![]() ![]() ![]() After some deliberation and the offer of a paid research internship with Associate Dean Tone, I became a student at Georgia Tech. He encouraged me to consider Georgia Tech and opened my eyes to the unique opportunities of studying liberal arts at a technical university. After the program, I spoke with him about my interest in conjuring and conducting research about it. John Tone, who introduced himself as a specialist and teacher in the History of Medicine and Disease. The program included comments from Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Dr. Planning to attend a world class liberal arts university, I hesitantly attended a Shadow Day for admitted students at the Ivan Allen College at Georgia Tech. ![]() With an interest in medicine and the Appalachian culture in which I grew up, I wanted to pursue doing serious research on the subject. My curiosity continued for a couple of years until I graduated from high school I had continued to ask and learn more about conjuring whenever the subject came up. I was fascinated when they talked about various people getting their illnesses conjured by people and asked many questions about the subject. The elderly women who came to get their hair done had been her customers for up to 40 years, and they had relationships similar those portrayed in the movie Steel Magnolias. In the summer of 2014, I worked part-time in my Nanny’s (grandmother) beauty shop shampooing, rinsing and sweeping hair for her in this tiny little building beside her house in rural Cherokee County, Georgia (about 1 hour north of Atlanta). I have continued to use the word “conjuring,” even though it can cause some initial confusion and misunderstanding, because it is the word used by the people who have done it and have had it done for them for centuries. My research on conjuring in Southern Appalachia is directed at taking a scholarly approach to preserving information on this tradition and leaving an accessible record of it for generations to come. While that type of home remedy healing is prevalent in Appalachia, it is completely separate from conjuring, which involves nothing tangible. Furthermore, conjuring is not the same folk healing practiced by using herbs, plants, and other natural elements. Instead, it is a term casually used for well meaning spiritual healing that has been passed down through generations for hundreds of years. In this use, it does not relate to any type of demonic or evil activity as has been portrayed by several motion pictures that use the same term. The term conjuring is used by people living in Southern Appalachia (including North Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia) to describe a practice of folk healing done by members of their remote communities. ![]()
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