The Social Psychology of Filipino Religion

1. The Social
Psychology of
Filipino Religion
Submitted to:
Prof. Agnes Montalbo
Rizal technological university

2. Tied up intimately with
the psychology of
medico-religious
therapy is the social
psychology of Filipino
Religion.

3. Element of Filipino
Religious psychology
that may yield fruitful
results for the social
psychologist
researcher :

4. The process of
identification [e.g, with a
healthy family (Galves-
Tan), with Mary
(mangaluban) ,with the
various heads sects;

5. Characteristics and
Motivations of the Faithful (a
question suggested by
Covar);

6. reasons for persistence
of belief in folk medicine

7. Cognitive dissonance, the
personality/behavioral
traits of the healer, and so
on.

8. Dr. Herminia Alfonso of UPIMC has
recommended that familiar people
(including the tambalan or albularyo)
be employed in educating rural
women about population control
and contraceptive methods.

9. The Filipino Personality as it
interacts with religious, socio-
cultural and environmental
influences can also be
explored via Filipino religious
devotions and practices.

10. Because it comes into
contact with large number
of people, the devotion
becomes an important
vehicles for expressing a
unique Filipino personality.

11. It is also vital means of reaching the
people, within a devotion that is the
Filipino:

12. To be truly spiritual a
devotion has to have
meaning to the devotee,
that is one with which he
can identify.

13. Thus, the study of religious
practices is also one way of
contracting the Filipino’s realities,
values, belief systems, self-
concept and reinforcement
contingencies.

14. The participants of this
conference have given
valuable recommendations
as to further research topics
as well as implication of
paper read.

15. Of particular relevance is the
suggestion that the rural worker
particularly the doctor and the
priest, who are the traditional
authority in the towns and barrios.

16. Questions and comments

17. Are the particular espiritistas studied by
Velez characteristics of their kind or are
they unique group because of their
educational status, occupations and etc. ?

18. How did Jacob actually phrase
her questions when interviewing
devotes of the Black Nazarene;
wore the questions coherent to
and understandable by the
subjects?

19. When Dr. Macapagal suggests in the sort of
pun) that the Tambalan and psychotherapist
together could “get some kind of happy
medium(sic)”, does she mean that they
could reach an average of their methods, a
compromise, an integration ?

20. Mangalubnan cites one unconscious
motivation that may underlie the Filipino’s
Devotion to the Virgin Mary; Could this
motivation have been intermittently
reinforced in history, thus maintaining and
strengthening the devotion?

21. Is the discipline inculcated in the
thoughts and behaviors of INK
members brought about the pure
faith in Manalo?

22. Are there other external,
natural, and social forces at
work in keeping them faithful
adherents?

23. What is their concept of GOD, of
the relationship between GOD
and man, of the significance of
Christ in the history of salvation?

24. Would Pastors go as far as
saying that the actuations of
the Lapiang Malaya
embodied true nationalism?

25. Assuming that the Messianic
movements arise during periods of
“economic, social, and spiritual
dislocation,” and that such a period
of deprivation does exist in the
country today?

26. Is there any record of a new
indigenous sect emerging in the
recent past Messiastic overtone?
These and other unanswered
questions could possible
springboards for future researchers.

27. One issue left to the reader to decide for
himself was whether mystification of
religious rites and devotions serves any
useful purpose or whether demystifying
would be a better approach.

28. Personally, I found the volume o
revelation as I had never really
thought about Filipino
christianity- with its unique
flavors and manifestations- from
the view point of the author.

29. This seems rather ironic for someone whose
someone whose grandfather has integrated an
intense interest in the esoteric aspects of religion
with formal catholic rites and doctrines and counts
as his personal friends, several espiritistas, faith
healer, moncadistas, albularyos, etc.

30. I noted that none of the references
used by the authors included Dr.
Jerome Frank’s Chapter on ‘religious
healing’ from his book “Persuasion
and Healing (1961)”.

31. Using the curing methods of a
Kwakiutl shaman, a Guatemalan
healer, and the religious healing at
Lourdes as examples, Frank
enumerates several characteristics of
primitive religious healing including:

32. A preparatory period that
represent a dramatic break in
the usual routine of daily
activities; expression of
concern for the patient by his
family and his tribe;

33. A quality of altruism, i.e., all the
participants of the ritual try to
help the patient by performing
parts of the rituals, interceding
for him with the spirits he has
offended, etc.;

34. Ceremonies that are highly
charged emotionally and
which make a strong
aesthetic appear, and so on.

35. Frank opts for the holistic
approach, emphasizing the
profound influence of emotions on
health, and suggesting that anxiety
and despair can be lethal,
confidence and hope, life-giving.

36. Frank’s analysis of the
similarities between
psychotherapeutic and religious
healing elements does not go
beyond enumeration,
description, explanation.

37. Tambalan could also provide the
professional expertise of the
doctor and conversely, the doctor
also ministers to the
emotional/spiritual needs of his
patient.

38. Another book which might
have provided additional
insights to the author is
Lawrence Le Shan’s The
Medium, the Mystic and the
physicist (1973),

39. End 