In my religion we do not have faith because for us seeing is believing. If you think that by practicing spiritism you will become Marlin the Great Magician, or Harry Potter riding a broomstick, you better go to a psychologist; these practices are clearly not for you. The Orishas or spirits are not geniuses in a lamp either, you can 't rub a lamp and become a millionaire.
Shamanism is for those who want to experience the spirit world and communicate with intelligent entities that are clearly not visible to humans, it just opens a door to that dimension. The doors can only be opened through initiations and rituals that have been kept for hundred of years, and past from one generation to the other. For example, in my case, when I open a ceremony
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There are countless of others things the spirits do that my husband and the people in the ceremony realize that it is not me at all. I smoke cigar (yuck), I 've broken bricks with my forehead, I have drunk extremely hot boiling cooking oil, and put lit candles inside my ears without getting burnt. If I say these things on a site like this one, I know damn well that I 'm gonna get people mocking me and giving me a lot of flak. I 'm a scientist and I believe in the scientific method but the spiritual things that my religion has shown me clearly demonstrate to me (and my husband) that there are many mysteries in this world. I 'm convinced that religion is dangerous though, specially the monotheistic ones.
When I received my Olokun, I 've got it with the Olonas. These are water spirits like nymphs, and one day my husband and I listened to a choir of these spirits singing, it was mind blowing, they sing like Enya, we could even listen instruments being played. My husband told me, baby we tell this shit to people and they will say we crazy, and I told him, baby we are lucky, very lucky fags indeed, and of course, I gave a very deep thankful prayer to my Olokun,Yemaya and above all to Obatala, who is the deity to whom I 'm
Further, prayer and medicine interplay to paint a classical image of the Native’s creed, yet, for many obsolete or preposterous existences of the shaman. To re-install beliefs present in the world for thousands of years, but have been disappearing, writers such as Neidhardt introduce the element of the
As David Hufford said, in Beings Without Bodies, much of folk belief about spirits is found to be reasonable. This account is reported under his experience-centered theory. Hufford said much of the belief of spirits is reasonable as it is established on logical understanding from a person’s own experience. However, Hufford said not all beliefs are backed up by experience or even evidence. Some beliefs are made purely on faith. (Hufford p.11)
In the Voodoo religion, a priestess hosts a number of different ceremonies each year. During these ceremonies, one of the people present (usually the priestess herself) is supposedly possessed by one or more spirit(s) who then communicates with the rest of the people present. A typical example of a Voodoo ceremony is that described in the book Mama Lola by Karin McCarthy Brown. Here, Mama Lola, as this voodoo priestess is known, lives in Brooklyn and does all she can to stay faithful to her Haitian religion. After inviting her voodoo ‘family’ for what will be the birthday celebration of the spirit Azaka, all members, important and close gather to help set up the intricate and festive alter in the basement of Mama...
Chapter 7: New Ghost Dance Religion Offers Last Hope. The Millbrook Press, 1993. eLibrary. Web. 23 Dec. 2013.
Of Water and the Spirit is more than simply an account of Malidoma's life and initiation, it is a detailed description of the worldview of a Dagara man, who is forcibly subjected to traditional Western thought for fifteen years and then returns to his home physically, at first, but spiritually only once he goes through initiation, or what the Dagara call the Baar. Malidoma's recount of his story, being very similar to the storytelling of an African Griot, uses amazing imagery that allows the listener to sincerely experience his thoughts and actions and the things he sees, hears, and feels throughout his early life up to now.
The growing practice of Neo-Paganism in America has caused many to turn their heads. The misunderstanding of the religion has caused many to equate the practitioners with the popular conception of typical "witches," that perform black magic rituals, satanic sacrifices, and engage in devil-inspired orgies. After many years, the Neo-Pagan community has cleared up many misconceptions through the showing that many of them do not engage in activities, and are rather participating in a religion, just as those would that participate in a Christian community. It's unacceptance continues, perhaps due to its non-conformity to the ideal of worshipping a Christian God. Through the use of ethnography, anthropologists and sociologists are able to present the public with a much different view than what we are bombarded with in popular media.
Modern practitioners of Santeria may be attracted to the religion for a variety of reasons, notable among which are curiosity with secret rituals and the longing among many immigrants and people of color to get in touch with Caribbean and African roots. What each specific individual wants from a religion is difficult to generalize upon, but Santeria offers a way for people to achieve harmony in their lives through communication with and obedience to orishas, the divine beings that act as intermediaries between humans and the Supreme Being, Olodumare. Santeria teaches how to know and appease the specific desires of a pantheon of orishas who alert devotees to problems in their lives and protect them from harm. In addition to a distinctive and demanding set of rituals that requires a commitment of time and energy from believers, Santeria offers a rich history and a supportive community that make it a way of life and not just a passive belief structure that bears little relevance to the daily life of its adherents.
A shaman is appointed to be the head of the tribe. Spirituality is a very important, everyday thing. The tribe is constantly at war with demons. There are ritual hallucinogens that are used for contact with spirits and the spirit world. The spirits control events in life which the shaman attempt to harness. The shaman gains the powers of these spirits by going to the spirit world, and he uses these to put curses on enemy shamans and heal tribe members from the vices of demons. Diseases and illnesses are causes by the demons and as such can only be heal by spiritual power.
Witchcraft is said to be the most widespread cultural phenomenon in existence today and throughout history. Even those who shun the ideas of witchcraft cannot discount the similarities in stories from all corners of the globe. Witchcraft and its ideas have spread across racial, religious, and language barriers from Asia to Africa to America. Primitive people from different areas in the world have shockingly similar accounts of witchcraft occurrences. In most cases the strange parallels cannot be explained and one is only left to assume that the tales hold some truth. Anthropologists say that many common elements about witchcraft are shared by different cultures in the world. Among these common elements are the physical characteristics and the activities of supposed witches. I will go on to highlight some of the witch characteristic parallels found in printed accounts from different parts of the world and their comparisons to some famous fairytales.
Shaman are known in many cultures, but are identified by different names: healers, spiritual healers, medicine men, angakok, ganga, mulogo, witch doctors and warlords, just to name a few. However, this does not mean that all Shamans will hold the same beliefs, they may be good or evil, but they do receive their paranormal powers in many forms, some receive them thru visions or trances. Shamanism is humanity's oldest form of relationship to the Spirit. But it is not a religion. Given the various traditions of Native American people, shamanism takes in a diverse range of methods for collecting knowledge.
I wanted to learn about a religion that I had no clue about a religion that was not like my own in any way, or so I thought the more I studied this religion the more I found out that Voodoo and Christianity are very similiar. I have always grown up in a Christian religion I have never really studied about any other religion. I chose to learn about Voodoo. Voodoo itself means spirit. This is not like any religion that I have ever read about. “Voodoo originated in the West Indies country of Haiti during the French Colonial Period (1699 to 1763), and it is still widely practiced in Haiti today. The foundations of Voodoo are the tribal religions of West Africa, brought to Haiti by slaves in the seventeenth century (Brandstotter).”
Now at days there is so many more different archaic rituals and traditions are practiced by believers, of all the religions that exist some are more popular then others, there is some sensitive people on the religion sometimes that cant really stay focused because they comet acts that they are not sport too and more then a crime it’s a self belief if either they fallow the rules of rules of behaving for their religion says spots to be done. I focused on learning the rituals that are found , there is rituals on every human community and there for it means there has to be some soured of social communication to identify different aspects of rituals of traditions. That gives the structure of the different events people do on their own religion rituals also are there for help explaining the changes of the seasons or communication of real historical events they occur in programs that charges attend to do, its very clear how rituals help out the psychological aspects to the humans minds because it sets examples that there for its better to
As long as one can remember, paranormal beliefs have always existed in human society. They are living in every man’s childhood and in every corner of human’s life. From the burning belief about Santa Claus’s gifts under a Christmas’s tree in the morning to a scary game about Bloody Mary and her coming back from the dead, it seems that people cannot help but draw themselves to these stories. Even when these beliefs fade, there would be a new one that eventually shows up. No matter how much science has progressed, the belief in paranormal phenomena still remains in society. Eventually, the question about paranormal phenomena seems pale in comparison to the human’s undying belief about such things. It is really hard to pinpoint an exact cause for human’s belief in the paranormal for only one cause is not enough; however, it is sure that psychological, sociological, and biological factors play an enormous role that contributes to this belief.
“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.” According to Buddha, everyone needs some form of spirituality to define his or her life and existence. Webster Dictionary defines spiritualism as “a system of beliefs or religious practices based on supposed communication with the spirits of the dead, often times through mediums.” Though this is one general definition of spiritualism, this concept is one that does not hold a conclusive meaning. Each and every single person has the ability and right to create and practice their own idea of spiritualism. From ancient times to present day, the term and practice of spirituality has transformed, particularly from region to region. Despite the discrepancies in practices and overall understanding of this idea, spirituality has had an effect and impact upon all of humanity since the creation of time. This religion that is believed to have been established in the early eighteen hundreds, after two little girls claimed to have the ability to talk to spirits, sparked interest in this spiritual movement, allowing it to spread rather rapidly over many geographical locations. Aside from being recognized as a religion, spiritualism is also believed to be a form of philosophy and a science in which spiritualists believe that there is life after death and try to demonstrate this through the ability of attempting to communicate with those that have passed on. Spiritualism was socially different from other religions in existence at the time because it presented followers with a more tolerant belief system that assimilated the principles and facts from a selection the world's religions. Spiritualism also made it acceptable for women to play a disti...