Interaction with 'The Supernatural'

Although people in the past and people of today believe in supernatural the world over, no matter their beliefs and thoughts regarding supernatural are much different and a possible explanation to this fact is the variety of cultures worldwide.Supernatural image and belief often reflect the people of the society and their state of mind on general public issues and it is further believed that supernatural world runs parallel along natural world,so difference in belief is justified.It is widely believed that supernatural powers intervene in the lives of people, however the degree of intervention may vary.People are also eager to find ways to interact with supernatural so that they may ask them for social,cultural or may be personal betterment.They usually perform rituals and ceremonies to influence supernatural powers.

The fact is how to get in touch with supernatural has proved to be a universal problem.Although it is believed that less sophisticated and merely advance societies have greater belief in supernatural existence but it is true that even commercialized and industrialized societies do have believe in supernatural and all of them try to influence and convince supernaturals by their own rituals in all possible ways.These ways can be prayers, physiological experiences that is doing certain things with body and mind,simulations, feasts and sacrifices.The ways in which a prayer is proposed is also varied it can be spontaneous or memorized, private or public, or it may be silent or spoken.Some people are loud enough or language specific in their prayers yet others might believe that god understands all sought of physical and vocal languages and they chose to say a prayer without uttering a word, they usually think of problems that are bothering or disturbing them while they pray.

Doing things with the body and mind involve drugs such as hallucinogens or alcohol which induce a social isolation and sensory deprivation, people may also deprive them with food, water and even sleep, they listen on repetitive sounds of drumming and dance until they get exhausted. These activities in which an individual is in a altered state are said to take an individual to the traces outside the world where he can communicate with supernatural.In some societies especially agricultural and stratified ones trances are thought to involve the presence of spirits and souls in the body of individuals and their personality alters for sometime and they turn into someone other.These type of trances are referred to as possession trances.Other typical trances may include journey of a person's soul,experiencing visions,or transmitting messages from spirits.Non possession trances are generally found in food collecting societies .These believes on achieving of some altered state or a trance are consistent with almost 90% of societies across the globe.Highly modified societies generally have possession trances and simple barely stratified egalitarian societies have non possession trances,however moderately modifies and stratified societies may have both possession and non-possession trances.

Simulation or imitation of things which are employed in Voodoo involves making of dolls in resemblance or likeliness of an enemy and it is believed that by maltreating those dolls the actual enemy could be harmed or can be lead to death.People pierce pins in the dolls make them twist in order to make the actual enemy cry in pain.Processes of simulation are often practiced during divination,or getting the supernatural to provide guidance.It encircles many modern trends including people having their fortunes in crystal ball, tea leaves, Ouija boards, or cards.Or they may chose a action by tossing a coin or throwing a dice.These all methods are being used in different cultures.Among some tribes such as Naskapi hunters of Labrador, divination is an adaptive strategy for successful hunting.When these people were not having luck in finding games they turn to their diviner who in turn take a caribou bone in his hand over the fire and he believe as if the bone were a map and and the burns and crack in the bone indicate where the group should head to hunt,indicating points where game can be found.Although it is true that this way of finding a game is very ambiguous and it gives no guarantee that game is available at the spot decided by the diviner. So the attempt of the diviner is generally random.Just because humans believe in some customary pattern of actions, they might likely to look for game according to some prescribed plan.But game might learn to avoid hunters who operate with some systemic plan thus any random attempt or things which are done on advice of a diviner may turn helpful and advantageous in finding a game.May be the process of finding game used by diviner by burning bones is quite random,it escape a particular leader or hunter to decide where to hunt and where the possible game is,which avoids further tension and  problems arisen due to failure of decision.

The eating of certain sacred meals are found in many religions. Australian aborigines are normally forbidden from eating their totem animal but they have a totem feast every year at which they eat their totem.These feasts are often part of  occasions like marriage and funeral ceremonies as well as celebrating benefits which have came due to sacrifices which are made to gods..Societies make sacrifices to god in order to influence their action, either to divert their anger or to attract there attention and set a image of goodwill in front of them.Sacrifice is often a valuable thing living or nonliving which is offered to god and people may seek for some good returns out of a sacrifice.Possible things that can be included in sacrifices are giving up of food, water,sex,life of an animal or even life of a person.If the sacrifice is appropriate god is obliged to act on behalf of those who gave sacrifices.It is an attempt to persuade god and they also realize that there is no guarantee that the attempt will be successful.Of all types of sacrifices discussed taking the life of a human is ultimate.Nonetheless human sacrifice is not a rare case in ethnographic and historical record and it was practiced among some preindustrial societies those with full time craft specialists and slavery.As it is believed that sacrifice involves giving away a thing of value,it should be noted that in preindustrial society where humans labor was much more important for development rather than animals or machines, people might think that offering of a humans life is a great deal of sacrifice and can bring good results to the society.

It is possible that with the change in cultures around the world and change of economic systems and political systems ways of interaction with supernatural might change and the objects of sacrifices which were more relevant in past days and in present may lose their importance and something else may be offered to gods in the future.As the culture is changing drastically due to the interference of west world it is possible that all these discussed ways for interacting with supernatural may end up in some text books becoming a thing of past and new beliefs and new trends would displace them.And probably if i have made myself clear in explaining different ways of interaction with supernatural i am eagerly waiting for your feedback on this.................................................................................................................Tarun Joshi