Thinking magically or thinking scientifically: Cognitive and belief predictors of complementary and alternative medicine use in women with and without cancer diagnosis

Background Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is popular among the general population and patients with various diseases, but our understanding of the predictors of CAM use for the population of women with or without cancer diagnosis is still quite limited. This paper examines predictors of attitudes toward and use of CAM, including cognitive factors (scientific reasoning, health literacy, locus of control), beliefs (holistic and magical health beliefs pseudoscientific beliefs, and trust in doctors), sociodemographic factors, and cancer diagnosis. Methods The sample consisted of 177 women (103, 58.2% without cancer, 74, 41.8% with cancer diagnosis; Mage = 38.81, SD = 11.43). Results Pseudoscientific/magical beliefs and external locus of control were the strongest predictors of positive attitudes toward CAM and its higher use, as well as preference for CAM instead of conventional treatment. Cancer diagnosis predicted only higher CAM use, but not more positive attitudes to CAM, nor preference for CAM instead of conventional medicine. There was no difference between women with and without cancer diagnosis in using CAM after we controlled for age and education. Women in our sample had a similar level of magical beliefs, holistic health beliefs, and attitudes toward CAM regardless of their cancer diagnosis. However, women with cancer had significantly more pseudoscientific beliefs than women without cancer and a higher external locus of control over their health. Conclusion Women who have an inclination toward holistic and magical beliefs about health tend to favor CAM treatments independently of the cancer diagnosis, although the diagnosis of cancer also contributes to their higher use of CAM. In other words, it seems improbable that women would turn toward CAM treatment only after being diagnosed with cancer.

Magic in the Middle Ages

How was magic practiced in medieval times? How did it relate to the diverse beliefs and practices that characterized this fascinating period? This much revised and expanded new edition of Magic in the Middle Ages surveys the growth and development of magic in medieval Europe. It takes into account the extensive new developments in the history of medieval magic in recent years, featuring new material on angel magic, the archaeology of magic, and the magical efficacy of words and imagination. Richard Kieckhefer shows how magic represents a crossroads in medieval life and culture, examining its relationship and relevance to religion, science, philosophy, art, literature, and politics. In surveying the different types of magic that were used, the kinds of people who practiced magic, and the reasoning behind their beliefs, Kieckhefer shows how magic served as a point of contact between the popular and elite classes, how the reality of magical beliefs is reflected in the fiction of medieval literature, and how the persecution of magic and witchcraft led to changes in the law.

PENENTUAN LOKASI USAHA BERDASARKAN ARAH MATA ANGIN (Studi fenomenologi Pada Pemborong Padi Di Kecamatan Kesamben)

This study aims to reveal the strategies of rice wholesalers in determining the right business location according to the cardinal directions to meet consumer needs. Choosing the right location will have an impact on the development of the business. The method uses qualitative method and phenomenological approach, where the researcher explores the high and deep meaning of events or phenomena applied by the contractors in choosing a business location. The result proves the contractors choose the location based on the belief in the wind direction which is adjusted to the Java market day which is difficult to accept logically. Furthermore the choice of business location is based on magical beliefs. The contractor believes that the wind direction that is adjusted to certain days and markets is special and will generate profits used for business activities.

Race, Reconstruction, and the Invention of “Negro Superstition,” 1862–1877

This article traces the postbellum development and dissemination of the notion of “negro superstition.” By the end of Reconstruction, many whites across the nation, both liberal and conservative, shared in the belief that credulity was the keystone of African American culture. The formulation of superstition as innate racial trait served the conjoined causes of sectional reconciliation and white supremacy, eroding white support for black citizenship. As liberal estimations of black Christianity declined and conservative depictions of African American magical beliefs proliferated, “voodoo” gained traction as a potent imaginary, shorthand for racial atavism, unreason, and dangerous sexuality.

Everyday Magic in Early Modern Europe edited by Kathryn A. Edwards

Historians have long known that the efforts of religious reformers, both Catholic and Protestant, to challenge the magical beliefs of ordinary people in early modern Europe met with limited success, and that a rich stratum of unorthodox supernatural beliefs survived well into the 18th century. This welcome collection of essays addresses the negotiations and compromises between official religion in its various forms and the vibrant world of popular magic during the “long Reformation". Reviewed by: Darren Oldridge, Published Online (2021-04-30)Copyright © 2021 by Darren Oldridge Article PDF Link: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/aestimatio/article/view/37677/28674 Corresponding Author: Darren Oldridge,University of Worcester, UKE-Mail: [email protected]

Magical Practice

The word “magic” refers to a broad range of beliefs and practices that include animism, charm(s), divination, enchantment, fantasy, fetish, glamour, illusion, miracles, the occult, shamanism, sorcery, spells, the supernatural, superstition, taboos, trickery, and witchcraft. Magic―once thought a core feature of “primitive societies,” abandoned by more rational, bureaucratic and progressive beliefs―is, in fact, thriving in contemporary life, and central to practices of capitalism as well as to everyday behaviors. Magic is practiced in fields of finance, government, law, medicine and health, technology, advertising, marketing, sports, the gaming industry, and theatrical performances, among other institutions. When situations allow for the assemblage of a “magician,” “rite,” and “representation” within these complex social networks and when professional skills, ideas, conditions, contexts, media, and meanings align, magic acts as an agent of change. Magic is also practiced in everyday situations in which people need to feel a sense of control in circumstances where it’s lacking, such as performing well under competitive conditions or during times of crisis with indefinite outcomes. Consequently, they rely on magical thinking—in the forms of superstitions, wishful thinking, and taboo avoidance—which is often accompanied by charms, amulets, or acts of faith to guide them through uncertainty. Conjuring terms such as “fate” and “luck” to ward off illness or improve one’s chances at getting a hit in baseball, are, in fact, ways of expressing ambiguities and dealing with conflicts of temporal existence that all humans face in one form or another. Magic structured in institutions and practiced in everyday situations is a prime example of contradiction in contemporary life. Objective knowledge of facts is increasingly understood as contingent rather than permanent, leaving room for uncertainty, mystery, the unknown, and seemingly nonrational alternatives. Scientific evidence becomes as valid as alternative facts. Documenting recent developments, it is suggested that rationality and magic are not mutually exclusive. Rather, rational behaviors and practices are suffused with magic. Magical beliefs and specific rituals complement practical knowledge so as to enhance knowledge as a way to secure success. All of these ways of thinking and social practices have something at stake, in that risk, uncertainty, and ambiguity of outcome are prevalent, and hence call on magical practices to bring about change.

Optimism Bias, Pessimism Bias, Magical Beliefs, and Conspiracy Theory Beliefs Related to COVID-19 among the Jordanian Population

The outbreak of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus has an enormous impact on health. People’s views about the virus impact public health efforts to mitigate the pandemic. In this study, we measured misconceptions toward coronavirus in the Jordanian population; 2,544 participants from the Jordanian population completed an online survey. Questions in the survey addressed misconceptions divided into four categories: optimism bias, pessimism bias, magical beliefs, and conspiracy theory beliefs. Questions were evaluated on a Likert scale, and average/median scores for each category were evaluated (“one” high misconception to “five” low misconception). Overall, the most common misconceptions involved conspiracy theory beliefs (2.68 ± 0.83), whereas the least common involved magical beliefs (2.25 ± 0.75). Females had more misconceptions than males (2.52 versus 2.47, P = 0.04). Participants who had attended a lecture on coronavirus, had a higher level of education, worked in a medical field, lived in urban area, or resided in Amman or northern Jordan had fewer misconceptions about SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 (2.64, 2.34, 2.33, 2.50 and 2.50 versus 2.53, 2.73, 2.72, 2.64, and 2.66, respectively, P < 0.001). The use of social media appeared to be an important factor influencing the likelihood of false beliefs (2.61 versus 2.38, P < 0.001). Understanding of the factors influencing public perceptions surrounding the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic will help public health authorities improve public understanding and compliance with public health recommendations directed at combatting the virus, including the use of surgical masks, thorough handwashing, and avoiding close contact. These messages will be better received by the public through correcting misconceptions surrounding COVID-19.

The Decline of Magic: Britain in the Enlightenment by Michael Hunter

In the preface to this very Scholarly – and sometimes almost confusingly well-informed - book the author tells us that his aim is to offer “a fresh view of the change in educated attitudes towards magical beliefs that occurred in Britain between about 1650 and 1750.” In this he unquestionably succeeds. Actually the book continues somewhat beyond the later date, but there can be no doubt that there were changes – mostly declines - during the designated period in many of the miscellaneous human beliefs and activities that have for whatever reason been labelled as ‘magic’ or ‘magical’. Hunter begins the body of his book with a chapter–length Introduction entitled The Supernatural, Science and ‘Atheism’. This opens with an attempt to define what he means by ‘magic’, based, he says, on the similar attempt made by Sir Keith Thomas in his classic Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), though unlike Thomas he very wisely does not include alchemy and astrology. Even so he includes quite a wide variety of topics, so wide indeed that it is hard to see what if anything these phenomena – if they do indeed occur – could have in common except that they are difficult to explain, or to explain away, in ordinarily accepted terms. The proposed list includes such matters as witchcraft, witch covens, involvement with the spiritual realm (good or evil, angelic or demonic, benevolent or pestilential) possession. conjuration, prophesies, ghosts, apparitions, fairies, omens and lucky charms, and what would now be called poltergeists. Other varieties of curious events linked to or supposedly similar to the above could in practice no doubt get included.

Magical Thinking in Chamoiseau’s Chemin-d’école

This essay examines the second installment of Martinican author Patrick Chamoiseau’s trilogy Une enfance créole, using Chemin-d’école to consider how writers from the Caribbean may deploy magic in their texts in alternative ways to the magical realist mode, which critics have argued often reinforces a false dichotomy between a rational “West” and its irrational “others.” Specifically, Chamoiseau’s memoir both portrays creole magical beliefs as a vehicle through which its school-aged protagonists resist the ideology of neocolonial pedagogies, and it consistently refers to aspects of French civilization through the lens of the magical or marvelous. Ultimately, this essay argues, Chemin-d’école looks beyond magical motifs as mere emblems of tradition or authenticity. Using them instead to portray the neocolonial “civilizing mission” as its own form of magical thinking, the narration destabilizes the very ideas of the essential difference of Caribbean cultures and of the purported rationality of the West.