Many Americans haunted by ghosts, look to astrology

Although most Americans are Christian and many are devout it hasn’t stopped some members of the flock from believing in astrology, reincarnation or the ability of trees to trap spiritual energy.

A poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows a surprising number of U.S. adults claim to have had supernatural experiences such as ghost sightings or hold beliefs associated with the New Age movement or Eastern religions.

And some of them claim allegiance to more traditional faiths such as Catholicism or evangelical Protestantism. […]

The poll released on Wednesday showed that three-in-ten Americans say they have felt in touch with a dead person and 18 percent say they have seen or been in the presence of a ghost. […]

Nearly 25 percent said they believed in reincarnation and 23 percent said yoga was a spiritual practice. Twenty six percent said they believed “spiritual energy” could be found in objects such as trees.

A quarter said they believed in astrology, while 16 percent of U.S. adults think that an “evil eye” exists or that some people can cast curses or spells on others. Among black Protestants the evil eye figure is 32 percent.

Reuters: Many Americans haunted by ghosts, look to astrology

(via William Gibson)

2 Comments

  1. Oh, yeah? Well, what I want to know is what percentage of Americans can define what they mean when they say “supernatural” or “spiritual energy.” Have I seen “ghosts?” Sure. Do I think what I’ve experienced has some direct relationship to dead people? Probably not, but hell if I know. The problem is one of interpretation. I’m sure that the 26 pct that reported believing that spiritual energy could reside in trees have had some sort of experience with a tree (or whatever) that they considered spiritual, but it would have been a lot more interesting to know just what they experienced and what caused them to interpret the experience as spiritual.

  2. dont just hug a tree, hug the fuck out of it.

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