Religions of Primitive Peoples

by Daniel G. Brinton

Powerful means of suggestion are the monotonous repetitions of certain words; the fixation of the sight on a single object; the concentration of the mind on one thought; the reduction of the ordinary nutrition; association with persons already under its influence; continuance of the same motions; prolonged hearing the same note or rhythmic chord; silence, darkness, and solitude. These may be variously combined and brought to bear upon the mind in such a manner as entirely to alter its ordinary habits, and seemingly to evoke another personality.

The rationale by which this is reached is through developing the automatic and unconscious action of the mind into a conscious display of its powers. This may be repulsive or admirable, above or below the normal capacities; but is always correlated to the individual, and connected with his experiences.

This is the explanation of nearly all the religious experiences of primitive peoples, as it is of what is known as “theopathy” everywhere, and of the modern forms of theosophy, mesmerism, and hypnotism.[43]

All religious teachings and associations, in the lowest as well as the highest faiths, aim to cultivate these mystical feelings by increasing the intensity of the suggestions which give rise to them, and diminishing the force of other suggestions which may interfere.

Even in civilised communities it is extraordinary with what facility suggestive sense-delusions can be produced in waking persons. At least ninety out of every hundred individuals can be persuaded thus to deceive themselves. The extreme contagiousness of such delusions, common enough in civilised conditions, is greatly increased in the savage state. In their lives the phenomena of auto-suggestion are strikingly frequent. Among the African Zulus any adult can cast himself or herself into the hypnotic state, and by this obtain what they consider second sight,—“the power to see where lost objects are, and how absent friends are occupied.” When asked to explain this state of mind, they can only say that it is one “in which a man is awake, but sees things which he would not see, if he were not in this state”[44]; which reminds us of the remarkable doctrine of the Sanscrit Upanishads—“There is no limit to the knowing of the Self that knows.”[45] Among many Australian tribes, among the Kamschatkans, and among the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego, as well as many other peoples, the mysterious power of the shamans or medicine men is shared by all adults in a greater or less degree.[46]

These are at the bottom of the scale. One degree higher, and we find the priesthood a separate class, usually of both sexes, but chosen by natural selection from those members of the community who by temperament or cultivation possess in the highest degree this tendency to mystical power. This is generally indicated by the clearness and character of the dreams and visions which appear at the time he or she enters adult life. These are considered to be direct inspirations from the spirit world, either from the souls of the dead, or the powers other than those which control the destiny of man.

These inspired seers represent the priesthood of every primitive religion. They cultivate and preserve it, and in them the missionaries of higher faiths have ever found their most resolute foes and successful opponents. The reason is, as I have said, that the shaman has himself been face to face with God, has heard His voice, and felt His presence. His faith therefore is real, and cannot be shaken by any argument. He may indeed, and he generally does, assist his public performances with some trickery, some thaumaturgy; but that this is merely superadded for effect is proved by the general custom that when one such adept is ill or in straits he will solicit the aid of another.[47]

Among his associates he is looked upon as set apart from other men by the divinity which chooses him for its agent, or dwells within him. In the Polynesian islands this is forcibly expressed in the terms applied to the native priests, pia atua, “god boxes,” receptacles of divinity; and amama, “open mouths,” for through them the god speaks, not their own selves.[48]

The presence of divinity is recognised and felt only in unusual mental states, in moments of ecstasy or trance, in periods of rapture, intoxication, or frenzy. Hence in all early and many late religions abnormal and pathological mental seizures are regarded as cases of inspiration, or else of demoniac possession. In the Quichua language of Peru the word huaca is their most general term for the divine, but huaca runa, “divine man,” means one who is crazy[49]; and in Greek, the word mania was used for both madness and prophetic inspiration.

We thus see that in this mental state we find the psychic development of the primitive idea of the divine, the notion of God. It is not, as has sometimes been claimed, the sudden result of a single feeling; it is a complex conception, from a multitude of obscurely felt impressions and emotions. It is neither an intuition nor an induction; it is neither an inference from observation, nor the conclusion of a logical process. A study of its aspect in savage life shows that it arises from the perception of the latent activity of the sub-consciousness, from the strange sense of activity, will, and power which, under favourable conditions of concentration (suggestion), it imparts to the more or less conscious Self. This influence is at first vague, impersonal, undefined, but is gradually differentiated and personified. Furthermore, it is constantly strengthened and sustained by the agency of that cultivated suggestion I have described, which is intended to bring the individual into contact with unknown activities. Thus the idea of the superhuman is developed from the unconscious human powers of Mind.