Lack Of Knowledge Equals Troub Essay, Research Paper

Lack of Knowledge equals Trouble

Witchcraft is a delicate subject for people to talk about. Especially for religious people that think witchcraft is part of the devil work. But this brings another topic in mind, superstition. Superstition means “traditional belief that a certain action or event can cause or foretell an apparently unrelated event” according to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (795). Though I do not believe in superstition, I respect those who do. Witchcraft for me is real, I do believe in magic and power it might have. My experience with Witchcraft I had was not so great; I bump into trouble in the process. However I learned to survive these tragedies and life through them. The way that I learned to live through my situation it is similar to the way Abram handled his situation in the short story “Making Magic” by David Abram.

The story “Making Magic” is about a magician that had the power to heal decides to not use his power for healing because of lack of knowledge of his magic. Later he decides to travel to many places in Asia to learn more about his magic but finds out that healing magic is out of his league. Abram, became afraid of his magic powers and also realized that he did not have control over these power. So it was better that he left magic for entertainment purposes only. People from Sri Lanka believed that his magic had real powers, but when the magician tried to show them that magic is “but illusions accomplished by dexterous manipulations”(514) he only accomplished to insult these people. Insulting these people was not in the intention of Abram; Abram had to respect the traditions of Sri Lanka. Toward the end of the story Abram was asked by Gede to perform an exorcism because he believed his boat was under a spell that did not let him catch any fish. What Gede did not know is that Abram had no idea how to perform an exorcism, but he agreed anyway. His instruments consist of a coke bottle, flash paper, cigarette, and sand. First Abram grab the coke bottle and puts in the flash paper and the sand, next he lit the cigarette and stuck it in the coke bottle which made the flash paper flash, then he poured the sand into Gede’s hand, and finally Abram told Gede to throw the sand into the sea. The exorcism was complete and successful because Gede began to catch fish again. Even though Abram knew that the exorcism was successful, he will never do it again. He needs to learn more about that kind of magic before he could continue with it. Abram decided to learn more about magic so he would not be afraid to try it again “later in the road”.

So if people decide to learn more about witchcraft then not that many people would be so superstitious about it. However, people are still skeptical about Witchcraft because they are afraid of having any contact with it. They might be worried about what might happen to them. I know a little about witchcraft, I was involved in it for about six months. I used the Ouija board mostly everyday of the week. But then I became afraid of it because the spirit that I would talk to would not leave me alone. He would always want to be with me. I was not the only one who participated in this Ouija board playing. My best friend would also talk to spirits. When my best friend would be talking to her spirits, my spirit would interrupt her and demand her to tell me to talk to him. He would be angry at times, but when I would get a chance to talk to him he would be sad. One thing that I had to be concern with is to not get these spirits angry with me because they might do harm. So like Abram, I left that business. The reason why Abram left his “healing” magic was because of being afraid of the affect. If something would ever go wrong, then people would get revenge from him. It was not something I would have enjoyed doing for long. I also did not have control over which I was talking to; therefore I was not going to take the risk of getting to know a crazy spirit or an evil spirit. By stop using the Ouija board I became free and relieved because I knew that I did not have to knowledge that is required to control or handle the situations Witchcraft might bring. Understanding is the key point to control and handle difficult situations that life might bring.

People need to understand the power of magic and the impact it might have. For example, David Abram, the magician, he did not understand his magic and also did not have an idea of how people were going to react to his magic. He decides to travel to Asia for more information toward his magic, but he only gets confused. People were looking for healing magic, not entertainment magic. These people did not understand that Abram had no idea how to practice healing magic. Abram knew that his best choice was to leave that part of town and come back when he knows about healing magic. I, like Abram, did not understand the power of Witchcraft. I did not realized the danger and the affect it has on people, I thought it was a game that was not going to harm me in any way or come back me later in life.

Knowing the danger of keeping contact with Witchcraft, I knew that the only way I was going to be freed was to break the Ouija board and never look back. My experience with the Ouija board lead me to acknowledge that it is a dangerous game to play and should not be messed around if you do not understand it. Until I learn more about witchcraft, I would not consider trying it again. David Abram also felt like I did; he knew that with his limited understanding about healing power he was not going to be successful. He needs more knowledge about his powers to really know what he is capable of doing. Entertainment magic is Abram passion and Art is mind.