While I was visiting Salem my daughter wanted to visit the Witch Museum. I didn't have a very good feeling about it but my 13 year old daughter and my wife won out. I went along to be a spiritually protective influence. I was surprised by the show. It depicted in much more detail the Witch trials and the approximately 190 people that died as a result and it demonstrated how crazy people can get. It started when young women started to get catatonic, quite a few of them. The doctor who examined them couldn't figure out any illness associated with their condition and so believed it could only be witchcraft. It was strange that only young women between the ages of 12 and 17 were afflicted with this catatonia. Today many people believe it was caused by ergot in rye bread which can cause hallucinations and gangrene in the limbs and create a type of catatonia and inability to speak. But that still doesn't explain why only young post pubescent women were the only ones affected. Eventually, 190 people died either by hanging or in prison from all this craziness. At that time people were very afraid of the devil and anything that couldn't be explained easily was attributed to this.
I myself, don't believe in a devil. However, I do believe that chaotic things happen and so reason and wisdom and understanding must be created to couteract such chaotic events wherever possible. And I do believe in cause and effect. In other words what goes around comes around for every living being.
Since Shamanism connected with animism appears to be the first religion celibrated by all tribal peoples. And since this allowed tribes to survive for thousands and thousands of years long before religions like Brahmanism(10,000 years ago) and Judaism(approximately 7,000 years ago) and Buddhism (approximately 2500 years ago) came into being.
Catholicism and Buddhism have many places on earth allowed shamanism and their religions to merge. For example, in Mexico the tribal Shamanic religions have dovetailed with Catholicism to create what Catholicism is now in Mexico, Central and South America. And in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan etc. Buddhism has dovetailed with the local Bon Po shamanic religions of the Himalayas to become Tibetan Buddhism. For the larger religions to allow this to happen naturally, it has greatly strengthened these organized religions in these areas and given them a much more humane face than they would have had otherwise.
There is a natural vitality to shamanic religions worldwide. For example, in many if not most Native American Tribal religions the dreams and visions of every member of the tribe are very important to the whole tribe's sanity and survival. By allowing this to be this way it strengthens and makes everyone's connection directly to God and life and Universe the primary thing and validates every person's dreams and visions and makes them feel useful to the family, tribe or group in which they live. This is very important and prevents suicide and people becoming confused and forlorn in their lives. It can also help prevent insanity by helping family, tribal or group members to feel a part of their group and to strive more for individual and group purposes which will also give them a reason to stay alive and not take their own lives.
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