Spiritual Self

• Spiritual self is the most intimate, subjective intrinsic aspect of a person.
• Spiritual self is the most personal aspect of self because of the gratification obtained when talking of an individual's abilities to contend and distinguish, of an individual's spiritual resilience and conviction, and of one's uncompromising will, which is nobler

  compared to any other feelings of satisfaction
• A belief or faith of an individual is what lays the ground for one’s behavior.
• Religious practice is the behavior that reflects the person's belief values and convictions.
• Buddhism and Hinduism: man’s goal is to reach Nirvana- that is the removal of desires and sufferings.
• Nirvana- A transcendent condition in which there is no pain, no desire, no sense of self, and the person is liberated from the consequences of karma and the phase of life and death
• Christians: the most common belief in the Philippines
• Protestants: introduced by the Americans
• Protestants: Salvation through Christ Jesus was deeply highlighted and one must be born again in Spirit and accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior.
• Muslims: second largest religious sect on the Philippines.
• The name “Muslim” itself defines a person who surrenders and submits to God-Allah and his laws.
• Allah was the one who gave the message to Mohammed, the founding prophet.
• Halal (Arabic for permissible), permissible meat which address to Islamic law, is not gaining popularity.
• Iglesia Ni Cristo: a local church that has expanded exponentially in the last few years. It believes that God is a singular Being and not the Holy Trinity.
• Animism: this are indigenous beliefs. A form of worship before the Spaniards came to the Philippines and known to have been continually practiced up to today’s era.
• Rebecca Stein (2011) defined religion as a set of cultural beliefs and practices that usually includes some or all of basic characteristics.
• Hinduism: Atman (“breath” or “soul”): the true, everlasting self, in which human soul (jiva or jiva-atman) takes part.
• Muslims: Believed that the soul lived together with the body so that it must survive physical destruction and would then have its own existence.
• Animism: belief of the Filipino ancestors that souls are pseudo-physical and can reside beyond the body (in vision and dreams).
• Babaylan: According to them, the "dungan" (a friend that co-exists) dwells inside the body of a living human.
• The “Dungan” gives an individual life, animation and sensitivity.
• According to the study done by Sosis (2004), promoting cooperation as an important social tool is the greatest advantage of religion.
• Rituals (pattered behaviors) is a communication process which implies

  interaction with other members of the gathering.
• Magic is defines as techniques that interact with the supernatural in some way, and through which individuals can obtain specific effects (Stein & Stein, 2011).
• Edward Tyler (1871) asserts that magic is not a part of religion as there is no

  spirit involved.
• For James Frazer (1890), it is magic that took initial step of becoming a religion that would then propagate as science.
• Emile Durkheim (1912) says that Religious rites require the society while magic redirects only on the individual's wishes and desires.
• Witchcraft: refers to individuals who have inherent potential to do evil
• Witch: to be branded as such is dangerous for it is known that they are blamed for the misfortunes of the community.
• Sorcery: Includes ceremonies and spells which are not a witchcraft prerequisite.
• Victor Frankl: A psychiatrist who was incarcerated in a detention camp during World War II for three years offers three ways to explore the essence of life.
• He was able to develop a psychological technique that allowed him to survive his experience and he called this Logotherapy.