A Lesson about Health and Happiness from the Salem Witch Hunt of 1692

by Stephen Hawley Martin

Nobody broke the news to me—gently or otherwise—and I didn't find out by delving into family genealogy. As far back as I remember, I've known I was descended from a witch—or rather, I was descended from a woman who was hanged as one.

I was brought up to believe she was innocent of the charge, but in recent years, I’ve wondered if she really was a witch. Witches exist today, why not back then? So I decided to research and write a book about my ancestor. What, I wondered, had really been behind it all?

The standard explanation is that certain people were accused as witches by malicious young women out to even old family scores. Or perhaps they did it just for sport. But the more I dug into the historical record, the harder this was to believe. The accusers suffered symptoms that would have been difficult, if not impossible to fake, like coughing up pins, vomiting blood in front of everyone in court, and deep lesions in their skin that appeared to have been made by human teeth.

I’ve come to the conclusion several causes may have been at work. One I’m pretty certain of is the remarkable power of belief. Everyone involved in the hysteria thought witchcraft, or black magic, was real, and belief is potent. One recent report says that after thousands of studies, hundreds of millions of prescriptions and tens of billions of dollars in sales, sugar pills are as effective at treating depression as antidepressants. In one trial comparing the herbal remedy St. John's wort to Zoloft, St. John's wort fully cured 24 percent of the depressed people who received it, Zoloft cured 25 percent, and the placebo cured 32 percent.

In cultures where belief exists in voodoo or magic, witnesses have seen people die after being cursed by a shaman. And then there is the power of belief to heal. Here’s a real-life example. Nancy is a minister's wife, a devout Christian, as firm a believer in her religion as a bushman who'd drop dead from a witch doctor's curse is in his, or a Puritan in seventeen century New England was in the efficacy of witchcraft. Five years ago, a lump more than half an inch in diameter was discovered in one of her breasts.

Nancy is a member of a denomination that takes the Bible literally. As you might expect, a prayer group gathered at her home the night before a biopsy to pray that the lump would disappear. After all, Jesus said, "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

I once saw an experiment concerning belief conducted before the television cameras of the Discovery Cable TV Network. Two subjects participated in the same ESP experiment in the same laboratory using the same equipment. Pains were taken to keep everything identical except one thing. One subject believed ESP worked, and the other did not. Like many scientists, he believed thought remains inside the skull, which would make ESP impossible. Impartial observers supervised both tests.

The experiment that employed the researcher who believed in ESP had a statistically significant number of correct hits, meaning the experiment was successful. But the number of correct hits in the experiment that had involved the skeptical researcher fell within parameters that could be accounted for by chance. So experiment failed. The one and only variable — belief — made the difference. The first researcher believed and the second did not.

Let's get back to Nancy. The next morning, upon self-examination, the lump seemed to have vanished. Even so, Nancy kept her appointment at the hospital where her doctor conducted a thorough examination and confirmed the lump was gone. No trace could be found. So the bewildered doctor sent her home.

How could a solid lump of tissue disappear? The same might be asked of the afflicted of 1692. How could they cough up pins, vomit blood, produce lesions on their bodies? Perhaps it’s true belief creates our individual and collective realities.

What’s the lesson in all this?

Most people go through life thinking they have little or no control over their circumstances. I have become convinced that to a large extent we create our circumstances with our beliefs. Change them and our circumstances will change. Since our personal health and happiness is at stake, that’s a powerful thing to know.

In 1692 Salem, people created a reality they believed to be true. They believed themselves to be a community under siege by Satan and his helpers, including neighbors who had made a pact with him and had become his witches.

In a society that believes in witchcraft, witchcraft is real.
You might say…it works like a charm.

Stephen Hawley Martin is the author of A Witch in the Family: An Award-Winning Author Investigate His Ancestor’s Trial and Execution.