What is the Soul?
Trying to discover what the soul is can be challenging since the soul isn’t physical and therefore not able to be detected or measured with physical instruments. This causes many to discount the existence of a soul.
I heard Stan Lee, the author of many Marvel superhero characters interviewed by Larry King who asked him if he was afraid of death. He said he wasn’t but what did disturb him was the thought that when he died there would be nothing for eternity.
This exchange points out the dilemma that has perplexed people for millennia. Not only are there many questions about life after death, but also about who and what we are. Is it true there is nothing to look forward to?
Years ago I was asking the same questions and I found little reassuring answers in trying to research the subject, so I decided I would dedicate myself to the pursuit of answers to understand what the soul is. This became the sole topic of my inner searching for years. I would meditate several hours a day all in a quest to discover all I could find about the soul. In the process and through direct experience I came to realize a great deal about the non-physical realms and what our True Nature is.
Would You Like to Meet Your Soul?
Isn’t it remarkable that there is so much confusion about the soul?
* Do you have a soul?
* What is the soul?
* Where did it come from?
* Where is it leading you?
I remember thinking if we have a soul, it is perhaps the most important topic to understand, and yet when you search around you find speculations and more questions. Reading all I could find about what the soul is made me realize that many who were writing about it were actually speculating and philosophizing about it rather than describing their direct experiences with it.
The meditative practice I started with was holding the intention on discovering all I could about what the soul is, while asking it to reveal itself to me. For several weeks meditating with those goals in mind, I kept coming up empty handed. I saw nothing, felt nothing, and heard nothing, but I continued for hours every day.
Then one day while meditating and requesting the soul to emerge I began to feel a comforting presence embracing me. It’s hard to describe the sensation, but it was reassuring, accepting, healing, comforting, and deeply peaceful. There was also something like a vibration or resonance that seemed to engulf me and there seemed to be an intelligence awaiting me to call to it.
Aiding me in my soul explorations were hundreds of people I was doing intuitive and energy healing sessions with to bring their soul to the surface. Most people can actually feel what I am describing as I assist in this way right over the phone. Over time I discovered a great deal about non-physical realms and specifically about the nature of the soul including what the soul is. There are so many wonderful revelations that your quest for your soul can teach you that it can change your understanding about your life purpose and destiny.
As you may already know I had my first book published in 2010 titled “The Soul Solution,” that covers many ways the soul assists you on your spiritual evolutionary journey. There are a number of questions people have asked about their soul that were not addressed in that book, so I’m going to cover some of them now.
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Here is a partial list of what I’ll cover in this article:
* What is the Soul?
* Can Your Soul be Damaged or Destroyed?
* Does Every Living Thing Have a Soul?
* What is the Difference between Soul and Spirit?
* What is the Mission of the Soul?
* How Do You Evolve?
First of All, What is the Soul?
Your soul is often also called your True Self. It is who and what you are beneath the surface of your physical senses. It contains the memories of your entire existence and is at one with the Source of all existence. Because of this it is also sometimes referred to as your Enlightened Self because it already has the highest realizations of divine truth and it is your key to integrating those realizations into your everyday life.
The soul is composed of light and energy whose underlying qualities are rooted in unconditional love, which is why love is often said to be the path to enlightenment. The deeper you realize this high form of love the closer you come to understanding all life and how to evolve.
Where is the Soul in Your Body?
When I see a soul it usually has human-shaped form so I refer to this as your soul body. Most souls I have seen, and I’ve seen thousands, appear much like a large angel radiating love and light, and it appears much larger than your physical body. Therefore, it is more accurate to say your physical body is within your soul rather than your soul being in your body. On the other hand, some say the soul is in the center of your head and others say it is in yourheart center in the center of your chest. Those are actually just two locations where you can more easily access the soul’s intelligence and qualities; however, you can actually access the soul anywhere you put your attention. Despite that, it is generally most easily connected with through your heart center because by focusing there you are more easily able to bypass the intrusions of the analytical mind.
What is the Soul of a Person?
Each soul is a unique expression of the spirit that underlies and encompasses everything in existence. Because the soul is composed of the essence that emanates from the Source of all, it is our most valuable resource that provides us with the underlying impulses that drive our spiritual evolution. It is what frees us from the confines of the ego-fear-driven-controlling analytical mind, which most people think is who they are. Actually, all the ideas about who and what you are derive from speculations and projections of the mind which trick you into believing that is who you are. This is the process of identification which the limited mind creates.
Who Are You?
arly everyone defines him self or her self as an identity with certain qualities and characteristics, but these are actually self-created personality elements that form from desires and conclusions you reach from past observations and direct experiences. These distill down to form your overall personality which most people give labels, such as teacher, brick layer, parent, child, lawyer, truck driver, gardener, minister, etc. Those labels only describe limited aspects of your experiences, however, and there is more to you than any label. In addition, none of the labels fully encompasses the soul and its nature.
The soul does have some characteristics unrelated to sub-personality constructs. As I already mentioned the soul is composed of light and unconditional love, but more than that it also has curiosity, gentleness, humility, peacefulness, fulfillment, and joyfulness. Combined these traits lead you to lasting happiness and contentment. I summarize the soul’s nature as essential goodness because it encompasses all that you admire in saints and to which you aspire as you spiritually evolve. The more you form connections with the soul the more these qualities express through your personality.
Because of the refined qualities that make up the soul when your thoughts and actions are contrary to the soul you violate your integrity and automatically generate negative karmic forces. When you violate your integrity with your soul you are out of alignment with your essential goodness, and you set creative and attractive forces in motion that cause the conditions of your life which attempt to balance or compensate for your integrity violations. That is what drives negative karma. There are causes behind every experience you have and underlying those causes are your deepest unconscious beliefs. Those beliefs all form from conclusions you have come to about what you believe to be true and they are all distorted perceptions from truth and what the soul is.
Can Your Soul be Damaged or Destroyed?
Sometimes people refer to lost souls and poor souls. All of these carry scary and negative connotations, but they are all actually what the ego fears. The strongest ego fear force that obstructs people from becoming liberated and enlightened is a fear of being destroyed or annihilated.
The soul cannot die, be damaged, or be destroyed. The fact that you exist means your soul will continue to exist. Even if the soul were somehow fractured by a force or energy blast, it would instantly reassemble, so the soul not only doesn’t fear anything, it is incapable of fearing anything.
The sacred Indian text called the Bhagavad Gita states: The soul is never touched; it is immutable, all-pervading, calm, unshakable; its existence is eternal.
What About Lost Souls?
The soul is not and cannot be lost. It is one with the Source and Spirit as is everything in existence below the perceived forms. The soul is intelligent, wise, and spiritually enlightened which is why it is also called your Higher Self. Many people are unaware of their soul, and some are in denial they have a soul, but that is only indicative of their being out of touch with it. Most people are so absorbed with their senses, analytical mind, and daily distractions, they have lost touch with their soul.
I have even heard some people say that not every person has a soul, and while I’m open-minded enough to consider this as a possibility I have never personally encountered someone without a soul in the more than 50,000 private sessions I have conducted. I have speculated that if a person is cloned this could be a possible exception.
Some people have wondered if psychopaths are soulless, and from my experience I have not found this to be the case. It is just that some are so absorbed in their mental constructs that they are disconnected from their soul that lies below all the distractions of the mind and senses. This also sometimes happens with people who have been traumatized, terrorized, or abused, and with those who have been emotionally wounded and who therefore create defense mechanisms to shield themselves from their pain.
Many people have cut themselves off from their feelings because they have been emotionally hurt so they create shielding and armoring in their energy field to protect themselves. The big problem with this approach is whatever walls and armor is created to keep out perceived dangers also keeps out the very experiences a person deeply craves such as acceptance, love, trust, and happiness. Therefore, a major aspect of their healing needs to include reconnecting with their soul because these people can appear so disconnected from themselves they can seem to be without a soul.
In some cases, they are not fully grounded or in their bodies and therefore appear to be spacey, forgetful, shy, withdrawn, confused, or like they are not all there. The soul is the cure for this as by connecting deeply with the soul the fear melts and the person regenerates and reconnects with life.
If a person remains disconnected from their soul over time, they can descend into dark places of futility and depression barely alive and yet not dead. People in this condition will sometimes resort to participating in unconventional and even painful practices. These measures can then become addictive requiring more to feel alive.
The soul solution is to invite the soul to merge into the pain and over time it replaces all the disconnections and negative emotions replacing them with a sense of being fully present and alive.
What is the Difference between Soul and Spirit?
Answering this question requires clarifying distinctions between souls and spirit. Spirit is the underlying essence and energy of everything in existence, whereas souls are unique and individualized expressions of Spirit. Depending on the level of evolution determines whether the spirit within individuals is sufficiently developed to have individuality. The more evolved the more there is unique individuality. For instance, plants and rocks have an underlying spirit essence but little individuality. Animals have more individuality and clairvoyants can confirm they have spirit bodies, which in some cases has developed unique soul individuality. This is especially true of animals that are pets.
Because there is spirit essence in everything it is possible to develop intuitional skills to read the energy, history, and perceptions of everything including animals and inanimate objects. This is called psychometry. Most people attempting to do this think they are making it all up as their analytical mind intrudes their perceptions with questions and doubts. With training and practice this can be circumvented and valuable insights can be gained.
You can practice doing this by entering a relaxed state and putting your attention on what you want to attune to, and then project unconditional love and acceptance toward the object and allow yourself to receive impressions. Like developing any skill, in the beginning you will be uncertain of your experience, but over time you can refine your ability.
What’s the Mission of the Soul?
One of the most common questions people ask is what their mission in life is. Sometimes people feel they have a calling to a particular career path like an artist, doctor, teacher, bricklayer, biologist, etc. The reason a person feels drawn to a specific career is often because they have had one or more lifetimes in that field. If you have had several lifetimes devoted to a particular career or interest, you’ll find it seems to come naturally and easily to you in your current life.
Now the question becomes if I am drawn to a particular interest does that mean it is my soul’s purpose? The answer is both yes and no. It is yes because the area you devote yourself to makes your “heart sing”. You find fulfillment and passion for what you do and your soul naturally attracts you to that area to continue evolving. The soul has a core impulse to discover, unfold, expand, and develop. These characteristics can express through many choices so the specific activities are the means to evolve and you are free to make choices in how you do that.
Two Aspects of Your Evolution
Understanding this is tied to two aspects of your evolution. One way you evolve is through the progressive realization of who and what you are. As the realization level of your consciousness rises you shed the illusions of conceptualizations and attachments. Your awareness expands into higher realizations of oneness with all three is and this continuous expansion of consciousness eventually leads to the stillpoint of consciousness which is the core of Source beyond all conceptualizations. This is referred to as non-dual awareness and is as far as the expansion of awareness can go. I refer to this process as horizontal enlightenment because it is a process of continuous expansion into vast emptiness.
The second aspect of your evolution is vertical enlightenment which includes your continuous participation in discoveries of the many forms of manifestation in all dimensions. This process can be never ending as it continually reaches higher levels of understanding and expressions of love.
I need to point out that I have not found many who are familiar with this aspect of evolution. The higher realization explanations of esoteric spiritual paths generally focus on attaining non-dual awareness as ultimate enlightenment and I agree this is certainly a choice that can be made, but not the only choice. Here is one way of looking at this process:
As you observe all creation you will conclude that everything is on a transformational journey of becoming something else. In other words, everything is evolving and by observation alone you can conclude there is an underlying drive for the expansion of experiences. Considering there are at least a dozen major dimensions each with infinite subdivisions there are opportunities for infinite experiences. As your consciousness rises you interact with more evolved beings eventually reaching levels where ego disappears and all interactions are love based. Can you imagine living in societies where everyone is peaceful, kind, loving, supportive, generous, serving, and helpful? Can you imagine what creative projects and adventures you can explore in such cultures?
This model of evolution has more appeal to me than simply being suspended in non-dual awareness, and I think it makes more sense to most people who are wanting experiences without incurring the type of negativity that most experience. Once again, returning to observation of creation those who choose to melt into Nirvana of non-duality will find an impulse to once again cycle into form, for that is the nature of existence itself, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.
How Do You Evolve?
The soul is already horizontally evolved and your mission in each lifetime is to discover enlightened awareness by eliminating the identities that obscure it. The only obstacle is the fear-driven ego-analytical-mind. The identities that the mind holds are composed of many deeply embedded beliefs that trick you into thinking you are the limited identities. What this means is your apparent evolution is actually a discovery process that reveals progressively deeper truths as the layers of beliefs are cleared.
Clearing is actually a fairly easy process once you have identified the specific distortions and limiting beliefs, and that requires being a detective to find what is holding the limitation in place. That can be time-consuming and requires relentless dedication but the rewards are significant as you become happier and more liberated from your old painful experiences.
The more you clear your mental obstacles the more the soul is automatically revealed with its characteristics that bring fulfillment and a feeling of being complete. No matter what the question or problem the solution lies in identifying the underlying cause and systematically releasing the subtle-energy patterns. This is called the spiritual surrender process and is the secret to letting go.
The heart is the doorway to discovering what is the soul, and learning to dive into the heart center provides direct access to the essence of the soul you really are. Removing the burdens that weigh on your heart opens you to invite the presence of your soul to take heal your past and take over your present. There are many ways to go about this process, but the most specific and targeted the process the faster you will evolve.
Some Practices That Accelerate You on
Discovering What is Your Soul
1. Meditation. This can be active or passive. The passive form is the slowest but it can certainly help give you clarity. By passive I mean quieting your mind and being a neutral observer not engaging with whatever comes up. Over time, this withholds energy from re-engaging you or triggering you. A faster meditative practice is proactively going after the thoughts and feelings that trigger you and rob you of inner peace. There are many ways of doing this, but to start I’d recommend my 14-Day Quick Self-Clearing Program.
2. Affirmations. Both audible and subliminal affirmation programs are excellent reinforcement to clearing and establishing strong empowering beliefs. For deep soul healing I recommend my Soul Merge program that brings the soul to the surface and dissolves what the ego has created and held onto.
3. Dream Discoveries. Accessing and interpreting your dreams can give you key insights into your blocks and obstacles.
4. Visualizations (using mental imagery to increase clarity, wisdom, love, etc.)
5. Discovering & Clearing Core Beliefs. Your core beliefs are your unconscious belief programs that were usually created through past traumas, mistreatments, deep emotional wounds, or brain-washing religious or political programming. These are programs that carry over from lifetime to lifetime and are deeply embedded. Unless you work to discover and clear them, they will follow you your entire life and beyond. https://www.letgosecret.com/discover-your-core-issues/
6. Energy Healing. There are many forms of this including Reiki, hypnotherapy, prana healing; quantum healing, and psychic healing. Some also include acupuncture, chiropractic, cranial sacral and other hands-on modalities. My Energy Self-Mastery program goes into a great deal of instructions and practices of self-clearing to clear you and elevate your consciousness.
Living a Soul Merged Life
When you learn to integrate the soul, you become more clearly perceptive, free, aware, energized, open-hearted, non-judgmental, and unconditionally loving, and you automatically live in the present moment without even trying to do so.
Discovering and merging with the soul is the path of your evolution and at each step along the way you feel more awake and alive. The integration of your soul is what you are seeking whether you are aware of it or not since the soul is what brings the healing, peace, love, and harmony to your life. This is the real purpose of your life and describes your path.
The only question is how long this process will take, and that is a matter of your free-will choices. You can do nothing and you’ll continue much the way your life has been, or you can take an active role in your evolutionary life journey, and you can bypass many future lives of living in limitations of ego-dominated societies.
Yes, at times the journey can be lonely and seemingly slow or even painful at times, but your dedication to evolving spiritually frees you more and more the higher your consciousness raises. Your consciousness will rise proportional to the degree you successfully clear your deepest assumptions and limiting core beliefs.
Your mastery is worth all the inconveniences necessary to attain it.
