Content area
Full Text
Abstract.
The philosophical premises should be the constructs and ideas from which grand theoretical perspectives can be deduced. As Himes and Schulenberg (2013:1) put it, "Philosophy and theory are perpetually linked; philosophy influences how one sees the world, theory shapes how one intentionally interacts with that world". Let us just for a moment doubt science and challenge its dogma. What if science is not able to measure a dimension of life and then ignores it and teaches people to make this a private dimension and not to insist that this dimension also asserts itself in the public domain. What if people intuitively know that there is a spiritual world but are bombarded by scientific dogma to ignore it? Explanations on the origin of life, spiritual possession and death after life cannot be explained from a positivistic methodological view point simply because scientists have not been able to develop measuring instruments for these phenomena. To ignore sacred things and experiences and to be informed that you are "hallucinating" may be a cause for anxiety and, depression. Scientists are not comfortable when confronted by mysticism, metaphysical tendencies and religion. Despite the stance of scientists not to engage in matters that cannot be scientifically measured, millions of lives around the globe are affected by "supernatural phenomena" The article looks at the spiritual world from a biblical perspective in order to demonstrate that Satanism and occult practices are the inverse of Christianity. The objective is to establish a cross-disciplinary approach to find answers to some crimes that seems to be motivated by spiritual possession and mystic beliefs.
DOI: 10.5604/20805268.1231597
http://dx.doi.org/10.5604/20805268.1231597
Keywords: metaphysical, spiritual possession, territoriality, muti, snake
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ" (Col 2:8).
Introduction
Westerners often refer to Africa as the "Dark Continent", frequently citing the veneration of ancestors, witchcraft and muti murders2 as justification for this label. These phenomena are not unique to Africa as syncretic practices such as Voodoo3, Santeria4 and Wicca5 are practiced in America, Caribbean and Europe. Police officers are increasingly confronted by crimes that seem to be motivated by occult and satanic beliefs. In the West,...