What You Don’t Talk About

By Richard Krebber – First published in Dutch in the April–May 2026 issue of INDAH magazine.

Guna-guna (old spelling goena-goena) is often seen as a magical means of inspiring love or causing harm to someone. To others, it is pure superstition. Parapsychologist Richard Krebber explains what it is and how it works.

Who doesn’t remember the famous scene from the legendary TV drama The Silent Force (1974) by Walter van der Kamp, based on the novel of the same name by Louis Couperus, in which the main character Leonie van Oudijck (actress Pleuni Touw) is spat upon with sirih while naked in the bathroom? Sirih is a reddish-brown liquid produced after chewing betel nut. The sirih appears to land on Leonie and her lovers (actors Wim Nijholt and Hans Dagelet) out of nowhere, expressing the idea that she is being negatively influenced from a distance and that this influence is specifically directed at her as the target.

Her surroundings also come into contact with this silent force in subtle ways. Her husband, the elderly Van Oudijck (actor Bob de Lange), constantly senses an “energy” that manifests as a monotonous drumming sound, affecting everyone and everything connected to Leonie that resonates on the same frequency. Her daughter Doddie (actress Astrid Ceulaers) repeatedly sees a “white hadji” in the garden — in Javanese culture, a harbinger of misfortune. Eventually, the entire family falls apart, and all their relationships are disrupted. The guna-guna has done its work. Jealousy or unwanted relationships often lie at the root of such a “negative energetic influence.”

Invisible, but Powerful

In the sweltering Dutch East Indies, Europeans are plagued by what the Javanese call “the silent force”: a combination of tropical magic, Eastern inscrutability, and mutual misunderstanding. In Couperus’s novel and the aforementioned TV series, the resident, his son, daughter, and seductive wife all slowly but surely fall prey to this mysterious force.

That “silent force” is apparently something invisible from which a “force” (energy) emanates — an energy capable of affecting matter. In most cases, this power or energy has a positive influence, as in paranormal therapy, such as magnetism. But it can also have a negative effect when black magic is involved. In that case, we speak of an “external negative energetic influence.”

Within black magic, roughly six variants can be distinguished: guna-guna (in Southeast Asia, particularly Java), voodoo (Africa), Wicca (modern witchcraft), Gypsy magic (especially in countries such as Romania and Bulgaria), Eastern Bloc magic (in former Eastern Bloc countries), and wisi (the negative strand within the Winti religion, particularly among East Surinamese and Creole communities). Hybrid forms of black magic also exist, such as those found in Brazil.

All forms of black magic have their own protocols, but they are generally based on two fundamental principles: everything in this world is energetically connected to everything else, and because everything is connected, one thing can be accessed through another. That is why a practitioner of black magic often uses an object — an “inducer” — that has an energetic connection to the target person. This object must share the same frequency, or vibration, as the target. Photos, hair, nails, blood, and worn clothing are often used as “inducers” because they carry the same energetic frequency as the person in question. This is necessary to establish an energetic connection.

Each tradition has its own methods for creating this connection between the inducer and the target person. There are also protocols for blocking and reflecting an external negative energetic attack. This often occurs simultaneously with providing energetic protection to the target person through practices such as healing.

Different Cultural Codes

When we talk about guna-guna, we are referring primarily to Southeast Asia and Indonesia, particularly Java. Southeast Asia is home to many shamanistic, non-industrialized cultures in which ancestor worship plays a central role and where the prevailing belief is that realities exist beyond the visible world and can be accessed through spiritual development.

Other cultures operate according to different cultural codes. In the modern West, for example, there is a scientific cultural code in which everything must have a measurable place in space and time. In the Chinese and Japanese cultural code, balance within the cosmos is central. In the Indian-Tibetan cultural code, enlightenment — or samadhi — is the ultimate goal: the moment when the self merges with its source and all boundaries of consciousness disappear. Samadhi is also the final stage in various forms of yoga in which the evolution of the chakras, or energy points — effectively the raising of one’s frequency — plays a central role.

Then there is the Biblical-Islamic cultural code, which speaks of a life after this one in a paradisiacal realm. To attain that state, however, human beings are expected to live according to strict moral rules — such as the Biblical Ten Commandments or the teachings of the Holy Quran.

Black Magic in Practice

In my practice as a parapsychologist, I regularly encounter clients who believe they are suffering from black magic. Magic is based on the principle that everything in this world is energetically connected. If someone possesses an object to which another person has a strong connection, that object can supposedly be used to indirectly influence or harm them.

A couple once consulted me about problems in their relationship. The couple consisted of a Dutch woman and a Surinamese man who had divorced his first Surinamese wife. From the beginning of his new relationship, everything seemed to go wrong. A child died, household appliances constantly broke down, and the couple felt deeply unsettled and unhappy.

After some time, the man discovered that his ex-wife maintained a small room in her house where she performed rituals. Among other things, the room contained various photographs of him. I advised him to tell his ex-wife that he, too, had consulted a magician and that from that moment on, all of her actions would be reflected back onto her.

A few weeks later, she contacted him and said, “I’ve stopped, but now you have to do the same.” In the meantime, she had reportedly broken her leg, lost all her money, and experienced a series of other misfortunes. According to believers, this demonstrates that magic can work both in a literal sense and through the power of suggestion.

Unfortunately, people in the Netherlands who believe they are dealing with black magic often feel they cannot turn to mainstream psychiatry or psychology for help, because those disciplines generally do not recognize black magic as real. As a result, some individuals feel misunderstood and may enter therapy or medication programs that, in their view, fail to address the source of their distress.

Within parapsychological practice, the approach is different. Practitioners attempt to identify the alleged aggressor — the magician — and the techniques being used. The negative energetic influence directed at the target is then believed to be blocked and reflected back to the sender, a process known as mirroring. This may be combined with strengthening the client energetically through forms of energy healing.

Richard Krebber (1956) is a parapsychologist and director of the Integral Psychological Consultancy (I.P.A.) in Breda. He works as a counselor and coach and assists therapists in establishing their practices. He is also the author of three spiritual books.