A lot of people, I think, are baffled by time and space and matter and energy around them and how it works. Not on a scientific level but a more metaphysical and spiritual level of chance and outcomes of the vying of hidden wills. Seeing how chance is not enough to explain order and grace the feeling is that patterns control outcomes and patterns significant to outcomes might be reproducible. The baffling but compelling curiosity is to try and guess what constitutes a significant pattern conducive to an either positive or negative outcome, irrespective of the complexity of hidden factors determining such an outcome. Can outcomes be influenced? When outside forces offer advice on how to determine such complexities the natural human reaction is to lap it up and play along and so cultures are formed and are surprisingly persistent. Cultures include divination, charm tokens, totems, beguiling alluring techniques, idolatry, metallurgy, weaponry, martial arts, medical procedures, expertise in herbal poisons and remedies, esoteric knowledge of the spiritual realm, enchantments, invocations, shamanism and the like. These things have diminished morality but raised hopes of elevated prowess of humanity and have matured into the sciences.
