Black Magic and Expats

[ronb]

Recently another good Balinese friend lost his wife to another 'unknown' illness, once again black magic was blamed but I'm sure the BIMC hospital would have saved her life where the paranormals failed. People don't die at the age of 26 for no good reason.

Yesterday's Jakarta Post has a similar story, it starts:

Because 'God made them blind'
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Trisha Sertori, Contributor, Gianyar

There was once a family of 22 children blinded by cataracts living in the isolated mountains of Bali.

For more than a dozen years, The John Fawcett Foundation in Bali tried to persuade the family patriarch that their sight could be restored.

However, because "God made them blind", an otherwise loving father believed the children's fate was karma, an immutable force which cannot be interfered with.

This family is one of the keystones in the documentary produced and directed by West Australian Richard Todd, God Made Them Blind.

To get the full article go to http://old.thejakartapost.com/Archives/Archives2.asp , register, login, and then search.

[Kadek]

I saw a documentary here about the John Fawcett Foundation and their attempt to operate a girl who suffers from an eye problem ( a white eye caused by an infection) at Bukit (I think). And due to the family's believe that it was caused by Black Magic etc, they were reluctant to let the daughter be operated. :(

Also sometime things blamed on Black Magic or caused by leak are due to hygiene problems. I remember clearly that those places that my mother said I should not take or buy any food or drinks offered to me when I was little were terribly dirty and the people purported as being a leak or has black magic were often 'resem' or 'messy and dirty'. I was allowed to play and visit, but with lots of dos and don'ts. An obliging daughter as I was, I always remember this and never took anything offered to me even when people go as far as giving me 'sukla' food (food that hasn't been offered as offerings in the family temple) as the people in my village knew I am not allowed to consume their temple's 'lungsuran' or 'surudan' (food after it was already offered as offerings to the gods or to the ancestors).

Just imagine if you buy food in dirty shop here and the person has not given care of how they were prepared, you might get sick - perhaps only minor stomach complaint or worst salmonella and you die. Old people didn't know about this and/or the cause and so blame it on the person black and wicked nature (which I guess is quite right). And when you have such a strong believe on supernaturals and mystics, it is not difficult to understand how these illness be blamed on these forces. It must also be understood that although Bali is pretty much exposed to modern medicine and has perhaps been better exposed to education, there are still many who don't know and take refuge in old wisdoms which in some cases do not hold true.

Regards
Kadek

[orang gila]

while we are on the topic of para-normals.
do any expats have experience with black magic ? is it to be feared ? why is it done? and to whom/for what reasons ?

Black Magic?
That's an all encompassing answer for what is not understood.

A local friend had told us that he had been sick for some time and a priest said he'd had Black Magic put on him. During a session to have the magic spell exorcised, the priest took a rusty nail from his shoulder, a small nugget of gold from his stomache, and other things from his body.

We did ask if he'd been given the gold :roll:

A while after his report, we were acting as tour guides for an English film crew and the presenter (after numerous glasses of wine) put on an amateur magic show for us. As the night progressed, the topic of magic naturally drifted to Black magic. We told him a few of our experiences and the presenter decided that he would include the topic in his program.

One of the tricks he had performed for us was supposedly banging a spoon through his nose with a bottle, so with the cameras running he asked our friend about his black magic experience. When the rusty nail bit was mentioned, Mr. presenter grabbad a nail from the floor and said "like this"

Our friend said "yes, same like that"

Mr. presenter then grabbed a hammer and started banging the nail into his nose.

Our friend was gob smacked "no blood, no blood" was all he could say.

We explained that it was just an illusion, same as David Copperfield.

Poor fellow was from then totally confused, but he never brought up the subject of black magic again.

[lumumba]

OK, here we are:
What is black magic?
Is it something new to eat?
Maybe something coming from out of space?
Don’t know.
But I know that who ever practice black magic and who believe in this should end up like the Bali bombers, if they ever end up…….

[InAdelaide]

I had a shop in Legion, its wasnt doing so well and the Balineese staff thought it was Black Magic from the shop across the road as the guys were from an area in Java that had strong Black Magic.

They started to bring offerings from another shop that was going good and shortly afterwards we were going really well, co-incidence?

Didnt really matter if I believed it, the staff did and thats all that mattered

[lumumba]

In replay to Inadelaide:

Coincidence that for sure because If you believe that you can also believe that the donkey can fly :P

[akucintabali]

i believe in black magic, i met an aboriginal person at my work who did a alot of bad things. one day he was with his friends and could hear the spirits singing and knew that he was being summoned by the spirits and was going to be punished for the actions he made. he didnt go into much detail about his punishments but it made him clean up his alcohol and drug problems. i'm my aboriginal health unit at uni our lecturer told us a few stories about people she had seen who had been 'sung' or 'had the bone pointed' for various crimes such as rape and murder. these people were young with no co morbidities, they suddenly became sick and western medicine wasnt able to treat them because the 'clever man' had called on the spirits and it was their fate to die. she also told us a story about a man who wasnt feeling right, he went to his GP 3 times and the GP kept sending him home. he eventually went to his tribes clever man who told him there was something wrong with his head and to tell his GP, he ended up having a large aneurysm and had to be flown to the city straight away. the fact that this happens in a society where western medicine is accesible makes me believe that black magic is true.

[Roy]

Luckily for me, all the paranormal things I’ve witnessed, and they keep mounting up, were positive events. On the other hand, if I really believe in the essence of Balinese culture, which is to maintain a balance of good and evil, how can I deny negative, or evil powers that I also can’t explain, and which are manifested with equal intensity?

Those forces must exist in order to maintain balance. How they are manifested, how they affect our lives, and how they can come to overtake us is not something I’ve dwelled on during my life in Bali.

I guess for me, I had way too much of that already in my “other life” before moving here.

[Ilu]

I dont beleve in Black macig, but after going to Bali several times I start to belive a little. I have seen things that I can not explane and heard so many stories. so there is a corner of my mind that start to belive.
Have anyone seen the rain been stoped? that is quite common in Bali?