Comments on: Saudis & Sorcery

By: Chiara

Chiara — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:54:33 +0000

It would be nice if the law could get the major abuses for fraud, practising without a licence, etc. But often the person is the local pious person, or a neighbour, or the nice lady who is the friend of a friend, or a member of the family. “Freedom of religion” might protect others. Ugh–the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms goes down in flames again!

By: John Burgess

John Burgess — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:58:36 +0000

No they’re not uncommon. But I think they’re better handled as matters of law than matters of religion…

By: The Envoy

The Envoy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:48:48 +0000

Magic-cons are hardly un-common in Asia.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:40:17 +0000

Yeah, that makes sense. One person’s spell is another person’s prayer. I agree with Chiara that this would be funny if it didn’t have serious financial, emotional, psycho-social, and medical consequences.

I love Penn Jillette, the Las Vegas-based magician/comedian (the large, boisterous half of Penn & Teller) whose act often revolves around exposing the tricks of the magician’s trade — he’s made it part of his life to preach aggressively against taking advantage of people’s gullibility through trickery. All “magic,” he says, should only be used for entertainment purposes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrw3euF2cIg

This is far more sophisticated than the tricks done in the KSA, of course, where people seem willing to believe without betting against the sleigh of hand stuff. But it’s entertaining to watch.

By: John Burgess

John Burgess — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:00:46 +0000

Perhaps the distinction between ‘spell’ and ‘prayer’ is laid out in some book that discusses the various types of djinn? Otherwise, it’s just that prayer is, by definition, ‘good’; spell, ‘bad’.

Louisiana–and New Orleans in particular–have long histories of Voodoo practice. It goes by different names and features a variety of practices, but it’s still there.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:41:42 +0000

What I find interesting is they combat non-Islamic “magic” with Islamic “magic” — the “defuse magic” by casting “spells” by reading from the Qur’an. It’s interesting that so many people in KSA believe in good and bad magic, the former is embraced while the latter is shunned by the religious authorities, and so many people here believe in both. That’s why it’s hard to get papers there to use terms like “confidence rackets” because many reporters and editors seems to accept that these confidence men are literally sorcerers. Reminds me of exorcisms. I visited a Catholic church/monastery in New Orleans that had cottages out back behind walls where people used to be locked inside to have “good magic” cast on them to dispel demons. (Basically a human rights violation against the mentally ill, locking them inside a room and often beating them to get the demons out — it must have been a horrible experience for anyone “intervened” upon by superstitious family members.) I was told they were using those cottages as recently as the 1980s, but by the time I visited this church it was basically empty, maintained by one devout member of this Catholic offshoot — I don’t recall the name of the offshoot, but they remind me of Pentecostals, very into charms and magic (moreso than the typical Catholic); like a Southern American version of Santeria, which is popular in Brazil and influenced by African traditions.

By: Chiara

Chiara — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:10:33 +0000

Sadly, the poor and uneducated are disproportionately exploited by charlatans, although others are as well. A friend who is a specialist MD and religious (mainstream religion) was so distressed by her own medical illness she followed a friend’s advice to see a psychic. The psychic spooked her so badly she almost didn’t take the necessary medical treatment offered. After she spoke to me about it she realized the chicanery. The psychic led her to answer her own questions and then claimed knowledge, told her she looked ill–so did her schizophrenic patients, she was so obviously ill–and that she could help her for a fee, and not to tell anyone. She had told the same thing to one of her friends. The consultation fee for the psychic was higher as an hourly rate than the specialist MD’s and the followup would have been about the same. Her belief in mainstream religion prevented her from following up but didn’t protect her from being spooked. Her brother forced her into treatment, as she comes from a culture (non-Muslim) where the eldest brother holds great sway, particularly in the absence of the father. I told her my experiences with Latin American “curanderos” and she was “deprogrammed”.

In summary, these stories would be funny if they didn’t have serious financial, emotional, psycho-social, and medical consequences.