The histories of all religions contain similar fundamental questions about humankind: What is the nature of the universe? What are the conditions that humankind must overcome?
Throughout all religions as well, there are common truths. For example, there is a widespread belief in the survival of the spirit after death. However, beliefs about what happens after death and the nature of the afterlife vary greatly.
Over time, in all cultures and civilisations, spirit communication became the predominant influence in the formation of religious belief. But as religions became more institutionalised, ritual and dogma made the aspect and occurrence of phenomena less acceptable. In western culture, this became more evident as Christianity became the dominant religion.
In 325 A.D., the Council of Nicaea identified the need to unify belief systems. Emperor Constantine decreed that the Christian church would rise to the position of State Church of the Roman Empire. In essence, this decree gave the church power above all other religions. Those who opposed the decree were cast out as heretics and pagans. Religious persecution was rampant. It was the dawn of theology.
Early Christians practiced forms of spiritual phenomena. Time passed and the practice became less and less acceptable to the church. As the church became more organised, power was concentrated in the hands of the priests who suppressed the activities of those individuals who practised the phenomena or who were thought to have faculties of the spirit.
When Christianity expanded westward, it tried to bring an end to all spirit communication and phenomena. People who possessed psychic gifts were actively oppressed and labelled as black magicians and witches. In response to these abuses, the use and practice of psychic phenomena went underground in many western cultures and remained there until the early 1700s. It was at this time that science began to investigate spiritual phenomena and sparked the interest that led to the dawn of modern Spiritualism. ©
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