she ai 410 gan u Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan under authority of Board in Control of Student Publications Witch's brew: Eye of newt, ear of bat... 420 l aynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Doily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 1969 NIGHT EDITC )R: MARCIA ABRAMSON __ i Sunday morning By JUDY SARASOHN and CHRIS STEELE PROF. MARCELLO Truzzi comes on like the tweed- dressed academician of a 1950 British horror movie. He walks in during the third scene and assures every- one that witchcraft can be explained by purely natural -not supernatural-reasons. Witchcraft is just psychol- ogical reaction, not magic. "That's right," agrees Truzzi, a lecturer in the sociology department. "Withcraft and hexing can be explained as perfectly naturalistic phenomena." Anyone who is hexed-"the hexee"-may have psy- chosomatic reactions to the hex. "In any society people believe in the occult enough to worry about being hex- ed," adds Truzzi. The fear of being hexed, especially if you believe that fear to be irrational, can drive you into a state of thanatomania where you will waste away regardless of proper medical care. Truzzi can cite several recorded cases of people at- tended by doctors who have died-for no apparent reason except that they were convinced they'd been hexed. THOSE WHO believe in the occult are somewhat better off. If they get hexed it is a relatively simple matter to go to the local practitioner and have the hex removed. When a whole community believes in the power of a hex, they often prepare for the death and burial of the hexee. Community spirit like this gives the hexee no alternative but to die. One of the reasons for modern witchcraft is the complexity of science. The world of science has grown more mysterious to many people than the boiling cauld- rons of witchcraft. Science is also responsible in another way. Despite its progress science often does not have answers or solu- tions to many questions. Witchcraft becomes a shortcut for science. But fear remains the most important catalyst. The old and the sick especially turn to magic. but Truzzi "does not doubt that students hex other stu- dents here." There are three large modern cults. The Murrayites, based in England, believe in the "old religion," a pre- Christian fertility rite. The Murrayites are "white witches" who appeal most- ly to the middle class. Their tenets are reincarnation, nudism and the use of some drugs. The heretical Satanists fit the classic definition of witches as evil people who have made a pact with the devil. Living in highly secretive societies, the heretics were the basis for the Castevets in "Rosemary's Baby." THE OTHER cult is the First Church of Satan in San Francisco. Truzzi is an 'honorary member of the cult and a friend of the high priest of the church. Although these Satanists pay homage to Satan as ruler of the universe, they do not often use witchcraft for evil. Occasionally some indulge in mass hexings. One claims to have caused the death of Jayne Mansfield's manager through a hex. Both Miss Mansfield, who was a member of the cult, and her manager died in an auto accident. The Satanists believe that Christianity has wrongly suppressed the pleasures of the flesh. Truzzi is especially interested in the Satanists because many of the 450 members are well-educated, including doctors, lawyers and college students. Elitists, perverts and others who seek power are among those who join the Satanists, according to Truzzi. But many others also need the belief system of Satanism. Truzzi is trying to find out why. He's also investigating the claim of witches that their hexes will work whether or not the hexee knows he has been hexed. Truzzi is skeptical because' he knows of no natural psychosomatic explanation for this claim. But despite his predelictions for psychological and sociological reasons behind witchcraft, Truzzi so far has escaped the fate of the professor in the horror movie who gets zapped in the end by a well-pinned voodoo doll. 4 4 -Daily-Chris Steele TRUZZI, however, is not as concerned with the super- stitions of the illiterate as with those of the college- educated. He points to a tremendous revival of witchcraft among the educated. Rising sales of Tarot (fortune telling) cards, Ouija boards and popular witchcraft books are one sign. And interest among college students including a recent black mass at the University of Chicago and the growth of Satanic clubs among California schools is another in- dicator. There is no evidence of witchcraft at the University Laments of a broken house dweller Conscience be damned 4I By DAN SHARE LIVE in a two-story house on Geddes built sometime early this century. I've al- ways felt that old houses have a certain character and charm. So it was with a sense of anticipation that I joined the ranks of the hardy group of Ann Arbor house dwellers. Like others in this adventurous fraternal order, I moved into my house feeling that the extra privacy and space were worth a little inconvenience. I said a little inconvenience. I didn't ex- pect to move into a sub-standard dwelling that would be allowed to remain in a state of utter disrepair. But this is exactly what happened. Leaky roof, no screens, unsanitary kitchen and bathroom---you name it and it probably needed to be fixed. My espirit de corps turned to disgust when I learned that Campus Management was com- pletely indifferent to my living conditions. THE RENTAL agent had cordially assured me last spring that the building's obvious structural deficiencies would be repaired by the time we moved in.' I was foolish enough to believe this non- sense. Coma August, the cordial rental agent was gone, but the deficiencies of the house re- mained. Still retaining my faith in the American Way and the trustworthiness of pleasant manners, I conscientiously filled out a form provided by the landlord to notify him of any needed repairs. The form assured me all ne- cessary details would be promptly attended to. Two weeks later I called the rental agency to complain. "Yes, sir, we'll send someone over soon," the sweet voice said. ."How soon?" I asked. "The flies are getting pretty thick in the house with no screens." "Soon, we're really busy this time of year. Try to be patient.' Another two weeks and several phone calls later, the flies were still buzzing. Patience was definitely the wrong approach. MY ROOMMATES and I turned hope- fully to the University's mediation service. I had been told repeatedly by the rental agent that the lease's mediation clause was my big protection. The secretary at the, mediation service said the Mr. Lighthammer ("agent for the lessor") whom she apparently knew well- was a fair and honest man, shrewd in legal matters, a man unlikely to be outmaneuver- ed by students. She suggested we continue our efforts through the good offices of the mediation service and hope for the best. It was finally clear that we should do some- thing that the landlord would understand- withhold rent. We then called a city building inspector. Much to our delight, he not only found all the code violations we suspected, but he also found that the house's foundation which he had condemned five months earlier - was still not up to the specifications of the code. Almost miraculously a repairman showed up one morning shortly after the unpaid rent was due. THE REPAIRS were designed to patch over the violations with the least expenditure pos- sible. The results showed up soon enough. The linoleum in the bathroom is already cracked and has peeled off in some places. And last week, the roof sprang a leak in pre- cisely the "repaired" spot. Since the repairs, maintenance has been quicker but no less superficial. Our electric problem - a periodic failing of power in half the house, including the kitchen - has been dealt with by merely replacing fuses. Other repairs are still undone. For these excellent services, we pay $350 per month plus utilities. In winter the total bill comes to over $400. Yesterday, the landlord's secretary called to inform me the house was being put on the open market since we hadn't signed a lease for next fall - eight months in advance. Any takers? By DREW BOGEMA I NOTICED that a copy of Saturday's Times lay beneath a stack of recently purchased textbooks. Avoiding the icy stare of the titltes, I removed the copy of the Times from its place. How is it that the relationship between consciousness and consscience deteriorates into open warfare on five hours of sleep? What did the Times have to offer any- way? Richard Nixon would put the country to sleep. Not meditation, nor soul-searching- for the events of the last few years had proved the nation had no soul, only bleed- ing-hearts who listened to their own rhetoric. IMPULSIVELY, I threw such nonsense aside and returned to the glare of the "El Espanol" text. All that would be necessary, to win this confrontation, my conscience said, would be to open one of the texts and spend the remainder of the afternoon dili- gently memorizing Spanish idioms and ir- regular verbs. Ah, but - my consciousness replied, the memory does not operate well on five hours of sleep. There is no assign- ment due Monday, why play the masochist? All that is required in order to graduate is to pass Spanish, not to master it. Conscience, however, was not about to allow such heresy to go unchallenged. A commitment had been made, she cried, to finish off the language requirement. Only one more task to be performed, one more casket to bury. After all, she continued, thin commitment must be honored, if all others are to be preserved. CONSCIOUSNESS was not for a moment going tostake seriously this string of pro- fundities. Sneering, he took his portable Johnson in hand, and read aloud: "Don't you people know that there'sa war on, and I'm the only President you've got?" A buzzer sounded. The game was over. Con- sciousness again was awarded the prize. Instinct, with a devious grin on his lips, congratulated the victor. A larger question soon became apparent. If you are not going to memorize the idiomatic and verbal aspects of Espanol, what are you going to do? I glanced again at the desk, as if by chance some opportunity would present itself. The Spanish texts, pride intact, re- turned my stare with an aura of indif- ference. Let your world crumble about you, they chanted. Spend another year waiting for the language requirement to be re- moved. Replace your fatigue witl boredom. Something will have to be done to end these ever-present debates. The only way to finish off guilt is to seek innocence. ft #i On classical censorship THE NOW embroiled play Dionysus in 69 is a rather free adaptation of Euripides' z The Bacchae. Since the original play deals" with the efforts of Pentheus, King of Thebes, to censor Dionysus and his rites, reprinting selections from the original play may help clarify the current controversy. -THE EDITORIAL DIRECTORS Pentheus: "I happened to be away, out of the city but reports reached me of some strange mischief here, stories of our women leaving home to frisk in mock ecstacies among the thickets on the mountain, dancing in honor of the latest divinity, a certain Dionysus, whoever he may be! In their midst stand bowls brimming with wine. And then, one by one, the women wander off to hidden nooks where they serve the lusts of men, Priestesses of Bacchus they claim they are, but it's really Aphrodite they adore, I have captured some of them; my jailers have locked them away in the safety of our prison. / l ..: