Psychic News Blog

Psychic News from around the world.

In a polytheist society where freedom of faith exists, the belief in religion and new age beliefs like astrology are both practiced.

The human mind expands and searches for the meaning of life about the supernatural. Finding the answers in signs, stars, and reincarnation offers a diverse and wide array of the   explanations and meaning of a spiritual journey.

So we come to know of indigenous peoples and their rituals and their faith on spirits of animals, trees, and rivers while believing in the Great Spirit God.

We come to know of the Greeks and the Romans who believe in the meaning of stars and the influence of these on their lives.

These earlier spiritual quests come to have an influence on those who search for spiritual enlightenment while practicing other religions as well including Christianity.

A survey done by a major religion polling group to tackle Americans’ belief in such things as “the evil eye” and “spiritual energy in trees”, was conducted in August by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Researchers found that 24 percent of U.S. adults sometimes attend services of a faith different from their own.

The study also found Americans’ personal beliefs often combine aspects of major religions such as Christianity with Eastern or New Age beliefs like reincarnation and astrology.

For example, 25 percent of about 4,000 U.S. adults surveyed believe in reincarnation, the rebirth of the soul in another body.

For most of the questions — “have you ever had a religious or mystical experience” and “have you seen or been in the presence of a ghost” — have been asked before, and in both cases, there was a significant increase in the number of people saying yes.

Nearly half of those surveyed in August said they have had a mystical/religious experience, compared with 22 percent in a 1962 survey. The percentage who said they have interacted with a ghost doubled from 9 percent in 1996 to 18 percent this year.

Link here for original post:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705350894/Christians-voice-belief-in-astrology.html

It was in the 14^th to 18^th centuries that witch hunts led to them witches getting burned or hanged in Europe to North America.  Also, Anabaptists and other non-secular religious heretics were persecuted and tortured.

The witch hunt phenomenon in the earlier years branding witches as the work of the devil persists with related interpretation as of now. The recent death sentence of Lebanese psychic Sibat Ali by the Saudi Arabian government, tells that this form of spiritual belief and exercise continues to be an endangered practice.

That is to say, it is still a struggle among psychics and fortune tellers to be recognized of their rare gift and occupation as a legitimate belief or a religion.

Why it persists as not totally accepted is a continuing question. Considered as a form of polytheism by the Saudian government for example, witchcraft stands as a belief which is not allowed by Muslims.

Yet in a supernatural world where gods and spirits are not seen physically but instead felt and encountered manifests their presence in the consciousness of humans in various cultures and experiences.  This has led to belief in other types of recognizing the supernatural aside from a common type of belief.

Where the practice has led to useful predictions and  helped missing  people while  it upheld  the presence of  God,  other forms  of belief is an encouraging spiritual practice.

But not when the practice violates human rights of  individuals or a group of people.

In Tanzania last year, some 50 people who had albino features were killed and their body parts used for black magic by voodoo practitioners.  An albino’s arms, fingers, genitals, ears, and blood are highly prized on the black market, believed to contain magical powers.

Called muti, the murders are particularly brutal, with knives and machetes used to hack off limbs, breasts, and other body parts from the victims—including children. Some believe that because belief in witchcraft and muti is so accepted in East Africa, police, politicians, and judges are hesitant to pursue the criminals too vigorously.

Voodoo has its limitations. It is when people get killed in the process that it becomes a criminal practice.

Link here for original post:

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/091209-bad-witchcraft.html

Deputy Chief Bill Gavitt from the New London Police Department who died two weeks ago is remembered for his being a good cop. Being an  exceptional detective, he helped solve many murders, robberies, rapes and other crimes using conventional and unconventional means.  He worked with psychic Pat Gagliardo during his years of active duty.

“In one occasion, Gavitt and Gagliardo searched for the body of the city’s water superintendent Gordon A. Beckwith, who had been missing for several days and was suspected of having fallen or been pushed into the Thames River”, Ann Baldelli  of  Theday.com writes.

“Psychic Pat Gagliardo also helped Gavitt another time by leading police to the body of Richard Eastman, a Coast Guard warrant officer, who was fished out of the river in his car in 1979. Gavitt just wanted to get the bad guys, or solve a case, and he didn’t mind using unconventional means.”

Psychics have long aided cops in their surveillance work especially on locating missing persons.  Gavitt was wise  and wise enough to know the value of  psychics’  contribution to detective work,  much as  he  knew a good psychic from a false one.

Gavitt also is remembered for having a good heart.

He sacrificed his own job so a younger captain could keep his position when the City Council cut the deputy chief’s position in a tight budget year.

“Say whatever you want about Bill Gavitt, but he had a good heart and a knack for talking to people. He was far from perfect, and his excesses, drinking and smoking, likely contributed to his death, but he was one of those guys who were both tender and rough around the edges at the same time,” TheDay.com reports.

Link here for original post: http://www.theday.com/article/20091129/OP04/311299937

For making prediction on a satellite TV Channel, Lebanese psychic Ali Sibat was arrested by religious police in the holy city of Medina and then sentenced to death November 9, Startribune.com relays.

‘Sibat is one of scores of people reported arrested every year in Saudi Arabia for practicing sorcery, witchcraft, black magic and fortune-telling. These practices are considered polytheism by the government of this deeply religious Muslim country’, Donna Abu-Nasr of Associated Press writes.

Withcraft which is then considered as polytheist by this Muslim nation means belief in God  is only focused to Allah and no one else? Anyone believing or practicing their faith in other supernatural beings, gods or deities other than Allah is a crime.

Where freedom of faith and religion is deeply enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights but not adopted by Saudi Arabia, it raises questions on the government’s respect for some of its citizens’ practice on other faiths.

Some Islamic countries have criticized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for its ‘perceived failure to take into the account the cultural and religious context of Islamic countries’. Is it not also logical that their perception be consistently followed to respect other individual faiths as well?

Muslim nation-members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference  officially adopted  the June 30, 2000 Cairo Declaration on Human  Rights  in Islam , an alternative document that says people have “freedom and right to a dignified life in accordance with the Islamic Shari’ah”.

Yet the Shari’ah, similar to the Christian Bible, apparently is open to a wide array of  interpretations.

The Human Rights report highlights the ongoing complaints over the Saudi justice system, based on the Shari’ah, ‘which can often result in dramatically inconsistent sentences.’ The Report called on the Saudi government to halt “its increasing use of charges of ‘witchcraft,’ crimes that are vaguely defined and arbitrarily used.”

Another Saudi woman Fawza Falih was sentenced to death by beheading in 2006 for the alleged crimes of witchcraft, recourse to supernatural beings, and animal sacrifice.

Refer to original story:

http://www.startribune.com/world/73539447.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBcy7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU