The "evidence" of Ritual

[Adios]

I think it would be fruitful to investigate the Ainu people (northern Japan), as they are one of the only people with a "animist" spiritual practice that goes back to pre-history that still exist today.

Who are the Ainu people?

The Ainu are an indigenous ethnic group of people who live in Hokkaido in Japan today as well as in Russia (the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin). In the 19th Century, Japanese people called the northern island of Hokkaido "Ezochi" which means "Land of the Ainu". The term Ainu generally referred to the fair-skinned, long-haired hunter-gatherer-fishering people with animistic beliefs who had lived there for hundreds of years.

Getting into the Ainu headspace is about as close as we can come to prehistoric spiritual practices (genetic tests have shown relation to Australian Aborigines and some Native American tribes). The Ainu believe that everything in this world has "spirit", and don't even dispose of fish-bones without a ritual. Souls weren't unique to humans, but were found among plants, animals, mountains, water, and fire.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/features/ainu/

Here is a description of an Ainu Ghost Trap, used near fresh graves.

Thanks! I will look into this.

[Adios]

Who knows about noetic sciences?

no•et•ic: From the Greek noēsis / noētikos, meaning inner wisdom, direct knowing, or subjective understanding.

sci•ence: Systems of acquiring knowledge that use observation, experimentation, and replication to describe and explain natural phenomena.

no•et•ic sci•ences: A multidisciplinary field that brings objective scientific tools and techniques together with subjective inner knowing to study the full range of human experiences.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Who knows about noetic sciences?

no•et•ic: From the Greek noēsis / noētikos, meaning inner wisdom, direct knowing, or subjective understanding.

sci•ence: Systems of acquiring knowledge that use observation, experimentation, and replication to describe and explain natural phenomena.

no•et•ic sci•ences: A multidisciplinary field that brings objective scientific tools and techniques together with subjective inner knowing to study the full range of human experiences.

I've heard of it, but I can't say that I know anything about it.