Self in the Supernatural Belief Context: A Conceptual Analysis

This paper explores the notion of self from evolutionary, cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives. It is argued that the supernatural constructs embedded in religious rituals and ceremonies and various local traditions do inform peoples’ notions of self and identity. These constructs are rooted in the primitive social systems and represent a creative synthesis of evolutionary process, group functioning, and religious processes. This articulation involves the relations of events in the macrocosm, the natural world, and the microcosm, the inner world. The beliefs about self too contribute to this synthesis. The supernatural beliefs prevailing among various communities in India often reveal these aspects of self. From the evolutionary viewpoint, Sigmund Freud foresaw the role of supernatural entities in understanding group. The paper revisits this leap of imagination in view of advances in neurology, cognitive science, information processing, and psychotherapy. The supernatural entities vary in their scope of application or use and have their life span. These attributes allow us to visualize collective self in diverse forms of conflict within and between religious groups. The evolutionary model of Wynne-Edwards suggests that the evolution of supernatural elements explains cooperation among the group members. The personification of nature is an important phenomenon, and we have to explore the psychological mechanism by which one experiences a supernatural entity. It has two aspects: the plausible neural and mental mechanisms and the processes of evolution of supernatural figures in the natural world. Hayek’s theory of mind helps in exploring these two aspects. These supernatural entities travel in minds of people and are transmitted through culture. There is likelihood of inhibition and facilitation of a supernatural entity inside and outside the mind and are reflected in various activities. The interactions between mind and social milieu need to be understood to explicate the social embedding of self. Instead of focusing upon some specific aspect of the self, the attempt here is to look into a range of phenomena from evolutionary, group, and religious domains that has relevance for understanding self.