Publisher's Synopsis
Pastor Kent Philpott explored Santería, the New World version of the West African religion of the "orishas," a stealth religious movement with more than 180 million adherents in Brazil alone, and discovered that it had its roots in shamanism and that contemporary neo-pagan religions like Wicca were intimately connected with both. Even more surprising, Philpott found shamans, Santerían priests, and witches appealing to what they termed "charisma" to support and authenticate their belief systems. What the four have in common is the trance state, ecstasy, passive state of mind, or altered state of conscious. Philpott details the theology and practices of shamanism, Santería, and Wicca, and then regretfully demonstrates why the proponents of these religions appeal to a form of Christianity.
