On this page one finds many ideas, people believe in. There is no limit to fantasy or imagination, but reality and truth are on a fine line. This is just a summary, with some links to more detailed information for further study. All superstition listed here, is based on the fact that it cannot be repeated in controlled experiments. The word spirituality is often used to mask superstition.
 

When shown their views to be false, far from recognising the problem, people react by intensifying the fervour of their beliefs.

superstition= (Lat super=above/beyond, stare/stat= to stand; standing above) 1) credulity regarding the supernatural.  2) an irrational fear of the unknown or mysterious.  3) a widely held but unjustified idea of the effects or nature of a thing.
science= (Lat: scire= to know; scientia= knowledge) the creation of testable hypotheses that are verifiable by reference to the real world.
faith= the firm belief in something for which there is no proof.

• religion: (Lat: religare=to constrain) believing that a god or gods control our lives. The major world religions possess doctrines, myths, revelations, ethical and social teachings, rituals, temples, a hierarchy or social institution, priests and priest education, a monastic order or hierarchy and a motivation to convert others and expand geographic influence. The religion invokes inner experiences, sentiments and guilt.
• many gods, polytheism: (Gk: polys=much; polloy= many; theos=god; polytheos= of many gods) belief in many gods.
• Taoism: the ancient religion and culture of China. Tao is the "imperceptible, indiscernible," about which nothing can be predicated but which contains the forms, entities, and forces of all particular phenomena. Every being is part of the cosmos and contains the essence of it. Wisdom is to conform to the rhythm of the universe. Man can purify himself into nothingness and while in trance, visit all places and enter all beings. Tao and Confucian wisdom and beliefs are expressed in terms of opposites: When you argue, there are some things you are failing to see. In the greatest Tao nothing is named; in the greatest disputation, nothing is said; Perfect activity leaves no track behind it; perfect speech is like a jade worker whose tool leaves no mark; It is the Tao that never acts, yet there is nothing it does not do; Since life and death are each other's companions, why worry about them? All beings are one. The yin (dark side) and yang (sunny side, of a hill) are two complementary, interdependent principles or phases alternating in space and time; emblems evoking the harmonious interplay of all pairs of opposites in the universe.
• Hinduism: belief originating from the Indus river, based on the holy book Veda and administered by the Sangha monastic order. Magic rites, animal worship, and belief in demons, combined with the worship of more or less personal gods or with mysticism, asceticism, and sacrifice. Belief in reincarnation and rebirth (samsara). Since religious truth is said to transcend all verbal definition, Hinduism incorporates all forms of belief and worship without necessitating the selection or elimination of any. A Hindu may embrace a non-Hindu religion without ceasing to be a Hindu. Hinduism is both a civilization and a congregation of religions; it has neither a beginning or founder, nor a central authority, hierarchy, or organisation. The Veda, the most ancient body of religious literature, as an absolute authority, reveals fundamental and unassailable truths. Hindus believe in the power of the Brahmans, a priestly class possessing spiritual supremacy by birth. Society is by birth tiered in classes or castes. Brahman is the creator, preserver, or transformer and reabsorber of everything, conceived of as a personal high God, usually as Vishnu (Visnu) or Siva. Hindu tradition refrains from doing harm, or killing animals. Attachment to worldly objects prevents people from reaching salvation and eternal peace (moksha), which can be reached through duty , knowledge and devotion. The practice of yoga (=union) is essential to gain insight in the self. The human body has seven energy points or chakras, to which all organs and internal energies are connected. The chakras are: base of spine, sexual organs, belly, lungs/heart, throat, forehead, crown of head. Each chakra radiates a coloured energy, which makes each person different from another.
• Hare Krishna (International Society For Krishna Consciousness): (krishna=black); the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. This cult is authoritarian and conservative and emphasizes religious enthusiasm. Humans are regarded as souls composed of Krishna's highest energy, with bodies of maya, his lowest, material, and illusory energy. In order to achieve peace and happiness, believers are urged to return to their original relationship with Krishna (called Krishna Consciousness) through bhakti-yoga, surrendering to Krishna. Gambling, using intoxicants, eating meat, and engaging in illicit sex are forbidden. Hare Krishna temples are communes in which unmarried men and women live separately, with married couples having other quarters.
• Advaita: is based on the ancient Vedic Scriptures, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahmasutras. According to Shankara, Brahman, the infinite consciousness, is the sole reality. Advaita Vedanta holds that all that exists is only Brahman. The plurality of living and nonliving beings of the entire universe is indeed nothing but Brahman. Ignorance of this astonishingly simple truth leads to misery.
• Buddhism:  The prophet Buddha lived about 2500 years ago. Buddhism arose from discontent with the caste system, sacrifices and rituals of Hinduism. The Buddha, the original teacher, is always recognized as the revealer of Buddhist truth, multiplying himself in numberless epiphanies--all manifestations of a single immutable reality--and emphasising the certainty of the void and the relativity of all appearances.  Existence is painful, giving rise to suffering. Individuality implies limitation; limitation gives rise to desire; and, inevitably, desire causes suffering. Life is a stream of becoming, a series of manifestations and extinctions. A person is in a process of continuous change, with no fixed underlying entity, but having (1) corporeality or physical forms (rupa), (2) feelings or sensations (vedana), (3) ideations (sañña), (4) mental formations or dispositions (sankhara), and (5) consciousness (viññana). Moral conduct adheres to the doctrine of karma: good conduct brings a pleasant and happy result and creates a tendency toward similar good acts, while bad conduct brings an evil result and creates a tendency toward repeated evil actions. The never ending cycle of birth, suffering, and death can be broken only by freeing oneself from the fetters of this mundane world, and entering nirvana.
• Theravada/ Hinayana (Sikh): The means of salvation is restricted to few people.
• Mahayana: the means of salvation is open to a large number of people.
• Vajrayana: esoteric Buddhism, the aim of which is to obtain liberation more speedily.
• Zen: (ch'an=dhyana=meditation) practised in Japan, teaches that the Buddha-nature, or potential to achieve enlightenment, is inherent in everyone but lies dormant because of ignorance. It is best awakened not by the study of scriptures, the practice of good deeds, rites and ceremonies, or worship of images but by a sudden breaking through of the boundaries of common, everyday, logical thought. This satori is best taught from master to disciple. Zen has many differing sects.
• Yoga: ("union") Yoga assumes the existence of God, who is the model for the aspirant to spiritual release. Yoga holds with Samkhya that the achievement of spiritual liberation occurs when the self (purusha) is freed from the bondages of matter (prakriti) that have resulted because of ignorance and illusion. The Samkhya view of the evolution of the world through identifiable stages leads Yoga to an attempt to reverse this order, as it were, so that a person can increasingly dephenomenalize himself until the self reenters its original state of purity and consciousness.
• Bhakti-yoga: Hare Krishna.
• Hatha-yoga: (union of forces) places great importance on purificatory processes, regulation of breathing (pranayama), and the adoption of bodily postures called asanas.
• Also:  jnana yoga, karma yoga, laya yoga, mantra yoga, Raja Yoga, sahaja-yoga.
• transcendental meditation (TM): (Lat: trans=beyond; scandere=climb; surpassing beyond range; meditare= to contemplate) founded by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. A practitioner repeats phrases (mantras) in the mind, to still the activity of thought and find a deeper level of consciousness, in order to find deep relaxation, inner joy, vitality, and creativity.
• Sri Chinmoy movement: established by Sri Chinmoy to achieve a more fulfilled way of life by the harmonious development of our entire being, based on ancient wisdoms. It includes mantric chants, Bhakti-yoga, Karma-yoga, music for the soul, meditation to move from the finite to the infinite. Believes in karma and reincarnation.
• Shinto: (the way of the divine) integrates indigenous Japanese beliefs and Buddhism, which had been introduced into Japan in the 6th century AD. Shinto has no founder, no official sacred scriptures in the strict sense, and no fixed dogmas. Beliefs in the mysterious creating and harmonizing power (musubi) of kami (god-spirits) and in the truthful way or will (makoto) of kami. The nature of kami cannot be fully explained in words, because kami transcends the cognitive faculty of man. Devoted followers, however, are able to understand kami through faith and usually recognize various kami in polytheistic form. Deities work together. Shinto emphasises truthfulness in man. He is regarded as the bearer of a long, continuous history that comes down from his ancestors and continues in his descendants. To make life worthwhile, one must live fully each moment of life, making it as worthy as possible.The human world keeps growing and developing while continuously changing. There is no apocalypse. Shinto does not have a weekly religious service. People visit shrines at their convenience. Most Japanese are Buddhist and Shintoist (and Christian) at the same time and have their funerals in Buddhist style.
• Jainism: (jina=conqueror) Jaina monks must fight against the passions and bodily senses in order to gain omniscience and the complete purity of soul that represents the highest religious goal. Time and the world are eternal and uncreated. The inhabited universe consists of five parts with many more tiers, ranging from the lower world (adholoka)to the celestial world (urdhvaloka). The living (jiva=soul) beings and non-sentient (ajiva=non-soul) ones inhabit small to large particles of earth, water, fire, and air. The smallest unit of matter is the atom (paramanu). Heat, light, and shade are forms of fine matter. Jainists believe that all phenomena are linked together in a universal chain of cause and effect, as karman, a fine atomic substance and not a process as in Hinduism. A soul passes through various stages of spiritual development before becoming free from all karmic bondages.
• Mazatec (Maya-Aztec):
• one god, monotheism: assuming lordship over all reality by a single creator-God, and a prophesied heaven and a day of resurrection and the coming of the Kingdom of God. Combat between the forces of good and evil.
• Judaism: (Josiah= king of Juda) belief of the Jewish people, based on the Old Testament (Torah). Jews worship God (Yahweh), creator of the universe (and Israel's ruler), who spoke to his chosen people through prophets like Moses. It is the ability to make an ethical choice that defines mankind. Jews denounce Christ and his teachings of forgiveness. Birth control is allowed, but marriage must result in children. All male Jews are circumcised on the eighth day after birth. Jews are particular about food, which must be kosher or pure. Meat of pigs is taboo.
• Judeo-christian-hellenistic: based on God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as revealed by the New Testament. Christian life is devoted to God, revealing himself in Christ. The Gospel (OE: Godspel= good news) is the account of the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus. Heaven is where God is, hell the domain of the devil. Sex is allowed only in marriage, and necessary mainly for procreation.
• Roman-Catholicism: is characterised by its uniform, highly developed doctrinal and organizational structure, rich in rituals, such as masses, festivals and processions. It worships Mother Mary and many Saints, believes in miracle cures (Lourdes, eg). Seven holy sacraments are administered from birth and baptism to sickness and death. The eucharist (Gk: eu=good; charizomai= to offer willingly; thanksgiving) or Communion is part of a religious mass, symbolically drinking wine (the blood) and eating bread (the body of Christ). Religious leader is the pope, residing in the Vatican, who rules supreme and whose decree is infallible. The priesthood, which is strictly celibate, consists of cardinals, bishops and pastors. Religious communities of nuns, brothers, monks, friars and daughters of charity, live in celibacy in monasteries and cloisters. By confessing to priests (an act of penitence), one's faults and sins are forgiven, provided genuine 'contrition' (remorse) is demonstrated. The Catholic Church is highly expansive, evangelising 'barbarians' by its missions. All non-Catholics are heathens. The Vatican declares birth control taboo; pushes for unlimited immigration into the USA and other nations, yet Vatican City does not admit either immigrants or refugees.
• Orthodox-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Greek-orthodox: rejects the papal claims to primacy and infallibility and the improper affiliation with power and government.
• Church of England, Anglican Communion: preserved much of the traditional framework of medieval Roman Catholicism in church government, liturgy, and customs, while it also has held some fundamentals of Reformation faith. It is governed by a hierarchy of priests: arch bishops, bishops, prelates, priests and vicars. During worship, hymns are sung.
• Protestantism: A revolt against the elaborate rituals and political power of the Catholic Church, and accepting scientific discoveries that proved the Bible false. The teachings of the Bible were set in an historical light, but God, his Son and the Holy Spirit, remained.
• Lutheranism: reformed the church in externals by returning to apostolic poverty and simplicity. Any layman is spiritually a priest, though not vocationally a parson. Every household should have a bible, written in the spoken language.
• Calvinism: advocates simplicity in rituals, but the clergy has authority over the laity. Work contributes to the larger realisation of the Christian society. Calvin was more impressed than Luther by God's transcendence and by his control over the world; Calvin emphasised God's power and glory. The world is pre-destined and salvation comes from a loving and utterly reliable God.
• Methodism: a middle-class church formed by John Wesley in protest of the Church of England. Man is assured of his salvation and by the power of the Holy Spirit, he is capable of attaining perfect love for God and his fellows in this life. Faith enables Methodist workers, men and women, to endure economic hardship, while at the same time working for the alleviation of poverty. Methodists appreciate the place of women in the life of the church.
• Ratana: The Maori Ratana church (New Zealand) was founded by Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana, a Methodist Maori farmer and healer, whose doctrine of faith healing discouraged the taking of medicines. Ratana faith is marked by heterodox rituals and an elaborate hierarchy of religious officials. Hymns and prayers glorify Ratana as God's mangai (mouth-piece).
• Ringatu: (upraised hands) is the oldest and most spiritual Maori prophetic movement in New Zealand. It was founded in 1867 by the Maori guerrilla leader Te Kooti (1830-93) while he was imprisoned on the Chatham Islands. Its liturgy includes thematic medleys of Bible verses, songs, chants, and prayers and ends with members raising their right hands in homage to Ringatu.
• Baptism/Anabaptism: belief in the New Testament only, and allowing adults to be baptised. Strict separation of State and Church. Disciplined behaviour and repudiating war, renouncing the use of the sword, and embracing polygamy.
• Presbyterianism (Gk: presbyteros=elder): originating from Puritanism, has a zeal for foreign missions and opposes all state aid to the church, holding that this leads inevitably to state control.
• Other: Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish, Brethren, Quakers, Huguenots, Puritanism, Pietism, New-Christians, Mormons, Latter-day Saints,
• Jehovah's Witness: (Jehovah = Yahweh= God) a sect that began in the United States in the 19th century. Witnesses maintain a complete separation from all secular governments, as they regard world powers and political parties as the unwitting allies of Satan. They refuse to salute the flag of any nation or to perform military services.Their avowed goal is the establishment of God's Kingdom (Jesus Christ is God's agent), the Theocracy, which they believe will emerge following Armageddon. Their basis for this assumption is found in the apocalyptic books of the Bible, especially Daniel and the Book of Revelation, God's timetable for world affairs.  They worship in Kingdom Halls, baptise by immersion, insist upon a high moral code in personal conduct, disapprove of divorce except on grounds of adultery, and oppose blood transfusions on a scriptural basis. Most members are kingdom publishers, who are expected to spend five hours a week at meetings in Kingdom Hall and spend as much time as circumstances permit in doorstep preaching.
• Islam/ Muslim: world religion founded by the Arabian apostle, or prophet, Muhammad in the 7th century AD, based on the god Allah, and the holy book Qur'an. Allah is absolutely unique, omnipotent, omniscient, and merciful. Men are exhorted to obey his will (i.e., to be Muslim), and special responsibility is laid on man. The Muslim creed consists of five articles of faith: (1) belief in one Allah; (2) in angels; (3) in the revealed books; (4) in the prophets; and (5) in the Day of Judgment. Muslims practise: (1) to recite the profession of faith at least once in one's lifetime; (2) to observe the five daily public and collective prayers; (3) to pay the zakat ("purification") tax for the support of the poor; (4) to fast from daybreak to sunset during the entirety of the month of Ramadan; and (5) to perform if physically and financially possible the hajj, or pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. Muslims believe in the justification of a 'holy war' (jihad) and Judgement Day. All muslims are circumcised, and alcohol is taboo, as is meat from pigs. Animals are slaughtered facing Mecca. Various sects exist, like Sunni, Shi'ite (Shia) and Sufi.
• Satya Sai Baba:  His mission is to re-establish the principle of Righteousness, to motivate love for God and service to fellow man.We are the eternal spirit that temporarily occupies these minds and bodies. We can appreciate and become who we really are by turning inward with faith in God and an intense yearning to know Him. Our conscience is a reflection of the eternal spirit. It is not necessary to drink the whole ocean to know its taste; it is not necessary to read all scriptures to live a life of joy, peace, and love. There is only one God, but there are many religions.
• dysfunctional churches: many sects have deviated from the above churches, some of these becoming dysfunctional or abusive. See also AFF listing. Such groups depend on compliance, exploitation,  mind control, and anxious dependency of their followers.
• human deities: humans turned gods
• Confucianism:
• Rastafarians: the movement arose in the Caribbean, late 1930s. Prince Ras Tafari of Ethiopia, later becoming Haile Selassie, is believed to be a deity, whose spirit will guide adherents back to their promised lands of Africa.
• cargo cults: the ancestors will return as white men, bringing with them an abundance of material goods. A golden age will begin. Everyone will have plenty of money. Crops grow unattended and no one would work. These material goods, made by our ancestors, have been intercepted by Europeans, making them rich at the expense of the poor tribes. Dressed as Europeans, the tribes perform extensive rituals with flagpoles in order to communicate with the spirits. The day of reckoning will be heralded by some natural disaster.
• New Age: (see AFF listing) an eclectic collection of psychological and spiritual techniques that are rooted in Eastern mysticism, lack scientific evaluative data, and are promoted zealously by followers of diverse idealised leaders claiming transformative visions.
• atheism
• existentialism: various philosophies dating from about 1930 that have in common an interpretation of human existence (the mode or act of being) in the world that stresses its concreteness and its problematic character. Man is not to go outside himself in the quest for truth, for it is within him that truth abides. Man's destiny is determined by his free choices in an ever changing world, changed by others' free choices. Consciousness is the manifestation of being.
• communism:
• capitalism: free market trade and enterprise will solve all our needs and problems. By each human making selfish decisions, the overall result is beneficial to all (Adam Smith's invisible hand). Regulation is not necessary since the price mechanism, established by balancing supply and demand, allocates resources in the most efficient and equitable way.
• fascism: (Italian: fascio= political group; L: fascis=bundle) the country can be saved only by one leader with total power, strict control of personal freedom (as well as political, cultural, religious, social), encouraging free enterprise, while suppressing labour unions. Fascism is extremely authoritarian,  right-wing and nationalistic.
• theosophical society: embracing the universal brotherhood of man.
• spirits
• voodoo: An African belief brought to Haiti. All reality is a façade behind which work powerful spiritual forces. Illness and death are always a sign of divine or magical retribution. The god Legba mediates between man and spirit; the snake-god Damballah is a source of virility and power; etc. Worshippers invoke the spirits, hoping to become possessed by one who will bring good fortune. A high priest or houngan facilitates with prayers, incantations, magical symbols, etc. Possessed by a lower spirit or loa, a worshipper will writhe uncontrollably, speak in strange voices and unintelligible tongues, and finally collapse. The dark side of voodoo includes ritual murder, cannibalism, black magic, curses. These are all intended to instill fear, on which this cult is based. Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc) used voodoo to retain power, assisted by his secret police or tonton macoutes (itinerant magicians).
• spiritualism: see mind/spirit.
• druids: priests of the ancient Celts, druids mediated between the dead and the living. The human spirit was believed to live in one's head, which continued living, even after separation from the body. It might assist whoever possessed it. Druids kept trophy heads in cedar chests, and after battle, the heads of heroes and prisoners were spiked on poles for decoration. Druids also often functioned as judges and were called for honouring the gods by sacrifice. Even today, Halloween (All Saints Day) on the final day of October, stems from druidic witchery.
• devil/satanism: to medieval Christians, the devil was a real and active enemy, whose powers and malevolence caused mishap, disaster and inconvenience. The devil has a human form with hooves, and horns, living in the underworld of fire. Other names: Satan, Pan, Loki, Hel,
• Minor demons: imps,
• nature, earth-god
• Shamanism: Shamanism is a form of communication with natural forms of conscious energy which may affect health and disease, luck and misfortune and one's state of awareness in relation to natural phenomena, trance states and the souls of natural entities such as power animals and allies. Intrinsic to Shamanistic practice is the idea of an interaction with nature spirits in ways which can heal, cause other people to become ill or protect the user in battle. Some shamanistic practices involve the use of a power animal or a second soul. For example in Aztec cosmology, one has a birth soul called the tonal which represents the persona, and your astrological destiny. To really become a person of power, one also has to adopt or become possessed by a second etherial soul, manifested as a power animal ally called the nagual. By relating to the nagual very surprising things may happen. The tonal represents the ordered, bright clear aspect to existence and the nagual the dark, chaotic uncertain, undefinable aspect. This in no way equates with good and evil. Rather the entire cosmology of God good and evil are part of the island of the Tonal.    The nagual reigns supreme as the eagle's gift. Future events are experienced in a death or bardo stage, achieved with (natural) drugs (magic mushrooms, datura).
• Extropianism: (as opposed to entropy= unavailable energy) Extropians recognise the unique conceptual abilities of our species, and our opportunity to advance nature’s evolution to new peaks. We see humans as a transitional stage standing between our animal heritage and our posthuman future. Extropians seek continual improvement in ourselves, our cultures, and our environments. We seek to improve ourselves physically, intellectually, and psychologically. Extropians are seeking more intelligence, wisdom, and effectiveness, an indefinite lifespan, and the removal of political, cultural, biological, and psychological limits to self-actualisation and self-realisation. We are perpetually overcoming constraints on our progress and possibilities. We are going to expand into the universe, advancing without end. We see no shortage of resources to allow growth, and we find growth compatible with environmental quality. We expect life to move beyond the confines of the Earth — the cradle of human and transhuman intelligence — to inhabit the cosmos.
• human qualities: a variety of beliefs, methods, and philosophies that place central emphasis on the human realm. Gods are not necessary to live a fulfilling life. God did not create men but men created God.
• Humanism: the development of human virtue, in all its forms, to its fullest extent: understanding, benevolence, compassion, mercy, fortitude, judgment, prudence, eloquence, and even love and honour.
• Freemasonry: fraternal (male only) order of Free and Accepted Masons, the largest worldwide secret society. Its teachings enjoin morality, charity, and obedience to the law of the land. For admission the applicant is required to be an adult male believing in the existence of a Supreme Being and in the immortality of the soul. Members are mainly drawn from white Protestants. Female relatives of Master Masons may join the Order of the Eastern Star
• fairies, ghosts, spirits, and magical creatures
• fairies: enchanting small folk, beguiling and tricksy. Fairies live in Fairyland, under their kings and queens, a kind of parallel universe.
• gremlins, leprechauns, dwarfs, kobolds, brownies, gnomes, pixies: dabble in human affairs, sometimes as benefactors, sometimes as trouble makers.
• poltergeist: (German: poltern=knocking, disturbing; geist=ghost) racketing ghosts or noisy spirits often cause mischievous physical disturbances - inexplicable rapping noises, pots and pans that fly through the air, pictures that crash to the floor, fires that start by themselves.
• vampires: Natural vampires (Desmodontidae) are small bats that suck the blood of larger mammals. Human vampires are reanimated corpses, leaving their graves at night to suck the blood of persons sleeping. They prey at night on beautiful women, but can be thwarted by a cross or by eating garlic.
• werewolf: under influence of the moon's power, all that is beastly and irrational in man, is released. Men at full moon turn into rabid wolves. Note that werewolf behaviour matches the symptoms of the contagious and dog-borne disease rabies.
• ghosts and apparitions: seeing the images and hearing the words of deceased people, but conversation is strictly forbidden. Ghosts appear to whom they will, whether friends, family, or even strangers. Ghosts prefer some 'haunted houses' more than others.
• mind/spirit
• animism: (Lat: anima=life, soul) within everything, animate or inanimate, there lives a spirit. Unseen but conscious and powerful, the spirit lives on. When an animal is killed, its spirit may take revenge. Extensive rituals are necessary to placate these. Shrines are erected to persuade a spirit to take residence. When placated, spirits may become benign. A supernatural power organises and animates the material universe.
• spirits of the dead: believing that the state of death is not far removed from the state of life. Communities are populated by the spirits of their dead, who wield more power because they no longer carry the burden of their bodies. Particularly the spirits of people who have just died, can possess ordinary people, forcing them into a trance, making them speak like the deceased and reveal details that would otherwise have been impossible to obtain.
• spiritualism: the belief that the living can communicate with the dead. Some people or psychics, act as a medium between the spirits of the dead and their survivors. During séances, or round-robin meetings, tables can be seen shaking and tilting, and people seen floating (levitating) on air. Spirits communicate messages by rapping, or by means of the Ouija (oui=yes; ja=yes) or talking board, which contains letters and numbers. A continuum of cosmic consciousness, against which our individuality builds but accidental fences, and into which our several minds plunge as into a mother-sea or reservoir (William James). Life, like matter, is indestructible; there has always been a certain amount of life on this world and there will always be the same amount; you cannot create or destroy or multiply life. (Thomas Edison)
• anthroposophy (Rudolph Steiner, Austrian-born): spiritual perception has always existed, independent of the senses, but became dulled by man's interest in material things. By training the human consciousness to rise above attention to matter, one can communicate with the spiritual world, because this ability is innate to everyone.
• rebirth/ re-incarnation: some essence of individual life remains after death, leaving the corporal form that has perished, being able to re-enter the known world in a similar or different physical guise. Fundamental to the Hindu creed is the idea of karma, which suggests that each rebirth may be a reward or punishment for deeds done in a previous life. Egyptians believe that the soul after departing the body, continues to require food and other earthly administrations in the afterlife. Christians believe in the resurrection of the dead, which will arise on Judgement Day, and will join with Jesus Christ. Many people believe to have memories of previous lives, sometimes being able to communicate with long-dead persons, kings and other high dignitaries. Drugs, hypnosis and meditation are used to help induce the recall of past life experiences, also called 'regression'.
• déjà-vu (French: already seen): a feeling that one has seen a situation before, in a dream. The ability to see the future in dreams. Recognition of the immemorially known (Carl Jung). Evidence for reincarnation and pre-natal consciousness.
• ESP extra-sensory perception: perception, completely independent of the known senses such as sight and hearing. Altered states of consciousness (ASC) such as caused by hypnosis, dreaming, drugs or meditation, can assist ESP. Two levels of consciousness become dissociated, giving rise to a greater sensitivity of ESP or psi-information. Psi ability is trapped in the unconscious, rising to conscious awareness in situations that are emotionally charged or otherwise conducive to its appearance. (psi=23rd letter of the Greek alphabet, used in science to denote the unknown quantity; psyche= soul/ spirit)
• telepathy: (Lat: tele=at a distance;pathos= suffering, feeling) mind-reading or direct communication between two persons over distances that don't matter (mental radio).
• clairvoyance: (clear-seeing) perceiving an event or object through means that do not involve the known senses.
• clairaudience: (clear-hearing) hearing the voices of long-dead people, particularly saints (Joan of Arc).
• personation: during a séance or ritual, a medium assumes another person's physical characteristics, habits, symptoms of illness or other identifying traits.
• automatism: a medium in trance, writes the messages received from spirits, often in code or needing interpretation.
• premonition: (Lat: pre=before; monere=to warn; forewarning) seeing a situation before it happens; seeing future events without deducing their occurrence from existing knowledge.
• psychokinesis (PK): (Gk; psyche=breath, soul; kineo=to move) the use of the mind's powers to effect change in external matter. PK is an outward expression of power by unexplained and invisible means. Poltergeists may be a manifestation of involuntary or unconscious PK. During epilepsy, massive electrical discharges occur in the brain, capable of PK.
• anpsi, animal-psi: paranormal abilities of animals; their ability to communicate with their environment, a person or another animal, through unidentified or explained channels. Pets follow a directional beam of love to their masters, a magnet of the heart. Pets can perceive future events (precognition). Wordless and signless communication between animals and humans is possible. Pets can perceive imminent danger to themselves or their masters.
• plant-spirits: communicating with devas or plant spirits, may cause successful gardens and plant growth in marginal climates. Praying over plants can increase their growth (increased CO2 from breathing over them?).
• mind over matter: see psychokinesis above.
• leaving the body (ecsomatic state), out-of-body experience, OOB, OBE: viewing one's own body from some distance, often when unconscious or when asleep. The conscious mind seems to be aware that it resides in another vehicle, which may not be visible to an onlooker. The second body can be an exact replica of the real one, or something vague. This replica is often immune to gravity. The experience of life after death is pleasant; a great sense of peace and relief. Bilocation is the out of body experience where the astral body is actually observed by someone else. Some people claim to have seen their own double.
• astral projection: (lucid dreaming) during sleep, the energy body, also known as the etheric body or vitality sheath, is put on charge. It expands and opens in order to accumulate and store energy. The energy body can, normally, only do this in its  expanded state during sleep. Once expanded, the chakras trickle power, in the form of etheric matter, into the energy body. During this recharging process the astral body separates and tunes into the astral dimension where it can create and experience dreams.
• levitation: some psychic media have been able to levitate themselves, and as if floating on air, glide from one room to another or out into a garden, and back again. Others have been able to shrink or expand themselves, or change the shape of their bodies.
• coincidence: the occurrence of events happening at the same time, suggesting a connection between them, and having possible meanings.
• synchronicity: the simultaneous occurrence of a certain psychic state with one or more external events which appear as meaningful parallels to the momentary subjective state.
• cosmic trance: the capacity of the mind to enter cosmic trance and to merge with space-time synchronicity. Our actions, if impeccably performed, stand eternally in space-time.
• reality of dreaming: the dreaming state is another level of conscious reality, which is not an illusory representation of the 'real world' but rather, a mode of conscious existence in its own right. Dreams are thus interpreted as prophetic, conveying a wisdom about fortune and the changing circumstances of life, which may be realized by interpreting and incubating the dream. Many dreaming events are associated with future experiences as they are with past ones (precognitive dreaming).
• quantum reality: quantum effects are not random but a complex system, spanning space-time. Consciousness provides for us an additional sub-quantum principle by which we perceive a single consistent history evolving. We use our consciousness to alter the course of history, both by our actions and by anticipating the indeterminate future. Conscious foresight does not imply predestination but realises potentialities.(Chris King, Auckland)
• feminism: She sees men as the weaker sex, responding emotionally and acting illogically - when they act at all. She believes herself to be surrounded by wimps that she couldn't trust to punch their way out of a paper bag. She says that men are only good for one thing - moving furniture. She is bitter toward men, who she believes get all the breaks, but do little of the real work. Inside our phallocratoic society, women are trapped in patriarchy, plundered of their knowledge,
• eco-feminism: only females are able to accept, refuse, slow down or accelerate the reproduction of the species, in other words,  in whose hands completely rests humanity's salvation or death sentence. (All problems of the world are in some way caused by overpopulation.)
• psychology
• graphology: from a person's handwriting, his character and personality can be deduced.
• inkblots: what a person sees in a meaningless inkblot, says something about his character and personality.
• fear
• fear for the unknown:
• fear of the dead:
• earth and beyond
• earth
• creationism/ creation science: godless evolution is not possible according to the creation account in the book Genesis of the Bible. All matter and species were created by God in 6 days of 24 hours each, for a purpose. The fossil record was created during the biblical flood, some 5000 years ago. Death didn't exist before Adam's sin  introduced death and decay. Catholic schools won't teach evolution. More at the Creation Science home page. The earth cannot be destroyed, even if we wanted to.
• healing the earth. Sakina: Sakina is the spirit of tranquillity which heals jihad and is also the Shekhinah or indwelling spirit of matrimonial concord and abundance. Bad actions are said to defile the Shekhinah and to cause her to withdraw into the remote heavens. The more distant she becomes the more troubled conditions become on earth. Famine, misfortune and catastrophe become perfidious and capricious. When we are loving and humble and draw the Shekinah down into our hearts, the world becomes interconnected in love and abundant in its verdancy.
• subterranean empires: (Atlantis, Agartha, Lemuria) Martians settled underground in a hollow Earth, about 80,000 years ago. From there they send UFOs and messengers to survey the surface of Earth. Entrances to this underworld exist at both poles.
• Bermuda Triangle and Devil's Sea: In the Bermuda Triangle off the USA, and the Devil's Sea off Japan ships and aircraft disappeared mysteriously, due to unknown forces or gateways in the energy fields of the Earth.
• weather prediction from moon tides: the combined forces of moon and sun cause not only ocean tides but also atmospheric tides. These largely influence the weather. Thus weather can be predicted from the tide cycles, which repeat exactly after 18.61 years. Today's weather resembles that of 18.61 years ago.
• traditional weather modification (TWM): indigenous peoples have retained the powers to modify weather at will; to prevent rain for open air events; to make rain for agriculture; to predict rain, etc. It is based on conscious reality, synchronicity and energy fields. A highly advanced and autonomous consciousness (God, Io, Yahweh, Elohim, Allah, Brahma, Paramatma, etc) is more powerful than any external technology. TWM is a force multiplier, able to use distant healing in reverse, for distant killing - a warning to those opposing indigenous people and their liberation groups. twm.co.nz
• planets
• moon madness (lunacy): losing one's senses depending on the changes of the moon.
• martian life: for centuries, people believed in the existence of life on Mars. Its canals and other features helped speculation. It was thought that Martians landed on Earth by means of their flying saucers. Since spacecraft have landed on Mars, testing soil samples, scientists have found no evidence, but perhaps once, some 3500 million years ago, primitive lifeforms may have existed.
• life in space
• extraterrestrial visitors: (suggested by Erich von Däniken, a Swiss inn keeper turned-prehistorian), visited Earth several times, as recounted by various inexplicable patterns in the landscape, and other artifacts. Aztec indians imitated the straight landing and takeoff tracks, which led to large field drawings. Ancient stone monuments like those at Stonehenge and Carnac, and the pyramids, were placed by early space navigators, some 6000 years ago.
• stars
• astrology: the belief that the movement of the sun, the planets and the stars, influence events on Earth, and thus the future. Planets exert their influences at the moment of birth. The date and time of birth determines one's character and future events. The zodiac has twelve signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.
• extra-terrestrials (ET): unknown intelligences from outer space have visited Earth many millennia ago, leaving behind monuments such as the pyramids, straight lines in Peru, and mythologies of winged gods and flying devices. Some may have intermarried with humans, altering our genetic code. ETs are still landing on this planet in secrecy, visiting people and abducting some.
• UFOs, Unidentified Flying Objects: people have reported over 70,000 UFO sightings from 133 countries, of mysterious objects in the sky. Such objects are oblong-shaped, transmitting intense light, while travelling at very high speeds, and being able to turn sharply, often vanishing suddenly. KFOs or Known Flying Objects are such phenomena as lens clouds, lightning, ball lightning, comets, meteors, planets, moon, stars, aircraft, launching missiles, weather balloons, swarms of insects and birds, satellites, mirages of stars, planets and sun. Humanoids of various bizarre permutations have been seen. Some people have been invited on tours around the moon. In 'Area51' mysterious things happen. UFOs have crashed in North America, killing their crews. These were recovered by the US Air Force and kept in a secret vault. 'Close encounters', less than 150m away, can be of kind 'one' (CE-I), leaving no traces; kind 'two' (CE-II) leaving traces such as damaged houses and fields, electrical interference; kind three (CE-III) involving human-like creatures.
• energy & forces
• magic/occultism: dating from the 4th century, and recounted by the philosopher Iamblichus, a magic guild existed, the Magi. who possessed special knowledge and magical superhuman powers. These have been passed down secretively from magician to initiate, and still exist today. Man is but a tiny model of the greater natural world, and all existence is linked in either opposite or corresponding terms. Intuitive thought may have greater potency than rational pursuit.
• cabala/ occult philosophy: magic comes from obscure abilities of the mind. The fantasy or imaginative power rules over the passions of the soul. Imagination, of its own accord, changes the physical body, by moving the spirit upward, downward, inward or outward.
• witchcraft: believing that heavenly bodies like the moon; curses and substances like herbs, fungi and others, when combined in the right ways, hold power of magic. Witches can change themselves and others at will into animals. They can fly into the night, and enter the most secret and hidden places by leaving their bodies behind. With spells and potions, they can bring about storms, illness both in men and animals, strike fear into enemies or play terrifying jokes on them. To understand witchcraft, we must descend into the darkness of the deepest oceans of the mind. Witches often hold relationships with the devil. The devil's method in recruiting witches is by seduction in periodic orgies, where nudity is required, in order not to limit their powers. In 3 centuries, over 200,000 witches, mostly women were sentenced to death. Under torture, the names of other innocent women were implied. Note that witch hunters believe as much in witchcraft as its practitioners, hence their fanaticism.
• Homer's Circe: seduced men and turned them into swine.
• Medea: brewed herbs, owl wings and bowels of a werewolf to cast spells.
• Valkyrie: could change at will as they went on their wild rides.
• divination: man's effort to know the mysterious present and to predict the future. The rituals of divination gain access to hidden knowledge, if possible through divine channels. Believing that the future can be predicted from an animal's heart, liver, intestines, kidneys, lungs, etc.
• Tarot cards: a pack of 4 suits of 14 cards each, depicting symbols relating to life and death, power and poverty, luck and misfortune, virtues and vices, and more. They differ from playing cards in that their upper and lower halves have different or opposite values. In various rituals, these cards can be turned to reveal a person's future.
• runes: script of ancient Germanic tribes, attributed magic powers and ability to predict the future.
• a bright object (fire, candle, crystal ball, calm water) can be used for staring into, producing images on the retina, which can be explained. The diviner looks fixedly at the object until it disappears and a fog-like curtain interposes itself between his eyes and the object. On this curtain the shapes the diviner desires to see, form themselves.
• T'ai Chi (Great Ultimate), I Ching (Book of Changes): T'ai Chi is the source and union of the two primary aspects of the cosmos, yang (active) and yin (passive). Vital matter (Ch'i), is transformed through the yang and yin modes of development into the Five Elements (wood, earth, fire, metal, and water), which form the basic constituents of the physical universe.The future can be predicted by the way 50 yarrow sticks fall. I Ching is used in a way that encourages deep thought and self-examination. It may even be used to induce a state of consciousness similar to meditation.
• palmistry: used as early as 3000BC. It begins with the obvious and proceeds by innumerable intricate steps of judgment and interpretation to extreme detail. One hand is considered the 'birth' hand, showing inherited predispositions of character, while the other hand reflects individuality, flexibility and potential. A square hand identifies a practical person; a tapering hand belongs to an artist; a spade-like hand belongs to an energetic owner; etc. From the landscape of the hand and its rivers, elaborate predictions are made about a person's character and future.
• phrenology: the study of the skull and predicting everything from artistry to romance from its bumps.
• prophecy: (Gk: Pro=before; phetes=speaker; phemi=to speak) Prophets are spokesmen for gods, most often Yahweh, the God of Israel. Armed with the force of such direct communication, prophets often served as advisers to kings and courts.
• Delphic oracle: the Greek consulted the Pythia, celibate priestess of the Delphic oracle.
• Daniel: the biblical prophet Daniel foretold the rise and fall of kings, kingdoms, and the nation of Israel as well as the wanton desecration of its temple.
• Jeremiah: the prophet of doom forecast Israel's destruction and eventual Babylonian rule.
• Nostradamus (Michel de Nostradame) 1503-1566, published his Centuries, a volume of 100 verses, lending themselves to repeated interpretations.
• pyramids: Czech radio engineer Karel Drbal (1940s) believed that the pyramid shape focuses strange powers underneath it, powers that counteract decomposition, while promoting mummification. Razor blades, when placed east-west become a living entity, recovering their sharp edges. Pyramids are also believed to make plants grow faster.
• dowsing: the use of sticks or forked twigs to divine underground water, minerals, oil, treasure or lost persons.
• spontaneous human combustion (SHC): humans can spontaneously catch fire and burn up fast, producing intense heat. Objects nearby remain unaffected.
• after-life energy: ghosts are a manifestation of persistent personal energy, some residue of the force or energy which a person generated when still alive. All matter and space is permeated by an unseen substance (psychic ether), capable of retaining indefinitely the impressions made by the living.
• electric people: sometimes a person seems to possess uncontrolled electricity that sends heavy furniture flying across the room. Other people cannot touch that person, or hold objects held by it. Sparks can fly from the electric person to objects nearby. Acute magnetisation makes forks and knives stick to the person's skin. Failing to keep moving, its feet can stick to the earth, unable to move again.
• evil eyes: certain people can harm others merely by looking at them, causing romantic disappointments, headaches, accidents, illness and death. To ward such evil off, one should wear an amulet showing an eye and magic symbols.
• eyeless sight (paroptic vision): to see colours by means of touching with one's fingers. Reading a book with one's fingers.
• Kirlian energy of life: Semyon Kirlian discovered that objects, placed in a high frequency, high voltage electric field, produce auroras that can be photographed and explained. All things alive are surrounded by an invisible aura or bioenergy. From the aura of an object, its spiritual dimensions can be deducted and its state of wellbeing.
• human aura: some people are able to see an aura surrounding other people. Its colours have meaning: red for willful personality; green for nature and healing; orange for physical health; blue for enlightenment; black for death, malice or evil; grey for depression and melancholy.
• psychotronic devices: Robert Pavlita has constructed psychotronic devices that are able to gather and store psychic energy. Such energy can be refracted, polarized and combined with other energy forms. It can be conducted by paper, wool, wood, and it can be used to promote healing.
• psitrons: The British mathematician Adrian Dobbs (1965): telepathy and psychic abilities are based on clouds of psitrons, emitted by the brain, and capable of moving without friction. Psitrons can carry brain messages from one brain to another. The future can be predicted from psitrons arriving from a pre-cast time zone.
• morphic resonance (Rupert Sheldrake): the shapes of creatures are not determined by their genetic code (DNA) but by a morphogenic field or resonance, which allows direct communication with their ancestors, thus preserving the shape of the species. Morphic resonance also allows individuals to communicate with past members of their own species. Memory is a journey that the mind makes into the past, via morphic resonance; it is not a stored record in the brain.
• transmutation: the channeling of spiritual energy to create positive physical effects or for personal transformation, soul loss, and recalling higher purpose. intention + love + harmony + union + focus + concentration + imagination = transmutation. Transmutation can be used to cleanse pollution in the environment through the inner preparation of spiritual harmony and the creation of sacred space through ceremonial ritual in community with others. (Sandra Ingerman)
• crystals: crystals have energies according to one or more of the seven chakras (energy points in the body). They resonate energy according to a quantity given by numbers. According to which chakra is blocked, selected crystals bring healing and balance. Crystals resonate at certain frequencies.
• numbers
• numerology: the belief that all things have numbers, and the number of a thing (like its name), has magical significance. The number of a person, determined from his name describes his nature and future. Numbers hold some hidden knowledge of the world. If a married woman compares the numbers of her maiden name and married names, she can find out how marriage has changed her. Numerology can also be applied to dates, giving an indication of what will happen on a certain date of a certain year. The Hebrew system of numerology is based on giving the letters of the alphabet the numbers 1 to 8, according to a table. The numbers are added together and then the individual digits until a number between 1 and 8 is left over. These have their own significance, ranging from leadership (1), gentleness (2) to success and egocentricity (8). The name of God YAHWEH adds up to 15 when spelled YHWH.
• health: life is good until disease strikes. In their effort to understand and cure disease, humans have invented a vast array of methods, devices and beliefs. See also: http://www.mtn.org/quack/ for ancient devices.
• healing. Holistic healing places emphasis on living healthily and eating sensibly, but various beliefs and a large number of methods and techniques have crept in; see http://www.holisticmed.com/#www for links.
• holistic medicine: a doctrine of preventive and therapeutic medicine that emphasizes the necessity of looking at the whole person--his body, mind, emotions, and environment--rather than at an isolated function or organ and which promotes the use of a wide range of health practices and therapies. It has especially come to stress responsibility for self-healing, or self-care, by observing the traditional commonsense essentials of exercise, healthful diet, adequate sleep, good air, moderation in personal habits, and so forth.
• naturopathy: assists nature by supporting the body's own innate capacity to achieve optimal health, facilitating the body's inherent healing mechanisms. Diseases are the body's effort to purify itself, and cures result from increasing the patient's vital force, rather than by treating the disease. Ill health is caused by: (1) lowered vitality; (2) abnormal composition of blood and lymph; (3) maladjustment of muscles, ligaments, bones, and neurotropic disturbances; (4) accumulation of waste matter and poison in the system; (5) germs, bacteria, and parasites which invade the body and flourish because of toxic states which may provide optimum conditions for their flourishing; and (6) consideration of hereditary influences, and (7) psychological disturbances.
• homeopathy: (Greek: homoios= similar; pathos= suffering, disease) developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann, homeopathy cures disease with the administration of minute doses of a drug that in a healthy person, given in its original strength, would produce the same symptoms as the disease itself. It is thought that even when diluted a million million times, such drugs will cause a beneficial reaction, due to their spirit rather than substance. It is important to treat the patient, not the disease. Since patients with the same disease do not react the same way to the same treatment, the mental state of the patient is the basis for correct diagnosis, not the physical symptoms of illness. Since symptoms change as the disease progresses, also the treatment must change. If the treatment doesn't work, it is because of ill timing.
• flower therapy: Devised by Dr Edward Bach (1933): This system of treatment is the most perfect which has been given to mankind in living memory.  The greatest benefit from this God-sent Gift will be to those who keep it pure as it is; free from science, free from theories, for everything in Nature is simple. Seven negative emotions inhibit healing: fear and anxieties, uncertainty, insufficient interest in the present, oversensitivity to influence and ideas, despondency and despair, loneliness, and excessive interest in the welfare of others. Each of Bach's 38 flower remedies is designed to treat specific emotions. Because the emotional state is seen as the cause of illness, the same treatment is prescribed for sufferers with complaints as different as asthma, alcoholism and paralysis. Take no notice of the disease, think only of the outlook on life of the one in distress.
• aromatherapy: already known to the ancient Romans and Greeks, aromas of oils of plants are believed to heal. Each fragrance is attributed to a deity, and by inhaling it, one assumes that god's attributes. The resemblance between parts of the human body and the shapes of certain plants, allows their aromas to cure ailments to humans. Aromatherapists seek to treat the patient, not the disease, since they believe that the mind plays a major role in bodily ailments. Powerful fragrances are used to change the patient's emotional state, and thus leaving the way open for a beneficial cure. Diseases treated are: asthma, headache, depression, skin ailments, respiratory diseases, digestive problems and backaches.
• faith healing: prayer, divine intervention or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness.
• Christian Science/ First Church of Christ, Scientist: illness and health are both illusions. There is no physical world, therefore there is no disease, and no need for medical intervention. The way to achieve health, is by reordering one's perceptions about existence. CS rejects most generally accepted concepts of medicine.
• acupuncture: the body's bioenergy flows along lines or meridians and concentrates in nodes. Needles can be inserted into the body at specific places to subdue pain and to cure all illnesses.
• shiatsu (acupressure): by massaging and pressing energy centres (chakras) of the body, complete relaxation can be achieved, and sickness healed. See also Hinduism above.
• reiki: (from Buddhism) is an essence which comes from the Source of Life itself. Since Reiki is multi-dimensional, it gives you healing energy through the hands, awakened through a series of direct transmission initiations which attune and align energy centers in the body and hands. Channeled through the Reiki practitioner  into the client, where it works on all aspects of the client: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Reiki releases emotional blockages, accelerates natural healing, stimulates the immune system, and balances subtle body energies.
• hypnosis: (Gk: hypnos=sleep) hypnotic state can be achieved in up to 70% of the population. Through suggestion, a deepening of consciousness is achieved, and increased control over the autonomous functions of the body. Recovery is quick. Hypnotic state of consciousness differs from sleep, and may offer direct access to the subconscious. 15% of the population is capable of regressing into 'childhood memories'. Hypnotherapy is believed to cure: arthritis, migraine headaches, obesity, smoking, depression and to reduce pain when giving birth.
• iridology: all organs are connected to points inside the eye and iris. By studying irregularities in the eye, a diagnosis can be made of the ailments of the patient. The eye is a camera into the body.
• foot massage: all organs of the body are connected each to their own part of the foot. By pressing, massaging such spots or by inserting acupuncture needles, organs can be healed.
• Traditional Eastern Medicine (TEM): (also Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM) an extraordinary range of remedies passed on over thousands of years. Bones of leopard, lynx and tiger; turtle shell, anteater scales, snake skins, dried scorpions, toad venom; genitalia of various animals are but a few of the many cures for every possible affliction. Common to the doctrine is the belief that the rarer an animal, the more potent it is for curing [hence the threat of extinction from TEM]. Many remedies can be self-prescribed as home cures, from substances found in and around the home. TEM holds that the body's vital energy (chi or qi) circulates through channels, called meridians, that have branches connected to bodily organs and functions. Illness is attributed to imbalance or interruption of chi.
• Ayurveda: (science of life) stems from the ancient vedic culture (see Hindu), paying attention to balance in one’s life, right thinking, diet, lifestyle and the use of herbs. Just as everyone has a unique fingerprint, each person has a particular pattern of energy—an individual combination of physical, mental and emotional characteristics—which comprises their own constitutional balance. Emotional state, diet and food choices, seasons and weather, physical trauma, work and family relationships can disturb this balance, resulting in disease, which is an imbalance in any of three energies, Vata the energy of movement (space+air), pitta the energy of digestion or metabolism (fire+water) and kapha, the energy of lubrication and structure ('glue'). Foods are classified by their energy properties and administered as medicine to bring balance to people types, also classified this way.
• Sanathana Sai Sanjeevini: is a system of healing with prayers, a Gift of Love for all to share. The Sanjeevinis are subtle (spiritual) vibrations of all of Mother Nature's own healing forces. These vibrations have been harnessed through highly focussed prayers on to cards as patterns. Each Sanjeevini is a focussed prayer to the Lord to heal a particular body part or a disease using His own Healing Energy which of course includes all known and unknown healing forces in Nature(including all systems of medicine and healing).
• Aranui Energetic Awakening: (New Zealand) a system of healing based in ancient treaditions of the Sumerians, Egyptians and Maori. Our ancestors (tupuna) worked and walked the land in a caring and nurturing way, respecting the movements of moon, sun and stars and the influence these had in their lives. From the stars, all knowledge descended in seven baskets or chakras, caught by the moon and filtered to all. Totems are a way of staying connected to the source of all life. Aranui combines the healing energies of Reiki and Seihim, to clear energy blockages from the chakra system and auric field. All your thoughts and feelings and experiences from past lives have accumulated inside you.
• self-healing: the natural life force (Egyptian ka, Hindu prana, Chinese Chi) mobilises under the influence of meditation, visualisation, thinking positive or laying on of hands. The cure exists only in the patient's mind. Since suggestions can cure, they must also be able to bring on disease. Hysterical or psychosomatic illnesses are particularly curable without medicine. Many groups believe that the mind can be trained to take total control over the body, and thus cure cancer, impotence, even ailing eyesight.
• mesmerising: Franz Anton Mesmer thought an invisible magnetic current flows like a fluid, through all objects in the universe, including the human body. Health depends on the harmony or balance between the fluid within and that outside the body. It is like an alignment of the individual life force with the universal. This invisible fluid can be manipulated by magnets. Therapy includes magnets, soft magnets and stroking. Mesmer sometimes invoked hypnotic state by stroking (mesmerising).
• magnetic therapy: magnets simulate the earth's magnetic field, placing your body in an optimum environment to heal itself. They relieve pain due to arthritis, migraine headaches, sciatica or heel spurs and are effective against cancers, diabetic ulcers, arthritis, degenerative joint conditions, and high blood pressure.
• therapeutic touch/ touch encounter (TT): uses hands to direct human energies to help or heal someone who is ill. The patient's energy field can be detected and intentionally manipulated to transfer excess energy from healer to patient. TT is effective against scores of diseases and conditions.
• placebo effect: (Lat: placere=to please) a medicine prescribed more for psychological effect than for any physiological one. A large part of the population heals from placebo, because they believe that they have been given a real medicine. The cure is not in the medicine, but in the confidence of doctor or medium.
• absent healing: practicioners need only a patient's name and address to produce a diagnosis and detailed prescription of treatment. They do so in a state of trance. Popular treatments are: changes in diet, chiropractic manipulation and some modern medicinal compounds.
• exorcism: (Gk: ex=out; horkos=oath) people or places may become obsessed by demons, resulting in mischief and personal injury. Such demons need to be exorcised. Even Catholics have an official procedure, the Rituale Romanum to exorcise. Other cultures have different rites. Jezus Christ practised exorcism of the Gadarene and other sufferers. Sometimes possession is considered  an act of inspiration from the gods. Both possession and exorcism can lead to a state of catalepsy (Gk: cata=down; lepsis=seizure), a state of trance or seizure with loss of sensation and consciousness, accompanied by rigidity of the body.
• radiesthesia: (Abrams, 1914) patients can be diagnosed by a black box (ERA or oscilloclast) containing electric circuitry. All diseases have their own vibratory rate which can be measured and treated with it. The patient's blood is placed on a rubber membrane, and two electrodes connect to the patient's forehead and abdomen. Since disease is the result of a disharmony of electronic oscillation, areas of dullness, indicative of disharmony, can be detected. See http://www.americanartifacts.com/smma/quackery.htm. Also: spondylotherapy to diagnose and cure disease, simply by rapidly and percussively hammering a patient's spine, galvanic dumbells, theronoid.
• orgone accumulator: Wilhelm Reich maintained that there is no difference between mental and physical illness. Both are the result of unreleased sexual energy, curable by orgone. Orgone is a cosmic life force composed of tiny particles, falling to Earth from space. With the orgone box, these particles are trapped and concentrated sufficiently to cure a wide range of diseases, even cancer.
• polarity therapy: a comprehensive health system involving energy-based bodywork, diet, exercise and self- awareness. It works with the Human Energy Field, electro- magnetic patterns expressed in mental, emotional and physical experience. In Polarity Therapy, health is viewed as a reflection of the conditiion of the energy field, and therapeutic methods are designed to balance the field for health benefit. Polarity Therapy was developed by Randolph Stone (1890-1981).
• somatic emotional clearing: cleanses the body's cellular memory of trauma, facilitates emotional clearing and promotes mental and emotional clarity, well-being and personal growth.
• EMF Balancing Technique: an energy system that works directly upon the human energy anatomy known as the Universal Calibration Lattice or UCL. Through the systematic process of releasing unnecessary energy patterns, strengthening our connection to the UCL, and finally calibrating or strengthening the UCL itself, we facilitate the integration of Spirit and Biology.
• Tachyon energy: a faster-than-light, subatomic particle producing faster-than-light energy. Tachyonization restructures certain natural materials at the submolecular level, creating a permanent Tachyon antenna which taps an endless resource of free energy. This proprietary technology achieves natural detoxification, increased absorption of available vitamins and minerals, increased energy for physical activities, increased awareness of subtle energies, increased brain function, increased circulation, improved athletic abilities and recovered muscles.
• chiropractice: founded in 1895 when Daniel David Palmer, a grocer, discovered that misaligned spinal bones (subluxations) interfered with the body's expression of Innate Intelligence -- the Soul, Spirit, or Spark of Life -- that controls the healing process. Since every gland, organ and cell of the body needs a nerve supply to function properly, it follows that malfunctions in these areas cause disease, curable by various types of physiotherapy (heat, cold, traction, exercise, massage, and ultrasound).  Our aim is to clear the cause of disharmonies in the body's operating machinery that we deem negative to the efficient operation of the body.
• osteopathy/ osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT): (Andrew Taylor Still, 1874) all body systems are interrelated. Disease in one affects the other. The muskuloskeletal system is the most important because it makes up 60% of body weight. Disease is treated by the manipulation of bones (pushing), especially the spine. Diseases are caused by mechanical interference with nerve and blood supply.
• cranial osteopathy/ cranial therapy: manipulating the 22 separate bones that make up the skull. Their rhythmic movement (an average of 16 pumps a minute) is what circulates the cerebro-spinal fluid; which supplies 75% of the nutrition and oxygen to the brain. Stress and/or injury can jam the bones together so that their very gentle movement cannot occur and it takes a very skilled manipulation to get them broken free so their normal movement can continue. Chronic headaches, vertigo, ear infections in children, sinus congestion, brain chemistry imbalances, etc., can be related to this problem.
• Reflexology: also called zone therapy, believes that each body part is represented on the hands and feet and that pressing on specific areas of the hands or feet can have therapeutic effects in other parts of the body.
• Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM): By bringing our attention back to the process of what we are actually doing, ATM guides the student towards a new or more varied use of themselves; reducing pain, improving mobility, enhancing performance of professional athletes, dancers, musicians and actors. It cures neurologically based movement difficulties, learning disabilities; improves the quality of everyday life: functioning, curiosity, flexibility; and it reduces pain.
• Alexander Technique: (developed by actor F M Alexander) takes the student through basic movements, like breathing. It helps us to become aware of our habits which cause stress and which interfere with our ability to respond effectively to the stimuli in our daily lives. It helps to deal with chronic pain, excessive stress, or injury. It is also used by performing artists to enhance performing techniques and learning.
• Rolfing: (structural integration, by Ida P Rolf) a face or body massage designed to organise the body, such that the field of gravity can reinforce the body's energy field. It redresses energy imbalances.
• colloidal silver (CS): silver has been reported to disinfect hundreds of types of pathogens, bacteria, fungi and viruses, including AIDS, cholera, diabetes, leprosy, leukemia, lupus, skin cancer, syphilis and whooping cough. Most importantly, unlike conventional antibiotics, germs cannot build a resistance to the action of submicroscopic, electrically charged silver particles at a concentration of 10 ppm. CS can be taken indefinitely because the body does not build a resistance to it. Pure silver is also essential to life. CS makers are available to make CS in solution (yellowish) from silver electrodes and a small battery.
• colloidal gold (CG): ancient cultures used gold in ceremony to access higher states of consciousness. Modern medicine has found gold useful for the relief of pain associated with arthritis and other forms of stiffness in the joints. Gold's apparent ability to remove blockages may be the same action experienced in achieving greater clarity of consciousness. Gold helps strengthen the immune function and helps optimize DNA potential.
• Also: hair analysis, nutritional blood analysis, Morter Health System, Nutri-Spec, Contact Reflex Analysis (CRA), Applied Kinesiology (AK), colon therapy, ear candling, ergogenic aids, Ch'i energy disc, shark cartilage, mussel extract, deer velvet,
• healing places: springs, rivers. Many religions place healing qualities on the magic qualities of water. Water is necessary for life. Water rinses, and is capable of rinsing disease away. Nearly all springs and rivers of the world have some mystical significance, some for healing.
• living longer:
• macrobiotics: (macro=large; bios=life) we are the result of, and are continually influenced, by our total environment, which ranges from the foods we eat and our daily social interactions, to the climate and geography in which we live. Sickness is the natural attempt of the body to return to a more harmonious and dynamic state with the natural environment. Michio Kushi advises to eat more whole grains, beans and fresh vegetables, increase variety in food selections and traditional cooking methods, eat regularly and less in quantity, chew more and maintain an active and positive life and mental outlook.
• chelation therapy: (a chelate=organic compound with a metal atom; to chelate= to bind strongly) improves metabolic and circulatory function by removing toxic heavy metals (such as lead and cadmium) and abnormally located nutritional metallic ions (such as iron) from the body. This is accomplished by administering an amino acid, ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic acid (EDTA), by an intravenous infusion or orally, which pulls divalent and trivalent metallic cations such as magnesium and calcium from solution. Heavy metals can be extracted from the body, curing related diseases. It also claims to treat or prevent coronary heart disease, preventing bypass surgery, and prolonging life. It is said to repair damaged muscles, improve cell functioning, reduce blood clotting, reduce blood plaque, normalise cholesterol levels, initiate the body's healing process and treat cancer and arteriosclerosis.
• megavitamin therapy: (Pauling Therapy) heart disease (atherosclerotic plaque) is 'chronic' scurvy, often caused by deficiency in vitamin C. High doses of vitamin C, E and A prolong life by reducing antioxidants in the blood. It also is thought to benefit prevention of a wide range of diseases (of old age).
• psychocalisthenics: (developed by Ichazo Oscar) increases the body's vital energy or ch'i; reduces aging by promoting vital energy throughout the entire body, increasing agility, mental clarity, emotional balance, and natural physical beauty. A stress-reduction workout combining meditation, breathing, calisthenics and martial arts.
• Ayurvedic methods: (Maharishi Ayurveda, a Hindu living 5000 years ago) (a method promoted by Deepak Chopra, see also Transcendental Meditation or TM) by consciously using our awareness, we can influence the way we age biologically. You can tell your body not to age. If you have happy thoughts, then you make happy molecules, which heal you and make you live longer. Herbs take the intelligence of the universe and match it with the intelligence of your own body.
• DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone): the fountain of youth, this steroid gives lean body mass by drastically reducing fat stores and increasing muscle tissue. It prolongs life by avoiding breast cancer, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis, senility, depression, anxiety, while giving a sense of wellbeing, sexual desire and young skin, and also lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
• zone diet: invented by Dr Barry Sears, claims that it is possible to optimise wellbeing into its optimal zone by diet alone. The Zone is a metabolic state of optimal health where your body works at peak efficiency. Top athletes may experience the zone for short moments of excellence. Once in the zone, a sense of wellbeing is experienced, combined with psychic abilities. It is possible to remain in the zone for the rest of one's life (unlike a top athlete). The zone-perfect diet attempts to control the level of the hormone insuline, blamed for obesity and related diseases. The ideal ratio of carbohydrates, proteins and fats is 40-30-30 respectively. There are good and bad carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
• living from air: the mind reigns over matter. Food is not needed for those whose minds can substitute or subdue that need.
• stigmata: spontaneous outbreaks of bleeding stigmata (holes) in palms and feet, where Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross. Also the spontanous sweating or bleeding of images.
• self-mutilation and body-modification : intentional permanent change to the human body by incision, perforation, removal, cautery, abrasion, adhesion, insertion of foreign matter, compression, distention, enlargement and staining; for religious, aesthetic, or social reasons.
• circumcision: symbolising the covenant between God and Abraham, Jewish boys are circumcised on the eighth day after birth. Circumcision is also practised by believers in the Islamic faith. Before World War 2, many Western boys were circumcised, believing that this would prevent sand pollution and infection.
• clitoridectomy (female circumcision or excision): removal of the clitoris, the labia minora, and the anterior two-thirds of the labia majora, the sides of which are joined leaving a small posterior opening. Performed to guard virginity, and to reduce sexual desire, necessary for passage into responsible adulthood.
• body-piercing:
• tattooing: the practice of making permanent designs on the body.  It is done by pricking small holes in the skin with a sharpened stick, bone, or needle that has been dipped in pigments with natural colours. Almost every culture has practised tattooing as signs of beauty, to endorse membership of a group, to change social status (rank), to protect against misfortune and sickness, or as devotion to a belief or person, patriotism, etc.
• scarification: raised decorative scars are produced by incision or burning. Favoured by dark-skinned people. Practised  to indicate status or lineage.
• rings: usually worn on fingers, traditionally as a symbol of authority, membership or rank in an organisation. Also for symbolising engagement, marriage.
• lip-stretching: women of the Sara tribe in central Africa have their lips split and saucer-sized plugs inserted.
• neck rings: the Padaung women of Myanmar have their necks stretched to a length of 38cm, by a coiled brass neck ring, which pulls as many as 4 chest vertebrae up into the neck.
• corsets: worn to shape or constrict the torso, to clinch the waist and raise the breasts, in order to match the aesthetic ideal, suffering  permanent deformations of the rib cage and internal organs.
• breast implants: Western women have silicone implants to enlarge their breasts in order to look more attractive.
• fattening: Middle Eastern women and those of some island nations are fattened to look more attractive.
• slimming: Western women slim not just to stay fit, but also to look more attractive, often suffering anorexia and becoming ill.
• fire walking: a ceremonial practice common in East-Asian religious ceremonies, to ensure a good harvest, other times to purify the participantsor someone who is accused of a crime. Only those who lack faith will suffer from injuries from fire, while the faithful are spared.
• apocalypse, end of the world, Armagheddon:
• the end of the world: for thousands of years the end of the world has been predicted by many believers. Those who predicted the end, while waiting for it, were disproved but those who prayed instead for it not to happen, have saved the world many times. Many religions predict an end to the world, and salvation of the righteous.
• philosophy/culture:
• scientism: science is the only valid form of knowledge.

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