[Buddha-l] Re: Magic

[Joy Vriens]

ERic,

> I think a lot depends on your definition of witchcraft. Most authors  
>like to make a difference between witchcraft, magic and technology.  
>Technology consists in manipulating things by cause and effect. Magic  
>consists in manipulating things by means of rituals and witchcraft  
>consists in harming other people by means of rituals. (Harming other  
>people by means of cause and effect is called warfare or crime.) Maybe  
>you prefer other definitions, that's fine by me.

I agree these definitions are pretty consensual, but IMO they are wrong because very "us and them". Let's talk about magical attitude or expectations then. I am convinced there is not much difference between "us" and "them".   Everybody, including the magically challenged, believes in cause and effect, everybody believes they can influence or even control events and can explain present events through past events. Everybody establishes links. 

Technology concerns the links between material events. Magic, as you say, consists in manipulating things called people by means of rituals and witchcraft. With technology we can produce the most awesome arms. With magic we can manipulate the citizens of a country to actually use those arms on others and through witchcraft and rituals we can actually get the younger citizens to hurl them at them. Cause and effect. The magic worked thousands of years ago, the same magic still works nowadays. Cause and effect never fail. If you look back, those in power have always been assisted by magicians, tantric wizzards, mandarins, cardinals, propaganda wizzards and spin wizzards. Technology is a detail. Ok you need it to make clay pots and to sharpen your stones to produce arrows. But magic deals with what really matters and what really happens in our lifes. It shapes our opinions, our wishes and dreams. And we wish and dream what those magicians want us to wish and dream.

> Evans-Pritchard  
>discovered that some African societies are soaked in withcraft, while in  
>others people didn't seem to bother. Appearantly witchcraft is induced  
>by an uncontrollable and undefinable fear for your neighbours and a lack  
>of trust in the community. So if your pitbullterrier suddenly falls ill  
>and the barrel of your Smith and Wesson turns out to be twisted you know  
>Uri Geller passed by. 

The wizzards of the NRA can tell you all about the magic of worshipping a hand gun and the feeling of safety and commuinion with ones *real* compatriots and with the founding fathers (ancestors) it procures. The ancestor cult has real causes and effects.

Joy