Modesty and avoiding displays of good fortune and wealth are ways to avoid the evil eye, either from other people or djinn. However, djinn know the secrets of people's wealth, their vanities, and their ambitions-all these things serve as ammunition for a weapon such as the evil eye.
They Are Capable of Possession
The djinn can stage a complete takeover of a person by dominating their thoughts and dreams as described earlier, and by entering the body. Their indefinable form enables them to easily penetrate a body and circulate through the blood. They cause all manner of physical discomforts and illnesses, in addition to paralysis, fits, and convulsions. They also cause aberrant and bizarre behavior, such as tearing one's clothes off, laughing hysterically, or dancing wildly in the street. They "come on to the tongue" of a person and speak through them. They cause extreme, even suicidal depression, and insanity. They can incite a person to crime and murder.
In severe cases, djinn take up permanent residence in a body, and must be forcibly expelled through exorcism by a skilled sheikh. Djinn who fall in love with people may enter a person's body in order to be closer to their love. This is not a desirable condition for the person, but in such cases, the djinni will usually not harm the person unless he or she does something to upset or anger them. If an evil djinni takes up physical residence, the danger is much greater-the djinni's intention is maximum damage, even death.
Not all forms of djinn possession are this extreme, however. Some cases involve being "touched" by a djinni-that is, the djinni comes and goes as it wishes and causes mild, temporary possessions. A person may have episodes of unusual behavior and not remember them after the djinni departs.
In some milder possessions, efforts are made to reconcile with the djinni rather than expel it. The djinni is engaged in dialogue. Speaking through its victim, it explains its grievances and what it wants in order to stop its possession. Some of the exorcism rituals are known as zar. Victims are usually women who are having problems with their husbands. As a result, they become possessed by djinn. The djinn, who love worldly pleasures, demand appeasement through jewelry and other gifts, sweets, and favors that must be performed by the offending husbands.
Possession is considered a substantial risk of crossing a djinni, or inadvertently injuring one. Sudden emotional and physical shocks rip open a person's natural protection and enable a djinni to breach the mind and body.15 Exorcisms are not always successful-djinn often sneak back into the body.
They Magically Grant Wishes
In folk tales, djinn who are imprisoned in vessels and rings must grant three wishes to whomever liberates them, after which they are free. Unfortunately, stories about wish fulfillment are seldom straightforward; usually the wishes backfire, working too well, or not at all how the wisher had hoped. As the djinn themselves warn, every wish has a consequence. In most tales, the first wish is usually successful but the next two are not, and the protagonist finds himself in increasing trouble because of the wishes. The wishes must be worded very carefully, for a djinni will find a way to follow them to the letter, but in unexpected ways. Even if he tries to be clever, the protagonist never outwits the djinni, and usually the person's final wish is to undo the first two.
This theme continues to be played out in modern tales of the djinni/genie. Earlier, we mentioned the story The Thief of Baghdad, about a boy who finds a genie's bottle on a beach. In the film Wishmaster (1997), the protagonist liberates a particularly evil djinni. For one wish, he asks for one million dollars ... and receives it in an insurance payout when his aunt dies in a plane crash the djinni had caused.
In "The Man in the Bottle," an episode of The Twilight Zone (1960), a down-on-their-luck pawnbroker and his wife are offered an untraditional four wishes by a djinni who comes out of a wine bottle. Dubious, they ask him to repair a broken glass cabinet. When the djinni does this instantly, they get excited and ask for one million dollars. He complies. They give away a lot of the money-and then the tax man comes to claim all but five dollars.
For a third wish, the husband asks to be the leader of a powerful, modernized country in which he cannot be voted out of office. Suddenly, he becomes Adolf Hitler, about to commit suicide in his bunker at the end of World War II. In a panic, the man uses his fourth wish to erase everything that had happened. Everything is back to normal. When he gets home, he finds the wine bottle that contained the djinni is broken. His repaired glass cabinet breakseverything is as it was before the wishes. He tosses the wine bottle into a trash can on the street. The djinni's smoke reforms the bottle anew, and it lies in wait for someone else to release it.
They Can Shapeshift into Any Form
Shapeshifting is one of the most important abilities of djinn. We have saved it for last so it can be fully discussed and reinterpreted. We believe that some cases of paranormal activity may actually have had shapeshifting djinn behind them.
Artful shapeshifting is a primary Trickster trait. Magical transformations are a great asset in confounding humans, who never know quite what they're dealing with. As a result, people can land in great trouble before they realize it. One must take care not to throw water or stones at dogs and cats, especially black ones, for they are likely to be djinn in disguise. Once doused or hit, they and their clans become angry and will strike back in revenge. Similar precautions apply to snakes, another favored form. Djinn also like to mimic the shapes of birds and goats.
Djinn can take the form of mice to enter homes at night. If the residents have been foolish or absent-minded enough to leave lamps or candles lit, the djinn-mice overturn them, resulting in the home being consumed by fire-an excellent example of their fiery Trickster nature.
Djinn also shapeshift into human form, especially to fool people for the purposes of misleading and persuasion. The one form they cannot ever take is that of the Prophet Muhammad himself. Muhammad makes appearances in visions and dreams for the purpose of guidance. He assured his followers, "... whoever sees me in a dream, he surely sees me, for Satan cannot impersonate me (appear in my figure)."" However, nothing prevents a djinni from taking on the human form of a sheikh or an admired authority figure, whom people will mistake as a representative of the Prophet.
It probably occurred to djinn long ago that they could take on the forms of supernatural entities, at least some of whom are real beings in their own right, using them as disguises for interacting with human beings. This masquerade shapeshifting of the djinn has long been acknowledged in Middle Eastern lore. Author Umar Sulaiman al-Ashqar of the University of Jordan comments:
Many people of our time and the previous times have witnessed something of the djinn, even though many who had seen them or who had heard them were not aware that they were djinn. They thought that they were ghosts, spirits, invisible men, creatures from outer space, and so forth."
Taking on supernatural entity forms appeals to the Trickster in djinn, especially the green djinn, who like to amuse themselves at humanity's expense. The thought of a ghost wandering around a house or lingering on property frightens many people because of sudden appearances, strange noises, disembodied voices, odd smells, and phantom forms with grotesque features. Prevailing beliefs about ghosts hold that they are a type of recording, imprint, or memory left behind by the person who has died, or that they are the restless souls of those stuck between the worlds of the living and the dead. Some ghosts seem to lack intelligence or awareness of the living, while others interact and attract attention. In either case, perhaps they are not remnants of people, but djinn having a bit of fun. Djinn activity may not account for all ghosts, of course, but perhaps they have created or piggybacked on the haunting phenomenon. Perhaps some of our most famous ghosts are not ghosts at all. It may be difficult, if not impossible, to ever know the difference.
Another common haunting phenomenon is poltergeist activityunexplained disappearances and reappearances of objects, banging noises, mysterious rains of stones, lights flicking on and off by themselves, appliance malfunction and
/or breakage, property damage, breakage, and disappearance; and other mayhem. Poltergeist is German for "noisy spirit," and unexplained destructive activities are often blamed on demons, angry ghosts, other spirits, and black magic spells. Poltergeist activity also befits the Trickster nature of djinn as a way of creating chaos and disorder.
Throughout history, people have reported encounters with mysterious creatures never before seen in the natural world. Sometimes only a few sightings are ever reported, but other times, such creatures seem to exist in a parallel world, popping in and out of ours for reasons unknown. Werewolves, dogmen, Bigfoot, swamp monsters and Jersey Devil-type flying creatures may be entities in their own right-but their forms could also be borrowed by Trickster djinn. Masquerading as a supernatural creature may be for a djinn what donning a costume at Halloween is for humans. The object is to have some fun, perhaps at the expense of others.
The famous Mothman wave of 1966-67 provides a good example of a possible djinn shapeshifting case. Mothman was a winged, red-eyed humanoid that suddenly began appearing in the area around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, (in particular, an abandoned TNT plant) in November of 1966. Mothman was described as being six to seven feet tall. It did not seem to have a head, and its eyes were set near the tops of its shoulders. It shuffled on humanlike legs, and it made a strange, high-pitched squeaking noise. It could take off straight up into the air without moving its wings and flew as though gliding, without flapping its wings.
Mothman terrified witnesses. If they were in cars and sped off, it took off after them, keeping pace in a chase. It never aggressively attacked people, however. It would seem to tire of the chase and break off and vanish. Such behavior is ascribed to green djinn, who sometimes like to toy with people but quickly grow bored and abruptly stop.
Although Mothman received much attention due to its unusual appearance, the real activity in the wave was centered more around UFO/extraterrestrial high strangeness. There were many sightings of mysterious lights, craft, and aliens; electrical and telephone disturbances; poltergeist phenomena; phantom dogs and mysterious creatures; phantom people; and sinister "Men In Black," dark, cadaverous, mechanical-like men who harrass UFO contactees and threaten them to keep silent. A dog disappeared and wild animals were found mutilated. Mothman was blamed for all the phenomena, but was never caught in the act of doing anything but observing and chasing people. The famous paranormal investigator and author John A. Keel traveled to West Virginia to investigate the wave, documenting activity in his book, The Mothman Prophecies (1975). Keel said at least a hundred people had sightings of Mothman.
The bizarre activity continued into 1967, declining toward the end of the year. On December 15, 1967, the 700-foot Silver Bridge that crossed the Ohio River at Point Pleasant collapsed, killing forty-six people. Some people linked the bridge collapse to Mothman, though no direct evidence was ever found. The collapse of the bridge was accompanied by a halt in Mothman sightings, and Mothman soon disappeared from the area. Since then, sightings of the creature have continued sporadically in Point Pleasant and all over the world, but there have been no more waves comparable to the one in 1966-67.
Keel believed Point Pleasant was a "window" or portal that temporarily opened to a parallel reality. We also believe in such por tals, some of which may be open constantly, not just temporarily. It is possible that a portal did open at Point Pleasant, and many things poured through-including opportunistic djinn. All of the mystery beings-Mothman, Men in Black, phantom dogs, phantom people, and aliens-could have been djinn in disguise. The collapse of the Silver Bridge fits the Trickster motif, a nonsensical but lethal end to a windup of intense paranormal activity.
Sometimes djinn masquerades are more deadly in nature. Folklore and mythologies around the world are filled with supernatural predators of many shapes and names. Their main characteristics are luring unwary people to their doom and ambushing people as they travel, especially at night. In particular, fairy lore is full of such hostile beings, such as the water fairies who drown people, the wispy lights that lure travelers over cliffs and into bogs, and the savage trolls who jump out from beneath bridges. The djinn might make use of these and other nasty forms.
In Egyptian lore, a murderous Nile river entity is known to be a ginniya, a female djinni, who takes the form of a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and the tail of a fish-much like a mermaid. She entices people to come to the edge of the river by creating illusions: trays full of glasses of tea floating on the water, balls floating on the water, or an old woman carrying a pot who asks for help. When people come close enough, she grabs them and pulls them underwater. She gives them a choice: marry her or one of her kind, or die. If a person refuses, she strangles him and drowns him; his corpse is found with telltale thumb marks on his neck.''
Finally, an excellent example of what may have been a deadly djinn case comes from American supernatural history: the Bell Witch Cave. The Bell Witch "haunting" occurred in the nineteenth century in Adams, Tennessee, and involved spectral creatures, poltergeist activity, bedroom invasion, and death. It was blamed on a witch's curse, but has numerous hallmarks that can be interpreted as djinn in origin. We make those comparisons in the following analysis."
Different versions of the story are told, but the main features are consistent. Sometime in the early nineteenth century, John Bell bought a thousand acres of land near Adams and set up a prosperous farm. He and his wife, Lucy, had eight children. In 1817, life went from good to miserable. The first signs were mysterious creatures Bell saw-a large, black dog-like thing on his property that vanished when Bell fired at it with his shotgun, and a turkey-like bird. Both are favored djinn forms.
After that, severe poltergeist outbreaks occurred in the house. Knocking, rapping, and scraping sounds were heard in the home and outside on the doors and windows. Everyone in the family was upset by the sounds of invisible rats gnawing on things, and invisible giant dogs clawing the floors. The disturbances went on for about a year and then escalated to attacks upon the family at night while they were asleep in their beds. Covers were pulled off, invisible hands slapped everyone on their faces and yanked their hair. The Bells' twelve-year-old daughter, Betsy, got the worst of it; she was slapped, pinched, hit, bruised, and stuck with pins. At first, her parents thought she was playing tricks on them, but then became convinced that something sinister was afflicting the entire family.
Word about the problems spread, and the Bell farm became an object of curiosity. It was discovered that the invisible assailant was intelligent, for it responded to communication. When ordered to cease in the name of the Lord, it did-but only temporarily. It often resumed activity with greater intensity. This is characteristic of djinn, who will temporarily stop their harassment, only to resume it much more powerfully.
After a time, the unknown spirit began to whistle and speak. As we saw above, the djinn are especially known for whistling and whispering. The entity gave different explanations of itself. It said it was a "spirit from everywhere, heaven, hell, the earth. I'm in the air, in houses, any place at any time. I've been created millions of years. That is all I will tell you." This description is a striking fit with the djinn.
The spirit also said it was the ghost of a person who was buried in the woods nearby, and whose grave had been disturbed. Its tooth was beneath the Bell house. The Bells searched in vain for a tooth. A djinn would have laughed to see them on their wild goose chase.
The spirit then said it was the ghost of an immigrant who died and left a hidden fortune, and had returned to tell Betsy where it was stashed. It gave a location, and the Bell boys dug for hours but found nothing. The spirit laughed aloud over that one. Djinn are known for promising riches and then not delivering.
Meanwhile, the local residents were forming their own opinions about the spirit's identity: they decided it was a witch. The spirit said, "I am nothing more nor less than old Kate Batts' witch, and I'm determined to haunt and torment old Jack Bell as long as he lives." Ka
te Batts was a neighbor with whom Bell had previously had bad business dealings. She threatened to get even. There was no evidence that she ever suited actions to words, but from then on, the spirit was called "Kate." It was a suitable guise for a djinni.
From a djinn perspective, bad business was indeed involved. As we have noted, djinn are extremely territorial and protective of their turf. Like the little man in the hole in chapter 5, they can become enraged if humans invade or damage their property. A djinni could have once occupied the land on which Bell established his farm. The Bells' arrival was nothing less than a home invasionand the djinni reacted with characteristic anger.
The spirit seemed to spin out of control. It visited other people besides the Bells, blasting them with insults. It made predictions, another hallmark of "fortune-telling" djinn. But most of all, it continued to torment John Bell and his family.
A "witch layer," or professional exorcist, attempted to visit, but his carriage broke down. When he finally made it to the house, he attempted to kill the spirit with a silver bullet, but instead he was slapped around. Frightened, he left. Had he been knowledgeable about djinn, he would have brought iron weapons instead, for djinn, like fairies, are seriously weakened by iron.
The spirit's final action was to make John Bell ill-certainly a favored djinn tactic. John repeatedly fell ill with strange symptoms, and lay in bed twitching and convulsing, as though possessed. "Kate" claimed credit. Bell's health deteriorated. He was found dead in his bed on December 19, 1820, three years after trouble had first began. A strange bottle of liquid never before seen was found in the medicine cabinet. Lucy fed it to their cat, which promptly convulsed and died. "Kate" claimed she poisoned Bell to death, and she laughed hysterically in triumph. The djinni had its revenge.
The Vengeful Djinn: Unveiling the Hidden Agenda of Genies Page 10
