[Understanding the Self ]

Week 12 The Spiritual Self

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. Know what the spiritual self is
2. Know how the spiritual self is different from the physical self
3. Describe how the spiritual self is similar to computer connections

<The Spiritual Self>

That unseen part of who we are is the spiritual self and it provides insight and
intuition to our physical self. It also provides other ways of knowing and being well and
beyond what we experience with our five senses in the physical world. Our emotions and
our five senses may only be portals or access points into experiencing our spiritual self.

In his identity development conceptualization, William James (1890, 1902,

1910/1968) proposed that the study of one's identity must consider two aspects of the self:
the "I" and the "me."

To maintain a sense of self continuity across time, the “I” must create and connect
the various “me’s”. The “spiritual me”, “material me” and the “social me” are types of “me”
that is created by the “I”. How one is responded to and seen by others is the “social me”.
Our clothes, our family, our home and collections, our physical body comprises the
“material me”. William James describes the “spiritual me” as one’s inner thought and
feeling of the self. In James’ book (1910/1968) he referred to the “spiritual me” as “the true,
the intimate, the ultimate, the permanent me” (p.46) which an individual seeks. The
“spiritual me” or the Spiritual Self is further described as the “sanctuary of our life” or it is
the “core” (p.46).

It is considered to be a more advanced self order or organization than the physical

self or the "material me" and the "social me." Identity development, according to James,
particularly that of the Spiritual Self may be understood aside from strictly the
psychological and physiological, by the concept of metaphysical explanations through the
concept and existence of the soul. As understanding the nature of the knowing, creating,
and connecting "I" may in fact truly require the idea of a soul. There are others who have

Course Module
 even argued that to recognize the reality of a soul is impertive to understand how the
Jamesian "I" functions (Moreland, 1998).

A close to perfect analogy of the Soul or spiritual self and that of the spiritual
dimension or holy spirit is to think of how a personal computer is connected to the
internet. Everyone’s computer has a soul-setting and it can be linked to a world-wide
setting (universal web setting/spiritual web setting). Computers can be linked physically
with all the actual physical wires and connections but it can also be linked through non-
physical aspects which can be considered as “spiritual”. Similar to how people are
connected as well, deeper/spiritual connections are those that we have with people dear to
us.

References and Supplementary Materials

Online Supplementary Reading Materials

1. http://caracolores.com/1s-the-individual/what-is-the-spiritual-self/
2. Poll, J., & Smith, T. B. (2003). The spiritual self: Toward a conceptualization of spiritual
identity development.
3. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spiritual-wisdom-secular-
times/201206/spirituality-beginners-8-soul-and-spirit
4. Frank Trentmann is the author of Empire of Things: How We Became a World of
Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First (UK: Allen Lane/Penguin; US:
HarperCollins, 2016)