| 1 | The power of deception through supernatural illusion has been known since the beginning of civilization itself. |
| 2 | Battles have been won, kingdoms conquered and legends have been made through the use of misdirection, illusion and suspended belief. |
| 3 | Over the ages, all manner of devices and substances have been used by the magician or the trickster into creating great deceptions, from mirrors, to false hideaways, to poisons and even gun powder. |
| 4 | Yet the most powerful tool for the magician and the fraudster misusing magic has always been the power of the human imagination. |
| 5 | The very design of the Homo Sapien mind to “fill in the blanks”, coupled with our sense of creativity allows the most skilled illusionist his greatest tool. |
| 6 | The more people want to believe, the more people are relaxed and comfortable in a certain mindset within their surroundings, the easier some illusions can be performed. |
| 7 | Thus, ancient temples have been constructed with special shafts to harness light on certain sacred days, or the harnessing of fire and steam from boiling water to evoke speaking through pipes. |
| 8 | The consumption of certain foods with hallucinogenic properties has also been a theme across cultures, particularly with religious ceremonies for thousands of years. |
| 9 | Even the origin of many religious vestments and headdresses of priests suggest their origin back to the sacredness of drug consumption over the ages. |
| 10 | Superstition then is a Belief not based on human reason or scientific knowledge, but on the genuine existence of some magical or supernatural Powers usually attached to some object or person. |
| 11 | While Superstition is not based on human reason or scientific knowledge or common sense, the power of Superstition is in the fact that it is something almost all of us seek out to experience from time to time. |
| 12 | We attend magic shows, or we watch movies containing special effects, or we participate in entertainment events with music and lights, all containing elements of deliberate deception of the senses and mind. |
| 13 | Yet the most powerful examples of Superstition are still to be found in the continuation of ancient magic rituals in religious ceremonies. |
| 14 | Even without blatant and deliberate deceptive acts by members of a religion to evoke a claimed Supernatural event, prolonged focus on prayer before statues and states of ecstasy produce “visions” from the faithful from time to time. |
| 15 | Many religions can lay claim to supernatural events within their formation and continued devotion and given the mind is already capable of producing supernatural information, it would be unwise to discount all such experiences as false. |
| 16 | Instead, the devotion to not simply the teachings of a religion, but the participation in elaborate rituals to evoke some magical and supernatural event is one of the most powerful tools to maintaining the loyalty of the faithful. |
| 17 | It is no mystery that in societies which still permit and accept magic within the elaborate rituals of organized religion, the attendance rates of the faithful have remained higher than those societies that are less tolerant of superstitious practices. |
| 18 | The rise of the psychics and the mediums and other magical phenomena is testament to the continued appetite and yearning in almost all of us to experience magical and alleged supernatural experiences. |
| 19 | As testament to the nature of the Homo Sapien mind toward elaborate magic over genuine supernatural events, the genuinely supernatural is often overlooked. |
| 20 | The appearance of overwhelming knowledge, revelation and prophecy is frequently ignored by the contemporary generation that were lucky enough to witness it. |
| 21 | Only when such genuine supernatural knowledge may be packaged into elaborate ceremony does its power become manifest to people. |
| 22 | Thus, the real may be ignored by those that witness it and the falsities believed, not because people are ignorant but because of the power of superstition to all of us. |
| 23 | In contrast, Summa Elementis Theologica does not require a suspension of belief, or a disregard for reason or logic or knowledge. |
| 24 | Summa Elementis Theologica is perfectly capable of providing reason and proof scientifically and methodically without relying upon magic or superstition. |
| 25 | Therefore, as superstition and the capacity for the Homo Sapien mind to be tricked and deceived by illusion and misdirection and magic tricks will always remain, we all have a choice. |
| 26 | Superstition may in part define how we come to think the way we do, yet it does not have to define us into the future. |
| 27 | Most importantly, through Summa Elementis Theologica we see we no longer need to be tricked or deceived or betrayed through false ritual and superstition but may establish a firm and personal relation and knowledge of the Divine. |
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1 Exordium - Beginning