"Vodou means “spirit.” It’s a Fon [a people of Benin, formerly Dahomey] word. It’s like, in English you say “spirit”; in Spanish you say “espirito,” and in French you say “esprit.” But it’s all the same; this is what we are. Our bodies are made of pieces of dust, just made up of dust. Inside the body is a spirit. That’s the mystery. An ant is a mystery; the chicken is a mystery; plants are mysteries. All is spirit. Until we understand that and raise our consciousness to see that we are not only made of flesh, we remain prisoners. We must be conscious that we are spirit. That way we will know what possibilities we really have, what power we really have as people."