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Participation in New Religious and Healing Movements in the Philippines Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1994 Participation in New Religious and Healing Movements in the Philippines Araceli S. Suzara Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Suzara, Araceli S., "Participation in New Religious and Healing Movements in the Philippines" (1994). Dissertations. 3452. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3452 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1994 Araceli S. Suzara LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO PARTICIPATION IN NEW RELIGIOUS AND HEALING MOVEMENTS IN THE PHILIPPINES A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY BY ARACELI S. SUZARA CHICAGO, ILLINOIS JANUARY 1994 Araceli s. Suzara Loyola University Chicago PARTICIPATION IN NEW RELIGIOUS AND HEALING MOVEMENTS IN THE PHILIPPINES This dissertation investigated the socio-cultural affinities between the participation of middle-class Filipinos in new religious and healing movements (NRHMs) and their experiences in various secular institutions. The methodology included participant observation of healing sessions and group activities, attendance at workshops, interviews, and a survey questionnaire administered to 62 informants gathered through snowball sampling. Using Beckford's model (1984, 1985b) I examined these socio- cultural affinities in two ways. First, I analyzed my informants' socio-economic background and I argued that their experience in education and occupation is reproduced in their healing beliefs and practices. Second, I highlighted the theme of holism that welds together the seemingly divergent aspects of their lives. I argued that their distinctive understanding of the relations between self and community, spiritual progress and material success is nested in holistic imagery, and guided by well-articulated ethical rules of conduct and a challenging expression of new forms of spirituality. Findings indicated that: (1) my informants possessed socio-economic characteristics that place them in relatively advantaged positions compared to the general population of Metro Manila and that of the Philippines; (2) the organization of their own infrastructures mirrors their educational and occupational experiences in such matters as training institutes, workshops and courses, healing centers, sharing of mailing lists, facilities, promotional materials, on-going education via attendance at breakfast forums, the use of popular media of communication, and the ability to utilize existing social infrastructures, such as business and religious networks; ( 3) NRHM adherents placed high premiums on training and certification in a healing career, and the cultivation of the values of diversity, tolerance, and pragmatic orientation in their healing practices; (4) images of holism served as the underlying themes by which NRHM adherents made sense of the apparent contradictions between their aspirations toward spiritual enlightenment and material progress, between individualism and collectivism, and between self and society. Copyright by Araceli s. suzara, 1994 All rights reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study was made possible with the invaluable support of many individuals and groups. I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee: Dr. James A. Beckford, Dr. Kirsten Gronbjerg, and Dr. Roger Finke. I thank my family in the Philippines and in the United States who, in memory of our parents, share in this achievement. But above all, I am grateful to the Gentle Spirit Guide, and the women and men of the healing groups in whose name I am privileged to write this dissertation. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . iii LIST OF TABLES . vi Chapter I. INTRODUCTION . 1 Modernization, Secularization, and Alternative Healing . 2 statement of the Problem and Organization of the Study . 6 Review of Literature . 8 Healing, Religion, and Religious Movements 9 Alternative Healing and the Middle Classes 18 Methodological Issues, Problems, and Solutions . 24 Background of the Study 25 Planning the Research 27 In the Field 29 Ethical Issues 42 II. ALTERNATIVE HEALING IN METROPOLITAN MANILA 48 Historical Notes on Indigenous and Folk Healing . 50 Indigenous Healing Beliefs and Practices 51 Healing and Folk Catholicism 58 "Modern" Technologies of Healing . 63 A Conceptual Map 64 Technologies of Healing 92 Case Study: "The Science and Art of Pranic Healing" . 98 The Beginnings Foundations of Pranic Healing 100 Pranic Healing as a Healing Technology 103 III. SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF PARTICIPANTS IN NRHM 113 Metropolitan Manila and the Health Care Delivery System . 114 Participants in New Religious and Healing Movements . 116 Demographic Profile Socio-Economic Characteristics 118 Educational Achievement 124 Occupational Status 130 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Demographic Profile of Informants 290 2. socio-Economic Characteristics 291 2.1 Family Income 2.2 Comparison of Informants with National and NCR Level Data 292 3. Educational Achievement 293 3.1 Level of Education of Informants 3.2 Type of Institution Attended, National and Informants 3.3 Prestige Classification of School Attended by Informants 294 3.4 Educational Background of Informants 4. Occupational Status 295 4.1 Comparison of Occupational Distribution, National and Informants 4.2 Work Status of Informants 296 4.3 Employment Status of Informants 5. Courses and Fees . 297 6. Books on Healing 298 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The Philippines is the only Christian nation in the orient. Its long history of combined Spanish and American colonization attests to Christians making up 92% of the population, 83% of whom are Roman Catholics (The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1993). If the religious life is measured by attendance at Sunday mass and worship, it offers a stark contrast to the historically Christian countries of Europe. This vibrant religious life ranges from the easily recognizable Roman Catholic worship and devotions to religious forms that blend Christianity and indigenous beliefs. Spiritism is one such powerful force and nowhere is this more evident than in the practices of healing. It is in these practices that the country's rich folk and popular religious culture and the pervasive influences of Western culture find their common grounds. This wide range of healing practices includes the use of medicinal plants ("albularyo"); the manipulation of bones and the body ( "hilot") ; healing by saliva and by blowing or whispering on affected areas; projecting healing thoughts on to the patients (psychic) ; healing by spirit possession, usually with the intervention of saints, the child Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, etc ("sapi", "langkap"); psychic "sur- 2 gery"; healing by prayers and the laying on of hands (charis­ matic) . There are also healing forms associated with new religious and healing movements (NRHMs) with various ways of transmitting healing energy, such as magnetic healing, pranic healing, crystal healing, core energy and eastern practices like shiatsu, acupuncture, acupressure, zen, and other yoga exercises, and western imports, like silva mind control, PSI, inner peace, and science of the mind. This study examines who participates in these healing practices. This Chapter has four main sections. Section 1 sets the scene for the whole study. Section 2 states the intellectual problem on which it is based. Section 3 reviews the relevant literature on healing and religion, new religious movements, and alternative healing. Section 4 discusses the methods of research that I adopted in this study and the methodological problems that I encountered. Modernization, Secularization, and Alternative Healing Changing patterns of religious beliefs and practices have been analyzed in terms of various theories and models. The classic modernization theory speaks for most of them in claiming that the process of rationalization transforms society from traditional to modern forms and pervades all spheres of life. It has been used to explain the lack of development or the need for sustained development in the Third World and has been applied to a wide range of fields from 3 politics to agriculture and to religion (see Bernstein, 1971 and Huntington, 1971 for reviews of this literature). Although this theory has been employed to explain a mixture of sociological, psychological, and economic features in issues of development, most modernization accounts gave "greatest priority to the role played by the values, norms, and beliefs of people in determining the sort of society - traditional or modern - that they create" (Webster, 1990: 53) . The main emphasis for Berger (1977), Eisenstadt (1966), Lerner (1964), McClelland (1961), and Parsons (1966) was modernization as primarily a cultural process which involved the adoption and diffusion of rational ideas and values from the West into all dimensions of life (Webster, 1990). Rationality is associated with goal-oriented behavior, use of reason, belief in science, pragmatism, and utilitarianism. It has been contrasted to dependence on magic, sacred texts,
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