Lin 1

Magic as Psychology It has been well established that magic is neither real nor capable of any physical action. Yet, it was believed by ancients peoples to be as real a force as any. This was because of magic's psychological effect to convince ones' self into believing that something they wished for was actually happening due to a whim. As a result, often times a false sense of control, derived from believing in their ability to manipulate events through will, would be established by users of magic. Although, in most cases the desired effect does not come to fruition, when it did by chance, then that specific event is remember more strongly and promotes continued practice in the future, which lead to the reinforcement of magic. This is very similar to how certain behaviors become habits because psychologically it is reinforced in the mind. Therefore, ancient people used magic as a tool to feel more in control.

Magic allowed individuals to satisfy their need to accomplish something super human or otherwise impossible actions simply by willing it. The most notable example as given by Collins, is that of the family member that has been struck with an unknown illness. The family performs various magical operations from pharmakos, to incantations. Even though the effectiveness of these actions are dubious at best, they provide the family with some relief that they are taking action for their loved one. While this example illustrates how participating in magic can provide a psychological barrier from the grief and insecurity caused by an ill loved one, it only demonstrates magic's psychological effectiveness internally and not externally. An example of magic affecting the external world, as given by Collins, is imagine that one is coming home on a normal day and receives a package with a chicken's heart pierced through it. Although, it may not physically do anything, just knowing that someone would do this with scornful intentions

Lin 2

will have a significant effect on an individual and even deprive one of sleep. As Plato noted on and demonstrated in the examples above, "magic's power lies with the individual practitioner and their ability to "identify the efficient cause of magic as his or her ability to persuade themselves and others that their actions produce real effects". In other words, it is not a matter of whether the magic itself is effective but rather believing that it exists and the result of those beliefs.

Furthermore, magic was a form of expression to release one's inhibitions for the ancient Greeks. This primarily occurred in the branch of erotic magic where often times desperate men, who craved a specific women, became so obsessed that they were insomniac and deranged with lust. In most cases, they were unable to obtain the desired person, but erotic magic provided a manner for them to safely express their sexual desires and in many cases live out their sexual fantasies, even if only in their mind. Not only that but, people believe what they want to believe and magic helped to further support this concept. For instance, in the case of the prince Manoli, who had fallen in love with a poor village girl, the family did not actually want to believe that their son fell in love with a peasant. Therefore, they jumped to the conclusion that the peasant girl must have cast a love spell on him and even ended up convincing Manoli that their love was not real. This only goes to show the power of psychology in the persistence of magic because magic becomes a black sheep when the truth is inconvenient. Moreover, magic also allowed ancient people to pin blame on inanimate items such as statues and javelins, such as in the case of the javelin thrower who killed the boy who ran on the field. The javelin was charged with murder instead of the thrower because magic was a real factor in the minds of the ancient people. It is important to note that magic was divided into two parts, pharmakos, which involved medicines, drugs and various poisons, and rituals, which involved incantations, spells, curses and

Lin 3

such. While the ritualistic aspect did indeed rely heavily if not mostly on psychology, the pharmakos aspect did produce real physical effects. Some of the medicines, drugs and venoms used by the ancient people produced tangible effects, such as various venoms for poisoning, and medicinal herbs for healing. An example can be seen in Winkler's essay "The Constraints of Eros" as he cites that many of the early ingredients used in erotic magic (love potions) actually turned out to be aphrodisiacs. However, despite this fact, the argument that magic was a psychological tool to feel more in control is no less valid. Although, it is true that some of the drugs were in reality effective, many of them often did nothing and relied mainly on the placebo effect. The most notorious examples were the potions and elixirs sold by Charlatans and beggar priests. These false magi had to at least genuinely believe in the effects of their own potions in order to convince customers of their efficacy. Therefore, even in this case psychology still remained an integral part of pharmacological magic. Ultimately, continued use of magic created a habit for future usage and reinforced its value as a psychological coping mechanism in the mind. Since, magic is used as a tool to create security and control in the face of insecurity and uncertainly, it has a certain effect on the brain where it becomes a coping mechanism. Eventually, the intent behind the magic will no longer matter, only that the actions in the ritual are carried out. This phenomena is very similar to OCD. Moreover, Plato and many current day scholars such as Frazer, Malinowski and Tambiah have agreed that "Such (magical) activities also reinforce the practitioner's belief in his own powers", which ultimately leads to the psychological dependence on it. Furthermore, it also due to a lack of understanding of causality. As put by Collins, simply because Y follows X, ancient people believed that X caused Y. This can even be seen in the modern era when people watch sports competitions. They believe that if they're not watching or wearing a certain article of clothing the

Lin 4

players will not perform as well or team will lose as a result. Obviously, this is not the case but the line of thinking is very similar to those of the ancient Greeks. Collins also stated that Greek magic was based on volition which can develop into a dependency if continued to be relied on, even if it works only once or twice by coincidence. Even though psychology is a relatively new concept, arising in the late 1800s, it's concepts and effects can be seen thousands of years back to the age of antiquity. In hindsight, what was considered magic and sorcery to the ancient Greco-Romans can be attributed to psychology and a lack of understanding. Nevertheless, it served the ancient Greco-Romans pragmatically in many ways from dealing with insecurity and uncertainly to expressing sexual desires and even serving as a scapegoat for crimes that people committed. Even in today's modern world, with all own knowledge of psychology, technology, and science, there are still people that believe in magic to some extent, whether they are simply superstitious or are full fledge practitioners. In essence, magic's role as a tool to feel more in control remains the same today as it in antiquity.