Black Magic and Expats

[chilli]

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 ?

[Adam]

Hi Chilli,

Probably not the response you were hoping for, but my objective 'experiences' of black magic in Bali and East Java are simply mystic inferences and interpretations of bad situations created by uneducated minds. Classic examples that spring to mind for me are:

A Balinese friends wife in Singaraja suffered a 'mystery' illness last year. For him and his family, village etc. black magic sprang to mind. Dengue fever sprang into mine..... She's since recovered.

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.

Within our village in East Java, we have a dodgy spook called Babi nyapet. This friendly little sod is supposedly the product of shapeshifting black magic sorcerers that then wander through the village at night stealing money from peoples houses. My interpretation is it is simply a story conjured up by cash strapped villagers to save face within the kampung at their economic hardship . "I had 2 juta in my drawer but babi nyapet stole it". The remedy is to store your cash in dirty underwear. Amazingly :shock: many people have 'seen' babi nyapet, but nobody has yet been able to catch him.

You have to laugh really at some of the black magic stories, but when it leads to unneccesary deaths of good people, my patience wears a little thin. Traditional beliefs, myths and superstitions are wonderful and I love learning and reading about mythology, but the truth is they're just stories and sick people should be treated by well trained doctors (which are sadly lacking in Indonesia) not shamans and wizards.

Adam

[Bert Vierstra]

Until now I have seen / heard the following:

Yes, in Bali there are also "Babi nyapet" stories (money stealers), they are called "Tuyul", something like gnomes or something.

A story similar to Adam's story, a young woman just fading away, and dying. I didn't speak to her myself, but had a pretty good eye-witness report. It seems as sometimes people (women only?) can get into a psychic (?) condition that causes death at the end, in one or another way.

Dewi, (my wife) had an ovary infection, but insisted she was suffering from Black Magic. She went to a guy with "Super Power", and said she was healed by him. (She also got anti-biotics from our regular Doctor :) )

A foreign bar owner in Lovina, told me that he didn't get any visitors anymore after an old woman performed a ritual in front of his bar. He had a cleaning ceremony, and people came back.

A story I heard recently from Dr Bruce, who got ill after his Bakery became successful. He stopped the bakery and regained his health.

There are plenty of girls discussing and applying all sorts of magic to get the right guy, and if he is there, to make him do the right thing.

I don't believe in Black Magic, but there is more then just simple make believe, there are more complex psychological (psycho-somatic) factors in play.

This may be something to start understanding:

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~ ... tab=sample

This paper examines the gendered nature of desire in a North Balinese rural village adjacent to a tourist resort. It poses the theoretical question of what happens when a culture's dominant belief systems fail to accommodate desire. Observing that male promiscuity is indulged and naturalized in this community, the paper argues that women's desire is channelled narrowly into achieving and retaining a spouse. Women who admit of desire outside these cultural constraints may be subject to episodes of 'hysteria'. Hysterical illness is read herein as a displacement of desire onto the body such that the body becomes 'the place'--as a site of illness--where desire may reside. Although the resort to hysteria may provide temporary emotional release for women's frustrated affect, it does not fundamentally transform the gendered relations of desire. Curiously, neither does it appear to exacerbate the inequalities they sustain, implying that in North Bali (hysterical) illness may serve as a legitimate avenue for the expression of desires that are otherwise culturally-proscribed.

[chilli]

interesting, thankyou.

[Jimbo]

My wifes village has "Pot Pot" which are a kind of vampire but I myself do not believe in Magic although I believe that those who do believe can be affected by it.

I also saw a lot of people in Africa who were affected by it and many who practiced it. The black part is just that and is normally paid to a practicer to either do someone harm or to gain money or power.

On the other hand there is white magic that purports to do only good.

[Kadek]

Until now I have seen / heard the following:

Yes, in Bali there are also "Babi nyapet" stories (money stealers), they are called "Tuyul", something like gnomes or something.

I don't think Tuyul is Balinese. It is more Javanese. There was a tv series on RCTI long time ago about a boy Tuyul.
But then again I could be wrong

[Bert Vierstra]

Until now I have seen / heard the following:

Yes, in Bali there are also "Babi nyapet" stories (money stealers), they are called "Tuyul", something like gnomes or something.

I don't think Tuyul is Balinese. It is more Javanese. There was a tv series on RCTI long time ago about a boy Tuyul.
But then again I could be wrong

Yes I guess you are right. Dewi mentioned it to me, but later corrected to negegobrol or something, later I will ask the correct spellling.

Bloody TV. I don't know how many kids names I heard recently, derived from Indo soap opera's. But its alarming.

[Bert Vierstra]

Oh its Bererong. 8)

[suesandhi]

I lived in singaraja for nearly 10 years, and in my experience "black" magic causing illness was often actually poison, derived from herbs & plants. I have only recently discovered this forum, but I'm sure a lot of you expats there know about the jealousy that exists in Bali. This is what fuels the desire for "black" magic.

[Ipanema]

Hi Suesandhi

Firstly, welcome to the forum. Can you elaborate of the jealousy that exists in Bali. Are you talking about 'what one person has another person wants' type of jealousy.