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..:: The Soul ::..
By
Alan Schneider
What is the Soul? As a starting point, we can say that the
Soul is personal and individually expressed in each separate entity
knowable in the biological world. This characterization pertains to both
plant and animal life, down to the most diminutive level – even algae,
bacteria, and viruses have Soul manifestation, albeit this
manifestation is notably collective in nature, reflecting the
subtle identity and vibration of the colony more than the individual.
So, we can say that the Soul also has a collective aspect.
The Soul in the plant kingdom is sensed at a very subtle
level – the plant Soul is quiet in the extreme, but plants can still
express their level of consciousness to us as a harmonic tone audible to
the most sensitive observers. Animals have Souls exhibiting various
degrees of development as well. The recognition of the Soul at this
level is enhanced by the display of behavior from the animal, and
this can be both personal and collective – all cats display certain
common behaviors that define what might be called the Cat Soul, and
individual cats still display personal traits that define them as
entities apart from the collective. The same is true of dogs, as another
example. I once met a female collie that had a vibration that could only
have been called Angelic – the creature simply radiated Grace and
Compassion from every canine gesture she produced, and to look into her
eyes was to see God as clearly reflected as possible in the animal
world. So animal behavior – right up to and including “human” animals –
helps to define the individual and collective essence of that level of
manifestation present.
In some cases, physical structures can also have Souls. I
used to regularly perform Reiki on my old Isuzu Rodeo by laying my hands
on the hood, and always had a sensation of a conscious “presence”,
particularly in that area – near (or in?) the engine. The engine is,
after all, the Heart of the vehicle, and my Rodeo had a noble Heart, the
Heart of an Angel of Deliverance. It served me well, and I honor its
passing from my life. I have had other vehicles that exuded a sense of
presence as well. One was a 1980 VW bus – another noble vehicle that
myself and my former wife eventually traded in on a new Rabbit
convertible. We both stood there in the lot and cried as we watched that
old bus drive away into oblivion...
This “rule” of Soul characterization in objects also applies
to buildings, in particular older structures. Buildings and grounds tend
to reflect the activities that took place in and on them, and they hold
a vibrational residue of those activities indefinitely. I can remember
one occasion in which I was touring a series of dwellings composing what
had been a farm at one time. In the rear was a courtyard which exuded a
very disturbing feeling from the earth, the dirt, in one area. When I
looked at the dirt, it appeared to me to have a faint tinge of animal
essence that was only peripherally apparent – it seemed to disappear
when I directly observed the ground. When I asked the man who was
conducting me around what had taken place on that spot, he replied that
it was the place where the farmer had slaughtered animals many years
before! The vibration was tainted forever after by the spilled blood
that had seeped into the ground there.
What is the common thread of expression that unites such a
diverse number of separate conditions? Well, as already mentioned, it is
personal and individual, and beyond that, reflective – the Soul
of the observer sends forth a vibration that interacts with the
Soul of the observed, and reflects back to the observer with a new
vibrational message that the observer then interprets accordingly. In
animals, the blood carries the essence of the Soul vibration, in plants
the juices do so. When I observed the ground at the old farm, I was
detecting the collective Soul residue of the slaughtered animals that
died there, present in the dried blood still resident in the soil. So,
all Soul emanations are potentially interactive with each other, and one
who can sense those emanations accurately enough can tell much about any
person, place, life form, or object.
Let us review what we have proposed thus far. We seem to
have defined a system in which the individual, composite, and collective
essences – or most pure expressions – of conditions are
manifested in varying degrees of quantity and quality. These essences
are at least potentially interactive with each other at their common,
or shared, level of existence. So we could say that the Soul is the
most qualitatively pure expression of something or someone, and is more
or less present everywhere, albeit in differentiation of intensity, and
tends to interact on a vibrational level to some extent with other Souls. And
this vibrational interaction is fundamentally reflective in nature – all
the Souls in a given vicinity are continuously “vibrating” their
emanations to each other – in a word, are in communication with each
other on a subtle level of interaction that is nonetheless quite
present, and are experiencing changes of spiritual state as a
result of this process.
We have discussed some of the factors that define this
state. In animals, and particularly human beings, the blood, breath, and
behavior influence the Soul expression. In plants, it is the foliage and
juices present. In machinery, it is the mode of operation and mechanical
interaction present. In static objects, such as buildings and grounds,
it is the architecture and pattern of usage undertaken by the sequence
of operators transitioning through the facility. In each case, some kind
of essence of manifestation will eventually form – this
functional essence is the Soul of the condition under
observation. But, how does my Soul recognize the Soul of another person
or condition, and subsequently interact with it? Obviously, there must
be a common medium of transmission or recognition involved.
I can choose to see myself as an object functioning in a
world of objects, or I can choose to see myself as a consciousness
functioning in a world of consciousness. To the extent that I make one
choice, I decline the other – they are diametrically opposed. If I make
the choice for consciousness, certain things become incumbent upon me.
The prime condition of consciousness is feeling awareness on some
level – I “exist” because I feel my manifest presence in the
environment. And I can feel the presences of other beings and conditions
as well, and I can also feel their essential manifestations – their
Souls. This is a very different condition from that of object detection.
As an object, I can only experience the object-nature of something or
someone as defined by their sensory characteristics on an external level
– sight, sound, smell, taste, touch define the composition of the world
of objects. To the objective assessment of the materialist, the Soul is
simply an anthropomorphic fantasy, nothing more. To the spiritualist and
the clairvoyant, the Soul is a fundamental structure of consciousness.
The difference in these two perspectives lies in the observer’s level of
feeling response to stimuli. How does the alternative feeling
level of perception just postulated occur? What is it? Where does it
come from?
Certainly some feelings are physical and literal. The
sensory inputs all conform to this criterion. Now, there are integrated,
higher order emotional states that are also feeling conditions, above
and beyond simple the sensory manifestations that we assemble into our
impression of “the world”. This is the level of feeling that I am
concerned with here. It is this level that lies at the foundation
of our sense of presence in the world. It is this level that demarcates
the origin of the Soul in consciousness. And, most importantly, this
level is intuitive in character – I cannot say with precision
where I am, or how I am, only that I am – I have an intuitive
sense of my intrinsic presence. If I deeply examine this state of
affairs, I will eventually discover my Soul – my essence as a condition
of consciousness. It is intuitive feeling consciousness that is
the medium of recognition and transmission between Souls! The old
Cartesian postulate of “I think, therefore, I am” just became “I feel,
therefore everything is”. And “everything” implies God...
Just as I can have an intuitive sense of my Soul as
the “most pure expression” of my individual consciousness, so it is that
I can have an intuitive sense of God as the “most pure expression” of
the Totality of All Consciousness, and the two conditions are very
definitely involved with each other. In fact the personal Soul, or
Jivatman in Hinduism, is the extension of God that is associated with
the body and its pilot mechanism, the ego. The Soul could be thought of
as a naturally occurring manifestation of the Freudian Superego, acting
through the medium of the conscience. All personal Souls are
connected to and through God. The intuitive feeling consciousness
previously mentioned is our personal sense of that connection from the
individual human perspective. This is how we can and do tune in
to the Soul level manifestations in the material world around us. The
God in us is acknowledging the God in each other and the world! The
Hindu term for this condition is Namaste.
When I tune in to something or someone’s spiritual essence –
their Soul – this occurs through my essence. Although I may
think that essence is a part of “me”, it is in fact God manifesting
through me as the available medium of expression on the material
plane. The Soul supersedes the body and encompasses it in the material
realm. The human Soul emanation is very special, because it is
potentially sentient – self aware – requiring only the correct sequence
of events to realize its own existence as a discreet condition within
the field of conscious perception. Thereafter, the world of Soul
vibration becomes increasingly available to perception as an alternative
method of comprehension to logical thought processing. I personally
prefer to use this method of vibration assessment as my principle means
of negotiating life’s many challenges, because it has become so reliable
as an indicator through the years of practice that I have invested in
the process – the vibration never lies. It does, however, take time to
learn how to interpret vibrational cues accurately. The real psychics of
the world have become Masters of this art by learning how to turn off
the ego, and tune in to the collective Soul for their source of
information, although they may have varying names for, perceptions of,
and feelings about that phenomenon.
The issue of undoubtedly the greatest significance
for our race concerns the proposed immortality of the human Soul. Does
our spiritual essence persist beyond physical death, and, if so, how?
Since the Soul is a very subtle phenomenon that many people cannot
detect at all, it would seem to be appropriate to begin our discussion
with the consideration of perceptual sensitivity. If I simply observe
the gross action of events on the material plane through the lens of the
ego, those events probably will not organize themselves into the Soul
level of perception, because they are occurring to quickly, and too
randomly (in most cases – the ego is only able to capture and organize a
small part of all the meaningful information in the environment). One
must cultivate the habit of meditation to begin to bring the Soul
into focus for the mind – by quieting the mind enough to allow
study of the subtle realms of manifestation. The Soul resides in the
background of consciousness for the inexperienced observer, requiring
many sessions of detached contemplation of the universal conditions that
compose the subtle planes of expression. Meditation is an indispensable
tool for investigating consciousness on that or any level. It is through
this practice that all but the innately gifted few attain the higher
perception of spiritual and astral events that reveals the presence of
the Soul and God.
Enough practice in meditation with the assistance of a
competent advisor will enable the student of mysticism to discover most
of the archetypal elements that comprise the subtle planes of
manifestation – the Chakras, the Tree of Life, the Zodiac, the Jungian
expressions (the Shadow, Anima, Animus, Great Mother, Great Father,
etc.), the Primal Holy expressions (God, Angels, Divine Light), and so
on. Since it requires turning away from the senses and searching the
Inner Realm, meditation has occasionally been characterized as a step
away from life, and, therefore, toward death. Certainly the subtle level
of all that takes place in the meditative phase of consciousness is
somewhat death-like, although the experiences may be perceived as very
real and enervated. An adjunct area to meditation worthy of study is the
realm of near-death experiences, and what those who have had them report
upon returning to the living. Let us examine this discipline and then
correlate the results with the meditation experience.
The near-death experience, or NDE, typically results from
borderline lethal exposure to drowning, asphyxiation, electrical shock,
chemical systemic shock, and a few other types of traumatic experience.
The subjects generally have the experience of heart stoppage for brief
lengths of time (several minutes), loss of consciousness, severe decline
in blood pressure, stoppage of breathing (again for several minutes),
and lack of response to efforts that may be made to revive them for the
interval. To synopsize, they are in a dead state for a brief time, then
finally respond to revival efforts and return to consciousness. The
people who have undergone these experiences have reported many similar
perceptions, even though they were technically “dead”, and should not
have been perceiving anything. These perceptions include the
witnessing of an intense white light, traveling backwards through their
memories, traveling both forwards and backwards in time, meeting and
speaking with deceased friends, loved ones, and relatives, witnessing
fantastic landscapes and visions, and meeting and speaking with God,
Angels, and occasionally demons of various kinds.
These are many of the same experiences that occur in
meditation as well. At the very least, it would appear that the activity
of the Subtle Realms in consciousness is incredibly extensive and
varied, and can and should be seriously studied with an eye to
determining correlations with fully conscious experience on the material
plane. To be absolutely accurate, the NDE and meditation do not prove
conclusively that perception continues after death, but the tantalizing
similarities present offer powerful evidence of the presence of some
kind of extensive transitional state.
Hinduism believes that the Soul passes through many human
lifetimes in the process of participating in the physical form on the
material plane. The Hindu theory is that we must acquire Karma – or
spiritual lessons to be learned about the dense form of existence – when
we take the material form of the body, and that we return to God as we
learn these lessons, and release our Karma in the process. Eventually,
the Soul learns all that can be known about living incarnation, and
returns to God permanently, enriched with this fund of experience and
information. To attain this level of perception of our spiritual essence
is to step beyond, or transcend, the limits of mortality and
reality as defined by materialism. The Soul represents the bridge to
another form of knowing that exists beyond the senses and sense
perception, yet can still utilize both as models for higher functioning
in all of the Planes of Manifestation, including the material plane
where they originate.
In Hindu cosmology, the Soul perception begins in the Heart
Chakra, and is linked to compassion as the defining process, and
challenge. We realize – actualize – the Atman – the Soul – as we
successfully practice unselfish love and compassion for the other
forms of living expression that we encounter in this material life.
Christian cosmology interprets the Heart as at least the potential
center of the living embodiment of the Consciousness of Christ – the
struggle to live in Christ’s example as, again, a compassionate person,
is one of the primary challenges to the Soul in that faith as well. As
has been mentioned in other Searchlight essays, the Heart Chakra is
the gateway to all of the Chakras to follow. It is critical for
spiritual growth that we come to terms with the Heart, and accept the
Karmic lessons to be learned there – humbling though they may be. God is
Love, and the Soul is God’s expression of Love on this Earth. Let us
honor that expression as living examples of open awareness and
consciousness.
- With Love, Alan -
(CR2007, Alan Schneider)
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