Spiritual Practices and Beliefs Quiz

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Questions and Answers

Which of the following substances is derived from a cactus and is used in native American churches?

Ergot

Fly agaric

Peyote (correct)

Cannabis

Which theory of spirit possession suggests that possession is a performance art?

Theatric theory (correct)

Emic theory

Historical theory

Dissociation theory

What is the primary belief of spiritualist churches?

There are multiple levels of spiritual existence (correct)

Spirits cannot be contacted

Reincarnation is a myth

Physical life is the only reality

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of syncretic religions?

Strict adherence to ancient traditions Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of Hougans and Mambos in Vodun?

Practitioners and spiritual leaders Signup and view all the answers

Which aspect of Afro-Christian religions involves animal sacrifices?

Santeria Signup and view all the answers

Which mediator in Vodun is considered a communication link to the Lwa?

Legba Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following practices is common in spiritualism?

Use of Ouija boards Signup and view all the answers

Which brainwave state is associated with deep sleep and unconsciousness?

Delta Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary belief of serpent handlers related to their rituals?

Faith will protect them from toxins. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of the reticular formation in the brain?

Controls sleep and waking Signup and view all the answers

Which role does a shaman NOT traditionally fulfill?

Knower of past events Signup and view all the answers

Which type of altered state of consciousness is characterized by a state between sleep and wakefulness?

Hypnagogic Signup and view all the answers

Who is considered the founder of the Rastafari movement?

Marcus Garvey Signup and view all the answers

What did the Zapatista Revolt in Chiapas, Mexico, relate to?

Mayan revitalization and historical movements. Signup and view all the answers

Who is known for renaming Mesmer's technique to 'hypnoticism'?

Jean-Martin Charcot Signup and view all the answers

What is the 'world tree' in shamanism also referred to as?

Axis Mundi. Signup and view all the answers

Which text is considered sacred in the Rastafari movement?

The Holy Piny Signup and view all the answers

Which hemisphere of the brain is associated with logical and analytical thinking?

Left hemisphere Signup and view all the answers

What substance is commonly used during the 'Reasoning' ritual in Rastafari?

Ganja/hemp Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the God Helmet developed by Dr. Michael Persinger?

To evoke religious experiences Signup and view all the answers

Which historical group is known for their guerrilla warfare tactics in response to foreign occupation?

Zealots of Masada Signup and view all the answers

What is the first stage in the formation of a revitalization movement?

Steady state Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'entheogen' refer to?

A substance used for spiritual experiences Signup and view all the answers

How does Carlos Castaneda contribute to the understanding of shamanism?

He documented Western perceptions of shamanism. Signup and view all the answers

What is a significant aspect of the Ghost Dance ritual?

Circle dances, chanting, and ghost shirts Signup and view all the answers

What year is associated with the Zapatista Revolt?

1944 Signup and view all the answers

In which book does Aldous Huxley discuss his experiments with mescaline?

Doors of Perception Signup and view all the answers

What does Mircea Eliade suggest about the origins of shamanism?

It began 100,000 years ago in Siberia. Signup and view all the answers

What phenomenon is described by the toxin tetrodotoxin in the context of zombis?

Paralyzing individuals Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best describes revitalization movements?

An organized effort to reconstruct satisfying cultures Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'Cargo cults' refer to?

Cults in Pacific Melanesian Island cultures after WW2 Signup and view all the answers

What is the significance of Glastonbury in relation to Jesus?

It is believed he visited there in the 1st century. Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'Manitou' refer to in the context of totemism?

A person's personal totem or guardian spirit. Signup and view all the answers

In Hinduism, what is the consequence of switching out of one's caste?

It is strictly prohibited. Signup and view all the answers

What do the Ten Commandments and the Noahide laws both share in common?

They provide a set of moral prohibitions. Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the carnival celebrated three days before Ash Wednesday?

To mark the last day to eat meat. Signup and view all the answers

In the context of totemism, what is a forbidden action typically associated with a clan's totem animal?

To kill or eat the totem animal. Signup and view all the answers

What form of governance does a theocracy represent?

A system where religion equals law. Signup and view all the answers

What was a notable event during the carnival celebration?

The king and a peasant swapped places. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key difference in leadership succession between Sunni and Shi'ite Islam?

Shi'ite leaders are descendants of Muhammad. Signup and view all the answers

Which group rejects fundamentalism within Islam?

Sufis Signup and view all the answers

According to the content, what do Extropians believe technology does?

Technology is a force for self-organization. Signup and view all the answers

What unique belief does the Raelian religion hold?

Aliens created humanity and guide human evolution. Signup and view all the answers

What is one characteristic of the Church of Scientology?

It utilizes an e-meter to measure spiritual progress. Signup and view all the answers

What concept does Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's 'no-sphere' relate to?

The unification of global consciousness through technology. Signup and view all the answers

What does Christian nationalism assert regarding the founding of the U.S.?

The U.S. was established as a Christian nation. Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'Manifest Destiny' represent?

The belief that the U.S. had a divine right to expand its territory. Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Altered States of Consciousness

Brainwave states:
- Beta: Waking, consciousness
- Alpha: Daydreaming, light trance
- Theta: REM dreaming, deep trance
- Delta: Deep sleep, unconscious
- REMINDER: BAT-D!
Types of Altered States of Consciousness (ASC):
- Hypnagogic: State between sleep and wake
- Hallucinogenic: Psychedelic states induced by drugs
- REMINDER: "Hallucinate"
- Spirit possession: Instills feelings of disassociation
- Hypnotic trance: Hypnosis/trance/mesmerism
- REM dreaming: Lucid dreaming can occur
Brain Structures:
- Left hemisphere: Logical, analytical; Linear thinking, sequential time experience
  - Controls the RIGHT side of the body
- Right hemisphere: Intuitive, emotional, holistic thinking, spatial time experience
  - Controls the LEFT side of the body; Is connected to ASC!

Additional Information

Pineal gland: Releases melatonin; Called "the 3rd eye"
Reticular Formation: Governs sleep and waking; Called the "seat of consciousness"
Temporal lobes: Stimulating them causes visions and feelings of sensed presence/ASC
Hypnosis: The state of putting someone into a trance
- Used to be called Mesmerism
- After Mesmer, it was renamed "hypnoticism"
- REMINDER: Sigmund Freud was Charcot's student!
The God Helmet: Brain stimulation can evoke religious experiences
- A device that uses magnetic fields to stimulate temporal lobes
- Leads to altered states of consciousness (ASC) and feelings of divine presence
Doors of Perception: Book written by Aldous Huxley
- Named after a poem by William Blake
- Discusses experiments with mescaline (a hallucinogen)

Entheogens

Entheogen: Plants ritually consumed for religious purposes; Believed to contain divine life force or energy from the gods
- Ayahuasca: 2 plants; Used by Amazonian shamans in Santo Daime (Brazil)
- Peyote: A cactus that contains mescaline; used by native American churches
- Ergot: Brain fungus; Consumed in a ritual at Eleusis
  - Eating ergot-infected bread causes visions (St. Anthony's fire)
- Fly agaric: Mushroom; Used by Tungus shamans, associated with Vikings
- Cannabis: Hemp/hashish; Used by medieval group (Assassins), and Rastafarians

Syncretism

Syncretism: A hybrid religion that combines two earlier religions, often of an indigenous group and a colonizing faith
Syncretic religions are often influenced by Western European spiritualism

Spiritualism

Began with the Fox sisters and table-rappings
Spiritualist churches believe in:
- Progressive afterlife
- Spirit communication through mediums
- Reincarnation and multiple levels of spiritual existence

Spirit Possession

Widespread practices: Ouija boards, automatic writing, and table séances
Theories of possession:
- Emic theory: Possession involves actual spirit beings
- Theatric theory: Possession is a performance art
- Dissociation: Temporary displacement of the ego (similar to multiple personality disorder)
Rhythm drumming, singing is related to trance states
Other Information: Possessed people report changes in physical appearance, and potential
Non-Haitian people report being possessed at ceremonies

Afro-christian religions

Vodun: French slaves in Haiti; Hougans and mambos (practitioners)
- Shrines
- Mediators - Lwa, Legba
- Controversies: Real zombies?
Santeria: Cuban slaves; Santeros, Babalaos
- Shrines: Altars in homes or botanicas
- Mediators: Orisha, Chango, Yemaya
- Controversies: Animal sacrifices
Candomblé: Brazilian slaves
- Practitioners: Umbandistas (mixed Kardecism and spiritualism)
- Shrines: Altars in homes
- Mediators: Ogoun (St. Peter), Oloddua (St. Anthony)
- Controversies: "Surgeon of the Rusty Knife" (Jose Argago possessed by a German World War II doctor)

Rasa Tafari

Founder: Marcus Garvey (1930s Jamaica)
Sacred text: Holy Piny
Prophecy: "A king will be crowned and your house of redemption is at hand."

Revitalization Movements

Revitalization Movement: A deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture
Often found in cultures suffering from colonialization
Can be secular or religious

Ghost Dance

Founder: Jack Wilson and Paiute Indians
Practice: 19th century Plain Indians
Rituals: Circle dances, chanting, ghost shirts (to protect from white man's bullets)
Beliefs: Ghost dance would revive buffalo herds and ancestors
Ended by the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

Cargo Cults

Founded: Post-World War II Pacific Melanesian Island cultures
Rituals: Used statues of soldiers and planes to magically compel cargo to return
Beliefs: Attacked colonial powers for holding back cargo

Serpent Handlers

Practitioners: Holiness-Pentecostal (Charismatic) churches in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Oklahoma ("Bible Belt")
Rituals: Handle poisonous snakes & drink strychnine (toxins)
Beliefs: "By faith, you will be saved."
REMINDER: T-O-K!
Note: Garden of Eden & the snake

Zapatista Revolt

Uprising in 1994, Chiapas, Mexico
Characterized as a secular Mayan revitalization movement, or as a continuation of earlier movements like the Caste War of Yucatan or the War of the Talking Crosses
REMINDER: Two C’s (Caste War + Talking Crosses)

Christianity

During Christ's time, Judean institutions were distributed and crumbling
Wanted to purify the land by driving out Hellenism and Roman occupation
Zealots of Masada
Essenes
NOTE: These are historical religious movements; not directly related to current Christianity in practice

Shamanism

Shaman: Master of the spirits (Tungus/Saaman)
- Roles: Diviner, healer, judge, prophet, medium (spirit communicator)
Eliade: Master of the archaic technique of ecstasy (e.g., Shamanism began 100,000 years ago in Siberia, experimenting with fly agaric)
World Tree (Axis Mundi, Polestar): Great tree connecting the 3 realms
- Underworld
- Middle realm (everyday world)
- Celestial realm (e.g., star and sky spirits, shamanic flight)
Carlos Castaneda (aka Arana - Peruvian): Outlet for knowledge of shamanism (note: Was later a fraud)

Witchcraft

Evil Eye: Gaze/power of witches causing misfortune, curses, or hexes
Mobility Hypothesis: Societies settle → accumulation of private property → arguments over inheritance
- Viewing women as interfering, leading to accusations of witchcraft
- Connected to changes in gender roles
Malleus Maleficarum: A book (2 Dominicans) blamed for the death of millions of women during the 15th-18th centuries
- Accused witches of having intercourse with the devil, giving souls to the devil, identifying marks
- NOTE: The events related to these accused women did occur

Salem Witch Hunts

Key location: 1690s Massachusetts
Tituba, a black slave, initiated witchcraft hysteria
Led to widespread accusations against innocent women stemming from dreams

Wicca

Founder: Gerald Gardner (England, 1940s)
Beliefs: Ecology, feminism, god/goddess duo
Practices: Belonging to a coven/grove, or being a solo practitioner
REMINDER: Understand the symbolic misconceptions surrounding this group

Rituals

Rituals are fixed actions, culturally & cyclically determined to reach specific ends.
- Tied to beliefs and practices
- Symbolic numbers are often used in rituals
Types found in various cultures:
- Life cycle rituals
- Calendrical rituals
- Funerary rituals

Types of Ritual, Mysticism, and Liminality

Types of Rituals:
- Temporal: Orienting of time (e.g., calendars)
- Spatial: Orienting of space
- Body: Physical transformation
- Fertility (Crops, people)
- Divination: Telling future
- Healing: Curing illness
- Taboos: Negative prohibitions in society
- Body alteration (e.g., elongation, distortion; painting, branding, scarring, circumcision, clothing)
- Fasting, Flesh mortification
- Sadomasochism
Liminality: Van Gennep - describes between two states of existence that rituals address and resolve
Examples: Quinceañera, marriage, funeral

Solstices and Equinoxes

Key markers establishing 4 seasons worldwide
Marked by rituals

Mayan Calendar

Halve: 365-day calendar, similar to ours
Solcan: 265-day sacred calendar
Align every 52 years; Days begin from zero date - August 11, 3114 BCE (Gregorian calendar)

Pilgrimages

Pilgrimage: Traveling to a sacred site for devotion
Omphalos: Sacred stone in Greece representing the axis/centre of the world. Many believe their cult sites are the center of the world.

Pilgrimage sites

Santiago de Compostela (Spain) - Pilgrims wear scallop shells
Al Aqsa (Northern Israel) - It's a golden dome structure; believed to stand on the original temple mount in Jerusalem
Glastonbury (SW England) - site with associated beliefs about Jesus's visit and other figures and events

Totem and Taboo

Totem (todem): Meaning ancestor or tribe.
Manitou: A person's personal totem or guardian spirit (often found via a vision quest)
Totemism: Clans, animals, or objects (related to legend) as ancestors
Taboo: A forbidden thing
- Prohibitions on action, associations, etc.
Hinduism - The Caste system
Decalogue (10 Commandments) and Noah's Laws

Religion and the State

The relationships between religion, laws, and political entities.
- Theocracy: Religion = law
- Divine kingship: Religious officials control a divine or demigod king
- Dual state: Religion & state = separate but equal
- Secular state: Religion & state = separate
- Atheist state: Religion = forbidden
Fundamentalism versus Modernism
- Fundamentalism: Religious texts literally true & unchanging
- Modernism: Religious texts are to be viewed through a contemporary lens

Techgnosis

Techgnosis: The seeking of knowledge (gnosis) via technology
Techgnostic religions (specific examples):
- Extropians: (extropy = opposed to entropy = technology)
- Raelians (UFO-based & belief in human cloning)
- Church of Scientology (e-meter to measure spiritual progress)

Miscellaneous

Christian Nationalism: Belief the US was founded as a Christian nation.
Manifest destiny: Belief that God chose the US for a specific purpose
Singularity: Idea that AI will become sentient, changing human societies
Dalai Lama: Tibetan Buddhist leader
Clash of civilizations - Samuel Huntington's thesis about Islam and Western civilization conflict. (REMINDER: Clash → crash)

Other Details

Note: If a question mentions "forbidden fruit," the answer is pomegranate.
Note: Reminder of relevant terminology, terms, or places

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Description

Test your knowledge on various spiritual practices and beliefs, especially those related to Native American traditions, Afro-Christian religions, and Spiritualism. This quiz covers important aspects such as rituals, roles of practitioners, and key concepts in spirituality and consciousness.