Manobos call the vital principle of life inside the body, ginhawa (breath). This is a holistic concept, subsuming (1) thought, (2) will, (3) emotion, and (4) physiology. Like a spirit, this entity is detachable and it can therefore move away from the body. In the state of detachment or un-awareness such as in dreams, illness, and death, the ginhawa becomes another term, umagad (soul), a word that does not differ in essence from the ginhawa, but only in its state, i.e., the ginhawa is inside the body, while the umagad is outside of it. (See the arrow from upper left pointing to lower right in the table above). The English words "spirit" and "soul" do not make such distinctions, i.e., between the essences inside and outside the body. What is interesting in the Manobo idea is the permeability and “doubleness” of the self.

    Thus, Manobos believe that each living person has an inherent counterpart in the form of a spirit-double who resides outside of oneself but is linked to the self’s inner essence by default (see upper row of the table above). In everyday life, Manobos do not spend much time idly speculating about this invisible double, not until it is said to bother the self, i.e., by giving the host person unease, sometimes very frequently and intensely. Now described as illness, through a passage of time, divinatory rituals called suyad are held across the years to appease the double's “desire” (kiham). [See arrow from upper right pointing to lower left). Such a “spirit-desired” person usually becomes a medium later on in life, learning the lore, techniques, and practices of healing in “public” as he or she undergoes treatment in the divinatory rituals spread apart through the years. Ritual interpreters whom I interview about this matter mention that a sick person begins to incarnate spirit symptoms, manifesting them first in dance in the early years of the healing period and then the singing voice, which is heard only at the end. Thus, a metamorphoses of the body of a sick person materializes. Song is heard when the medium’s spirits are finally “befriended” or “domesticated” and he or she begins to share the knowledge of the divine by healing other patients.