The Religio-Spiritual Context of Lifestyle Practices and Health Behaviors 9
In our present time, and especially in the West, further theorizing about
the person’s connection with the religio-spiritual, and the triumvirate of
mind-body-spirit, has been strongly influenced by the psychoanalytic
movement. Major influences here include the theories of Carl Jung (1933;
1938), who posited the “the religious unconscious”; as well as Viktor
Frankl’s (1963) suggestion of an unconscious motivation to “responsibil-
ity,” and the work of other leading thinkers who noted religio-spiritual
experiences to be a vital aspect and concern of the psyche (see, e.g., Allport
1950; Fromm 1950; James 1985; Maslow 1964; Rank 1996). Taken as a
whole, these theories suggest that religion and spirituality arise from deep,
unconscious psychological processes. Thus, apart from philosophical or
metaphysical considerations, modern psychology provides a phenomeno-
logical account that recognizes religion as “one of the most essential man-
ifestations of the human mind” (Jung 1969b, p. 289). Indeed, from the
theoretical viewpoint of Jungian psychology, religion and spirituality are
posited as being reflections of the individual’s “relationship to the highest
or most powerful value, be it positive or negative . . . that is both accepted
voluntarily, as well as involuntarily, that is to say you can accept con-
sciously, the value by which you are possessed unconsciously” (Jung 1969a,
p. 81). In so doing, again a dialecticism involving the interaction of
religio-spiritual concerns and behavior is suggested. Describing this dynamic
interaction, Jung (1969a) notes that religion and spirituality describe and
inform a transcendental awareness and altering of consciousness, and thus
the enactment of faith practices, religious rituals, and the following of
theologic creeds “are codified and dogmatized forms of original religious
experience” (pp. 8–9). Further, considering both Western and Eastern tra-
ditions, Jung (1969a) posits that religious and spiritual experiences (e.g.,
thoughts, emotions, actions) “come upon man from inside as well as out-
side” (p. 366), suggesting a symbiotic intertwining of the religio-spiritual
with the psyche, and expressing an all-encompassing dialecticism as a basis
for understanding human existence. Moreover, using Buddhist metaphor
in describing this religio-spiritual and psychological symbiosis, Jung (1969a)
suggests, “The psyche is therefore all-important; it is the all-pervading
Breath, the Buddha-essence; it is the Buddha-Mind, the One, the Damakaya.
All existence emanates from it, and all separate forms dissolve back into it”
(p. 482).
As we consider religion and spirituality to be deeply and interdependently
connected to our perceiving, reasoning, and acting, the viewpoint of
Campbell (1968, 1972; see also Griffiths 2015; McKinnon 2002) is also illu-
minating, in that it further describes and gives a modern interpretation as
to how religious and spiritual beliefs are intimately represented in our
culture and reflected in our behavior. As Campbell (1968, 1972) describes,
