To ask if you believe in witchcraft?

[superstarheartbreaker]

My exes mum was known as a " White Witch". In other words she was very into woo and practiced as a Chrystal healer, could sense energy, was psychic and was into all the new age bull shit. Vegan etc , etc.

I think a large amount of this is bullshit however there are a few incidents which made me think. One involved her son. He was v abusive and when we split up I felt very low. At the time she was thousands of miles away in the USA. She phoned me up in ters ( she had no idea we gad split up) and told me she knew how low I felt and tha I should hang on in there ( I felt suicidal) she said she could feel my pain. Wierd as last time we met I fine.

I don't agree with the way she raised my ex ( brought him weed for his bday etc) and a lot of what she believed in ( and how she enforced those beliefs) was questionable but I do think there was something a bit strange about her. ( my dad who is the straightest man on the planet even thought she'd put some kind of spell on me at one point -- although that was probably due more to her abusive son.)

My own feeling is that Wicca has some power but that any attempt to manipulate nature to ones own ends is not to be trusted.

Am I barmy???!!!

[Delarosa]

Witchcraft does work. Thats all i will say.

[headinhands]

And that's all you can do seeing as there's 'owt evidence.

[Delarosa]

In your opinion which isnt relevant

[Delarosa]

Garlic nothing bad was meant to happen with that.

[GarlicGiftsAndGlitter]

I've cast the shells for you, Delarosa. Beware the man in red. He brings gifts and laughter, but will cost you a lot of money.

[Hakluyt]

"Witchcraft does work. Thats all i will say."

Go on then. Double dare you!

[GarlicGiftsAndGlitter]

Oh, I think it was. It almost certainly came from some woman who thought I'd taken her two-timing man. For all I know I had; nearly all the men were two-timing.

[WillkommenBienvenue]

We had a builder doing some work on our house while we were away, asking about whether I ever felt a presence in the garden. He had been working for some time there and seen strange flickers in the garden. I showed him the mirror mobile hanging from the tree. He had been worried about it for ages, his friend believed in 'all that stuff' and had made him nervous.

Believing in woo just stops people getting to the nitty gritty of dealing with real life. Serves no purpose whatsoever apart from some basic community/ritual stuff where that applies.

I love the idea of worshipping nature and it would be good to reclaim our traditional festivals (and music) from the church. I'm glad they now call it a Winter Festival instead of Christmas at school. It is a great sign that multiculturalism and inclusion are working, in my view.

[wasitsomethingisaid]

Garlic thats voodoo not witchcraft they are two very different things. Many people use voodoo to curse and it's from the US.

[GarlicGiftsAndGlitter]

Voodoo's not from the US! This was a Latin-American variety, little changed from its West African origins.

[wasitsomethingisaid]

Ok point taken. It is linked to the us now though. You will find in every culture a belief in magic whether that be Asia, Africa, America or Europe. I'm sure Australasia had its own form of magic too.

[Hakluyt]

"Garlic thats voodoo not witchcraft they are two very different things"

Only in the way that goblins and leprechauns are very different things......

[headinhands]

Opinion doesn't matter, facts do.

[Bumbiscuits]

This thread reminded me of a book I read years ago. It was written by a guy who helped police after certain dreams he had. The foreword was written by a police officer. I used to be a bit gullible with all this stuff back in the day. It's all woo.

www.amazon.co.uk/Dream-Detective-Chris-Robinson/dp/0316914665/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417977474&sr=8-1&keywords=Dream%20detective&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[HonestLie]

Delarosa would you not consider telling us a bit more? I am genuinely interested and quite open to most things. Would be intrigued to hear more.

[HonestLie]

And also garlic what was the doorstep gift (for want of a better word) meant to signify?

[mwalimu]

infinity I believe your first paragraph too. Also, I feel because dark matter accounts for such a huge percentage of the universe, there is potential for all sorts of stuff, that we cant (yet) explain

I think its quite arrogant, to think humans know everything. And anything we cant explain, just cant be true

[mwalimu]

But YY to suggestion and belief being very powerful

[Bulbasaur]

For starters, no one is psychic. No one. If your MIL phoned you up, she was informed of the split and she's playing mind games.

There is a man that has made it public that he will give a million dollars to anyone that can prove they have psychic or magical abilities. He lets the person decide the test, the environment, and how it will be done. No one has gotten the million dollars yet.

There are people that are very intuitive. I can do tarot cards and do a very accurate reading because I'm in a quiet non-distracting environment where I can focus on things like micro-expressions, subtle body language, and voice inflection. In day to day conversations, I'd say 100% of people miss all that because there's too much stimulation and distractions to give your full focus to a person. If there was more money in the occult, I could probably make a successful career of it.

That said, no I don't believe in humans having magic powers that can affect another person. I do believe in the "butterfly effect" where something small can set off a chain of events, but it's not something you can control. I also believe that belief is a very powerful thing. So if you cast a spell to get a job, then you'll go into a job interview more confident and likely get the job. Just like praying for something makes your mind focus on your goal and how you act to achieve it. In that sense, witch craft does work. But not because of outside powers.

[BackOnlyBriefly]

I'm sure it's true that you can be harmed if you believe - at least up to a point. I mean if someone says you are going to burst into flames you won't, but if you believed it you might have a heart attack, a stroke or get severely depressed etc.

Of course that's a good argument for stamping out belief.

The subconscious cues thing is fascinating and I do think we do that a lot. Not magic, but impressive anyway.

[BackOnlyBriefly]

mwalimu, it would be arrogant to think humans know everything, but I don't know anyone who thinks that really. The thing is we have investigated the woo things and each time found an explanation. As people have said there's a reward for anyone who can do something that can't be explained and no one has claimed it.

[headinhands]

I believe that we only use a tiny percentage of our brains

Science doesn't back your belief up though.

[headinhands]

anything we can't explain can't be true.

Anything we have no evidence for we have no reason to believe is occurring. Do you believe every claim that someone makes? How do you decide what is real?

[GarlicGiftsAndGlitter]

HonestLie, the chicken parcel was a curse that somebody had paid a practitioner to put on me - the contents are offerings for the various spirits invoked to carry it out. It's disturbing to have proof that another person hates you enough to have gone to some trouble & expense but, tbh, life in that community was like a 24/7 soap opera and there was a fair amount of anti-white racism. I wasn't that surprised, but my neighbours were a bit impressed that I truly wasn't scared.

I really liked a lot of the voodoo stuff. There would be little shrines, with lit candles, on street corners, which are signposts for the messenger spirits: very picturesque. I always tried to go to the public ceremonies as the atmosphere was fantastic, and I was lucky enough to be invited to some secret ones (which were massive booze-ups with dancing, like the one where I got 'possessed') and to have my soul read by 'wise' men & women. I was getting a lot out of it; it seemed fair enough that I'd come in for a bit of the flack as well :)