Psychoanalysis Justifies Its Importance By Asserting That

A Religious Phenomenon Will Only Be Recognized As Such If It Is Grasped At Its Own Level, That Is To Say, If It Is Studied As Something Religious. To Try To Grasp The Essence Of Such Phenomenon By Means Of Physiology, Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Linguistics, Art Or Any Other Study Is False; It Misses The One Unique And Irreducible Element In It - The Element Of The Sacred.

The Primitive Magician, The Medicine Man Or Shaman Is Not Only A Sick Man, He Is Above All, A Sick Man Who Has Been Cured, Who Has Succeeded In Curing Himself.

When The Sacred Manifests Itself In Any Hierophany, There Is Not Only A Break In The Homogeneity Of Space; There Is Also A Revelation Of An Absolute Reality, Opposed To The Nonreality Of The Vast Surrounding Expanse. The Manifestation Of The Sacred Ontologically Founds The World. In The Homogenous And Infinite Expanse, In Which No Point Of Reference Is Possible And Hence No Orientation Can Be Established, The Hierophany Reveals An Absolute Fixed Point, A Center.

To Whatever Degree He May Have Desacralized The World, The Man Who Has Made His Choice In Favor Of A Profane Life Never Succeeds In Completely Doing Away With Religious Behavior.

It Is Not Without Fear And Trembling That A Historian Of Religion Approaches The Problem Of Myth. This Is Not Only Because Of That Preliminary Embarrassing Question: What Is Intended By Myth? It Is Also Because The Answers Given Depend For The Most Part On The Documents Selected.