So I was reading an article about religion in New Scientist magazine. There was a chart showing the breakdown of the world's most popular religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Chinese Taoism, Buddhism... But number 6 on the list, with 400 MILLION practitioners around the globe, was shamanism/tribal religions. That's more people than the US population! I had no idea, just thought there were these tiny pockets of shamanic practice surviving in hidden enclaves...

Anyway, thought that was sort of encouraging.

With numbers like that it is comforting. No wonder they want flouride in the water! (lol)

They need to come here to the Nexus and ask us what to put in the water...

We would need 3 taps, hot, cold and Aya

Source?

It really disappoints me looking at how many people follow religion, just seems like a lot of sheep to me.

He said the source was from New Scientist magazine.

Also, you might want to broaden your definition of religion a little bit.

Regarding the statistics, and particularly considering that two thousand years ago shamanistic cultures were certainly in a higher spot than 6th, I wonder about the tendency of those figures. Are the shamanic cultures, indigenous or not, still in decrease? If so, is the decrease rate lower than it was a couple centuries ago?

This give me a little hope for mankind

cant remember who said it... i think it was graham hancock. but something along the lines of "shamanism does not require you to believe. The experience manifests whether or not you have any faith, and this is unique to shamanism. There is no set philosophy or path, only the experience. shamanism is unique in this regard as well, nobody is telling you what is the truth, they simply give you the tools to see your own truth."

if you have not heard his interview on the Joe Rogan podcast, i cannot recommend it enough.

I agree I think the Rogan podcast with hancock is a must for anyone interested in his work and ideas.

So shamanism/tribal religions. What exactly does that entail though? Cause from what I understand there is an extremely diverse amount of "tribal religions" alone. One of them being with the belief that semen has to be implanted inside a young boys anus in order for him to be able to implant a seed into a woman. So are these kind of tribal religions a part of this statistic?

Yeah, and that's why this statistic sucks and is an insult of people involved in diverse religious and spiritual practice. Moreover, shamanism is NOT A RELIGION, but a technique (which can be part of religious practice).

lol "tribal religions"..

Terence McKenna mirrors this exact sentiment as well.

Yes, people are like sheep and that is a damn good thing. Humanity wouldn't have accomplished anything if we all pretended we're so unique and non-conformist. But pretend all you want, humans are by nature group animals. If humans weren't sheep none of the big accomplishments humanity has ever reached would exist.

It was a great issue, and included an article on the biology of why we tend to believe in a human-like god figure (we in general, not we Nexians) plus a great feature that broadly falsifies religion as a scientific theory.

I imagine the decrease in shamanism was fastest during the colonial eras, but no doubt it continues today, and the remaining shamanic traditions are likely being watered down. Nonetheless, this points at a much broader shamanic practice than you might expect these days.

Dors anyone have any idea of more detailed specifics about real, entheogenic shamanism?

Yes!! I second the recommendation for Graham Hancock. His presentation at the 2012 conference is excellent as well. It's my favorite talk by Hancock.

Hancock 2012 Conference Presenation

Interesting statistic indeed. Thanks for sharing!!

I constructed my own religion once..
pretty faithful to it
, and it has absolutely no guidelines or dogmas.
like life. like spirituality should be.