RECENTLY the national dailies highlighted how students from institutes of higher learning are resorting to djinns (genies or spirits of some form) to obtain high scores in English.
Apparently these students insist that the method works and that they have gotten better results after paying a bomoh for the spirit or djinn.
These supernatural beings are apparently housed in a betel leaf and packaged as a charm. Each of these charms costs RM350 a piece and no additional chanting or ritual on the part of the student is required for it to work.
All the student has to do is put it in his or her pocket before entering the examination room and the bomoh would recite a mantra.
The bomoh, who sells these ‘English language expert’ spirits, said that at least 50 students have bought the charm and attested that they scored good results in their English language exams and there were no side-effects.
Being Asian, we are known to have some involvement in the mystical and supernatural to help us get through our everyday lives, even in this day and age of the World Wide Web, tablet PCs and smartphones.
Although many may find the idea of having spirits or genies to guide us through exams or when undertaking a task ridiculous or silly, yet such acts or beliefs do not just take place in the eastern world.
Last year, it was reported in the international press that students at a university in Norwich, east England have been using voodoo spells to help them gain good grades or to just pass their examinations.
The man behind the voodoo spells is purportedly a famous British voodoo practitioner named Dr Snake, who sells fetish pipes to these students. He creates these fetish pipes by going to a graveyard in Norwich at midnight and performing a voodoo ritual to lure a teaching spirit.
According to Dr Snake, this brings an “educational edge” – whatever that may mean.
The bottom line is that despite advanced technology, an endless supply of information and various successful teaching-learning techniques, we somehow fall back on superstition or religion to bring us good things in life.
Even those who scoff at the use of genies, spirits or even having our luck based on astrology, and atheists who do not believe in religion, will somehow get caught up in some form of superstition.
For example, it has been reported in the US that the odds of an undergraduate wearing a lucky piece of clothing or accessory when sitting for an exam is one to three.
Among the more common practices among students are avoiding black cats (and dogs in some places) before their exams, avoiding the number 13 (particularly in the US), dressing in their lucky colours and using a lucky pen for the exam.
At the end of the day, each individual has the right to his or her beliefs – whether or not superstitious voodoo fetish pipes or betel leaves with spirits in them actually help with exam scores.
Some argue that believing in the supernatural is no different from believing in the Creator through the many different religions in the world.
We carry out prayers for blessings before taking exams. We ask for our food and shelter to be blessed every single day through our prayers.
Personally, the Eye would rather believe in prayer and religion, smart work, ample preparation and positive thinking.