…Evidence that we are creatures of the paranormal can be found when we look at behaviors across the many different cultures of the world. (p.5)

…When we apply the cross-cultural litmus-test to the entire range of human behavior, we find something very interesting. We see that only one category of behavior is universal by the strictest definition. That is paranormal believing. Cultural anthropologists and cross-cultural psychologists have yet to isolate a single society in which its people do not have longstanding and well-developed systems of paranormal belief. Although some other human traits are common to most cultures, none is as widespread and pervasive as beliefs that transcend reality and the normal order of earthly events. (p.6)

…From a global perspective, we can see that we are able to live with - or without - almost anything. We can adjust to and accommodate almost any physical, social, or cultural conditions. In that sense, we are almost indefinitely malleable. The only exception is that we do not seem able to live without belief, and in particular belief in something, someone, or some force that simplifies and/or supersedes the reality of the human situation. Less than one percent of people, regardless of culture, have no paranormal beliefs at all. The same invariance cannot be seen in any other form of human behavior. (p.7)

…Indeed, we are products of culture far more then we are products of any other single force that shapes our behavior. Specifically, we are products of the cultural suggestions that bombard and mold us. (P.63)

…some refer to culture as the unseen provider of the “life scripts” that people act out and mistakenly consider to be the behaviors of their choosing. In actually, we do not choose those patterns of behavior. Culture does that for us. (P.64)

…We are brainwashed prisoners of culture, the main role of which is to program us with pacifying beliefs. Culture is the nipple that sustains us with self-transcending belief, but it is also the absolute enemy of the one who wants to see the world as it is. Culture is the embodiment of paranormal self-deception, keeping us forever protected from the truth of our condition. (P.91)

Schumaker, John F., Wings of Illusion, Prometheus Press, 1990.