The Science of Monsters

Today, women have reclaimed the word “witch” as a term of empowerment. In response to the recent “Me Too” movement, some men compared being called out for sexual harassment to a witch hunt. Writer Lindy West responded with a piece in the New York Times entitled “Yes, This Is a Witch Hunt. I’m a Witch and I’m Hunting You.” Author Joanna Malita-Król explores how the feminist movement identifies with witches as “the free, independent woman who lives on the edge of patriarchal culture, and the Pagan witch stereotype which largely agrees with the feminist interpretation.”¹ People may not be being accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake in this day and age, but those who identify as witches or are seen as any type of “other” may still have a difficult road ahead. Hopefully humankind can learn from the mistakes of the past and prevent similar prejudices in the future.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CARRIE

Year of Release: 1976

Director: Brian De Palma

Writer: Lawrence D. Cohen

Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie

Budget: $1.8 million

Box Office: $33.8 million

Carrie is a story of firsts. It is the first novel by Stephen King, published in 1974. It is the first of his works to be adapted to film, and it was the cinematic debut for actor John Travolta. The film itself begins with a first. Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) endures a typical, teenage rite of passage. While for many girls their first menstrual period is awkward and uncomfortable, for Carrie it is horrific. In what has become one of the most iconic horror introductions in the last fifty years, Carrie’s routine shower becomes a blood-soaked terror, not unlike that other famous shower scene. And her rising horror is only worsened by her fellow students’ assault. Carrie is mocked and even pummeled with tampons. So how does this innocent, weak, seemingly powerless girl become a modern-day witch?

We first must ask; what are the powers that witches supposedly possess? Are there scientific explanations for them? Carrie comes to realize that with her transition into womanhood she has a new, uncommon trait: telekinesis, the ability to move things with one’s mind. Numerous movies and TV shows feature characters with this ability including Eleven on Stranger Things, Jean Grey of The X-Men (2000), and Roald Dahl’s beloved character Matilda (1988). Does telekinesis exist? The study of this supposed ability became popular in the late 1800s when objects would move as psychics and mediums contacted the dead. These occurrences proved to be hoaxes, but telekinesis gained attention again several decades later when a researcher at Duke University named J. B. Rhine tested the theory that people could change the outcome of rolling dice with their minds. The results of the experiments were enough to convince him and some others that telekinesis exists. Researchers since have been unable to duplicate his findings and therefore regard it as pseudoscience.

Another witch-related power that people are said to possess is the ability to “witch” water. Also called dowsing, the process begins with the diviner guiding a Y-shaped stick or two L-shaped ones. Water, minerals, and even gemstones are said to be found this way as the stick moves and points toward the target. This technique has been used by the military to try to locate weapons and tunnels during the Vietnam War and by regular citizens looking for a place to drill their well. The scientific community has attributed this technique to the ideomotor phenomenon. When this happens, the subject makes movements unconsciously. This phenomenon could also explain Ouija boards and other techniques used by mediums.

Henry Gross with a dowsing rod.

What about witches riding broomsticks? To understand this popular image, we must first look at how it came about. During the Middle Ages, plants were used to make ointments or “witches’ salves” for sorcery and other activities. Hallucinogenic chemicals, called tropane alkaloids, made from a number of plants including deadly nightshade, henbane, mandrake, and jimsonweed were included in these witches’ salves. According to an investigation into a witch in the year 1324: “In rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a pipe of oyntment, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin.” Another investigation in the 1400s concluded: “But the vulgar believe, and the witches confess, that on certain days or nights they anoint a staff and ride on it to the appointed place or anoint themselves under the arms and in other hairy places.” These salves, containing hallucinogens, caused vivid feelings of flying. Put all of these things together and you get the convention of witches riding broomsticks.