PAMELA BALL and SPELLS

(Investigator 171, 2016 November)


Ball and her Output

Pamela J. Ball's extensive literary output numbering dozens of books suggests she is no idle dreamer, but is constantly writing as if held spellbound by it.

Ms Ball was born in Hawaii, 1940, and raised by American parents. She was a professional dream counselor for over thirty years working in America, Switzerland and England, eventually settling in Florida, USA, where she taught creative writing.

The message in her book Spells, Charms, Talismans & Amulets A Complete Guide To Magical Enchantment (2002 Hinkler Books) is that people can get their way in almost anything. All they need to do is speak the right spells with the right preparation.

Spells are sentences, often in verse and spoken in prepared settings, that produce results by magic.


Spells, Charms, Talismans & Amulets

In the Preface of Spells, Charms, Talismans & Amulets Ball refers to herself as "we": "For practice ... we give you some techniques for protecting your home..."

At other times "we" includes the readers: "...given the correct method, we can protect ourselves from harm and make things happen through the use of talismans." (p. 381)

In Chapter 1 readers learn that the ancient gods of Pagans, Druids, Wiccans and Shamans have a real existence and everyone, even Monotheists and Atheists, can access them to empower spells to produce magical results.

No proof is given. Everything that a skeptic, thinker or ordinary person would query or want evidence for is simply assumed as factual. Ball accepts that there are magical powers associated with candles, crystals, voodoo, talismans, etc.

Chapter 2 "Techniques of Magic" introduces readers to Colour Magic, Herb Magic, Candle Magic, Crystal Magic, Knot Magic, Representational Magic, Symbolic Magic, Elemental Magic, and Talismans, Amulets and Charms, and to forming a ritual.

"Colour" rather than "Color" reflects Ball's habit of moving between American English and British English.

Casting successful spells is not impromptu or spontaneous like throwing a ball, but requires preparation. Chapter 2 continues with consecrating a sacred place, setting up and dedicating an altar, consecrating altar objects, self-purification, and consecrating various tools:

As you become proficient, you may find you can actually see as well as sense Nature spirits. Dryads are the principle Nature spirits, mainly of forests and trees... The Celts believe them to be spirits who dwelt in trees. (p. 53)

Ball divides spells into Invocation, Incantation, Love Spells, Bidding Spells, Blessing, and Healing Spells.

Chapter 3 goes into perks and benefits and is titled "Love, Money and Job Spells". Readers are assured that spells can produce success in love, enhance their attractiveness, get rid of unwanted suitors, and lead to jobs and money.

Chapter 4 describes "Rituals of Magic" and how to include candles, colour, robes, crystals, incense, herbs, the "five elements", and magical days. Different herbs are said to attract love, protection, healing and health, or help spirits to appear:

For spirits and apparitions to appear they must have some sort of substance to manipulate. Smoke has often been used for this purpose. The smoke from certain herbs can also be used to work clairvoyantly. (p. 124)  

Any and all of the ancient gods and goddesses that people once worshipped can be called on to make magic rituals more powerful. Ball lists over 150 deities on pages 137-156 and apparently presumes all of them to have a real, empirical, existence.

Chapter 5 "Forms of Magic" tells about Candle Magic, Oils, Knot Magic, Crystal Magic, Herbal Magic, and Incense.

Chapter 6 goes into Charms, Amulets, and Talismans.


Ball's Books

Pamela Ball's many published books include:

•    1996 Quantum Dream Dictionary
•    1996 10,000 Dreams Interpreted
•    1997 10,000 Ways to Change Your Life
•    1998 Jack the Ripper: A Psychic Investigation
•    1999 The Complete Dream Dictionary
•    2000 Lucid Dreaming and the Art of Dreaming Creatively
•    2001 A Woman's Way to Wisdom
•    2001 Natural Magic: Spells, Enchantments & Self Development
•    2001 Spells, Charms, Talismans and Amulets...
•    2003 The Complete Book of Dreams and Dreaming
•    2003 Your Sexual Dreams Interpreted
•    2004 Dreams and Dreaming: An A-Z of All Your Dreams
•    2004 The Essence of Tao
•    2005 The Great Book of Spells: Magicking Health, Wealth and Happiness Into Your Life
•    2005 The Prophecies of Nostradamus: A Selection of the Seer's Most Intriguing Predictions
•    2006 The Illustrated Dream Dictionary: What Dreams Reveal About You
•    2006 The Power of Creative Dreaming
•    2007 Recreating the Circle of Wellbeing
•    2007 The A To Z of Dream Interpretation...
•    2008 10,000 Dreams Explained...
•    2009 Large Print Sidoku
•    2009 The Book of Dreams
•    2009 The Dream Dictionary
•    2009 The Ultimate Book of Spells...
•    2011 The Dream Oracle

The Complete Book of Dreams and Dreaming (2005 edition, Gramercy publisher) is advertised by online booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble as having 666 pages. To church people 666 is a sinister number and very off-putting and several individuals comment about this on book-sellers' websites. Other book sellers either don't state the number of pages or assign the same book 672 pages. Problem solved.

Many of Ball's books have gone through multiple editions and multiple reprinting by different publishers. Different websites disagree on the publishing dates, and getting the list correct is difficult even if one is "on the ball". The above list attempts to provide the dates of first-release but is provisional.

Ball has also authored novels; and some of her books appear in German and possibly other languages.


Assessment

Pamela Ball's writings are popular and influential — 10,000 Dreams Interpreted has sold over one million copies. The "Google Books" website says that Ball has: "advised and guided many thousands of people, including figures in business, politics, and the arts."

Clearly, Ball has done more than most to promote society's widespread distrust and rejection of science and its replacement with superstition.

If you are unemployed, short of money, threatened by criminals or feel sick, don't waste time casting spells. Instead do job-training, follow a budget, report to the police, and visit a doctor.

Spells, Charms, Talismans & Amulets (2002, Hinkler Books), which I had access to for this article, is crammed with claims that skeptics would dismiss as unscientific or unconfirmed, and with counsel that church people would reject as spiritually dangerous. One church person cited Jesus and implied Ball is a "stumbling block":

Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes! (The Bible — Matthew 18:7)

In Ball's favor is that she is not as extreme in her claims about what spells can do as certain others are. At least one website supplies spells to change oneself into a mermaid or a vampire — and guaranteed to work too!
(BS)


Skeptics versus religion and the paranormal on this website:

https://ed5015.tripod.com/