The following story is collected from my friend. She lived in Turkey for the most part of her life. She talks about a Turkish tradition in this collection. This interview is done on phone. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.

A: “Did you experience anything that can be described as supernatural?”

B: “At one point in my life, I was feeling down and could not sleep at night. I was in depression. I was talking to my aunt about my problem and she told me I can be under magic. She told me I should get help from someone. She referred me to a woman who practices “istihareye yatmak” ( there is no literal translation for the Turkish word “istihare”. The word refers to someone sleeping and trying to dream in order to see fortune. “Yatmak” literally means sleeping). I talked to the woman and she told me she will help me. The woman who practices this prays before going to sleep. Then she tells to herself something like “Why this person is feeling bad”. After this, she goes to sleep. Her purpose is to find the reasons for my problems in life in her dream. I think colors are important, each have a different meaning. Like, seeing blue is different then seeing red. At first night, she told me she did not see anything. But on the second night, she did. She told me that a tall, brunette man made a spell on me to not leave him and marry him. She also told me this spell was given to by a food. There was really a man like that in my life back then. She told me there are ways to block the magic but I did not try to block it since it is against my belief. I believe magic should not be practiced and for me to block to magic, I knew an opposite magic should have been done.”

B: “What people in Turkey, generally, think about magic?”

A: “There are people who believe in it. Even if you don’t fully believe in it, you can still want to avoid it.There are people, that I know, who carry magic with. This magic is written in a small paper and carried like an accessory. Magic can applied with different methods. Few years ago, around my summer home, people found locks buried under ground. Like many different locks. They broke each of them and threw it to sea in order to stop the effect of magic. It is scary to imagine that someone bury locks under your home. My friend found a small written magic hidden in her closet. I heard people cover the paper with pig fat. I think, people with low incomes, are the ones who most believe in magic.”