Ritual

Book excerpt: Foreword / Betty Sue Flowers -- Preface. About the authors and their personal and academic engagements with ritual -- Introduction. What is ritual? Its definition and characteristics -- Symbolism in ritual -- The cognitive matrix of ritual : belief systems, myths, and paradigms -- Belief systems, myths, paradigms, rituals, and the process of truing -- Ritual drivers : generating and controlling stages of consciousness -- Ritual techniques and technologies -- Ritual framing, order, and formality : how ritual generates a sense of inevitability and inviolability -- Ritual as performance : generating emotion, belief, and transformation -- Ritual and the 4 stages of cognition -- Ritual's paradoxical roles : preserving the status quo and effecting social change -- Designing rituals -- Conclusion. Ritual : what it is, how it works, and why.