Oedipa held in place by magic...she says

[Mark Kohut]

Most cultures of the world have religious beliefs that supernatural powers can be compelled, or at least influenced, to act in certain ways for good or evil purposes by using ritual formulas.  These formulas are, in a sense, magic.  By performing certain magical acts in a particular way, crops might be improved, game herds replenished, illness cured or avoided, animals and people made fertile.  This is very different from television and stage "magic" that depends on slight-of-hand tricks and contrived illusions rather than supernatural power.
 
The fascination among certain anthropologists with the occult,the sacred, the esoteric and the 'supernatural' tends to hidethe normality and the pragmatism of many magico- religious representationsand practices in societies- the fact that these representationsare part of daily life and of people's 'natural attitude'.