This ebook attempts to answer the question of why and how people believe in spirits, gods and magic from a social anthropology point of view. Covering topics such as Shamanism & Spirit Possession, Witchcraft & Magic, Ghosts, Spirits, Gods & Demons, Ethnography & the Paranormal and Anthropology & Parapsychology, this ebook provides an overview of supernatural traditions and practices around the world. The author also explores anthropological interpretations of supernatural and spiritual experiences, including the paranormal experiences of the anthropologists themselves when they are doing fieldwork (think Bruce Parry in the Amazon taking part in shamanistic rituals with ayahuasca!)

The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faith How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people—as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn’t easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort—by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others—helps to explain the enduring power of faith. Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more. A fascinating account of why religious practices are more powerful than religious beliefs, How God Becomes Real suggests that faith is resilient not because it provides intuitions about gods and spirits—but because it changes the faithful in profound ways.

The Penultimate book on the upside-down and twisted interconnection of all religions, myths, and stories that forms an amazing map to creating Magic through our Spirit half hidden within Ancient, stories and Myths. The story of the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel may have had many different names, but it was repeated over and over throughout the world starting in Babylon. One group claiming to be 'god's' gained power in a river valley with a snake looking boat that spewed fire. The same thing has been happening over and over throughout history, that one group has grown to power and advanced it technologically, only to have its society destroyed by the ignorance of their offspring. Rather than a society based on hereditary power, why not one based on the ideals like, "All men are created equal." God may have Created the Universe, but men claiming to be 'god' or 'gods' created sin and religion to control the ' mere mortals.' Without the external controls we put on ourselves by following society's guidelines to try and stay with one person our whole lives, would anyone really want to stay with one person for life, if it meant a shorter more boring life, over a long exciting one? Limitations put on us by society's rules, our own internal limiting system, and our parent's then our partners limiting system all cause us to die a little inside. To become what we can become with Magic, we must learn to love without ownership, or we'll just end up killing the true Magic of love before it starts.2 Before civilization property had no meaning because everyone had to share to survive, so maybe for a truly advanced civilization sharing should return. Just as before civilization began, I don't think ownership and property should even be things, especially when it comes to people. Rather than pass down the knowledge of Magic from generation to generation, Magic should be shared with new initiates as much as possible, do that each person should try to be with another new partner for each new month. That way each Magic encounter will be special and each new initiate will be able to teach another new initiate and experience a fresh new experience. It's either property ownership of things and especially people or everlasting life and Magic's potential. I see the constant pressure people build on each other over the years is it all that stress that kills us, so I hope all this can be achieved without petty jealousy. There's a saying that goes, "If you love something set it free, if it comes back it loves you." Are we all so afraid of being alone that we have to cage what we love and turn it into something less. Magic's potential is great if we don't fall into the traps of history and fail as all the advanced civilizations of the past did. Since children are already sent to school at an early age, I believe they should be raised together, but not inside like now, but mostly outside, especially when young to help with the expansion of the mind. All children are children born of Spirit and should be treated as such no matter their parentage. It's hard to know what a child born of a Magical union might be like, but I'm very interested in finding out. Since we are all born of the Magic of life, we all might be Magical children just waiting to express our true identities. God's real and Jesus said he was both the Son of God and the Son of Man. If Jesus was both the Son of God and the Son of Man, then I believe that we are both Children of God and Children of Man. I believe this means we are both Spirit and matter. Quantum physics statistics and theories indicate it's possible we might only exist half of the time in our Universe. The other half of the time we could exist as Spirit and not know it. We might actually partially exist closer to the Spirit Realm or within it while dreaming.

WITH A BRAND NEW LOOK! ON FEBRUARY 22, 1980, KHORSHED AND RUMI BHAVNAGRI’S WORLD WAS SHATTERED. ONE MONTH LATER, A NEW ONE OPENED. Khorshed and Rumi Bhavnagri lost their sons, Vispi and Ratoo, in a tragic car crash. With both their sons gone, the couple felt they would not survive for long. They had lost all faith in God until a miraculous message from the Spirit World gave them hope and sent them on an incredible journey.

Religious capacity is a highly elaborate, neurocognitive human trait that has a solid evolutionary foundation. This book uses a multidisciplinary approach to describe millions of years of biological innovations that eventually give rise to the modern trait and its varied expression in humanity’s many religions. The authors present a scientific model and a central thesis that the brain organs, networks, and capacities that allowed humans to survive physically also gave our species the ability to create theologies, find sustenance in religious practice, and use religion to support the social group. Yet, the trait of religious capacity remains non-obligatory, like reading and mathematics. The individual can choose not to use it. The approach relies on research findings in nine disciplines, including the work of countless neuroscientists, paleoneurologists, archaeologists, cognitive scientists, and psychologists. This is a cutting-edge examination of the evolutionary origins of humanity’s interaction with the supernatural. It will be of keen interest to academics working in Religious Studies, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Anthropology, Evolutionary Biology, and Psychology.

Cross-cultural examination of notions and practices of rationality in ancient and modern societies, drawing on philosophy, ethnography and cognitive science.