These questions were asked in reply to my first blog post about the Hmong culture. In relation to this, Descartes strongly believes that there is a clear distinction between the mind and body. Consider that Descartes sees no distinction between the mind and soul, therefore the mind and soul is equivalent. Similarly, the Hmong culture also believes that there is a clear distinction between the mind and the body, in other words the soul and the body. However, the Hmong believe that the soul and body is a collective whole, where one cannot exist without the other in what we call "life". The body must be in good health for the soul to thrive and the soul has to be in a good state to exist in the body to be a part of "life". If the soul is not in a good state, the soul may leave the body and soon the body will deteriorate, which will end "life". Moreover, if the body begins to deteriorate, the soul will leave the body because "life" is ending. When the soul and body is separated, "life" ends. When the body deteriorates, the soul lives on. The soul goes on into "afterlife" and seeks another body to bond through the idea of reincarnation.
Linking this to science and answering the questions above, My religion, it's values and beliefs are in existence, therefore I do not feel the need to prove that it exists. In addition, I would not try to make the man in the white coat believe in my reality because he will just try to measure and test spirits, spirituality, and faith. One cannot measure the shaman's spirit's entrance into the spirit world and the interactions that happen in the spirit world. It is something that is more a matter of faith that simply can't be visually demonstrated. One can watch the shaman demonstrate his practices but the spirits and the spirit cannot be visually demonstrated. Lastly, I do not know if I would have faith, being raised outside my culture. The Hmong religion is not practiced among many people outside of the Hmong community. Therefore, I could possibly still have faith in a different religion and possibly not believe in a religion at all.
Yes. Finally someone else who believes in spirits and doesn't need scientific data to prove everything! I agree with you on so many levels. Although I do not identify as Hmong, I agree that the soul and body are one and they are dependent on one another, and when we die our soul leaves our physical body. I also believe reincarnation is a thing. Even though it has never been scientifically proven, I believe in it. The soul can be earth bound or it will find another body to inhibit (along with other possibilities). But yes, I thought I was the only one.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristy!
ReplyDeleteI too believe that there is a separation of body and spirit. Also, there is a very simple way to "prove it" in a way. The priest at my high school once told me:
Imagine a person who is alive and well, full of emotions, thoughts, and with the entirety of their biological construct. This person is alive, however, lets suppose that that same person was hit on the back of their head and killed. He now lies lifeless on the ground and all those emotions, thoughts, and self-presence
are gone. But why did this happen? He still has the same amount of matter in him but he is no longer alive. At this point it is only logical to conclude that the person lost something or that something "left" their physical body. That "something" is what we would call the soul,
When I heard this, I thought that this example should be enough for anyone to believe that there is a separation between the soul and the body. This, however, is not always the case since in today's society, factual claims are mostly only made through the scientific field and everything else is based on subjectivity.
I find your post to be very interesting. It made me think of how much science, although it is a form of expanding our knowledge about the universe, can sometimes actually limit our knowledge by relying too much on these "instruments" to test or prove the legitimacy/validity/existence of something. Science can only go so far, and you demonstrated well how it can become limited by its own instruments: should it even matter if these white coats can or cannot prove the existence of these spirits? All this pushes me to think: what is reality in that case? Should it matter that we are not in accord with what reality is?
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