“She is receiving and passing along supernatural revelation”
LOL! No, Gregoree. She acknowledges (as do I when it is appropriate) the beliefs of others, in having connected with spirit or received supernatural signs. BUT I know, and she knows, that all these things have rational explanations even when the explanations are unknown.
“you think it's "awesome" as long as it's not Christian”
No. I think the WORLD is awesome and mysterious--(as I said). I say that and mean that in the same way that Einstein said and meant it: as an acknowledgement of how little any of us know about the nature of things. I don't think any superstitious or sub-human dogmas are "awesome". Quite the contrary. But an openness to the unknown and to the delight of wonder is indeed awesome.
“Spirits are demons btw and she's talking to them”
You misunderstand (deliberately, I am quite sure! -g-). She talks to PEOPLE--not to spirits. Of course, about 90% of the people we talk to believe they have talked to spirits in one religion or another. Jesus and saints are very popular. Deceased relatives often leave signs, as well! -g-
There are no reasons to believe that Spirits exist. There are no reasons to believe that Demons exist. And there are no reasons to believe that anybody talks to these imaginary things in any real sense! However, I do not criticise those who dress their sense of wonder and awe in some sort of anthropomorphic allegory--so long as it does no harm to others. Christianity, however, encourages hate, divisiveness, mental illness, emotional conflict and dissonance, and despite (as you have so aptly demonstrated).
“Do you always communicate with entities that you don't believe exist?”
I NEVER do. So please try to comprehend my answers so you don’t keep getting yourself so confused!
By the way….I do ‘commune’ with Mother Nature. But let me assure you before you go Nim crazy again, that this has nothing to do with actual “Spirits”.
Spirits were invented by primitive humans to explain things that happened with no visible explanation (such as water moving or branches bending in the wind). Christianity is merely an outgrowth and spin-off of such primitive myth.
When the myths of Jesus were being written, it was common to believe in spirits and demons. Something had to be causing both good and bad things to happen, after all! But don’t you understand that since we discovered penicillin and dilantin and phenobarbitol, that demons have gone extinct?! Are you so brainwashed that you cannot (even for a few seconds) catch a clear look at the world you live in and see that the world is real and all that stuff that you imagine is, well…ALL IMAGINED!! You have never seen Hell or Heaven or Jesus or flying horses or talking donkeys because they don’t exist. The world is over 4 billion years old--not 6000 years! People are a very recently evolved life form separated by millions of years from 99% of all other life forms that have ever lived.
Will you remain an intellectual child your entire life? Are you that emotionally fragile and incapable that even a brief glance at reality presents far too daring a risk to even contemplate?
“Shamanic beliefs and practices have attracted the interest of scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, religious studies scholars and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced…”
These scholars may admire and respect how the belief system holds the culture together and contributes to healing (through real things such as herbs--and of course through the comfort of belief)--but I doubt if more than a very few of these scientists actually BELIEVE that “spirits” are involved or that the Shaman actually travels between bodies and worlds! The shaman is just a person--sometimes as deluded as the people he or she fools--but a person all the same. They live, they bleed, they get diseases…and then they die. Just as everyone in your church will encounter their accidents and develop their diseases--and only the spirit of a good doctor and modern medicines and machines will prolong their lives or shorten their agony. Neither prayer to demons or to Jesus nor the dance of a Shaman will help. But Shamanic herbs may well help…just as western medicines often help.
The following details of Shamanism are similar to Christianity and wherever "Shaman" occurs, one can insert "Priest, Gregoree, Ted Haggard...or any other very special people". LOL!
“There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world, but several common beliefs are shared by all forms of shamanism. Common beliefs identified by Eliade (1972)[4] are the following:
Spirits exist and they play important roles both in individual lives and in human society.
The shaman can communicate with the spirit world.
Spirits can be benevolent or malevolent.
The shaman can treat sickness caused by malevolent spirits.
The shaman can employ trance inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy and go on vision quests.
The shaman's spirit can leave the body to enter the supernatural world to search for answers.
The shaman evokes animal images as spirit guides, omens, and message-bearers.
The shaman can tell the future, scry, throw bones/runes, and perform other varied forms of divination
Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits which affect the lives of the living.[44] Although the causes of disease lie in the spiritual realm, inspired by malicious spirits, both spiritual and physical methods are used to heal. Commonly, a shaman "enters the body" of the patient to confront the spiritual infirmity and heals by banishing the infectious spirit.
Many shamans have expert knowledge of medicinal plants native to their area, and an herbal treatment is often prescribed. In many places shamans learn directly from the plants, harnessing their effects and healing properties, after obtaining permission from the indwelling or patron spirits. In the Peruvian Amazon Basin, shamans and curanderos use medicine songs called icaros to evoke spirits. Before a spirit can be summoned it must teach the shaman its song.[44] The use of totemic items such as rocks with special powers and an animating spirit is common.
Such practices are presumably very ancient. Plato wrote in his Phaedrus that the "first prophecies were the words of an oak", and that those who lived at that time found it rewarding enough to "listen to an oak or a stone, so long as it was telling the truth".
Belief in witchcraft and sorcery, known as brujería in Latin America, exists in many societies. Other societies assert all shamans have the power to both cure and kill. Shamanic knowledge usually enjoys great power and prestige in the community,[citation needed] but it may also be regarded suspiciously or fearfully as potentially harmful to others.
By engaging in their work, a shaman is exposed to significant personal risk, from the spirit world, from enemy shamans, or from the means employed to alter the shaman's state of consciousness. Shamanic plant materials can be toxic or fatal if misused. Failure to return from an out-of-body journey can lead to death[citation needed]. Spells are commonly used to protect against these dangers, and the use of more dangerous plants is often very highly ritualized.” |
