“A luminous something that lives on after a person’s death” ; Forms and Manifestations of the Soul in the Conceptualisations of Today’s Czech Students
Abstract
Something that we call duše in Czech - what does it look like and how does it manifest itself? What do today's young Czech speakers say about this? In traditional folk conceptualisations, the soul takes the form of a bird, often a white dove. In old folk ballads and myths, it incarnates in trees or flowers.
It is generally identified with breath (it was breathed into man by God) and likened to a cloud of steam that - after death (escape of the soul from the body) - flies out the window into heaven (and "into eternity"). The soul is associated with either (bodily, temporal) life or with spirituality and divine principle: with what is eternal and what, in the Christian discourse, needs to be cared for (and not sold to the devil).
The psychological profile of the soul is also important (cf. duševní nemoc 'mental illness' / duševní zdraví 'mental health'). In literature and common thinking, various images and narrative structures appear in the context of the soul.
Rather than individual, they are shared in different degrees. This is demonstrated by the results of a survey conducted among Prague university students, so-called "young millennials" (a generation born in the 1990s).
Despite sharing the most general conceptualisations of the soul (Judeo-Christian and Cartesian) and typical narrations (SOUL AFTER DEATH FLIES TO HEAVEN), the questionnaires show a more globalised view of the soul, the influence of non-European and non-Christian religions and spiritual trends and alternative psychosomatic approaches to man (references to karma, aura, energy, etc.). Furthermore, the understanding of the concept of the soul is influenced by pop culture (such as American series - Star Wars, The Simpsons, etc.).
In contrast to linguistic and folklore data, the students' answers indicate the importance of the profile associated with individual personality (SOUL IS INDIVIDUAL SELF).