Lesson 9: THE SPIRITUAL

SELF
“Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you
set upon yourself.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Overview
The spiritual self is the aspect of self which develops a
certain level of spirituality which is deemed as man’s way of
seeking as well as expressing the meaning and purpose of his
life. It is a path of direst and personal connection with the
Divine. It aids persons in spiritual, emotional or physical distress
crisis or discomfort as well as those seeking to make a
significant change in their lives through self-awareness.

Religion is a set of cultural beliefs and practices that

usually includes some or all of basic characteristics.

Specific Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:

1. Explain the nature of spirituality and religiosity and how it

is manifested in everyday living
2. Compare and contrast spirituality and religiosity
3. Evaluate their own level of religiosity and spirituality
Abstraction
RELIGION

1800’s Sir Edward Tylor defined

religion as the belief on spirits. A
more comprehensive definition
states that, Religion is beliefs and
actions related to supernatural
beings and forces.

Magic and Religion

Sir Edward Tylor wrote that magic, religion, and science
are alike in that they are different ways, people have tried to
explain the physical world and the events in it.
Tylor defined magic as people’s attempt to compel
supernatural forces and beings to act in certain ways. While
religion is the attempt to please supernatural forces and beings.

SIR JAMES FRAZER differentiated two general principles of

magic:
1. Law of Similarity, which is the basis of imitative magic.
Ex: The effects of a voodoo doll.
2. Law of Contagion, which is the basis of contagious
magic. It says that persons or things once in contact
with a person can still have an effect on that person.
Theories of the Origin of Religion
Functionalist Approach – Religion provides ways of
explaining and coping with universal human problems such as
life and death, illness, and misfortune.

Sir Edward Tylor’s theory as proposed in his book”

PRIMITIVE CULTURE”. Early human ancestors needed to explain
the difference between the living and the dead. They therefore
developed the concept of soul that exist in all living things and
departs from the body after death. Tylor called this way of
thinking as “animism”, the belief in souls and” doubles”. Tylor
speculated that, the concept of the soul eventually became
personified and human-like deities were conceived.

EVOLUTIONARY MODEL (for Tylor religion

evolved from)

ANIMISM POLYTHEISM MONOTHEISM

This evolutionary model is proved wrong. Animistic beliefs

exist in many religions including for example Christian beliefs
about visitation of the dead, and many contemporary religions
are polytheistic.

Bronislaw Malinowski’s Functional Theory says that rituals

help reduce anxiety and uncertainty.

Karl Marx “Class Conflict” approach. Emphasizing religion’s

role as an “opiate of the masses”. Marx thought that religion
provides superficial form of comfort to the poor. Masking the
harsh realities of class inequality and thereby preventing
uprisings against the rich.

Another functional theory comes from the symbolic

analysis, as informed by Sigmund Freud emphasis on the role of
the unconscious. According to Freud:
Religion is a “protective system” that expressed people’s
unconscious thoughts, wishes, and worries.

Clifford Geertz provide a theoretical approach combining

Durkheimian functionalism with symbolic analysis. In his view:

Religions are primarily systems of meaning that provide

for people a model of life (how to understand the world) and a
model for life (how to behave in the world).
“Religion provides an important source of social cohesion
and psychological support for many immigrant groups, whose
place of worship attract bothworshippers and cultural
anthropologists interested in learning how religion fits
to migrants’ adaptation.”

Varieties of Religious Beliefs

Religions comprises beliefs and behavior. Religious beliefs
tend to be shared by a group, sometimes by millions of people,
and are passed on through the generations.

How Beliefs Are Expressed:

1. MYTH- a narrative with a plot that involves the

supernaturals.
- Narratives stories about supernatural forces or
beings
 - Myths conveys messages about the
supernaturals indirectly, through the story itself,
rather than using logic or formal argument.
- World famous myths are the Greek and Roman
myths of Zeus, Athena, Orpheus, and
Persephone.
- Malinowski says that myth is a character for
society in that it expresses core beliefs and
teaches morality.
- Claude Levi-Strauss saw myths as functional but
in a philosophical and psychological way. Myths
help people deal with deep conceptual
contradictions between life and death, and good
and evil, by providing stories in which these
dualities find a solution in a mediating third
factor.
- A cultural materialist perspective also
functionalist says: Myths store and transmit
information related to making a living and
managing economic crisis reveals that
subsistence risk is a consistent theme.
- Thus, myths are repositories of knowledge
related to economic survival, crisis management
and conservation.
2. DOCTRINE- direct and formalized statements about
religious beliefs.
- Beliefs are expressed, explicitly defines the
supernaturals, the world and how it came to be,
and people’s roles in relation to the
supernaturals and to other humans.
 - Doctrine is written and formal. It is close to law
because it links incorrect beliefs and behaviors
to punishment.
- Doctrine is associated with institutionalized,
large scale religions rather with small-scale
“folk” religions.
- Doctrine can and does change. Over centuries,
various popes have pronounced new doctrines
for the catholic church. Muslim doctrine is
expressed in the Qur’an, the basic holy text of
the Islamic faith.

Beliefs about supernatural forces and

beings:
Supernatural range from impersonal forces to those that
look just like humans. They can be supreme and all powerful
creators or small-scale, annoying spirits that take up residence
in people through possession.

1. ANIMATISM- refers to a belief system in which the

supernatural is conceived of as an impersonal power.
Ex: “Mana”, a concept widespread throughout the
Melanesian region of the South Pacific. Mana is a
force outside nature that works automatically; it is
neither spirit nor deity. It manifests itself in object
and people and is associated with personal status
and power since some people accumulate more of it
than others.
2. ZOOMORPHIC- deities that appear in shape, or partial
shape of an animal. No satisfactory theory has appeared
 to explain why some religions develop zoomorphic deities
and for what purposes, and why others do not.
3. ANTHROPOMORPHIC- supernaturals are like human. Or
deities that appear in human form.
- Like humans, Anthropomorphic supernaturals
can be moved by praise, flattery, and gifts.
They have emotions: They get annoyed if
neglected, they can be loving and caring, or they
can be distant and unresponsive.
- Deceased ancestors can also be supernaturals.
In some religions, spirits of the dead can be
prayed to for help, and in turn they may require
respect and honor from the living.

Beliefs about Sacred Space:

Beliefs about the sacredness of certain spaces are
probably found in all religions. Sacred spaces may or may not
be marked in a permanent way.

Ritual practices
A ritual is a patterned form of behavior that has to do with
the supernatural realm. Many rituals are the enactment of
beliefs expressed in myth and doctrine such as the Christian
ritual of communion, sorority and fraternity initiation (secular
ritual), and the holiday of Thanksgiving which originated as a
sacred meal, with its primary purpose to give thanks to God for
the first fruits of harvest.
Category of Rituals:
1. Periodic Rituals- regularly performed rituals. They are
performed annually to mark a seasonal event.
 2. Non-periodic rituals- irregular, at unpredictable time, in
response to unscheduled events. (events in a person’s
life such as illness, infertility, birth, marriage or death)

Life-Cycle Rituals
Or RITE OF PASSAGE, marks a change in status from one
life stage to another of an individual or group.

Victor Turner’s (1969) fieldwork among the Ndembu,

horticulturalist of Zambia provided insights about the phases of
life-cycle rituals.

Life Cycle rituals have three phases:

1. SEPARATION. In this first phase, the initiate (the person

undergoing the ritual) is separated physically, socially or
symbolically from normal life. Special dress may mark the
separation (ex: a long white gown for a baby that is to be
baptized in a church).
2. TRANSITION or the Liminal phase. Is the time when a
person no longer in their previous status, but is not yet a
member of the next stage. Liminality often involves
learning of specialized skills that will equip the person for
the new status.
3. REINTEGREATION. Occurs when the initiate emerges and
is welcomed by the community in the new status.

Pilgrimage
-is a round-trip travel to a sacred place or places for
purposes of religious devotion or ritual.

PROMINENT PILGRIMAGE PLACES:

 1. Varanasi in India (formerly called Banaras) for HINDUS.
2. Mecca in Saudi Arabia for MUSLIMS
3. Bodh Gaya in India for BUDDHISTS
4. Jerusalem in Israel for JEWS, CHRISTIANS & MUSLIMS
5. Lourdes in France for CHRISTIANS

FINDING AND CREATING MEANING OF

LIFE
Logotherapy is a psychotherapy
introduced by, who is considered the
Father of Logotherapy. The main belief
of logotherapy is thet “man’s primary
motivational force is the search for
meaning”. Logotherapy aids individuals
to find personal meaning of life,
whatever life situation they may be.

FRANKL’S SOURCES OF MEANING

1. Purposeful Work. To find the meaning of life starts with
holding a future goal. Each individual has each own future
goal to achieve or a task to perform. That task or goal to
fulfill becomes the meaning of their life. Therefore,
meaning of life is unique to every individual.
2. Courage in the Face of Difficulty. A meaningful life is a life
with suffering. Suffering is inevitable part of life. To find
meaning of life is to recognize suffering, pain, and death
as part of life and to have the courage to face these life
difficulties.
3. Love
A. Eros
 Eros is sexual or passionate love, and is the type
most akin to our modern construct of romantic love. In
Greek myth, it is a form of madness brought about by one
of Cupid’s arrows. The arrow breaches us and we ‘fall’ in
love, as did Paris with Helen, leading to the Trojan War
and the downfall of Troy and much of the assembled
Greek army. In modern times, eros has been
amalgamated with the broader life force, something akin
to Schopenhauer’s will, a fundamentally blind process of
striving for survival and reproduction. Eros has also been
contrasted with Logos, or Reason, and Cupid painted as a
blindfolded child.

B. Philia
The hallmark of philia, or friendship, is shared
goodwill. Aristotle believed that a person can bear
goodwill to another for one of three reasons: that he is
useful; that he is pleasant; and, above all, that he is good,
that is, rational and virtuous. Friendships founded on
goodness are associated not only with mutual benefit but
also with companionship, dependability, and trust.
For Plato, the best kind of friendship is that which
lovers have for each other. It is a philia born out of eros,
and that in turn feeds back into eros to strengthen and
develop it, transforming it from a lust for possession into a
shared desire for a higher level of understanding of the
self, the other, and the world. In short, philia transforms
eros from a lust for possession into an impulse for
philosophy. Real friends seek together to live truer, fuller
lives by relating to each other authentically and teaching
each other about the limitations of their beliefs and the
defects in their character, which are a far greater source
of error than mere rational confusion: they are, in effect,
each other’s therapist—and in that much it helps to find a
friend with some degree of openness, articulacy, and
insight, both to change and to be changed.

C. Storge
Storge (‘store-gae’), or familial love, is a kind of
philia pertaining to the love between parents and their
children. It differs from most philia in that it tends,
especially with younger children, to be unilateral or
asymmetrical. More broadly, storge is the fondness born
out of familiarity or dependency and, unlike eros or philia,
does not hang on our personal qualities. People in the
early stages of a romantic relationship often expect
unconditional storge, but find only the need and
dependency of eros, and, if they are lucky, the maturity
and fertility of philia. Given enough time, eros tends to
mutate into storge.

D. Agape
Agape is universal love, such as the love for
strangers, nature, or God. Unlike storge, it does not
depend on filiation or familiarity. Also called charity by
Christian thinkers, agape can be said to encompass the
modern concept of altruism, defined as unselfish concern
for the welfare of others. Recent studies link altruism with
a number of benefits. In the short term, altruism leaves
us with a euphoric feeling—the so-called ‘helper’s high’. In
the longer term, it is associated with better mental and
physical health, as well as longevity. At a social level,
altruism serves as a signal of cooperative intentions, and
also of resource availability and so of mating or partnering
potential. It also opens up a debt account, encouraging
beneficiaries to reciprocate with gifts and favours that
may be of much greater value to us than those with which
we feel able to part. More generally, altruism, or agape,
helps to build and maintain the psychological, social, and,
indeed, environmental fabric that shields, sustains, and
enriches us. Given the increasing anger and division in our
society, and the s4 tate of our planet, we could all do with
quite a bit more agape.

E. Ludus
Ludus is playful or uncommitted love. It can involve
activities such as teasing and dancing, or more overt
flirting, seducing, and conjugating. The focus is on fun,
and sometimes also on conquest, with no strings
attached. Ludus relationships are casual, undemanding,
and uncomplicated but, for all that, can be very long-
lasting. Ludus works best when both parties are mature
and self-sufficient. Problems arise when one party
mistakes ludus for eros, whereas ludus is in fact much
more compatible with philia.

F. Pragma
Pragma is a kind of practical love founded on
reason or duty and one’s longer-term interests. Sexual
attraction takes a back seat in favour of personal qualities
and compatibilities, shared goals, and making it work. In
the days of arranged marriages, pragma must have been
very common. Although unfashionable, it remains
widespread, most visibly in certain high-profile celebrity
and political pairings. Many relationships that start off as
eros or ludus end up as various combinations of storge
and pragma. Pragma may seem opposed to ludus, but the
two can co-exist, with the one providing a counterpoint to
the other. In the best of cases, the partners in the pragma
relationship agree to turn a blind eye—or even a
sympathetic eye, as in the case of Simone de Beauvoir
and Jean-Paul Sartre, or Vita Sackville-West and Harold
Nicholson.

G. Philautia
Philautia is self-love, which can be healthy or
unhealthy. Unhealthy self-love is akin to hubris. In Ancient
Greece, a person could be accused of hubris if he placed
himself above the gods, or, like certain modern politicians,
above the greater good. Many believed that hubris led to
destruction, or nemesis. Today, hubris has come to mean
an inflated sense of one’s status, abilities, or
accomplishments, especially when accompanied by
haughtiness or arrogance. As it disregards truth, hubris
promotes injustice, conflict, and enmity.
Healthy self-love is akin to self-esteem, which is our
cognitive and, above all, emotional appraisal of our own
worth relative to that of others. More than that, it is the
matrix through which we think, feel, and act, and reflects
and determines our relation to ourselves, to others, and to
the world.
Self-esteem and self-confidence do not always go
hand in hand. In particular, it is possible to be highly self-
confident and yet to have profoundly low self-esteem, as
is the case with many performers and celebrities.
People with high self-esteem do not need to prop
themselves up with externals such as income, status, or
notoriety, or lean on crutches such as alcohol, drugs, or
sex. They are able to invest themselves completely in
projects and people because they do not fear failure or
rejection. Of course they suffer hurt and disappointment,
but their setbacks neither damage nor diminish them.
Owing to their resilience, they are open to growth
experiences and relationships, tolerant of risk, quick to joy
and delight, and accepting and forgiving of themselves
and others.