Black Magic | National Geographic

Mexico City home to 20 million people most of them Catholics the church forbids any dealings with witchcraft saying it's the work of the devil but for many Mexicans the allure of magic both good and evil is irresistible believers find the tools of witchcraft at the Senora witches market afro-caribbean anthropologist Anthony zabaleta has studied the market for 25 years in every cranny of this maze bruja or witch doctors peddle their cures it's a market for even the most gruesome wares along with goods the market provides services in back rooms behind the stalls nearly anything is possible spells can be cast or lifted customers can have their spirits cleansed or engage in satanic rites it's all here curses fly powered by wing of bat and tongue of pig which is bind hexes in black ribbon ready for burial in a human grave curses like these are all too familiar to doctor zabaleta as part of his research zabaleta has been studying with Alberto Salinas a healer who's come all the way from Texas Alberto is here to restock his ex fighting kit believe in witchcraft was just an abstract idea for doctors a Valletta until he had his own life-changing encounter with black magic Zabaleta was travelling with Alberto and other healers on a mission what we found and what we saw that day was just unbelievable in 30 years of research field research into Leucadia include entities Mullen I had never encountered anything like that and probably never will again they came to a site where black magic was rumoured to take place dr. Zabaleta videotaped the events that followed short up here what is it all there oh my god the healers had come upon nearly a hundred objects buried as part of a hexing ritual my god look at that that's unbelievable hello hold it up for me my god this is casting a spell Oh or someone this is HAP that carnage that somebody huge to clean themselves so they put something I belong another person that they wanna cast a spell over this is a monster it is black magic though is it evil just the the sense in the feeling that I had of the the the people men women children who were captured and so to speak and those objects that are intended to does to to break up marriages or break up relationships or to bring people together or more nefariously to kill people and in people's lives and there was a horrible thing the healers felt they had to take action and quickly for Alberto the mission suddenly turned extremely dangerous when you break spells and evil spirits are concerned you are in danger you're going into somebody's territory somebody's domain it's obvious that if these people happen to find out that you've gone and destroyed something they've done and they may try to do something to you I became physically I became I was ill and everybody felt badly in one way or another with so much evil concentrated in one place the healers felt their spirits were in jeopardy doctors a Valletta suspended his disbelief and agreed to be cleansed Olimpia to use the Spanish word ritual sweeping and a cleansing to have whatever might have attached itself to us to take it off of us and hence make us whole and put us back together his experience that day in that place pushed aside science and challenged his beliefs the fact where the real or imagined was was very real on me and of course an imagined effect or psychologically and emotionally induced a fact that produces physiological change is valid and it's real but I've seen many things that I simply cannot explain dr. zabaleta story is not uncommon science doesn't always conquer the supernatural and for those who believe witchcraft is all too real

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 3,111,241

Rating: 4.5411887 out of 5

Keywords: National Geographic, Sonora, magic, witch, black magic, Mexico, market, stalls, spell, curse, sorcery, national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, documentary

Id: 4oPPkKsskbQ

Length: 5min 52sec (352 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 01 2012