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127-449: Divine inspiration is the concept of a supernatural force, typically a deity , causing a person or people to experience a creative desire. It has been a commonly reported aspect of many religions , for thousands of years. Divine inspiration is often closely tied to the concept of revelation , information being revealed or disclosed through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Besides ancient mythology,

254-592: A deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Some religions have religious texts which they view as divinely or supernaturally revealed or inspired. For instance, Orthodox Jews , Christians and Muslims believe that the Torah was received from Yahweh on biblical Mount Sinai . Most Christians believe that both the Old Testament and the New Testament were inspired by God. Muslims believe

381-490: A non-physical entity ; such as a ghost , fairy , jinn or angel . The concepts of a person's spirit and soul , often also overlap, as both are either contrasted with or given ontological priority over the body and both are believed to survive bodily death in some religions, and "spirit" can also have the sense of " ghost ", i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person. In English Bibles , "the Spirit" (with

508-720: A polytheistic religion)", or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness , beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life." A male deity is a god , while a female deity is a goddess . Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as God), polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheistic religions accept one supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as equivalent aspects of

635-455: A semi-deity or other strange kind of being, such as this discourse examines the notion of. And besides these more absolute acceptions, if I may so call them, of the word nature , it has divers others (more relative), as nature is wont to be set or in opposition or contradistinction to other things, as when we say of a stone when it falls downwards that it does it by a natural motion , but that if it be thrown upwards its motion that way

762-461: A Byzantine monk, writer, philosopher, politician and historian, wrote many philosophical treatises, such as De omnifaria doctrina . He wrote most of his philosophy during his time as a court politician at Constantinople in the 1030s and 1040s. Gemistos Plethon ( c.  1355  – 1452; Greek: Πλήθων Γεμιστός) remained the preeminent scholar of neoplatonic philosophy in the late Byzantine Empire. He introduced his understanding and insight into

889-480: A Hellenized Jew, translated Judaism into terms of Stoic , Platonic, and Neopythagorean elements, and held that God is "supra rational" and can be reached only through "ecstasy". Philo also held that the oracles of God supply the material of moral and religious knowledge. The earliest Christian philosophers , such as Justin Martyr and Athenagoras of Athens , who attempted to connect Christianity with Platonism, and

1016-449: A body, especially a living one, as when physicians say that nature is strong or weak or spent, or that in such or such diseases nature left to herself will do the cure . Sometimes we take nature for the universe , or system of the corporeal works of God , as when it is said of a phoenix , or a chimera , that there is no such thing in nature , i.e. in the world. And sometimes too, and that most commonly, we would express by nature

1143-421: A by-product of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo . In process thought, there is no such thing as a realm of the natural in contrast to that which is supernatural. On the other hand, if "the natural" is defined more neutrally as "what is in the nature of things," then process metaphysics characterizes the natural as the creative activity of actual entities. In Whitehead's words, "It lies in the nature of things that

1270-632: A capital "S"), specifically denotes the Holy Spirit . Spirit is often used metaphysically to refer to the consciousness or personality . Historically, it was also used to refer to a "subtle" as opposed to "gross" material substance, as in the famous last paragraph of Sir Isaac Newton 's Principia Mathematica . A demon (from Koine Greek δαιμόνιον daimónion ) is a supernatural and often malevolent being prevalent in religion , occultism , literature , fiction , mythology and folklore . In Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in

1397-490: A confused and vicious sect." Iamblichus ( c.  245  – c.  325 ) influenced the direction taken by later neoplatonic philosophy. He is perhaps best known for the compendium The Life of Pythagoras , his commentary on Pythagorean philosophy, and his De Mysteriis . In Iamblichus' system, the realm of divinities stretched from the original One down to material nature itself, where soul, in fact, descended into matter and became "embodied" as human beings. The world

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1524-446: A medieval scholastic of the 12th century, explored causes beyond nature, questioning how certain phenomena could be attributed solely to God. In his writings, he used the term praeter naturam to describe these occurrences. In the scholastic period, Thomas Aquinas classified miracles into three categories: "above nature", "beyond nature" and "against nature". In doing so, he sharpened the distinction between nature and miracles more than

1651-400: A more social character, usually in a religious context, as seen in traditional African medicine . Fortune-telling, on the other hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular divination methods vary by culture and religion. Divination is dismissed by the scientific community and skeptics as being superstition . In the 2nd century, Lucian devoted a witty essay to

1778-404: A physical system by a subject without any known intermediate energy or instrumentation" (1945:305). Views on the "supernatural" vary, for example it may be seen as: Anthropological studies across cultures indicate that people do not hold or use natural and supernatural explanations in a mutually exclusive or dichotomous fashion. Instead, the reconciliation of natural and supernatural explanations

1905-453: A pure form of idealism. The demiurge (the nous ) is the energy, or ergon (does the work), which manifests or organises the material world into perceivability . The image and product of the motionless nous is the world-soul , which, according to Plotinus, is immaterial like the nous . Its relation to the nous is the same as that of the nous to the One. It stands between the nous and

2032-445: A querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens , or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency. Divination can be seen as a systematic method with which to organize what appear to be disjointed, random facets of existence such that they provide insight into a problem at hand. If a distinction is to be made between divination and fortune-telling , divination has a more formal or ritualistic element and often contains

2159-538: A requisite principle of totality which is also the source of ultimate wisdom. After the Platonic Academy was destroyed in the first century BC, philosophers continued to teach Platonism , but it was not until the early 5th century (c. 410) that a revived academy (which had no connection with the original Academy) was established in Athens by some leading neoplatonists. It persisted until 529 AD when it

2286-512: A set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common ideas it maintains is monism , the doctrine that all of reality can be derived from a single principle, "the One". Neoplatonism began with Ammonius Saccas and his student Plotinus ( c.  204/5–271 AD) and stretched to the sixth century. After Plotinus there were three distinct periods in the history of neoplatonism: the work of his student Porphyry (third to early fourth century); that of Iamblichus (third to fourth century); and

2413-408: A soul may be reincarnated into another human or even a different sort of animal. However, Porphyry maintained, instead, that human souls were only reincarnated into other humans. A soul which has returned to the One achieves union with the cosmic universal soul and does not descend again; at least, not in this world period. Certain central tenets of neoplatonism served as a philosophical interim for

2540-407: A spiritual entity that may be conjured and controlled. Magic or sorcery is the use of rituals , symbols , actions, gestures , or language with the aim of utilizing supernatural forces. Belief in and practice of magic has been present since the earliest human cultures and continues to have an important spiritual, religious and medicinal role in many cultures today. The term magic has

2667-450: A stone let fall in the air is by nature carried towards the centre of the earth , and, on the contrary, that fire or flame does naturally move upwards toward firmament . Sometimes we understand by nature the established course of things, as when we say that nature makes the night succeed the day , nature hath made respiration necessary to the life of men. Sometimes we take nature for an aggregate of powers belonging to

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2794-508: A strong influence on the perennial philosophy of the Italian Renaissance thinkers Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola , and continues through 19th-century Universalism and modern-day spirituality . Neoplatonism is a modern term. The term neoplatonism has a double function as a historical category. On the one hand, it differentiates the philosophical doctrines of Plotinus and his successors from those of

2921-404: A supernatural entity reported as being present during the event is called a vision . Direct conversations between the recipient and the supernatural entity, or physical marks such as stigmata , have been reported. In rare cases, such as that of Saint Juan Diego , physical artifacts accompany the revelation. The Roman Catholic concept of interior locution includes just an inner voice heard by

3048-510: A teacher and founder of the neoplatonic system. Porphyry stated in On the One School of Plato and Aristotle , that Ammonius' view was that the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle were in harmony. Eusebius and Jerome claimed him as a Christian until his death, whereas Porphyry claimed he had renounced Christianity and embraced pagan philosophy. Plotinus ( c.  205  – c.  270 )

3175-438: A variety of meanings, and there is no widely agreed upon definition of what it is. Scholars of religion have defined magic in different ways. One approach, associated with the anthropologists Edward Tylor and James G. Frazer , suggests that magic and science are opposites. An alternative approach, associated with the sociologists Marcel Mauss and Emile Durkheim , argues that magic takes place in private, while religion

3302-503: A variety of ways – masculine, feminine, androgynous and gender neutral. Historically, many ancient cultures – such as Ancient India , Ancient Iraq , Ancient Egyptian , Ancient Greek , Ancient Roman , Nordic and Asian culture – personified natural phenomena , variously as either their conscious causes or simply their effects, respectively. Some Avestan and Vedic deities were viewed as ethical concepts. In Indian religions , deities have been envisioned as manifesting within

3429-453: Is violent . So chemists distinguish vitriol into natural and fictitious , or made by art, i.e. by the intervention of human power or skill; so it is said that water , kept suspended in a sucking pump, is not in its natural place, as that is which is stagnant in the well. We say also that wicked men are still in the state of nature , but the regenerate in a state of grace ; that cures wrought by medicines are natural operations; but

3556-433: Is a combination of extensive evidence of something not occurring , combined with an underlying scientific theory , very successful in making predictions, whose assumptions lead logically to the conclusion that something is impossible. While an impossibility assertion in natural science can never be absolutely proved, it could be refuted by the observation of a single counterexample . Such a counterexample would require that

3683-491: Is a communal and organised activity. Many scholars of religion have rejected the utility of the term magic and it has become increasingly unpopular within scholarship since the 1990s. The term magic comes from the Old Persian magu , a word that applied to a form of religious functionary about which little is known. During the late sixth and early fifth centuries BC, this term was adopted into Ancient Greek , where it

3810-447: Is a perfect image of the One and the archetype of all existing things. It is simultaneously both being and thought, idea and ideal world. As image, the nous corresponds perfectly to the One, but as derivative, it is entirely different. What Plotinus understands by the nous is the highest sphere accessible to the human mind , while also being pure intellect itself. Nous is the most critical component of idealism , Neoplatonism being

3937-407: Is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) and further developed by Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000). It is not possible, in process metaphysics, to conceive divine activity as a "supernatural" intervention into the "natural" order of events. Process theists usually regard the distinction between the supernatural and the natural as

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4064-615: Is an imperfect copy of the Nous and the Platonic realm of the Forms. The process of Emanation is beyond temporality as time does not exist in the One, the Nous, or the Soul, but only in the sensible world. Despite their distinctions, these four realities are all part of the same unified reality unfolding within the One. The original Being initially emanates, or throws out, the nous (νοῦς), which

4191-521: Is both the creative source of the Universe and the teleological end of all existing things. Although, properly speaking, there is no name appropriate for the first principle, the most adequate names are "the One" or "the Good". The One is so simple that it cannot even be said to exist or to be a being. Rather, the creative principle of all things is beyond being, a notion which is derived from Book VI of

4318-454: Is both the knower, the known, and the act of knowing, embodying a complete unity. The Platonic realm of the Forms is contained within the Nous and acts as the archetype of the sensible world. From the Nous emanates a lesser reality known as the Soul, which receives information from the Nous and actualizes it. This act of "actualization" is the same as the creation of the sensible world, the realm of multiplicity, time, and space. This sensible realm

4445-500: Is defined in the Journal of Parapsychology as "personal factors or processes in nature which transcend accepted laws" (1948: 311) and "which are non-physical in nature" (1962:310), and it is used to cover both extrasensory perception (ESP), an "awareness of or response to an external event or influence not apprehended by sensory means" (1962:309) or inferred from sensory knowledge, and psychokinesis (PK), "the direct influence exerted on

4572-489: Is found in many ancient cultures, and a belief in rebirth/ metempsychosis was held by Greek historic figures, such as Pythagoras , Socrates and Plato . It is also a common belief of various ancient and modern religions such as Spiritism , Theosophy and Eckankar and as an esoteric belief in many streams of Orthodox Judaism . It is found as well in many tribal societies around the world, in places such as Australia , East Asia , Siberia and South America . Although

4699-414: Is known as " angelology ". In fine art , angels are usually depicted as having the shape of human beings of extraordinary beauty; they are often identified using the symbols of bird wings , halos and light . Prophecy involves a process in which messages are communicated by a god to a prophet . Such messages typically involve inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of divine will concerning

4826-515: Is natural or ordinary; unnaturally or extraordinarily great; abnormal, extraordinary". Obsolete uses include "of, relating to, or dealing with metaphysics ". As a noun, the term can mean "a supernatural being", with a particularly strong history of employment in relation to entities from the mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas . The ancient world had no word that resembled "supernatural". Dialogues from Neoplatonic philosophy in

4953-512: Is no dualist in the sense of certain sects, such as the Gnostics; in contrast, he admires the beauty and splendour of the world. So long as idea governs matter, or the soul governs the body, the world is fair and good. It is an image – though a shadowy image – of the upper world, and the degrees of better and worse in it are essential to the harmony of the whole. But, in the actual phenomenal world, unity and harmony are replaced by strife or discord;

5080-471: Is normal and pervasive across cultures. Cross cultural studies indicate that there is coexistence of natural and supernatural explanations in both adults and children for explaining numerous things about the world, such as illness, death, and origins. Context and cultural input play a large role in determining when and how individuals incorporate natural and supernatural explanations. The coexistence of natural and supernatural explanations in individuals may be

5207-402: Is possible within the boundaries of the laws of physics. Epistemologically , the relationship between the supernatural and the natural is indistinct in terms of natural phenomena that, ex hypothesi, violate the laws of nature, in so far as such laws are realistically accountable . Parapsychologists use the term psi to refer to an assumed unitary force underlying the phenomena they study. Psi

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5334-473: Is that there is disagreement about the definition of "natural" and the limits of naturalism . Concepts in the supernatural domain are closely related to concepts in religious spirituality and occultism or spiritualism . For sometimes we use the word nature for that Author of nature whom the schoolmen , harshly enough, call natura naturans , as when it is said that nature hath made man partly corporeal and partly immaterial . Sometimes we mean by

5461-470: Is the philosophical or religious concept that an aspect of a living being starts a new life in a different physical body or form after each biological death . It is also called rebirth or transmigration , and is a part of the Saṃsāra doctrine of cyclic existence. It is a central tenet of all major Indian religions , namely Jainism , Hinduism , Buddhism and Sikhism . The idea of reincarnation

5588-509: Is the adherence to the supernatural (beliefs, and not violations of causality and the physical laws). Occurring as both an adjective and a noun , antecedents of the modern English compound supernatural enter the language from two sources: via Middle French ( supernaturel ) and directly from the Middle French's term's ancestor, post- Classical Latin ( supernaturalis ). Post-classical Latin supernaturalis first occurs in

5715-521: Is thought not to be the work of a ' pseudo-Aristotle ' though this remains debatable. Hypatia ( c.  360  – 415) was a Greek philosopher and mathematician who served as head of the Platonist school in Alexandria, Egypt, where she taught philosophy, mathematics and astronomy. She was murdered in a Church by a fanatical mob of Coptic Parabalani monks because she had been advising

5842-481: Is thus peopled by a crowd of superhuman beings influencing natural events and possessing and communicating knowledge of the future, and who are all accessible to prayers and offerings. Iamblichus had salvation as his final goal (see henosis ). The embodied soul was to return to divinity by performing certain rites, or theurgy , literally, 'divine-working'. After Plotinus' (around 205–270) and his student Porphyry (around 232–309) Aristotle's (non-biological) works entered

5969-439: Is widely considered the father of Neoplatonism. Much of our biographical information about him comes from Porphyry's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads . While he was himself influenced by the teachings of classical Greek , Persian , and Indian philosophy and Egyptian theology , his metaphysical writings later inspired numerous Pagan , Jewish , Christian , Gnostic , and Islamic metaphysicians and mystics over

6096-560: The Republic , when, in the course of his famous analogy of the Sun , Plato says that the Good is beyond being (ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας) in power and dignity. In Plotinus' model of reality, the One is the cause of the rest of reality, which takes the form of two subsequent " hypostases " or substances: Nous and Soul ( psyché ). Although neoplatonists after Plotinus adhered to his cosmological scheme in its most general outline, later developments in

6223-458: The Abrahamic traditions , including ancient and medieval Christian demonology , a demon is considered a harmful spiritual entity, below the heavenly planes which may cause demonic possession , calling for an exorcism . In Western occultism and Renaissance magic , which grew out of an amalgamation of Greco-Roman magic , Jewish Aggadah and Christian demonology , a demon is believed to be

6350-571: The Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo on his journey from dualistic Manichaeism to Christianity. As a Manichaen, Augustine had held that evil has substantial being and that God is made of matter; when he became a neoplatonist, he changed his views on these things. As a neoplatonist, and later a Christian, Augustine believed that evil is a privation of good and that God is not material. When writing his treatise 'On True Religion' several years after his 387 baptism, Augustine's Christianity

6477-709: The Eastern Christian Church as an independent tradition and was reintroduced to the West by Pletho ( c.  1355  – 1452/1454), an avowed pagan and opponent of the Byzantine Church, inasmuch as the latter, under Western scholastic influence, relied heavily upon Aristotelian methodology. Pletho's Platonic revival, following the Council of Florence (1438–1439), largely accounts for the renewed interest in Platonic philosophy which accompanied

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6604-552: The Quran was revealed by God to Muhammad word by word through the angel Gabriel ( Jibril ). In Hinduism , some Vedas are considered apauruṣeya , "not human compositions", and are supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called śruti , "what is heard". Aleister Crowley stated that The Book of the Law had been revealed to him through a higher being that called itself Aiwass . A revelation communicated by

6731-625: The Renaissance . "Of all the students of Greek in Renaissance Italy, the best-known are the neoplatonists who studied in and around Florence" (Hole). Neoplatonism was not just a revival of Plato's ideas, it is all based on Plotinus' created synthesis, which incorporated the works and teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and other Greek philosophers. The Renaissance in Italy was the revival of classic antiquity, and this started at

6858-621: The Roman era as well as the Indian religions, have been the subject of recent scholarly research. Unity Church and its founder Charles Fillmore teaches reincarnation. In recent decades, many Europeans and North Americans have developed an interest in reincarnation, and many contemporary works mention it. Karma ( / ˈ k ɑːr m ə / ; Sanskrit : कर्म , romanized :  karma , IPA: [ˈkɐɽmɐ] ; Pali : kamma ) means action, work or deed; it also refers to

6985-489: The afterlife , or in exceptional cases enter heaven alive . Heaven is often described as a "higher place", the holiest place, a Paradise , in contrast to hell or the Underworld or the "low places" and universally or conditionally accessible by earthly beings according to various standards of divinity , goodness , piety , faith , or other virtues or right beliefs or simply the will of God . Some believe in

7112-515: The curriculum of Platonic thought. Porphyry's introduction ( Isagoge ) to Aristotle's Categoria was important as an introduction to logic , and the study of Aristotle became an introduction to the study of Plato in the late Platonism of Athens and Alexandria . The commentaries of this group seek to harmonise Plato, Aristotle, and, often, the Stoics . Some works of neoplatonism were attributed to Plato or Aristotle. De Mundo , for instance,

7239-503: The miraculous ones wrought by Christ and his apostles were supernatural . Nomological possibility is possibility under the actual laws of nature . Most philosophers since David Hume have held that the laws of nature are metaphysically contingent—that there could have been different natural laws than the ones that actually obtain. If so, then it would not be logically or metaphysically impossible, for example, for you to travel to Alpha Centauri in one day; it would just have to be

7366-433: The nature of a thing the essence , or that which the schoolmen scruple not to call the quiddity of a thing, namely, the attribute or attributes on whose score it is what it is, whether the thing be corporeal or not, as when we attempt to define the nature of an angle , or of a triangle , or of a fluid body, as such. Sometimes we take nature for an internal principle of motion , as when we say that

7493-495: The religious texts of traditions including Hinduism , Judaism , Christianity , Islam , Mormonism , and the Baháʼí Faith are all claimed to be divinely inspired to some degree. Plato distinguishes four kinds of inspiration or "mania" in the dialogue Phaedrus . The word "mania" signifying that a person is caught up in a state transcending the individual consciousness. In other dialogues, Plato identifies other manias besides

7620-506: The 6th century, composed of the Latin prefix super- and nātūrālis (see nature ). The earliest known appearance of the word in the English language occurs in a Middle English translation of Catherine of Siena 's Dialogue ( orcherd of Syon , around 1425; Þei haue not þanne þe supernaturel lyȝt ne þe liȝt of kunnynge, bycause þei vndirstoden it not ). The semantic value of

7747-673: The Christian Gnostics of Alexandria , especially Valentinus and the followers of Basilides , also mirrored elements of Neoplatonism, Ammonius Saccas (died c.  240–245 AD ) was a teacher of Plotinus. Through Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus may have been influenced by Indian thought. The similarities between Neoplatonism and Indian philosophy , particularly Samkhya , have led several authors to suggest an Indian influence in its founding, particularly on Ammonius Saccas. Both Christians (see Eusebius , Jerome , and Origen ) and Pagans (see Porphyry and Plotinus) claimed him

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7874-547: The German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher as an early thinker who took Plato's philosophy to be separate from that of his neoplatonic interpreters. However, others have argued that the differentiation of Plato from neoplatonism was the result of a protracted historical development that preceded Schleiermacher's scholarly work on Plato. Neoplatonism started with Plotinus in the 3rd century AD. Three distinct phases in classical neoplatonism after Plotinus can be distinguished:

8001-521: The Logos interior to God from the Logos related to the world by creation and salvation. For Augustine, the Logos " took on flesh " in Christ, in whom the Logos was present as in no other man. He strongly influenced early medieval Christian philosophy . Some early Christians, influenced by neoplatonism, identified the neoplatonic One, or God, with Yahweh . The most influential of these would be Origen ,

8128-461: The Middle Ages most Plotinus' insights will be presented as authored by Proclus. The Enneads of Plotinus are the primary and classical document of neoplatonism. As a form of mysticism , it contains theoretical and practical parts. The theoretical parts deal with the high origin of the human soul , showing how it has departed from its first estate. The practical parts show the way by which

8255-554: The Middle Ages, although in the early modern period Italian humanists reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to establish the idea of natural magic . Both negative and positive understandings of the term were retained in Western culture over the following centuries, with the former largely influencing early academic usages of the word. Throughout history, there have been examples of individuals who practiced magic and referred to themselves as magicians. This trend has proliferated in

8382-457: The One after death. After bodily death, the soul takes up a level in the afterlife corresponding with the level at which it lived during its earthly life. The neoplatonists believed in the principle of reincarnation . Although the most pure and holy souls would dwell in the highest regions, the impure soul would undergo a purification, before descending again, to be reincarnated into a new body, perhaps into animal form. Plotinus believed that

8509-424: The One, from which they emanated. The neoplatonists believed in the pre-existence, and immortality of the soul. The human soul consists of a lower irrational soul and a higher rational soul ( mind ), both of which can be regarded as different powers of the one soul. It was widely held that the soul possesses a "vehicle" ( okhêma ), accounting for the human soul's immortality and allowing for its return to

8636-543: The Renaissance" (Hole). In 1462, Cosimo I de' Medici, patron of arts, who had an interest in humanism and Platonism, provided Ficino with all 36 of Plato's dialogues in Greek for him to translate. Between 1462 and 1469, Ficino translated these works into Latin, making them widely accessible, as only a minority of people could read Greek. And, between 1484 and 1492, he translated the works of Plotinus, making them available for

8763-603: The Universe, having an "other" necessity, as a harmonizing factor. Later neoplatonic philosophers, especially Iamblichus, added hundreds of intermediate beings such as gods , angels , demons , and other beings as mediators between the One and humanity. The neoplatonist gods are omni-perfect beings and do not display the usual amoral behaviour associated with their representations in the myths. Neoplatonists did not believe in an independent existence of evil . They compared it to darkness, which does not exist in itself but only as

8890-441: The absence of light. So, too, evil is simply the absence of good. Things are good insofar as they exist; they are evil only insofar as they are imperfect, lacking some good which they should have. Neoplatonists believed human perfection and happiness were attainable in this world, without awaiting an afterlife . Perfection and happiness—seen as synonymous—could be achieved through philosophical contemplation . All people return to

9017-479: The assumptions underlying the theory that implied the impossibility be re-examined. Some philosophers, such as Sydney Shoemaker , have argued that the laws of nature are in fact necessary, not contingent; if so, then nomological possibility is equivalent to metaphysical possibility. The term supernatural is often used interchangeably with paranormal or preternatural —the latter typically limited to an adjective for describing abilities which appear to exceed what

9144-474: The career of a charlatan , " Alexander the false prophet ", trained by "one of those who advertise enchantments, miraculous incantations, charms for your love-affairs, visitations for your enemies, disclosures of buried treasure and successions to estates". Neoplatonism Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion . The term does not encapsulate

9271-425: The case that you could travel faster than the speed of light. But of course there is an important sense in which this is not nomologically possible; given that the laws of nature are what they are. In the philosophy of natural science , impossibility assertions come to be widely accepted as overwhelmingly probable rather than considered proved to the point of being unchallengeable. The basis for this strong acceptance

9398-512: The cases of superstitions or belief in the paranormal . The term is attributed to non-physical entities , such as angels , demons , gods and spirits . It also includes claimed abilities embodied in or provided by such beings, including magic , telekinesis , levitation , precognition and extrasensory perception . The supernatural is hypernymic to religion . Religions are standardized supernaturalist worldviews, or at least more complete than single supernaturalist views. Supernaturalism

9525-404: The centuries. Plotinus taught that there is a supreme, totally transcendent "One", containing no division, multiplicity, nor distinction; likewise, it is beyond all categories of being and non-being. The concept of "being" is derived by us from the objects of human experience and is an attribute of such objects, but the infinite, transcendent One is beyond all such objects and, therefore, is beyond

9652-439: The concept of the soul of the deceased making its own journey to the underworld, with the dead needing to be taken across a defining obstacle such as a lake or a river to reach this destination. Imagery of such journeys can be found in both ancient and modern art. The descent to the underworld has been described as "the single most important myth for Modernist authors". A spirit is a supernatural being, often but not exclusively

9779-462: The concepts which we can derive from them. The One "cannot be any existing thing" and cannot be merely the sum of all such things (compare the Stoic doctrine of disbelief in non-material existence) but "is prior to all existents". Porphyry (c. 233 – c. 309) wrote widely on astrology, religion, philosophy, and musical theory. He produced a biography of his teacher, Plotinus. He is important in

9906-522: The creatures cannot do, in traditional theism, in comparison to what they can do in process metaphysics (that is, to be part creators of the world with God). Heaven , or the heavens , is a common religious, cosmological , or transcendent place where beings such as gods , angels , spirits, saints , or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned , or live. According to the beliefs of some religions, heavenly beings can descend to Earth or incarnate , and earthly beings can ascend to heaven in

10033-440: The dialogues of Plato. The particular characteristic of Proclus' system is his insertion of a level of individual ones, called henads , between the One itself and the divine Intellect, which is the second principle. The henads are beyond being, like the One itself, but they stand at the head of chains of causation ( seirai or taxeis ) and in some manner give to these chains their particular character. They are also identified with

10160-409: The early Church Fathers had done. As a result, he had created a dichotomy of sorts of the natural and supernatural. Though the phrase "supra naturam" was used since the 4th century AD, it was in the 1200s that Thomas Aquinas used the term "supernaturalis". Despite this, the term had to wait until the end of the medieval period before it became more popularly used. The discussions on "nature" from

10287-520: The effects of creation. Islamic philosophers used the framework of Islamic mysticism in their interpretation of Neoplatonic writings and concepts. In the Middle Ages, neoplatonist ideas influenced Jewish thinkers, such as the Kabbalists Isaac the Blind , Azriel of Gerona and Nachmanides and the earlier Jewish neoplatonic philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol ( Avicebron ), who modified it in

10414-549: The fall of the Byzantine empire, who were considered the "librarians of the world", because of their great collection of classical manuscripts and the number of humanist scholars that resided in Constantinople (Hole). Neoplatonism in the Renaissance combined the ideas of Christianity and a new awareness of the writings of Plato. Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) was "chiefly responsible for packaging and presenting Plato to

10541-510: The first time to the West. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) was another neoplatonist during the Italian Renaissance. He could speak and write Latin and Greek, and had knowledge on Hebrew and Arabic. The pope banned his works because they were viewed as heretical – unlike Ficino, who managed to stay on the right side of the church. The efforts of Ficino and Pico to introduce neoplatonic and Hermetic doctrines into

10668-448: The followers of Gnosticism had corrupted the original teachings of Plato and often argued against likes of Valentinus who, according to Plotinus, had given rise to doctrines of dogmatic theology with ideas such as that the Spirit of Christ was brought forth by a conscious god after the fall from Pleroma . According to Plotinus, The One is not a conscious god with intent, nor a godhead , nor a conditioned existing entity of any kind, rather

10795-484: The four given in Phaedrus. Anger, for example, is a mania because a man may become inspired by Mars in battle and perform deeds of superhuman strength. The four given in Phaedrus, however, are called Divine as they are the inspirations which perfect the soul. Supernatural The supernatural is featured in folklore and religious contexts, but can also feature as an explanation in more secular contexts, as in

10922-505: The historical Plato . On the other, the term makes an assumption about the novelty of Plotinus's interpretation of Plato. In the nearly six centuries from Plato's time to Plotinus', there had been an uninterrupted tradition of interpreting Plato which had begun with Aristotle and with the immediate successors of Plato's Academy and continued on through a period of Platonism which is now referred to as middle Platonism . The term neoplatonism implies that Plotinus' interpretation of Plato

11049-470: The history of mathematics because of his commentary on Euclid's Elements , which Pappus used when he wrote his own commentary. Porphyry is also known as an opponent of Christianity and as a defender of paganism ; of his Adversus Christianos ( Against the Christians ) in 15 books, only fragments remain. He famously said, "The gods have proclaimed Christ to have been most pious, but the Christians are

11176-425: The idea of rebirth in many schools of Indian religions (particularly Hinduism , Buddhism , Jainism and Sikhism ) as well as Taoism . In these schools, karma in the present affects one's future in the current life, as well as the nature and quality of future lives – one's saṃsāra . In Catholic theology , the supernatural order is, according to New Advent , defined as "the ensemble of effects exceeding

11303-457: The intelligible world; but it also embraces innumerable individual souls; and these can either allow themselves to be informed by the nous , or turn aside from the nous and choose the phenomenal world and lose themselves in the realm of the senses and the finite. The soul, as a moving essence, generates the corporeal or phenomenal world. This world ought to be so pervaded by the soul that its various parts should remain in perfect harmony. Plotinus

11430-463: The knowledge of his teacher and predecessors in order to inspire the next generation. Whether neoplatonism is a meaningful or useful historical category is itself a central question concerning the history of the interpretation of Plato. For much of the history of Platonism, it was commonly accepted that the doctrines of the neoplatonists were essentially the same as those of Plato. The Renaissance Neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino , for instance, thought that

11557-543: The light of their own monotheism. The works of Pseudo-Dionysius were primarily instrumental in the flowering of western medieval mysticism , most notably the German mystic Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – c. 1328). Neoplatonism also influenced Latin scholasticism , for example through the reception and translation of Neoplatonic conception by Eriugena . Aquinas, for example, have some Neoplatonic elements in his philosophical conceptions that he adapts within an Aristotelian vocabulary. Neoplatonism ostensibly survived in

11684-671: The majority of denominations within Christianity and Islam do not believe that individuals reincarnate, particular groups within these religions do refer to reincarnation; these groups include the mainstream historical and contemporary followers of Cathars , Alawites , the Druze and the Rosicrucians . The historical relations between these sects and the beliefs about reincarnation that were characteristic of Neoplatonism , Orphism , Hermeticism , Manicheanism and Gnosticism of

11811-429: The many enter into complex unity" (Whitehead 1978, 21). It is tempting to emphasize process theism's denial of the supernatural and thereby highlight that the processed God cannot do in comparison what the traditional God could do (that is, to bring something from nothing). In fairness, however, equal stress should be placed on process theism's denial of the natural (as traditionally conceived) so that one may highlight what

11938-521: The modern period, with a growing number of magicians appearing within the esoteric milieu. British esotericist Aleister Crowley described magic as the art of effecting change in accordance with will. Divination (from Latin divinare "to foresee, to be inspired by a god", related to divinus , divine ) is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic , standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how

12065-569: The monotheistic constraints of Islam. The translations of the works which extrapolate the tenets of God in neoplatonism present no major modification from their original Greek sources, showing the doctrinal shift towards monotheism . Islamic neoplatonism adapted the concepts of the One and the First Principle to Islamic theology, attributing the First Principle to God. God is a transcendent being, omnipresent and inalterable to

12192-403: The neoplatonic interpretation of Plato was an authentic and accurate representation of Plato's philosophy. Although it is unclear precisely when scholars began to disassociate the philosophy of the historical Plato from the philosophy of his neoplatonic interpreters, they had clearly begun to do so at least as early as the first decade of the nineteenth century. Contemporary scholars often identify

12319-424: The neoplatonist Stephanus of Alexandria brought this Alexandrian tradition to Constantinople, where it would remain influential, albeit as a form of secular education. The university maintained an active philosophical tradition of Platonism and Aristotelianism , with the former being the longest unbroken Platonic school, running for close to two millennia until the fifteenth century Michael Psellos (1018–1078),

12446-478: The outcomes two distinct cognitive domains: one concerned with the physical-mechanical relations and another with social relations. Studies on indigenous groups have allowed for insights on how such coexistence of explanations may function. A deity ( / ˈ d iː ə t i / or / ˈ d eɪ . ə t i / ) is a supernatural being considered divine or sacred . The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as "a god or goddess (in

12573-925: The period in the fifth and sixth centuries, when the academies in Alexandria and Athens flourished. Neoplatonism had an enduring influence on the subsequent history of Western philosophy and religion. In the Middle Ages , Neoplatonic ideas were studied and discussed by Christian , Jewish , and Muslim thinkers. In the Islamic cultural sphere, Neoplatonic texts were available in Arabic and Persian translations, and notable philosophers such as al-Farabi , Solomon ibn Gabirol ( Avicebron ), Avicenna ( Ibn Sina ), and Maimonides incorporated Neoplatonic elements into their own thinking. Christian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) had direct access to

12700-432: The phenomenal world, and it is permeated and illuminated by the former, but it is also in contact with the latter. The nous/spirit is indivisible; the world-soul may preserve its unity and remain in the nous , but, at the same time, it has the power of uniting with the corporeal world and thus being disintegrated. It therefore occupies an intermediate position. As a single world-soul, it belongs in essence and destination to

12827-493: The possibility of a heaven on Earth in a world to come . Another belief is in an axis mundi or world tree which connects the heavens, the terrestrial world and the underworld . In Indian religions , heaven is considered as Svarga loka , and the soul is again subjected to rebirth in different living forms according to its karma . This cycle can be broken after a soul achieves Moksha or Nirvana . Any place of existence, either of humans, souls or deities, outside

12954-404: The powers of the created universe and gratuitously produced by God for the purpose of raising the rational creature above its native sphere to a God-like life and destiny." The Modern Catholic Dictionary defines it as "the sum total of heavenly destiny and all the divinely established means of reaching that destiny, which surpass the mere powers and capacities of human nature." Process theology

13081-482: The prefect of Egypt Orestes during his feud with Cyril , Alexandria's dynastic archbishop. The extent of Cyril's personal involvement in her murder remains a matter of scholarly debate. Proclus Lycaeus (February 8, 412 – April 17, 485) was a Greek neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Greek philosophers (see Damascius ). He set forth one of the most elaborate, complex, and fully developed neoplatonic systems, providing also an allegorical way of reading

13208-682: The prominence of neoplatonic influences in the historical Muslim world was availability of neoplatonic texts: Arabic translations and paraphrases of neoplatonic works were readily available to Islamic scholars greatly due to the availability of the Greek copies, in part, because Muslims conquered some of the more important centres of the Byzantine Christian civilization in Egypt and Syria. Various Persian and Arabic scholars, including Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Ibn Arabi , al-Kindi , al-Farabi , and al-Himsi , adapted neoplatonism to conform to

13335-436: The prophet's social world and events to come (compare divine knowledge ). Prophecy is not limited to any one culture. It is a common property to all known ancient societies around the world, some more than others. Many systems and rules about prophecy have been proposed over several millennia. In religion and theology , revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with

13462-497: The pupil of Ammonius Saccas; and the sixth-century author known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite , whose works were translated by John Scotus in the ninth century for the West. Both authors had a lasting influence on Eastern Orthodox and Western Christianity , and the development of contemplative and mystical practices and theology. Neoplatonism also had links with Gnosticism, which Plotinus rebuked in his ninth tractate of

13589-488: The recipient. In the Abrahamic religions , the term is used to refer to the process by which God reveals knowledge of himself, his will and his divine providence to the world of human beings. In secondary usage, revelation refers to the resulting human knowledge about God, prophecy and other divine things. Revelation from a supernatural source plays a less important role in some other religious traditions such as Buddhism , Confucianism and Taoism . Reincarnation

13716-409: The result is a conflict, a becoming and vanishing, an illusive existence. And the reason for this state of things is that bodies rest on a substratum of matter. Matter is the indeterminate: that with no qualities. If destitute of form and idea, it is evil; as capable of form, it is neutral. Evil here is understood as a parasite, having no-existence of its own (parahypostasis), an unavoidable outcome of

13843-560: The same divine principle; and nontheistic religions deny any supreme eternal creator deity but accept a pantheon of deities which live, die and are reborn just like any other being. Various cultures have conceptualized a deity differently than a monotheistic God . A deity need not be omnipotent , omnipresent , omniscient , omnibenevolent or eternal , The monotheistic God, however, does have these attributes . Monotheistic religions typically refer to God in masculine terms, while other religions refer to their deities in

13970-435: The scholastic period were diverse and unsettled with some postulating that even miracles are natural and that natural magic was a natural part of the world. The metaphysical considerations of the existence of the supernatural can be difficult to approach as an exercise in philosophy or theology because any dependencies on its antithesis, the natural , will ultimately have to be inverted or rejected. One complicating factor

14097-667: The second Enneads : "Against Those That Affirm The Creator of The Cosmos and The Cosmos Itself to Be Evil" (generally known as "Against The Gnostics"). Because their belief was grounded in Platonic thought, the neoplatonists rejected Gnosticism's vilification of Plato's demiurge , the creator of the material world or cosmos discussed in the Timaeus . Neoplatonism has been referred to as orthodox Platonic philosophy by scholars like John D. Turner ; this reference may be due, in part, to Plotinus' attempt to refute certain interpretations of Platonic philosophy, through his Enneads. Plotinus believed

14224-514: The soul may again return to the Eternal and Supreme. The system can be divided between the invisible world and the phenomenal world, the former containing the transcendent , absolute One from which emanates an eternal, perfect, essence ( nous , or intellect), which, in turn, produces the world-soul . For Plotinus, the first principle of reality is "the One", an utterly simple, ineffable, beyond being and non-being, unknowable subsistence which

14351-406: The spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect). Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and future suffering. With origins in ancient India 's Vedic civilization , the philosophy of karma is closely associated with

14478-475: The tangible world (Heaven, Hell, or other) is referred to as otherworld . The underworld is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. The concept of an underworld is found in almost every civilization and "may be as old as humanity itself". Common features of underworld myths are accounts of living people making journeys to

14605-1135: The temple of every living being's body, as sensory organs and mind. Deities have also been envisioned as a form of existence ( Saṃsāra ) after rebirth , for human beings who gain merit through an ethical life, where they become guardian deities and live blissfully in heaven , but are also subject to death when their merit runs out. An angel is generally a supernatural being found in various religions and mythologies . In Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism , angels are often depicted as benevolent celestial beings who act as intermediaries between God or Heaven and Earth . Other roles of angels include protecting and guiding human beings and carrying out God's tasks. Within Abrahamic religions, angels are often organized into hierarchies , although such rankings may vary between sects in each religion, and are given specific names or titles, such as Gabriel or " Destroying angel ." The term "angel" has also been expanded to various notions of spirits or figures found in other religious traditions. The theological study of angels

14732-423: The term has shifted over the history of its use. Originally the term referred exclusively to Christian understandings of the world. For example, as an adjective, the term can mean "belonging to a realm or system that transcends nature, as that of divine, magical, or ghostly beings; attributed to or thought to reveal some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature; occult, paranormal" or "more than what

14859-460: The third century AD influenced the development of the concept of the supernatural, which later evolved through Christian theology . The term nature had existed since antiquity, with Latin authors like Augustine using the word and its cognates at least 600 times in City of God . In the medieval period, "nature" had ten different meanings and "natural" had eleven different meanings. Peter Lombard ,

14986-408: The tradition also departed substantively from Plotinus' teachings in regards to significant philosophical issues, such as the nature of evil. From the One emanated different levels of lesser realities known as "Hypostases." At the highest level of reality exists "the One" from which emanates the Nous or the mind. It is the first principle after the One and contains all knowledge in a unified form. It

15113-408: The traditional Greek gods, so one henad might be Apollo and be the cause of all things apollonian, while another might be Helios and be the cause of all sunny things. The henads serve both to protect the One itself from any hint of multiplicity and to draw up the rest of the universe towards the One, by being a connecting, intermediate stage between absolute unity and determinate multiplicity. In

15240-448: The underworld , often for some heroic purpose. Other myths reinforce traditions that entrance of souls to the underworld requires a proper observation of ceremony, such as the ancient Greek story of the recently dead Patroclus haunting Achilles until his body could be properly buried for this purpose. Persons having social status were dressed and equipped in order to better navigate the underworld. A number of mythologies incorporate

15367-691: The work of his student Porphyry ; that of Iamblichus and his school in Syria; and the period in the 5th and 6th centuries, when the Academies in Alexandria and Athens flourished. Neoplatonism synthesized ideas from various philosophical and religious cultural spheres. The most important forerunners from Greek philosophy were the Middle Platonists , such as Plutarch , and the Neopythagoreans , especially Numenius of Apamea . Philo ,

15494-475: The works of Proclus , Simplicius of Cilicia , and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite , and he knew about other Neoplatonists, such as Plotinus and Porphyry, through second-hand sources. The German mystic Meister Eckhart ( c.  1260  – c.  1328 ) was also influenced by Neoplatonism, propagating a contemplative way of life which points to the Godhead beyond the nameable God. Neoplatonism also had

15621-606: The works of neoplatonism during the failed attempt to reconcile the East–West Schism at the Council of Florence . At Florence, Plethon met Cosimo de' Medici and influenced the latter's decision to found a new Platonic Academy there. Cosimo subsequently appointed as head Marsilio Ficino, who proceeded to translate all Plato's works, the Enneads of Plotinus, and various other neoplatonist works into Latin. The major reason for

15748-463: Was finally closed by Justinian I because of active paganism of its professors. Other schools continued in Constantinople , Antioch , Alexandria and Gaza which were the centers of Justinian's empire. After the closure of the neoplatonic academy, neoplatonic and/or secular philosophical studies continued in publicly funded schools in Alexandria and Gaza. In the early seventh century,

15875-441: Was so distinct from those of his predecessors that it should be thought to introduce a new period in the history of Platonism. Some contemporary scholars, however, have taken issue with this assumption and have doubted that neoplatonism constitutes a useful label. They claim that merely marginal differences separate Plotinus' teachings from those of his immediate predecessors. As a pupil of philosopher Ammonius Saccas , Plotinus used

16002-489: Was still tempered by neoplatonism. The term logos was interpreted variously in neoplatonism. Plotinus refers to Thales in interpreting logos as the principle of meditation, the interrelationship between the hypostases (Soul, Spirit (nous) and the 'One'). St. John introduces a relation between Logos and the Son, Christ , whereas Paul calls it 'Son', 'Image', and 'Form'. Victorinus subsequently differentiated

16129-409: Was used with negative connotations, to apply to religious rites that were regarded as fraudulent, unconventional and dangerous. This meaning of the term was then adopted by Latin in the first century BC. The concept was then incorporated into Christian theology during the first century AD, where magic was associated with demons and thus defined against religion. This concept was pervasive throughout

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