The powers of witches.

People who believe in witchcraft think a witch can harm people in various ways. In one form of witchcraft, the witch makes a small wax or wooden image of the victim. The witch may put something from the victim’s body into the image, such as fingernail clippings or hair. The witch then destroys the image by cutting it, burning it, or sticking pins into it. The victim supposedly suffers severe pain or even death.

Sometimes a witch cast a spell by reciting a magic formula. The spell makes the victim suffer. The witch usually mutters the victim’s name while casting the spell. In some societies, people use false names so that witches can have no power over them.

People once blamed witches for any unexplained misfortune, such as illness, a sudden death, or a crop failure. Many persons accused witches of marrying demons and bearing monster children. Witches might make cows go dry by stealing their milk or cast a spell on a churn to prevent butter from farming. People also thought witches could raise storms and turn people into beasts. In addition, witches could ride through the air on a broom, and make themselves invisible. In ancient times, many people believed that witches and warlocks assembled on October 31 to worship their master, the devil. Today, children dress up as witches and goblins on this date to celebrate Halloween.

Witchcraft has led to many widely believed superstitions. For example, many people in southern Europe and the Middle East fear a power called the evil eye. This power enables witches to cause harm or to bring bad luck to others by merely looking at them. According to another superstition, a black cat brings bad luck if it crosses a person’s path. This superstition came from the belief that every witch had a personal demon called a familiar. Many familiars, which lived with and served their witches, existed in the form of a black cat or some other animal.

From the 1400’s through to the 1700’s, church authorities tried to stamp out witchcraft. From 1484 to 1782, according to some historians, the Christian church put to death about 300 000 women for practicing witchcraft. Many of these women suffered terrible torture that they confessed to being witches simply to avoid further torment.

Appendix 3 Texts for Listening Unit 2. The Unexplained

XV. Text “The Dress”.

This story is about a bloke who was driving home one night, late at night… there was a very stormy howling gale. So he was driving along and suddenly he saw a little girl by the side of the road and she flagged him down. She was an ordinary little girl in a white dress. He stopped. He wound down the window and she said ‘You must help me, you must come quick, my mother is very ill. Come and help me’. So he said ‘OK get in’. She got in the car, she directed him and drove to where the house was. He got out and knocked on the door. There was no answer but he could see that the latch was sort of open. So he went into the house and there he found the woman who was very ill. He helped her and she recovered a little bit after a while and then she said to him ‘How did you know, how did you know I was here? Who told you I was ill?’ and he said ‘Well your daughter did.’ She looked at him, she went a bit white, and said ‘I haven’t got a daughter’. She said ‘I had a daughter but my daughter died when she was a little girl’ and he said ‘Well maybe it wasn’t your daughter… it was a little girl.’ He described the girl. ‘You know… sort of long fair hair and a white dress.’ And so the woman said to him ‘Come upstairs with me’. They went upstairs and they went into the room. There was a wardrobe. She said ’This used to be my little girl’s room’. They opened the wardrobe and in the wardrobe they found this white dress, soaking wet.

XVI. Text “Out of Body Experience .

ANNOUNCER. They are called ‘Out of Body Experiences’ or ‘Near Death Experiences’ and they can happen to ordinary people in everyday situations or when people have been very ill and have nearly died. Studies have shown that one person in three has had a mystical experience similar to and including near death experiences. They feel themselves released from their physical bodies and feel as if they are floating and looking down on themselves. For some it is a frightening experience but others are left feeling peaceful and happy. On the line today we have three people who have been through a Near Death Experience. First on the line in Tom Ball from Manchester.

TOM. - It was on April 3^rd. I was walking along a cliff and I had a heart attack. I fell over the cliff – 70 feet drop right down to the beach – and I found myself in the sea. My left side wouldn’t move. I was paralysed, I suppose, and I drifted in and out of consciousness and it seemed as though I were moving through a tunnel towards bright light and I saw human shapes but I couldn’t speak to them. I felt very calm there’s no doubt about that – there was no worry. And the next memory was of a terrible pain – I’ve never had a pain like that and I never want it again and the nurse was there beside me and she said ‘Thank God you’re back ‘. It was April 8^th – April 8^th! Doctors thought I would die – they started to operate and during this operation I had another NDE. I felt again just as though I were in that tunnel heading towards a light and the voice said ‘This time you’ll stay with us’ but well, I dunno, then I was back in the hospital, crying because I didn’t want to return from this lovely place. Today my life completely changed. I’m happier and my wife says I’m less selfish and I visit the old and sick and I tell them about my Near Death Experience.

SUSAN. – I was having a baby by Caesarean section, in fact, and I found myself in total darkness, I actually thought I was dead and funnily enough I felt angry rather than frightened – I wasn’t really frightened at all. I was worried, but about my baby and then, it was strange, really, I found myself flying towards a light which grew until it actually surrounded me and the anger was replaced by a feeling of – I can only really describe it as intense joy. I couldn’t see anyone but I became aware of a presence and I knew it was God – a voice said ‘you know who I am’ and another voice said ‘Hello Sue, glad to see you here’ – it was my grandfather who had died two years earlier. Naturally I was very happy to see him but all the time I was worried about my baby and I said I wanted to return. So my grandfather asked me why and I remember I told him I wanted to rear my baby and then to help others. Well, I found then that I was in the operating theatre hovering above my own body. The doctor went out of the theatre and I floated above him – it really did, it felt like floating and I heard him say to my husband that he had a son but there were complications. My husband telephoned my mother and I heard him say that she had a grandson but that I wasn’t too good – she said ‘Keep praying’.

Well later I repeated my husband’s conversation to my mother and he just couldn’t understand how I could repeat it as accurately as that.

Since I had my Near Death Experience my life is much better in fact – I live in peace now that I know that life continues when we die. I get a lot of pleasure in life from very simple things.

JANE. – Well, it happened when I was in hospital. They’d given me the anaesthetic for the operation and I drifted off and then, suddenly, I wasn’t dreaming, I just went floating down a tunnel into this bright light without shadow. All around me was this wonderful light and I could hear wonderful music and there were colours everywhere – yes, I saw marvelous colours, and I knew I was in a place of peace – everything was so peaceful and it felt so good. And then suddenly I saw all my relatives and friends who had died – they’d already gone – and they were waving and shouting and when I went towards them they shouted to me to go back ‘No, no, go back, it is not your time yet’ – yet I wanted to go towards them. And then I woke up and found myself back in hospital.

ANNOUNCER. – Not all experiences are good, of course. One patient said she’d seen a deep hole of swirling mists, where hands were trying to pull her down. She could hear wailing noises, full of despair and was sure it was hell! Another person described it as black, with lots of desperate people and, once again, the wailing noise. Goodness and badness don’t seem to influence whether people have positive or negative experiences, but those who have had negative experiences may feel guilty and frightened. Well, so far scientists can’t give a very clear explanation of these experiences – some believe it’s caused by shortage of oxygen which occurs when a person is near death, but in this case, one would expect the experiences all to be different. In fact, they seem to follow a coherent pattern, as you can see from our ‘real life experiences’ earlier in the programme. If you have had a ‘Near Death Experience’ please contact me, Steve Redmond, here at Radio 529. We’d be delighted to hear from you.