第90篇		Paper 90
萨满教 -- 巫医和祭司		Shamanism—Medicine Men and Priests
90:0.1 (986.1) 宗教仪式的演变，从抚慰、回避、驱遣、镇伏、调解和安抚，进展到了祭献、赎罪和赎命。宗教仪式之手法，也从各种形式的原始崇拜，经过物神崇拜而变成了魔法和奇迹；随着仪式因应人对超物质领域渐趋复杂的观念而变得日益复杂，它不可避免地受到了巫医、萨满和祭司的把控。		90:0.1 (986.1) THE evolution of religious observances progressed from placation, avoidance, exorcism, coercion, conciliation, and propitiation to sacrifice, atonement, and redemption. The technique of religious ritual passed from the forms of the primitive cult through fetishes to magic and miracles; and as ritual became more complex in response to man’s increasingly complex concept of the supermaterial realms, it was inevitably dominated by medicine men, shamans, and priests.
90:0.2 (986.2) 在原始人不断提升的观念中，灵界终于被视为不再对普通凡人有所回应。只有人中之杰能引起诸神回应；只有非凡男女能获得鬼神垂听。宗教由此进入了一个新的阶段，它在这当中逐渐变成了间接性的；总会有一个巫医、萨满或是祭司介入到笃信宗教者和受崇拜对象之间。今日，玉苒厦(Urantia)大多有组织的宗教信仰体系都正在经历这个进化发展层次。		90:0.2 (986.2) In the advancing concepts of primitive man the spirit world was eventually regarded as being unresponsive to the ordinary mortal. Only the exceptional among humans could catch the ear of the gods; only the extraordinary man or woman would be heard by the spirits. Religion thus enters upon a new phase, a stage wherein it gradually becomes secondhanded; always does a medicine man, a shaman, or a priest intervene between the religionist and the object of worship. And today most Urantia systems of organized religious belief are passing through this level of evolutionary development.
90:0.3 (986.3) 进化类宗教导源于一种简单而无所不能的恐惧，这种恐惧在面临难以知晓、难以解释和难以理解之事时涌过人的头脑。宗教终归会达到一种对无所不能之爱深刻简单的实现，这种爱意会在意识到万有之父对其宇宙子民的无尽慈爱观念时，无可抗拒地泽被人类灵魂。但在宗教演变的起始到完满中间，很长时期内都会有萨满的介入，他们作为中间人、传译人和调解人而擅立于人与神之间。		90:0.3 (986.3) Evolutionary religion is born of a simple and all-powerful fear, the fear which surges through the human mind when confronted with the unknown, the inexplicable, and the incomprehensible. Religion eventually achieves the profoundly simple realization of an all-powerful love, the love which sweeps irresistibly through the human soul when awakened to the conception of the limitless affection of the Universal Father for the sons of the universe. But in between the beginning and the consummation of religious evolution, there intervene the long ages of the shamans, who presume to stand between man and God as intermediaries, interpreters, and intercessors.
1. 最初的萨满 -- 巫医 ^top		1. The First Shamans—The Medicine Men ^top
90:1.1 (986.4) 萨满是级别最高的巫医、仪式神人以及所有进化类宗教习俗的中心人物。在许多族群中，萨满的地位高于战争首领，这标志着教会统治国家的开端。萨满曾时常担当祭司、甚至是祭司国王。一些后来的部落既拥有较早期的萨满类巫医（预言家），也拥有较后期出现的萨满类祭司。在许多情形下，萨满职位变成了世袭的。		90:1.1 (986.4) The shaman was the ranking medicine man, the ceremonial fetishman, and the focus personality for all the practices of evolutionary religion. In many groups the shaman outranked the war chief, marking the beginning of the church domination of the state. The shaman sometimes functioned as a priest and even as a priest-king. Some of the later tribes had both the earlier shaman-medicine men (seers) and the later appearing shaman-priests. And in many cases the office of shaman became hereditary.
90:1.2 (986.5) 由于在古代任何异常的事情都被归因于鬼灵附体，任何引人注目的精神或身体异常都构成了做一名巫医的资格。这些男人中有许多是癫痫病患者，女人中有许多都是歇斯底里症患者，这两类人对许多古代灵启和鬼魔附体做出了解释。这些最早期的祭司中，有不少是自那以来被称为偏执狂的一类人。		90:1.2 (986.5) Since in olden times anything abnormal was ascribed to spirit possession, any striking mental or physical abnormality constituted qualification for being a medicine man. Many of these men were epileptic, many of the women hysteric, and these two types accounted for a good deal of ancient inspiration as well as spirit and devil possession. Quite a few of these earliest of priests were of a class which has since been denominated paranoiac.
90:1.3 (987.1) 尽管萨满们在一些小事情上实施过欺骗，但他们中的绝大多数都相信他们鬼灵附体的事实。能够很快进入出神状态或是全身僵硬痉挛状态的女人成了有影响的女萨满；后来，这样的女人变成了先知和灵媒。她们全身僵硬的出神状态，通常涉及到所谓的与死者鬼魂沟通。许多女萨满也是专业的舞者。		90:1.3 (987.1) While they may have practiced deception in minor matters, the great majority of the shamans believed in the fact of their spirit possession. Women who were able to throw themselves into a trance or a cataleptic fit became powerful shamanesses; later, such women became prophets and spirit mediums. Their cataleptic trances usually involved alleged communications with the ghosts of the dead. Many female shamans were also professional dancers.
90:1.4 (987.2) 但并非所有的萨满都是自我欺骗的；许多人都是精明能干的骗术师。随着这一行业的发展，一个新手需要度过一段充满艰辛和克己的十年学徒期，才会有资格成为巫医。萨满们还发展出了一套专业的着装风格，并佯装出一种神秘的行为。他们频繁采用药物来引发某些身体状态，令部落成员印象深刻并形成一种神秘感。麻利手快的技艺表演被普通民众视为是超自然的，而口技则最早由精明的祭司们所利用。许多古时的萨满在不经意间撞上了催眠术；其他人则通过长时间注视自己的肚脐而引发自我催眠。		90:1.4 (987.2) But not all shamans were self-deceived; many were shrewd and able tricksters. As the profession developed, a novice was required to serve an apprenticeship of ten years of hardship and self-denial to qualify as a medicine man. The shamans developed a professional mode of dress and affected a mysterious conduct. They frequently employed drugs to induce certain physical states which would impress and mystify the tribesmen. Sleight-of-hand feats were regarded as supernatural by the common folk, and ventriloquism was first used by shrewd priests. Many of the olden shamans unwittingly stumbled onto hypnotism; others induced autohypnosis by prolonged staring at their navels.
90:1.5 (987.3) 尽管许多萨满依靠这些花招和骗术，但他们作为一个阶层的声誉却终究取得了显著的成就。当一个萨满未能成功完成任务时，如果他无法给出一个合乎情理的辩解，他要么被降职，要么被杀掉。就这样，诚实的萨满很早便消失了；只有精明的表演者才活了下来。		90:1.5 (987.3) While many resorted to these tricks and deceptions, their reputation as a class, after all, stood on apparent achievement. When a shaman failed in his undertakings, if he could not advance a plausible alibi, he was either demoted or killed. Thus the honest shamans early perished; only the shrewd actors survived.
90:1.6 (987.4) 正是萨满教将部落事务的专门主管权从年长者和强健者手中取出，而将它放到了精明者、聪慧者和有远见者手中。		90:1.6 (987.4) It was shamanism that took the exclusive direction of tribal affairs out of the hands of the old and the strong and lodged it in the hands of the shrewd, the clever, and the farsighted.
2. 萨满教的做法 ^top		2. Shamanistic Practices ^top
90:2.1 (987.5) 念咒招魂曾是一种非常精细、极为复杂的程序，堪比当今以古语执行的教堂仪式。人类很早就开始寻求超自然的帮助，寻求启示；而且人们相信，萨满真地收到了这样的启示。尽管萨满们在其工作中运用了极大的暗示力量，但它几近不变的是消极的暗示；只有在近来时期，积极暗示的手段才获采用。在其行业的早期发展中，萨满们开始专营造雨、治病和侦罪这类业务。然而，治病并非是萨满型巫医的主要职责；它不如说是对诸多生活危险的知晓和把握。		90:2.1 (987.5) Spirit conjuring was a very precise and highly complicated procedure, comparable to present-day church rituals conducted in an ancient tongue. The human race very early sought for superhuman help, for revelation; and men believed that the shaman actually received such revelations. While the shamans utilized the great power of suggestion in their work, it was almost invariably negative suggestion; only in very recent times has the technique of positive suggestion been employed. In the early development of their profession the shamans began to specialize in such vocations as rain making, disease healing, and crime detecting. To heal diseases was not, however, the chief function of a shamanic medicine man; it was, rather, to know and to control the hazards of living.
90:2.2 (987.6) 古时的黑术，无论是宗教性的还是世俗性的，当被祭司、先知、萨满或是巫医施展时，就被称作白术。黑术的从业者们被称为巫师、魔法师、术士、女巫、幻术师、招魂师、咒术师和占卜师。随着时间流逝，所有这些传说的与超自然力的接触，都被归属为巫术或萨满术。		90:2.2 (987.6) Ancient black art, both religious and secular, was called white art when practiced by either priests, seers, shamans, or medicine men. The practitioners of the black art were called sorcerers, magicians, wizards, witches, enchanters, necromancers, conjurers, and soothsayers. As time passed, all such purported contact with the supernatural was classified either as witchcraft or shamancraft.
90:2.3 (987.7) 巫术包含了由较早的、不正规的且未获承认的鬼神们所实施的魔法；萨满术则与部落中正规鬼灵以及获得认可的诸神所实施的奇迹相关。在后来时期，女巫变得与魔鬼联系起来，这样便为许多相对近来的宗教偏狭表现搭建了舞台。巫术是一种与许多原始部落相伴的宗教。		90:2.3 (987.7) Witchcraft embraced the magic performed by earlier, irregular, and unrecognized spirits; shamancraft had to do with miracles performed by regular spirits and recognized gods of the tribe. In later times the witch became associated with the devil, and thus was the stage set for the many comparatively recent exhibitions of religious intolerance. Witchcraft was a religion with many primitive tribes.
90:2.4 (987.8) 萨满们是将运气当作鬼神意志启示安排的极大相信者；他们常常掷签来做出决断，这种掷签癖性的现代存留物，不仅在许多碰运气游戏中，还在众所周知的“清算类”韵歌中有所例示。曾经，被清算出来的人必须要死；现在，他仅是某些儿童游戏中的“捉人者”而已。对原始人来说曾经是严重的事情，已作为现代儿童的一种消遣而存留了下来。		90:2.4 (987.8) The shamans were great believers in the mission of chance as revelatory of the will of the spirits; they frequently cast lots to arrive at decisions. Modern survivals of this proclivity for casting lots are illustrated, not only in the many games of chance, but also in the well-known “counting-out” rhymes. Once, the person counted out must die; now, he is only it in some childish game. That which was serious business to primitive man has survived as a diversion of the modern child.
90:2.5 (988.1) 巫医们极为相信迹象和征兆，例如“当你听到桑树梢沙沙作响，就要行动起来。”人类历史早期，萨满们就将其注意力转向了星辰。原始占星术曾是一种世界范围的信仰和习俗；解梦术也变得广为流传。紧随所有这一切的，便是那些自称能与死者鬼灵交流的喜怒无常女萨满的出现。		90:2.5 (988.1) The medicine men put great trust in signs and omens, such as, “When you hear the sound of a rustling in the tops of the mulberry trees, then shall you bestir yourself.” Very early in the history of the race the shamans turned their attention to the stars. Primitive astrology was a world-wide belief and practice; dream interpreting also became widespread. All this was soon followed by the appearance of those temperamental shamanesses who professed to be able to communicate with the spirits of the dead.
90:2.6 (988.2) 造雨者，或是说天气萨满，尽管有着古老的起源，但却历经诸多世代而一直延续了下来。对早期的农耕者而言，一场严重的干旱就意味着死亡；天气控制曾是大多古时魔法的目的。文明人仍将天气作为常见的话题。古时民族都相信萨满作为造雨者的能力，但按习俗却要在他失败时杀掉他，除非他能提供一个合乎情理的借口来对失败做出解释。		90:2.6 (988.2) Though of ancient origin, the rain makers, or weather shamans, have persisted right on down through the ages. A severe drought meant death to the early agriculturists; weather control was the object of much ancient magic. Civilized man still makes the weather the common topic of conversation. The olden peoples all believed in the power of the shaman as a rain maker, but it was customary to kill him when he failed, unless he could offer a plausible excuse to account for the failure.
90:2.7 (988.3) 罗马帝国皇帝们曾多次放逐诸多占星家，但他们无不因大众对其法力的相信而归来了。他们是放逐不了的，即便在公元十六世纪，西方教会和国家的主管者们仍是占星术的庇护人。成千上万的所谓聪明人至今还相信，一个人可在一颗幸运星或是霉运星的主宰下诞生；并相信天体的并列决定了各种世间冒险的结果。算命者仍然受到轻信者的光顾。		90:2.7 (988.3) Again and again did the Caesars banish the astrologers, but they invariably returned because of the popular belief in their powers. They could not be driven out, and even in the sixteenth century after Christ the directors of Occidental church and state were the patrons of astrology. Thousands of supposedly intelligent people still believe that one may be born under the domination of a lucky or an unlucky star; that the juxtaposition of the heavenly bodies determines the outcome of various terrestrial adventures. Fortunetellers are still patronized by the credulous.
90:2.8 (988.4) 希腊人相信神谕建议的功效，中国人则使用魔法作为防护恶魔的手段，萨满教也在印度兴起，它至今在中亚仍公开存续下来。它在世界许多地方只是一种近来才被放弃的习俗。		90:2.8 (988.4) The Greeks believed in the efficacy of oracular advice, the Chinese used magic as protection against demons, shamanism flourished in India, and it still openly persists in central Asia. It is an only recently abandoned practice throughout much of the world.
90:2.9 (988.5) 不时曾有真正的先知和导师们起来声讨和揭露萨满教。 即便是逐渐消失的红种人，在过去百年间也有过这样一位先知，即肖尼人坦斯克瓦特瓦，他预言了1806年的日蚀，并声讨了白种人的恶习。在漫长的进化历史时代中，许多真正的导师出现在各个部落和种族中间。他们还将会永远继续出现，来挑战每一时代反对通识教育并企图阻止科学进步的萨满或是祭司们。		90:2.9 (988.5) Ever and anon, true prophets and teachers arose to denounce and expose shamanism. Even the vanishing red man had such a prophet within the past hundred years, the Shawnee Tenskwatawa, who predicted the eclipse of the sun in 1806 and denounced the vices of the white man. Many true teachers have appeared among the various tribes and races all through the long ages of evolutionary history. And they will ever continue to appear to challenge the shamans or priests of any age who oppose general education and attempt to thwart scientific progress.
90:2.10 (988.6) 在许多方面通过迂回的办法，古代的萨满为自己建立起了作为神之代言人和天意监护者的声誉。他们为新生儿洒圣水并给他们命名；他们对男子施行割礼。他们主持所有的葬礼，并对死者平安抵达灵地做出应有的宣布。		90:2.10 (988.6) In many ways and by devious methods the olden shamans established their reputations as voices of God and custodians of providence. They sprinkled the newborn with water and conferred names upon them; they circumcised the males. They presided over all burial ceremonies and made due announcement of the safe arrival of the dead in spiritland.
90:2.11 (988.7) 萨满教祭司和巫医常常通过其各样酬金的累积而变得非常富有，这些酬金表面上是给鬼神的供品。一个萨满积累了其部落几乎全部物质财富的情形也不少见。当一个富者死时，按习俗是将其财产平分给萨满和某个公共事业或慈善团体。这种做法仍流行于西藏的某些地方，其男性人口的一半都属于这类非生产者。		90:2.11 (988.7) The shamanic priests and medicine men often became very wealthy through the accretion of their various fees which were ostensibly offerings to the spirits. Not infrequently a shaman would accumulate practically all the material wealth of his tribe. Upon the death of a wealthy man it was customary to divide his property equally with the shaman and some public enterprise or charity. This practice still obtains in some parts of Tibet, where one half the male population belongs to this class of nonproducers.
90:2.12 (989.1) 萨满们穿得很好，通常拥有好几个妻子；他们便是最初的贵族，免于一切部落约束。他们往往有着品质低劣的心智与道德。他们通过将其对头称作女巫或是男巫来压制他们，并时常升到有影响和有权力的位置，以致他们能支配首领或是国王。		90:2.12 (989.1) The shamans dressed well and usually had a number of wives; they were the original aristocracy, being exempt from all tribal restrictions. They were very often of low-grade mind and morals. They suppressed their rivals by denominating them witches or sorcerers and very frequently rose to such positions of influence and power that they were able to dominate the chiefs or kings.
90:2.13 (989.2) 原始人将萨满视为一种必要之恶；原始人害怕他但却并不爱他。早期人类尊重知识；并敬重和酬赏智慧。萨满大多是骗子，但对萨满教的尊崇却很好地说明了人类进化过程中对智慧所给予的酬赏。		90:2.13 (989.2) Primitive man regarded the shaman as a necessary evil; he feared him but did not love him. Early man respected knowledge; he honored and rewarded wisdom. The shaman was mostly fraud, but the veneration for shamanism well illustrates the premium put upon wisdom in the evolution of the race.
3. 萨满教的疾病和死亡理论 ^top		3. The Shamanic Theory of Disease and Death ^top
90:3.1 (989.3) 由于古人视自身及其物质环境都直接对鬼魂的随心所欲和精灵的奇思怪想有所回应，因此其宗教本应如此专注于物质事务也就不足为奇了。现代人直接着手解决其物质问题；他认识到了物质对心智的智能操纵有所回应。原始人同样也渴望去改善甚至去控制物质领域的生命和能量；由于他对宇宙的局限理解导致了他相信鬼魂、精灵和诸神都亲身而直接地涉及到对生命和物质的精细控制，他照理将其努力投入到赢得这些超人类代理者的喜爱和支持当中。		90:3.1 (989.3) Since ancient man regarded himself and his material environment as being directly responsive to the whims of the ghosts and the fancies of the spirits, it is not strange that his religion should have been so exclusively concerned with material affairs. Modern man attacks his material problems directly; he recognizes that matter is responsive to the intelligent manipulation of mind. Primitive man likewise desired to modify and even to control the life and energies of the physical domains; and since his limited comprehension of the cosmos led him to the belief that ghosts, spirits, and gods were personally and immediately concerned with the detailed control of life and matter, he logically directed his efforts to winning the favor and support of these superhuman agencies.
90:3.2 (989.4) 从这一角度看，古代崇拜中大多难解之事和荒谬之事也就不难理解了。崇拜的诸多仪式，是原始人试图把握他自身所处物质世界的尝试。其许多的努力都指向了长生和保健的目标。由于所有疾病和死亡本身原本都被视为鬼灵现象，因此不可避免的是，萨满在作为巫医和祭司运作的同时，也本应作为医生和手术师而劳作。		90:3.2 (989.4) Viewed in this light, much of the inexplicable and irrational in the ancient cults is understandable. The ceremonies of the cult were primitive man’s attempt to control the material world in which he found himself. And many of his efforts were directed to the end of prolonging life and insuring health. Since all diseases and death itself were originally regarded as spirit phenomena, it was inevitable that the shamans, while functioning as medicine men and priests, should also have labored as doctors and surgeons.
90:3.3 (989.5) 原始心智或许因为缺乏事实而受到阻碍，但它却是合逻辑的。当有所深思的人们观察疾病和死亡时，他们开始确认这些探视的原因，依照他们的理解，萨满和科学家们宣布了下述的受难理论：		90:3.3 (989.5) The primitive mind may be handicapped by lack of facts, but it is for all that logical. When thoughtful men observe disease and death, they set about to determine the causes of these visitations, and in accordance with their understanding, the shamans and the scientists have propounded the following theories of affliction:
90:3.4 (989.6) 1. 鬼魂 -- 直接的鬼灵影响。在解释疾病和死亡方面最早的先进假说是鬼神通过引诱灵魂出体而导致了疾病；如果它未能返回，那么死亡就接踵而至。古人如此害怕制造疾病类鬼魂的恶行，以致生病的个人常常会被遗弃，甚至断水断食。不管这些信仰的根据有多么错误，它们的确有效隔离了受折磨的个人，并防止了传染性疾病的传播。		90:3.4 (989.6) 1. Ghosts—direct spirit influences. The earliest hypothesis advanced in explanation of disease and death was that spirits caused disease by enticing the soul out of the body; if it failed to return, death ensued. The ancients so feared the malevolent action of disease-producing ghosts that ailing individuals would often be deserted without even food or water. Regardless of the erroneous basis for these beliefs, they did effectively isolate afflicted individuals and prevent the spread of contagious disease.
90:3.5 (989.7) 2．暴力 -- 明显的原因。某些事故和死亡的原因是如此容易辨认，以致它们便从鬼魂活动分类中被移除出去了。伴随战争、与动物搏斗及其他易被辨认的代理者所造成的死伤，都被认为是自然事件。但人们仍长久相信，鬼神仍要为拖延的治愈或是哪怕“自然”起因所造成的伤口感染负责。如果没能发现任何可观察到的自然代理者，那么灵鬼们仍被视作要对疾病和死亡负责。		90:3.5 (989.7) 2. Violence—obvious causes. The causes for some accidents and deaths were so easy to identify that they were early removed from the category of ghost action. Fatalities and wounds attendant upon war, animal combat, and other readily identifiable agencies were considered as natural occurrences. But it was long believed that the spirits were still responsible for delayed healing or for the infection of wounds of even “natural” causation. If no observable natural agent could be discovered, the spirit ghosts were still held responsible for disease and death.
90:3.6 (990.1) 今日，在非洲及其他地方，仍可发现一些原始民族每在非暴力死亡发生时便会杀掉某个人。他们的巫医会指明有罪方。如果一位母亲死于分娩，那么孩子就会立刻被扼杀掉 -- 即一命换一命。		90:3.6 (990.1) Today, in Africa and elsewhere may be found primitive peoples who kill someone every time a nonviolent death occurs. Their medicine men indicate the guilty parties. If a mother dies in childbirth, the child is immediately strangled—a life for a life.
90:3.7 (990.2) 3. 魔法 -- 仇敌的影响。许多疾病被认为是由魔力所致，即邪眼和魔指弓的作用。有一段时期，将手指指向任何人都是真正危险的；至今指人仍被视为是无礼的。如果出现鲜为人知的疾病和死亡，古人会举行一场正式的验尸，解剖尸体，将某个发现确认为死因；不然死亡便会被归于巫术，从而有必要对为此负责的巫师处以死刑。这些古代验尸官的验尸挽救了许多受怀疑巫师的生命。在有些人中间认为某个部落成员会因其自身的巫术而死，在这类事件中无人会受到指责。		90:3.7 (990.2) 3. Magic—the influence of enemies. Much sickness was thought to be caused by bewitchment, the action of the evil eye and the magic pointing bow. At one time it was really dangerous to point a finger at anyone; it is still regarded as ill-mannered to point. In cases of obscure disease and death the ancients would hold a formal inquest, dissect the body, and settle upon some finding as the cause of death; otherwise the death would be laid to witchcraft, thus necessitating the execution of the witch responsible therefor. These ancient coroner’s inquests saved many a supposed witch’s life. Among some it was believed that a tribesman could die as a result of his own witchcraft, in which event no one was accused.
90:3.8 (990.3) 4. 罪恶 -- 对违反禁忌的惩罚。在相对近来的时期，人们相信疾病是一种对个人或种族罪恶的惩罚。在渡越了这一进化发展层次的民族中间，盛行的理论是，一个人只有违反了禁忌才会受到折磨。将疾病和痛苦视为“全能者射入身内之箭”，便是这类信仰的典型。长久以来，中国人和美索不达米亚人都将疾病视为恶魔活动的结果，尽管迦勒底人还将星辰视为痛苦之因。这种将疾病视为神怒结果的理论，至今仍在玉苒厦人(Urantian)许多所谓文明族群中间流行着。		90:3.8 (990.3) 4. Sin—punishment for taboo violation. In comparatively recent times it has been believed that sickness is a punishment for sin, personal or racial. Among peoples traversing this level of evolution the prevailing theory is that one cannot be afflicted unless one has violated a taboo. To regard sickness and suffering as “arrows of the Almighty within them” is typical of such beliefs. The Chinese and Mesopotamians long regarded disease as the result of the action of evil demons, although the Chaldeans also looked upon the stars as the cause of suffering. This theory of disease as a consequence of divine wrath is still prevalent among many reputedly civilized groups of Urantians.
90:3.9 (990.4) 5. 自然原因。人类非常缓慢才了解到能量、物质和生命所在物理领域中因与果之相互关系所拥有的物性奥秘。保留了亚当森教义传统的古希腊人，是最先认识到所有疾病都是自然原因所造成结果的民族之一。一个科学时代的展开，缓慢而又无疑地在摧毁着人类关于疾病和死亡的古老理论。发烧是从超自然扰乱分类中移除出去的最早人类疾病之一，科学的时代渐步打破了无知的束缚，后者曾长久禁锢了人类心智。对年老和传染病的理解，逐渐消除了人类对鬼魂、精灵及诸神的恐惧，它们被视为是人类苦痛的亲身作恶者。		90:3.9 (990.4) 5. Natural causation. Mankind has been very slow to learn the material secrets of the interrelationship of cause and effect in the physical domains of energy, matter, and life. The ancient Greeks, having preserved the traditions of Adamson’s teachings, were among the first to recognize that all disease is the result of natural causes. Slowly and certainly the unfolding of a scientific era is destroying man’s age-old theories of sickness and death. Fever was one of the first human ailments to be removed from the category of supernatural disorders, and progressively the era of science has broken the fetters of ignorance which so long imprisoned the human mind. An understanding of old age and contagion is gradually obliterating man’s fear of ghosts, spirits, and gods as the personal perpetrators of human misery and mortal suffering.
90:3.10 (990.5) 进化准确无误地实现了它的目标：它向人类灌输了那种对未知物的迷信恐惧以及对未见物的畏惧，这为神之概念建好了支架。已见证到一种对神灵之提升理解的诞生，这一同样的进化手段会通过启示的协调作用，之后会准确无误地把那些将会绝然消除掉已实现其目的之支架的思想力量调动起来。		90:3.10 (990.5) Evolution unerringly achieves its end: It imbues man with that superstitious fear of the unknown and dread of the unseen which is the scaffolding for the God concept. And having witnessed the birth of an advanced comprehension of Deity, through the co-ordinate action of revelation, this same technique of evolution then unerringly sets in motion those forces of thought which will inexorably obliterate the scaffolding, which has served its purpose.
4. 萨满手下的药物 ^top		4. Medicine Under the Shamans ^top
90:4.1 (990.6) 古人的整个生活都是预防性的，他们的宗教在很大程度上是一种预防疾病的手段。不管他们在理论上有多么错误，他们却全心将其付诸实施，他们对其治疗方法有着无限的信仰，而那本身就是一种强有力的治疗。		90:4.1 (990.6) The entire life of ancient men was prophylactic; their religion was in no small measure a technique for disease prevention. And regardless of the error in their theories, they were wholehearted in putting them into effect; they had unbounded faith in their methods of treatment, and that, in itself, is a powerful remedy.
90:4.2 (991.1) 终究，在这些古代萨满当中一员的愚昧照料下变好所需的信仰，与那种在其后来从事非科学性疾病治疗的继承者手中经历疗愈所需的信仰在实质上没什么不同。		90:4.2 (991.1) The faith required to get well under the foolish ministrations of one of these ancient shamans was, after all, not materially different from that which is required to experience healing at the hands of some of his later-day successors who engage in the nonscientific treatment of disease.
90:4.3 (991.2) 较为原始的部落极为害怕病人，长久以来他们被小心翼翼地回避了，被不体面地忽视了。当萨满术的演进产生了那些同意治病的祭司和巫医时，这在人道主义方面是一大进步。后来，整个氏族涌入病人房协助萨满嚎走病鬼变成了习俗。对一个女人来说，成为诊病的萨满并不罕见，而男人则会实施治疗。诊断疾病的通常方法，是去检视一个动物的内脏。		90:4.3 (991.2) The more primitive tribes greatly feared the sick, and for long ages they were carefully avoided, shamefully neglected. It was a great advance in humanitarianism when the evolution of shamancraft produced priests and medicine men who consented to treat disease. Then it became customary for the entire clan to crowd into the sickroom to assist the shaman in howling the disease ghosts away. It was not uncommon for a woman to be the diagnosing shaman, while a man would administer treatment. The usual method of diagnosing disease was to examine the entrails of an animal.
90:4.4 (991.3) 疾病曾通过唱诵、嚎叫、按手礼、向病人呼气以及许多其他手段而得以治疗。在后来时期，诉诸于寺庙求梦则变得广为流传，据信在这期间会发生疗愈。巫医们最终尝试了与寺庙酣睡相关的实际手术；在最初的操作中间，是那种用环锯颅骨以让头疼鬼逃离的手术。萨满们还学会了治疗骨折和脱臼，切开恶疮和脓肿；女萨满们则变得谙于助产术。		90:4.4 (991.3) Disease was treated by chanting, howling, laying on of hands, breathing on the patient, and many other techniques. In later times the resort to temple sleep, during which healing supposedly took place, became widespread. The medicine men eventually essayed actual surgery in connection with temple slumber; among the first operations was that of trephining the skull to allow a headache spirit to escape. The shamans learned to treat fractures and dislocations, to open boils and abscesses; the shamanesses became adept at midwifery.
90:4.5 (991.4) 在一处受感染或是受损伤的身体部位按揉某种魔法物，是一种常见的治疗方法，将该护符扔掉据信会经历治愈。如果有任何人碰巧拾起了被丢弃的护符，据信他就会立刻获得感染或是伤疤。许久之后，草药及其他真正的药物才被引入。按摩与咒语一同被发展了出来，将鬼灵从身体中按揉出去，之前是尝试将药物按揉进去，就像现代人尝试将药膏按揉进去一样。拔罐和抽吸受影响部位，连同放血，都被认为在去除致病鬼灵方面是有价值的。		90:4.5 (991.4) It was a common method of treatment to rub something magical on an infected or blemished spot on the body, throw the charm away, and supposedly experience a cure. If anyone should chance to pick up the discarded charm, it was believed he would immediately acquire the infection or blemish. It was a long time before herbs and other real medicines were introduced. Massage was developed in connection with incantation, rubbing the spirit out of the body, and was preceded by efforts to rub medicine in, even as moderns attempt to rub liniments in. Cupping and sucking the affected parts, together with bloodletting, were thought to be of value in getting rid of a disease-producing spirit.
90:4.6 (991.5) 由于水曾是一种强有力的物神，它被用在许多疾病的治疗中。长期以来，人们认为致病的鬼灵可通过出汗而得以除去。蒸气浴曾受到高度推崇；天然温泉不久便作为原始人健康疗养地而兴盛起来。早期人类发现热量能减轻痛苦；他利用过阳光、鲜活的动物器官、热粘土和热石块，这些方法中有许多至今还被应用着。人们曾操习韵律来努力影响鬼神；手鼓曾是很普遍的。		90:4.6 (991.5) Since water was a potent fetish, it was utilized in the treatment of many ailments. For long it was believed that the spirit causing the sickness could be eliminated by sweating. Vapor baths were highly regarded; natural hot springs soon blossomed as primitive health resorts. Early man discovered that heat would relieve pain; he used sunlight, fresh animal organs, hot clay, and hot stones, and many of these methods are still employed. Rhythm was practiced in an effort to influence the spirits; the tom-toms were universal.
90:4.7 (991.6) 在一些人中间，疾病被认为是由鬼神和动物恶意共谋而造成的。这导致了以下信仰的产生，即针对每种动物所导致的疾病，都存在一种有效的植物治疗法。红种人尤为专致于植物的通治性理论；他们总是在拔起植物时在根穴处放上一滴血。		90:4.7 (991.6) Among some people disease was thought to be caused by a wicked conspiracy between spirits and animals. This gave rise to the belief that there existed a beneficent plant remedy for every animal-caused disease. The red men were especially devoted to the plant theory of universal remedies; they always put a drop of blood in the root hole left when the plant was pulled up.
90:4.8 (991.7) 斋戒、节食和对抗刺激物，常被用为治疗措施。被确定为有魔法的人类分泌物，曾极受推崇；血液和尿液由此位列最早的药物中间，不久又被根茎和各种盐类所加强。萨满们相信，可以通过臭味药物和苦口药物来将病鬼逐出身体。通便很早就成了一种例行治疗法，天然可可和奎宁的价值也位列最早的药物发现当中。		90:4.8 (991.7) Fasting, dieting, and counterirritants were often used as remedial measures. Human secretions, being definitely magical, were highly regarded; blood and urine were thus among the earliest medicines and were soon augmented by roots and various salts. The shamans believed that disease spirits could be driven out of the body by foul-smelling and bad-tasting medicines. Purging very early became a routine treatment, and the values of raw cocoa and quinine were among the earliest pharmaceutical discoveries.
90:4.9 (992.1) 希腊人是最早发展出治病病人之真正理性方法的民族。希腊人和埃及人都是从幼发拉底河流域获得了其医学知识。油和酒是用来治疗伤口的一种非常早的药物；苏美尔人则利用蓖麻油和鸦片治伤。这些古老而有效的秘方中有很多在变得广为人知时丧失了其效力；保密对于欺骗和迷信的成功实施总是必不可少的。只有事实和真相才会招致全面的理解，享受科学研究所带来的启发和开导。		90:4.9 (992.1) The Greeks were the first to evolve truly rational methods of treating the sick. Both the Greeks and the Egyptians received their medical knowledge from the Euphrates valley. Oil and wine was a very early medicine for treating wounds; castor oil and opium were used by the Sumerians. Many of these ancient and effective secret remedies lost their power when they became known; secrecy has always been essential to the successful practice of fraud and superstition. Only facts and truth court the full light of comprehension and rejoice in the illumination and enlightenment of scientific research.
5. 祭司与仪式 ^top		5. Priests and Rituals ^top
90:5.1 (992.2) 仪式之精髓在于其执行之完美；在野蛮人当中，它必须要以确切精准的方式来实施。只有在仪式得以正确执行时，典礼才具有压倒鬼神的强制力。如果仪式是有误的，它只会引起诸神的愤怒和怨恨。因此，由于人类缓慢进化的心智构想出仪式之手段是其效力的决定性因素，因此不可避免的是，早期的萨满们便迟早会演变成一个祭司阶层，经过训练来主管的仪式细致操作。因此成千上万年来，无穷无尽的仪式阻碍了社会，祸及了文明，对于每样生命活动、每样种族从事来说都是一种不堪忍受的负担。		90:5.1 (992.2) The essence of the ritual is the perfection of its performance; among savages it must be practiced with exact precision. It is only when the ritual has been correctly carried out that the ceremony possesses compelling power over the spirits. If the ritual is faulty, it only arouses the anger and resentment of the gods. Therefore, since man’s slowly evolving mind conceived that the technique of ritual was the decisive factor in its efficacy, it was inevitable that the early shamans should sooner or later evolve into a priesthood trained to direct the meticulous practice of the ritual. And so for tens of thousands of years endless rituals have hampered society and cursed civilization, have been an intolerable burden to every act of life, every racial undertaking.
90:5.2 (992.3) 仪式是圣化习俗之手段；仪式创造出了神话并使之持续下去，也促进了社会习俗和宗教习俗的保留。此外，仪式本身也是由神话所创造出来。仪式往往最初都是社会性的，逐渐变成了经济性的，并最终获得了宗教典礼的神圣性和高贵性。仪式在实施方面可以是个人性的，也可以是集体性的 -- 或者二者兼备 -- 正如祈祷、舞蹈和戏剧所例示的那样。		90:5.2 (992.3) Ritual is the technique of sanctifying custom; ritual creates and perpetuates myths as well as contributing to the preservation of social and religious customs. Again, ritual itself has been fathered by myths. Rituals are often at first social, later becoming economic and finally acquiring the sanctity and dignity of religious ceremonial. Ritual may be personal or group in practice—or both—as illustrated by prayer, dancing, and drama.
90:5.3 (992.4) 话语也成了仪式的一部分，例如像“阿门”和“西拉”这类词语的使用。咒骂、亵渎的习惯代表了一种对先前仪式类圣名重复的滥用。前往圣地朝圣的形成，是一种非常古老的仪式。仪式接下来变成了精细的净化、清理和圣化典礼。原始部落秘密社团的入会典礼，事实上也是一种粗陋的宗教礼仪。古时神秘教派的崇拜手段，只是累积起来的宗教仪式的一长段表演。仪式最终发展成了现代类型的社会典礼和宗教崇拜，服务包括祈祷、颂歌、应答性吟诵及其他个人类与集体类灵性奉献。		90:5.3 (992.4) Words become a part of ritual, such as the use of terms like amen and selah. The habit of swearing, profanity, represents a prostitution of former ritualistic repetition of holy names. The making of pilgrimages to sacred shrines is a very ancient ritual. The ritual next grew into elaborate ceremonies of purification, cleansing, and sanctification. The initiation ceremonies of the primitive tribal secret societies were in reality a crude religious rite. The worship technique of the olden mystery cults was just one long performance of accumulated religious ritual. Ritual finally developed into the modern types of social ceremonials and religious worship, services embracing prayer, song, responsive reading, and other individual and group spiritual devotions.
90:5.4 (992.5) 祭司从萨满发展而来，历经神谕、卜者、歌者、舞者、造雨者、宗教圣物守护者、圣殿监护者以及事件预言者，最终演进到了宗教崇拜之实际主管者的地位。最终这一职位变成了世袭制；一个持续的祭司阶层出现了。		90:5.4 (992.5) The priests evolved from shamans up through oracles, diviners, singers, dancers, weathermakers, guardians of religious relics, temple custodians, and foretellers of events, to the status of actual directors of religious worship. Eventually the office became hereditary; a continuous priestly caste arose.
90:5.5 (992.6) 随着宗教的演进，祭司们开始依照其天赋或是专好而专门化了。有些变成了歌者，其他一些则变成了祈祷者，还有另外一些变成了祭献者；后来出现了演说者 -- 即传道士。而当宗教变得制度化时，这些祭司便宣称“持有天国的钥匙。		90:5.5 (992.6) As religion evolved, priests began to specialize according to their innate talents or special predilections. Some became singers, others prayers, and still others sacrificers; later came the orators—preachers. And when religion became institutionalized, these priests claimed to “hold the keys of heaven.”
90:5.6 (992.7) 祭司们总是力图通过以古语来执行宗教仪式，来令普通人感到印象深刻和敬畏，并通过各种各样的魔法动作来令崇拜者感到神秘化，从而提升他们自身的虔诚和权威。存在于所有这一切当中的巨大危险是，仪式易于变成宗教的一种替代物。		90:5.6 (992.7) The priests have always sought to impress and awe the common people by conducting the religious ritual in an ancient tongue and by sundry magical passes so to mystify the worshipers as to enhance their own piety and authority. The great danger in all this is that the ritual tends to become a substitute for religion.
90:5.7 (993.1) 祭司阶层做了许多延滞科学发展和阻碍灵性进步的事，但他们对文明的稳定化以及对某些种类教化的改善也贡献颇大。但许多现代祭司已不再担当拜神仪式的主管者了，他们将其注意力转向了神学 -- 即试图定义神的尝试。		90:5.7 (993.1) The priesthoods have done much to delay scientific development and to hinder spiritual progress, but they have contributed to the stabilization of civilization and to the enhancement of certain kinds of culture. But many modern priests have ceased to function as directors of the ritual of the worship of God, having turned their attention to theology—the attempt to define God.
90:5.8 (993.2) 不可否认的是，祭司们曾担负过重大责任，但在为更高与更好实相指点道路方面，真正的宗教领袖们却是无可估量的。		90:5.8 (993.2) It is not denied that the priests have been a millstone about the neck of the races, but the true religious leaders have been invaluable in pointing the way to higher and better realities.
90:5.9 (993.3) [ 由内巴顿的一位麦基洗德所呈献。]		90:5.9 (993.3) [Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]