Spirits and Gods

Abstract

The crown jewel of the human symbolic operation was the self. Once the self was established and differentiated from the rest of the world, the word blocks were set up in a cause-and-effect sequence. Perhaps the biologic processes involved in segmentalizing our experience into blocks resulted in a sequential arrangement of events into a space and time pattern, leading to a type of linear logic. With language, whether an innate biologic structure or a learned phenomenon, we developed the concept of cause and effect. “If I (the self) act in a certain manner, then I will cause certain things to happen.” It was only a short step from that idea to believing that if I or my self can cause events to occur, other events are probably caused by other selves.

Bit by bit the mythical universe comes to rule all aspects of life. There are in fact societies which regard myth as reality itself, more real than the objective universe. [7:p. 10]

Pierre Grimal, 1965

We were provided with folklore in our early years—stories of fairies and imps, ghosts and devils and mystic meanings in simple things. We accepted them on the authority of our parents, or the even more compelling authority of our older playmates. Throughout life they remain as part of our common culture pattern. Because they were learned early and during our most impressionable years, they have a firm hold and, no matter how unreasonable, are often difficult to shake off. [15:p. vii]

Gerald Wendt, 1979