What Is A Religious Specialist?

Religious specialists are very important to their community. African communities, like many others, have seasonal festivals, perform rites of passage, and communicate with the unseen world. In order for the communities to perform such events, they must have religious specialists. A religious specialist, either men or women, ranks above ordinary humans. They each have a vital force and knowledge, that gives them the ability to mediate between society and the invisible world. The goal of all religious specialists is to appease the Supreme Being with sacrifices and offerings, diagnose and heal the sick, hand down traditions, ext. The number and variety of religious specialist vary from place to place. Some specialist includes: kings, priests and priestesses, mediums, diviners, healers, prophets, and witches. A medium is a specialist who mediates between the human and spirit worlds by trances (spirit possession). Mediums work with clients to determine his/her problems or just to communicate with the passing of someone. During a trance, mediums are possessed (losing their own personality and characteristics) and are replaced with the spirit. The spirit communicates through the medium to the client, in which the client must confess of any wrong
African communities investigate all illnesses, diseases, and misfortunes to determine whether they are due to natural causes, witch craft, or sorcery. If a healer determines that an illness is from a non-natural cause, he or she will initiate the healing procedure. First, the healer will often want his or her patient to confess of any wrong doings to the people. Next, a sacrifice needs to be given to the unseen world. Followed by the sacrifice, herbs and minerals are applied to the patient, to heal them. In order to be a healer, you must have a visit from the spirits or Ancestors during a dream, or it can be