The question "What makes objects of perception appear real?" seems sophisticated, but early humans asked it. One possible answer was "An invisible, universal force."

Before there were spirits that are peculiar to the objects they inhabit - so some anthropologists claim - there was "mana," a supernatural force that helps the object to fulfill its purpose.

So when a fishing net is thrown, it is the net's mana that makes the catch; when herbs are prescribed for illness, it is their mana that endows them with healing properties. Mana is a word that sciences have borrowed from South Pacific languages, but a similar or identical concept is reported from other communities around the world. Known as arungquiltha among certain Australian tribes, or wakan, orenda, and manitu in Native America, which I found out by my old 96 year old friend who is a Native American.

It is not detectable by archaeology, only in traditions that have lain unrecorded until the fairly recent past. The arguments about it are warped by partisanship, for the controversy over which came first - spirits or mana - is animated by deep ideological divisions. Those who favor the priority of mana want to make animism, or belief in spirits, seems a later, and therefore more "developed," attitude to the world.

By implication, this makes animism less "primitive" for some and more sophisticated and mature realm of human thought and action, a development later than magic and therefore better. There seems, however, no reason why spirit and mana should not have been conceived simultaneously in some cultures, or in conflicting order in others.

A commonly asked - but effectively unanswerable - question about mana is "is it manipulable?" Did magic start as an attempt to tease or control? In some societies, especially among the Maoris and Hawaiians, the authority of chiefs, priests, and nobles is justified on the grounds of their special access or relationship to mana or to some similar source of power.

A deeper question about belief in mana is whether it is valid or not. While most people make a fundamental distinction today between organic and inorganic matter, modern physics identifies all matter as characterized by essentially similar relationships between particles: composed of quantum charges, which are dynamic and formative and so resemble mana in a curious respect. I learned that from the Mingle2 scientists and researchers here. lol

They could reasonably be called a source of "force," though we are reluctant to suppose that they constitute a purposeful force, which, in most versions of the idea, is what mana seems to be. Mana should, in any event, be acknowledged as a sophisticated idea, since it seems to arise from a sophisticated problem: for the peoples who believe in it, it is what makes the perceived world real.

A further question is "how did the idea of mana contribute to the origins of the idea of a single, universal God?"

Some early missionaries who encountered mana-belief in North America and Polynesia identified it with awareness of God and regarded it as a king of religion is my hunch. The speculation that God is a sort of outgrowth of mana is a tempting one; really, however, the doctrine of mana seems more closely to resemble some esoteric modern beliefs, such as the "aura" of alternative health speak, or the "organic energy" ascribe to all matter by proponents of the orienatal-influenced "new physics" that I so admire.



So now that you read my essay what is "aura”, "mana", "force", "organic energy" to you. Is it but a mere superstition or does it hold value in a philosophical, personal, or even scientific way.

Another quite interesting question.

I could rattle on about this one for quite some time, but I try to refrain from doing so.

Let me first say that I personally feel that there is indeed a scientific basis for 'mana'. I personally consider it to be a form of consciousness. Some scientists might call it an "emergent property". I prefer to call it a "property that emerges". This might seem like a play on words, but it basically comes down to the chicken and the egg question. Which came first, the property, or the emergence of the property. Since I believe that the property emerges from form, and form is inherent in the faces of the dice (I'll assume you know what I mean by that), then the property preexists the form. This answers the chicken and egg question for me and places the property as having actually preexisted the form in the sense of 'potentiality'.

So yes, I believe in 'mana', or 'spirit', or 'conscious aura', however you care to label it.

I also believe in 'magick' although I don't take that to the realm of stage illusions as you have posted a picture of. I'm not aware of any 'mana' that could levitate a human body to defy gravity. Of course, that doesn't mean that such mana doesn't exist. I'm just confessing that I'm not aware of any such thing.

I am aware of other spiritual elements that can indeed be "called up" (or orchestrated into working harmoniously toward a single goal).

You stated:



I think that stage magic and illusion did indeed begin as an attempt to control the unwary. But stage magic and illusion is not the orchestration of mana, or spirit, IMHO.

The true orchestration of mana, or spirit, is often referred to a "witchcraft". Although, even "witchcraft" has been grossly misrepresented by Hollywood and fictional tales.

The bottom line for me is that mana (or spirit) is consciousness. And consciousness is nothing more than form. Everything that has form necessarily has consciousness and that consciousness can indeed be orchestrated via the human psyche. The techniques for orchestrating the "elemental spirits" (the spirits of form) are revealed in various folklore of witchcraft, faery teachings, and shamanism. Some of those teachings are very good, whilst others are total baloney. It's just like with all other information. Some information you can trust, other information you can't. You've got to follow your intuition on that one.

It's also not only found witchcraft, faery teachings, of shamanism. It's also found in some of the earlier Indian traditions of Buddhism, Yoga, and the teaching of the Vedic traditions. A doctor by the name of Deepak Chopra has a lot of books and DVDs that cover much of this in a very practical way.

The mysterious of what we know about "aura", "mana", "force", "organic energy", remain in different opinions throughout the world.

What makes it interesting is many believe in something they can't identify, but can feel for some reason. Some even call it a type of faithful energy that they can go to.

It is interesting topic that could have so many answers to them. Thanks for sharing your view James