Animism, magic and the omnipotence of thought
What is animism? (99)
Does the quote from David Hume (101) remind you of Disney?
What do sleep and death have to do with animism? (100)
Freud claims that there have been three systems of thought that explain the world around us. (1) animistic (mythological), (2) religious, (3) scientific. (101) Which one is the most consistent?
Sorcery is psychological; it treats spirits as if they were humans. (102)
Magic is "mistaking an ideal connection for a real one." (103)
Which must have come first: magic or sorcery? (102)
What was the magic ceremony performed by the Egyptians to rescue the sun? (103-4)
The idolatry condemned in the Bible and Koran was to eliminate magical instruments widely uused at the time. (104)
What are some examples of magic to bring in rain and to ensure fertility of the soil? (105)
Magic is effective regardless of distance (106) because thought does not recognize distance. (111)
In animism, similarity between the performed action and the expected happening brings out the result. In religion a god is beseeched to bring out the result. In science the variables that are theoretically responsible for an action are manipulated. (106)
Another source of control over a human is to possess a belonging to that person, including his/her name. (106) Cannibalism is the extreme form of possessing. (107)
How do animists treat an arrow that caused a wound? (107)
Animists (and children) thought what they wished actually affected natural order of things. (109)
How was the realization that wishes do not necessarily come true reconciled with the desire to believe them? (110)
The principle that controls magic is "Omnipotence of Thought." (111)
Neurotics live in a world of fantasy and believe that their wishes have direct effect on the object of their wishes. (113)
How does "omnipotence of thought" change from the animistic to religious to scientific realms? (115)
"Magic…[is] the tendency of forcing the laws of psychic life upon the reality of things." (119)
"Spirits and demons were nothing but the projection of primitive man's emotional impulses." (119)
Which came first: evil or good spirits? (120)
The knowledge of death seems to be the source of the creation of spirits and taboos. (121)
Many savage races forbade keeping sharp weapons in the house. Some modern cultures don't let sharp edge of knives pointing up. (128) Freud thinks this is all trying to avoid the use of weapons for unconscious evil purpose. (129) We never hear this reasoning for the ban on guns in the US.