1402 LECTURE REVIEW NOTES
NINIAN SMART’S 7 DIMENSIONS OF RELIGION
1. Doctrinal dimension -- many religions have a system of doctrines - beliefs about the
nature of Divinity or ultimate reality and the relationship of humans to that ultimate, real,
divinity
2. Mythological dimension – myths are the sacred stories that pass from generation to
generation - they are sacred because they reveal and explain what that tradition believes to be the
ultimate nature of gods, humans and the universe.
3. Ethical dimension - in every tradition you will find sets of rules, behavioural precepts
or guidelines for conduct according to which the community judges a person good or evil
depending on the level of conformity to those precepts.
4. Ritual dimension -- this is the way in which the community re-enacts its myths and
confirms and expresses its beliefs through action.
5. Experiential dimension -- this is one of the most attractive dimensions of religion the capacity of ritual, prayer, worship to evoke feelings of security and comfort or on the other
hand feelings of awe, inexplicable presence, mystery, ecstasy.
6. Social dimension -- a religious tradition implies some sort of social organization
through which it perpetuates itself. There can be individuals who exemplify the religious
tradition, and who live outside of society, but the teachings and the tradition itself is preserved
and passed on through the social organization of churches, temples, mosques or monasteries.
7. Material Dimension – the physical buildings, implements, paintings, statues, books,
etc. associated with a tradition, as well as geographical places and features that are mythically
associated with the tradition.
CHRISTIANITY’S ENCOUNTER WITH OTHER RELIGIONS
 The Christian world developed a framework to understand other religions that
emphasized 3 aspects.
1. Emphasis on creed—affirmations of belief or doctrinal statements.
What do you believe – the expectation is that there is a systematic set of beliefs that the
observer can formulate and set forward.
2. Emphasis on the distinction between secular and sacred—Christianity began with 3
centuries of minority status before it became a state sanctioned religion. To survive it
accepted the idea that some things belonged to the state and some things to God.
3. Emphasis on exclusive membership. The idea that god demands exclusive loyalty and
tolerates no rivals is part of the faith of Judaism that was passed on to Christianity and
Islam.
 This framework however does not allow for understanding of inclusive traditions or those
that do not emphasize creed or the separation of God and state.
Why religion?—some propositions
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Humans were ignorant about the forces of nature and at the mercy of them and therefore
developed a support system, so to speak, that they can turn to for help.
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Religion was developed by a few in order to suppress the many
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In order to deal with psychological fears and needs
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To give meaning to social institutions and develop social solidarity
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A god or other spiritual being revealed religion and religious truths to humans at a
particular point in their development.
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The German philosopher Kant, (1724-1804) argued that in the final analysis religious
affirmations are unprovable because the operations of reason are dependent on the data
received through the senses and religious statements are dependent on the positing of a
transcendent reality beyond the world of the senses.
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Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) in the tradition of the Romantics and their
emphasis on feeling taught that what could not be proved could nevertheless be felt. So
intuitive feeling accounted for religious behaviour
In the 19th century Darwin’s evolutionary theories regarding the development of species are
dominant and gave impetus to evolutionary theories in many other fields, including religion.
Scholars began to interpret religion in terms of a biological evolution from primitive to complex.
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Edward Burnett Tylor, (1832-1917) theorized that “primitive” people developed their
idea of gods, ideas of soul and the sense of other from their experiences with death and
dreams. Tyler also felt from his field work that primitive people believed that these souls
(anima) not only inhabited people but all natural forms; everything was animated with
spirits which could be helpful or harmful to people, could be offended or pleased.
Religion then began as the practice of appeasing the spirits. Then from the animistic
understanding developed ancestor worship i.e. appeasing the spirits of the dead. Nature
spirits developed into a polytheistic pantheon of deities - sun, moon, water, earth etc. and
finally, monotheistic religions developed. This view was widely held for many years.
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An alternate theory was developed by Max Mueller (1823-1900) Through his study of the
language of myth especially the hymns of the Vedas, he was convinced that the origins of
religion lay in the observation of the forces of nature and then their personification
through language. Natural phenomena are given names and personified as entities and
eventually the name becomes the deity. Mueller referred to religion as ‘a disease of
language’. In his view—primitive people identified the forces in nature, personified them,
created myths to describe their activities, and eventually developed pantheons and
religions around them.
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Karl Marx (1818-1883) saw the origin of religion in the social and economic struggle
between classes. His ideas continue to have a wide following today. According to Marx,
“Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is the self-consciousness and
self-esteem of man who either has not yet found himself or has already lost himself again
… Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it
is the spirit of spiritless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the founder of psychoanalysis, saw religion as revolving
around guilt -- the primeval guilt, so to speak that he identified and that is reflected in the
Greek myth of Oedipus who killed his father and married his mother, is the guilt arising
from desire for one’s mother and hatred of one’s father as the person who stands in the
way and eventually must be destroyed. In Freud’s view, because of this subconscious
hatred and guilt, humans project the idea of a father god, which they attempt to appease
in order to allay the guilt of sexual desire for the mother.
Emile Durkheim 1858-1917 found the origin and essence of religion in the identity of the
social group. He uses the concept of the “totem” or clan identity. Totem is an Ojibway
word referring to the animal or plant species that is identified with the clan and that is set
apart and killed or eaten only on special ritual occasions or by ritual specialists.
In the 20th century social-scientists stopped looking for origins and turned more to the
analysis of the function of religion as it is now lived. They speak more about the social
function of religion than prehistoric development. Clifford Geertz is one of the major 20th
century writers in this vein. His definition of religion:
“A religion is: 1, a system of symbols which acts to 2. establish powerful pervasive and longlasting moods and motivations in men by 3. formulating conceptions of a general order of
existence and 4. clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that 5. the moods and
motivations seem uniquely realistic. “ from Religion as a Cultural System. 1966
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These theories all view religion as a product of cultural circumstances, psychological
needs, a product of human causes and imagination.
Religious people were alarmed at this social-scientific trend at the turn of the century and
we have a response by such (insider) people as Rudolph Otto, german philosopher of
religion (1869-1937) wrote The Idea of the Holy – he characterized human awareness of
the divine in terms of an overpowering yet fascinating mystery. The word he coined for
that feeling is numinous. Rudolf Otto defines sacred as “wholly other” and the experience
of the sacred invokes a feeling of both terror and fascination—the experience of the
numinous.
Sacred and Profane
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Mircea Eliade considers this to be the major distinction in religious thought. That which
is set apart from the ordinary, the profane – profanum outside the temple
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Religion is made up of gestures and activities that make no sense if ordinary practical
reality is all there is.
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Religion adds to what is practical by presupposing or implying another point of reference.
That point of reference we could call the sacred or sacred reality. The religious
perspective always presupposes the sacred -- a reality beyond the visible - seen and heard
only by that dimension of ourselves that people would call soul or perhaps innermost
sense. A reality that is the basis of all that is visible and tangible.
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In ordinary time and space, things change, lose power, become weak -- sacred time is
always the no time of the eternal beginning where power and strength and vitality are
newly born.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SACRED
Set apart, distinct
a. separate or transcendent – like the Judeo-Christian God, what Otto calls ‘wholly
other’ – the experience of that is the experience of the numinous
b. in-dwelling or immanent – like the Hindu concept of Brahman— is accessed
through what might be called mystical experience – the experience of nondifferentiation
SHAMANISM
I read somewhere of a shepherd who, when asked why he made, from
within fairy rings, ritual observances to the moon to protect his flocks, replied:
“I’d be a damn’ fool if I didn’t!” (Dylan Thomas, Note to The Collected Poems of
Dylan Thomas, 1934-1952)
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The Welsh shepherd’s answer reflects a world-view shared by small-scale tribal and
traditional peoples around the world: an understanding of the world as ‘being’ and of
living in the world as constituted of relationships between ‘beings’.
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Shamanism: derived from the Tungus word for one of their ritual specialists – now used
as a general term for a category of practices found in differing degrees in almost all
human societies. This category of practices may be briefly described as:
The regulation and transformation of human life and human society through the use (or
purported use) of alternate states of consciousness by means of which specialist practitioners are
held to communicate with a mode of reality alternative to, and more fundamental than, the world
of everyday experience.
Geoffrey Samuel, Civilized Shamans, p. 8.
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Three basic characteristics.
1. shamanism presupposes a dualistic conception of the person and of the world:
this indicates the double nature of the person consisting of body and separable
soul or souls, as well as the double nature of the external environment which
consists of ‘this’ world of materiality and the ‘other’ world of the spirit.
2. shamanism involves a special type of communication – meaning that shamans
can establish direct communication with the other world at will, both by bringing
the spirits into this world or by sending their souls into the other world.
3. shamanism implies a social function indicating that the shaman acts in response
to social demand.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SHAMANIC WORLD VIEW
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Spiritualization of the environment – ‘everything is alive’; everything imbued with lifeessence or soul – the universe is a universe of ‘beings’
Belief in mutual all-embracing connections in nature
Basic world-view is that everything is interrelated and relational.
To maintain balance requires the right relationship with everything – the unseen world of
spirits, the world of animals, nature, people, and the power that resides in everything. The
right relationship is one that recognizes and respects reciprocity between these various
aspects of life.
It is a relationship that values humility and caution and politeness to all things.
Purification practices are important since we continually endanger ourselves as well as
our community by thoughtless acts and words. Respect for everything is enjoined and
caution in actions. Cutting trees, digging the earth, breaking rocks all interfere with
nature and can result in harm. However, in doing what one has to do to survive both in
this world and the spirit world, a certain measure of ingenuity and deception is acceptable
– the trickster is a prominent and admired figure in native traditions. In the Evenck ritual
the shaman tries to trick the disease-spirit out of the body and into the reindeer.
No human superiority over nature – mankind operates like all other life forms, within
nature and subject to the same rules.
The cosmos is close i.e. the other worlds of the cosmos and their inhabitants are linked to
the well-being of humans – and are accessible to special people i.e. the shamans. The
other worlds because they are inhabited by gods and spirits are sacred
The sacred powers of the cosmos are close – a person can possess the qualities of both
human and spirit. Can join the spirit world – these are the shamans and they are chosen
by the spirits themselves.
The shaman’s initiation, the becoming a shaman, takes place in the world of the spirits, in
the sacred time space of the spirit world
The type of social consciousness reflected in shamanism is the small human collective
united by blood ties – in other words religious activity is intended to defend and/or make
prosperous a group of kinsmen.
The rituals and stories and world-view are tied to the spatially defined environment,
community and entire way of life. This creates a situation that is “not for export”
The shaman can carry out his tasks with the help of the spirits only – meaning that in a
sense the shaman is powerless without the spirits – but in another sense he controls the
spirits. Beyond that, the shaman has to continually prove his mastery of the spirits – his
efficacy as a shaman and his position in the society is dependent on his performance.
The relationship between the shaman and the spirits is very concrete – in many cases the
shaman or shamaness is married to the helper spirit – you have the example of a voodoo
marriage contract between a woman and her spirit husband. In the hunting tribes of
Siberia like the Tungus and the Buryat – it is the shaman’s relationship with the spirits
that ensure the supply of game. This very complex exchange is managed by the shamans
through their marriages with the female animal spirits or the spirit sisters or daughters of
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game-giving spirits. The marriage with the shaman in the role of the husband and the
game spirit in the role of wife sets out the terms of the game-supply contract between
humans and animals and indicates the dominance of the men over the game as the
husband over the wife. But in the end, once his grandchildren are old enough to hunt,
then a hunter should disappear into the forest as if he were returning his own flesh to the
spirits of the game animals.
The shaman is understood to be chosen by the spirits and recreated in a rite of initiation
that is the culmination of a call of some kind that is manifested in some cultures by the
‘shaman’s disease’ or in others by a dream or vision. The signs of someone’s predilection
to be a shaman among the arctic tribes are – hiding from the light, hysterical singing or
crying; sitting passively withdrawn on the ground or bed; running off into the bush;
hiding, climbing trees – such behaviour betokens possession by a spirit.
The initiation is a reenactment of ritual death and resurrection with supernatural qualities.
In many arctic cultures the defining quality of the shaman is a mysterious self-generated
light called qaumaneq “illumination’ or ‘lightenening’ experienced inside the head.
The shaman visits the other cosmic spheres and shamanic rituals more or less reenact his
visit to the other worlds.
Communication with spirits occurs in a state of ecstasy. “Ecstasy” refers to the trance
states which are a common attribute of shamanic rites.
To be a shaman does not signify professing particular beliefs but rather refers to a certain
mode of communication with the supernatural. In the classic Tungus case ecstatic
behaviour is a crucial feature of shamanizing and central to the shaman’s role. The songs
the gestures the drama are standardized and conventionalized to an degree, but there is
always a point in the séance where the shaman is in a state that involves some altered
state of consciousness
METHODS OF ACHIEVING ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
1. Reduction of sensory input/and motor activity
changing the pattern of sensory data
exposure to repetitive monotonous stimuli - mantra repetition rubbing a stone in
circles
- includes hypnotic trance - social isolation - mystics and ascetics
2. Increase of sensory input/motor activity/emotion
-dance and trance in response to drumming - emotional contagion in
group or mob
situations
- emotional arousal, mental fatigue - conversion - healing ceremonies depend on this-spirit possession and shamanistic or divinatory trances
3. Increased alertness or mental involvement
- praying - watching for a sign - listening to a charismatic speaker
4. Decreased alertness and relaxation of critical faculties
- passive mind - no goal oriented thinking
5. Direct results of alterations in body chemistry or neurophysiology
- dehydration, sleep deprivation, hypoglycemia, hormone
imbalance, drugs
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note that these overlap in any real situation such as a shamanic seance.
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As distinct from mystics whose practices are usually in solitude, the activity of a shaman
is a social affair -- they study and practice in private during the initiation period but their
real work is done with the community with an audience.
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There are a number of factors operating to make the seance successful -- the stimulus drums, chanting etc.; the social expectation of the group; the shaman’s expectation of
him/herself; all that the shaman knows of the supranormal; the overwhelming emotional
pressure created by all this.
THE PROCEDURE OF A SEANCE AMONG SIBERIAN SHAMANS:
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preparation - physical, perhaps by fasting or meditative contemplation; breaking the
hold of the ordinary world - focusing of thoughts via physical things like the shaman’s
dress or other ritual implements, the drum, setting the stage.
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induction of the trance - this is the period when the shaman is assembling the spirit
helpers -- begins with the rhythmical stimulus -- for the Siberians and many other
communities this is drumming -- beginning slow and soft and later increasing in volume
and tempo. If hallucinogens or other substances like tobacco or alcohol are used, then this
is the stage at which they are used. The ordinary world is extinguished with the
extinguishing of lights - the noise of the drumming drowns out the thoughts of this world.
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As the shaman sings his song, he actualizes the spirits calling, invoking them and
bringing them near him - describing for the audience the spirit, the sound of the spirit -usually animal sounds as the helpers are usually animal spirits -- its dwelling place in the
other world and its journey to the tent.
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climax of the seance is the arrival or presence of the spirit or spirits at the seance and the
encounter. The purpose of the seance is described and the help of the spirits requested.
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Closing – in which the spirits are dismissed and the community requests other services of
the shaman such as reading omens or fortune-telling.
The shaman’ trance varies according to what he is doing. The spirits are manifested in number of
different ways:
1. Possession – in which the shaman completely identifies with the spirit and the
audience regards the person in front of them as the spirit itself -- this type of trance requires a
third party assistant to mediate between the spirit and the audience since the shaman is not there.
2. Dual role -- where the shaman and the spirits coexist in a dialogue situation and the
spirits are understood to be speaking outside the shaman. This is the kind of situation observed
among the Chukchi shamans where the shaman’s ventriloquist talents are used to create a
dazzling performance of several spirits appearing in different corners of the tent communicating
with the shaman.
3. The soul journey-- seance in which the shaman’s soul travels to the other world and
he describes in song for the audience all that he sees and experiences on the way to the other
world. In this type of seance only the shaman is understood to be seeing or relating to the spirits
and basically reporting back.
A word about soul. This word used to describe the invisible aspect of the person has nothing
to do with any understanding of soul that one might have from either western religious
traditions such as Christianity or Judaism or Islam or eastern religious traditions such as
Hinduism.
The concept of soul as the unitary eternal essence of a person is entirely missing. In
shamanism, multiple souls are associated with an individual—e.g. the life soul, loss of which
means loss of life, the dream soul which wanders about in dream life,
Some kinds haunt the graveyards in ethereal but visible form, other kinds live on the surface
of the body or in clothing, some reincarnate in the newborn children of the clan, some live
apart from the person and join him during sleep.
According to one Siberian tribal community, the Ob Ugrians, when the person dies, the
grave-soul continues its shadow-like existence in the graveyard until the physical remains of
the person are entirely disintegrated, at this point, the “person” undergoes a second death
when the grave-soul is transformed into a beetle and “after the third death in the form of this
animal, the person finally disappears without trace.”
This is so fundamentally different from the concept of soul as it is understood in any of the
world’s major religions that one wonders whether we should use the same word to refer to
these concepts. Perhaps a word like “spirit-energy” would give us a much better idea of the
animistic world-view.