Religious practices

thumb|upright=1.35|alt=Collage of various religionists praying|Collage of various religionists praying.

rituals or actions employed to manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces

Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditation process itself.

thumb|right|upright=1.35|Catholic Church|Catholic missionaries in [[Papua New Guinea]] A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.

thumb|Roman Emperor|Emperor [[Marcus Aurelius shows clemency to the vanquished after his success against tribes (Capitoline Museum in Rome)]]

principle of treating others as one wants to be treated

Repentance is reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past or present wrongdoings, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.

thumb|right|A man shaving his neck using a straight razor thumb|A woman leg shaving using a razor thumb|right|Cartridge razor with two blades

thumb|"Piety", Dulwich Picture GalleryPiety is a virtue which may include religious devotion or spirituality. A common element in most conceptions of piety is a duty of respect. In a religious context, piety may be expressed through pious activities or devotions, which may vary among countries and cultures.

expressions of religion distinct from organized doctrines

thumb|Kundalini, chakras, and nadis

war primarily caused or justified by differences in religion

devotion to a deity, person or thing

thumb|Portion of the death shroud of Charlemagne. It represents a [[quadriga and was manufactured in Constantinople.]] thumb|350px|Detail showing body in a burial shroud, grave of William Carstares, [[Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh (1720)]] A shroud is an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to burial sheets, mound shroud, grave clothes, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the Jewish tachrichim or Muslim kaffan, that the body is wrapped in for burial. A famous example of this is the Shroud of Turin.

thumb|La Penitente by Pietro Rotari

group of mental phenomena

Veneration (; ) is the practice of honoring people and articles of religious significance, for example, the veneration of saints and the veneration of relics. thumb|A statue of Conrad of Piacenza in a niche in the side wall of [[Noto Cathedral, Sicily. The cathedral houses the relics of the patron saint of Noto.]] To venerate a saint is to honour a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Veneration of saints is practiced, formally or informally, by adherents of some branches of all major religions, i

sexual rite performed in the context of religious worship

thumb|Prisoners at a whipping post in a Delaware prison,

solemn dedication to a special purpose or service

travel to religious sites

prayer and gestures that are perceived to bring divine intervention in physical healing

Testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a situation.

[[File:Importance of Religion in the World (Gallup Poll 2008-2009).svg|thumb|550px|Results of a 2008/2009 Gallup poll on whether respondents said that religion was "important in [their] daily life." {| border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width:100%;" |- |valign="top"|

Entheogens are psychoactive substances used in spiritual, religious, recreational, therapeutic, and experimental contexts to induce altered states of consciousness. While the term itself emphasizes ritual and sacred applications, the same substances are also frequently employed recreationally—sometimes in ways that diverge from or disregard traditional protocols. Hallucinogens such as the psilocybin found in so-called "magic" mushrooms have been used in sacred contexts since ancient times. Derived from a term meaning "generating the divine from within", entheogens are, in religious and shamani

distinctive set of garments worn by members of a religious order

promises made by members of religious communities

name embedding the name of a god

A hierophany is a manifestation of the sacred. The word is a formation of the Greek adjective hieros (, 'sacred, holy') and the verb phainein (φαίνειν, 'to reveal, to bring to light').

religious term

Self-realization is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology, and spirituality; and in Indian religions. In the Western understanding, it is the "fulfillment by oneself of the possibilities of one's character or personality" (see also self-actualization). In Hinduism, self-realization is liberating knowledge of the true self, either as the permanent undying Purusha or witness-consciousness, which is atman (essence). In Buddhism, it is knowledge of the absence (sunyata) of such a permanent self.

uncritical devotion to a religion

following article shows the countries which are most atheist in a descending order

thumb|Rangoli, a popular form of Indian sand paintings, in [[Singapore.]] Sandpainting is the art of pouring coloured sands, and powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, or pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto a surface to make a fixed or unfixed sand painting. Unfixed sand paintings have a long established cultural history in numerous social groupings around the globe, and are often temporary, ritual paintings prepared for religious or healing ceremonies. This form of art is also referred to as drypainting.

altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness

sudden understanding of the essence or meaning of something

advisor in spiritual growth

Numinous () means "arousing spiritual or religious emotion; mysterious or awe-inspiring"; also "supernatural" or "appealing to the aesthetic sensibility." The term was given its present sense by the German theologian and philosopher Rudolf Otto in his influential 1917 German book The Idea of the Holy. He also used the phrase mysterium tremendum as another description for the phenomenon. Otto's concept of the numinous influenced thinkers including Carl Jung, Mircea Eliade, and C. S. Lewis. It has been applied to theology, psychology, religious studies, literary analysis, and descriptions of psy

thumb|upright=1.22|Muslims mourning Battle of Karbala|the martyrdom of [[Husayn ibn Ali in Hyderabad, India]] Self-flagellation is the disciplinary and devotional practice of flogging oneself with whips or other instruments that inflict pain. In Christianity, self-flagellation is practiced in the context of the doctrine of the mortification of the flesh and is seen as a spiritual discipline. It is often used as a form of penance and is intended to allow the flagellant to share in the sufferings of Jesus, bringing their focus to God.

Atonement, atoning, or making amends is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other expression of feelings of remorse. Atonement "is closely associated to forgiveness, reconciliation, sorrow, remorse, repentance, reparation, and guilt". It can be seen as a necessary step on a path to redemption. Expiation is the related concept of removing guilt, particularly the undoing of sin or other transgressions in religious contexts.

thumb|200px|upright|The Bahubali statue symbolising absolute renunciation of [[Samsara (the weary wheel of death and reincarnation).]] Renunciation (or renouncing) is the act of rejecting something, particularly something that the renunciant has previously enjoyed or endorsed.

with members all over the globe believing our planet is flat

type of belief system

given name bestowed for a religious purpose

significance of trees in mythology and folklore

study of animal behaviours that suggest proto-religious faith

attitude of deep respect tinged with awe

circumcision for religious purposes

phrase

experimental apparatus developed by Stanley Koren and Michael Persinger

Sufi practice of penance and solitude

Pseudoreligion or pseudotheology is a pejorative term which is a combination of the Greek prefix "pseudo", meaning false, and "religion." The term is sometimes avoided in religious scholarship as it is seen as polemic, but it is used colloquially in multiple ways, and is generally used for a belief system, philosophy, or movement which is functionally similar to a religious movement, often having a founder, principal text, liturgy, or faith-based beliefs. It is also used for movements or ideologies which are not ostensibly religious but have qualities identified as "religious" qualities such a

Faiths which regard mountains as objects of worship

type of rites

time period when eating is strongly regulated depending on religion

summons for participants of a faith to pray