IndonesiaBlack magic has long existed in the USA and Europe.
On 14 January 2012 the Sydney Morning Herald reports on Indonesia's fixation with black magic
During the 2009 election campaign, Indonesian President Susilo Yudhoyono talked of black magic forces being used against him and his staff.
''Many are practising black magic. Indeed, I and my family can feel it,'' he said.
''It's extraordinary. Many kinds of methods are used. I have come to the conclusion that only prayers can defeat black magic attacks.''
Former president Megawati Sukarnoputri consulted magic men, called dukuns (pronounced dookoons).
Former president Abdurrahman Wahid, a Moslem cleric, consulted dukuns.
He called upon djinns, non physical beings sometimes called genies, to protect him and his political party.
Wahid meditated at the tomb of an Islamic saint before sacking two ministers.
Former president Suharto had a collection of 'magic' daggers, or kris, believed to be the source of his power.
The world's largest Islamic organisation, Indonesia's Nahdlatul Ulama, which has about 30 million members, still supports the old Indonesian magical-mystical beliefs.
IndonesiaKi Kusumo, a top Indonesian paranormal, has talked of the bodies of dead children being used in magic ceremonies.
He says that dead virgin teenage girls are particularly sought after and ''families have to guard the tomb for 40 days'' after burial.
He says he knows of babies born on an auspicious day being kidnapped and beheaded.
''The heads are buried in the front of the person's house. They believe, this way, they will become wealthy.''
There are good dukuns and bad dukuns.
Dukun santet, who use black magic, are hired to bring bad luck to rivals in love, business and politics.
Ki Joko Bodo is one of Indonesia's most famous dukuns.
He has a palatial home in Jakarta, a Mercedes-Benz and a Jaguar.
Reportedly, he gives blessings to officials from the tax office, attorney-general's department and ministry of industry.
Reportedly, senior figures from the government, military and police are among his most loyal clients.
IndonesiaIn some villages, Islamic clerics also act as dukuns.
Ki Zukud is a dukun who runs an Islamic boarding school.
He has a kris (dagger) to bring about prosperity, and another to ward off black magic.
''There is so much black magic everywhere,'' he says.
He uses a mixture of Koranic verses and Javanese mantras to contact the supernatural.
He says that the nine saints who brought Islam to Indonesia in the 14th and 15th centuries used Javanese beliefs and stories to spread Islam.
IndonesiaWhat about the Ninjas in Situbondo?
Peter Dale Scott has written about the Ninjas at - http://www.fair.org/extra/9901/java.html
In late 1998, black-clad ninjas murdered hundreds of innocent people in East Java, in Indonesia.
Some of the victims were mentally handicapped youths, easy targets. (Murder in Java: Psychological warfare and the New York Times)
Bloody decapitated heads were paraded around the streets.
Reportedly, the killings were part of a psychological terror campaign ( like that waged in 1965 by the US-advised Indonesian Army, when at least 500,000 civilians were killed.)
In 1998, as in 1965, there was the distribution of death lists to terrify the public, the arrival of assassins in trucks, mutilation of corpses and display of body parts in public places.
Some observers believed that a faction of the US-trained army was fomenting terror to justify a military crackdown.
Army members were arrested by local authorities for the killings, and then mysteriously released.
Pro-democracy activists in Jakarta pointed out that'Ninja' is the term popularly used to designate the Army Special Forces (Kopassus) in disguise.
"The U.S.-trained Kopassus Special Forces were the preferred assets of the CIA and Pentagon."
IndonesiaReportedly there are people who can shape shift.
The following is from "Black Magic in Indonesia" at the Lonely Planet travel forum
Tales of “Suanggis" crop up in East Nusa Tenggara.
In Alor people will tell you that "most" of the inhabitants of the east of the island are suanggi - people who can shape shift, steal souls etc.
In Sumba it's even more disturbing. In any community there will be one or two families who are regarded as being "suanggi".
In Sumba too suanggis are said to shape-shift; they are also said to have vampire tendencies, and to particularly enjoy the blood of new-born infants.
Pregnant women are said to be at great risk. Almost any illness or misfortune is likely to be blamed on the suanggis.
What is rather disturbing is that rather than considering these things as shadowy, ghost-like figures of the forest, real people, real families are regarded as suanggi by large numbers of their neighbours.
I was told that the first thing parents will do before giving consent for their child to marry is to check that the prospective partner is not from a suanggi family.
Bali too seems utterly obsessed with magic, both black and white, and people say that this fixation, rather than fading, has increased in recent years.
Once again, illness or misfortune is very likely to be blamed on malicious magic, and dukuns often have more respect than medical doctors.
One thing I've noticed talking to people about these things is that it's always the "people on the next island" who are reputed to have the strongest magic: in Bali many people are in awe of the skills of people from Lombok; in Lombok people will tell you Bima on Sumbawa has weird flying ninjas; and throughout non-Muslim areas you're recommended to "go to the Muslims" for particularly powerful black magic...
I do think it's worth bearing in mind that though this may all seem charmingly interesting from a cultural-tourism perspective, it does have a very dark side - vigilante killings of alleged practitioners of black magic do happen; this is a not entirely unusual occurrence in Sumba.
In Bali there can be real conflict caused by suspicion of magic - even among competing shopkeepers (a successful warung-owner must have either got special powers for himself from a dukun, or worse still, had a curse put on his rivals).
In the UK, Boy, 14, watched his brother tortured and then drowned in bath for being a witch...
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