GE6100 - Understanding The Self

LESSON 9: THE SPIRITUAL SELF

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 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.

Lesson 9: The Spiritual Self 1