Soul dualism, also called dualistic pluralism or multiple souls, is a range of beliefs that a person has two or more kinds of
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
s. In many cases, one of the souls is associated with body functions ("body soul") and the other one can leave the body ("free soul" or "wandering soul").
Sometimes the plethora of soul types can be even more complex.
Sometimes, a
shaman
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
's "free soul" may be held to be able to undertake a spirit journey.
Examples
Austronesia
The belief in soul dualism found throughout most
Austronesian shamanistic traditions. The reconstructed
Proto-Austronesian
Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify ...
word for the "body soul" is ''*nawa'' ("breath", "life", or "vital spirit"). It is located somewhere in the
abdominal cavity
The abdominal cavity is a large body cavity in humans and many other animals that contains many organs. It is a part of the abdominopelvic cavity. It is located below the thoracic cavity, and above the pelvic cavity. Its dome-shaped roof is the th ...
, often in the liver or the heart (Proto-Austronesian ''*qaCay'').
The "free soul" is located in the head. Its names are usually derived from Proto-Austronesian ''*qaNiCu'' ("ghost", "spirit
f the dead
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
His ...
), which also apply to other non-human nature spirits. The "free soul" is also referred to in names that literally mean "twin" or "double", from Proto-Austronesian ''*duSa'' ("two").
A virtuous person is said to be one whose souls are in harmony with each other, while an evil person is one whose souls are in conflict.
The "free soul" is said to leave the body and journey to the
spirit world during
trance-like states, sleep,
delirium
Delirium (also known as acute confusional state) is an organically caused decline from a previous baseline of mental function that develops over a short period of time, typically hours to days. Delirium is a syndrome encompassing disturbances in ...
, death, and
insanity
Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...
.
The duality is also seen in the healing traditions of Austronesian shamans, where illnesses are regarded as a "
soul loss
The term loss of soul - In shamanism the term refers to the loss of human part of the life force, soul.
Causes of soul loss in shamanism
The prevailing concept in traditional shamanism is "any illness is a consequence of a lost or stolen soul ...
" and thus to heal the sick, one must "return" the "free soul" (which may have been stolen by an evil spirit or got lost in the spirit world) into the body. If the "free soul" can not be returned, the afflicted person dies or goes permanently insane.
In some ethnic groups, there can also be more than two souls. Like among the
Tagbanwa, where a person is said to have six souls - the "free soul" (which is regarded as the "true" soul) and five secondary souls with various functions.
China
Traditional
Chinese culture
Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...
differentiates two
''hun'' and ''po'' spirits or souls, which correlate with
''yang'' and ''yin'' respectively. Within this soul dualism, every human has both an
ethereal
Ethereal may refer to:
* Ethereal (horse), a horse that won Australia's Caulfield Cup as well as Melbourne Cup in 2001
*Ethereal wave, or simply ethereal, a subgenre of dark wave music
*Wireshark, formerly named Ethereal, a free and open-source pac ...
''hun''
魂 "spiritual soul; spirit; mood" that leaves the body after death and a substantive ''po''
魄 "physical soul; spirit; vigor" that remains with the corpse. Chinese traditions differ over the number of ''hun'' and ''po'' souls in a person, for example,
Taoism
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of Philosophy, philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of China, Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmo ...
has the ''sanhunqipo'' 三魂七魄 "three ''hun'' and seven ''po''".
Inuit
Several
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
groups believe that a person has more than one type of soul. One is associated with respiration, the other can accompany the body as a shadow. Soul concepts of different Inuit groups are diverse; they are not alike. In some cases, it is connected to
shamanistic beliefs among the various Inuit groups. Also
Caribou Inuit
Caribou Inuit ( iu, Kivallirmiut/ᑭᕙᓪᓕᕐᒥᐅᑦ), barren-ground caribou hunters, are Inuit who live west of Hudson Bay in Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, between 61° and 65° N and 90° and 102° W in Northern Canada. They were originally na ...
groups believed in several types of souls.
Ural
The concept of more kinds of souls can be found also in
Finnish paganism
Finnish paganism is the indigenous pagan religion in Finland and Karelia prior to Christianisation. It was a polytheistic religion, worshipping a number of different deities. The principal god was the god of thunder and the sky, Ukko; other ...
. See notion of shadow-soul (being able to depart freely the body), e.g. in
Hungarian folk beliefs. The concept of a dualistic shadow-soul called ''itse'', related to the Hungarian conception, is also part of
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
and general
Baltic-Finnic
The Finnic (''Fennic'') or more precisely Balto-Finnic (Balto-Fennic, Baltic Finnic, Baltic Fennic) languages constitute a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by the Baltic Finnic peoples. There are around 7 mi ...
folklore. The
Estonian soul concept has been approached by several authors, some of them using rather complex frameworks.
[
]
See also
* Ancient Egyptian conception of the soul
The ancient Egyptians believed that a soul ( kꜣ and bꜣ; Egypt. pron. ka/ba) was made up of many parts. In addition to these components of the soul, there was the human body (called the ''ḥꜥ'', occasionally a plural '' ḥꜥw'', meani ...
, divided into five or more parts
* Body swap
A body swap (also named mind swap or soul swap or brain swap) is a storytelling device seen in a variety of science and supernatural fiction, in which two people (or beings) exchange minds and end up in each other's bodies. In media such as televi ...
* Dualism in cosmology
Dualism in cosmology or dualistic cosmology is the moral or spiritual belief that two fundamental concepts exist, which often oppose each other. It is an umbrella term that covers a diversity of views from various religions, including both traditi ...
* History of the location of the soul
The search for a hypothetical soul and its location have been a subject of much speculation throughout history. In early medicine and anatomy, the location of the soul was hypothesized to be located within the body. Aristotle and Plato understood ...
* Mind–body dualism
In the philosophy of mind, mind–body dualism denotes either the view that mental phenomena are non-physical, Hart, W. D. 1996. "Dualism." pp. 265–267 in ''A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind'', edited by S. Guttenplan. Oxford: Blackwell. ...
* Soulcatcher
A Soulcatcher or soul catcher (''Haboolm Ksinaalgat'', 'keeper of breath') is an amulet ''(Aatxasxw)'' used by the shaman (Halayt) of the Pacific Northwest Coast of British Columbia and Alaska. It is believed by Tsimshian that all soulcatchers ...
* Soul loss
The term loss of soul - In shamanism the term refers to the loss of human part of the life force, soul.
Causes of soul loss in shamanism
The prevailing concept in traditional shamanism is "any illness is a consequence of a lost or stolen soul ...
* Tripartite (theology)
In Christian theology, the tripartite view ( trichotomy) holds that humankind is a composite of three distinct components: body, spirit, and soul. It is in contrast to the bipartite view (dichotomy), where soul and spirit are taken as different ...
References
Sources
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* Translation of the original: It describes the life of Caribou Eskimo and Padlermiut groups.
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External links
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* {{cite encyclopedia , entry=Great Basin Indian , year=2007 , encyclopedia =Encyclopædia Britannica , access-date=March 28, 2007 , url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-57681 , df=dmy-all
Austronesian spirituality
Cultural anthropology
Dualism (philosophy of mind)
Shamanism