Having surveyed the ascetic self with examples drawn from the scriptural traditions of Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism, we are in a position to develop some general conclusions that cut across different historical trajectories. Important questions arise. Can we generalise about the social conditions that allow for the development of the ascetic self? Even if the ascetic self is apparently similar in different contexts, could it nevertheless be the product of quite distinct historical processes? While this might seem paradoxical, in general terms the response to both these questions is in the affirmative. Different historical trajectories in different continents with varied environmental, economic and political constraints are particular, unrepeatable instances. Yet given the diversity of these historical trajectories – a description of which is far beyond the scope of the present project – that there is a similarity of process in the formation of the ascetic self is precisely the point. We might subsume this process of self-formation under the sign of ‘ritual’. The process whereby the self becomes an ascetic self, the shaping of the self in the form of tradition, the entextualisation of the body, is found in all the cultural locations we have examined.