Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman. There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world. One of the most significant and relevant qualities that separate a shaman from other spiritual leaders is their communications with the supernatural world.

Shaman perform a plethora of functions depending upon the society wherein they practice their art, such as healing, preserving tradition by storytelling and songs, fortune telling, acting as a guide of souls and leading a sacrifice. In some cultures, a shaman may fulfill several functions in one person.

The functions of a shaman may include either guiding to their proper place the souls of the dead, or curing of ailments. The ailments may be purely physical afflictions, such as disease, which may be cured by flattering, threatening, or wrestling the disease spirit, and which may be completed by displaying some extracted token of the disease spirit. Displaying this is supposed to impress the disease spirit that it has been, or is in the process of being, defeated, so that it will retreat and stay out of the patient’s body. Mental afflictions amy also be treated, such as persistent terror on account of some frightening experience, which may be likewise cured by similar methods.

In most languages a different term other than the one translated  as shaman is applied to a religious official or priest leading sacrificial rites, or to a reconteur or sage of traditional lore. There may be more of an overlap in functions with than of a shaman in the case of an interpreter of omens or of dreams.

Following are beliefs that are shared by all forms of shamanism:

• Spirits exist and they play important roles both in individual lives and in human society.
• The shaman can communicate with the spirit world.
• Spirits can be good or evil.
• The shaman can treat sickness caused by evil spirits.
• The shaman can employ trance inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy.
• The shaman’s spirit can leave the body to enter the supernatural world to search for answers.
• The shaman evokes animal images as spirit guides, omens, and message bearers. Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits which affect the lives of the living. 

In contrast to organized religions like animism or animatism which are led by priests and which all members of a society practice, shamanism requires individualized knowledge and special abilities. Shaman operate outside established religions, and, traditionally, they operate alone. Shaman can gather into associations, as Indian tantric practitioners have done.

Shaman act as mediators in their culture. The shaman is seen as communicating with the spirits on behalf of the community, including the spirits of the dead. In some cultures, this mediator function of the shaman may be illustrated well by some of the shaman’s objects and symbols.

Among the Selkups, a report mentions a sea duck as a spirit animal. Ducks are capable of both flying and diving underwater, thus they are regarded as belonging to both the upper world and the world underneath. Similarly, the shaman and the jaguar are identified in some Amazonian cultures. The jaguar is capable of moving freely on the ground, in the water, and climbing trees (like the shaman’s soul). In some Siberian cultures, it is some water fowl species that are associated to the shaman in a similar way, and the shaman is believed to take on its form.

The Shaman’s Tree is an image found in several cultures as a symbol for mediation. The tree is seen as a being whose roots belong to the world underneath. Its trunk belongs to the middle, human inhabited world, and its top is related to the upper world.

In some cultures there may be additional types of shaman, who perform more specialized functions. For example, among the Nanai people, a distinct kind of shaman acts as a guide of souls. Other specialized shaman may be distinguished according to the type of spirits or realms of the spirit world, with which the shaman most commonly interacts.

There are also neoshamanistic movements which differ from many tradtitional shamanistic practice and beliefs in several points. Neoshamanism is not a single cohesive belief system but many philosophies lumped together. Most neoshamans believe in spirits and pursue self actualization through meditation and the use of entheogens.

Today, shamanism survives primarily among indigenous peoples. Shamanic practices continue today in the tundras, jungles, deserts, and other rural areas, and even in cities, towns, suburbs, and shantytowns all over the world. This is especially true for Africa and South America, where mestizo shamanism is widespread.

Laughter is a part of human behaviour regulated by the brain. It helps humans clarify their intentions in social interaction and provides an emotional context to conversations. Laughter is used as a signal for being part of a group. It signals acceptance and positive interactions with others. The study of humor and laughter, and its psychological and physiological effects on the human body is called gelotology.

Common causes for laughter are sensations of joy and humor, however other situations may cause laughter as well. A general theory that explains laughter is called the relief theory. Sigmund Freud summarized it in his theory that laughter releases tension and psychic energy. This theory is one of the justifications of the beliefs that laughter is beneficial for one’s health. This theory explains why laughter can be a coping mechanism for when one is upset, angry or sad.

Philosopher John Morreall theorizes that human laughter may have its biological origins as a kind of shared expression of relief at the passing of danger. For instance, a joke creates an inconsistency, a sentence appears to be not relevant, and we automatically try to understand what the sentence says. If we are successful in solving this cognitive riddle, and we find out what is hidden within the sentence, and we realize that the surprise wasn’t dangerous, we eventually laugh with relief. Otherwise, if the inconsistency is not resolved, there is no laugh.

Recently, researchers have shown that infants as early as 17 days old have vocal laughing sounds or spontaneous laughter. This conflicts with earlier studies indicating that babies usually start to laugh at about four months of age. Dr. Robert R. Provine has spent decades studying laughter. He indicates that laughter is a mechanism everyone has as part of universal human vocabulary. There are thousands of languages, hundreds of thousands of dialects, but everyone speaks laughter in pretty much the same way.

A dog laugh sounds similar to a normal pant, but by analyzing the pant using a sonograph, it varies with bursts of frequencies, resulting in a laugh. When this recorded dog laugh vocalization is played to dogs in a shelter setting, it can initiate play, promote social behavior, and decrease stress levels.

It has been discovered that rats emit short, high frequency, ultrasonic, socially induced vocalization during play and when tickled. The vocalization is described a distinct chirping. It has been observed that those rats who laughed the most also played the most, and those that laughed the most preferred to spend more time with other laughing rats. This suggests a social preference to other rats exhibiting similar responses.

The Muller-Lyer illusion is an optical illusion consisting of nothing more than an arrow. It consists of two arrow like figures, one with both ends pointing in, and the other with both ends pointing out. When asked to judge the lengths of the two lines, which are equal, viewers will typically claim that the line with inward pointing arrows is longer.

One possible explanation is that one sees the lines as three dimensional, such as the outgoing and ingoing corners of a room. Another possible explanation is that the line with arrows pointing inwards may simply appear longer because the arrows themselves extend past the line.

The illusion is not cross cultural. Non western subjects, and particularly subjects whose day to day surroundings are usually not rectangular, as with few buildings, doors, walls, are much less likely to be affected by it. Researchers discovered that the Zulu people, whose typical dwellings are circular thatched huts with no angular walls, were rarely susceptible to the illusion.

One possible explanation states that the Muller-Lyer illusion occurs because the visual system processes that judge depth and distance assume in general that the angles in configuration corresponds to an object which is closer, and the angles out configuration corresponds to an object which is far away. Basically, there seems to be a simple heuristic that takes those configurations as 90 degree angles. This heuristic speeds up the interpretation process, but gives rise to many optical illusions in unusual scenes.

Neural nets in the visual system of human beings learn how to make a very efficient interpretation of 3D scenes. That is why, when somebody goes away from us, we do not see him getting shorter. And when we stretch one arm and look at the two hands we do not see one hand smaller than the other. We should not forget that, as visual illusions show us quite clearly, what we see is an image created in our brain. Our brain projects the image of the smaller hand to its correct distance in our internal 3D model. This is what is called the size constancy mechanism.

In the Muller-Lyer illusion, the visual system detects the depth cues, which are usually associated with 3D scenes, and incorrectly decides it is a 3D drawing. Then the size constancy mechanism makes us see an erroneous length of the object which, for a true perspective drawing, would be further away.

The Nutcracker is a fairy tale ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composed in 1892. Alexandre Dumas. It was commissioned by the director of the Imperial Theatres’ Ivan Vsevolozhsky. In Western countries, this ballet has become perhaps the most popular ballet, performed primarily around Christmas time.

Tchaikovsky was less satisfied with this than his last ballet. Though he accepted the commission from Ivan Vsevolozhsky, he did not particularly want to write it, though he did write to a friend while composing the ballet that each day he was becoming more and more attuned to the task.

While composing the music for the ballet, Tchaikovsky is said to have argued with a friend who wagered that the composer could not write a melody based on the notes of the octave in sequence. Tchaikovsky asked if it mattered whether the notes were in ascending or descending order, and was assured it did not. This resulted in the Grand adage from the Grand pas de deux of the second act, which happens just after Waltz of the Flowers.

The first complete performance of the ballet outside Russia took place in England in 1934. Its first complete United States performance was in 1944, by the San Francisco Ballet, staged by its artistic director Willam Christensen. The New York City Ballet first performed George Balanchine’s staging of The Nutcracker in 1954.

One novelty in Tchaikovsky’s original score was the use of the celesta, a new instrument Tchaikovsky had discovered in Paris. He wanted it for the character of the Sugar Plum Fairy to characterize her because of its sound. Tchaikovsky also uses toy instruments during the Christmas party scene. Tchaikovsky was proud of the celesta’s effect, and wanted its music performed quickly for the public before he could be “scooped.”

The persimmon is the fruit of tree of the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family. They are high in glucose, with a balanced protein profile, and possess various medicinal and chemical uses.

It originated in China and is widespread in northeast Asian countries. They are sweet, slightly tart fruits with a soft to occasionally fibrous texture. Cultivation of the fruit extended first to other parts of east Asia, and was later introduced to California and southern Europe in the 1800s. It has its best flavor when allowed to rest and soften slightly after harvest.

The heart shaped Hachiya is the most common variety of persimmon. They contain very high levels of soluble tannins and are unpalatable if eaten before softening. The tomato shaped persimmon is most commonly known as Fuyu.

Persimmons are eaten fresh or dried, raw or cooked. When eaten fresh the peel is usually peeled off and the fruit is cut into quarters or eaten whole like an apple. The raw fruit is used to treat constipation and hemorrhoids, and to stop bleeding. The fruits of some persimmon varieties contain the tannins catechin and gallocatechin, as well as the anti tumor compounds betulinic acid and shibuol.

Horses may develop a taste for the fruit growing on a tree in their pasture and overindulge, making them quite ill. It is often advised that persimmons should not be eaten with crab meat, nor should they be eaten on an empty stomach.

Though persimmon trees belong to the same genus as ebony trees, persimmon tree wood has use in the manufacture of objects requiring hardwood. Persimmon wood was heavily used in making the highest quality heads of the golf clubs known as woods until the golf industry moved primarily to metal woods in the last years of the 20th century. Over the last few decades persimmon wood has become popular among bow craftsmen, especially in the making of traditional longbows.

It is said that you can predict the winter by taking the seeds out of some persimmons and then slicing the seeds. The shape that shows up the most inside each seed will tell you what kind of winter to expect. The three shapes resemble three eating utensils. A Knife shape means there will be a cold icy winter, as the wind will slice through you like a knife. A Spoon shape means there will be plenty of snow for you to shovel. A Fork shape means there will be a mild winter.

In Western civilization, Idealism is the philosophy which maintains that the ultimate nature of reality is based upon ideas, values and essences and that the external, or real world is inseparable from consciousness, perception, mind, intellect and reason in the sense of rigorous science.

In certain idealistic philosophies the ideal is said to involve direct and immediate knowledge of subjective mental ideas, or images. Idealism is often opposed to realism in which the real is said to have an absolute existence prior to, and independent of, knowledge and consciousness. Epistemological idealists such as Immanuel Kant might insist that the only things which can be directly known for certain are ideas.

Some forms of idealism, like that of Rene Descartes, are often contrasted with materialism. Some idealists, like Baruch Spinoza, are monist as opposed to dualist.

A broad enough definition of idealism could include most religious viewpoints. The belief that personal beings such as Gods, angels and spirits preceded the existence of insentient matter seems to suggest that an experiencing subject is a necessary reality. Also, the existence of an omniscient God suggests, regardless of the actual nature of matter, that all of nature is the object of at least one consciousness.

Materialism sees no incoherence in a scenario of there being a cosmos where no sentient subject ever develops. A wholly unknown universe where neither any subject, nor any object of a subject’s experience ever exists. Historically, Mechanistic Materialism has been the favorite viewpoint of Atheist philosophers. Still, idealistic viewpoints that have not included God, supernatural beings, or a post-mortem existence have sometimes been advanced.

Many religious philosophies are indeed specifically idealist. Some Hindu denominations view regarding the nature of Brahman, souls, and the world as idealistic, and some have favored a form of substance dualism. Early Buddhism was not subjective idealistic. Some have misinterpreted the Yogācāra school of Mahayana Buddhism that developed the consciousness only approach as a form of metaphysical idealism, but this is incorrect. Yogācāra thinkers did not focus on consciousness to assert it as ultimately real. Yogācāra claims consciousness is only conventionally real since it arises from moment to moment due to fluctuating causes and conditions.

Some Christian theologians have held idealist views. Substance dualism has been the more common view of Christian authors, especially with the strong influence of the philosophy of Aristotle among the Scholastics. 

Several modern religious movements, for example the organizations within the New Thought Movement and the Unity Church, may be said to have a particularly idealist orientation.

The theology of Christian Science includes a form of subjective idealism: it teaches that all that exists is God and God’s ideas; that the world as it appears to the senses is a distortion of the underlying spiritual reality.

A Course in Miracles, a spiritual self study course published in 1976, represents an explicitly idealist, pure nondualistic thought system. In the course, only God and His Creation, which is Spirit and has nothing to do with the world, are real. The physical universe is an illusion and does not exist. The Course compares the world of perception with a dream. It arises from the projection of the dreamer. The purpose of the perceptual world is to ensure our separate, individual existence apart from God but avoid the responsibility and project the blame onto others. As we learn to give the world another purpose and recognize our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them as a way to awaken gradually from the dream and finally remember our true Identity in God. The Course’s nondualistic metaphysics is similar to the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.

Infrasound is sound with a frequency too low to be heard by the human ear. The study of such sound waves is sometimes referred to as infrasonics, covering sounds beneath the lowest limits of human hearing, from 20 hertz to 0.001 hertz. Infrasound has been known to cause feelings of awe or fear in humans. Since it is not consciously perceived, it can make people feel vaguely that supernatural events are taking place.

On May 31, 2003, a team of UK researchers held a mass experiment where they exposed some 700 people to music laced with soft 17 Hz sine waves played at a level near the edge of hearing, produced by an extra long stroke subwoofer mounted two thirds of the way from the end of a seven meter long plastic sewer pipe. This experimental concert took place in the Purcell Room over the course of two performances, each consisting of four musical pieces. Two of the pieces in each concert had 17 Hz tones played underneath. In the second concert, the pieces that were to carry a 17 Hz undertone were swapped so that test results would not focus on any specific musical piece.

The presence of the tone resulted in a significant number of respondents reporting anxiety, uneasiness, extreme sorrow, nervous feelings of revulsion or fear, chills down the spine and feelings of pressure on the chest. In presenting the evidence, the scientist responsible said, “These results suggest that low frequency sound can cause people to have unusual experiences even though they cannot consciously detect infrasound. Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute to a ghost.”

Research by the late Vic Tandy, a lecturer at Coventry University, suggested that the frequency 19 hertz was responsible for many ghost sightings. He was working late one night alone in a supposedly haunted laboratory at Warwick, when he felt very anxious and could detect a grey blob out of the corner of his eye. When he turned to face it, there was nothing.

The following day, he was working on his fencing foil, with the handle held in a vice. Although there was nothing touching it, it started to vibrate wildly. Further investigation led him to discover that the extraction fan was emitting a frequency of 18.98 Hz, very close to the resonant frequency of the eye. This was why he saw a ghostly figure. It was an optical illusion caused by his eyeballs resonating. The room was exactly half a wavelength in length, and the desk was in the centre, thus causing a standing wave which was detected by the foil.

Tandy investigated this phenomenon further and wrote a paper entitled The Ghost in the Machine. He carried out a number of investigations at various sites believed to be haunted, including the basement of the Tourist Information Bureau next to Coventry Cathedral and Edinburgh Castle.