 Do witches exist? Where did they come from? The truth is not a simple 'yes' or 'no'. Witches have existed for hundreds of years, if we consider people who themselves believe they are witches, ... or people who others believe are. 
The idea that someone could be a witch probably originated in an early century when most people were ignorant of how the world worked, when people believed that magic existed, and were eager to believe any sort of superstition. Elderly women with wrinkled skin and no teeth were usually the oldest people in a village, and the ones with the most knowledge about herbs, medicines, and other lore. And they usually weren't easy to get along with. They lived alone, without a husband to protect them, and were an easy target. When bad things like famine, death, or disease, happened in feudal societies, people looked for something or someone to blame. Old women with mysterious ways were sometimes held responsible. In Shakespeare's time most people believed in witches, the devil, evil spirits and magic. Shakespeare's Macbeth helped poplarize the notion of witches as powerful and fearful creatures. In both England and Scotland, women (and men) suspected of being witches were arrested and questioned, often after being tortured into providing a confession. Witches were generally sentenced to be hanged in England. Often the people turned to their leaders, usually the church, for guidance. In times past, church leaders often looked to the supernatural for explanations, and evil in the form of a 'witch' was easy for people to identify with, and a handy scapegoat. Although the idea that there were witches was encouraged by Christianity, witchcraft is actually much more ancient than that ... its origins can be traced back to pagan rituals thousands of years in the past.  Ignorance of the real world was common, and a belief in witches has survived even into recent times. The Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of 1692 saw people become hysterical with fear that they were surrounded by witches, and nineteen were executed. In these situations, anyone who exhibited any sort of unusual behaviour could be accused of being a witch. Such outbreaks of mass hysteria were common in uneducated societies. They still happen.Are there really witches who have some sort of magical 'powers'? Of course not. But there have always been people who thought of themselves as witches. In fact, there still are. Wiccans are people who consider themselves witches. The word 'witch' comes from the old English wicce, and Wiccans are male and female participants in an ancient pagan tradition which 'holds masculine, feminine and earthly aspects of God in great reverence'. Wicca is sort of like a harmless religion ... it doesn't involve 'witchcraft' at all. There are other people who call themselves witches and actually practice 'witchcraft'. These people may take it seriously, or they may be playing at it . But of course they have no real powers, other than psychological ones. If you are foolish enough to really believe that someone has 'cast a spell on you', you might actually get sick ... but only because your 'belief' has fooled your body into going along with it. 'Psychological' illness is a quite common phenomenon. (This is similar to the reverse effect, where ill people who really have a lot of faith that they will recover, sometimes do ... the body heals itself). Most witches in historical times were probably just innocent old women practicing their skills with herbal medicines. In addition, people accused unjustly of practicing witchcraft, as in the case of the Salem 'witches', may in fact have simply been the victims of some sort of disease. Ergot fungus poisoning in bread is considered by some scientists to have been a likely cause of strange behaviour in people, which might have led to accusations of witchcraft. Our conclusions:
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