Pre-Rational Stage, Sioux Example

By Leo Gura - May 27, 2026

This is a great example of the pre-rational stage of cognitive development. This is how all tribal people reason. This is a good example of how the pre-rational mind corrupts spirituality and turns it into self-deception. This is why you should never trust shamans. Shamans do not have the epistemic understanding necessary to not corrupt spirituality.

The pre-rational mind believes that a ghost dance can reverse the demise of the Native American peoples.

“Wovoka, a Paiute mystic started the Ghost Dance movement. He preached that the Ghost Dance would bring the old world back. The dead would come alive, the buffalo would return, and all whites would be removed from the plains. In order to make the event happen, the Native American warriors should dance the Ghost Dance. To the poor, defeated, and disappointed people, most living on reservations, the new religion gave them hope. It was also thought that the Ghost Dance shirts would protect the wearer from white man’s bullets. In November of 1890 the US government banned the Ghost Dance on the Sioux reservations.”

Again, notice how the spiritual novice conflates his survival with spirituality.

Watch timestamp: (16:32-17:30)

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