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???!!!

[WorraLiberty]

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

Having read this thread, I now believe that too!

[TheRealAmandaClarke]

worra

[GarlicGiftsAndGlitter]

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

YY, this is what I don't really get about magic/woo/religion. So much of real, verifiable, evidential life is amazing - it's hardly necessary to surround it all with beliefs & rituals. It's already weird, incredible and fabulous!

[GarlicGiftsAndGlitter]

We don't fully know everything the brain does.

We do know we use it all, because we have equipment to scan brains doing stuff. The theory that we only used 20% of it, and variants thereof, comes from early days when brains had to be monitored using electrodes and/or probes, which obviously couldn't get to the whole thing at once - or not without killing the patient, which would certainly have resulted in reduced cerebral activity.

In general, the evolution of the brain is a matter of growing new parts on top of the old ones. In its oldest parts, the core, your brain is still that of a fish/reptile. Your brain hasn't lost any of its evolved abilities; it's developed new & more sophisticated ones as well. In order to use those efficiently, it's modified the sensory inputs from your nervous system. It's all a bit of a mishmash, though, we're still a work in progress

[WillkommenBienvenue]

Every public building round here seems to have declared itself into a church round here. It's very weird. Gym hall by day, 16th Day Pentecostal Adventist Allseeing Faith Church of Jesus and Mary by night. People so need to believe and applaud each other while they do it. Makes me feel like a right party pooper.

People seem to want their world to become smaller.

[GarlicGiftsAndGlitter]

Perhaps they feel their world's getting out of control. Gives some illusion of influence. They should be protesting instead!

[WillkommenBienvenue]

Absolutely. It also gives them a false sense of security, hence the lack of protests.

[solidussnake]

I believe in witchfraft and study wicca and paganism.

[weresquirrel]

Do you mean magick? Aleister Crowley said that magick is "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will".

My personal belief is that reality is a lot more fluid and changeable than we can imagine and that reality is a function of the mind rather than being objectively "out there". For example, when a person takes a hallucinogenic drug such as Salvia Divinorum, their whole concept of reality changes, they lose their ego and cease to exist in this reality as we know it. I truly believe that the mind is capable of doing many things that we can't understand or imagine.

[QueenCleo]

weresquirrel I agree. I love Aleister Crowley. Do what thou wilt!

Like to think of myself as a bit of a pagan, dabbled in Wicca for a while, went through an Egyptian phase in my teens and a more recent Norse phase. Always enjoyed being known as a heathen and letting family members think I dance around naked (I do) and lead unsuspecting Christian coppers to their deaths (I do not, but I love that film).

However, in reality, I'm just an atheist with a fondness for paganism and occult. I believe in 'worshipping' nature - that is, respecting and taking care of our planet, animals, and each other.

[KidLorneRoll]

I'll believe in such things as soon as anyone comes up with, y'know, evidence and stuff.

[Namechangeyetagaintohide]

Ofcourse not. No more than I believe in any religion, unicorns or ghosts.

[HazleNutt]

If you don't know about Derren Brown and just check a few of his videos on youtube, a lot of people would claim he's psychic. And has special powers.

[Hakluyt]

HazelNutt- yu do think that there are people who think he really is psychic and is only pretending not to be? I kid you not!

[BarbarianMum]

I don't believe in witchcraft or magic, god or ghosts.

I do think things like premonitions and telepathy can happen (have experience the second with my mum on a couple of occasions). I can't explain them but feel that one day science will advance enough to allow us to.

[GarlicGiftsAndGlitter]

I'm gently chuckling at the idea of treating Crowley as a guru.

reality is a function of the mind ... I truly believe that the mind is capable of doing many things that we can't understand or imagine.

Perception of reality is a function of the mind, yes. Each individual perceives it differently, according to their sensory input and what their brain makes of that.

The mind is certainly capable of doing many things we don't yet understand. For instance, placebos work up to 50% of the time, even if the subject knows the drug's a placebo.

But it's an oxymoron to say we can't imagine what the mind can do. With what do we imagine? Our minds! The mind can certainly imagine everything the mind can do I regularly dream I can fly. Inconveniently, my mind can't translate this into physical action with the gravity-dependent body I've got.

For example, when a person takes a hallucinogenic ... their whole concept of reality changes, they cease to exist in this reality as we know it.

Their concept of reality changes, because they've altered their brain's responses to sensory input. The drug alters their perceptions.

They do not cease to exist in everyday reality. If they're tripping in the middle of a crowded shopping centre, everyone else there can see the person existing in this reality as we know it. All that's changed is their own perception.

[MagratsHair]

I don't have time now to RTFT but I will later.

To me, witchcraft is a catch all term for Wicca, Satanism, the voodoo & similar beliefs that originate from Haitian culture, paganism & it runs the whole gauntlet into ouija boards, crystals & palmistry. The term witchcraft isn't at all helpful as I prefer to be more specific.

I think it really comes down to people believing in an energy, an energy that can be moved or manipulated in some way to change things according to the purposes of the mover.

Its disturbing to me that people will believe in it so much they cause harm to children through exorcisms or suchlike & I think that to some people its a valid way of running your life, much as a Catholic will run their life according to their beliefs. However the belief in the Christian God no longer causes harm to others whereas from my understanding of modern witchcraft there is still room for real human blood & animal sacrifices & harming people in the name of the belief. Which to me is no different from the witch burnings of the 16 century & torturing somebody's cat as its Satan's familiar.

I don't believe in it nor do I understand it but I'm open minded & a psychic did once tell me things that he couldn't possibly have known.

Also I reach for my phone most days before it has made a sound & I know who's on the other end no caller ID here smartarses & I can pick up on people's thoughts sometimes, so I say what they are thinking or I suddenly for no reason start talking about something that they are thinking about. People comment on it sometimes. But its not controllable & I can't make it happen & I think it's linked to evolution somehow, a kind of throwback to when we were all hunting the same mammoth & needed to communicate without shouting....

[HazleNutt]

ah Hak obviously, that must be it! It's funny how some people first try to look for a supernatural explanation, instead of checking if there might be a perfectly rational one.

[skolastica]

re using all of our brain/not using all of our brain. Whilst it may be accurate to say that a brain scan shows all areas of the brain being used, this doesn't necessarily mean that we're not using all of our brain. I've always understood this to mean that we aren't using the 'full potential' of our brain, and that, like training for an athletic event, we can 'train our brain' to function at a more effective level. Whether is be memory skills, intuition skills, arithmetic skills.

[GarlicGiftsAndGlitter]

Yeah, we can :) We don't stop growing new brain tissue until we die, and we're constantly creating new synapses (connections.) If you do The Knowledge - London cab version, not Crowley - the part of your brain that deals with maps gets bigger. This doesn't mean you weren't using all of your brain before training. You've created new ways to use it.

Has everyone seen the BBC4 Storyville on James Randi? He's the guy who set up a foundation to award $1m to the first person proving they can do something paranormal. Used to be an escapologist - had long-running battles with Uri Geller and a faith healer. Not only does he come over as absolutely adorable (imo, obvs,) but the documentary really shows how much folks will sacrifice for their belief in woo.

[GarlicGiftsAndGlitter]

• another way to put "training our brain to function at a more effective level" is "learning"

[BreakingDad77]

I think witch's as with other healers etc could/can cause psychosomatic or placebo type effects in people.

[wasitsomethingisaid]

Given the recent news article about black magic I was expecting this thread to turn and with predictable inevitability it has.

Wiccans do not do black magic, thus they wouldn't perform voodoo, cut anyone's heart out or in fact harm anyone. This is also why many Wiccans are vegetarian as they believe animals have souls personalities and won't harm them.

I hope that helps