unity allowing an unseen beauty of life to surface. Encyclopedias have listed animism as "superstitious beliefs," in other words an "irrational belief," and taken an intellectualist perspective (Jones, 1957). Personal experiences have placed animism as a fairly logical explanation of "how things work". Explaining how and why things are becomes just as difficult as explaining the meaning of life. Understanding the reason behind animism makes for connections between other religions and practices and their universality.
             In the hunter-gatherer society, civilization is believed to have risen. Before, nomads and the peoples in search of food were more than likely to not have the need or the expendable time to consider how things came to be (Bird-David, 2006). Their intellect is not to say "inferior" to any period of time, their adaptation to their environment was merely their highest priority. As tribes drew together in a union of kindred or clans, there an interaction commenced. The concept of dreams was introduced. The concept of a soul, sleep, comas, trauma, and most importantly, death were also brought forth (Pals, 2007). In light of these new discoveries, reasons and explanations were sought thereafter. How were indigenous people to explain the phenomena that is sleep and the dreams that occur when in such state? Sir Tylor explains this to be the primitive form of religion or " first phase of developmental religions." Other groups differ. Their views of life start from a source, an all-powerful, all-seeing deity. The order of balance is maintained by a sole power, possibly multiple powers, and decisions are left in their grip.
             The connection between rational thinking and socialization creates a myriad of beliefs within a group that could have not occurred had they not come together. The shared beliefs become rituals and in turn become a set practice. All of these ...