Other events in Baltic States

According to a study that was conducted by the Tartu University department of religion, nearly a half of people living in Estonia believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life and a fifth have been engaged in new age practices like yoga, meditation or liberation breathing, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

Nearly 70% of the 1,100 people who were polled agreed with the statement that they believe in spiritual self development with the help of mental practices like meditation.

43% of the respondents believed in the existence of extraterrestrial civilisations, the representatives of which occasionally visit our planet. 22% believe that human civilisation was brought to the Earth creatures from other planets and 16% believe that governments of big states cooperate with aliens but hide it from their people.

61% of Estonian nationals agreed to the claim that "natural religion is the true religion of the Estonian people" but only 4% of the polled identified themselves as natural religion believers.

58% of the polled agreed to the claim that "they have their own religion, which is independent of different churches and religions" and 49% to the claim that they "don’t consider themselves religious but they have high interest towards different religions and mental teachings".

A fifth of Estonians and a half of people of other nationalities identified themselves as Christians.

However, 55% of Estonians and 77% of people of other nationalities think that "Christian doctrine is the basis of growing to be a moral person" and around the same agreed to the claim that they like Christian principles.

28% of the polled agreed to the claim that "religion is an obstacle for the free mental development of a person" and 35% agreed that "church is meant to manipulate masses of people and keep them under control."

A tenth of the polled said they were atheists.