[A. G. Maisey]

I've just read through this thread from beginning to end.

I've decided not to contribute my opinions to this discussion, and after this post I will not be drawn. This post will probably be long and maybe a bit rambling, and at its conclusion there will be no answers, so if you're easily bored, click out now and forget what I will write.

When I was 18 years old I was involved as a frequent visitor to a remote NSW country town. This was Australia, 1950's. The group of people I used to visit this town with formed a close association with the Kooris (Australian Aboriginals) living at the local mission station. I formed close friendships with a couple of these Koori people. The brother of one of the girls I knew there had transgressed tribal law, and the decision was taken to sing him. This is commonly known as "pointing the bone". He initially laughed it off and said that the old people couldn't touch him because he was modern and didn't believe in all that b/s. However, he did get sick, he went into hospital, they couldn't find anything wrong with him, he was transferred to a bigger hospital down on the coast. Some time after I got home I heard he had died.

I have been playing with keris for a very long time. I don't know how many keris I've had through my hands. I do know that it exceeds 5000. I also know that during my entire life I cannot associate either one fortunate event, or one unfortunate event with any keris.

Since I have been visiting Jawa I have been given a number of keris. I think that at the moment it totals 12 keris and tombak. The first one I was ever given was given to me simply because the owner liked me and could not be bothered looking after the keris. Subsequent events that affected the life of this man have caused a number of people to identify him giving me this keris, which was in fact his family keris, as the turning point in his life from being more or less fortunate to being more than a little unfortunate. Maybe the keris caused this. Or maybe his nature caused it. Believe what you will.

Other keris and tombak have been given to me for similar reasons, that is, that the owners simply did not want the responsibility of looking after them.
However a number of keris have come to me for blacker reasons.
I have three keris that I accepted that were associated with death and misfortune. One in particular was reputed to have caused the deaths of at least 5 people, and the people who knew of it would not even touch it. When I accepted it I had to go a shed at the back of the house and remove it from under a pile of offerings that had been made by various dukuns.

Now, none of these keris, no keris I have ever had in my possession has ever given me any bad feelings, nor raised hairs on the back of my neck, nor caused any mental disquiet.
On the other hand, a number of keris I have had in my possession have given me feelings of warmth and comfort and ease of mind. Any feeling I have ever had from any keris has only been a feeling of peace, not of disquiet.
And this includes a couple of keris that I have that two paranormals identified as being "evil".

I have come to the conclusion that any evil, any good, any power or force that may be ---or may not be--- associated with any keris is absolutely and purely dependent upon the the human being involved, not upon the keris.

I have heard an enormous number of keris stories, and even if only 1% of these stories were true, I think I would have to accept that in some cases, something happens that cannot be explained rationally.But nothing like this has ever happened with me.

Now, coming back to Koori beliefs.
A few years after my friend's brother died as a consequence of being sung, I met a man who had also been sung. This man had done something the tribal elders had decided could not go unpunished, so the decision was take to sing him. The difference this time was that the man who was sung had no Koori blood, but was of pure European descent. When he heard that he was being sung all he did was laugh at the "ignorant blackfellers" ( his words, not mine), and he felt no effect at all.I heard that he died a couple of years ago, he was in his nineties.

Possibly there is no "one size fits all" answer to this matter.
Some people believe. Some people do not believe. Some people cite various "evidence" others destroy that evidence with logic. But if a person believes something, for that person, that something is real. If it is real, then just as with any other real thing, it can affect the person who believes that it is real. Similarly, if there is a deep seated aversion to something buried in a person's psyche, or in a group psyche, then this can affect the person and the group. However, if the individual is in balance, and not closed to any forces, those negative forces simply flow around or through a person, and do not find a place to dwell. The individual who is at peace with all that is around him has nothing to fear from any forces or entities that may---or may not---exist.