European witch trials
Wikipedia contributors · 2024 · Wikipedia
This source is used as context evidence across 2 linked claims and 5 related evidence hubs. Its citation record is marked verified; that verifies the source trail, not the truth of any linked claim.
Summary
Reference entry on the European witch trials of the 15th–18th centuries — the most-cited historical case study of the documented harm caused when witchcraft beliefs are taken literally and given legal force.
How this source is used on the map
Direct evidence for the harm-risk side of the magic / witchcraft claim; cited routinely in the historical-harm bullet.
Citation record
- Authors
- Wikipedia contributors
- Year
- 2024
- Publication
- Wikipedia
- Source type
- Secondary summary
- Map role
- context
- Credibility level
- secondary
- Citation status
- Verified
- DOI
- Not recorded
- PubMed
- Not recorded
- Not recorded
Linked claims
Cross-tradition belief with no direct evidence. Possession, oppression and 'demonic attack' phenomena map cleanly onto sleep paralysis, dissociation, psychosis, and post-traumatic states.
A vast cross-cultural family of practices. Massive harm record (European witch trials, modern witch-killing); strict claim of supernatural causation has zero controlled evidence.
Related evidence hubs
Physics-adjacent worldviews — block universe, many-worlds, simulation, free will.
World religions and traditions, scored as systems.
Practice claims — prayer, reiki, chakras, astrology, tarot, manifestation.
Reiki, chakras, auras, crystals, prayer healing.
Astrology, tarot, numerology, dream interpretation.
Related sources
Useful background for claims involving God, religious figures, or traditions because it clarifies what counts as a religious claim before evidence is weighed.
Default reference for the demons claim; pair with the existing wiki-devil entry for the personalised cosmic adversary.
Useful for showing that devil claims vary sharply across traditions, so the evidence question has to specify which version of the concept is being evaluated.
Companion to the exorcism entry; gives the broader anthropological / psychiatric framing of the underlying experience.
Primary tradition-side reference for the magic / witchcraft claim; covers both the practice variants and the catastrophic historical harm.
Companion to the witchcraft entry; gives the broader anthropology-of-magic framing.