Idea of "SUPERNATURAL"

Supernatural is something which opposes the laws of nature, it is something which is not having a common explanation. People around the world may have different opinions about the belief in supernatural powers and thoughts. What an individual of one society believes to be supernatural is nothing to do with the idea of supernatural of another society. But there is a general agreement among scholars that people do possess different kinds of supernatural beliefs is all societies known to anthropology. The basic idea is to know why people need supernatural beliefs and why often they relate these forces to their religion. Actually something which is supernatural has no justified explanation and it is often very difficult to find what is true about it and what are myths. The idea of supernatural is believed to be created in the societies just to make people feel a sense of union and to make them afraid of doing wrong deeds, as it can harm them or destroy them if they commit something wrong. Supernatural belief is quite important for a society as it acts as a judicial power to the whole group. Moreover supernatural idea seems to reflect some important cultural aspects and practices of a society. Most cultural customs rotate around the supernatural belief; these customs may include initiation, child rearing, marriage, execution, funerals, etc. Even most of the taboos practiced in a society are influenced by the general belief of supernatural.

Although no general agreement is observed among scholars as to why people need gods, spirits and other supernatural beings and forces and how they come into existence. Some view that the need was social or psychological. Yet there is general recognition of the enormous variation in the details of supernatural types. Societies differ in the kind of supernatural beings or forces they believe in and the character of those beings. The hierarchy structure of those beings is also different. The views differ in the idea of what they do and in what happens to the people when they die. Some believe there is life after death and some share the idea of rebirth. How supernatural powers interact with people and how people interact to supernatural is also different and debatable.

Types of supernatural forces and beings:

Supernatural Forces: Some supernatural forces lack person-like character. Belief in such a supernatural force is often referred to as animatism. Just for an example a supernatural, impersonal force is called Mana, after its Malayo-Polynesian name, is thought to inhabit some objects but not others, some people but not others. Now mana can be associated with anything possible may be a stone or tools which a farmer uses in his field and due to the presence of mana the crop is bountiful and surplus. It is described as a power which can influence some factors such as occurrence of a disaster like famine, drought, volcanic eruption, earthquake or so. Its presence is often related to happiness and its absence may lead to something wrong and misery. People may also possess mana for example chiefs in Polynesia said to possess mana which make them successful at wars. However such powers are not necessarily permanent, a crop failure may suggest that stones and tools used in farming have lost their mana, similarly the chiefs who are unsuccessful at wars said to have lost theirs. These beliefs may seems to be of some simpler society with less complexity but modern societies may often possess these kinds of beliefs, a sports person such as a golfer or a footballer may have a belief that certain piece of clothing or certain pair of shoes can make them win the game. They believe those objects have some supernatural power.

Objects, persons, or places can be considered taboo. Taboo is used here as a contrast to mana, things containing mana are to be touched whereas taboo things are not to be touched and it is believed that their power can cause harm. Thus those who touch taboo things themselves become a kind of taboo. There are different kind of taboos they may include food not to be eaten, animals not to be killed, places not to be entered, people not to be touched sexually, people not to be touched at all, etc.

Supernatural Beings: When we talk about supernatural beings we make two categories of them: those of nonhuman origin as gods and spirits, and those of human origin as ghosts and ancestral spirits. Among the beings of nonhuman origin chief are gods and they are named personalities and are often anthropomorphic which means they are bound in a image of a person. Although they are sometimes given the name of some animals and some celestial bodies such as sun god or moon god. It is often believed that gods have created themselves but some other gods are created or given birth by early gods. They are believed to have created world but this idea is not common as some people don't believe in this theory.

Some creator gods seem to take interest in day to day life of their creation human beings especially on one chosen segment of humanity, yet other seem to show little or no interest in them after the creation. The responsibility of keeping an account over day today life of humans is on lesser gods. The Maori of New Zealand recognize three important gods namely a god of the sea, a god of the forest and a god of agriculture. The ancient Romans gods on the other hand are specialized to a high degree. There were three gods of the plow, one god to help with the sowing, one for weeding, one for reaping, one for storing grain, one for manuring and many more gods are addressed for specific jobs.

Below the gods in prestige and somewhat more closer to people are spirits which are often unnamed. Spirits can be guardian to some. Some spirits who become known for their efficacious work are often promoted to a rank of named gods. Some spirits known to people but were never called upon or invoked are hobgoblin type. Hobgoblin delights in mischief and can be blamed for any number of small mishaps; it is believed that other spirits practice evil in their name deliberately. People believe that spirits were most commonly animals, but they could be uniquely shaped rocks, lakes, mountains, clouds, etc. Spirits may come in dreams or a vision in mostly human form. And it is believed that conversation with the spirit would reveal its identity.

Now among the supernatural beings of human origin are ghosts and ancestral spirits who were once human and after they died they become ghosts or spirits. Living perceives the ghosts and their action this belief is almost universal. The near universality of the belief is not so difficult to explain. In everyday life we are very attached to people around us especially whom we love and never want them to be away from us. But even after they die we believe in our subconscious mind that somehow they are with us only and we can feel their presence around us. The opening or a door or smell of tobacco or some particular noise in the room may evoke the idea and feeling that the person is still present, no matter if these feeling are only for a moment but they make a psychological impression on person's mind and may lead to alteration of ideas. Moreover too, loved ones often live in dreams so it makes it even difficult to feel that they are not anymore in our lives. If the idea of ghosts is generated by these familiar associations, we might expect that ghosts in most societies would be close relatives and friends and not strangers.

Talking about the ancestral spirits, the spirits of the dead do not play an active role in life of the living in all societies. People likely to believe in ancestral spirits where decent groups are important decision making entities. The decent group is an entity that exists over time, back into the past as well as forwarded in the coming future, despite the deaths of individual members. The dead feel concern for the fortunes, the prestige, and the continuity of their decent groups. People believe that those who die lives near their homes and they feed them and respect them. Some believe that the dead are close to gods and they can act as a medium for interacting with gods and other supernatural powers such as spirits.This belief are prevalent because they have thought to have entered a supernatural world and possess access to supernatural powers.

All beliefs of supernatural and religion are created by humans and they will continue believing in these powers and forces because of different factors including social and psychological. By this information am closing this post and I hope if I have made some understandable points about idea of supernatural belief. Moreover, I will discuss about the character and hierarchy of supernatural beings and how they intervene in human affairs and what possibly happen to people after they die in my subsequent post till then enjoy reading this post and stay tuned for another interesting post........................................................Tarun Joshi