Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

A bewitching show

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Feb. 10. Piercing body parts, swallowing fire, walking on hot coals, producing ash out of thin air, black magic, etc. These are some of the common `miracles' performed by godmen to strengthen the gullible public's false beliefs and superstitions.

The A.P. State Committee of Jana Vignana Vedika has taken up an awareness campaign to expose the dubious nature of such miracle claims by projecting the truth and at the same time make an effort to inculcate scientific temper among the people in around eight districts including the Telangana region that has seen several gruesome incidents on account of sorcery.

At a press conference here on Monday, V. Krishna, President, N. Raghuramulu, Honorary President, N. Vikram, magician of the JVV and Premanand, National convenor of the Indian Committee for Scientific Investigation of the Paranormal (ICSICOP) said the campaign has started early this month and several areas in the districts of Kurnool, Nalgonda, Rangareddy, Medak, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Mahabubnagar and the city would be covered.

``Along with the `science versus miracles' campaign we are also organising `meet the scientist' programme to commemorate the National Science Day that is observed on February 28," they said. "We might have become hi-tech in several areas but the fact remains that medieval beliefs continue to cause distress to people. We should educate people on such false notions,'' they explained.

The 73-year-old, Premanand, who has been carrying on a relentless campaign against miracles and superstitions all over the country for years, would be part of the JVV's tour party and at least three days would be spent in each district.

The JVV particularly took note of the fact that black magic continues to haunt the Telangana people and intends to counter this pernicious practice as part of their campaign.

``People confuse magic with miracle and godmen misuse it. And, even the educated people get swayed by it,'' said Mr. Premanand, an author of more than 30 books on the subject. Later, Prof. Vikram demonstrated some of the common tricks performed by godmen and explained the scientific basis.

``We have studied all these scientific experiments either in school or college but unfortunately we tend to believe in miracles when the same are performed by godmen,'' he said.

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