Isn’t it superstitious to believe in black magic?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Rekrishna, isn’t it superstitious to believe in black magic? When we are living in the age of science, why should we imagine that when we have problems, they are caused due to black magic done by someone else and not look for scientific solutions instead? Answer.
It is superstitious to believe that matter and material things, material causes, material analysis can explain everything. From the very beginning itself, matter cannot explain how something that can emerge, that can experience matter, can emerge from matter. The gulab jamun, if I eat, it is sweet.
But who is experiencing it as sweet? The gulab jamun doesn’t know it is sweet. The tongue is also made of the same matter that gulab jamun is made. So who is experiencing that it is sweet? There is neither any theoretical explanation nor any experimental demonstration that matter can ever change into or produce anything that experiences matter.
So there are two realities in this world. One is matter and the other is consciousness. And consciousness often affects people and things in ways that we just can’t explain through matter.
So there are many scientifically observed phenomena which have been documented well enough to indicate that they are repeatable and they have actually happened. They are called paranormal phenomena, but they have no explanation in terms of science or rather in terms of science as it is understood today, which is largely materialistic science. So black magic is that kind of paranormal phenomena.
So the basic understanding is in black magic, it’s not unscientific. It’s just a science of a different kind. There is this understanding that what influences things is not just matter but also consciousness.
So just as an illiterate person may not be able to understand how there are remote control devices that are controlled by sound. So I clap my hands here and the fan starts over there. How it happens, a scientifically illiterate person may not be able to understand.
So similarly, a person who is uninformed about the subtle connections between the various levels of existence, between various things in the universe may not understand how the performance of certain rituals can invoke higher powers and higher beings. So black magic is a part of tantra. It’s called left-handed tantra.
And it involves doing certain material activities by which certain higher powers are invoked. And if those rituals are done properly, those higher powers act in specific ways. So in the Bhagavatam, there are repeated descriptions of how when some kings wanted to take revenge against somebody, when somebody wanted to attack Krishna and that king of Kashi and others, they did a black magic ritual by which they tried to send a demoniac being to attack Krishna.
So now this is not just something in Vedic culture. Even in culture all over the world, the term may not always be black magic. Some places it may be called guru.
Some places it may be called witchcraft. And others may have different names. But the idea of some ways by which some evil forces can be directed towards others, that is widely accepted in cultures throughout the world.
And of course, it is not that everything that is claimed in the name of black magic is true. Much of it may well be just imagination. Some people imagine that this person has power of black magic and go to that person and that person can’t do anything, just deludes the people.
That person may be just an imposter. And there are quite a few imposters who claim to have powers, but they don’t have any powers. But just that doesn’t mean that there is no such thing as black magic.
There is. And there are people who have subtle power by which they can invoke these subtler beings and cause harm to others. So is it unscientific to believe in such things? It is unscientific only if we have a narrow definition of science, which is just everything has to be explained in terms of gross matter.
But when we understand that there is consciousness involved and there are beings with higher consciousness, there are Devas, there are Dhanavas, there are godly beings and there are demoniac beings. And just as there can be rituals for worshipping the godly beings and getting their blessings, similarly, there can be rituals for invoking the demoniac beings and using and invoking their power to harm others. So this black magic is definitely not recommended and spiritual practitioners keep far away from it.
But they recognize its power and they recognize its reality. And there are many cases where people who have been afflicted by some sickness because of some disease or some problem which just seems medically unexplainable or medically incurable. These people, they keep suffering, they keep going from doctor to doctor and doctor, nothing happens.
And finally, when they go to, they take some help from some sort of paranormal phenomena, they get cured. So Dr. Michael Cremo in his book Human Devolution talks as a full chapter called Paranormal Modification of Biological Form. So biological form is roughly bodily parts.
Paranormal modification is changes which cannot be explained by normal means. And there he gives many rigorously documented reports of people who had some, say, fracture or some malformed or some deformed bodily part and they just couldn’t be cured no matter how much they tried. And mainstream allopathic medicine doctors had said that this is incurable.
And they went to some holy pond and they either bathed or sprinkled that water on the pond and then they prayed and then got cured. So there are evidences for the cure also happening in this way. So the point here is that three things to believe that matter alone can explain everything itself is a superstition.
And actually that is a unreasonable and unscientific superstition because science has not provided explanation for everything in the universe. And science is strong indication that there is something beyond matter that is consciousness. Many scientists have admitted that.
Second is that this consciousness can act on matter and can be invoked to act. Consciousness of other beings can be invoked to act by means that we with our superficial vision may deem as superstitious. Not all that goes on in the name of black magic is true.
Much of it can be a hoax and we have to be careful. So once some devotee told Prabhupada, Prabhupada, I think I am being haunted by a ghost. So Prabhupada was skeptical.
He said, no, it’s likely that you are just weak minded. So we shouldn’t jump to the black magic explanation immediately. But there are well documented cases of people who are incurable by normal medical means.
But when they try to find out healing at a higher level, then they were healed. So people who have not been, who had sicknesses or troubles which were not curable by normal means, they went to this sort of person, they got cured. So there is a reasonable basis for accepting the reality of black magic.
Thank you.