Final Blog

This is officially the last assignment I will ever complete at TCU, which is a peculiar feeling. I just took my last test today for my advanced financial management course, and there is a chance that I may never take a formal / written / multiple choice test ever again (depending on whether or not I earn a graduate degree later). I am impressed overall by the unique course that are offered by the honors college at TCU. I assumed that the honors college was exaggerating the truth during their recruiting efforts, but at this point in time I can tell that the honors experience in the classroom is different than a standard one. Right away, I took “College Life and Identity” and “Roman Tradition” as a freshman, which was so cool. Even now, when I tell my friends I have to study for “The Beauty of Black Music” or “Witches, Witchcraft, and Witch Hunts,” they are always astounded and typically wish they had the opportunity to take similar courses. Reflecting on my time at TCU, I have learned so much – possibly even more outside of the classroom than within! I was not sure what to expect upon enrolling in this course, but over the course of this semester I was pleasantly surprised by a unique, engaging study. Here are some of the things I learned!

 

1. Power of Belief

I have always known that the mind is a complex thing with the potential to generate significant power and control over a human being, in fact, I learned more about the extent of the mind last semester in my “Disease, Disorder, and Disability” course. Therefore, I entered this course with fresh knowledge surrounding mental disorders, and I think part of me assumed that some of the leaders / participants in the Salem witch trials may have been simply out of their minds. While this is a possibility, I learned in this course that the people back then are inherently the same as an average group of people to this day, like our class, for example. It would be naïve to write off what happened in Salem as the outcome of some looney individuals who were unintelligent and unusually paranoid to the point of violence and murder. It is a scary thought to think that these people became so consumed by mass hysteria that they were capable of committing such heinous acts, especially because similar events have happened throughout history before, afterwards, and even today. While reading about Salem, I was reminded of the classic novel The Lord of the Flies, because I think that was my first introduction to the concept of humans losing rationality in the face of desperation, due to shared beliefs. Something I struggled to grasp at first was the reality of belief. Belief is an abstract concept and many times rooted in a mix of fact and emotion, sometimes more emotion than fact. Sometimes belief is entirely speculative. Nonetheless, when someone believes in something, and really truly believes in it, they give the belief power. With their belief, their genuine, wholehearted belief, people make choices that have the power to change worlds. I was reminded of a quote from Harry Potter which fits this theme perfectly. Dumbledore tells Harry in a dream, “Of course it is happening inside your head Harry, but why on Earth should that mean that it is not real.”

 

2. Anachronism: Understanding the Time Period

I wrote another blog post about the concept of anachronism, and I think this is one of my strongest takeaways from the course, especially because it can be applied to other historical time periods as well. At the start of this course, I think most of the class was prone to kind of laughing about how zany the premise of witchcraft and witch hunts was, but we quickly learned together how to look beyond the irrationality and study the truth of the matter. In our final classes, no one even thought to laugh at any of the witch content, because we had grown so much and expanded our minds to a point where we could really look at what was going on and try to make our own sense of what happened. Every week in this course, I better learned how to remove myself from the 21^st century (to an extent) in order to better analyze the text and come to conclusions about Salem. After isolating the stories from today and entering the setting during analysis, it would often be beneficial to examine other similar historical events and use modern studies / research / knowledge, but only afterwards! Therefore, I have a newfound respect for history on a more granular, anecdotal level, and I feel better equipped to look past surface level intelligence, and instead commit to diving into the material to really understand.

3. The Concept of Othering

This is a wide-scoping concept and takes many shapes and sizes throughout all of society over so many years. Analyzing witchcraft and Salem is a perfect microcosm to examine the role of othering and its detrimental power amidst uncertainty. As far as understanding the reason for humans’ innate tendency to organize / classify people and make absolute judgements based on minimal criteria, I don’t think anyone knows; that rabbit hole runs deep. What is in our control, however, is looking at the past and avoiding the same mistakes in the future. Understanding that the concept of othering is ubiquitous in society allows us to become more self-aware and inclusive. Whether the “other” in a group is a demonic witch back in Salem, or the new kid in town, there is almost always a negative connotation. In fact, othering is at the heart of racism, sexism, and many other “ism’s” which remain as problems across the world to this day. Examining the Salem witch trials and the roots of what happened has been integral in my better understanding of why people think what they think and say what they say when it comes to the othering of someone else. Fear, uncertainty, and adversity all cause humans to become nasty creatures. In fact, it’s ironic how although the witches were deemed to be workers for the devil, the real monsters were the people consumed by hysteria to the point of allowing unjustified murder. As a society, we still struggle to manage our innate othering tendencies, but using history to expand our mindsets will hopefully lead to a brighter future, little by little.

4. Witchcraft Today: Depictions in Media

Although I had seen many examples of magic and witchcraft in popular culture / media over the course of my life, I did not truly realize just how many examples there are and just how many I had not seen. One of my favorite parts of the class was the media presentations, especially because they gave us an opportunity to analyze very specific points of the entertainment and connect it to course topics. In addition, I was exposed to several movies that I plan on watching this summer. I find it fascinating how even today we are influenced by different forms of the same concepts and beliefs from hundreds, even thousands of years in the past. Magical powers and cultural beliefs have often been warped to fit many different narratives in recent history. Sometimes they are used to instill fear into an audience, such as a horror movie for entertainment. Other times, relics from the past are converted into superpowers, such as Thor, Doctor Strange, and Wanda in the Marvel Cinematic universe. Although the media often utilizes witchcraft and magic purely for entertainment, the fact that the ideas are still communicated says something. It might be subtle, but these premises are revitalized when they pop up in different forms of media. Kids learn about supernatural concepts that they might have otherwise never understood without opening some obscure, boring book. Even today, there are millions of witches across the world on the night of Halloween, acknowledging the past and keeping the history alive. Not to mention our many discussions / analyses of modern witchcraft, which can be seen with the search of a simple hashtag filter online. I learned that there is extreme significance and influence of witchcraft and magic right under our noses, and to appreciate the power of keeping these traditions and beliefs alive.

5. The Role of Magic in my Life

Throughout this course I was often reminded of all sorts of ways that witchcraft, magic, and the occult have directly influenced my mind over the years. For example, I did not blog about this previously, but my grandma used to read my palms when I was 10-12 years old or so. Granted, she knew lots about me and may have been able to use that to her advantage, but there were many years where I was genuinely fascinated by the concept of palm reading; I truly believed. I even read some pages of her books about the premise of palm reading. There were some instances where she was even able to allude to things about my life from school, which she knew nothing about. She even read the palm of one of my friends and knew that he had left home for a long amount of time (he was on a long fishing trip at one point). Coincidence? Manifestation? Luck? Who knows? One thing is for certain: my belief and the effect it had on my development and understanding of the world. In another timeline I could have lived in 1690, and my grandma could have just as well taught me about evil witches and how there are even some witches living in our town. I would have believed this as well! Not to mention the modern day lies that millions of children belief as I type this blog – Santa, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, etc. Kids genuinely believe these characters exist, and this inspires a spirit of magic in their lives. There is something beautiful about really believing in something. If you have nothing to believe in, I think you have nothing at all. Belief has taken many forms in my life. I think one of the most powerful forms of magic to this day is music. Music is something I rely on daily, and it actually has this magical power to take you back to a very specific point in time, or even feel a very specific feeling, maybe even one you had forgotten. I believe in the power of helping others, and even the reality of karma. I also believe that life is not supposed to be fair or easy, because if there was all good then good would cease to exist, since it is a relative concept (Yin and Yang). At the end of the day, I believe in many things, and sometimes these beliefs are not grounded in fact, and sometimes they are out of my control. Nonetheless, my beliefs comprise my character and therefore I will always respect the power and significance of belief, be it mine or others, in order to effectively navigate the journey of life.