Download or read book Burmese Supernaturalism written by Melford E. Spiro and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though the people of Burma, now called Myanmar, are formally Buddhist, their folk religion a type of animism or supernaturalism is so unlike classical Buddhism that it seems contradictory. For years scholars of religion and anthropology have debated the questions: Do these folk beliefs make up a separate religious system? Or is there a subtle merging of supernaturalism and Buddhism, a kind of syncretism? In either case, how exactly does folk religion fit into the overall religious pattern? Melford Spiro's Burmese Supernaturalism has been one of the major works in this debate, both for its position on the "two religions" question and for its arguments concerning the psychological basis of religion. The book begins with an introduction to the study of supernaturalism. The next section of the work covers various types of supernaturalism, including witches, ghost, and demons. Other areas of discussion include supernaturally caused illness and its treatment, the shaman, the exorcist, and the relationship between supernaturalism and Buddhism. In the introduction to this expanded edition Spiro further develops the underlying logic of his argument and evaluates the most recent contributions to the field of the anthropology of religion. Burmese Supernaturalism is an intriguing study and will provide insightful reading for anthropologists, sociologists, theologians, as well as those interested in supernaturalism in Burma (Myanmar) and other cultures.

Download or read book The Rite written by Matt Baglio and published by Image. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiration for the film starring Anthony Hopkins, journalist Matt Baglio uses the astonishing story of one American priest's training as an exorcist to reveal that the phenomena of possession, demons, the Devil, and exorcism are not merely a remnant of the archaic past, but remain a fearsome power in many people's lives even today. Father Gary Thomas was working as a parish priest in California when he was asked by his bishop to travel to Rome for training in the rite of exorcism. Though initially surprised, and slightly reluctant, he accepted this call, and enrolled in a new exorcism course at a Vatican-affiliated university, which taught him, among other things, how to distinguish between a genuine possession and mental illness. Eventually he would go on to participate in more than eighty exorcisms as an apprentice to a veteran Italian exorcist. His experiences profoundly changed the way he viewed the spiritual world, and as he moved from rational skeptic to practicing exorcist he came to understand the battle between good and evil in a whole new light. Journalist Matt Baglio had full access to Father Gary over the course of his training, and much of what he learned defies explanation. The Rite provides fascinating vignettes from the lives of exorcists and people possessed by demons, including firsthand accounts of exorcists at work casting out demons, culminating in Father Gary's own confrontations with the Devil. Baglio also traces the history of exorcism, revealing its rites and rituals, explaining what the Catholic Church really teaches about demonic possession, and delving into such related topics as the hierarchy of angels and demons, satanic cults, black masses, curses, and the various theories used by modern scientists and anthropologists who seek to quantify such phenomena. Written with an investigative eye that will captivate both skeptics and believers alike, The Rite shows that the truth about demonic possession is not only stranger than fiction, but also far more chilling.

Download or read book A Celebration of Demons written by Bruce Kapferer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-01-07 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sinhalese exorcism rituals are perhaps the most complex and the most magnificent in performance still extant. For this second edition, the author has written a new preface and introduction in which he argues that the techniques of healing in Sri Lanka and the aesthetics of this healing cannot be reduced to Western psychoanalytic or psychotherapeutic terms, and develops new and original approaches to ritual and the aesthetic in general.

Download or read book The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist Volume 2 written by Ito Iino and published by J-Novel Club. This book was released on 2023-11-02 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Overcome with survivor’s guilt, Nicola von Weber plans to visit the grave of a vanquished foe. In this journey, the usual suspects who constantly consult her on matters of the occult—Sieghart, Alois, and Ernst—accompany her, along with two new faces. The young adventurers’ weekend trip away from the royal capital to the March of Ludendorff and Luneburg turns into one filled with pleasant and horrific surprises. How will Nicola resolve a ghoulish conspiracy involving the disappearances of a number of children from a lakeside town? And what will become of her budding romance with Sieghart as her father’s imminent elevation to the rank of marquess has made her a candidate for marriage to the prince? Although Nicola knows she will never marry Alois, she is unsure about doing so with Sieghart...

Download or read book Sorcerer s Apprentice written by Tahir Shah and published by eBook Partnership. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India is a land of miracles, where godmen an d mystics mesmerise audiences with wondrous feats of magic. In great cities and remote villages alike, these mortal incarnations of the divine turn rods into snakes, drink acid, eat glass, hibernate and even levitate. Some live as kings, their devotees numbering hundreds of thousands; while others--virtually destitute--wander from village to village pledging to cure the sick, or bring rain in times of drought.As a child in rural England, Tahir Shah first learned the secrets of illusion from an Indian magician. Two decades later, he set out in search of this conjurer, the ancestral guardian of his great grandfather's tomb. Sorcerer's Apprentice is the story of his quest for, and initiation into, the brotherhood of Indian godmen. Learning along the way from sadhus, sages, avatars and sorcerers--it's a journey which took him from Calcutta to Madras, from Bangalore to Bombay, in search of the miraculous.In Calcutta, Shah is apprenticed to Hakim Feroze, a tyrannical master of illusion, who sets out to crush his student's spirit through gruelling physical trials. Eventually, his pupil's skin bruised and raw and his temper strained, the magician unlocks the door to his secret laboratory. The miracles of India's godmen are at last revealed one by one: how to swallow stones, to stop one's pulse, turn water into wine, and many more. Next, as a cryptic test, Shah is sent to ferret out the secrets of Calcutta's Underworld--entering the confidence of the city's ageing hangman, its baby-renters, and skeleton dealers. Then, just as Shah is making headway, Feroze announces that he's to pack his bags and set out at once, on a 'Journey of Observation'.A quest for the bizarre, wondrous underbelly of the Subcontinent, Shah's travels lift the veil on the East's most puzzling miracles. The Journey of Observation leads him to a cornucopia of characters. Illusionists all, some are immune to snake venom, others speak through oracles, or have the power to transform ordinary water into petrol. Along the way Shah witnesses a 'duel of miracles', crosses paths with an impoverished billionaire, and even meets a part-time god. Revealing confidence tricks and ingenious scams, Sorcerer's Apprentice exposes a side of India that most writers never even imagine exists.

Download or read book The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist Volume 3 written by Ito Iino and published by J-Novel Club. This book was released on 2024-07-22 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winter has arrived at the Royal Academy, bringing the annual student ball. Whoever one takes as their partner in the first dance is expected to become the person’s future spouse. As such, Nicola and Sieghart prepare to reveal their engagement to the world. Jealous actors, however, seek to destroy their love by inflicting whatever carnage they deem necessary. Romance and horror play second and third fiddle to a bona fide mystery in this final installment. After all they’ve been through together, will Nicola and Sieghart let anyone tear them apart? And what do these goings-on, if anything, have to do with the latest series of ghost stories students have been spreading around the school?

Download or read book Sorcerer s Apprentice Dyslexic edition written by Tahir Shah and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2013-09-09 with total page 547 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India is a land of miracles, where godmen and mystics mesmerise audiences with wondrous feats of magic. In great cities and remote villages alike, these mortal incarnations of the divine turn rods into snakes, drink acid, eat glass, hibernate and even levitate. Some live as kings, their devotees numbering hundreds of thousands; while others - virtually destitute - wander from village to village pledging to cure the sick, or bring rain in times of drought. As a child in rural England, Tahir Shah first learned the secrets of illusion from an Indian magician. Two decades later, he set out in search of this conjurer. Sorcerer's Apprentice is the story of his quest for, and initiation into, the brotherhood of Indian godmen. Learning along the way from sadhus, sages, avatars and sorcerers - it's a journey which took him from Calcutta to Madras, from Bangalore to Bombay, in search of the miraculous.

Download or read book The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist Volume 1 written by Ito Iino and published by J-Novel Club. This book was released on 2023-08-04 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After an untimely death, a Shinto exorcist finds herself reincarnated into another world as Miss Nicola von Weber. And that’s just the start of her troubles. On Nicola’s first day at a new school, she’s reunited with her childhood friend Sieghart. He’s now a handsome marquess who acts like a spoiled child around her, and wherever he goes, strange incidents follow. You see, Sieghart’s beauty attracts both people and...otherworldly admirers. Nicola thus has to put her homework aside and use her skills as an exorcist to save him—all while trying to avoid his inevitable proposal, for Sieghart once swore he’d never marry anyone but her. And so Nicola’s hectic, haunted life continues with a splash of romance, which she almost finds more annoying than the ghosts. All Nicola wants is normalcy, and this is the story of how she’ll (try to) get it.

Download or read book Jesus in Galilee written by Roger S. Busse and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-10-22 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What was Galilee actually like in the first century? Whether one was a peasant or a wealthy landowner, a member of the Herodian ruling class or Roman aristocracy, Galilee was known to be inhabited by dangerous, malevolent phantasms, demons and evil spirits. The evidence, drawn from an exhaustive review of contemporary sources and literature, is overwhelming—a world completely alien to our own. There was no middle class, only the powerful and the poor. Poverty, foreign occupation, demonic proliferation, corrupt overseers, and onerous quotas, all underscored the daily struggle for subsistence among the peasants of Galilee who lived tiny, poor working villages. Life lasted only twenty-six years; forty percent of children died by the age of twelve. Contextual risk analysis allows entry into this first-century world of Jesus with remarkable clarity. How and why did Jesus engage with demons and condemn the elite and demonic imperialism? Why was he labeled an “evil-doer?” Why were traditions about the Galilean women suppressed? Why was Jesus ritually killed? The figures of Jesus, his opponents and those who followed into peril emerge in startling clarity, leaving us standing with Jesus in Galilee.

Download or read book A History of Anglican Exorcism written by Francis Young and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-30 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exorcism is more widespread in contemporary England than perhaps at any other time in history. The Anglican Church is by no means the main provider of this ritual, which predominantly takes place in independent churches. However, every one of the Church of England dioceses in the country now designates at least one member of its clergy to advise on casting out demons. Such `deliverance ministry' is in theory made available to all those parishioners who desire it. Yet, as Francis Young reveals, present-day exorcism in Anglicanism is an unlikely historical anomaly. It sprang into existence in the 1970s within a church that earlier on had spent whole centuries condemning the expulsion of evil spirits as either Catholic superstition or evangelical excess. This book for the first time tells the full story of the Anglican Church's approach to demonology and the exorcist's ritual since the Reformation in the sixteenth century. The author explains how and why how such a remarkable transformation in the Church's attitude to the rite of exorcism took place, while also setting his subject against the canvas of the wider history of ideas.

Download or read book Incantations and Anti Witchcraft Texts from Ugarit written by Gregorio del Olmo Lete and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2014-07-28 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ugaritic literary and ritual studies have often neglected or even ignored the Akkadian material from the same archives, which can be used as a frame of reference for the Ugaritic texts. The aim of this work is to offer a comprehensive study of the consonantal (Ugaritic) as well as the syllabic (Akkadian) incantation and anti-witchcraft texts from Ras Shamra as a unified corpus. These texts, dealing with impending dangers (mainly snakebites) and witchcraft attacks, are placed in the context of Ancient Near Eastern magic literature. A discussion of general topics, including magic and religion, the Ugaritic gods of magic, and the definition of incantation, is followed by a new collation and translation of the Akkadian texts, as well as new photographic material for both series. The main focus of this book is the close reading of the consonantal texts in the context of the much larger and better analyzed corpus of Akkadian magic literature.

Download or read book Sorcerer s Apprentice paperback written by Tahir Shah and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2013-09-09 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sorcerer's Apprentice is an extraordinary tale of Indian magic... India is a land of miracles, where godmen and mystics mesmerise audiences with wondrous feats of magic. In great cities and remote villages alike, these mortal incarnations of the divine turn rods into snakes, drink acid, eat glass, hibernate and even levitate. A quest for the bizarre, wondrous underbelly of the Subcontinent, Shah's travels lift the veil on the East's most puzzling miracles. The Journey of Observation leads him to a cornucopia of characters. Illusionists all, some are immune to snake venom, others speak through oracles, or have the power to transform ordinary water into petrol. Along the way Shah witnesses a 'duel of miracles', crosses paths with an impoverished billionaire, and even meets a part-time god. Revealing confidence tricks and ingenious scams, Sorcerer's Apprentice exposes a side of India that most writers never even imagine exists.

Download or read book Culture Disease and Healing written by David Landy and published by New York : Macmillan. This book was released on 1977 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: An historical perspective of disease and healing practices as related to culture is addressed in 57 papers for students and professionals in the medical and health fields. The papers are organized among 14 major themes, addressing: medical anthropology; paleopathology; disease ecology and epidemiology; medical systems and theories relative to disease and therapy; sociocultural influences and ethnic practices in disease diagnosis; sorcery and witchcraft; disease prevention via social controls; surgery practices and population control in the preindustrial era; cultural and environmental factors relative to stress, pain, and death; cultural influences on behavioral disorders; the special role of the inflicted in society; and current primitive healing practices and the impact of sociocultural change on such practices. (wz).

Download or read book The Vatican s Exorcists written by Tracy Wilkinson and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2007-02-21 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * How the Vatican's Office of Exorcism drives out demons and battles Satanic evil in today's world

Download or read book A Kind of Magic written by Michael Labahn and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection explores the importance of magic within Early Christianity

Download or read book The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus written by Craig A. Evans and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 1488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Encyclopedia brings together the vast array of historical research into the reality of the man, the teachings, the acts, and the events ascribed to him that have served as the foundational story of one of the world's central religions. This kind of historiography is not biography. The historical study of the Jesus stories and the transmission of these stories through time have been of seminal importance to historians of religion. Critical historical examination has provided a way for scholars of Christianity for centuries to analyze the roots of legend and religion in a way that allows scholars an escape from the confines of dogma, belief, and theological interpretation. In recent years, historical Jesus studies have opened up important discussions concerning anti-Semitism and early Christianity and the political and ideological filtering of the Jesus story of early Christianity through the Roman empire and beyond. Entries will cover the classical studies that initiated the new historiography, the theoretical discussions about authenticating the historical record, the examination of sources that have led to the western understanding of Jesus' teachings and disseminated myth of the events concerning Jesus' birth and death. Subject areas include: the history of the historical study of the New Testament: major contributors and their works theoretical issues and concepts methodologies and criteria historical genres and rhetorical styles in the story of Jesus historical and rhetorical context of martyrdom and messianism historical teachings of Jesus teachings within historical context of ethics titles of Jesus historical events in the life of Jesus historical figures in the life of Jesus historical use of Biblical figures referenced in the Gospels places and regions institutions the history of the New Testament within the culture, politics, and law of the Roman Empire.

Download or read book The Devil Is Afraid of Me written by Fr. Gabriele Amorth and published by Sophia Institute Press. This book was released on 2020-01-19 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “We can do nothing against you because you are too protected!” So declared a frustrated host of devils to Father Gabriele Amorth, the priest exorcist in Rome who spent thirty years battling the Devil and his minions by performing more than sixty thousand exorcisms. All the while, he deftly used modern media to awaken our disbelieving modern culture — and even the Church — to the reality of the Devil and his nefarious actions at all times and everywhere. In these eye-opening pages, angelologist Father Marcello Stanzione tells the fascinating story of Father Amorth and his life as an exorcist. You'll learn of his daily schedule and how he managed to perform dozens of exorcisms each week. You'll find out what his exorcism room looked like, and how various devils responded to his bold practice. Best of all, you'll read Father Amorth's own startling explanations of many truths about the Devil that our culture has forgotten — and about th