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What's happened. Early forms of religions

Animism - (from Latin soul )belief in the independent, supernatural existence of the soul and spirits, the spiritualization of the forces of nature, animals, plants and inanimate objects, often attributing to them intelligence, capacity and supernatural power.

In contrast, focused on the internal needs of a given clan group, on its differences from others, animistic ideas had a broader and more universal character, were understandable and accessible to everyone, and were perceived quite unambiguously in different clans, tribes and communities.

This is natural: primitive people deified and spiritualized not only the formidable forces of nature (sky and earth, sun and moon, rain and wind, thunder and lightning...), on which their existence depended, but also individual noticeable relief details(mountains and rivers, hills and forests), where, as they believed, there were also spirits who should be appeased, attracted to their side, etc. Even a separate noticeable tree, a large boulder stone, a small pond - all this is in the imagination The primitive savage had a soul, a mind, could feel and act, bring benefit or harm. And if so, then all these natural phenomena, mountains and rivers, stones and trees, should have been treated with attention, that is, certain sacrifices should have been made, prayer rituals and cult ceremonies performed in their honor - according to the ideas of primitive people.

Primitive people are quite accurate determined that every object, phenomenon, creature... have a “soul””, or have certain spiritual characteristics. To be more precise - has the property of trinity(carries characteristics that are “recorded” in its structure; have their own individual image; have internal and external algorithms (a set of private MPs).

One may wonder why animism and totemism were correct, and in what ways did primitive people go wrong?

Only representatives of the totem tribe itself could fully use the management information of the egregor-totem. (-)
People of different totem tribes could be included in conjugated fragments own and other people's egregors.(+)
The culture of animism is broader than totemism in terms of the possibilities for the exchange of management information. That is, animism was the link connecting tribes, clans, and communities, which made it possible to reach the general principles of world order, governance and self-government through “breaking into” each other’s totem egregors.(+)
In the culture of animism, the observations of the ancients, that « every object, every phenomenon has a soul or spirit». Unlike totemism, which imparted spirituality only to the animal, bird or plant of its totem, in animism the spectrum of “spirituality” of natural phenomena, natural objects, animals, birds, and plants reaches a universal character. (+)
However, the degree of understanding, the degree of superstition, as well as illegibility in the spiritualization of various kinds of forces and objects, created a certain "Kaleidoscope of Spirits" in the psyche of ancient people. And this “kaleidoscope” was hierarchically spiritually ordered only insofar as they correctly felt “which of the spirits is stronger” or “which of the spirits is more important,” but, of course, they were still far from the monotheism of faith in God. (+)
In territories where the “civilizing” mission of the descendants of those who survived the previous global catastrophe did not extend (that is, where development proceeded naturally), clans and tribes lived in a communal system, where hiding information was not profitable: the more everyone knows representative of the community, the more sustainable it develops and the safer its life and way of life. (+)

Thus, in the development given from above already in the early primitive system a process launched from Above began and was underway, according to which access to all managerially significant information was automatically provided to a very wide range of representatives of different tribes and totems. And this process was stopped only at the stage of destruction of the primitive communal system and the transition to slavery, and then to feudalism, when a monopoly on information of a managerial nature was artificially established on the basis of intra-class stratification and artificial suppression of the “slaves”’ potential given from Above to sense the world and enter into the necessary egregors where vital management information is stored.

Another interesting an “achievement” of animism can be considered the discovery of the ancients that man has a soul. The belief, dating back to animism, that the souls of people, especially the dead, continue to exist mainly in an incorporeal form, served as a connecting link between group totemistic and universal animistic beliefs and rituals.

Immortality of the soul is the correct understanding of the fact that man in his appearance on Earth is only temporary, but the soul is eternal and immortal. This is repeatedly confirmed in later religions. Each one in its own way.

It was quite common to believe that it was as if a person had three souls at the same time. And each of these souls had its own clearly defined functions:

one was responsible for vital physiological processes in the body;
the second - for mental operations;
the third acted as the bearer of what can be called a person’s personality.

And only the “trinity” of these souls was recognized as ensuring a full human existence. You can “congratulate” the ancient man. After all, he quite correctly divided the components of the psyche in himself even at the primitive stage of development. The first "soul" fits the definition better congenital and acquired reflexes, which provide almost all the physiology in the body. Second "soul" more like work of intellect, imagination, conscious creativity, resulting in a new product that no animal species on Earth except humans can produce. AND third "soul" - personal identity, which is more consistent soul given from God + congenital and acquired personal abilities and capabilities such as intuition, as well as obsession with various kinds of egregorial algorithms.

At a certain stage of development of animism ideas about the human soul began to be transferred to the world around man. This is typical ancient man- pass the world around you through your soul, as a result of which the properties of the person himself are attributed to everything that the person saw. Ancient people, of course, knew how to sense it very keenly - everything down to the smallest detail. They possessed that ability that most people of our time have lost and which is so necessary today for a full-fledged worldview, worldview and understanding of the world. This can be called the beginnings of God's ancient paganism, which was understood by people at the primitive level of ancient symbols. In other words, the measure of sensations (a measure of worldview) was very high, and the measure was low.

Animism did not develop any universal cult. Animism has become a kind of collective name for a huge number of ritual and cult practices. Let's look at the most common of them as examples.

Funeral cult. Archaeologists find the material roots of this cult in burials, the formation of which dates back to 40 thousand years ago - still Neanderthal.

This cult as a whole was aimed at honoring all the good that the deceased did and the desire to get rid of the bad that may remain from the deceased (this is at odds with the principle accepted today “only good things about the deceased.” It is clear that the ancients did not always say out loud at the funeral ceremony, why the deceased was bad during life, but they were not forbidden to think about it).

To ensure that the deceased “does not return,” the cult of seeing off the deceased was accompanied by abundant gifts - which were placed in the grave and even small sacrifices to the “soul and spirits.” It was believed that the gifts would serve in two ways: firstly, they would appease the evil soul (spirits) and it would not return after death, and secondly, the gifts would initially be necessary in the world into which the soul would enter after death.

It is clear that, accompanying the soul of the deceased on its last journey, the community simultaneously practiced the magic of cleaning their egregor(or several egregors) under which they were controlled from unwanted and harmful algorithms left by the deceased and his predecessors. That is, the community worked not with the soul of the deceased, but with egregor spirits.

One of the burial rites was called the “purification ceremony.” They placed candles on the grave and wished the deceased a speedy arrival at his destination.

Ancestor cult. One of the most ancient and important cults in human history. This cult was based on the belief that deceased ancestors (their souls) help their living relatives in earthly world(protect territories, livestock, crops, influence the weather, stimulate the fertility of the earth...). In the early stages of the cult, the recently deceased were held in high regard. The authority of such ancestors was guaranteed by their outstanding personal qualities, which grateful descendants have not yet forgotten. Folk funeral rites, which are most often performed shortly after the death of a person, can be considered an echo of such ideas. So close the ancestor was considered obliged to fulfill the wishes, moreover, the demands of his descendants.

The community and its leadership did not want to lose management opportunities after someone's death. We are talking about the most important ritual, designed to restore all the available possibilities for accessing egregorial information that existed before the death of the deceased and which could have been partially lost.

The ritual extended not only to the elderly, but also to those who did not live to old age for various reasons. That is, the ritual covered the entire spiritual heritage with the aim of preserving it for posterity.

Having come into “contact” with the deceased, the ritual participants demanded and asked him to leave them the capabilities of the deceased. It is possible to get into contact with the deceased(s) only at least partially entering his individual moral and psychological image(into the image of a person from the past, his way of life, behavioral stereotypes) - knowing this image and “trying on” it on himself during the ritual. You can also enter into the image of a deceased ancestor(s) by mentally returning to their era through legends and memories, which, in a certain mental state of a magical cult trance, made it possible to close on oneself the fragments of egregors that were available to the remembered ancestors. After which it seemed that the ancestors were responding to the demands placed on them.

Thus, the spiritual heritage was steadily passed on from generation to generation (After all, there was no written language, and it was not possible to read about the ancestors: information could only be drawn from their spiritual heritage and legends).

Rite of initiation. It was called differently rite of passage into adulthood . As you know, the ancients paid great attention to the process of education and subsequent selection and selection of community members. This was done with the aim of educating, developing and promptly identifying the best qualities in different people and direct them for the benefit of the community. The worst qualities were discarded (sometimes along with people).

At the stage when selection for capabilities (material and spiritual) among boys and girls had already been carried out under the supervision of older generations, the process of initiation into adulthood began. The features that formed the basis of education and selection were:

An approved list of responsibilities, listed by age, by observing the implementation of which one could judge the abilities of a particular boy or girl.
The presence of physical, moral and spiritual tests accompanying each rite.
Isolation from the team during initiation.
Initiation into the customs, faith and morals of the tribe, clan.

All these activities were aimed to identify best qualities the student and his subsequent initiation into those areas of material and spiritual activity that were considered most useful for this student. It is clear that for particularly successful activities, the learner must had be able to use those fragments of egregors—spirits who are responsible for the spiritual (egregorial) support of precisely those skills that were developed in the student. After all, the capabilities of the egregor are many times greater than the capabilities of the individual psyche.

The elder in the tribe who was fluent in egregorial magic could quickly and effectively provide the opportunity for unhindered communication with these spirits (fragments of egregors). Such a person represented the role of a teacher, being at The last stage of “initiation” is initiation. At this stage, the skills of entering the necessary fragments of egregors were transferred from the teacher to the student - usually eye to eye and one on one with the use of magical rituals, known only to the teacher.

In late animism, one can see the transformation of the cult of veneration of all ancestors into the cult of veneration of ancestors with the selection from the latter of a special group of especially revered and privileged ones - the elders. This “spiritual” stratification marked the beginning of a revolution in the social relations of primitive society, leading to stratification and injustice. Which in turn transformed into a transition from a consanguineous community to an early class society. The community itself began to single out “especially gifted” clan elders from the group - privileged overseers, who were given some of the qualities of the “elite”.

There are many different religions and beliefs in the world. Some of them are understandable to most people, while others remain obscure and closed to many. In this article I would like to talk about why, when and why animism arose, as well as what it essentially is.

To begin to understand any topic, it is necessary to identify its concepts. After all, it is often enough just to find out the meaning of the main word in order to understand what will be discussed. So, in this version, a similar term is such a concept as “animism”. Translated from Latin it sounds like “animus”, which means “spirit, soul”. Now we can easily conclude that animism is the belief in various immaterial beings, such as spirits or souls, which can be found in a wide variety of things, phenomena or objects, according to the nuances of the beliefs of certain tribes or societies.

The main thing in Taylor's theory

This concept was introduced into science by the philosopher F. Taylor at the end of the 19th century. The very term “animism” was coined by the German scientist G.E. Stahl. Taylor considered this form of belief to be too simple, inherent only to the most ancient tribes. And although it is one of the archaic forms of religion, there was much that was unfair in Taylor's theory. According to him, the beliefs of ancient peoples developed in two directions. First: this is the desire to reflect on dreams, the processes of birth and death, reasoning after various trance states (which were entered thanks to various hallucinogens). Thanks to this, primitive people formed certain thoughts about the existence of souls, which somewhat later developed into thoughts about their relocation, afterlife etc. The second direction was due to the fact that ancient people were ready to animate everything around them, to animate it. So, they believed that trees, the sky, everyday objects - all of this also has a soul, wants something and thinks about something, all of this has its own emotions and thoughts. Later, according to Taylor, these beliefs developed into polytheism - belief in the forces of nature, the power of deceased ancestors, and then even into monotheism. The conclusion from Taylor's theory can be drawn as follows: in his opinion, animism is the minimum of religion. And this idea was often taken as a basis by many scientists of various directions. However, for the sake of truth, it must be said that his theory also has weak sides, as can be evidenced by ethnographic data (the first religions do not always include animistic beliefs). Modern scientists say that animism is the basis of most existing beliefs and religions today, and elements of animism are inherent in many people.

About perfume

Knowing that animism is a belief in spirits, it is worth taking a closer look at what Taylor himself said about this. Thus, he believed that this belief is largely based on the sensations that a person experiences during sleep or a special trance. Today this can be compared with those sensations that are inherent in a person, for example, on his deathbed. Man himself exists in two units that are different in nature: the body, the material part, and the soul, the immaterial part. It is precisely the soul that can leave the shell of the body, move from one state to another, migrate, that is, exist after the death of its body. According to Taylor's theory of animism, the soul can do much more than just go to the land of the dead or afterworld. If desired, she can control living relatives, contact them through certain individuals (for example, shamans) in order to convey messages, participate in various holidays dedicated to dead ancestors, and so on.

Fetishism

It is also worth saying that fetishism, totemism, animism are religions similar in nature, which sometimes arose from each other. Thus, animism could often flow into fetishism. What does it mean? Ancient people also believed that the spirit did not have to move into the same body after the death of the body; it could move into any surrounding object. Fetishism at its core is a belief in the power of surrounding objects (all or certain ones, for example, statues) endowed with a soul. Very often, fetishism flowed from the general belief that everything around is animate into a narrower direction. An example would be the shrines of the ancestors of African tribes or the ancestral tablets of the Chinese, which were worshiped for a long time, believing in their strength and power. Very often, shamans also used fetishes, choosing a special object for this. It was believed that the soul of a shaman moves there when he offers his body to communicate with the spirits of the dead.

Multi-spiritedness

Having already learned that animism is a belief in spirits, it is also worth saying that some tribes also believed that a person can have several souls that have different purposes and live in different parts of the body: in the top of the head, legs or arms. As for the viability of these souls, it could be varied. Some of them could remain in the grave with the deceased person, others went to the afterlife for further residence there. And some simply moved into the child in order to animate him. An example is the Yakuts, who believe that a man has eight souls, and a woman has seven. In some beliefs, at the birth of a child, parents gave him part of their soul, which again can indicate multi-spiritedness.

Totemism

Totemism is similar in nature to animism. People tended to endow with souls not only the objects around them, but also the animals that lived nearby. However, some tribes believed that all animals have a soul, while others believed that only some, the so-called totem animals, which the given tribe worshiped. As for the souls of animals, it was believed that they also know how to move. An interesting fact was that many believed: the souls of dead people could move not only into a new person, but also into a totem animal. And vice versa. Very often, the totem animal acted as the guardian spirit of a given tribe.

Animatism

Knowing that animism is a belief in the power of spirits, it is necessary to say a few words about such a belief as animatism. This is a belief in a huge faceless force that gives life to everything around us. This could be productivity, human luck, or livestock fertility. We can say with confidence that these beliefs were inherent not only to ancient people, they are still alive today. For example, in India they believe that there are many different spirits that live in the mountains, forests, and fields. Bongs (Indian spirits) can be both good and evil. And in order to calm them down or appease them, even now they bring them various gifts and arrange sacrifice ceremonies.

About nature

Animism is a religion that gives souls to everything around it. For example, the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands believed that natural phenomena and nature itself (sun, sea, wind, moon) had enormous power. However, according to their opinions, such spirits were most often evil and always tried to injure a person. For example, the forest spirit Erem-chaugal is capable of injuring a person or even killing him with invisible arrows, and the evil and ferocious spirit of the sea can strike his person with an incurable disease. However, at the same time, nature spirits were also considered the patrons of individual tribes. So, some considered the sun their patron, others considered the wind, etc. But other spirits also needed to be respected and worshiped, although for a particular village they could be less significant.

In conclusion

It is interesting that, according to fans of animism, the entire world around humans is completely populated by souls that can live in various objects, as well as all living beings - animals, plants. The very same human soul in general is of enormous value in comparison with the body.

It is also important that everything that is dangerous or intangible for a person was also customary to animate. It was often believed that volcanoes and rocky mountains were the abode of various spirits, and, for example, eruptions were caused by anger or dissatisfaction with the actions of people. It is worth saying that the world of animists was also inhabited by various monsters and dangerous creatures, for example windigos among the Indians, but also by positive creatures - fairies, elves. However, no matter how simply Taylor and his followers treat animism, this religion is not primitive. It has its own special logic, consistency, it is an original system of beliefs. As for modernity, today it is unlikely that it will be possible to find a society that is completely animistic, however, elements of this phenomenon remain relevant for many today, despite the fact that a person is essentially a Christian or a follower of some other modern religion.

- (from Latin anima or animus - soul, spirit) - belief in souls and spirits, which are represented by supernatural beings. beings hiding behind all sensory objects and phenomena of living and dead nature and supposedly controlling them. Soviet historical encyclopedia

animism - Animism, plural. no, m. [from Latin. anima – soul] (scientific). A form of primitive thinking that attributes a soul to all objects. Large dictionary of foreign words

animism - ANIM'ISM, animism, many. no, husband (from Lat. anima - soul) (scientific). A form of primitive thinking that attributes a soul to all objects. Dictionary Ushakova

Animism - (Animismus) - under this name is known the doctrine introduced into medicine by G. E. Stahl at the beginning of the 18th century; According to this doctrine, the rational soul (anima) is considered the basis of life. According to Stahl’s teaching, illness is a reaction of the soul against pathogenic causes, i.e. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron

animism - -a, m. The pre-scientific idea of the existence of a spirit, soul in every thing, characteristic of primitive peoples; spiritualization of forces and natural phenomena. [From lat. anima - soul] Small academic dictionary

animism - spelling animism, -a orthographic dictionary Lopatina

animism - ANIMISM -a; m. [from lat. anima - soul]. The pre-scientific idea of the existence of a spirit, a soul in every thing, characteristic of primitive peoples; spiritualization of forces and natural phenomena. ◁ Animistic, -aya, -oe. A-e views, ideas. Kuznetsov's Explanatory Dictionary

ANIMISM - ANIMISM (from Latin anima, animus - soul, spirit) - belief in the existence of souls and spirits, an essential element of any religion. Big encyclopedic Dictionary

ANIMISM - ANIMISM (Latin anima, animus - soul, spirit) is a system of ideas about supposedly really existing special spiritual, invisible beings (most often doubles) that control the bodily essence of a person and all phenomena and forces of nature. The latest philosophical dictionary

ANIMISM - (from Latin anima - soul) - a picture of the world in which not only living, but also non-living (from the point of view. modern science) objects are considered as living and animate. Specific to... Large psychological dictionary

animism - animism m. A system of ideas characteristic of primitive peoples in the pre-scientific era about the presence of an independent spiritual principle - a soul - in humans, animals, plants, natural phenomena and objects; spiritualization of forces and natural phenomena. Explanatory Dictionary by Efremova

animism - noun, number of synonyms: 1 panpsychism 1 Dictionary of Russian synonyms

animism - ANIMISM a, m. animisme m.<�лат. anima душа. Форма первобытного мышления, приписывающего всем предметам душу. Уш. 1935. Спиритуализм очень старая новость, Он составляет новое издание "анимизма" распространенного в Корее, Индии и центральной Африке. Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian language

ANIMISM - ANIMISM (from Latin anima - soul, spirit) - English. animism; German Animis-mus. 1. Belief in the existence of souls and spirits. 2. The belief, characteristic of primitive peoples, that all phenomena of the external world have their own soul; the original form of religiosity... Sociological Dictionary

ANIMISM - ANIMISM (from Latin anima, animus - soul, spirit) - belief in souls and spirits. In this meaning, the term was used by the English ethnographer E. Tylor [TYLOR] to describe beliefs that originated in the primitive era and, in his opinion, lie at the basis of any religion. New Philosophical Encyclopedia

Animism - (from Latin anima - soul), the most important complex of irrational fantasy of primitiveness, which existed in unity with its other archaic forms (hunting magic, fetishism, totemism). A. formed the logical support of all religious concepts. Archaeological Dictionary

animism - Animism, animisms, animism, animisms, animism, animisms, animism, animisms, animism, animisms, animism, animisms Zaliznyak's Grammar Dictionary

Animism - Belief in the existence of souls and spirits. An obligatory element of most religions. In the scientific world, it is widely believed that animism was preceded by a belief in the universal animation of nature Concise Religious Dictionary

- ANIMISM (from Latin anima, animus - soul, spirit) - belief in souls and spirits. The term was first used in this meaning by the English ethnographer E. Tylor to describe beliefs that originated in the primitive era and, in his opinion, lie at the basis of any religion. Encyclopedia of Epistemology and Philosophy of Science

Designation of the concept

The main thing in Taylor's theory

This concept was introduced into science by the philosopher F. Taylor at the end of the 19th century. The very term “animism” was coined by the German scientist G.E. Stahl. Taylor considered this form of belief to be too simple, inherent only to the most ancient tribes. And although this is one of the archaic forms of religion, there was a lot of injustice. According to him, the beliefs of ancient peoples developed in two directions. First: this is the desire to reflect on dreams, the processes of birth and death, reasoning after various trance states (which were entered thanks to various hallucinogens). Thanks to this, primitive people formed certain thoughts about the existence of souls, which somewhat later developed into thoughts about their relocation, etc. The second direction was due to the fact that ancient people were ready to animate everything around them, to animate it. So, they believed that trees, the sky, everyday objects - all of this also has a soul, wants something and thinks about something, all of this has its own emotions and thoughts. Later, according to Taylor, these beliefs developed into polytheism - belief in the forces of nature, the power of deceased ancestors, and then even into monotheism. The conclusion from Taylor's theory can be drawn as follows: in his opinion, animism is the minimum of religion. And this idea was often taken as a basis by many scientists of various directions. However, for the sake of truth, it must be said that his theory also has weaknesses, as evidenced by ethnographic data (the first religions do not always include animistic beliefs). Modern scientists say that animism is the basis of most existing beliefs and religions today, and elements of animism are inherent in many people.

About perfume

Knowing that animism is a belief in spirits, it is worth taking a closer look at what Taylor himself said about this. Thus, he believed that this belief is largely based on the sensations that a person experiences during sleep or a special trance. Today this can be compared with those sensations that are inherent in a person, for example, on his deathbed. Man himself exists in two units that are different in nature: the body, the material part, and the soul, the immaterial part. It is precisely the soul that can leave the shell of the body, move from one state to another, migrate, that is, exist after the death of its body. According to Taylor's theory of animism, the soul can do much more than just go to the land of the dead or the afterlife. If desired, she can control living relatives, contact them through certain individuals (for example, shamans) in order to convey messages, participate in various holidays dedicated to dead ancestors, and so on.

Fetishism

It is also worth saying that fetishism, totemism, animism are religions similar in nature, which sometimes arose from each other. Thus, animism could often flow into fetishism. What does it mean? Ancient people also believed that the spirit did not have to move into the same body after the death of the body; it could move into any surrounding object. Fetishism at its core is a belief in the power of surrounding objects (all or certain ones, for example, statues) endowed with a soul. Very often, fetishism flowed from the general belief that everything around is animate into a narrower direction. An example would be the shrines of ancestors or family tablets of the Chinese, which were worshiped for a long time, believing in their strength and power. Very often, shamans also used fetishes, choosing a special object for this. It was believed that the soul of a shaman moves there when he offers his body to communicate with the spirits of the dead.

Multi-spiritedness

Totemism

Animatism

Knowing that animism is a belief in the power of spirits, it is necessary to say a few words about such a belief as animatism. This is a belief in a huge faceless force that gives life to everything around us. This could be productivity, human luck, or livestock fertility. We can say with confidence that these beliefs were inherent not only to ancient people, they are still alive today. For example, in India they believe that there are many different spirits that live in the mountains, forests, and fields. Bongs can be both good and evil. And in order to calm them down or appease them, even now they bring them various gifts and arrange sacrifice ceremonies.

About nature

Animism is a religion that gives souls to everything around it. For example, residents believed that natural phenomena and nature itself (sun, sea, wind, moon) had enormous power. However, according to their opinions, such spirits were most often evil and always tried to injure a person. For example, the forest spirit Erem-chaugal is capable of injuring a person or even killing him with invisible arrows, and the evil and ferocious spirit of the sea can strike his person with an incurable disease. However, at the same time, nature spirits were also considered the patrons of individual tribes. So, some considered the sun their patron, others - the wind, etc. But other spirits also needed to be respected and worshiped, although for a particular village they could be less significant.

In conclusion

It is interesting that, according to fans of animism, the entire world around humans is completely populated by souls that can live in various objects, as well as all living beings - animals, plants. The human soul itself is generally of enormous value in comparison with the body.

31Jan

What is Animism

Animism - This a concept of belief that assumes that all living things or certain objects have a soul.

The role of Animism in the formation of modern religions.

This concept plays a critical role in many “primitive” spiritual practices such as shamanism. It should be understood that animism is the root of most modern religions. Christianity is no exception, since the concept of having an immortal soul, which in turn is guided by a higher power, occupies a central place in the very concept of belief.

Most "true" animists assume the presence of a soul in all natural objects. For example, mountains or rivers contain the souls of various deities. These beliefs are reflected in many ancient legends, where various elements or natural phenomena were interpreted as expressions of the will of the gods.

Many animistic beliefs include the idea that the soul is not attached to the body. In accordance with these beliefs, the possibility of transmigration of the soul in one form or another is assumed. Some shamans claim that during rituals their spirit leaves the physical body and travels to other places.

In cultures that practice animism, there are a huge number of holidays and celebrations dedicated to satisfying the will of spirits. The best example is the various pagan holidays of our ancestors.