Sufi dance meditation by Vidhi Shunyam Bogdanovska

Here is an example of the Sufi dance ritual ....

 

 To see it on YouTube, click here:  https://youtu.be/yEdCXRGJuM8

There are also examples of sacred dance rituals or forms of worship in Judaism and Christianity

HASIDIC Jews Sing & Dance ~ (Get HAPPY NOW!)


Native Americans: This video is amazing and breathtaking


Christians "Dancing in the Spirit":  Tree of Life and Holy Spirit Ministry, Dancing in the Anointing

Santeria Dance in Cuba 2012

The Agnicayana Ritual in India 1975-1976

Wikipedia:

 "The Atiratra Agnicayana is the piling of the altar of Agni. It is a Śrauta ritual of the Vedic religion and is considered to be the greatest ritual as per the Vedic ritual hierarchy. It has been claimed as the world's oldest surviving ritual.


The practice of this ritual was generally discontinued among Brahmins by the late Vedic period, during the rise of Jainism and Buddhism in India. Nevertheless, a continuous, unbroken 3,000 year tradition has been claimed to exist among a few Nambudiri Brahmin families in Kerala, South India."

 

 In 1975 Indologist Frits Staal documented in great detail the performance of an Agnicayana performed by Nambudiri Brahmins according to Samaveda tradition[5] at Panjal, Kerala.[6][7] The last performance before that had been in 1956, and the Nambudiris were concerned that the ritual was threatened by extinction. It had never before been observed by outsiders. The scholars contributed towards the cost of the ritual, and the Nambudiris agreed that it should be filmed and recorded. The ritual was performed from 12 to 24 April 1975. An effigy was used to symbolize the goat sacrifice, due to overwhelming opposition by animal protection groups

Junípero Serra's brutal story in spotlight as pope prepares for canonisation

Who the hell was Junípero Serra? He was the Franciscan priest who established Franciscan missions up and down the California Coast to convert Native Americans to Christianity and to 'civilize' them.
Pope Francis intends to make him a Catholic Saint, a process called "canonisation." Does he deserve that honor? Read this fascinating story in The Guardian magazine about the pros and cons of canonisation for Padre Serra.

The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/23/pope-francis-junipero-serra-sainthood-washington-california

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Generations of American schoolchildren have been taught to think of Father Junípero Serra as California’s benevolent founding father, a humble Franciscan monk who left a life of comfort and plenty on the island of Mallorca to travel to the farthest reaches of the New World and protect the natives from the worst abuses of the Spanish imperial army.

Under Serra’s leadership, tens of thousands of Native Americans across Alta California, as the region was then known, were absorbed into Catholic missions – places said by one particularly rapturous myth-maker in the 19th century to be filled with “song, laughter, good food, beautiful languor, and mystical adoration of the Christ”.

What this rosy-eyed view omits is that these natives were brutalized – beaten, pressed into forced labour and infected with diseases to which they had no resistance – and the attempt to integrate them into the empire was a miserable failure. The journalist and historian Carey McWilliams wrote almost 70 years ago the missions could be better conceived as “a series of picturesque charnel houses”.

Click here to read the rest of this story

Children receive their First Holy Communion from Pope Francis in Havana, Cuba 2015

Pope Francis is in Cuba right now and will arrive in the United States later. I found this youtube of him performing a ritual in Cuba. What kind of ritual is it?

 

Lord of the RIngs - Gandalf vs Balrog (Crisp 480p)

Joseph Campbell, a famous scholar of Mythology, wrote a book called "The Hero with a Thousand Faces." He says that the most common of all ancient myths is the "hero myth" in which a heroic figure faces death and danger on behalf of his people, and even dies or descends into a places of darkness in order to conquer evil. What are examples in  religions of the hero myth?

Here is a modern form of the hero myth taken from Lord of the Rings ...

Nella Fantasia

Nella Fantasia are the lyrics that Sarah Brightman wrote to the melody of "Gabriel's Oboe" from the soundtrack of The Mission


 

Bellow is the English Translation:

 In My Fantasy
 In my imagination I see a fair world,
Everyone lives in peace and in honesty there.
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like the clouds that fly,
Full of humanity in the depths of the soul.
 In my imagination I see a bright world,
Even the night is less dark there.
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like clouds that fly.
 In my imagination there exists a warm wind,
That breathes on the cities, like a friend.
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like clouds that fly,
Full of humanity in the depths of the soul.

 Taken from http://lyricstranslate.com/en/nella-fantasia-my-fantasy.html#ixzz3ljKFuAhp

a "crash course" on Confucianism

2,000 Years of Chinese History! The Mandate of Heaven and Confucius: World History #7

(this is very good, it's short AND he is funny!)

 

The Bridge of the Spirits (full documentary)

Published on Apr 26, 2013 In the region of the Ivory Coast there are still ancient jungles, such as the Tai jungle, and leafy forests which are home to different ethnic branches of the Mande group. The most characteristic of these are the Dan, who are related to the Guere. 

Sacred Power?

Check out this video and comment on what you think about it. Are these manifestations of Sacred Power? Why or why not?

Which academic discipline (Phenomenology, sociology, anthropology, history or psychology) would you use to to an analysis of this group or these practices?

Watch closely the man in the suit 22 seconds into the video. Does he go up or down at first?

Have you ever experienced anything like this?




Compare what you see in this video with some of the miracles of Jesus. What is similar? What is different?

Luke 5:12-15 (pay special attention to 14 "tell no one")

Luke 8:49-56 (also notice verse 56 - "he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened")

Matthew 9:27-31 (again, read verse 30 - "Jesus warned them sternly 'See that no one knows about this'")

Are there any ethical guidelines to how sacred power should be used? What are the dangers of sacred power?