民間信仰是人類原始社會所產生的自發性精神活動，更是眾人心血灌溉所積累的思想體系。而人類原始社會的信仰架構，主要是來自泛靈的認知觀念，逐漸成為對靈的崇拜行為，相信靈是一種超越自然的力量，而人可以透過與靈的交感，來得到靈的力量，形成豐富的靈感文化。這延續著古代的巫覡文化的信仰系統，巫師成為人與靈溝通的中介者。而台灣的靈乩文化極為豐富與多樣，從傳統的童乩與鸞乩中，發展出新的靈感文化，進入社會文化中更深層的結構精神。靈乩是通靈者與靈交感的特殊能力，在與神交感的乩示活動中，以特殊的語言舞蹈及神通的法術，來解厄祈福。對靈界的信仰不是單一，而是多元至上神觀，認為靈界的主宰不是單一，宇宙可以有無限的化身也存在無限的宇宙，形成特殊的靈界宇宙觀。靈乩不只是感應靈的力量，更重要就是宗教使命「復古收圓」，強調的是自我靈性的開發，進而可以成為靈神在人間的化身，讓眾生都可以達到與靈體合一的境界，各歸自己的靈山本脈。靈乩依靠民間與靈界的自發性創造，形成一套嶄新且完整的宗教形態，各個靈乩系統百家爭鳴的競逐，更為今日的民間信仰注入新的文化活力。

Folk religion is the spontaneous mental activity generated by human primitive society, and it is also a kind of ideology accumulated by all the efforts of the members of a society. The belief structure of primitive human society is mainly based on animistic cognitive concepts, gradually forming spiritual act of worship—it is believed that the spirit is a force beyond nature, and one can get power from the spirit through sympathetic interaction with it, which in turn creates rich spiritual inspiration. This is a continuation of the ancient belief systems of the witchcraft culture, where wizards become intermediaries between humans and the spirit. Taiwan's culture of spirit-mediums is extremely rich and varied; a new culture of spiritual inspiration develops from the traditional spirit-mediums who communicate with the dead and gods, and gets deeper into the social and cultural structure. Spirit-mediums own special psychic ability when undergoing sympathetic interaction with the spirit. In going through sympathetic interaction with gods, spirit-mediums show special language, dance and magical spells to eliminate evils and pray for blessing. The belief for the spirit world is not a single concept, but pluralistic one of the supremacy of gods—it is thought that the spirit world is not controlled by a single master, for the universe may have infinite incarnations and infinite boundaries, which generates a special cosmology of spirit world. Spirit-mediums not only sense power of the spirit, but they also have the more important religious task—“Returning to Original Nature with a Harmonious and Well-rounded Heart.” The emphasis is on the enlightenment of one’s spirit, and then one may become a spiritual incarnation of gods on earth, so that sentient beings can achieve unity of body and spirit realm, returning to one’s own spiritual vein. Spirit-mediums rely on spontaneous creation from the folk and the spirit world to form brand-new and complete religion patterns. And the competition among the various spirit-mediums systems injects new cultural vitality into today’s folk religion.