings as to actions of Divinities.[23] In the Harry Potter
series, the Wizarding World hides themselves from the rest of the
non-magic world, because, as described by Hagrid simply, "Why? Blimey,
Harry, everyone’d be wantin’ magic solutions to their problems. Nah,
we’re best left alone."" (wikipedia.org) "Clairvoyance
(/klɛərˈvɔɪ.əns/; from French clair 'clear', and voyance 'vision') is
the claimed psychic ability to gain information about an object, person,
location, or physical event through extrasensory perception.[2][3] Any
person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant
(/klɛərˈvɔɪ.ənt/)[4] ("one who sees clearly"). Claims for the
existence of paranormal and psychic abilities such as clairvoyance have
not been supported by scientific evidence.[5] Parapsychology explores
this possibility, but the existence of the paranormal is not accepted by
the scientific community.[6] The scientific community widely considers
parapsychology, including the study of clairvoyance, a
pseudoscience.[7][8][9][10][11][12] Usage Pertaining to the
ability of clear-sightedness, clairvoyance refers to the paranormal
ability to see persons and events that are distant in time or space. It
can be divided into roughly three classes: precognition, the ability to
perceive or predict future events, retrocognition, the ability to see
past events, and remote viewing, the perception of contemporary events
happening outside the range of normal perception.[13] In history and religion Throughout
history, there have been numerous places and times in which people have
claimed themselves or others to be clairvoyant. In several
religions, stories of certain individuals being able to see things far
removed from their immediate sensory perception are commonplace,
especially within pagan religions where oracles were used. Prophecy
often involved some degree of clairvoyance, especially when future
events were predicted. This ability has sometimes been attributed to a
higher power rather than to the person performing it. Christianity A
number of Christian saints were said to be able to see or know things
that were far removed from their immediate sensory perception as a kind
of gift from God, including Columba of Iona, Padre Pio and Anne
Catherine Emmerich. Jesus Christ in the Gospels is also recorded as
being able to know things that were far removed from his immediate human
perception. Some Christians today also share the same claim. Jainism Main article: Jain epistemology In
Jainism, clairvoyance is regarded as one of the five kinds of
knowledge. The beings of hell and heaven (devas) are said to possess
clairvoyance by birth. According to Jain text Sarvārthasiddhi, "this
kind of knowledge has been called avadhi as it ascertains matter in
downward range or knows objects within limits".[14] Anthroposophy Rudolf
Steiner, famous as a clairvoyant himself,[15][16] claimed that for a
clairvoyant, it is easy to confuse his own emotional and spiritual being
with the objective spiritual world.[17][18] Parapsychology Early research The
earliest record of somnambulist clairvoyance is credited to the Marquis
de Puységur, a follower of Franz Mesmer, who in 1784 was treating a
local dull-witted peasant named Victor Race. During treatment, Race
reportedly would go into trance and undergo a personality change,
becoming fluent and articulate, and giving diagnosis and prescription
for his own disease as well as those of others.[19] Clairvoyance was a
reported ability of some mediums during the spiritualist period of the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, and psychics of many descriptions
have claimed clairvoyant ability up to the present day.[20] Character reader and clairvoyant in a British travelling show of the 1940s, collected by Arthur James Fenwick (1878–1957) Early
researchers of clairvoyance included William Gregory, Gustav
Pagenstecher, and Rudolf Tischner.[21] Clairvoyance experiments were
reported in 1884 by Charles Richet. Playing cards were enclosed in
envelopes and a subject put under hypnosis attempted to identify them.
The subject was reported to have been successful in a series of 133
trials but the results dropped to chance level when performed before a
group of scientists in Cambridge. J. M. Peirce and E. C. Pickering
reported a similar experiment in which they tested 36 subjects over
23,384 trials which did not obtain above chance scores.[22] Ivor
Lloyd Tuckett (1911) and Joseph McCabe (1920) analyzed early cases of
clairvoyance and came to the conclusion they were best explained by
coincidence or fraud.[23][24] In 1919, the magician P. T. Selbit staged a
séance at his own flat in Bloomsbury. The spiritualist Arthur Conan
Doyle attended the séance and declared the clairvoyance manifestations
to be genuine.[25][26] A significant development in clairvoyance
research came when J. B. Rhine, a parapsychologist at Duke University,
introduced a standard methodology, with a standard statistical approach
to analyzing data, as part of his research into extrasensory perception.
A number of psychological departments attempted to repeat Rhine's
experiments, with failure. W. S. Cox (1936) from Princeton University
with 132 subjects produced 25,064 trials in a playing card ESP
experiment. Cox concluded, "There is no evidence of extrasensory
perception either in the 'average man' or of the group investigated or
in any particular individual of that group. The discrepancy between
these results and those obtained by Rhine is due either to
uncontrollable factors in experimental procedure or to the difference in
the subjects."[27] Four other psychological departments failed to
replicate Rhine's results.[28][29] It was revealed that Rhine's
experiments contained methodological flaws and procedural
errors.[30][31][32] Eileen Garrett was tested by Rhine at Duke
University in 1933 with Zener cards. Certain symbols that were placed on
the cards and sealed in an envelope, and she was asked to guess their
contents. She performed poorly and later criticized the tests by
claiming the cards lacked a psychic energy called "energy stimulus" and
that she could not perform clairvoyance to order.[33] The
parapsychologist Samuel Soal and his colleagues tested Garrett in May
1937. Most of the experiments were carried out in the Psychological
Laboratory at the University College London. A total of over 12,000
guesses were recorded but Garrett failed to produce above chance
level.[34] In his report Soal wrote "In the case of Mrs. Eileen Garrett
we fail to find the slightest confirmation of Dr. J. B. Rhine's
remarkable claims relating to her alleged powers of extra-sensory
perception. Not only did she fail when I took charge of the experiments,
but she failed equally when four other carefully trained experimenters
took my place."[35] Remote viewing Remote viewing, also known
as remote sensing, remote perception, telesthesia and travelling
clairvoyance is the alleged paranormal ability to perceive a remote or
hidden target without support of the senses.[36] A well known
study of remote viewing in recent times has been the US
government-funded project at the Stanford Research Institute during the
1970s through the mid-1990s. In 1972, Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ
initiated a series of human subject studies to determine whether
participants (the viewers or percipients) could reliably identify and
accurately describe salient features of remote locations or targets. In
the early studies, a human sender was typically present at the remote
location, as part of the experiment protocol. A three-step process was
used, the first step being to randomly select the target conditions to
be experienced by the senders. Secondly, in the viewing step,
participants were asked to verbally express or sketch their impressions
of the remote scene. Thirdly, in the judging step, these descriptions
were matched by separate judges, as closely as possible, with the
intended targets. The term remote viewing was coined to describe this
overall process. The first paper by Puthoff and Targ on remote viewing
was published in Nature in March 1974; in it, the team reported some
degree of remote viewing success.[37] After the publication of these
findings, other attempts to replicate the experiments were carried out
[38][39] with remotely linked groups using computer conferencing.[40] The
psychologists David Marks and Richard Kammann attempted to replicate
Targ and Puthoff's remote viewing experiments that were carried out in
the 1970s at the Stanford Research Institute. In a series of 35 studies,
they were unable to replicate the results so investigated the procedure
of the original experiments. Marks and Kammann discovered that the
notes given to the judges in Targ and Puthoff's experiments contained
clues as to which order they were carried out, such as referring to
yesterday's two targets, or they had the date of the session written at
the top of the page. They concluded that these clues were the reason for
the experiment's high hit rates.[41][42] Marks was able to achieve 100
per cent accuracy without visiting any of the sites himself but by using
cues.[43] James Randi has written controlled tests by several other
researchers, eliminating several sources of cuing and extraneous
evidence present in the original tests, produced negative results.
Students were also able to solve Puthoff and Targ's locations from the
clues that had inadvertently been included in the transcripts.[44] In
1980, Charles Tart claimed that a rejudging of the transcripts from one
of Targ and Puthoff's experiments revealed an above-chance result.[45]
Targ and Puthoff again refused to provide copies of the transcripts and
it was not until July 1985 that they were made available for study when
it was discovered they still contained sensory cues.[46] Marks and
Christopher Scott (1986) wrote "considering the importance for the
remote viewing hypothesis of adequate cue removal, Tart's failure to
perform this basic task seems beyond comprehension. As previously
concluded, remote viewing has not been demonstrated in the experiments
conducted by Puthoff and Targ, only the repeated failure of the
investigators to remove sensory cues."[47] In 1982 Robert Jahn,
then Dean of the School of Engineering at Princeton University wrote a
comprehensive review of psychic phenomena from an engineering
perspective. His paper included numerous references to remote viewing
studies at the time.[48] Statistical flaws in his work have been
proposed by others in the parapsychological community and within the
general scientific community.[49][50] Scientific reception According
to scientific research, clairvoyance is generally explained as the
result of confirmation bias, expectancy bias, fraud, hallucination,
self-delusion, sensory leakage, subjective validation, wishful thinking
or failures to appreciate the base rate of chance occurrences and not as
a paranormal power.[5][51][52][53] Parapsychology is generally regarded
by the scientific community as a pseudoscience.[54][55] In 1988, the US
National Research Council concluded "The committee finds no scientific
justification from research conducted over a period of 130 years, for
the existence of parapsychological phenomena."[56] Skeptics say
that if clairvoyance were a reality, it would have become abundantly
clear. They also contend that those who believe in paranormal phenomena
do so for merely psychological reasons.[57] According to David G. Myers
(Psychology, 8th ed.): The search for a valid and reliable
test of clairvoyance has resulted in thousands of experiments. One
controlled procedure has invited 'senders' to telepathically transmit
one of four visual images to 'receivers' deprived of sensation in a
nearby chamber (Bem & Honorton, 1994). The result? A reported 32
percent accurate response rate, surpassing the chance rate of 25
percent. But follow-up studies have (depending on who was summarizing
the results) failed to replicate the phenomenon or produced mixed
results (Bem & others, 2001; Milton & Wiseman, 2002; Storm,
2000, 2003). One skeptic, magician James Randi, had a
longstanding offer of U.S. $1 million—"to anyone who proves a genuine
psychic power under proper observing conditions" (Randi, 1999). French,
Australian, and Indian groups have parallel offers of up to 200,000
euros to anyone with demonstrable paranormal abilities (CFI, 2003).
Large as these sums are, the scientific seal of approval would be worth
far more to anyone whose claims could be authenticated. To refute those
who say there is no ESP, one need only produce a single person who can
demonstrate a single, reproducible ESP phenomenon. So far, no such
person has emerged. Randi's offer has been publicized for three decades
and dozens of people have been tested, sometimes under the scrutiny of
an independent panel of judges. Still, nothing. "People's desire to
believe in the paranormal is stronger than all the evidence that it does
not exist." Susan Blackmore, "Blackmore's first law", 2004."
(wikipedia.org) "Mediumship
is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar
spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners
are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums".[1][2] There are different
types of mediumship or spirit channelling, including séance tables,
trance, and ouija. Belief in psychic ability is widespread[3]
despite the absence of objective evidence for its existence.[4]
Scientific researchers have attempted to ascertain the validity of
claims of mediumship. An experiment undertaken by the British
Psychological Society led to the conclusion that the test subjects
demonstrated no mediumistic ability.[5] Mediumship gained
popularity during the nineteenth century, when ouija boards were used as
a source of entertainment. Investigations during this period revealed
widespread fraud—with some practitioners employing techniques used by
stage magicians—and the practice began to lose credibility.[6][7] Fraud
is still rife in the medium or psychic industry, with cases of deception
and trickery being discovered to this day.[8] Several different
variants of mediumship have been described; arguably the best-known
forms involve a spirit purportedly taking control of a medium's voice
and using it to relay a message, or where the medium simply "hears" the
message and passes it on. Other forms involve materializations of the
spirit or the presence of a voice, and telekinetic activity. The
practice is associated with several religious-belief systems such as
Shamanism, Vodun, Spiritualism, Spiritism, Candomblé, Voodoo, Umbanda
and some New Age groups. Concept Séance conducted by John Beattie, Bristol, England, 1872 In
Spiritism and Spiritualism the medium has the role of an intermediary
between the world of the living and the world of spirit. Mediums claim
that they can listen to and relay messages from spirits, or that they
can allow a spirit to control their body and speak through it directly
or by using automatic writing or drawing. Spiritualists classify types of mediumship into two main categories: "mental" and "physical":[9] Mental mediums purportedly "tune in" to the spirit world by listening, sensing, or seeing spirits or symbols.
Physical mediums are believed to produce materialization of spirits,
apports of objects, and other effects such as knocking, rapping,
bell-ringing, etc. by using "ectoplasm" created from the cells of their
bodies and those of séance attendees. During seances, mediums are said to go into trances, varying from light to deep, that permit spirits to control their minds.[10] Channeling
can be seen as the modern form of the old mediumship, where the
"channel" (or channeller) purportedly receives messages from
"teaching-spirit", an "Ascended master", from God, or from an angelic
entity, but essentially through the filter of his own waking
consciousness (or "Higher Self").[11] History Attempts to
communicate with the dead and other living human beings, aka spirits,
have been documented back to early human history, such as the Biblical
account of the Witch of Endor.[12] Mediumship became quite
popular in the 19th-century United States and the United Kingdom after
the rise of Spiritualism as a religious movement. Modern Spiritualism is
said to date from practices and lectures of the Fox sisters in New York
State in 1848. The trance mediums Paschal Beverly Randolph and Emma
Hardinge Britten were among the most celebrated lecturers and authors on
the subject in the mid-19th century. Allan Kardec coined the term
Spiritism around 1860.[13] Kardec claimed that conversations with
spirits by selected mediums were the basis of his The Spirits' Book and
later, his five-book collection, Spiritist Codification. Some
scientists of the period who investigated Spiritualism also became
converts. They included chemist Robert Hare, physicist William Crookes
(1832–1919) and evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace
(1823–1913).[14][15] Nobel laureate Pierre Curie took a very serious
scientific interest in the work of medium Eusapia Palladino.[16] Other
prominent adherents included journalist and pacifist William T. Stead
(1849–1912)[17] and physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle
(1859–1930).[18] After the exposure of the fraudulent use of
stage magic tricks by physical mediums such as the Davenport Brothers
and the Bangs Sisters, mediumship fell into disrepute. However, the
religion and its beliefs continue in spite of this, with physical
mediumship and seances falling out of practice and platform mediumship
coming to the fore. In the late 1920s and early 1930s there were
around one quarter of a million practising Spiritualists and some two
thousand Spiritualist societies in the UK in addition to flourishing
microcultures of platform mediumship and 'home circles'.[19]
Spiritualism continues to be practised, primarily through various
denominational Spiritualist churches in the United States, Canada,
Australia and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, over 340
Spiritualist churches and centres open their doors to the public and
free demonstrations of mediumship are regularly performed.[20] Terminology Spirit guide Main article: Spirit guide In
1958, the English-born Spiritualist C. Dorreen Phillips wrote of her
experiences with a medium at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana: "In Rev. James
Laughton's séances there are many Indians. They are very noisy and
appear to have great power. [...] The little guides, or doorkeepers, are
usually Indian boys and girls [who act] as messengers who help to
locate the spirit friends who wish to speak with you."[21] Spirit operator A spirit who uses a medium to manipulate psychic "energy" or "energy systems." Demonstrations of mediumship Colin Evans, who claimed spirits lifted him into the air, was exposed as a fraud. In
old-line Spiritualism, a portion of the services, generally toward the
end, is given over to demonstrations of mediumship through purported
contact with the spirits of the dead. A typical example of this way of
describing a mediumistic church service is found in the 1958
autobiography of C. Dorreen Phillips. She writes of the worship services
at the Spiritualist Camp Chesterfield in Chesterfield, Indiana:
"Services are held each afternoon, consisting of hymns, a lecture on
philosophy, and demonstrations of mediumship."[21] Today
"demonstration of mediumship" is part of the church service at all
churches affiliated with the National Spiritualist Association of
Churches (NSAC) and the Spiritualists' National Union (SNU).
Demonstration links to NSAC's Declaration of Principal #9. "We affirm
that the precepts of Prophecy and Healing are Divine attributes proven
through Mediumship." Mental mediumship "Mental mediumship" is
communication of spirits with a medium by telepathy. The medium mentally
"hears" (clairaudience), "sees" (clairvoyance), and/or feels
(clairsentience) messages from spirits. Directly or with the help of a
spirit guide, the medium passes the information on to the message's
recipient(s). When a medium is doing a "reading" for a particular
person, that person is known as the "sitter". Trance mediumship "Trance
mediumship" is often seen as a form of mental mediumship. Most trance
mediums remain conscious during a communication period, wherein a spirit
uses the medium's mind to communicate. The spirit or spirits using the
medium's mind influences the mind with the thoughts being conveyed. The
medium allows the ego to step aside for the message to be delivered. At
the same time, one has awareness of the thoughts coming through and may
even influence the message with one's own bias. Such a trance is not to
be confused with sleepwalking, as the patterns are entirely different.
Castillo (1995) states, Trance phenomena result from the
behavior of intense focusing of attention, which is the key
psychological mechanism of trance induction. Adaptive responses,
including institutionalized forms of trance, are 'tuned' into neural
networks in the brain.[22] In the 1860s and 1870s, trance mediums
were very popular. Spiritualism generally attracted female adherents,
many who had strong interests in social justice. Many trance mediums
delivered passionate speeches on abolitionism, temperance, and women's
suffrage.[23] Scholars have described Leonora Piper as one of the most
famous trance mediums in the history of Spiritualism.[6][24][25] In
the typical deep trance, the medium may not have clear recall of all
the messages conveyed while in an altered state; such people generally
work with an assistant. That person selectively wrote down or otherwise
recorded the medium's words. Rarely did the assistant record the
responding words of the sitter and other attendants. An example of this
kind of relationship can be found in the early 20th century
collaboration between the trance medium Mrs. Cecil M. Cook of the
William T. Stead Memorial Center in Chicago (a religious body
incorporated under the statutes of the State of Illinois) and the
journalist Lloyd Kenyon Jones. The latter was a non-medium Spiritualist
who transcribed Cook's messages in shorthand. He edited them for
publication in book and pamphlet form.[26] Physical mediumship A photograph of the medium Linda Gazzera with a doll as fake ectoplasm Physical
mediumship is defined as manipulation of energies and energy systems by
spirits. This type of mediumship is claimed to involve perceptible
manifestations, such as loud raps and noises, voices, materialized
objects, apports, materialized spirit bodies, or body parts such as
hands, legs and feet. The medium is used as a source of power for such
spirit manifestations. By some accounts, this was achieved by using the
energy or ectoplasm released by a medium, see spirit
photography.[27][28] The last physical medium to be tested by a
committee from Scientific American was Mina Crandon in 1924. Most
physical mediumship is presented in a darkened or dimly lit room. Most
physical mediums make use of a traditional array of tools and
appurtenances, including spirit trumpets, spirit cabinets, and
levitation tables. Direct voice Direct voice communication is
the claim that spirits speak independently of the medium, who
facilitates the phenomenon rather than produces it. The role of the
medium is to make the connection between the physical and spirit worlds.
Trumpets are often utilised to amplify the signal, and directed voice
mediums are sometimes known as "trumpet mediums". This form of
mediumship also permits the medium to participate in the discourse
during séances, since the medium's voice is not required by the spirit
to communicate. Leslie Flint was one of the best known exponents of this
form of mediumship.[29] Channeling A conduit, in esoterism,
and spiritual discourse, is a specific object, person, location, or
process (such as engaging in a séance or entering a trance, or using
psychedelic medicines) which allows a person to connect or communicate
with a spiritual realm, metaphysical energy, or spiritual entity, or
vice versa. The use of such a conduit may be entirely metaphoric or
symbolic, or it may be earnestly believed to be functional. In
Shintoism, the public shrine is a building or place that functions as a
conduit for kami (神, "spiritual essence", commonly translated as god or
spirit). In Yoruba religion, it is said that Elegba, the son of Osun,
became the great conduit of ase (divine energy) in the Universe. In
the later half of the 20th century, Western mediumship developed in two
different ways. One type involves clairaudience, in which the medium
claims to hear spirits and relay what they hear to their clients. The
other is a form of channeling in which the channeler seemingly goes into
a trance, and purports to leave their body allowing a spirit entity to
borrow it and then speak through them.[30] When in a trance the medium
appears to enter into a cataleptic state,[31] although modern channelers
may not.[citation needed] Some channelers open the eyes when
channeling, and remain able to walk and behave normally. The rhythm and
the intonation of the voice may also change completely.[31] A
notable channeler in the early 1900s was Rose Edith Kelly, wife of the
English occultist and ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley (1875–1947).
She allegedly channeled the voice of a non-physical entity named Aiwass
during their honeymoon in Cairo, Egypt (1904).[32][33][34] Others
purport to channel spirits from "future dimensions", ascended
masters,[35] or, in the case of the trance mediums of the Brahma
Kumaris, God.[36] Another widely known channeler of this variety is J.
Z. Knight, who claims to channel the spirit of Ramtha, a 30
thousand-year-old man from Lemuria. Other notable channels are Jane
Roberts for Seth and Esther Hicks for Abraham.[37] Another channeler in the early 1900s was Edgar Cayce, who claimed to channel his higher self while in a trance-like state. Psychic senses This
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(April 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Senses
used by mental mediums are sometimes defined differently from in other
paranormal fields. A medium is said to have psychic abilities but not
all psychics function as mediums. The term clairvoyance, for instance,
may include seeing spirit and visions instilled by the spirit world. The
Parapsychological Association defines "clairvoyance" as information
derived directly from an external physical source.[38]
Clairvoyance or "clear seeing", is the ability to see anything that is
not physically present, such as objects, animals or people. This sight
occurs "in the mind's eye". Some mediums say that this is their normal
vision state. Others say that they must train their minds with such
practices as meditation in order to achieve this ability, and that
assistance from spiritual helpers is often necessary. Some clairvoyant
mediums can see a spirit as though the spirit has a physical body. They
see the bodily form as if it were physically present. Other mediums see
the spirit in their mind's eye, or it appears as a movie or a television
programme or a still picture like a photograph in their mind.
Clairaudience or "clear hearing", is usually defined as the ability to
hear the voices or thoughts of spirits. Some mediums hear as though they
are listening to a person talking to them on the outside of their head,
as though the Spirit is next to or near to the medium, and other
mediums hear the voices in their minds as a verbal thought.
Clairsentience or "clear sensing", is the ability to have an impression
of what a spirit wants to communicate, or to feel sensations instilled
by a spirit. Clairsentinence or "clear feeling" is a condition in
which the medium takes on the ailments of a spirit, feeling the same
physical problem which the spirit person had before death.
Clairalience or "clear smelling" is the ability to smell a spirit. For
example, a medium may smell the pipe tobacco of a person who smoked
during life. Clairgustance or "clear tasting" is the ability to receive taste impressions from a spirit.
Claircognizance or "clear knowing", is the ability to know something
without receiving it through normal or psychic senses. It is a feeling
of "just knowing". Often, a medium will claim to have the feeling that a
message or situation is "right" or "wrong." Explanations Paranormal belief Spiritualists
believe that phenomena produced by mediums (both mental and physical
mediumship) are the result of external spirit agencies.[39] The
psychical researcher Thomson Jay Hudson in The Law of Psychic Phenomena
(1892) and Théodore Flournoy in his book Spiritism and Psychology (1911)
wrote that all kinds of mediumship could be explained by suggestion and
telepathy from the medium and that there was no evidence for the spirit
hypothesis. The idea of mediumship being explained by telepathy was
later merged into the "super-ESP" hypothesis of mediumship which is
currently advocated by some parapsychologists.[40] Scientific skepticism In
their book How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New
Age, authors Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn have noted that the
spiritualist and ESP hypothesis of mediumship "has yielded no novel
predictions, assumes unknown entities or forces, and conflicts with
available scientific evidence."[41] Scientists[which?] who study
anomalistic psychology consider mediumship to be the result of fraud and
psychological factors. Research from psychology for over a hundred
years suggests that where there is not fraud, mediumship and
Spiritualist practices can be explained by hypnotism, magical thinking
and suggestion.[42][43] Trance mediumship, which according to
Spiritualists is caused by discarnate spirits speaking through the
medium, can be explained by dissociative identity disorder.[44] Illusionists,
such as Joseph Rinn have staged fake séances in which the sitters have
claimed to have observed genuine supernatural phenomena.[45] Albert Moll
studied the psychology of séance sitters. According to (Wolffram, 2012)
"[Moll] argued that the hypnotic atmosphere of the darkened séance room
and the suggestive effect of the experimenters' social and scientific
prestige could be used to explain why seemingly rational people
vouchsafed occult phenomena."[46] The psychologists Leonard Zusne and
Warren Jones in their book Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical
Thinking (1989) wrote that spirits controls are the "products of the
medium's own psychological dynamics."[47] A fraudulent medium may
obtain information about their sitters by secretly eavesdropping on
sitter's conversations or searching telephone directories, the internet
and newspapers before the sittings.[48] A technique called cold reading
can also be used to obtain information from the sitter's behavior,
clothing, posture, and jewellery.[49][50] The psychologist Richard Wiseman has written:
Cold reading also explains why psychics have consistently failed
scientific tests of their powers. By isolating them from their clients,
psychics are unable to pick up information from the way those clients
dress or behave. By presenting all of the volunteers involved in the
test with all of the readings, they are prevented from attributing
meaning to their own reading, and therefore can't identify it from
readings made for others. As a result, the type of highly successful hit
rate that psychics enjoy on a daily basis comes crashing down and the
truth emerges – their success depends on a fascinating application of
psychology and not the existence of paranormal abilities.[51] In a
series of experiments holding fake séances, (Wiseman et al. 2003)
paranormal believers and disbelievers were suggested by an actor that a
table was levitating when, in fact, it remained stationary. After the
seance, approximately one third of the participants incorrectly reported
that the table had moved. The results showed a greater percentage of
believers reporting that the table had moved. In another experiment the
believers had also reported that a handbell had moved when it had
remained stationary and expressed their belief that the fake séances
contained genuine paranormal phenomena. The experiments strongly
supported the notion that in the séance room, believers are more
suggestible than disbelievers for suggestions that are consistent with
their belief in paranormal phenomena.[52] In a 2019 television
segment on Last Week Tonight featuring prominent purported mediums
including Theresa Caputo, John Edward, Tyler Henry, and Sylvia Browne,
John Oliver criticized the media for promoting mediums because this
exposure convinces viewers that such powers are real, and so enable
neighborhood mediums to prey on grieving families. Oliver said "...when
psychic abilities are presented as authentic, it emboldens a vast
underworld of unscrupulous vultures, more than happy to make money by
offering an open line to the afterlife, as well as many other bullshit
services."[53][54] Fraud Helen Duncan (age 30) in a séance with dolls (1928) From
its earliest beginnings to contemporary times, mediumship practices
have had many instances of fraud and trickery.[55] Séances take place in
darkness so the poor lighting conditions can become an easy opportunity
for fraud. Physical mediumship that has been investigated by scientists
has been discovered to be the result of deception and trickery.[56]
Ectoplasm, a supposed paranormal substance, was revealed to have been
made from cheesecloth, butter, muslin, and cloth. Mediums would also
stick cut-out faces from magazines and newspapers onto cloth or on other
props and use plastic dolls in their séances to pretend to their
audiences spirits were contacting them.[57] Lewis Spence in his book An
Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1960) wrote: A very large part is
played by fraud in spiritualistic practices, both in the physical and
psychical, or automatic, phenomena, but especially in the former. The
frequency with which mediums have been convicted of fraud has, indeed,
induced many people to abandon the study of psychical research, judging
the whole bulk of the phenomena to be fraudulently produced.[58] Henry Slade In
Britain, the Society for Psychical Research has investigated mediumship
phenomena. Critical SPR investigations into purported mediums and the
exposure of fake mediums has led to a number of resignations by
Spiritualist members.[59][60] On the subject of fraud in mediumship Paul
Kurtz wrote: No doubt a great importance in the paranormal
field is the problem of fraud. The field of psychic research and
spiritualism has been so notoriously full of charlatans, such as the Fox
sisters and Eusapia Palladino–individuals who claim to have special
power and gifts but who are actually conjurers who have hoodwinked
scientists and the public as well–that we have to be especially cautious
about claims made on their behalf.[61] Magicians have a long
history of exposing the fraudulent methods of mediumship. Early
debunkers included Chung Ling Soo, Henry Evans and Julien Proskauer.[62]
Later magicians to reveal fraud were Joseph Dunninger, Harry Houdini
and Joseph Rinn. Rose Mackenberg, a private investigator who worked with
Houdini during the 1920s, was among the most prominent debunkers of
psychic fraud during the mid-20th century.[63] 1800s Many 19th
century mediums were discovered to be engaged in fraud.[64] While
advocates of mediumship claim that their experiences are genuine, the
Encyclopædia Britannica article on spiritualism notes in reference to a
case in the 19th century that "...one by one, the Spiritualist mediums
were discovered to be engaged in fraud, sometimes employing the
techniques of stage magicians in their attempts to convince people of
their clairvoyant powers." The article also notes that "the exposure of
widespread fraud within the spiritualist movement severely damaged its
reputation and pushed it to the fringes of society in the United
States."[65] At a séance in the house of the solicitor John
Snaith Rymer in Ealing in July 1855, a sitter Frederick Merrifield
observed that a "spirit-hand" was a false limb attached on the end of
the medium Daniel Dunglas Home's arm. Merrifield also claimed to have
observed Home use his foot in the séance room.[66] The poet
Robert Browning and his wife Elizabeth attended a séance on 23, July
1855 in Ealing with the Rymers.[67] During the séance a spirit face
materialized which Home claimed was the son of Browning who had died in
infancy. Browning seized the "materialization" and discovered it to be
the bare foot of Home. To make the deception worse, Browning had never
lost a son in infancy. Browning's son Robert in a letter to The Times,
December 5, 1902, referred to the incident "Home was detected in a
vulgar fraud."[68][69] The researchers Joseph McCabe and Trevor H. Hall
exposed the "levitation" of Home as nothing more than his moving across a
connecting ledge between two iron balconies.[70] The
psychologist and psychical researcher Stanley LeFevre Krebs had exposed
the Bangs Sisters as frauds. During a séance he employed a hidden mirror
and caught them tampering with a letter in an envelope and writing a
reply in it under the table which they would pretend a spirit had
written.[71] The British materialization medium Rosina Mary Showers was
caught in many fraudulent séances throughout her career.[72] In 1874
during a séance with Edward William Cox a sitter looked into the cabinet
and seized the spirit, the headdress fell off and was revealed to be
Showers.[73] In a series of experiments in London at the house of
William Crookes in February 1875, the medium Anna Eva Fay managed to
fool Crookes into believing she had genuine psychic powers. Fay later
confessed to her fraud and revealed the tricks she had used.[74] Frank
Herne a British medium who formed a partnership with the medium Charles
Williams was repeatedly exposed in fraudulent materialization
séances.[75] In 1875, he was caught pretending to be a spirit during a
séance in Liverpool and was found "clothed in about two yards of
stiffened muslin, wound round his head and hanging down as far as his
thigh."[76] Florence Cook had been "trained in the arts of the séance"
by Herne and was repeatedly exposed as a fraudulent medium.[77] The
medium Henry Slade was caught in fraud many times throughout his
career. In a séance in 1876 in London Ray Lankester and Bryan Donkin
snatched his slate before the "spirit" message was supposed to be
written, and found the writing already there.[78] Slade also played an
accordion with one hand under the table and claimed spirits would play
it. The magician Chung Ling Soo revealed how Slade had performed the
trick.[79] Eva Carrière with cardboard cut out figure King Ferdinand of Bulgaria The
British medium Francis Ward Monck was investigated by psychical
researchers and discovered to be a fraud. On November 3, 1876, during
the séance a sitter demanded that Monck be searched. Monck ran from the
room, locked himself in another room and escaped out of a window. A pair
of stuffed gloves was found in his room, as well as cheesecloth,
reaching rods and other fraudulent devices in his luggage.[80] After a
trial Monck was convicted for his fraudulent mediumship and was
sentenced to three months in prison.[81] In 1876, William
Eglinton was exposed as a fraud when the psychical researcher Thomas
Colley seized a "spirit" materialization in his séance and cut off a
portion of its cloak. It was discovered that the cut piece matched a
cloth found in Eglinton's suitcase.[82] Colley also pulled the beard off
the materialization and it was revealed to be a fake, the same as
another one found in the suitcase of Eglinton.[83] In 1880 in a séance a
spirit named "Yohlande" materialized, a sitter grabbed it and was
revealed to be the medium Mme. d'Esperance herself.[84] In
September 1878 the British medium Charles Williams and his fellow-medium
at the time, A. Rita, were detected in trickery at Amsterdam. During
the séance a materialized spirit was seized and found to be Rita and a
bottle of phosphorus oil, muslin and a false beard were found amongst
the two mediums.[85] In 1882 C. E. Wood was exposed in a séance in
Peterborough. Her Indian spirit control "Pocka" was found to be the
medium on her knees, covered in muslin.[86] In 1880 the American
stage mentalist Washington Irving Bishop published a book revealing how
mediums would use secret codes as the trick for their clairvoyant
readings.[87] The Seybert Commission was a group of faculty at the
University of Pennsylvania who in 1884–1887 exposed fraudulent mediums
such as Pierre L. O. A. Keeler and Henry Slade.[88] The Fox sisters
confessed to fraud in 1888. Margaret Fox revealed that she and her
sister had produced the "spirit" rappings by cracking their toe
joints.[89] In 1891 at a public séance with twenty sitters the
medium Cecil Husk was caught leaning over a table pretending to be a
spirit by covering his face with phosphor material.[90] The magician
Will Goldston also exposed the fraud mediumship of Husk. In a séance
Goldston attended a pale face materialization appeared in the room.
Goldston wrote "I saw at once that it was a gauze mask, and that the
moustache attached to it was loose at one side through lack of gum. I
pulled at the mask. It came away, revealing the face of Husk."[91] The
British materialization medium Annie Fairlamb Mellon was exposed as a
fraud on October 12, 1894. During the séance a sitter seized the
materialized spirit, and found it to be the Mellon on her knees with
white muslin on her head and shoulders.[92] The magician Samri
Baldwin exposed the tricks of the Davenport brothers in his book The
Secrets of Mahatma Land Explained (1895).[93] The medium Swami Laura
Horos was convicted of fraud several times and was tried for rape and
fraud in London in 1901. She was described by the magician Harry Houdini
as "one of the most extraordinary fake mediums and mystery swindlers
the world has ever known".[94] In the late 19th century, the
fraudulent methods of spirit photographers such as David Duguid and
Edward Wyllie were revealed by psychical researchers.[95] Hereward
Carrington documented various methods (with diagrams) how the medium
would manipulate the plates before, during, and after the séance to
produce spirit forms.[96] The ectoplasm materializations of the French
medium Eva Carrière were exposed as fraudulent. The fake ectoplasm of
Carrière was made of cut-out paper faces from newspapers and magazines
on which fold marks could sometimes be seen from the photographs.[97]
Cut out faces that she used included Woodrow Wilson, King Ferdinand of
Bulgaria, French president Raymond Poincaré and the actress Mona
Delza.[98] The séance trick of the Eddy Brothers was revealed by
the magician Chung Ling Soo in 1898. The brothers utilized a fake hand
made of lead, and with their hands free from control would play musical
instruments and move objects in the séance room.[99] The physiologist
Ivor Lloyd Tuckett examined a case of spirit photography that W. T.
Stead had claimed was genuine. Stead visited a photographer who had
produced a photograph of him with deceased soldier known as "Piet
Botha". Stead claimed that the photographer could not have come across
any information about Piet Botha, however, Tuckett discovered that an
article in 1899 had been published on Pietrus Botha in a weekly magazine
with a portrait and personal details.[100] The trance medium
Leonora Piper was investigated by psychical researchers and
psychologists in the late 19th and early 20th century. In an experiment
to test if Piper's "spirit" controls were purely fictitious the
psychologist G. Stanley Hall invented a niece called Bessie Beals and
asked Piper's 'control' to get in touch with it. Bessie appeared,
answered questions and accepted Hall as her uncle.[101] The psychologist
Joseph Jastrow wrote that Piper pretended to be controlled by spirits
and fell into simple and logical traps from her comments.[102] Science
writer Martin Gardner concluded Piper was a cold reader that would
"fish" for information from her séance sitters.[103] The physiologist
Ivor Lloyd Tuckett who examined Piper's mediumship in detail wrote it
could be explained by "muscle-reading, fishing, guessing, hints obtained
in the sitting, knowledge surreptitiously obtained, knowledge acquired
in the interval between sittings and lastly, facts already within Mrs.
Piper's knowledge."[104] 1900s In March 1902 in Berlin, police
officers interrupted a séance of the German apport medium Frau Anna
Rothe. Her hands were grabbed and she was wrestled to the ground. A
female police assistant physically examined Rothe and discovered 157
flowers as well as oranges and lemons hidden in her petticoat. She was
arrested and charged with fraud.[105] Another apport medium Hilda Lewis
known as the "flower medium" confessed to fraud.[106] The
psychical researchers W. W. Baggally and Everard Feilding exposed the
British materialization medium Christopher Chambers as a fraud in 1905. A
false moustache was discovered in the séance room which he used to
fabricate the spirit materializations.[107] The British medium Charles
Eldred was exposed as a fraud in 1906. Eldred would sit in a chair in a
curtained off area in the room known as a "séance cabinet". Various
spirit figures would emerge from the cabinet and move around the séance
room, however, it was discovered that the chair had a secret compartment
that contained beards, cloths, masks, and wigs that Eldred would dress
up in to fake the spirits.[108] The spirit photographer William
Hope tricked William Crookes with a fake spirit photograph of his wife
in 1906. Oliver Lodge revealed there had been obvious signs of double
exposure, the picture of Lady Crookes had been copied from a wedding
anniversary photograph, however, Crookes was a convinced spiritualist
and claimed it was genuine evidence for spirit photography.[109] In
1907, Hereward Carrington exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums such
as those used in slate-writing, table-turning, trumpet mediumship,
materializations, sealed-letter reading and spirit photography.[110]
between 1908 and 1914 the Italian medium Francesco Carancini was
investigated by psychical researchers and they discovered that he used
phosphorus matches to produce "spirit lights" and with a freed hand
would move objects in the séance room.[111] In 1908 at a hotel in
Naples, the psychical researchers W. W. Baggally, Hereward Carrington
and Everard Feilding attended a series of séances with Eusapia
Palladino. In a report they claimed that genuine supernatural activity
had occurred in the séances, this report became known as the Feilding
report.[112] In 1910, Feilding returned to Naples, but this time
accompanied with the magician William S. Marriott. Unlike the 1908
sittings, Feilding and Marriott detected her cheating, just as she had
done in America. Her deceptions were obvious. Palladino evaded control
and was caught moving objects with her foot, shaking the curtain with
her hands, moving the cabinet table with her elbow and touching the
séance sitters. Milbourne Christopher wrote regarding the exposure "when
one knows how a feat can be done and what to look for, only the most
skillful performer can maintain the illusion in the face of such
informed scrutiny."[113] Stanisława Tomczyk (left) and the magician
William Marriott (right) who duplicated by natural means her levitation
trick of a glass beaker In 1910 at a séance in Grenoble, France
the apport medium Charles Bailey produced two live birds in the séance
room. Bailey was unaware that the dealer he had bought the birds from
was present in the séance and he was exposed as a fraud.[114] The
psychical researcher Eric Dingwall observed the medium Bert Reese in New
York and claimed to have discovered his billet reading tricks.[115] The
most detailed account at exposing his tricks (with diagrams) was by the
magician Theodore Annemann.[116] The Polish medium Stanisława
Tomczyk's levitation of a glass beaker was exposed and replicated in
1910 by the magician William S. Marriott by means of a hidden
thread.[117] The Italian medium Lucia Sordi was exposed in 1911, she was
bound to a chair by psychical researchers but would free herself during
her séances. The tricks of another Italian medium Linda Gazzera were
revealed in the same year, she would release her hands and feet from
control in her séances and use them. Gazzera would not permit anyone to
search her before a séance sitting, as she concealed muslin and other
objects in her hair.[118] In 1917, Edward Clodd analyzed the
mediumship of the trance medium Gladys Osborne Leonard and came to the
conclusion that Leonard had known her séance sitters before she had held
the séances, and could have easily obtained such information by natural
means.[119] The British psychiatrist Charles Arthur Mercier wrote in
his book Spiritualism and Sir Oliver Lodge (1917) that Oliver Lodge had
been duped into believing mediumship by trickery and his spiritualist
views were based on assumptions and not scientific evidence.[120] In
1918, Joseph Jastrow wrote about the tricks of Eusapia Palladino who
was an expert at freeing her hands and feet from the control in the
séance room.[121] In the séance room Palladino would move curtains from a
distance by releasing a jet of air from a rubber bulb that she had in
her hand.[122] According to the psychical researcher Harry Price "Her
tricks were usually childish: long hairs attached to small objects in
order to produce 'telekinetic movements'; the gradual substitution of
one hand for two when being controlled by sitters; the production of
'phenomena' with a foot which had been surreptitiously removed from its
shoe and so on."[123] In the 1920s the British medium Charles
Albert Beare duped the Spiritualist organization the Temple of Light
into believing he had genuine mediumship powers. In 1931 Beare published
a confession in the newspaper Daily Express. In the confession he
stated "I have deceived hundreds of people…. I have been guilty of fraud
and deception in spiritualistic practices by pretending that I was
controlled by a spirit guide…. I am frankly and whole-heartedly sorry
that I have allowed myself to deceive people."[124] Due to the exposure
of William Hope and other fraudulent spiritualists, Arthur Conan Doyle
in the 1920s led a mass resignation of eighty-four members of the
Society for Psychical Research, as they believed the Society was opposed
to spiritualism.[125] Between 8 November and 31 December 1920
Gustav Geley of the Institute Metapsychique International attended
fourteen séances with the medium Franek Kluski in Paris. A bowl of hot
paraffin was placed in the room and according to Kluski spirits dipped
their limbs into the paraffin and then into a bath of water to
materialize. Three other series of séances were held in Warsaw in
Kluski's own apartment, these took place over a period of three years.
Kluski was not searched in any of the séances. Photographs of the molds
were obtained during the four series of experiments and were published
by Geley in 1924.[126][127] Harry Houdini replicated the Kluski
materialization moulds by using his hands and a bowl of hot
paraffin.[128] The British direct-voice medium Frederick Tansley
Munnings was exposed as a fraud when one of his séance sitters turned
the lights on which revealed him to be holding a trumpet by means of a
telescopic extension piece and using an angle piece to change the
auditory effect of his voice.[129] Richard Hodgson held six sittings
with the medium Rosina Thompson and came to the conclusion she was a
fraud as he discovered Thompson had access to documents and information
about her séance sitters.[130] On 4 February 1922, Harry Price
with James Seymour, Eric Dingwall and William S. Marriott had proven the
spirit photographer William Hope was a fraud during tests at the
British College of Psychic Science. Price wrote in his SPR report
"William Hope has been found guilty of deliberately substituting his own
plates for those of a sitter... It implies that the medium brings to
the sitting a duplicate slide and faked plates for fraudulent
purposes."[131] The medium Kathleen Goligher was investigated by the
physicist Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe. On July 22, 1921, in a séance
he observed Goligher holding the table up with her foot. He also
discovered that her ectoplasm was made of muslin. During a séance d'Albe
observed white muslin between Goligher's feet.[132] The Danish
medium Einer Nielsen was investigated by a committee from the Kristiania
University in Norway, 1922 and discovered in a séance that his
ectoplasm was fake.[133] In 1923 the Polish medium Jan Guzyk was exposed
as a fraud in a series of séances in Sorbonne in Paris. Guzyk would use
his elbows and legs to move objects around the room and touch the
sitters. According to Max Dessoir the trick of Guzyk was to use his
"foot for psychic touches and sounds".[134] The psychical
researchers Eric Dingwall and Harry Price re-published an anonymous work
written by a former medium entitled Revelations of a Spirit Medium
(1922) which exposed the tricks of mediumship and the fraudulent methods
of producing "spirit hands".[135] Originally all the copies of the book
were bought up by spiritualists and deliberately destroyed.[136] In
1923, the magician Carlos María de Heredia revealed how fake spirit
hands could be made by using a rubber glove, paraffin and a jar of cold
water.[137] The Hungarian medium Ladislas Lasslo confessed that
all of his spirit materializations were fraudulent in 1924. A séance
sitter was also found to be working as a confederate for
Lasslo.[138][139] Mina Crandon with her "spirit hand" which was discovered to be made from a piece of carved animal liver Stanisława P. with ectoplasm The
Austrian medium Rudi Schneider was investigated in 1924 by the
physicists Stefan Meyer and Karl Przibram. They caught Rudi freeing his
arm in a series of séances.[140] Rudi claimed he could levitate objects
but according to Harry Price a photograph taken on April 28, 1932,
showed that Rudi had managed to free his arm to move a handkerchief from
the table.[141] According to Warren Jay Vinton, Schneider was an expert
at freeing himself from control in the séance room.[142] Oliver Gatty
and Theodore Besterman who tested Schneider concluded that in their
tests there was "no good evidence that Rudi Schneider possesses
supernormal powers."[143] The spiritualists Arthur Conan Doyle
and W. T. Stead were duped into believing Julius and Agnes Zancig had
genuine psychic powers. Both Doyle and Stead wrote that the Zancigs
performed telepathy. In 1924 Julius and Agnes Zancig confessed that
their mind reading act was a trick and published the secret code and all
the details of the trick method they had used under the title of Our
Secrets!! in a London Newspaper.[144] In 1925, Samuel Soal
claimed to have taken part in a series of séances with the medium
Blanche Cooper who contacted the spirit of a soldier Gordon Davis and
revealed the house that he had lived in. Researchers later discovered
fraud as the séances had taken place in 1922, not 1925. The magician and
paranormal investigator Bob Couttie revealed that Davis was alive, Soal
lived close to him and had altered the records of the sittings after
checking out the house. Soal's co-workers knew that he had fiddled the
results but were kept quiet with threats of libel suits.[145] Mina
Crandon claimed to materialize a "spirit hand", but when examined by
biologists the hand was discovered to be made from a piece of carved
animal liver.[146] The German apport medium Heinrich Melzer was
discovered to be a fraud in 1926. In a séance psychical researchers
found that Melzer had small stones attached to the back of his ears by
flesh coloured tape.[147] Psychical researchers who investigated the
mediumship of Maria Silbert revealed that she used her feet and toes to
move objects in the séance room.[148] In 1930 the Polish medium
Stanisława P. was tested at the Institut Metapsychique in Paris. French
psychical researcher Eugéne Osty suspected in the séance that Stanislawa
had freed her hand from control. Secret flashlight photographs that
were taken revealed that her hand was free and she had moved objects on
the séance table.[149] It was claimed by spiritualists that during a
series of séances in 1930 the medium Eileen J. Garrett channeled secret
information from the spirit of the Lieutenant Herbert Carmichael Irwin
who had died in the R101 crash a few days before the séance. Researcher
Melvin Harris who studied the case wrote that the information described
in Garrett's séances were "either commonplace, easily absorbed bits and
pieces, or plain gobblede-gook. The so-called secret information just
doesn't exist."[92] Helen Duncan with fake ectoplasm, analysed by Harry Price to be made of cheesecloth and a rubber glove In
the 1930s Harry Price (director of the National Laboratory of Psychical
Research) had investigated the medium Helen Duncan and had her perform a
number of test séances. She was suspected of swallowing cheesecloth
which was then regurgitated as "ectoplasm".[150] Price had proven
through analysis of a sample of ectoplasm produced by Duncan, that it
was made of cheesecloth.[151] Helen Duncan would also use a doll made of
a painted papier-mâché mask draped in an old sheet which she pretended
to her sitters was a spirit.[152] The photographs taken by Thomas
Glendenning Hamilton in the 1930s of ectoplasm reveal the substance to
be made of tissue paper and magazine cut-outs of people. The famous
photograph taken by Hamilton of the medium Mary Ann Marshall depicts
tissue paper with a cut out of Arthur Conan Doyle's head from a
newspaper. Skeptics have suspected that Hamilton may have been behind
the hoax.[153] Psychologists and researchers who studied Pearl
Curran's automatic writings in the 1930s came to the conclusion Patience
Worth was a fictitious creation of Curran.[154][155] In 1931 George
Valiantine was exposed as a fraud in the séance room as it was
discovered that he produced fraudulent "spirit" fingerprints in wax. The
"spirit" thumbprint that Valiantine claimed belonged to Arthur Conan
Doyle was revealed to be the print of his big toe on his right foot. It
was also revealed that Valiantine made some of the prints with his
elbow.[156] The medium Frank Decker was exposed as a fraud in
1932. A magician and séance sitter who called himself M. Taylor
presented a mail bag and Decker agreed to lock himself inside it. During
the séance objects were moved around the room and it was claimed
spirits had released Decker from the bag. It was later discovered to
have been a trick as Martin Sunshine, a magic dealer admitted that he
sold Decker a trick mail bag, such as stage escapologists use, and had
acted as the medium's confederate by pretending to be M. Taylor, a
magician.[157] The British medium Estelle Roberts claimed to materialize
an Indian spirit guide called "Red Cloud". Researcher Melvin Harris who
examined some photographs of Red Cloud wrote the face was the same as
Roberts and she had dressed up in a feathered war-bonnet.[92] In
1936, the psychical researcher Nandor Fodor tested the Hungarian apport
medium Lajos Pap in London and during the séance a dead snake appeared.
Pap was searched and was found to be wearing a device under his robe,
where he had hidden the snake.[158] A photograph taken at a séance in
1937 in London shows the medium Colin Evans "levitating" in mid air. He
claimed that spirits had lifted him. Evans was later discovered to be a
fraud as a cord leading from a device in his hand has indicated that it
was himself who triggered the flash-photograph and that all he had done
was jump from his chair into the air and pretend he had levitated.[159] According
to the magician John Booth the stage mentalist David Devant managed to
fool a number of people into believing he had genuine psychic ability
who did not realize that his feats were magic tricks. At St. George's
Hall, London he performed a fake "clairvoyant" act where he would read a
message sealed inside an envelope. The spiritualist Oliver Lodge who
was present in the audience was duped by the trick and claimed that
Devant had used psychic powers. In 1936 Devant in his book Secrets of My
Magic revealed the trick method he had used.[160] The physicist
Kristian Birkeland exposed the fraud of the direct voice medium Etta
Wriedt. Birkeland turned on the lights during a séance, snatched her
trumpets and discovered that the "spirit" noises were caused by chemical
explosions induced by potassium and water and in other cases by
lycopodium powder.[161] The British medium Isa Northage claimed to
materialize the spirit of a surgeon known as Dr. Reynolds. When
photographs taken of Reynolds were analyzed by researchers they
discovered that Northage looked like Reynolds with a glued stage
beard.[92] The magician Julien Proskauer revealed that the
levitating trumpet of Jack Webber was a trick. Close examination of
photographs reveal Webber to be holding a telescopic reaching rod
attached to the trumpet, and sitters in his séances only believed it to
have levitated because the room was so dark they could not see the rod.
Webber would cover the rod with crepe paper to disguise its real
construction.[162] Kathleen Goligher with fake ectoplasm made of muslin In
1954, the psychical researcher Rudolf Lambert published a report
revealing details about a case of fraud that was covered up by many
early members of the Institute Metapsychique International (IMI).[163]
Lambert who had studied Gustav Geley's files on the medium Eva Carrière
discovered photographs depicting fraudulent ectoplasm taken by her
companion Juliette Bisson.[163] Various "materializations" were
artificially attached to Eva's hair by wires. The discovery was never
published by Geley. Eugéne Osty (the director of the institute) and
members Jean Meyer, Albert von Schrenck-Notzing and Charles Richet all
knew about the fraudulent photographs but were firm believers in
mediumship phenomena so demanded the scandal be kept secret.[163] The
fraudulent medium Ronald Edwin confessed he had duped his séance
sitters and revealed the fraudulent methods he had used in his book
Clock Without Hands (1955).[164] The psychical researcher Tony Cornell
investigated the mediumship of Alec Harris in 1955. During the séance
"spirit" materializations emerged from a cabinet and walked around the
room. Cornell wrote that a stomach rumble, nicotine smelling breath and a
pulse gave it away that all the spirit figures were in fact Harris and
that he had dressed up as each one behind the cabinet.[165] The
British medium William Roy earned over £50,000 from his séance sitters.
He confessed to fraud in 1958 revealing the microphone and
trick-apparatus that he had used.[166] The automatic writings of the
Irish medium Geraldine Cummins were analyzed by psychical researchers in
the 1960s and they revealed that she worked as a cataloguer at the
National Library of Ireland and took information from various books that
would appear in her automatic writings about ancient history.[167] In
1960, psychic investigator Andrija Puharich and Tom O'Neill, publisher
of the Spiritualist magazine Psychic Observer, arranged to film two
seances at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana, using infrared film, intending to
procure scientific proof of spirit materializations. The medium was
shown the camera beforehand, and was aware that she was being filmed.
However, the film revealed obvious fraud on the part of the medium and
her cabinet assistant. The exposé was published in the 10 July 1960
issue of the Psychic Observer.[168]: 96–97 In 1966 the son of
Bishop Pike committed suicide. After his death, Pike contacted the
British medium Ena Twigg for a series of séances and she claimed to have
communicated with his son. Although Twigg denied formerly knowing
anything about Pike and his son, the magician John Booth discovered that
Twigg had already known information about the Pike family before the
séances. Twigg had belonged to the same denomination of Bishop Pike, he
had preached at a cathedral in Kent and she had known information about
him and his deceased son from newspapers.[169] In 1970 two
psychical researchers investigated the direct-voice medium Leslie Flint
and found that all the "spirit" voices in his séance sounded exactly
like himself and attributed his mediumship to "second-rate
ventriloquism".[170] The medium Arthur Ford died leaving specific
instructions that all of his files should be burned. In 1971 after his
death, psychical researchers discovered his files but instead of burning
them they were examined and discovered to be filled with obituaries,
newspaper articles and other information, which enabled Ford to research
his séance sitters backgrounds.[171] Ronald Pearsall in his book
Table-rappers: The Victorians and the Occult (1972) documented how
every Victorian medium investigated had been exposed as using trickery,
in the book he revealed how mediums would even use acrobatic techniques
during séances to convince audiences of spirit presences.[172] In
1976, M. Lamar Keene, a medium in Florida and at the Spiritualist Camp
Chesterfield in Indiana, confessed to defrauding the public in his book
The Psychic Mafia. Keene detailed a multitude of common stage magic
techniques utilized by mediums which are supposed to give an appearance
of paranormal powers or supernatural involvement.[173] After her
death in the 1980s the medium Doris Stokes was accused of fraud, by
author and investigator Ian Wilson. Wilson stated that Mrs Stokes
planted specific people in her audience and did prior research into her
sitters.[174] Rita Goold a physical medium during the 1980s was accused
of fraud, by the psychical researcher Tony Cornell. He claimed she would
dress up as the spirits in her séances and would play music during them
which provided cover for her to change clothes.[175] The spirit
guide Silver Belle was made from cardboard. Both Ethel Post-Parrish and
the lady standing outside of the curtain were in on the hoax. The
British journalist Ruth Brandon published the book The Spiritualists
(1983) which exposed the fraud of the Victorian mediums.[6] The book
received positive reviews and has been influential to skeptics of
spiritualism.[176] The British apport medium Paul McElhoney was exposed
as a fraud during a séance in Osset, Yorkshire in 1983. The tape
recorder that McElhoney took to his séances was investigated and a black
tape was discovered bound around the battery compartment and inside
carnation flowers were found as well as a key-ring torch and other
objects.[92] In 1988, the magician Bob Couttie criticized the
paranormal author Brian Inglis for deliberately ignoring evidence of
fraud in mediumship. Couttie wrote Inglis had not familiarized himself
with magician techniques.[177] In 1990 the researcher Gordon Stein
discovered that the levitation photograph of the medium Carmine
Mirabelli was fraudulent. The photograph was a trick as there were signs
of chemical retouching under Mirabelli's feet. The retouching showed
that Mirabelli was not levitating but was standing on a ladder which was
erased from the photograph.[178] In 1991, Wendy Grossman in the
New Scientist criticized the parapsychologist Stephen E. Braude for
ignoring evidence of fraud in mediumship. According to Grossman
"[Braude] accuses sceptics of ignoring the evidence he believes is
solid, but himself ignores evidence that does not suit him. If a medium
was caught cheating on some occasions, he says, the rest of that
medium's phenomena were still genuine." Grossman came to the conclusion
that Braude did not do proper research on the subject and should study
"the art of conjuring."[179] In 1992, Richard Wiseman analyzed
the Feilding report of Eusapia Palladino and argued that she employed a
secret accomplice that could enter the room by a fake door panel
positioned near the séance cabinet. Wiseman discovered this trick was
already mentioned in a book from 1851, he also visited a carpenter and
skilled magician who constructed a door within an hour with a false
panel. The accomplice was suspected to be her second husband, who
insisted on bringing Palladino to the hotel where the séances took
place.[180] Massimo Polidoro and Gian Marco Rinaldi also analyzed the
Feilding report but came to the conclusion no secret accomplice was
needed as Palladino during the 1908 Naples séances could have produced
the phenomena by using her foot.[181] Colin Fry was exposed in
1992 when during a séance the lights were unexpectedly turned on and he
was seen holding a spirit trumpet in the air, which the audience had
been led to believe was being levitated by spiritual energy.[182] In
1997, Massimo Polidoro and Luigi Garlaschelli produced wax-moulds
directly from one's hand which were exactly the same copies as Gustav
Geley obtained from Franek Kluski, which are kept at the Institute
Metapsychique International.[183] A series of mediumistic séances
known as the Scole Experiment took place between 1993 and 1998 in the
presence of the researchers David Fontana, Arthur Ellison and Montague
Keen. This has produced photographs, audio recordings and physical
objects which appeared in the dark séance room (known as apports).[184] A
criticism of the experiment was that it was flawed because it did not
rule out the possibility of fraud. The skeptical investigator Brian
Dunning wrote the Scole experiments fail in many ways. The séances were
held in the basement of two of the mediums, only total darkness was
allowed with no night vision apparatus as it might "frighten the spirits
away". The box containing the film was not examined and could easily
have been accessible to fraud. And finally, even though many years have
passed, there has been no follow-up, no further research by any credible
agency or published accounts.[184] Recent Joe Nickell, a notable
skeptic of mediumship. According to Nickell, modern mediums use
mentalist techniques such as cold reading. The VERITAS Research
Program of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health in
the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona, run by the
parapsychologist Gary Schwartz, was created primarily to test the
hypothesis that the consciousness (or identity) of a person survives
physical death.[185] Schwartz claimed his experiments were indicative of
survival, but do not yet provide conclusive proof.[186][187] The
experiments described by Schwartz have received criticism from the
scientific community for being inadequately designed and using poor
controls.[188][189] Ray Hyman discovered many methodological
errors with Schwartz's research including; "Inappropriate control
comparisons", "Failure to use double-blind procedures", "Creating
non-falsifiable outcomes by reinterpreting failures as successes" and
"Failure to independently check on facts the sitters endorsed as true".
Hyman wrote "Even if the research program were not compromised by these
defects, the claims being made would require replication by independent
investigators." Hyman criticizes Schwartz's decision to publish his
results without gathering "evidence for their hypothesis that would meet
generally accepted scientific criteria... they have lost
credibility."[190] In 2003, skeptic investigator Massimo Polidoro
in his book Secrets of the Psychics documented the history of fraud in
mediumship and spiritualistic practices as well as the psychology of
psychic deception.[55] Terence Hines in his book Pseudoscience and the
Paranormal (2003) has written: Modern spiritualists and
psychics keep detailed files on their victims. As might be expected,
these files can be very valuable and are often passed on from one medium
or psychic to another when one retires or dies. Even if a psychic
doesn't use a private detective or have immediate access to driver's
license records and such, there is still a very powerful technique that
will allow the psychic to convince people that the psychic knows all
about them, their problems, and their deep personal secrets, fears, and
desires. The technique is called cold reading and is probably as old as
charlatanism itself... If John Edward (or any of the other
self-proclaimed speakers with the dead) really could communicate with
the dead, it would be a trivial matter to prove it. All that would be
necessary would be for him to contact any of the thousands of missing
persons who are presumed dead—famous (e.g., Jimmy Hoffa, Judge Crater)
or otherwise—and correctly report where the body is. Of course, this is
never done. All we get, instead, are platitudes to the effect that Aunt
Millie, who liked green plates, is happy on the other side.[191] An
experiment conducted by the British Psychological Society in 2005
suggests that under the controlled condition of the experiment, people
who claimed to be professional mediums do not demonstrate the
mediumistic ability. In the experiment, mediums were assigned to work
the participants chosen to be "sitters." The mediums claimed to contact
the deceased who were related to the sitters. The research gather the
numbers of the statements made and have the sitters rate the accuracy of
the statements. The readings that were considered to be somewhat
accurate by the sitters were very generalized, and the ones that were
considered inaccurate were the ones that were very specific.[192] On
Fox News on the Geraldo at Large show, October 6, 2007, Geraldo Rivera
and other investigators accused Schwartz of being a fraud as he had
overstepped his position as a university researcher by requesting over
three million dollars from a bereaved father who had lost his son.
Schwartz claimed to have contacted the spirit of a 25-year-old man in
the bathroom of his parents house and it is alleged he attempted to
charge the family 3.5 million dollars for his mediumship services.
Schwartz responded saying that the allegations were set up to destroy
his science credibility.[193][194] In 2013 Rose Marks and members
of her family were convicted of fraud for a series of crimes spanning
20 years entailing between $20 and $45 million. They told vulnerable
clients that to solve their problems they had to give the purported
psychics money and valuables. Marks and family promised to return the
cash and goods after "cleansing" them. Prosecutors established they had
no intent to return the property.[195][196][197] The exposures of
fraudulent activity led to a rapid decline in ectoplasm and
materialization séances.[198] Investigator Joe Nickell has written that
modern self-proclaimed mediums like John Edward, Sylvia Browne, Rosemary
Altea and James Van Praagh are avoiding the Victorian tradition of dark
rooms, spirit handwriting and flying tambourines as these methods risk
exposure. They instead use "mental mediumship" tactics like cold reading
or gleaning information from sitters beforehand (hot reading). Group
readings also improve hits by making general statements with conviction,
which will fit at least one person in the audience. Shows are carefully
edited before airing to show only what appears to be hits and removing
anything that does not reflect well on the medium.[199] Michael
Shermer criticized mediums in Scientific American, saying, "mediums are
unethical and dangerous: they prey on the emotions of the grieving. As
grief counselors know, death is best faced head-on as a part of life."
Shermer wrote that the human urge to seek connections between events
that may form patterns meaningful for survival is a function of natural
evolution, and called the alleged ability of mediums to talk to the dead
"a well-known illusion of a meaningful pattern."[200] According
to James Randi, a skeptic who has debunked many claims of psychic
ability and uncovered fraudulent practices,[201] mediums who do cold
readings "fish, suggest possibilities, make educated guesses and give
options." Randi has a standing offer of $1 million US dollars for anyone
who can demonstrate psychic ability under controlled conditions. Most
prominent psychics and mediums have not taken up his offer.[202] The
key role in mediumship of this sort is played by "effect of subjective
confirmation" (see Barnum effect) — people are predisposed to consider
reliable that information which though is casual coincidence or a guess,
however it seems to them personally important and significant and
answers their personal belief.[203] The article about this
phenomenon in Encyclopædia Britannica places emphasis that "… one by one
spiritual mediums were convicted of fraud, sometimes using the tricks
borrowed from scenic "magicians" to convince their paranormal
abilities". In the article it is also noted that "… the opening of the
wide ranging fraud happening on spiritualistic sessions caused serious
damage to reputation of the movement of a Spiritualism and in the USA
pushed it on the public periphery".[204] In March 2017, medium
Thomas John was targeted in a sting operation and caught doing a hot
reading. The sting was planned and implemented by skeptical activist
Susan Gerbic and mentalist Mark Edward. The unmarried couple attended
John's show using aliases, and were "read" as a married couple Susanna
and Mark Wilson by John. During the entire reading, John failed to
determine the actual identities of Gerbic and Edward, or that they were
being deceptive during his reading. All personal information he gave
them matched what was on their falsified Facebook accounts, rather than
being about their actual lives, and John pretended he was getting this
information from Gerbic and Edward's supposedly dead—but actually
nonexistent—relatives.[205] As Jack Hitt reported in The New York Times:
"Over the course of the reading, John comfortably laid down the
specifics of Susanna Wilson’s life — he named “Andy” and amazingly knew
him to be her twin. He knew that she and her brother grew up in Michigan
and that his girlfriend was Maria. He knew about Susanna’s
father-in-law and how he died."[206] These details were from the
falsified Facebook accounts for the pair which were prepared by a group
of skeptics in advance of the reading, and Gerbic and Edward were not
aware of the specific information in these accounts.[207] This blinding
was done in order to avoid John later being able to claim he obtained
the false information by reading Gerbic and Edward's minds.[205] In her
report, Gerbic also revealed that during an after-show private event,
John disclosed in a group setting that at least one of the people in the
audience which he did a reading about was actually his own
student.[205] The same week that the Thomas John sting revelation
was made in The New York Times, John's claimed mediumship abilities
portrayed in the Lifetime reality TV show called Seatbelt Psychic were
challenged by Gerbic in an article published by Skeptical Inquirer. In
the show, John is a ride-share driver who surprises “unsuspecting”
passengers when he delivers messages from their deceased relatives.
Gerbic investigated and revealed that John's passengers are actually
actors, several of which are documented in IMDb. Gerbic concluded that
the riders were likely hired to ride with John, but were probably not
acting when talking with him. She concluded that the details about their
lives mentioned by John were easily found on social media sources, and
likely fed to John, making the readings actually hot readings. One
rider, Wendy Westmoreland, played a character on Stalked by a Doctor, a
TV show also produced by Lifetime." (wikiepdia.org) "A
psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to
identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly
involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are
apparently inexplicable by natural laws, such as psychokinesis or
teleportation. Although many people believe in psychic abilities, the
scientific consensus is that there is no proof of the existence of such
powers, and describes the practice as pseudoscience. The word "psychic"
is also used as an adjective to describe such abilities. Psychics
encompass people in a variety of roles. Some are theatrical performers,
such as stage magicians, who use various techniques, e.g.,
prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot reading, to produce the
appearance of such abilities for entertainment purposes. A large
industry and network exists whereby people advertised as psychics
provide advice and counsel to clients.[1] Some famous psychics include
Edgar Cayce, Ingo Swann, Peter Hurkos, Janet Lee, Miss Cleo,[2] John
Edward, Sylvia Browne, and Tyler Henry. Psychic powers are asserted by
psychic detectives and in practices such as psychic archaeology and even
psychic surgery.[3] Critics attribute psychic powers to
intentional trickery or to self-delusion.[4][5][6][7] In 1988 the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences gave a report on the subject and concluded
there is "no scientific justification from research conducted over a
period of 130 years for the existence of parapsychological
phenomena".[8] A study attempted to repeat recently reported
parapsychological experiments that appeared to support the existence of
precognition. Attempts to repeat the results, which involved performance
on a memory test to ascertain if post-test information would affect it,
"failed to produce significant effects" and thus "do not support the
existence of psychic ability" of this kind.[9] Psychics are
sometimes featured in science fiction and fantasy fiction. Examples of
fiction featuring characters with psychic powers include the Star Wars
franchise, which features "Force-sensitive" beings who can see into the
future and move objects telekinetically, along with Dungeons &
Dragons and some of the works of Stephen King, amongst many others. History Etymology The
word "psychic" is derived from the Greek word psychikos ("of the mind"
or "mental"), and refers in part to the human mind or psyche (ex.
"psychic turmoil"). The Greek word also means "soul". In Greek
mythology, the maiden Psyche was the deification of the human soul. The
word derivation of the Latin psȳchē is from the Greek psȳchḗ, literally
"breath", derivative of psȳ́chein, to breathe or to blow (hence, to
live).[10] French astronomer and spiritualist Camille Flammarion
is credited as having first used the word psychic, while it was later
introduced to the English language by Edward William Cox in the
1870s.[11] Early seers and prophets Elaborate systems of
divination and fortune-telling date back to ancient times. Perhaps the
most widely known system of early civilization fortune-telling was
astrology, where practitioners believed the relative positions of
celestial bodies could lend insight into people's lives and even predict
their future circumstances. Some fortune-tellers were said to be able
to make predictions without the use of these elaborate systems (or in
conjunction with them), through some sort of direct apprehension or
vision of the future. These people were known as seers or prophets, and
in later times as clairvoyants (French word meaning "clear sight" or
"clear seeing") and psychics. Seers formed a functionary role in
early civilization, often serving as advisors, priests, and judges.[11] A
number of examples are included in biblical accounts. The book of 1
Samuel (Chapter 9) illustrates one such functionary task when Samuel is
asked to find the donkeys of the future king Saul.[12] The role of
prophet appeared perennially in ancient cultures. In Egypt, the priests
of the sun deity Ra at Memphis acted as seers. In ancient Assyria seers
were referred to as nabu, meaning "to call" or "announce".[11] The
Delphic Oracle is one of the earliest stories in classical antiquity of
prophetic abilities. The Pythia, the priestess presiding over the
Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, was believed to be able to deliver
prophecies inspired by Apollo during rituals beginning in the 8th
century BC.[13] It is often said that the Pythia delivered oracles in a
frenzied state induced by vapors rising from the ground, and that she
spoke gibberish, believed to be the voice of Apollo, which priests
reshaped into the enigmatic prophecies preserved in Greek literature.
Other scholars believe records from the time indicate that the Pythia
spoke intelligibly, and gave prophecies in her own voice.[14] The Pythia
was a position served by a succession of women probably selected from
amongst a guild of priestesses of the temple. The last recorded response
was given in 393 AD, when the emperor Theodosius I ordered pagan
temples to cease operation. Recent geological investigations raise the
possibility that ethylene gas caused the Pythia's state of
inspiration.[15] One of the most enduring historical references
to what some consider to be psychic ability is the prophecies of Michel
de Nostredame (1503–1566), often Latinized to Nostradamus, published
during the French Renaissance period. Nostradamus was a French
apothecary and seer who wrote collections of prophecies that have since
become famous worldwide and have rarely been out of print since his
death. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition
of which appeared in 1555. Taken together, his written works are known
to have contained at least 6,338 quatrains or prophecies,[16] as well as
at least eleven annual calendars. Most of the quatrains deal with
disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions,
murders, droughts, and battles – all undated. Nostradamus is a
controversial figure. His many enthusiasts, as well as the popular
press, credit him with predicting many major world events. Interest in
his work is still considerable, especially in the media and in popular
culture. By contrast, most academic scholars maintain that the
associations made between world events and Nostradamus' quatrains are
largely the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes
deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render them useless as evidence
of any genuine predictive power.[17] Englishwoman Mother Shipton
demonstrated psychic abilities from her youth and foresaw historical
events in the 16th century.[18] In addition to the belief that some
historical figures were endowed with a predisposition to psychic
experiences, some psychic abilities were thought to be available to
everyone on occasion. For example, the belief in prophetic dreams was
common and persistent in many ancient cultures.[19] Nineteenth-century progression Edgar Cayce (1877–1945) was a psychic of the 20th century and made many highly publicized predictions. In
the mid-nineteenth century, Modern Spiritualism became prominent in the
United States and the United Kingdom. The movement's distinguishing
feature was the belief that the spirits of the dead could be contacted
by mediums to lend insight to the living.[20][page needed] The movement
was fueled in part by anecdotes of psychic powers. One such person
believed to have extraordinary abilities was Daniel Dunglas Home, who
gained fame during the Victorian period for his reported ability to
levitate to various heights and speak to the dead.[21] As the
Spiritualist movement grew, other comparable groups arose, including the
Theosophical Society, which was co-founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky
(1831–1891). Theosophy coupled spiritualist elements with Eastern
mysticism and was influential in the early 20th century, later
influencing the New Age movement during the 1970s. Blavatsky herself
claimed numerous psychic powers.[22] Late twentieth century By
the late twentieth century, psychics were commonly associated with New
Age culture.[23] Psychic readings and advertising for psychics were
common from the 1960s on, as readings were offered for a fee and given
in settings such as over the phone, in a home, or at psychic fairs.[24] Popular culture Belief in psychic abilities In
a 1990 survey of members of the National Academy of Sciences, only 2%
of the respondents thought that extrasensory perception had been
scientifically demonstrated, with another 2% thinking that the phenomena
happened sometimes. Asked about research in the field, 22% thought that
it should be discouraged, 63% that it should be allowed but not
encouraged, and 10% that it should be encouraged; neuroscientists were
the most hostile to parapsychology of all the specialties.[25][26] A
survey of the beliefs of the general United States population about
paranormal topics was conducted by The Gallup Organization in 2005.[27]
The survey found that 41 percent of those polled believed in
extrasensory perception and 26 percent believed in clairvoyance. 31
percent of those surveyed indicated that they believe in telepathy or
psychic communication. A poll of 439 college students conducted
in 2006 by researchers Bryan Farha of Oklahoma City University and Gary
Steward of University of Central Oklahoma, suggested that college
seniors and graduate students were more likely to believe in psychic
phenomena than college freshmen.[28] Twenty-three percent of college
freshmen expressed a belief in paranormal ideas. The percentage was
greater among college seniors (31%) and graduate students (34%).[29] The
poll showed lower belief in psychic phenomena among science students
than social science and education students. Some people also
believe that anyone can have psychic abilities which can be activated or
enhanced through the study and practice of various disciplines and
techniques such as meditation and divination, with a number of books and
websites being dedicated to instruction in these methods.[30] Another
popular belief is that psychic ability is hereditary, with a psychic
parent passing their abilities on to their children.[31] Science fiction This
section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by
adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (September 2017) (Learn how and when to remove
this template message) Psychic abilities are common in science
fiction, often under the term "psionics". They may be depicted as innate
and heritable, as in Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, A. E. van
Vogt's Slan, Anne McCaffrey's Talents universe series or setting, and
the television series Babylon 5. Another recurring trope is the
conveyance of psychic power through psychoactive , as in the Dune novels
and indirectly in the Scanners films, as well as the ghosts in the
StarCraft franchise. Somewhat differently, in Madeleine L'Engle's A Wind
in the Door and Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land,
psychic abilities may be achieved by any human who learns the proper
mental discipline, known as kything in the former work. Popular movies
include The Initiation of Sarah. Psychic characters are also common in
superhero comics, for instance Jean Grey, Professor X and Emma Frost as
well as many others from the Marvel Comics' X-Men. More characters
include the characters Raven Baxter and Booker Baxter from the Disney
Channel Original Series That's So Raven and its spin-off Raven's Home.
The Disney Channel Original Series American Dragon: Jake Long features
recurring characters Cara and Sara, who are twin psychics claimed to be
the descendants of the Oracle of Delphi, their visions also contrast
their personalities (Cara is a Goth that sees only positive visions,
while Sara is always in a good mood despite only seeing negative
visions). Criticism and research Participant of a Ganzfeld Experiment whose results have been criticized as being misinterpreted as evidence for telepathy Parapsychological
research has attempted to use random number generators to test for
psychokinesis, mild sensory deprivation in the Ganzfeld experiment to
test for extrasensory perception, and research trials conducted under
contract by the U.S. government to investigate remote viewing. Critics
such as Ed J. Gracely say that this evidence is not sufficient for
acceptance, partly because the intrinsic probability of psychic
phenomena is very small.[4] Critics such as Ray Hyman and the
National Science Foundation suggest that parapsychology has
methodological flaws that can explain the experimental results that
parapsychologists attribute to paranormal explanations, and various
critics have classed the field as pseudoscience. This has largely been
due to lack of replication of results by independent
experimenters.[32][33][34][35][36] The evidence presented for
psychic phenomena is not sufficiently verified for scientific
acceptance, and there exist many non-paranormal alternative explanations
for claimed instances of psychic events. Parapsychologists, who
generally believe that there is some evidence for psychic ability,
disagree with critics who believe that no psychic ability exists and
that many of the instances of more popular psychic phenomena such as
mediumism, can be attributed to non-paranormal techniques such as cold
reading, hot reading, or even self-delusion.[37][38] Cold reading
techniques would include psychics using flattery, intentionally making
descriptions, statements or predictions about a person vague and
ambiguous, and surreptitiously moving on to another prediction when the
psychic deems the audience to be non-responsive.[39] Magicians such as
James Randi, Ian Rowland and Derren Brown have demonstrated techniques
and results similar to those of popular psychics, but they present
physical and psychological explanations as opposed to paranormal
ones.[citation needed] In January 2008 the results of a study
using neuroimaging were published. To provide what are purported to be
the most favorable experimental conditions, the study included
appropriate emotional stimuli and had participants who are biologically
or emotionally related, such as twins. The experiment was designed to
produce positive results if telepathy, clairvoyance or precognition
occurred, but despite this no distinguishable neuronal responses were
found between psychic stimuli and non-psychic stimuli, while variations
in the same stimuli showed anticipated effects on patterns of brain
activation. The researchers concluded that "These findings are the
strongest evidence yet obtained against the existence of paranormal
mental phenomena."[40] James Alcock had cautioned the researchers
against the wording of said statement.[41] A detailed study of
Sylvia Browne predictions about missing persons and murder cases has
found that despite her repeated claims to be more than 85% correct,
"Browne has not even been mostly correct in a single case".[42]
Concerning the television psychics, James Underdown states that testing
psychics in a studio setting is difficult as there are too many areas to
control: the psychic could be getting help from anyone on the set. The
editor controls everything; they can make a psychic look superior or
ridiculous depending on direction from the producer. In an Independent
Investigations Group exposé of John Edward and James Van Praagh they
discovered that what was actually said on the tape day, and what was
broadcast to the public were "substantially different in the accuracy.
They're getting rid of the wrong guesses... Once you pull back the
curtain and see how it's done, it's not impressive at all."[43] Richard
Saunders, Chief Investigator for the Australian Skeptics, and producer
and presenter of The Skeptic Zone podcast sought to answer the question
“Can self-proclaimed psychics predict unlikely future events with any
greater accuracy than chance?”[44] To answer that question he launched
"The Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project". Over the course of 12
years, Saunders and then Saunders and his international team of
skeptics - Michelle Bijkersma, Kelly Burke, Susan Gerbic, Adrienne Hill,
Louis Hillman, Wendy Hughes, Paula Lauterbach, Dr. Angie Mattke, Rob
Palmer, and Leonard Tramiel - searched through Australian published
media for individuals making psychic or otherwise paranormal
predictions.[44] The goal of the Great Australian Psychic
Prediction Project was to collect and then vet the accuracy of every
published psychic prediction in Australia since the year 2000. The team
analyzed over 3800 predictions made by 207 psychics over the years 2000
to 2020. While a few of the psychic predictions were about events
outside of Australia, the predictions primarily focused on celebrities,
scandals, natural disasters, weather patterns, sports, and real estate
trends.[45] The results of the analysis of the predictions found
that psychics were correct 11% of the time, wrong 35% of the time, and
that some predictions were too vague to characterize (19%) or the
predicted outcome was so obvious it was to be expected (15%). Two
percent of the predictions were unable to be categorized.[45] The main conclusions of the Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project were:[44] “Psychics are appallingly bad at predicting future events.” “Most predictions were too vague, expected, or simply wrong.” “Most of what happens is not predicted, and most of what is predicted does not happen.” The
Project confirmed that even when considering the margin of error, it is
difficult to come to any other conclusion except that people who claim
to see into the future cannot do so with a rate of success better than
that of educated guesswork, chance, or luck.[" (wikipedia.org) "A
psychic reading is a specific attempt to discern information through
the use of heightened perceptive abilities; or natural extensions of the
basic human senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and instinct. These
natural extensions are claimed to be clairvoyance (vision),
clairsentience (feeling), claircognisance (factual knowing) and
clairaudience (hearing) and the resulting statements made during such an
attempt.[1] The term is commonly associated with paranormal-based
consultation given for a fee in such settings as over the phone, in a
home, or at psychic fairs.[2] Though psychic readings are controversial
and a focus of skeptical inquiry,[3][4] a popular interest in them
persists.[5] Extensive experimentation to replicate psychic results in
laboratory conditions have failed to find any precognitive phenomena in
humans.[6] A cold reading technique allows psychics to produce seemingly
specific information about an individual from social cues and broad
statements.[7] Types There are many types of psychic readings
practiced. Although psychic readings might not incorporate the use of
any tools, a professional psychic may have one or more specialized areas
of expertise. Some of the more common readings include Tarot reading,
email psychic reading, palm reading, psychometry, aura readings, or
astrological readings. Astrology Main article: Astrology Astrology
is the study of the movements and relative positions of celestial
objects as a means for divining information about human affairs and
terrestrial events.[8][9][10] The position of the stars, planets, sun
and moon when one is born are believed to have affect one's personality,
shape how relationships work in one's life and predict future events
such as one's economic success. Aura reading Aura readings
involve the observation and interpretation of auras.[11] The aura is
purported to be a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a
person.[12] Psychics have offered aura readings for many years.[13] They
claim to have a unique ability to see or sense individual's auras,
however no evidence has ever been provided to substantiate this
claim.[citation needed] Cartomancy or playing card reading Main article: Cartomancy Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards.[14] See also Tarot reading below. Cleromancy Main article: Cleromancy Cleromantic
readings usually involve casting small objects and reading them by
their position, orientation, and mutual proximity. There are numerous
variants used throughout the world.[citation needed] Distant readings A
distant reading, "traveling clairvoyance", or "remote perception" can
be conducted without the reader ever meeting the client.[15] This
includes letters, telephone, text messaging, email, chat, and webcam
readings. Correspondence readings are usually done via letters, later emails and filling in special forms on psychic websites.[16] Telephone
readings are live readings where both psychic and client hear each
other by connecting via premium rate telephone line. In the last years,
with restrictions on premium rate numbers, more common are pre-paid
callbacks, in which case client leaves his/her credit card details over
the phone to an operator, after which gets a call on a specified phone
number. Telephone readings became most popular with the growth of live
advice TV shows as main means of advertising, and is commonly used by
companies rather than individual psychics, due to high setup
costs.[citation needed] SMS and chat readings is a quick
question-and-answer format of reading allowing exchange of basic
information between psychic and client. Webcams and online video communication may also be used for this type of reading.[citation needed] Lithomancy and crystallomancy Main articles: Lithomancy and Crystallomancy Lithomancy
readings usually involve especially suitable gems or stones that are
immersed in water, or tossed as a set and read by mutual proximity.[17]
Its origins are unknown, and there are numerous different methodologies
used by various cultures throughout the world. A recently more common
variant is crystallomancy also known as crystal gazing.[18] Using quartz
as a crystal ball[19] it is stereotypically depicted as Romani fortune
telling. Numerology Main article: Numerology Numerology is
defined as the study of the occult meanings of numbers and their
influence on human life. It is essentially a reading of an individual
based specifically upon numerical values such as their date of birth,
letters in their names, etc. Numerology can be used in psychic readings. Palm reading Main article: Palmistry Palmistry
is another popular method of psychic readings, involving
characterization and foretelling of one's future through the study of
the lines, shapes, wrinkles and curves on the palm. Palmistry does not
require psychic ability, as it generally uses cold reading abilities and
previous knowledge of the subject. Psychometry Main article: Psychometry (paranormal) Psychometry
is a form of psychic reading in which the reader claims to obtain
details about another through physical contact with their
possessions.[20] Psychometry readers often ask the subject for their
favorite and most meaningful objects, such as wedding rings, glasses,
car keys, etc., for the reading. The belief is that objects which are in
close proximity to a person for extended periods of time hold some of
that person's 'energy'. This method has been used in attempts to locate
missing persons.[21] Rune reading Main article: Runic magic Runes
are the letters of a set of related alphabets used to write various
Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet. There is
evidence to suggest that they also had magical or divinatory uses. In
modern settings, stones or tablets with runes inscribed on them are cast
on a mat or cloth to discern future events or path a problem or issue
will take.[22] Runes are also used by some witches and other
practitioners of divination.[22] Tarot reading Main article: Divinatory, esoteric and occult tarot Tarot
cards have been greatly popularized, and many readers nowadays use them
in an advisory capacity rather than for fortune telling, but readings
are generally presented for legal and ethical reasons as being provided
solely as entertainment. Tarot decks, once rare and hard to get hold of,
are now available to buy in many bookstores and online. Though not
requiring psychic abilities, reading with Tarot cards may trigger
surprisingly specific or even psychic insights via lateral and
associative thinking, inspired by the synergy of the reader, the person
being read for, and the imagery, numbers and symbols in the artwork.
Tarot readings are commonly available at psychic fairs.[5][23] Challenges Skeptics
have challenged the veracity of the claims of psychic readings, largely
through disclosure of the methods. Psychologist Richard Wiseman's 2011
book Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There noted the tricks of the
trade, and Wiseman noted in a podcast appearance that the disclosure
generated negative feedback from the psychic community." (wikipedia.org) "A
séance or seance (/ˈseɪ.ɑːns/; French: [seɑ̃s]) is an attempt to
communicate with spirits. The word séance comes from the French word for
"session", from the Old French seoir, "to sit". In French, the word's
meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de
cinéma" ("a movie session"). In English, however, the word came to be
used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive
messages from ghosts or to listen to a spirit medium discourse with or
relay messages from spirits. In modern English usage, participants need
not be seated while engaged in a séance. Fictionalised
conversations between the deceased appeared in Dialogues of the Dead by
George, First Baron Lyttelton, published in England in 1760.[1] Among
the notable spirits quoted in this volume are Peter the Great, Pericles,
a "North-American Savage", William Penn, and Christina, Queen of
Sweden. The popularity of séances grew dramatically with the founding of
the religion of Spiritualism in the mid-nineteenth century. Perhaps the
best-known series of séances conducted at that time were those of Mary
Todd Lincoln who, grieving the loss of her son, organized Spiritualist
séances in the White House, which were attended by her husband,
President Abraham Lincoln, and other prominent members of society.[2]
The 1887 Seybert Commission report marred the credibility of
Spiritualism at the height of its popularity by publishing exposures of
fraud and showmanship among secular séance leaders.[3] Modern séances
continue to be a part of the religious services of Spiritualist,
Spiritist, and Espiritismo churches today, where a greater emphasis is
placed on spiritual values versus showmanship.[4][5] Varieties of séance The
term séance is used in a few different ways, and can refer to any of
four different activities, each with its own social norms and
conventions, its own favoured tools, and its own range of expected
outcomes. Religious séances Main articles: Spiritualism, Spiritism, and Espiritismo In
the religion of Spiritualism, and the religion of Divine Metaphysics (a
federally recognized religious branch out of Spiritualism in the United
States), it is generally a part of services to communicate with living
personalities in the spirit world. Usually, this is only called "séance"
by outsiders; the preferred term for Spiritualists is "receiving
messages". In these sessions, which generally take place in well-lit
Spiritualist churches or outdoors at Spiritualist camps (such as Lily
Dale in upstate New York or Camp Cassadaga in Florida), an ordained
minister or gifted contact medium will relate messages from spirit
personalities to those here in the physical form.[4] Generally
Spiritualist "message services" or "demonstrations of the continuity of
life" are open to the public. Sometimes the medium stands to receive
messages and only the sitter is seated;[6] in some churches, the message
service is preceded by a "healing service" involving some form of faith
healing.[7] Black Hawk In addition to communicating with the
spirits of people who have a personal relationship to congregants, some
Spiritual Churches also deal with spirits who may have a specific
relationship to the medium or a historic relationship to the body of the
church. An example of the latter is the spirit of Black Hawk, a Native
American warrior of the Fox tribe who lived during the 19th century.
Black Hawk was a spirit who was often contacted by the Spiritualist
medium Leafy Anderson and he remains the central focus of special
services in the African American Spiritual Churches that she founded.[5] In
the Latin American religion of Espiritismo, which somewhat resembles
Spiritualism, séance sessions in which congregants attempt to
communicate with spirits are called misas (literally "masses"). The
spirits addressed in Espiritismo are often those of ancestors or
Catholic saints. Paschal Beverly Randolph Stage mediumship séances Mediums
who claim to contact spirits of the dead or other spirits while on a
stage, with audience members seated before them, are not literally
holding a séance, because they themselves are not seated; however, this
is still called "séance". One of the foremost early practitioners of
this type of contact with the dead was Paschal Beverly Randolph, who
worked with the spirits of the relatives of audience members, but was
also famed for his ability to contact and deliver messages from ancient
seers and philosophers, such as Plato.[8] Leader-assisted séances Leader-assisted
séances are generally conducted by small groups of people, with
participants seated around a table in a dark or semi-dark room. The
leader is typically asserted to be a medium and he or she may go into a
trance that theoretically allows the spirits to communicate through his
or her body, conveying messages to the other participants. Other modes
of communication may also be attempted, including psychography or
automatic writing, numbered raps, levitation of the table or of spirit
trumpets, apports, or even smell. It was thought spirits of the dead
resided within the realm of dark and shadow, making the absence of light
a necessity to invoke them. Skeptics were unwilling to accept this
required condition. Saying,"You would not buy an automobile if it was
only presented in the dark." This is the type of séance that is
most often the subject of shock and scandal when it turns out that the
leader is practicing some form of stage magic illusion or using
mentalism tricks to defraud clients. Informal social séances Among
those with an interest in the occult, a tradition has grown up of
conducting séances outside of any religious context and without a
leader. Sometimes only two or three people are involved, and, if they
are young, they may be using the séance as a way to test their
understanding of the boundaries between reality and the paranormal. It
is in such small séances that the planchette and ouija board are most
often utilized.[9] Spiritualist Seance Here spiritualists and
practitioners (psychic and mediums) hold a seance so that all
participants speak with various personalities in the spirit world. This
held in a seating manner in a circle. Séance tools and techniques Mediumship, trance, and channeling Main article: Mediumship The fraud medium Eva Carrière in a séance with cardboard cut out figure of King Ferdinand of Bulgaria. Mediumship
involves an act where the practitioner attempts to receive messages
from spirits of the dead and from other spirits that the practitioner
believes exist. Some self-ordained mediums are fully conscious and awake
while functioning as contacts; others may slip into a partial or full
trance or into an altered state of consciousness. These self-called
"trance-mediums" often state that, when they emerge from the trance
state, they have no recollection of the messages they conveyed; it is
customary for such practitioners to work with an assistant who writes
down or otherwise records their words.[10] Spirit boards, talking boards, and ouija boards Main article: Ouija Further information: Dactylomancy Spirit
boards, also known as talking boards, or ouija boards (after a
well-known brand name) are flat tablets, typically made of wood,
Masonite, chipboard, or plastic. On the board are a number of symbols,
pictures, letters, numbers and/or words. The board is accompanied by a
planchette (French for "little board"), which can take the form of a
pointer on three legs or magnifying glass on legs; homemade boards may
employ a shot glass as a planchette. A most basic Ouija board would
contain simply the alphabet of whatever country the board is being used
in, although it is not uncommon for whole words to be added.[11] The
board is used as follows: One or more of the participants in the séance
place one or two fingers on the planchette which is in the middle of
the board. The appointed medium asks questions of the spirit(s) with
whom they are attempting to communicate.[12] Trumpets, slates, tables, and cabinets Main article: Table-turning During
the latter half of the 19th century, a number of Spiritualist mediums
began to advocate the use of specialized tools for conducting séances,
particularly in leader-assisted sessions conducted in darkened rooms.
"Spirit trumpets" were horn-shaped speaking tubes that were said to
magnify the whispered voices of spirits to audible range. "Spirit
slates" consisted of two chalkboards bound together that, when opened,
were said to reveal messages written by spirits. "Séance tables" were
special light-weight tables which were said to rotate, float, or
levitate when spirits were present. "Spirit cabinets" were portable
closets into which mediums were placed, often bound with ropes, in order
to prevent them from manipulating the various aforementioned tools. Critical objections A poster for an early 20th century stage show from Houdini, advertised as proving that spirits do not return Scientific
skeptics and atheists generally consider both religious and secular
séances to be scams, or at least a form of pious fraud, citing a lack of
empirical evidence.[13] The exposure of supposed mediums whose use of
séance tools derived from the techniques of stage magic has been
disturbing to many believers in spirit communication. In particular, the
1870s exposures of the Davenport Brothers as illusionists and the 1887
report of the Seybert Commission[3] brought an end to the first historic
phase of Spiritualism. Stage magicians like John Nevil Maskelyne and
Harry Houdini made a side-line of exposing fraudulent mediums during the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1976, M. Lamar Keene described
deceptive techniques that he himself had used in séances; however, in
the same book, Keene also stated that he still had a firm belief in God,
life after death, ESP, and other psychic phenomena.[14] In his 2004
television special Seance, magician Derren Brown held a séance and
afterwards described some of the tricks used by him (and 19th-century
mediums) to create the illusion of paranormal events. Critics of
channeling—including both skeptics and believers—state that since the
most commonly reported physical manifestations of channeling are an
unusual vocal pattern or abnormal overt behaviors of the medium, it can
be quite easily faked by anyone with theatrical talent.[14] Critics of
spirit board communication techniques—again including both skeptics and
believers—state that the premise that a spirit will move the planchette
and spell out messages using the symbols on the board is undermined by
the fact that several people have their hands on the planchette, which
allows any of them to spell out anything they want without the others
knowing. They claim that this is a common trick, used on occasions such
as teenage sleepover parties, to scare the people present. Another
criticism of spirit board communication involves what is called the
ideomotor effect which has been suggested as an automatism, or
subconscious mechanism, by which a Ouija-user's mind unknowingly guides
his hand upon the planchette, hence he will honestly believe he is not
moving it, when, in fact, he is.[15] This theory rests on the embedded
premise that human beings actually have a "subconscious mind," a belief
not held by all.[16] The exposures of fraud by tool-using mediums
have had two divergent results: skeptics have used historic exposures
as a frame through which to view all spirit mediumship as inherently
fraudulent,[13] while believers have tended to eliminate the use of
tools but continued to practice mediumship in full confidence of its
spiritual value to them.[4][5] Jews and Christians are taught
that it is sinful to attempt to conjure or control spirits in accordance
with Deuteronomy 18:9–12.[17][18] Psychology Research in
anomalistic psychology has revealed the role of suggestion in seances.
In a series of fake seance experiments (Wiseman et al.. 2003) paranormal
believers and disbelievers were suggested by an actor that a table was
levitating when, in fact, it remained stationary. After the seance,
approximately one third of the participants incorrectly reported that
the table had moved. The results showed a greater percentage of
believers reporting that the table had moved. In another experiment the
believers had also reported that a handbell had moved when it had
remained stationary and expressed their belief that the fake seances
contained genuine paranormal phenomena. The experiments strongly
supported the notion that in the seance room, believers are more
suggestible than disbelievers for suggestions that are consistent with
their belief in paranormal phenomena.[19] Notable séance mediums, attendees, and debunkers Main article: Spiritualism Mediums Cora Scott Hatch Popular
19th-century trance medium lecturers include Cora Scott Hatch, Achsa W.
Sprague, Emma Hardinge Britten (1823–1899), and Paschal Beverly
Randolph (1825–1875). Among the notable people who conducted
small leader-assisted séances during the 19th century were the Fox
sisters, whose activities included table-rapping, and the Davenport
Brothers, who were famous for the spirit cabinet work. Both the Foxes
and the Davenports were eventually exposed as frauds.[20][21][22] In the 20th century, notable trance mediums also include Edgar Cayce, Arthur Ford and David Marius Guardino. Attendees Notable
people who have attended séances and professed a belief in Spiritualism
include the social reformer Robert Owen; the journalist and pacifist
William T. Stead;[23] William Lyon Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister of
Canada for 22 years, who sought spiritual contact and political
guidance from his deceased mother, his pet dogs, and the late US
President Franklin D. Roosevelt;[24] the journalist and author Lloyd
Kenyon Jones; and the physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle.[25] A
number of artists, including abstractionists Hilma af Klint, the Regina
Five, and Paulina Peavy have given partial or complete credit for some
of their work to spirits that they contacted during seances. Paulina
said that "when she painted, she did not have control over her brush,
that it moved on its own, and that it was Lacamo(the spirit) who was
directing it." Scientists who have conducted a search for real
séances and believed that contact with the dead is a reality include the
chemist William Crookes,[26] the evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel
Wallace,[27] and reportedly, the inventor of radio Guglielmo Marconi,
the inventor of telephone Alexander Graham Bell, the experimental
physicist Oliver Lodge and the inventor of television technology John
Logie Baird, who claimed to have contacted the spirit of the inventor
Thomas Edison.[28] Debunkers Among the best-known exposers of
fraudulent mediumship acts have been the researchers Frank Podmore of
the Society for Psychical Research, Harry Price of the National
Laboratory of Psychical Research, the professional stage magicians John
Nevil Maskelyne[29] (who exposed the Davenport Brothers) and Harry
Houdini, who clearly stated that he did not oppose the religion of
Spiritualism itself, but only the trickery by phony mediums that was
being practiced in the name of the religion.[30] The psychical
researcher Hereward Carrington exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums
such as those used in slate-writing, table-turning, trumpet mediumship,
materializations, sealed-letter reading and spirit photography.[31] The
skeptic Joseph McCabe documented many mediums who had been caught in
fraud and the tricks they used in his book Is Spiritualism Based on
Fraud? (1920).[32] Magicians have a long history of exposing the
fraudulent methods of mediumship. Early debunkers included Chung Ling
Soo, Henry Evans and Julien Proskauer.[33] Later magicians to reveal
fraud were Fulton Oursler, Joseph Dunninger, Joseph Rinn, and James
Randi.[34] The researchers Trevor H. Hall and Gordon Stein have
documented the trickery of the medium Daniel Dunglas Home.[35][36] Tony
Cornell exposed a number of fraudulent mediums including Rita Goold and
Alec Harris." (wikipedia.org) "An
oracle is a person or thing considered to provide wise and insightful
counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of
the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a
form of divination. Description The word oracle comes from
the Latin verb ōrāre, "to speak" and properly refers to the priest or
priestess uttering the prediction. In extended use, oracle may also
refer to the site of the oracle, and to the oracular utterances
themselves, called khrēsmē 'tresme' (χρησμοί) in Greek. Oracles
were thought to be portals through which the gods spoke directly to
people. In this sense, they were different from seers (manteis, μάντεις)
who interpreted signs sent by the gods through bird signs, animal
entrails, and other various methods.[1] The most important
oracles of Greek antiquity were Pythia (priestess to Apollo at Delphi),
and the oracle of Dione and Zeus at Dodona in Epirus. Other oracles of
Apollo were located at Didyma and Mallus on the coast of Anatolia, at
Corinth and Bassae in the Peloponnese, and at the islands of Delos and
Aegina in the Aegean Sea. The Sibylline Oracles are a collection
of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters, ascribed to the
Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in frenzied states. Origins Walter
Burkert observes that "Frenzied women from whose lips the God speaks"
are recorded in the Near East as in Mari in the second millennium BC and
in Assyria in the first millennium BC.[2] In Egypt, the goddess Wadjet
(eye of the moon) was depicted as a snake-headed woman or a woman with
two snake-heads. Her oracle was in the renowned temple in Per-Wadjet
(Greek name Buto). The oracle of Wadjet may have been the source for the
oracular tradition which spread from Egypt to Greece.[3] Evans linked
Wadjet with the "Minoan Snake Goddess".[4] At the oracle of
Dodona she is called Diōnē (the feminine form of Diós, genitive of Zeus;
or of dīos, "godly", literally "heavenly"), who represents the
earth-fertile soil, probably the chief female goddess of the
proto-Indo-European pantheon[citation needed]. Python, daughter (or son)
of Gaia was the earth dragon of Delphi represented as a serpent and
became the chthonic deity, enemy of Apollo, who slew her and possessed
the oracle.[5] In classical antiquity Pythia at Delphi When the Prytanies' seat shines white in the island of Siphnos, White-browed all the forum—need then of a true seer's wisdom— Danger will threat from a wooden boat, and a herald in scarlet. — The Pythoness, in The Histories, Herodotus.[6] The Pythia was the mouthpiece of the oracles of the god Apollo, and was also known as the Oracle of Delphi.[7] The
Delphic Oracle exerted considerable influence throughout Hellenic
culture. Distinctively, this woman was essentially the highest authority
both civilly and religiously in male-dominated ancient Greece. She
responded to the questions of citizens, foreigners, kings, and
philosophers on issues of political impact, war, duty, crime, family,
laws—even personal issues.[8] The semi-Hellenic countries around the
Greek world, such as Lydia, Caria, and even Egypt also respected her and
came to Delphi as supplicants. Croesus, king of Lydia beginning
in 560 BC, tested the oracles of the world to discover which gave the
most accurate prophecies. He sent out emissaries to seven sites who were
all to ask the oracles on the same day what the king was doing at that
very moment. Croesus proclaimed the oracle at Delphi to be the most
accurate, who correctly reported that the king was making a
lamb-and-tortoise stew, and so he graced her with a magnitude of
precious gifts.[9] He then consulted Delphi before attacking Persia, and
according to Herodotus was advised: "If you cross the river, a great
empire will be destroyed". Believing the response favourable, Croesus
attacked, but it was his own empire that ultimately was destroyed by the
Persians. She allegedly also proclaimed that there was no man
wiser than Socrates, to which Socrates said that, if so, this was
because he alone was aware of his own ignorance. After this
confrontation, Socrates dedicated his life to a search for knowledge
that was one of the founding events of western philosophy. He claimed
that she was "an essential guide to personal and state development."[10]
This oracle's last recorded response was given in 362 AD, to Julian the
Apostate.[11] The oracle's powers were highly sought after and
never doubted. Any inconsistencies between prophecies and events were
dismissed as failure to correctly interpret the responses, not an error
of the oracle.[12] Very often prophecies were worded ambiguously, so as
to cover all contingencies – especially so ex post facto. One famous
such response to a query about participation in a military campaign was
"You will go you will return never in war will you perish". This gives
the recipient liberty to place a comma before or after the word "never",
thus covering both possible outcomes. Another was the response to the
Athenians when the vast army of king Xerxes I was approaching Athens
with the intent of razing the city to the ground. "Only the wooden
palisades may save you"[citation needed], answered the oracle, probably
aware that there was sentiment for sailing to the safety of southern
Italy and re-establishing Athens there. Some thought that it was a
recommendation to fortify the Acropolis with a wooden fence and make a
stand there. Others, Themistocles among them, said the oracle was
clearly for fighting at sea, the metaphor intended to mean war ships.
Others still insisted that their case was so hopeless that they should
board every ship available and flee to Italy, where they would be safe
beyond any doubt. In the event, variations of all three interpretations
were attempted: some barricaded the Acropolis, the civilian population
was evacuated over sea to nearby Salamis Island and to Troizen, and the
war fleet fought victoriously at Salamis Bay. Should utter destruction
have happened, it could always be claimed that the oracle had called for
fleeing to Italy after all. Sibyl at Cumae Cumae was the
first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy, near Naples, dating back to
the 8th century BC. The sibylla or prophetess at Cumae became famous
because of her proximity to Rome and the Sibylline Books acquired and
consulted in emergencies by Rome wherein her prophecies were
transcribed. The Cumaean Sibyl was called "Herophile" by Pausanias and
Lactantius, "Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus" by Virgil, as well as
"Amaltheia", "Demophile", or "Taraxandra" by others. Sibyl's prophecies
became popular with Christians as they were thought to predict the birth
of Jesus Christ. Oracle at Didyma The ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Didyma Didyma near Ionia in Asia Minor in the domain of the famous city of Miletus. Oracle at Dodona Dodona
in northwestern Greece was another oracle devoted to the Mother Goddess
identified at other sites with Rhea or Gaia, but here called Dione. The
shrine of Dodona, set in a grove of oak trees, was the oldest Hellenic
oracle, according to the fifth-century historian Herodotus, and dated
from pre-Hellenic times, perhaps as early as the second millennium BC,
when the tradition may have spread from Egypt. By the time of Herodotus,
Zeus had displaced the Mother Goddess, who had been assimilated to
Aphrodite, and the worship of the deified hero Heracles had been added.
Dodona became the second most important oracle in ancient Greece, after
Delphi. At Dodona, Zeus was worshipped as Zeus Naios or Naos (god of
springs Naiads, from a spring under the oaks), or as Zeus Bouleos
(chancellor). Priestesses and priests interpreted the rustling of the
leaves of the oak trees by the wind to determine the correct actions to
be taken[citation needed]. Oracle at Abae The oracle of Abae
was one of the most important oracles. It was almost completely
destroyed by the Persians during the Second Persian invasion of
Greece.[13] Other oracles Erythrae near Ionia in Asia Minor was home to a prophetess. Trophonius
was an oracle at Lebadea of Boeotia devoted to the chthonian Zeus
Trophonius. Trophonius was a Greek hero nursed by Europa.[14] Near
the Menestheus's port or Menesthei Portus (Greek: Μενεσθέως λιμήν),
modern El Puerto de Santa María, Spain, was the Oracle of Menestheus
(Greek: Μαντεῖον τοῦ Μενεσθέως), to whom also the inhabitants of Gades
offered sacrifices.[15][16] At the Ikaros island in the Persian Gulf (modern Failaka Island in Kuwait), there was an oracle of Artemis Tauropolus.[17] At Claros, there was the oracle of Apollo Clarius.[18] At Ptoion, there was an oracle of Ptoios and later of Apollo.[19] At Gryneium, there was a sanctuary of Apollo with an ancient oracle.[20][21][22] At Livadeia there was the oracle of Trophonius.[23] The
oracle of Zeus Ammon at Siwa Oasis was so famous that Alexander the
Great visited it when he conquered Egypt. The oracle of Zeus Ammon at
Aphytis in Chalkidiki.[24] The oracle of Zeus at Olympia.[25] In
the city of Anariace (Ἀναριάκη) at the Caspian Sea, there was an oracle
for sleepers. Persons should sleep in the temple in order to learn the
divine will.[26][27][28] There were many "oracles of the dead",
such as in Argolis, Cumae, Herakleia in Pontos, in the Temple of
Poseidon in Taenaron, but the most important was the Necromanteion of
Acheron. In other cultures Main article: Divination The
term "oracle" is also applied in modern English to parallel institutions
of divination in other cultures. Specifically, it is used in the
context of Christianity for the concept of divine revelation, and in the
context of Judaism for the Urim and Thummim breastplate, and in general
any utterance considered prophetic.[29] Celtic polytheism In
Celtic polytheism, divination was performed by the priestly caste,
either the druids or the vates. This is reflected in the role of "seers"
in Dark Age Wales (dryw) and Ireland (fáith). China Main articles: Oracle bone and I Ching Oracle bone of the Shang dynasty, ancient China In
China, oracle bones were used for divination in the late Shang dynasty,
(c. 1600–1046 BC). Diviners applied heat to these bones, usually ox
scapulae or tortoise plastrons, and interpreted the resulting cracks. A
different divining method, using the stalks of the yarrow plant, was
practiced in the subsequent Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). Around the late
9th century BC, the divination system was recorded in the I Ching, or
"Book of Changes", a collection of linear signs used as oracles. In
addition to its oracular power, the I Ching has had a major influence on
the philosophy, literature and statecraft of China since the Zhou
period. Hawaii In Hawaii, oracles were found at certain heiau,
Hawaiian temples. These oracles were found in towers covered in white
kapa cloth made from plant fibres. In here, priests received the will of
gods. These towers were called 'Anu'u. An example of this can be found
at Ahu'ena heiau in Kona.[30] India and Nepal In ancient
India, the oracle was known as ākāśavānī "voice/speech from the
sky/aether" or aśarīravānī "a disembodied voice (or voice of the
unseen)" (asariri in Tamil), and was related to the message of a god.
Oracles played key roles in many of the major incidents of the epics
Mahabharata and Ramayana. An example is that Kamsa (or Kansa), the evil
uncle of Krishna, was informed by an oracle that the eighth son of his
sister Devaki would kill him. The opening verse of the Tiruvalluva
Maalai, a medieval Tamil anthology usually dated by modern scholars to
between c. 7th and 10th centuries CE, is attributed to an asariri or
oracle.[31]: 58–59 [32]: 16 [33] However, there are no references in any
Indian literature of the oracle being a specific person. Contemporarily,
Theyyam or "theiyam" in Malayalam - a south Indian language - the
process by which a Priest invites a Hindu god or goddess to use his or
her body as a medium or channel and answer other devotees' questions,
still happens.[34] The same is called "arulvaakku" or "arulvaak" in
Tamil, another south Indian language - Adhiparasakthi Siddhar Peetam is
famous for arulvakku in Tamil Nadu.[35] The people in and around
Mangalore in Karnataka call the same, Buta Kola, "paathri" or "darshin";
in other parts of Karnataka, it is known by various names such as,
"prashnaavali", "vaagdaana", "asei", "aashirvachana" and so
on.[36][37][38][39][40] In Nepal it is known as, "Devta ka dhaamee" or
"jhaakri".[41] Nigeria The Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria
in Africa have a long tradition of using oracles. In Igbo villages,
oracles were usually female priestesses to a particular deity, usually
dwelling in a cave or other secluded location away from urban areas,
and, much as the oracles of ancient Greece, would deliver prophecies in
an ecstatic state to visitors seeking advice. Two of their ancient
oracles became especially famous during the pre-colonial period: the
Agbala oracle at Awka and the Chukwu oracle at Arochukwu.[42] Although
the vast majority of Igbos today are Christian, many of them still use
oracles. Among the related Yoruba peoples of the same country,
the Babalawos (and their female counterparts, the Iyanifas) serve
collectively as the principal aspects of the tribe's world-famous Ifa
divination system. Due to this, they customarily officiate at a great
many of its traditional and religious ceremonies. Norse mythology In
Norse mythology, Odin took the severed head of the god Mimir to Asgard
for consultation as an oracle. The Havamal and other sources relate the
sacrifice of Odin for the oracular runes whereby he lost an eye
(external sight) and won wisdom (internal sight; insight). Pre-Columbian Americas In
the migration myth of the Mexitin, i.e., the early Aztecs, a
mummy-bundle (perhaps an effigy) carried by four priests directed the
trek away from the cave of origins by giving oracles. An oracle led to
the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. The Yucatec Mayas knew oracle
priests or chilanes, literally 'mouthpieces' of the deity. Their written
repositories of traditional knowledge, the Books of Chilam Balam, were
all ascribed to one famous oracle priest who had correctly predicted the
coming of the Spaniards and its associated disasters.[citation needed] Tibet In
Tibet, oracles (Chinese: 护法) have played, and continue to play, an
important part in religion and government. The word "oracle" is used by
Tibetans to refer to the spirit that enters those men and women who act
as media between the natural and the spiritual realms. The media are,
therefore, known as kuten, which literally means, "the physical basis".
In the 29-Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet
(Chinese: 欽定藏內善後章程二十九條[43]), an imperial decree published in 1793 by the
Qianlong Emperor, article 1 states that the creation of Golden Urn is
to ensure prosperity of Gelug, and to eliminate cheating and corruption
in the selection process performed by oracles.[44] The Dalai
Lama, who lives in exile in northern India, still consults an oracle
known as the Nechung Oracle, which is considered the official state
oracle of the government of Tibet. The Dalai Lama has, according to
centuries-old custom, consulted the Nechung Oracle during the new year
festivities of Losar.[45] Nechung and Gadhong are the primary oracles
currently consulted; former oracles such as Karmashar and Darpoling are
no longer active in exile. The Gadhong oracle has died leaving Nechung
to be the only primary oracle. Another oracle the Dalai Lama consults is
the Tenma Oracle, for which a young Tibetan woman by the name of
Khandro La is the medium for the mountain goddesses Tseringma along with
the other 11 goddesses. The Dalai Lama gives a complete description of
the process of trance and spirit possession in his book Freedom in
Exile.[46] Dorje Shugden oracles were once consulted by the Dalai Lamas
until the 14th Dalai Lama banned the practice, even though he consulted
Dorje Shugden for advice to escape and was successful in it. Due to the
ban, many of the abbots that were worshippers of Dorje Shugden have been
forced to go against the Dalai Lama. " (wikipedia.org) "A
sphere (from Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra) 'globe, ball')[1] is a
geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a
two-dimensional circle. Formally, a sphere is the set of points that are
all at the same distance r from a given point in three-dimensional
space.[2] That given point is the centre of the sphere, and r is the
sphere's radius. The earliest known mentions of spheres appear in the
work of the ancient Greek mathematicians. The sphere is a
fundamental object in many fields of mathematics. Spheres and
nearly-spherical shapes also appear in nature and industry. Bubbles such
as soap bubbles take a spherical shape in equilibrium. The Earth is
often approximated as a sphere in geography, and the celestial sphere is
an important concept in astronomy. Manufactured items including
pressure vessels and most curved mirrors and lenses are based on
spheres. Spheres roll smoothly in any direction, so most balls used in
sports and toys are spherical, as are ball bearings. Geometrically,
a sphere can be formed by rotating a circle one half revolution around
an axis that intersects the center of the circle, or by rotating a
semicircle one full revolution around the axis that is coincident (or
concurrent) with the straight edge of the semicircle. Basic terminology Two orthogonal radii of a sphere As mentioned earlier r is the sphere's radius; any line from the center to a point on the sphere is also called a radius.[3] If
a radius is extended through the center to the opposite side of the
sphere, it creates a diameter. Like the radius, the length of a diameter
is also called the diameter, and denoted d. Diameters are the longest
line segments that can be drawn between two points on the sphere: their
length is twice the radius, d = 2r. Two points on the sphere connected
by a diameter are antipodal points of each other.[3] A unit
sphere is a sphere with unit radius (r = 1). For convenience, spheres
are often taken to have their center at the origin of the coordinate
system, and spheres in this article have their center at the origin
unless a center is mentioned. A great circle on the sphere has the same center and radius as the sphere, and divides it into two equal hemispheres. Although
the Earth is not perfectly spherical, terms borrowed from geography are
convenient to apply to the sphere. If a particular point on a sphere is
(arbitrarily) designated as its north pole, its antipodal point is
called the south pole. The great circle equidistant to each is then the
equator. Great circles through the poles are called lines of longitude
or meridians. A line connecting the two poles may be called the axis of
rotation. Small circles on the sphere that are parallel to the equator
are lines of latitude. In geometry unrelated to astronomical bodies,
geocentric terminology should be used only for illustration and noted as
such, unless there is no chance of misunderstanding.[3] Mathematicians
consider a sphere to be a two-dimensional closed surface embedded in
three-dimensional Euclidean space. They draw a distinction a sphere and a
ball, which is a three-dimensional manifold with boundary that includes
the volume contained by the sphere. An open ball excludes the sphere
itself, while a closed ball includes the sphere: a closed ball is the
union of the open ball and the sphere, and a sphere is the boundary of a
(closed or open) ball. The distinction between ball and sphere has not
always been maintained and especially older mathematical references talk
about a sphere as a solid. The distinction between "circle" and "disk"
in the plane is similar. Small spheres or balls are sometimes called spherules, e.g. in Martian spherules." (wikipedia.org) "The
occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural
beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of
organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving
otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism and their varied
spells. It can also refer to supernatural ideas like extra-sensory
perception and parapsychology. The term occult sciences was used
in 16th-century Europe to refer to astrology, alchemy, and natural
magic. The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France,[1] amongst
figures such as Antoine Court de Gébelin.[2] It came to be associated
with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus,
and in 1875 was introduced into the English language by the esotericist
Helena Blavatsky. Throughout the 20th century, the term was used
idiosyncratically by a range of different authors, but by the 21st
century was commonly employed – including by academic scholars of
esotericism – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in
the mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism is thus often
used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism, Theosophy,
Anthroposophy, Wicca, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and New
Age.[3] Use of the term as a nominalized adjective has developed
especially since the late twentieth century. In that same period, occult
and culture were combined to form the neologism occulture. Etymology The
occult (from the Latin word occultus; lit. 'clandestine', 'hidden',
'secret') is "knowledge of the hidden".[4] In common usage, occult
refers to "knowledge of the paranormal", as opposed to "knowledge of the
measurable",[5] usually referred to as science. The terms esoteric and
arcane can also be used to describe the occult,[6] in addition to their
meanings unrelated to the supernatural. The term occult sciences was
used in the 16th century to refer to astrology, alchemy, and natural
magic. The earliest known usage of the term occultism is in the
French language, as l'occultisme. In this form it appears in A. de
Lestrange's article that was published in Jean-Baptiste Richard de
Randonvilliers' Dictionnaire des mots nouveaux ("Dictionary of new
words") in 1842. However, it was not related, at this point, to the
notion of Ésotérisme chrétien, as has been claimed by Hanegraaff,[7] but
to describe a political "system of occulticity" that was directed
against priests and aristocrats.[8] In 1853, the Freemasonic
author Jean-Marie Ragon had already used occultisme in his popular work
Maçonnerie occulte, relating it to earlier practices that, since the
Renaissance, had been termed "occult sciences" or "occult philosophy",
but also to the recent socialist teachings of Charles Fourier.[9] The
French esotericist Éliphas Lévi then used the term in his influential
book on ritual magic, Dogme et rituel de la haute magie, first published
in 1856.[10] Lévi was familiar with that work and might have borrowed
the term from there. In any case, Lévi also claimed to be a
representative of an older tradition of occult science or occult
philosophy.[11] It was from his usage of the term occultisme that it
gained wider usage;[12] according to Faivre, Lévi was "the principal
exponent of esotericism in Europe and the United States" at that
time.[13] The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, where it
came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to
Éliphas Lévi and Papus, The earliest use of the term occultism in
the English language appears to be in "A Few Questions to 'Hiraf'", an
1875 article by Helena Blavatsky, a Russian émigré living in the United
States who founded the religion of Theosophy. The article was published
in the American Spiritualist magazine, Spiritual Scientist.[14] Various
twentieth-century writers on the subject used the term occultism in
different ways. Some writers, such as the German philosopher Theodor W.
Adorno in his "Theses Against Occultism", employed the term as a broad
synonym for irrationality.[15] In his 1950 book L'occultisme, Robert
Amadou used the term as a synonym for esotericism,[16] an approach that
the later scholar of esotericism Marco Pasi suggested left the term
superfluous.[15] Unlike Amadou, other writers saw occultism and
esotericism as different, albeit related, phenomena. In the 1970s, the
sociologist Edward Tiryakian distinguished between occultism, which he
used in reference to practices, techniques, and procedures, and
esotericism, which he defined as the religious or philosophical belief
systems on which such practices are based.[16] This division was
initially adopted by the early academic scholar of esotericism, Antoine
Faivre, although he later abandoned it;[10] it has been rejected by most
scholars who study esotericism.[15] By the 21st century the term
was commonly employed – including by academic scholars of esotericism –
to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in the mid-19th
century and their descendants. Occultism is thus often used to
categorise such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism, Theosophy,
Anthroposophy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and New Age. A
different division was used by the Traditionalist author René Guénon,
who used esotericism to describe what he believed was the
Traditionalist, inner teaching at the heart of most religions, while
occultism was used pejoratively to describe new religions and movements
that he disapproved of, such as Spiritualism, Theosophy, and various
secret societies.[17] Guénon's use of this terminology was adopted by
later writers like Serge Hutin and Luc Benoist.[18] As noted by
Hanegraaff, Guénon's use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist
beliefs and "cannot be accepted as scholarly valid".[18] The
term occultism derives from the older term occult, much as the term
esotericism derives from the older term esoteric.[11] However, the
historian of esotericism Wouter Hanegraaff stated that it was important
to distinguish between the meanings of the term occult and
occultism.[19] Occultism is not a homogenous movement and is widely
diverse.[13] Over the course of its history, the term occultism
has been used in various different ways.[20] However, in contemporary
uses, occultism commonly refers to forms of esotericism that developed
in the nineteenth century and their twentieth-century derivations.[18]
In a descriptive sense, it has been used to describe forms of
esotericism which developed in nineteenth-century France, especially in
the Neo-Martinist environment.[18] According to the historian of
esotericism Antoine Faivre, it is with the esotericist Éliphas Lévi that
"the occultist current properly so-called" first appears.[13] Other
prominent French esotericists involved in developing occultism included
Papus, Stanislas de Guaita, Joséphin Péladan, Georges-Albert Puyou de
Pouvourville, and Jean Bricaud.[11] Occult sciences The idea
of occult sciences developed in the sixteenth century.[10] The term
usually encompassed three practices – astrology, alchemy, and natural
magic – although sometimes various forms of divination were also
included rather than being subsumed under natural magic.[10] These were
grouped together because, according to the Dutch scholar of hermeticism
Wouter Hanegraaff, "each one of them engaged in a systematic
investigation of nature and natural processes, in the context of
theoretical frameworks that relied heavily on a belief in occult
qualities, virtues or forces."[10] Although there are areas of overlap
between these different occult sciences, they are separate and in some
cases practitioners of one would reject the others as being
illegitimate.[10] During the Age of Enlightenment, occultism
increasingly came to be seen as intrinsically incompatible with the
concept of science.[10] From that point on, use of "occult science(s)"
implied a conscious polemic against mainstream science.[10]
Nevertheless, the philosopher and card game historian Michael Dummett,
whose analysis of the historical evidence suggested that fortune-telling
and occult interpretations using cards were unknown before the 18th
century, said that the term occult science was not misplaced because
"people who believe in the possibility of unveiling the future or of
exercising supernormal powers do so because the efficacy of the methods
they employ coheres with some systematic conception which they hold of
the way the universe functions...however flimsy its empirical
basis."[21] In his 1871 book Primitive Culture, the anthropologist Edward Tylor used the term "occult science" as a synonym for magic.[22] Occult qualities Occult
qualities are properties that have no known rational explanation; in
the Middle Ages, for example, magnetism was considered an occult
quality.[23][24] Aether is another such element.[25] Newton's
contemporaries severely criticized his theory that gravity was effected
through "action at a distance", as occult. Occultism The
French esotericist Éliphas Lévi popularised the term "occultism" in the
1850s. His reinterpretation of traditional esoteric ideas has led to
him being called the origin of "the occultist current properly
so-called".[13] In the English-speaking world, notable figures in
the development of occultism included Helena Blavatsky and other
figures associated with her Theosophical Society, senior figures in the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn like William Wynn Westcott and Samuel
Liddell MacGregor Mathers, as well as other individuals such as Paschal
Beverly Randolph, Emma Hardinge Britten, Arthur Edward Waite, and – in
the early twentieth century – Aleister Crowley, Dion Fortune, and Israel
Regardie.[11] By the end of the nineteenth century, occultist ideas had
also spread into other parts of Europe, such as the German Empire,
Austria-Hungary, and the Kingdom of Italy.[27] Unlike older forms
of esotericism, occultism does not necessarily reject "scientific
progress or modernity".[28] Lévi had stressed the need to solve the
conflict between science and religion, something that he believed could
be achieved by turning to what he thought was the ancient wisdom found
in magic.[29] The French scholar of Western esotericism Antoine Faivre
noted that rather than outright accepting "the triumph of scientism",
occultists sought "an alternative solution", trying to integrate
"scientific progress or modernity" with "a global vision that will serve
to make the vacuousness of materialism more apparent".[13] The Dutch
scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff remarked that occultism was
"essentially an attempt to adapt esotericism" to the "disenchanted
world", a post-Enlightenment society in which growing scientific
discovery had eradicated the "dimension of irreducible mystery"
previously present. In doing so, he noted, occultism distanced itself
from the "traditional esotericism" which accepted the premise of an
"enchanted" world.[30] According to the British historian of Western
esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, occultist groups typically seek
"proofs and demonstrations by recourse to scientific tests or
terminology".[31] In his work about Lévi, the German historian of
religion Julian Strube has argued that the occultist wish for a
"synthesis" of religion, science, and philosophy directly resulted from
the context of contemporary socialism and progressive Catholicism.[32]
Similar to spiritualism, but in declared opposition to it, the emergence
of occultism should thus be seen within the context of radical social
reform, which was often concerned with establishing new forms of
"scientific religion" while at the same time propagating the revival of
an ancient tradition of "true religion".[33] Indeed, the emergence of
both modern esotericism and socialism in July Monarchy France have been
inherently intertwined.[34] Another feature of occultists is that
– unlike earlier esotericists – they often openly distanced themselves
from Christianity, in some cases (like that of Crowley) even adopting
explicitly anti-Christian stances.[29] This reflected how pervasive the
influence of secularisation had been on all areas of European
society.[29] In rejecting Christianity, these occultists sometimes
turned towards pre-Christian belief systems and embraced forms of Modern
Paganism, while others instead took influence from the religions of
Asia, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. In various cases, certain
occultists did both.[29] Another characteristic of these occultists was
the emphasis that they placed on "the spiritual realization of the
individual", an idea that would strongly influence the twentieth-century
New Age and Human Potential Movement.[29] This spiritual realization
was encouraged both through traditional Western 'occult sciences' like
alchemy and ceremonial magic, but by the start of the twentieth century
had also begun to include practices drawn from non-Western contexts,
such as yoga.[29] Although occultism is distinguished from
earlier forms of esotericism, many occultists have also been involved in
older esoteric currents. For instance, occultists like François-Charles
Barlet and Rudolf Steiner were also theosophers,[a] adhering to the
ideas of the early modern Lutheran thinker Jakob Bohme, and seeking to
integrate ideas from Bohmian theosophy and occultism.[35] It has been
noted, however, that this distancing from the Theosophical Society
should be understood in the light of polemical identity formations
amongst esotericists towards the end of the nineteenth century.[36] Etic uses of the term In the 1990s, the Dutch scholar Wouter Hanegraaff put forward a new definition of occultism for scholarly uses. See also: Emic and etic In
the mid-1990s, a new definition of "occultism" was put forth by Wouter
Hanegraaff.[37] According to Hanegraaff, the term occultism can be used
not only for the nineteenth-century groups which openly self-described
using that term but can also be used in reference to "the type of
esotericism that they represent".[18] Seeking to define occultism
so that the term would be suitable "as an etic category" for scholars,
Hanegraaff devised the following definition: "a category in the study of
religions, which comprises "all attempts by esotericists to come to
terms with a disenchanted world or, alternatively, by people in general
to make sense of esotericism from the perspective of a disenchanted
secular world".[38] Hanegraaff noted that this etic usage of the term
would be independent of emic usages of the term employed by occultists
and other esotericists themselves.[38] In this definition,
occultism covers many esoteric currents that have developed from the
mid-nineteenth century onward, including Spiritualism, Theosophy, the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the New Age.[18] Employing this
etic understanding of "occultism", Hanegraaff argued that its
development could begin to be seen in the work of the Swedish
esotericist Emanuel Swedenborg and in the Mesmerist movement of the
eighteenth century, although added that occultism only emerged in
"fully-developed form" as Spiritualism, a movement that developed in the
United States during the mid-nineteenth century.[30] Marco Pasi
suggested that the use of Hanegraaff's definition might cause confusion
by presenting a group of nineteenth-century esotericists who called
themselves "occultists" as just one part of a broader category of
esotericists whom scholars would call "occultists".[39] Following
these discussions, Julian Strube argued that Lévi and other
contemporary authors who would now be regarded as esotericists developed
their ideas not against the background of an esoteric tradition in the
first place. Rather, Lévi's notion of occultism emerged in the context
of highly influential radical socialist movements and widespread
progressive, so-called neo-Catholic ideas.[40] This further complicates
Hanegraaff's characteristics of occultism, since, throughout the
nineteenth century, they apply to these reformist movements rather than
to a supposed group of esotericists.[41] Modern usage The term
occult has also been used as a substantivized adjective as "the
occult", a term that has been particularly widely used among journalists
and sociologists.[18] This term was popularised by the publication of
Colin Wilson's 1971 book The Occult.[18] This term has been used as an
"intellectual waste-basket" into which a wide array of beliefs and
practices have been placed because they do not fit readily into the
categories of religion or science.[18] According to Hanegraaff, "the
occult" is a category into which gets placed a range of beliefs from
"spirits or fairies to parapsychological experiments, from
UFO-abductions to Oriental mysticism, from vampire legends to
channelling, and so on".[18] Occulture The neologism occulture
used within the industrial music scene of the late twentieth century
was probably coined by one of its central figures, the musician and
occultist Genesis P-Orridge.[42] The scholar of religion Christopher
Partridge used the term in an academic sense, stating that occulture was
"the new spiritual environment in the West; the reservoir feeding new
spiritual springs; the soil in which new spiritualities are
growing".[43] Occultism and technology Recently scholars have
offered perspectives on the occult as intertwined with media and
technology. Examples include the work of film and media theorist Jeffrey
Sconce and religious studies scholar John Durham Peters, both of whom
suggest that occult movements historically utilize media and apparati as
tools to reveal hidden aspects of reality or laws of nature.[44][45]
Erik Davis in his book Techgnosis gives an overview of occultism both
ancient and modern from the perspective of cybernetics and information
technologies.[46] Philosopher Eugene Thacker discusses Heinrich
Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy in his book In The
Dust Of This Planet, where he shows how the horror genre utilizes occult
themes to reveal hidden realities." (wikipedia.org) "Halloween
is a celebration observed on October 31, the day before the feast of
All Hallows, also known as Hallowmas or All Saint's Day. The
celebrations and observances of this day occur primarily in regions of
the Western world, albeit with some traditions varying significantly
between geographical areas. Origins Halloween is the eve of
vigil before the Western Christian feast of All Hallows (or All Saints)
which is observed on November 1. This day begins the triduum of
Hallowtide, which culminates with All Souls' Day. In the Middle Ages,
many Christians held a folk belief that All Hallows' Eve was the "night
where the veil between the material world and the afterlife was at its
most transparent".[2] Americas Canada Scottish emigration,
primarily to Canada before 1870 and to the United States thereafter,
brought the Scottish version of the holiday to each country. The
earliest known reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English
speaking North America occurs in 1911 when a newspaper in Kingston,
Ontario reported that it was normal for the smaller children to go
street "guising" on Halloween between 6 and 7 p.m., visiting shops, and
neighbours to be rewarded with nuts and candies for their rhymes and
songs.[3] Canadians spend more on candy at Halloween than at any time
apart from Christmas. Halloween is also a time for charitable
contributions. Until 2006 when UNICEF moved to an online donation
system, collecting small change was very much a part of Canadian
trick-or-treating.[4] Quebec offers themed tours of parts of the old
city and historic cemeteries in the area.[5] In 2014 the hamlet of
Arviat, Nunavut moved their Halloween festivities to the community hall,
cancelling the practice of door-to-door "trick or treating", due to the
risk of roaming polar bears.[6][7] In British Columbia it is a
tradition to set off fireworks at Halloween.[8] United States Children in Halloween costumes at High Point, Seattle, 1943 Community Halloween party in Frazier Park, California. Children on Halloween, Woody Creek, Colorado In
the United States, Halloween did not become a holiday until the 19th
century. The transatlantic migration of nearly two million Irish
following the Great Irish Famine (1845–1849) brought the holiday to the
United States. American librarian and author Ruth Edna Kelley
wrote the first book length history of the holiday in the U.S., The Book
of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en
in America": "All Hallowe'en customs in the United States are borrowed
directly or adapted from those of other countries. The taste in
Hallowe'en festivities now is to study old traditions, and hold a Scotch
party, using Robert Burns's poem Halloween as a guide; or to go
a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom that was once honored
at Hallowe'en is out of fashion now."[9] The main event for children of
modern Halloween in the United States and Canada is trick-or-treating,
in which children, teenagers, (sometimes) young adults, and parents
(accompanying their children) disguise themselves in costumes and go
door-to-door in their neighborhoods, ringing each doorbell and yelling
"Trick or treat!" to solicit a gift of candy or similar items.[10]
Teenagers and adults will more frequently attend Halloween-themed
costume parties typically hosted by friends or themed events at
nightclubs either on Halloween itself or a weekend close to the holiday. At
the turn of the 20th century, Halloween had turned into a night of
vandalism, with destruction of property and cruelty to animals and
people.[11] Around 1912, the Boy Scouts, Boys Clubs, and other
neighborhood organizations came together to encourage a safe celebration
that would end the destruction that had become so common on this night. The
commercialization of Halloween in the United States did not start until
the 20th century, beginning perhaps with Halloween postcards (featuring
hundreds of designs), which were most popular between 1905 and
1915.[12] Dennison Manufacturing Company (which published its first
Halloween catalog in 1909) and the Beistle Company were pioneers in
commercially made Halloween decorations, particularly die-cut paper
items.[13][14] German manufacturers specialised in Halloween figurines
that were exported to the United States in the period between the two
World Wars. Halloween is now the United States' second most
popular holiday (after Christmas) for decorating; the sale of candy and
costumes is also extremely common during the holiday, which is marketed
to children and adults alike. The National Confectioners Association
(NCA) reported in 2005 that 80% of American adults planned to give out
candy to trick-or-treaters.[15] The NCA reported in 2005 that 93% of
children planned to go trick-or-treating.[16] According to the National
Retail Federation, the most popular Halloween costume themes for adults
are, in order: witch, pirate, vampire, cat, and clown.[17][when?] Each
year, popular costumes are dictated by various current events and pop
culture icons. On many college campuses, Halloween is a major
celebration, with the Friday and Saturday nearest 31 October hosting
many costume parties. Other popular activities are watching horror
movies and visiting haunted houses. Total spending on Halloween is
estimated to be $8.4 billion.[18] Events Four contestants in the Halloween Slick Chick beauty contest in Anaheim, California, 1947 Many
theme parks stage Halloween events annually, such as Halloween Horror
Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando, Mickey's
Halloween Party and Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Disneyland
Resort and Magic Kingdom respectively, and Knott's Scary Farm at Knott's
Berry Farm. One of the more notable parades is New York's Village
Halloween Parade. Each year approximately 50,000 costumed marchers
parade up Sixth Avenue.[19] Salem, Massachusetts, site of the Salem
witch trials, celebrates Halloween throughout the month of October with
tours, plays, concerts, and other activities.[20] A number of venues in
New York's lower Hudson Valley host various events to showcase a
connection with Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Van
Cortlandt Manor stages the "Great Jack o' Lantern Blaze" featuring
thousands of lighted carved pumpkins.[21] Some locales have had
to modify their celebrations due to disruptive behavior on the part of
young adults. Madison, Wisconsin hosts an annual Halloween celebration.
In 2002, due to the large crowds in the State Street area, a riot broke
out, necessitating the use of mounted police and tear gas to disperse
the crowds.[22] Likewise, Chapel Hill, site of the University of North
Carolina, has a downtown street party which in 2007 drew a crowd
estimated at 80,000 on downtown Franklin Street, in a town with a
population of just 54,000. In 2008, in an effort to curb the influx of
out-of-towners, mayor Kevin Foy put measures in place to make commuting
downtown more difficult on Halloween.[23] In 2014, large crowds of
college students rioted at the Keene, New Hampshire Pumpkin Fest,
whereupon the City Council voted not to grant a permit for the following
year's festival,[24] and organizers moved the event to Laconia for
2015.[25] Dominican Republic In the Dominican Republic it has
been gaining popularity, largely due to many Dominicans living in the
United States and then bringing the custom to the island. In the larger
cities of Santiago or Santo Domingo it has become more common to see
children trick-or-treating, but in smaller towns and villages it is
almost entirely absent, partly due to religious opposition. Tourist
areas such as Sosua and Punta Cana feature many venues with Halloween
celebrations, predominantly geared towards adults.[26] Mexico (Día de Muertos) Mexican
Tomb on the 2019 Day of the Dead, adorned with the cempasúchil, the
traditional flower of the Day of the Dead, and a Halloween ghost
balloon, at the historic cemetery of San Luis Potosí City Observed
in Mexico and Mexican communities abroad, Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día
de Muertos) celebrations arose from the syncretism of indigenous Aztec
traditions with the Christian Hallowtide of the Spanish colonizers.
Flower decorations, altars and candies are part of this holiday season.
The holiday is distinct from Halloween in its origins and observances,
but the two have become associated because of cross-border connections
between Mexico and the United States through popular culture and
migration, as the two celebrations occur at the same time of year and
may involve similar imagery, such as skeletons. Halloween and Día de
Muertos have influenced each other in some areas of the United States
and Mexico, with Halloween traditions such as costumes and face-painting
becoming increasingly common features of the Mexican festival.[27][28] Asia China The
Chinese celebrate the "Hungry Ghost Festival" in mid-July, when it is
customary to float river lanterns to remember those who have died. By
contrast, Halloween is often called "All Saints' Festival" (Wànshèngjié,
萬聖節), or (less commonly) "All Saints' Eve" (Wànshèngyè, 萬聖夜) or "Eve of
All Saints' Day" (Wànshèngjié Qiányè, 萬聖節前夕), stemming from the term
"All Hallows Eve" (hallow referring to the souls of holy saints).
Chinese Christian churches hold religious celebrations. Non-religious
celebrations are dominated by expatriate Americans or Canadians, but
costume parties are also popular for Chinese young adults, especially in
large cities. Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park (Halloween Bash) host
annual Halloween shows. Mainland China has been less influenced
by Anglo traditions than Hong Kong and Halloween is generally considered
"foreign". As Halloween has become more popular globally it has also
become more popular in China, however, particularly amongst children
attending private or international schools with many foreign teachers
from North America.[29] Hong Kong Traditional "door-to-door"
trick or treating is not commonly practiced in Hong Kong due to the vast
majority of Hong Kong residents living in high-rise apartment blocks.
However, in many buildings catering to expatriates, Halloween parties
and limited trick or treating is arranged by the management. Instances
of street-level trick or treating in Hong Kong occur in ultra-exclusive
gated housing communities such as The Beverly Hills populated by Hong
Kong's super-rich and in expatriate areas like Discovery Bay and the Red
Hill Peninsula. For the general public, there are events at Tsim Sha
Tsui's Avenue of the Stars that try to mimic the celebration.[30] In the
Lan Kwai Fong area of Hong Kong, known as a major entertainment
district for the international community, a Halloween celebration and
parade has taken place for over 20 years, with many people dressing in
costume and making their way around the streets to various drinking
establishments.[31] Many international schools also celebrate Halloween
with costumes, and some put an academic twist on the celebrations such
as the "Book-o-ween" celebrations at Hong Kong International School
where students dress as favorite literary characters. Japan A Halloween display in a local bank window, in Saitama, Japan. Halloween
arrived in Japan mainly as a result of American pop culture. In 2009 it
was celebrated only by expats.[32] The wearing of elaborate costumes by
young adults at night has since become popular in areas such as
Amerikamura in Osaka and Shibuya in Tokyo, where, in October 2012, about
1700 people dressed in costumes to take part in the Halloween
Festival.[33] Celebrations have become popular with young adults as a
costume party and club event.[34] Trick-or-treating for Japanese
children has taken hold in some areas. By the mid-2010s, Yakuza were
giving snacks and sweets to children.[35] Philippines The
period from 31 October through 2 November is a time for remembering dead
family members and friends. Many Filipinos travel back to their
hometowns for family gatherings of festive remembrance.[36] Trick-or-treating
is gradually replacing the dying tradition of Pangangaluluwâ, a local
analogue of the old English custom of souling. People in the provinces
still observe Pangangaluluwâ by going in groups to every house and
offering a song in exchange for money or food. The participants, usually
children, would sing carols about the souls in Purgatory, with the
abúloy (alms for the dead) used to pay for Masses for these souls. Along
with the requested alms, householders sometimes gave the children suman
(rice cakes). During the night, various small items, such as clothing,
plants, etc., would "mysteriously" disappear, only to be discovered the
next morning in the yard or in the middle of the street. In older times,
it was believed that the spirits of ancestors and loved ones visited
the living on this night, manifesting their presence by taking an
item.[37] As the observation of Christmas traditions in the
Philippines begins as early as September, it is a common sight to see
Halloween decorations next to Christmas decorations in urban
settings.[citation needed] Saudi Arabia Starting 2022, Saudi Arabia began to celebrate Halloween in the public in Riyadh under its Saudi Vision 2030.[38] Singapore Around
mid-July Singapore Chinese celebrate "Zhong Yuan Jie / Yu Lan Jie"
(Hungry Ghosts Festival), a time when it is believed that the spirits of
the dead come back to visit their families.[39] In recent years,
Halloween celebrations are becoming more popular, with influence from
the west.[40] In 2012, there were over 19 major Halloween celebration
events around Singapore.[41] SCAPE's Museum of Horrors held its fourth
scare fest in 2014.[42] Universal Studios Singapore hosts "Halloween
Horror Nights".[43] South Korea The popularity of the holiday
among young people in South Korea comes from English academies and
corporate marketing strategies, and was influenced by Halloween
celebrations in Japan and America.[44] Despite not being a public
holiday, it is celebrated in different areas around Seoul, especially
Itaewon and Hondae.[45] Taiwan Children dressed up in Halloween costume in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan Traditionally,
Taiwanese people celebrate "Zhong Yuan Pudu Festival", where spirits
that do not have any surviving family members to pay respects to them,
are able to roam the Earth during the seventh lunar month. It is known
as Ghost Month.[46] While some have compared it to Halloween, it has no
relations and the overall meaning is different. In recent years, mainly
as a result of American pop culture, Halloween is becoming more
widespread amongst young Taiwanese people. Halloween events are held in
many areas across Taipei, such as Xinyi Special District and Shilin
District where there are many international schools and expats.[47]
Halloween parties are celebrated differently based on different age
groups. One of the most popular Halloween event is the Tianmu Halloween
Festival, which started in 2009 and is organised by the Taipei City
Office of Commerce.[48] The 2-day annual festivity has attracted more
than 240,000 visitors in 2019. During this festival, stores and
businesses in Tianmu place pumpkin lanterns outside their stores to
identify themselves as trick-or-treat destinations for children.[49] Australia and New Zealand Halloween display in Sydney, Australia. Non-religious
celebrations of Halloween modelled on North American festivities are
growing increasingly popular in Australia despite not being
traditionally part of the culture.[50] Some Australians criticise this
intrusion into their culture.[51][52] Many dislike the commercialisation
and American pop-culture influence.[52][53] Some supporters of the
event place it alongside other cultural traditions such as Saint
Patrick's Day.[54] Halloween historian and author of Halloween:
Pagan Festival to Trick or Treat, Mark Oxbrow says while Halloween may
have been popularised by depictions of it in US movies and TV shows, it
is not a new entry into Australian culture.[55] His research shows
Halloween was first celebrated in Australia in Castlemaine, Victoria, in
1858, which was 43 years before Federation. His research shows
Halloween traditions were brought to the country by Scottish and Irish
miners who settled in Victoria during the Gold Rush. Because of
the polarised opinions about Halloween, growing numbers of people are
decorating their letter boxes to indicate that children are welcome to
come knocking. In the past decade, the popularity of Halloween in
Australia has grown.[56] In 2020, the first magazine dedicated solely to
celebrating Halloween in Australia was launched, called Hallozween,[57]
and in 2021, sales of costumes, decorations and carving pumpkins soared
to an all-time high[58] despite the effect of the global COVID-19
pandemic limiting celebrations. In New Zealand, Halloween is not
celebrated to the same extent as in North America, although in recent
years non-religious celebrations have become more common.[59][60]
Trick-or-treat has become increasingly popular with minors in New
Zealand, despite being not a "British or Kiwi event" and the influence
of American globalisation.[61] One criticism of Halloween in New Zealand
is that it is overly commercialised - by The Warehouse, for
example.[61] Europe A jack-o'-lantern in Finland Over the
years, Halloween has become more popular in Europe and has been
partially ousting some older customs like the Rübengeistern [de]
(English: turnip ghosts, beet spirit), Martinisingen, and others.[62] France Halloween
was introduced to most of France in the 1990s.[citation needed] In
Brittany, Halloween had been celebrated for centuries and is known as
Kala Goanv (Night of Spirits). During this time it is believed that the
spirits of the dead return to the world of the living lead by the Ankou,
the collector of souls. Also during this time, Bretons bake Kornigou, a
pastry shaped like the antlers of a stag.[citation needed] Germany "Don't drink and fly" Halloween decoration in Germany Halloween
was not generally observed in Germany prior to the 1990s, but has been
increasing in popularity. It has been associated with the influence of
United States culture, and "Trick or Treating" (German: Süßes sonst
gibt's Saures) has been occurring in various German cities, especially
in areas such as the Dahlem neighborhood in Berlin, which was part of
the American zone during the Cold War. Today, Halloween in Germany
brings in 200 million euros a year, through multiple industries.[63]
Halloween is celebrated by both children and adults. Adults celebrate at
themed costume parties and clubs, while children go trick or treating.
Complaints of vandalism associated with Halloween "Tricks" are
increasing, particularly from many elderly Germans unfamiliar with
"Trick or Treating".[64] Greece In Greece, Halloween is not
celebrated widely and it is a working day, with little public interest,
since the early 2000s. Recently, it has somewhat increased in popularity
as both a secular celebration; although Carnival is vastly more popular
among Greeks. For very few, Halloween is[when?] considered the fourth
most popular festival in the country after Christmas, Easter, and
Carnival. Retail businesses, bars, nightclubs, and certain theme parks
might organize Halloween parties. This boost in popularity has been
attributed to the influence of western consumerism. Since it is a
working day, Halloween is not celebrated on 31 October unless the date
falls on a weekend, in which case it is celebrated by some during the
last weekend before All Hallow's Eve, usually in the form of themed
house parties and retail business decorations. Trick-or-treating is not
widely popular because similar activities are already undertaken during
Carnival. The slight rise in popularity of Halloween in Greece has led
to some increase in its popularity throughout nearby countries in the
Balkans and Cyprus. In the latter, there has been an increase in
Greek-Cypriot retailers selling Halloween merchandise every year.[65] Ireland A
plaster cast of a traditional Irish turnip (rutabaga) jack-o'-lantern,
c. early 20th century, on display in the Museum of Country Life,
Ireland. On Halloween night, adults and children dress up as
various monsters and creatures, light bonfires, and enjoy fireworks
displays; Derry in Northern Ireland is home to the largest organized
Halloween celebration on the island, in the form of a street carnival
and fireworks display.[66] Snap-Apple Night (1832) by Daniel Maclise depicts apple bobbing and divination games at a Halloween party in Ireland Games
are often played, such as bobbing for apples, in which apples, peanuts,
other nuts and fruits, and some small coins are placed in a basin of
water.[67] Everyone takes turns catching as many items possible using
only their mouths. Another common game involves the hands-free eating of
an apple hung on a string attached to the ceiling. Games of divination
are also played at Halloween.[68] Colcannon is traditionally served on
Halloween.[67] 31 October is the busiest day of the year for the
Emergency Services.[69] Bangers and fireworks are illegal in the
Republic of Ireland; however, they are commonly smuggled in from
Northern Ireland where they are legal.[70] Bonfires are frequently built
around Halloween.[71] Trick-or-treating is popular amongst children on
31 October and Halloween parties and events are commonplace. A carved pumpkin in Sardinia Italy In
Italy All Saints' Day is a public holiday. On 2 November, Tutti i Morti
or All Souls' Day, families remember loved ones who have died. These
are still the main holidays.[72] In some Italian tradition, children
would awake on the morning of All Saints or All Souls to find small
gifts from their deceased ancestors. In Sardinia, Concas de Mortu (Head
of the deads), carved pumpkins that look like skulls, with candles
inside are displayed.[73][74][75] Halloween is, however, gaining in
popularity, and involves costume parties for young adults.[76] The
traditions to carve pumpkins in a skull figure, lighting candles inside,
or to beg for small gifts for the deads e.g. sweets or nuts, also
belong to North Italy.[77] In Veneto these carved pumpkins were called
lumère (lanterns) or suche dei morti (deads' pumpkins).[78] Poland Since
the fall of Communism in 1989, Halloween has become increasingly
popular in Poland. Particularly, it is celebrated among younger people.
The influx of Western tourists and expats throughout the 1990s
introduced the costume party aspect of Hallowe'en celebrations,
particularly in clubs and at private house parties. Door-to-door trick
or treating is not common. Pumpkin carving is becoming more evident,
following a strong North American version of the tradition. Romania Romanians
observe the Feast of St. Andrew, patron saint of Romania, on 30
November. On St. Andrew's Eve ghosts are said to be about. A number of
customs related to divination, in other places connected to Halloween,
are associated with this night.[79] However, with the popularity of
Dracula in western Europe, around Halloween the Romanian tourist
industry promotes trips to locations connected to the historical Vlad
Tepeș and the more fanciful Dracula of Bram Stoker. One of the most
successful Halloween Parties in Transylvania takes place in Sighișoara,
the citadel where Vlad the Impaler was born. This party include magician
shows, ballet show and The Ritual Killing of a Living Dead[80] The
biggest Halloween party in Transylvania take place at Bran Castle, aka
Dracula's Castle from Transylvania.[81] Both the Catholic and
Orthodox Churches in Romania discourage Halloween celebrations, advising
their parishioners to focus rather on the "Day of the Dead" on 1
November, when special religious observances are held for the souls of
the deceased.[82] Opposition by religious and nationalist groups,
including calls to ban costumes and decorations in schools in 2015, have
been met with criticism.[83][84][85] Halloween parties are popular in
bars and nightclubs.[86] Russia In Russia most Christians are
Orthodox, and in the Orthodox Church Halloween is on the Saturday after
Pentecost and therefore 4 to 5 months before western Halloween.
Celebration of western Halloween began in the 1990s around the downfall
of the Soviet regime, when costume and ghoulish parties spread
throughout night clubs throughout Russia. Halloween is generally
celebrated by younger generations and is not widely celebrated in civic
society (e.g. theaters or libraries). In fact, Halloween is among the
Western celebrations that the Russian government and politicians—which
have grown increasingly anti-Western in the early 2010s—are trying to
eliminate from public celebration.[87][88][89] Serbia Halloween
(Serbian Cyrillic: Ноћ вештица, lit. "Night of Witches") has not been
celebrated until recently. The main reason for that is because of
Halloween being against the Serbian traditions and that it encourages
“feeding the devil”. Halloween is a work day in Serbia. Nowadays, it is
very popular among younger generations. Many schools (mostly elementary
schools) in Serbia throw special Halloween parties, full of children and
teenagers wearing costumes and masks. Bars, nightclubs and fun parks
organise Halloween parties for adults and young adults. Spain In
Spain, celebrations involve eating castanyes (roasted chestnuts),
panellets (special almond balls covered in pine nuts), moniatos (roast
or baked sweet potato), Ossos de Sant cake and preserved fruit (candied
or glazed fruit). Moscatell (Muscat) is drunk from porrons.[90] Around
the time of this celebration, it is common for street vendors to sell
hot toasted chestnuts wrapped in newspaper. In many places,
confectioners often organise raffles of chestnuts and preserved fruit. The
tradition of eating these foods comes from the fact that during All
Saints' night, on the eve of All Souls' Day in the Christian tradition,
bell ringers would ring bells in commemoration of the dead into the
early morning. Friends and relatives would help with this task, and
everyone would eat these foods for sustenance.[91] Other versions
of the story state that the Castanyada originates at the end of the
18th century and comes from the old funeral meals, where other foods,
such as vegetables and dried fruit were not served. The meal had the
symbolic significance of a communion with the souls of the departed:
while the chestnuts were roasting, prayers would be said for the person
who had just died.[92] The festival is usually depicted with the
figure of a castanyera: an old lady, dressed in peasant's clothing and
wearing a headscarf, sitting behind a table, roasting chestnuts for
street sale. In recent years, the Castanyada has become a
revetlla of All Saints and is celebrated in the home and community. It
is the first of the four main school festivals, alongside Christmas,
Carnestoltes and St George's Day, without reference to ritual or
commemoration of the dead.[93] Galicia is known two have the
second largest Halloween or Samain festivals in Europe and during this
time, a drink called Queimada is often served. Sweden On All
Hallow's Eve, a Requiem Mass is widely attended every year at Uppsala
Cathedral, part of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.[94] Throughout
the period of Allhallowtide, starting with All Hallow's Eve, Swedish
families visit churchyards and adorn the graves of their family members
with lit candles and wreaths fashioned from pine branches.[94] Among
children, the practice of dressing in costume and collecting candy
gained popularity beginning around 2005.[95] The American traditions of
Halloween have however been met with skepticism among the older
generations, in part due to conflicting with the Swedish traditions on
All Hallow's Eve and in part due to their commercialism.[96] Switzerland In
Switzerland, Halloween, after first becoming popular in 1999, is on the
wane, and is most popular with young adults who attend parties.
Switzerland already has a "festival overload" and even though Swiss
people like to dress up for any occasion, they do prefer a traditional
element, such as in the Fasnacht tradition of chasing away winter using
noise and masks.[97][98] United Kingdom and Crown dependencies England See also: Mischief Night See also: Allantide In
the past, on All Souls' Eve families would stay up late, and little
"soul cakes" were eaten. At the stroke of midnight, there was solemn
silence among households, which had candles burning in every room to
guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes and a glass of wine on
the table to refresh them. The tradition of giving soul cakes that
originated in Great Britain and Ireland was known as souling, often seen
as the origin of modern trick or treating in North America, and souling
continued in parts of England as late as the 1930s, with children going
from door to door singing songs and saying prayers for the dead in
return for cakes or money.[99] Trick or treating and other
Halloween celebrations are extremely popular, with shops decorated with
witches and pumpkins, and young people attending costume parties.[100] Scotland The
name Halloween is first attested in the 16th century as a Scottish
shortening of the fuller All-Hallow-Even, that is, the night before All
Hallows' Day.[101] Dumfries poet John Mayne's 1780 poem made note of
pranks at Halloween "What fearfu' pranks ensue!". Scottish poet Robert
Burns was influenced by Mayne's composition, and portrayed some of the
customs in his poem Halloween (1785).[102] According to Burns, Halloween
is "thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other
mischief-making beings are all abroad on their baneful midnight
errands".[103] Among the earliest record of Guising at Halloween
in Scotland is in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns
made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes,
fruit and money.[104] If children approached the door of a house, they
were given offerings of food. The children's practice of "guising",
going from door to door in costumes for food or coins, is a traditional
Halloween custom in Scotland.[3] These days children who knock on their
neighbours doors have to sing a song or tell stories for a gift of
sweets or money.[105] A traditional Halloween game includes apple
"dooking",[106] or "dunking" or (i.e., retrieving one from a bucket of
water using only one's mouth), and attempting to eat, while blindfolded,
a treacle/jam-coated scone hanging on a piece of string. Traditional
customs and lore include divination practices, ways of trying to
predict the future. A traditional Scottish form of divining one's future
spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over
one's shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first
letter of the future spouse's name.[107] In Kilmarnock, Halloween is also celebrated on the last Friday of the month, and is known colloquially as "Killieween".[108] Isle of Man See also: Hop-tu-Naa Halloween is a popular traditional occasion on the Isle of Man, where it is known as Hop-tu-Naa. Elsewhere The children of the largest town in Bonaire gather together on Halloween day. Saint Helena In
Saint Helena, Halloween is actively celebrated, largely along the
American model, with ghosts, skeletons, devils, vampires, witches and
the like. Imitation pumpkins are used instead of real pumpkins because
the pumpkin harvesting season in Saint Helena's hemisphere is not near
Halloween. Trick-or-treating is widespread. Party venues provide
entertainment for adults." (wikipedia.org) "Fortune
telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's
life.[1] The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical with the
practice of divination. The difference is that divination is the term
used for predictions considered part of a religious ritual, invoking
deities or spirits, while the term fortune telling implies a less
serious or formal setting, even one of popular culture, where belief in
occult workings behind the prediction is less prominent than the concept
of suggestion, spiritual or practical advisory or affirmation. Historically,
Pliny the Elder describes use of the crystal ball in the 1st century CE
by soothsayers ("crystallum orbis", later written in Medieval Latin by
scribes as orbuculum).[2] Contemporary Western images of fortune telling
grow out of folkloristic reception of Renaissance magic, specifically
associated with Romani people.[1] During the 19th and 20th century,
methods of divination from non-Western cultures, such as the I Ching,
were also adopted as methods of fortune telling in western popular
culture. An example of divination or fortune telling as purely an
item of pop culture, with little or no vestiges of belief in the
occult, would be the Magic 8-Ball sold as a toy by Mattel, or Paul II,
an octopus at the Sea Life Aquarium at Oberhausen used to predict the
outcome of matches played by the Germany national football team.[3]
There is opposition to fortune telling in Christianity, Islam, Baháʼísm
and Judaism based on scriptural prohibitions against divination. Terms
for one who claims to see into the future include fortune teller,
crystal-gazer, spaewife, seer, soothsayer, sibyl, clairvoyant, and
prophet; related terms which might include this among other abilities
are oracle, augur, and visionary. Fortune telling is dismissed by
skeptics as being based on pseudoscience, magical thinking and
superstition. Methods Chart of the hand The screene of fortune here behold, fortune-telling game, ca.1650–1750 Common
methods used for fortune telling in Europe and the Americas include
astromancy, horary astrology, pendulum reading, spirit board reading,
tasseography (reading tea leaves in a cup), cartomancy (fortune telling
with cards), tarot card reading, crystallomancy (reading of a crystal
sphere), and chiromancy (palmistry, reading of the palms). The last
three have traditional associations in the popular mind with the Roma
and Sinti people. Another form of fortune telling, sometimes
called "reading" or "spiritual consultation", does not rely on specific
devices or methods, but rather the practitioner gives the client advice
and predictions which are said to have come from spirits or in visions. Aeromancy: by interpreting atmospheric conditions. Alectromancy: by observation of a rooster pecking at grain. Aleuromancy: by flour. Astrology: by the movements of celestial bodies. Astromancy: by the stars. Augury: by the flight of birds. Auramancy by someone's aura or feelings Bazi or four pillars: by hour, day, month, and year of birth. Bibliomancy: by books; frequently, but not always, religious texts. Cartomancy: by playing cards, tarot cards, or oracle cards. Ceromancy: by patterns in melting or dripping wax. Chiromancy: by the shape of the hands and lines in the palms. Chronomancy: by determination of lucky and unlucky days. Clairvoyance: by spiritual vision or inner sight. Cleromancy: by casting of lots, or casting bones or stones. Cold reading: by using visual and aural clues. Crystallomancy: by crystal ball also called scrying. Extispicy: by the entrails of animals. Face reading: by means of variations in face and head shape. Feng shui: by earthen harmony. Gastromancy: by stomach-based ventriloquism (historically). Geomancy: by markings in the ground, sand, earth, or soil. Haruspicy: by the livers of sacrificed animals. Horary astrology: the astrology of the time the question was asked. Hydromancy: by water. I Ching divination: by yarrow stalks or coins and the I Ching. Kau cim by means of numbered bamboo sticks shaken from a tube. Lithomancy: by stones or gems. Molybdomancy: by molten metal after dumped in cold water. Naeviology: by moles, scars, or other bodily marks. Necromancy: by the dead, or by spirits or souls of the dead. Nephomancy: by shapes of clouds. Numerology: by numbers. Oneiromancy: by dreams. Onomancy: by names. Onychomancy: by a form of palmistry looking at the fingernails. Palmistry: by lines and mounds on the hand. Parrot astrology: by parakeets picking up fortune cards Paper fortune teller: origami used in fortune-telling games. Pendulum reading: by the movements of a suspended object. Pyromancy: by gazing into fire. Rhabdomancy: divination by rods. Runecasting or Runic divination: by runes. Scrying: by looking at or into reflective objects. Spirit board: by planchette or talking board. Taromancy: by a form of cartomancy using tarot cards. Tasseography or tasseomancy: by tea leaves or coffee grounds. Sociology Romani fortune telling. Facsimile of a woodcut in Cosmographia universalis of Sebastian Münster Western
fortune tellers typically attempt predictions on matters such as future
romantic, financial, and childbearing prospects. Many fortune tellers
will also give "character readings". These may use numerology,
graphology, palmistry (if the subject is present), and astrology. In
contemporary Western culture, it appears that women consult fortune
tellers more than men.[4] Some women have maintained long relationships
with their personal readers. Telephone consultations with psychics grew
in popularity through the 1990s, and by the 2010s additional contact
methods such as email and videoconferencing also became available, but
none of these have completely replaced traditional in-person methods of
consultation.[5] As a business in North America Storefront psychic fortune teller in Boston Discussing
the role of fortune telling in society, Ronald H. Isaacs, an American
rabbi and author, opined, "Since time immemorial humans have longed to
learn that which the future holds for them. Thus, in ancient
civilization, and even today with fortune telling as a true profession,
humankind continues to be curious about its future, both out of sheer
curiosity as well as out of desire to better prepare for it."[6]
Although 5000 years ago, soothsayers were prized advisers to the
Assyrians, they lost respect and reverence during the rise of Reason in
the 17th and 18th centuries.[7] With the rise of commercialism,
"the sale of occult practices [adapted to survive] in the larger
society," according to sociologists Danny L. and Lin Jorgensen.[8] Ken
Feingold, writer of "Interactive Art as Divination as a Vending
Machine," stated that with the invention of money, fortune telling
became "a private service, a commodity within the marketplace".[9] As
J. Peder Zane wrote in The New York Times in 1994, referring to the
Psychic Friends Network, "Whether it's 3 P.M. or 3 A.M., there's Dionne
Warwick and her psychic friends selling advice on love, money and
success. In a nation where the power of crystals and the likelihood that
angels hover nearby prompt more contemplation than ridicule, it may not
be surprising that one million people a year call Ms. Warwick's
friends."[7] Clientele In 1994, the psychic counsellor Rosanna
Rogers of Cleveland, Ohio, explained to J. Peder Zane that a wide
variety of people consulted her: "Couch potatoes aren't the only people
seeking the counsel of psychics and astrologers. Clairvoyants have a
booming business advising Philadelphia bankers, Hollywood lawyers and
CEO's of Fortune 500 companies... If people knew how many people,
especially the very rich and powerful ones, went to psychics, their jaws
would drop through the floor."[7] Rogers "claims to have 4,000 names in
her rolodex."[7] Janet Lee, also known as the Greenwich psychic,
claims that her clientele often included Wall Street brokers who were
looking for any advantage they could get. Her usual fee was around $150
for a session but some clients would pay between $2,000 and $9,000 per
month to have her available 24 hours a day to consult.[10] Typical clients In
1982, Danny Jorgensen, a professor of Religious Studies at the
University of South Florida offered a spiritual explanation for the
popularity of fortune telling. He said that people visit psychics or
fortune tellers to gain self-understanding,[11] and knowledge which will
lead to personal power or success in some aspect of life.[12] In 1995, Ken Feingold offered a different explanation for why people seek out fortune tellers:[9]
We desire to know other people's actions and to resolve our own
conflicts regarding decisions to be made and our participation in social
groups and economies. ... Divination seems to have emerged from our
knowing the inevitability of death. The idea is clear—we know that our
time is limited and that we want things in our lives to happen in accord
with our wishes. Realizing that our wishes have little power, we have
sought technologies for gaining knowledge of the future... gain power
over our own [lives]. Ultimately, the reasons a person consults a diviner or fortune teller depend on cultural and personal expectations. Services Traditional
fortune tellers vary in methodology, generally using techniques long
established in their cultures and thus meeting the cultural expectations
of their clientele. In the United States and Canada, among
clients of European ancestry, palmistry is popular[13] and, as with
astrology and tarot card reading, advice is generally given about
specific problems besetting the client. Non-religious spiritual
guidance may also be offered. An American clairvoyant by the name of
Catherine Adams has written, "My philosophy is to teach and practice
spiritual freedom, which means you have your own spiritual guidance,
which I can help you get in touch with."[14] In the African
American community, where many people practice a form of folk magic
called hoodoo or rootworking, a fortune-telling session or "reading" for
a client may be followed by practical guidance in spell-casting and
Christian prayer, through a process called "magical coaching".[15] In
addition to sharing and explaining their visions, fortune tellers can
also act like counselors by discussing and offering advice about their
clients' problems.[13] They want their clients to exercise their own
willpower.[16] Full-time careers A fortune-telling storefront on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey Some
fortune tellers support themselves entirely on their divination
business; others hold down one or more jobs, and their second jobs may
or may not relate to the occupation of divining. In 1982, Danny L., and
Lin Jorgensen found that "while there is considerable variation among
[these secondary] occupations, [part-time fortune tellers] are
over-represented in human service fields: counseling, social work,
teaching, health care."[17] The same authors, making a limited survey of
North American diviners, found that the majority of fortune tellers are
married with children, and a few claim graduate degrees.[18] "They
attend movies, watch television, work at regular jobs, shop at K-Mart,
sometimes eat at McDonald's, and go to the hospital when they are
seriously ill."....Critical analysis Fortune telling is dismissed by skeptics as being based on magical thinking and superstition.[23][24][25][26] Skeptic
Bergen Evans suggested that fortune telling is the result of a "naïve
selection of something that have happened from a mass of things that
haven't, the clever interpretation of ambiguities, or a brazen
announcement of the inevitable."[27] Other skeptics claim that fortune
telling is nothing more than cold reading.[28] A large amount of fraud has occurred in the practice of fortune telling.[29] Fortune
telling and how it works raises many critical questions. For example,
fortune-telling occurs through various methods such as psychic readings
and tarot cards. Similarly these methods are largely based on random
phenomena. For example, astrologers believe that the movement of stars
in the sky can have implications on one's life.[30] In the case of tarot
cards, people believe that images displayed on the cards have
significant meanings on their lives. However, there is a lack of
evidence to support why such things, such as the stars, would have any
implications on our lives. Additionally, fortune-telling readings
and predictions made by horoscopes, for example, are often general
enough to apply to anyone. In cold reading, for example, readers often
begin by stating general descriptions and continuing to make specifics
based on the reactions they receive from the person whose life they are
predicting.[31] The tendency for people to deem general descriptions as
being representative to themselves has been termed the Barnum effect and
has been studied by psychologists for many years.[31] Nonetheless,
even with a lack of evidence supporting the various methods of
fortune-telling and the many frauds that have occurred by psychic
readers, amongst others, fortune-telling continues to become popular
around the world. There are many reasons for the appealing nature of
fortune-telling such as that people often experience stress when there
is uncertainty and thus seek to gain deeper insight into their lives. "
(wikipedia.org) "A
cloche (from the French for "bell") is a tableware cover, sometimes
made out of silver though commercially available as glass, stoneware,
marble, or other materials. They often resemble a bell, hence the name"
(wikipedia.org)