PART VI: ANCIENT SECRETS
by Anthony Forwood (2011)
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45: The Magic of Ceremonies
The rituals and ceremonies of the priests centered around the idea of appeasing various
gods, spirits, and demons, who were often
associated with the characteristics of the different types of natural forces as
they were commonly understood. These rituals and ceremonies, in which entire
communities were often expected to take part in, involved many elements that
are known to induce altered states of consciousness in which hypnotic trance and suggestibility are common results. Such trance-like states
among an entire group facilitates the creation of a coherent unity of purpose,
a group mind in which the occult psychic powers that were used by the priests were multiplied
and thus added force to their invocations and magical rites. Public ceremonies were
common for the purpose of building psychic energies and directing them for the enactment of
powerful magic that required the combined energetic forces of the multitudes.
This involved much emotional excitement and suspense in the participants in
order to evoke this energy. Rhythmic drumming and the corresponding body movements of dance instilled an altered state of consciousness
that moved the minds of the people to a unified state of psychic potential that was then used to perform the magic
surrounding a particular ceremonial ritual or incantation.
The show of magic in the form of incantations of spirits and other paranormal phenomena during these ceremonies were necessary not only to keep the masses in
awe and respectful of the power of the priests, but also to help in
keeping alive the group belief that is required at the deeper levels of the
subconscious in order for these events to manifest as strongly as they often
did.
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