Understanding the Self

Chapter 7

The Spiritual Self

Chapter 7

The Spiritual Self

Introduction
This chapter aims to discuss the different meanings of “spirituality”, identify and
appreciate the importance of the various rituals and ceremonies practiced by different groups
in the Philippines, determine the importance of a core belief system in the development of the
self, and apply the concept of Logotherapy in order to get a clearer understanding of the purpose
of life. The knowledge, skills, and insights that students would gain from this course may be
used in their academic endeavors, their chose disciplines, and their future careers as they
understand their self and identity.

Specific Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Discuss the different meanings of “spirituality”;
2. Identify and appreciate the importance of the various rituals and ceremonies practiced
by different groups in the Philippines;
3. Determine the importance of a core belief system in the development of the self; and
4. Apply the concept of Logotherapy in order to get a clearer understanding of the purpose
of life.

Duration

Chapter 7: The Spiritual Self = 6 hours

(4 hours discussion; 2 hours
assessment)
Lesson Proper
What is the meaning “spirituality”?
Spirituality is a broad concept with room for many perspectives. In
general, it includes a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves, and
it typically involves a search for meaning in life. As such, it is a universal human
experience—something that touches us all. People may describe a spiritual
experience as sacred or transcendent or simply a deep sense of aliveness and
interconnectedness.
Spirituality involves exploring certain universal themes –love,
compassion, altruism, life after death, wisdom and truth, with the knowledge that
some people such as saints or enlightened individuals have achieved and manifested
higher levels of development than the ordinary person. Aspiring to manifest the
attributes of such inspirational examples often becomes an important part of the
journey through life for spiritually inclined people.
Spiritual or transcendent beliefs can refer to a benevolent or to an
indifferent force. The Christian ethos reinforces the benevolence of God and as such
signally fails to explain the place of suffering in the grand scheme of things. The
abuse suffered by innocent babies and children has no relationship to the concept
of an all knowing, all powerful, wise and benevolent God, and to my mind
completely destroys the internal consistency of the Christian faith. When I asked a
fundamentalist Christian how he could explain that God allows abuse and torture
and extreme suffering, he could only answer that ‘God moves in mysterious ways’
which seemed to me an abrogation of his own intelligence. But perhaps he was
simply saying that the real meaning of the opposition of good and bad in human
experience was beyond his understanding, as it is mine.
In the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha explains how human nature
generates suffering and how to transcend the inevitable misery of unconsciousness
and come to a place of wisdom, serenity and acceptance. The Eightfold Path
delineates a realistic way to achieve the happiness we all desire through consciously
dropping unhelpful patterns of resistance and attachment. Buddhists like to speak
about ‘skillful’ actions or behaviors; this leads us to the crux of the spiritual life –
there is a drive for self-improvement, to rise up out of unconsciousness and the
misery it generates to a state of greater illumination; to think and behave skillfully
rather than randomly or immaturely. The means to achieving this come through
accepting things as they are instead of being driven to emotions and actions by the
forces of attraction, repulsion or indifference. Suffering is defined as the result of
not accepting reality as it is.
In outlining a way to overcome reacting to the world limited by our self-
preserving instincts and prior conditioning, the Buddha gave spirituality a direction
that surpasses the confines of religious doctrine and as such may be perhaps part of
the fundamental definition of spirituality. Hesitantly, I offer my own definition
consistent with the Buddha’s path: spirituality is the indefinable urge to reach
beyond the limits of ordinary human existence that is bounded by unconscious
forces and self-interest, and to discover higher values in ourselves and to live them
consistently in our relationships and roles. It involves developing practices that aid
us in rising and expanding, perhaps beyond the merely good to the transcendent, in
the process of looking inwards rather than outwards for our own morality and
guidance. Above all, it means becoming a more loving and compassionate human
being, in thought, word and deed.
Spiritual development requires successive degrees of freedom based on
the realization that thoughts are not facts but simply transient mental phenomena,
as indeed are our emotions. Increasing numbers of patients are discovering this
through mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, which in bringing a person to the
here-and-now creates the mental climate in which this deep spiritual insight can
help relieve anxiety and depression.
Neuroscientific research is showing that with the practice of mindfulness,
the cortex of the brain literally grows, with an increase in grey matter and more
gyrification. Could this be the next evolutionary step for humanity, with meditation
opening the doorway to changes and developments that we currently term spiritual
but which may in future be deemed normal, even basic?

The “Soul”
Soul, in religion and philosophy, the immaterial aspect or essence of a
human being, that which confers individuality and humanity, often considered to be
synonymous with the mind or the self. In theology, the soul is further defined as
that part of the individual which partakes of divinity and often is considered to
survive the death of the body.
Just as there have been different concepts of the relation of the soul to the
body, there have been numerous ideas about when the soul comes into existence
and when and if it dies. Ancient Greek beliefs were varied and evolved over time.
Pythagoras held that the soul was of divine origin and existed before and after death.
Plato and Socrates also accepted the immortality of the soul, while Aristotle
considered only part of the soul, the noûs, or intellect, to have that quality. Epicurus
believed that both body and soul ended at death. The early Christian philosophers
adopted the Greek concept of the soul’s immortality and thought of the soul as being
created by God and infused into the body at conception.
In Hinduism the atman (“breath,” or “soul”) is the universal, eternal self,
of which each individual soul (jiva or jiva-atman) partakes. The jiva-atman is also
eternal but is imprisoned in an earthly body at birth. At death the jiva-atman passes
into a new existence determined by karma, or the cumulative consequences of
actions. The cycle of death and rebirth (samsara) is eternal according to some
Hindus, but others say it persists only until the soul has attained karmic perfection,
thus merging with the Absolute (brahman). Buddhism negates the concept not only
of the individual self but of the atman as well, asserting that any sense of having an
individual eternal soul or of partaking in a persistent universal self is illusory.
The Muslim concept, like the Christian, holds that the soul comes into existence at
the same time as the body; thereafter, it has a life of its own, its union with the
body being a temporary condition.

Rituals and Ceremonies

A ritual is a ceremony or action performed in a customary way. Your
family might have a Saturday night ritual of eating a big spaghetti dinner and then
taking a long walk to the ice cream shop.
As an adjective, ritual means "conforming to religious rites," which are the sacred,
customary ways of celebrating a religion or culture. Different communities have
different ritual practices, like meditation in Buddhism, or baptism in Christianity.
We also call the ceremony itself a ritual. Although it comes from religious
ceremonies, ritual can also be used for any time-honored tradition, like the
Superbowl, or Mardi Gras, or Sunday morning pancake breakfast.

Religion, Cults, Magic, and Witchcraft

Religion
Religion and spirituality are both rooted in trying to understand the
meaning of life and, in some cases, how a relationship with a higher power may
influence that meaning. While religion and spirituality are similar in foundation,
they are very different in practice.
Religion is an organized, community-based system of beliefs, while
spirituality resides within the individual and what they personally believe. “The idea
of religion and spirituality is like a rectangle versus a square. Within religion there
is spirituality, but if you have spirituality, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have
religion,” says someone who practices both religion and spirituality.
Both religion and spirituality can have a positive impact on mental health.
In some ways, they provide the same impact. For example: Both religion and
spirituality can help a person tolerate stress by generating peace, purpose and
forgiveness. But benefits generally vary between the two due to their different
nature.

Cults

In modern English, a cult is a social group that is defined by its unusual

religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or by its common interest in a particular
personality, object, or goal.

In recent years, there's been a noticeable uptick in the portrayal of cults in

popular culture. Documentaries about the Children of God, songs like Post Malone's
"Jonestown," and abundant references to the saying "don't drink the Kool-Aid"
made recognizable by The People's Temple are all examples of the prevalence of
cults in media.
 Psychology junior Siena Fontanesi has had a longtime interest in the
psychology of cult influence. According to Fontanesi, a lot of the recruitment
process is about convincing a target that they are loved and that any questions they
are seeking answers to can be addressed by belonging to something that is bigger
than themselves.

Once a target has been identified, cult members deploy a variety of tactics
to establish power over the individual. These mental manipulation tactics include
techniques like love-bombing, inciting paranoia about the outside world, and public
humiliation. While anyone could fall victim to this, young adults and women are
most vulnerable.

"Women are way more likely to be recruited into a cult," Fontanesi said.
"... Women are the majority of cult members, and men are the majority of cult
leaders. It definitely changes the overall experience. Cults are very 1950s about
everything. Women are inferior, so you probably aren't having the best time in a
cult as a woman. ... You don't really know that. You're being brainwashed."

A study by Columbia University, focused on three groups of people, all

between the ages of 22 and 32 with one group being ex-cult members, offers some
reasoning behind the age demographic.

The study release said this group "can be characterized by difficulties with
identity, particularly feelings of depression specifically related to identity formation
... Difficulties with identity formation appeared to have made this group more
vulnerable to cult recruitment techniques that offer clear cut identities and
prescriptions for living."

"There's a lot of psych tactics that are used to recruit, super negative ones,"
Fontanesi said. "Paranoia, manipulation, deception, all that stuff goes on a lot. And
I think it’s kind of easy. I think that cults kind of look for people who are insecure,
and those people are usually more susceptible to manipulation and all these negative
psych tactics used to rope them in."

The concept is to gain a target's trust by making them feel loved and
accepted to essentially disguising any sign of manipulation in order to be able to
influence them and the way they behave without raising suspicion.

Magic, Wicca, and Witchcraft

Witchcraft is the practice of what the practitioner ("witch") believes to

be magical skills and abilities, and activities such as spells, incantations, and
magical rituals. Witchcraft is a broad term that varies culturally and societally, and
thus can be difficult to define with precision. Historically, the most common
meaning is the use of supernatural means to cause harm to the innocent; this remains
the meaning in most traditional cultures worldwide, notably the Indigenous cultures
of Africa and the African diaspora, Asia, Latin America, and Indigenous Nations in
the Americas.

In the Philippines, as in many of these cultures, witches are viewed as

those opposed to the sacred. In contrast, anthropologists writing about the healers
in Indigenous Philippine folk religions either use the traditional terminology of
these cultures, or broad anthropological terms like "shaman".

In the modern era, some now use "witchcraft" to also refer to benign,
positive, or neutral metaphysical practices, such as those of modern Paganism;
examples of these practices may include divination, meditation, or self-help
techniques. But this reversal in nomenclature is primarily a modern, western,
popular culture phenomenon.

Belief in witchcraft is often present within societies and groups whose

cultural framework includes a magical world view.

Wicca, a predominantly Western movement whose followers practice

witchcraft and nature worship and who see it as a religion based on pre-Christian
traditions of northern and western Europe. It spread through England in the 1950s
and subsequently attracted followers in Europe and the United States.

Although there were precursors to the movement, the origins of modern

Wicca can be traced to a retired British civil servant, Gerald Brousseau Gardner
(1884–1964). Gardner spent most of his career in Asia, where he became familiar
with a variety of occult beliefs and magical practices. Returning to England shortly
before the outbreak of World War II, Gardner became involved in the British occult
community and founded a new movement based on a reverence of nature, the
practice of magic, and the worship of a female deity (the Goddess) and numerous
associated deities (such as the Horned God). He also borrowed liberally from
Western witchcraft traditions.

Despite variation within the Wiccan community, most believers share a

general set of beliefs and practices. They believe in the Goddess, respect nature,
and hold both polytheistic and pantheistic views. Most Wiccans accept the so-called
Wiccan Rede, an ethical code that states “If it harm none, do what you will.”
Wiccans believe in meditation and participate in rituals throughout the year,
celebrating the new and full moon, as well as the vernal equinox, summer solstice,
and Halloween, which they call Samhain. Wiccan rites include invoking the aid of
the deities, practicing ceremonial magic, and sharing a ritual meal.
Viktor Frankl: Logotherapy
Viktor Frankl was born March 26, 1905, and died September 2, 1997, in
Vienna, Austria. He was influenced during his early life by Sigmund Freud and
Alfred Adler. Frankl earned a medical degree from the University of Vienna
Medical School in 1930.
During his career as a professor of neurology and psychiatry, Frankl wrote
30 books, lectured at 209 universities on five continents, and was the recipient of
29 honorary doctorates from universities around the world.
He was a visiting professor at Harvard and Stanford, and his therapy,
named "logotherapy," was recognized as the third school of Viennese therapy after
Freud's psychoanalysis and Alfred Adler's individual psychology. In addition,
logotherapy was recognized as one of the scientifically-based schools of
psychotherapy by the American Medical Society, American Psychiatric
Association, and the American Psychological Association.

Logotherapy

Frankl believed that humans are motivated by something called a "will to

meaning," which equates to a desire to find meaning in life. He argued that life can
have meaning even in the most miserable of circumstances and that the motivation
for living comes from finding that meaning. Taking it a step further, Frankl wrote:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human
freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

This opinion was based on his experiences of suffering and his attitude of
finding meaning through suffering. In this way, Frankl believed that when we can
no longer change a situation, we are forced to change ourselves.

Fundamentals of Logotherapy

"Logos" is the Greek word for meaning, and logotherapy involves

helping a patient find personal meaning in life. Frankl provided a brief overview of
the theory in Man's Search for Meaning.

Core Properties

Frankl believed in three core properties on which his theory and therapy were based:
1. Each person has a healthy core.
2. One's primary focus is to enlighten others to their own internal resources and
provide the tools to use their inner core.
3. Life offers purpose and meaning but does not promise fulfillment or happiness.
Finding Meaning
Going a step further, logotherapy proposes that meaning in life can be
discovered in three distinct ways:

1. By creating a work or doing a deed.

2. By experiencing something or encountering someone.
3. By the attitude that we take toward unavoidable suffering.

Basic Assumptions of Logotherapy

Logotherapy consists of six basic assumptions that overlap with the
fundamental constructs and ways of seeking meaning listed above:

1. Body, Mind, and Spirit

The human being is an entity that consists of a body (soma), mind

(psyche), and spirit (noos). Frankl argued that we have a body and mind, but the
spirit is what we are, or our essence. Note that Frankl's theory was not based on
religion or theology, but often had parallels to these.

2. Life Has Meaning in All Circumstances

Frankl believed that life has meaning in all circumstances, even the most
miserable ones. This means that even when situations seem objectively terrible,
there is a higher level of order that involves meaning.

3. Humans Have a Will to Meaning

Logotherapy proposes that humans have a will to meaning, which means

that meaning is our primary motivation for living and acting and allows us to
endure pain and suffering. This is viewed as differing from the will to achieve
power and pleasure.

4. Freedom to Find Meaning

Frankl argues that in all circumstances, individuals have the freedom to

access that will to find meaning. This is based on his experiences of pain and
suffering and choosing his attitude in a situation that he could not change.

5. Meaning of the Moment

The fifth assumption argues that for decisions to be meaningful,

individuals must respond to the demands of daily life in ways that match the
values of society or their own conscience.
6. Individuals Are Unique

Frankl believed that every individual is unique and irreplaceable.

Logotherapy in Practice

Frankl believed that it was possible to turn suffering into achievement and
accomplishment. He viewed guilt as an opportunity to change oneself for the better,
and life transitions as the chance to take responsible action.

In this way, this psychotherapy was aimed at helping people to make better
use of their "spiritual" resources to withstand adversity. In his books, he often used
his own personal experiences to explain concepts to the reader.

Three techniques used in logotherapy include dereflection, paradoxical intention,

and Socratic dialogue.

1. Dereflection: Dereflection is aimed at helping someone focus away from

themselves and toward other people so that they can become whole and spend
less time being self-absorbed about a problem or how to reach a goal.
2. Paradoxical intention: Paradoxical intention is a technique that has the person
wish for the thing that is feared most. This was suggested for use in the case of
anxiety or phobias, in which humor and ridicule can be used when fear is
paralyzing. For example, a person with a fear of looking foolish might be
encouraged to try to look foolish on purpose. Paradoxically, the fear would be
removed when the intention involved the thing that was feared most.
3. Socratic dialogue: Socratic dialogue would be used in logotherapy as a tool to
help a patient through the process of self-discovery through his or her own
words. In this way, the therapist would point out patterns of words and help
the client to see the meaning in them. This process is believed to help the
client realize an answer that is waiting to be discovered.

Figure 1; Meaning-Action Triangle;

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d5/54/eb/d554ebc5d0e77d769c9c3832
83bde1ce.jpg; 03/10/21
References/Additional Resources/Readings
Martin, R., Barresi, J. (2006). The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self: An Intellectual History of
Personal Identity. Columbia University Press.

What is Spirituality. Retrieved from https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/what-spirituality;

03/10/21

What is Spirituality? A Personal Exloration; Retrieved from

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/docs/default-source/members/sigs/spirituality-spsig/what-is-
spirituality-maya-spencer-x.pdf?sfvrsn=f28df052_2; 3/10/21

Soul; Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/soul-religion-and-philosophy; 3/10/21

Ritual; Retrieved from https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/ritual; 3/10/21

The Mental Health Benefits of Religion & Spirituality; Retrieved from

https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/December-2016/The-Mental-Health-
Benefits-of-Religion-Spiritual; 3/10/21

A Look Behind the Curtain of Cult Psychology; Retrieved from

https://statenews.com/article/2020/10/a-look-behind-the-curtain-of-cult-
psychology?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest; 3/10/21

Wicca; Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wicca; 3/10/21

An Overview of Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy; Retrieved from

https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-victor-frankl-s-logotherapy-4159308;
3/10/21

Marx on Commodity Fetishism; Retrieved from

https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/marxism/modules/marxfetishism.html;
3/10/21

Concept of Soul; Retrieved from https://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/nature-journey-of-soul;

3/10/21

How Cult Leaders like Charles Manson Exploit a Basic Psychological Need; Retrieved from
https://theconversation.com/how-cult-leaders-like-charles-manson-exploit-a-basic-
psychological-need-57101; 3/10/21

Why do People Join Cults?; Retrieved from https://youtu.be/kB-dJaCXAxA; 3/10/21

What is the Point of Spirituality?; Retrieved from https://youtu.be/xum35-XplNY; 3/10/21

Viktor Frankl: Logotheraphy and Man’s Search for Meaning; Retrieved from
https://youtu.be/okJ3KQ4S-ts; 3/10/21