BODY > SOUL < SPIRIT
Secrets of the Soul
We humans were created with a divine inclination which draws us to light and goodness. It is revealed in the pure glowing love radiating from the face of the infant who recognizes its mother’s presence; there are no words needed, yet the “look” expresses volumes. In the eyes of a child we recognize the purity, beauty and profound sacredness in the unblemished soul that is God’s creation. All living souls are one with God, yet, each of us is different.
At our core, we are pure, sacred, divine creations coming into life. As we live our lives, our inexperience causes us to make mistakes and thus, we blemish our souls and lose our innocence. However, our Creator watches over us and is ready to forgive every mistake once we awaken and realize it is a mistake. This paper explains what our soul is, how it keeps tabs of our goodness and mistakes, and how we can be forgiven so our soul is pure once again.
The title of this paper symbolically represents the relationship between the three major components comprising the human/divine experience; the body, soul and spirit. As shown in the symbolism of the title, the physical body, through the activities of life and utilizing the four senses in the head and touch, interacts with the soul, imprinting it with unique life experiences. By this action, our soul formulates a conceptual meaning of this life based on the encounters it has with the objects and people in its worldly experience. As for the spirit, it provides the inspiration and insight to the soul as it drives it forward toward personal spiritual goals, greater understanding and higher knowledge.
These three divisions of our soul provide distinctly different functions in the human life; however, they are totally dependent upon one another in order to interact in a cohesive manner so they fulfill their function of monitoring and guiding us through life. This triune configuration of our soul/being is like that of the Holy Trinity’s configuration which is three separate personalities in one divine mind/being. Through spiritual knowledge of the body, soul and spirit we eventually become aware that we are also intricately interwoven in our own world in a triune configuration.
The soul lives between the body and the spirit. However, initially, the soul is unable to communicate with the infant’s body because it is a semi-conscious “lump of clay.” It is not yet self-conscious; it is only conscious as its bodily functions; it is not conscious of itself. The only reason the human body lives, breathes and appears to be consciously awake is because of its electro-magnetic life-force referred to as the etheric vital-life body. The electro-magnetic energy field of the Earth’s etheric body was revealed in the 1970’s through photos of plants and human fingers surrounded by their own energy fields in Kirlian photography.
The etheric vital-life body is the means by which the soul is able to communicate with our physical being. The etheric body is a duplicate of the physical body, cell for cell and organ for organ; it is like a photographic negative of the body. Whenever people speak of seeing someone after they have died, they are seeing the etheric-body of that person which survives for a defined period following death.
In life, the etheric-body sustains the physical body through the vital-life that flows into it through the meridians and through the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which maintains the 4 vital systems of: digestion (earth), circulation (water), respiration (air) and generation (fire). The etheric body processes and organizes the physical world experiences into inner world responses to: sensory perceptions, memory, conditioned responses which can produce habitual behaviors, impulses and instincts, rhythmic-time cycles of the body and reflexive movements. These responses to outer world perceptions form and trigger the creation and ultimately, the emergence of the “body-mind” and ego-personality. (See: Thinking)
The interaction between the soul and the physical/etheric-body is a slow, precise process which keeps pace with childhood development. From the moment of birth, i.e., the first in-breathing of the soul/life-force/and oxygen, the etheric-body unites with the physical form. This process continues until the child’s permanent teeth start coming in which signifies that the etheric-body is firmly seated in the physical form. This phase of early childhood development establishes an “open-line” of communication between the body and soul. However, in this early stage, the majority of the soul continues to exist outside of our physical body. It will be explained below how the 3-fold soul integrates with the 4-fold body.
Relative to the early-life stages of human development, the soul integrates into our consciousness as we awaken in each of these new phases of: infancy, childhood, adolescence and adult stages of awakening (4-cycles of 7+/- years). These stages correspond to the macro structures of consciousness, they are the: Archaic, Magical, Mythical, and Mental states of consciousness. (See: Perception, The Evolution of Consciousness) These structures of consciousness are the macro cycles of an ever-evolving universal consciousness which we experience in the recapitulation of each new life cycle.
The subtle and miraculous communion between our body and soul enables us to make this worldly experience into our own affair, i.e., make our life experiences in the material world have meaning for us. Beginning in adolescence, we gradually develop a “concept” of who we are in relationship to the people and world around us and in the adult stage the mind awakens to solidify our self-perception. If it were not for the soul, we would not be able to formulate and develop the evolving self-perceptions and self-knowledge.
The materials and elements from the outer world compose our body and the forces of the outer world also work in it. We can observe the things of the outer world with our senses as we can observe our own bodily existence. Many of the body’s processes can be perceived with the bodily senses; however, it is impossible for us, in the same manner, to observe the content and feelings of our soul. Our likes and dislikes, our joy and pain exist in the unseen world which cannot be perceived with bodily senses; the region of the soul is inaccessible to human perception. The bodily existence of humans is visible to all; but the soul’s existence we carry within is ours alone.
Essential Matter
So, what exactly is the soul, and how and why is it imprinted? The dynamics of the living soul are found in its multidimensional presence. The human soul traverses these dimensions with ease as a result of its refined nature, thus, when it integrates with the body, the soul fulfills its duty in the bodies which comprise our beingness, i.e., in the physical/etheric and lower psychic; in the psycho/cognitive (higher psychic & mental); and in the spiritual dimensions. Aside from physically breathing our bodies, the soul circulates through the three subtle dimensions of the psychic, mental and spiritual realms with each breath we take.
The breath-form of a person is unique to that person and is ever-present throughout life. The breath of a person has “a formless form” which is beyond space/time and is unique to the individual; this breath-form is active as breathing and passive as the soul of the human. When seated in the body, the passive state of the soul is imprinted with every action we perform, every word we speak and every thought we think in life; this content of the soul determines our future destiny.
The experiences we have in life are retained upon the “super-refined” matter comprising the soul called essential-matter. Essential-matter is indestructible; it is omnipresent, invisible, super-refined matter which is in the process of transitioning into spirit; its refined nature makes it extremely susceptible to being imprinted by thoughts, words and actions of human beings. This is how, over many lifetimes, the soul and spirit incrementally attain (or resurrect) to higher states of consciousness which is revealed in the gradual evolution of the physical body we occupy. *See Thinking and Destiny by Harold Percival regarding essential matter; an open source book.
We humans are both matter and spirit, and our soul, as essential-matter, resides in the unseen realm between matter and spirit. On the one hand, the soul is comprised of the sum total of our many life experiences which determine the quality of life we will live. On the other hand, it is a “composite” influence providing the condensed guidance from the essence of many past life experiences. In each new life, the soul is a “fixed configuration” or divine matrix which is expressed in the new physical body giving it its intelligence, temperament, character, etc.
The soul is altered in each life, for better or worse, by our thinking, words, and deeds. This is what Christ referred to as “we reap what we sow.” These words and deeds are the karma that comprises our individual destiny which follows us from lifetime to lifetime. It is karmic destiny which determines what kind of life experiences we will have this time around and our reaction to these experiences creates new karma that will define our next life experience.
Collectively, the souls in this universe are the living expression of God-consciousness; we are the living cells in the mind of God. As John 4:24 says, “God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” In other words, since God, the Father is a spirit, collectively, we humans represent: God’s experience in the physical realm; God’s experience of creativity and imagination in the human mind; God’s experience of love, compassion and inspiration in our hearts and souls; and we experience God’s Divine Love, Divine Wisdom and Divine Truth when we “let go” and surrender ourselves to God. Through humanity, God experiences life on Earth.
The 4-Fold Human Body
What is referred to as “4-states of being” in the diagram below is the composite, passive expression of accumulated life experiences which are gathered from the activity of conscious intelligence in our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual life this time around. The super-refined soul resides in both the nature-body and the eternal spirit; its presence is infused and “mingles” in these four states of being as we awaken to life in the material world.
Progressing in sync with the developmental stages of consciousness in the early life of humans, the soul merges and becomes one with the nature-body in the awakening states of our being. (See: Recapitulation) The soul preserves our life history by being imprinted with a multitude of experiences in the physical/etheric; psycho/cognitive; and conscious intelligence. Thus, these three soul states of essential-matter form the sentient soul, the psycho/cognitive soul and the Consciousness soul respectively – three distinct expressions in one soul. (Explained below)
It is important to point out that the soul is only imprinted with the “lived experiences” one has in life. If, for instance, one never awakens spiritually, the soul of that person will lack the feelings for and the attraction to the knowledge of the higher spiritual realities. Whether one believes in the soul or not, it is still imprinted with one’s life history. The karmic debts generated in this life by everyone must be “paid” or neutralized, no matter how long it takes, before one is allowed to enter into the spiritual realms of the afterlife.
The diagram below illustrates how the soul differentiates itself according to the four natures of the physical and subtle bodies. The soul is more refined spiritually than any of our inner states, such as the mental or psychological, so it can easily and naturally blend with the subtle bodies regardless of their refined nature. Since the soul adapts and fuses with the four states of being, this synthesis reveals that the soul is imprinted with the unique beingness of each state whether it is physical, psychic, mental or spiritual. Thus, there is a natural unification of soul and being, making these two sides of the same coin.
Although the diagram shows the areas in which the soul has blended with the states of being, this list is static or fixed and fails to reveal the properties, dynamics and configuration of the soul which plays an important role in our evolutionary progress. The passive, static state of the soul/being is focused on in meditation to reveal, examine, illuminate and experience the true reality of each unique state through the four stages of meditation. The meditation process reveals the spiritual health, awareness, well-being, clarity, and stability or the imbalances and obstructions in these internal states of consciousness.
The Soul & Lifeline Choices
Before the soul/being enters into this life, it is given several choices of lifelines to choose from based on its past karma, its spiritual evolution and the life-lessons it wants to learn. This is done with great care through the assistance of advanced souls who specialize in this guidance. Based on the choice, the soul makes contact with the parents at conception by leaving an imprint upon the fertilized egg. The time the soul spends in the womb varies; however, the soul/being regularly reconnects with the embryo throughout the developmental stages and generally enters and remains about 4-6 weeks prior to the birth.
The soul enters into the pre-established conditions of the lifeline which includes the: astrological imprinting of the soul at the time of birth, geographical location, race, parents, health and wholeness of body, temperaments, intelligence, character traits – strengths and weaknesses, motivation, moral propensities, etc. If it could be seen, this total image of the infant at this stage of life would appear “egg-like” with the infant in the position of the yolk surrounded by atmospheric layers of shimmering pastel colors representing the subtle bodies of the human which are connected to the physical body, but have not yet integrated into the physical body.
At birth, when the first breath is drawn, the soul and etheric vital-life body, which sustains the physical form throughout life, unites with the body. However, it requires about 7+/- years for the etheric/vital-body to fully “seat” itself in the physical body. This rather slow process of integration is determined by the stages of growth and development of the infant and toddler into childhood. The sentient soul/body grows, develops and learns to understand the human body and life through our visceral experiences which occur as we encounter the world through our physical senses.
With the first stirrings of sensation, the inner etheric-body responds to the stimulus of the outer world. As we grow toward adolescence, we gradually discover our soul nature as an “inner/outer world” experience which is distinctly different from the nature-body experiences. When the integration of the soul and etheric-body is complete, they become one; this union of the soul and etheric/vital-body form the sentient soul/body. The sentient soul/body unites with the etheric/physical body; however, its finer state radiates outward and bonds with the psycho-cognitive soul. It continues its slow and steady integration with the innocent child, expanding its knowledge and experience of this magical nature-world, until the child reaches puberty.
The Soul Sheaths & Self-Identity
Having presented and explained the physical/etheric-body side of the soul, it would be best to present the view of the psycho/cognitive soul from the perspective of the Spiritual-I. This will begin from the most elevated perspective and work its way down. It states in the Gospel of St. John that “God is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit.” This is a true and profound statement, however, for the purpose of this explanation, I would like to use a synonym for spirit which is the word consciousness. Thus, God is the omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent Consciousness (Spirit) of the universe which means there is nothing in the universe that is not Consciousness.
Consciousness + the Word = the infinite Creation. God Consciousness projected creation into the void through His Word so all we are and all we perceive is Consciousness in its infinite forms. We were created in the image and likeness of God, thus, our physical body as well as our higher Self is Consciousness. Since we were created as an individual-self distinguishable from all others, the creator gave our elemental physical-body a skin so we are all “separate” from each other and separate from the elemental universe in which we live. At birth, our etheric-body became one with the physical body so it had a “sheath” which made it distinct from the etheric energies of all the living things on Earth.
Our astral “radiant/starry” body has a sheath which distinguishes it from the radiant matter of the suns/stars of the universe of which it is composed. The higher Consciousness of all human beings is ONE, however, we are “enclosed” in the sheath of the Consciousness soul which distinguishes our spiritual self and soul from all others so our unique Individuality is always preserved; research has revealed to me that our soul has an identifying “spiritual atom” so we are known to God alone. Our higher spiritual Self, our radiant-astral body and our soul are our immortal, Eternal-Self/Soul; the physical/etheric body is mortal.
We are created in the triune image of God, the Holy Trinity as a knowing, thinking and doing Self. The soul corresponds to this triune configuration as the sentient soul in the Doer, as the psycho/cognitive soul in the Thinker and the Consciousness soul in the Knower. Each of these souls is “awakened” and imprinted with life-experiences as consciousness awakens in the child, in the adolescent and in the adult in the early-life developmental stages of consciousness. The adolescent stage of life is primarily focused on the awakening and maturing of the physical/etheric-body and the integration of the psycho-cognitive soul. This consummates the awakening of the self-identity – the ego-personality.
The Psycho/Cognitive Soul
Puberty is initiated in humans when the Thinker, the astral body and the psycho/cognitive soul begins its integration into the physical body which brings about radical change in the child from the secretion of hormones. As we all know, this causes major growth and changes in the body, in the skeletal structure, in the genitals and in the mental/emotional perspectives regarding life, family, self-perception and personal priorities. Obviously, the manner of observing and learning about ourselves in objective reality differs greatly as we awaken emotionally, mentally and morally.
The growth and development of the body in puberty begins the awakening of the self-identity; this is one of the most significant steps for creating a functional, stable and well-rounded personality to meet the demands of life. The conscious intelligence of our spiritual nature pervades the human soul/being awakening our ego-personality by “pushing” us out of the family nest and into a life of independence.
This begins our life in the “real world” as an autonomous individual living and competing with other autonomous individuals usually in a high school experience. This unique setting forces us to quickly discover who we are, what we are capable of and where we stand in order to survive in this competitive environment. The adolescence stage of life awakens an array of stimulating feelings, emotions, desires and new self-perceptions which are imprinted on the psycho/cognitive soul.
In psychology, the stimulation of emotions, urges and impulses comes from what is referred to as the lower psychic nature; this is where we encounter our untamed animal nature as well as our latent talents and undeveloped potential. See diagram below. The development in the adolescent period revolves around the self-identity of the ego-personality which is easily deceived by the “dark influences” of the material world which alters the brain and skews one’s self-perception through technology, like: excessive gaming, the Smart phone and by enticing the vanity of the ego-personality through social media, etc.
The solar plexus is the power center and the “self-image” which projects “our reality” and the perceptions/misconceptions of the ego-personality to the world. (See: Thinking) The chakra below the solar plexus is the center of self-gratification which activates the lower desires, especially the sexual desires. And finally, the lowest center is that of self-preservation and the survival instinct which can make people insecure, fearful, and reactive if they feel threatened.
In addition to these centers, between the solar plexus and self-gratification, resides the shadow-self which, in psychological terms, is where we hide all our fears, flaws, hurt feelings and unresolved personal failings. This area is also referred to as the personal unconscious which is explained in Stage 2 Meditation; focused meditation can awaken our spiritual consciousness and heal our soul. These challenges in adolescence are natural occurrences which happen to everyone as this phase of life unfolds. These changes are constantly reconfiguring the psycho/cognitive soul and expanding our self-knowledge and our concept of the world.
The forces of our astral body are comprised of seven energetic vortices or chakras which are divided in the body at the diaphragm – three are below and four are above. The chakra roots branch out from the spine extending into the body by means of the nervous system. For the adolescent person, the lower three centers are the ones which will occupy their attention for the next 7+/- years. The presence of the astral body corresponds to the mythical structure of consciousness and the psycho/cognitive soul. This means that when this stage of development is completed around the age of 21+/- years, the mind will be properly “seated” and begin to sort out, manage and understand the personal emotions, self-concepts and the ego-identity; this begins the mental structure of consciousness. (See: Divine Human)
The Body-Mind & the Soul
These unruly bodily energies come from the animal nature of our physical body which are “released” during adolescence; they often collide with our newly awakening emotions and our befuddled mind. These are physical and emotional energies we are forced to tame, manage and understand in order to have the self-control and self-confidence we need to meet the challenges of life with integrity and good will. The first challenge in this process is to get a grip on the misdirection and misinformation from the “chattering-mind” of the ego-personality; the primary source of chattering comes from the Body-Mind.
The chattering-mind originates in the body-mind of the physical/etheric-body as elemental energies of nature rush into the involuntary nervous system when the body pauses between breaths. The etheric-body is a duplicate of the physical body and sustains it throughout life; it operates the autonomic nervous system which controls the 4-vital systems of the body. All of the bodily organic responses inside the body we feel like hunger, aches, pains or bladder pressure are felt in the etheric-body. So, when a young adult individual has reached self-conscious awareness, the ego-personality starts to chat with the physical/etheric-body about all the sensations it is feeling, seeing, tasting, perceiving etc.
The stimulus of the physical/etheric-body which catches the attention of the ego/body-mind is the result of conditioned-responses. A conditioned response is a learned reaction to a previously neutral stimulus that has been associated with an unconditioned stimulus. This concept is a key part of classical conditioning, as demonstrated in Ivan Pavlov's experiments with dogs, which also have etheric-bodies, where they learned to salivate at the sound of a bell after it was repeatedly paired with food.
The conditioned response will only occur after an association between an unconditioned stimulus and a conditioned stimulus has been made. The “chattering” of the ego/body-mind starts at a semi-conscious level in adolescence and elevates to the conscious level as young adults mature. The awakening chatter of the body-mind corresponds with the awakening of “individuality” in the ego-personality; in adulthood, the chattering is non-stop. (See: Chattering-Mind & Just Breathe)
The awakening of human consciousness begins after infancy as the physical and etheric-body unite. The union of the etheric vital-life body with the unconscious nature-matter of the physical form creates the mechanism by which the unconscious body learns to respond to unconditioned stimulus. Through the 4 senses in the head and touch, the etheric-body is the life and sensation we feel inside our physical body. However, because of our external gaze in life, we “feel” as if the life and sensation we experience IS the physical body; this is the awakening of the Body-Mind and the ego-personality.
The childhood/pre-teen development stage of life corresponds to the magical structure of consciousness which is the awakening of imagination and natural wonders for the young child. This is the time of discovering the magic of nature through the senses of the body and believing in the fantasy of life: cartoons, animation, fairies, “make believe” scenarios, Santa Claus, etc. This magical world was formed and captured by the senses, memory and sentiments of the sentient soul.
Now, in the adolescent years, the mythical structure of consciousness is active and the psycho/cognitive soul is formed with an entirely new set of priorities based on primal drives of the body, psychic perceptions in the lower astral energies, fragile mental concepts of the body-mind, and the struggle of establishing a moral foundation in the higher psychic energies of the heart.
All of these new self-perceptions are being processed as the “self-image” of the body-mind/ego-personality, the counterfeit spirit.This is the reason, in adults, for the look of surprise and amazement that comes on their faces when asked the question, “Does your chattering-mind sometimes drive you crazy?” They are flabbergasted at the thought someone is “seeing” inside their head; like someone is eaves-dropping on a private conversation.
With each new altered conscious state, the particles of elemental matter are rearranged accordingly in the physical/etheric-body, for sickness, health or developmental progress. The body is not what defines us as an individual being; instead, it is self-conscious growth which defines the changing body. Conscious Intelligence and our soul, which represents the totality of our experiences, are imprinted and expressed onto, into, and through the elemental form of the body giving each person a unique image, characteristics, and presence which corresponds to the individual’s soul. Who we think we are and the daily changes occurring in our body are ALL transformations of consciousness. Who we think we are is not who we truly are.
The Triune Self & Consciousness Soul
In the configuration of the body, soul and spirit, humans exist simultaneously in three worlds: through the body and its senses, we belong to the elemental world of objects which we experience through our anatomy; we are able to perceive and connect with the living things of the Earth. Through the soul, we feel and formulate an inner world from the stimulus of unseen sensations, impulses and emotions which we make our own as a result of our contact with the physical world. And in the noetic realm, we are raised out of the elemental “heaviness” of the world into the transcendent stillness of the Divine presence that wraps us in unspeakable love, goodness and validation of our Oneness.
The human soul progressively awakens as we traverse through the four developmental stages of consciousness in the early-life growth from infancy to adulthood. The development of the sentient soul and the psycho/cognitive soul has the greatest impact on people in general and consumes the most time. The real reason we come into earthly life-experience is to have personal challenges so we can learn how to overcome them. Consequently, most people spend their entire life in this phase and never awaken to the spiritual Self and Consciousness soul.
Eventually, we learn that the challenges in life are not so difficult when we rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us. Those individuals who learn to “let go and let God” and have faith during troubled times often experience the Divine Presence of the Consciousness soul. Through our divine consciousness, an infinite universe reveals itself to our spiritual soul/Self as being exalted above our lower soul, but only because our lower soul has been blemished by our ignorance and unenlightened behaviors.
These errors and sins can be forgiven and transformed and our souls made pure as Jesus Christ has clearly revealed to us. Christ stated that “the Kingdom of Heaven is within” and through its refined spiritual essence, the Consciousness soul enfolds and penetrates our entire soul/being nature and becomes one with the content of the two lower soul/bodies. However, to our worldly conscious-self, the essence of the higher divine Self/soul is inaccessible to us while we remain attached to the sensual, materiality of the world consciousness.
We cannot be completely immersed and bound in our nature-body and attached to the sensual pleasures in this life and expect to feel the presence of the Divine-life within. The only hope for those in the world at this time is their willingness to let go of anything and everything that keeps them bound to the darkness of this sensual, materialistic world. By doing this, people are making a “statement” to God and the Holy Spirit” by asking to be freed from the bondage and misery of this world and by declaring their willingness to purify their souls so they can experience the Divine Presence in this time of darkness.
The path to spiritual freedom is as simple as getting on your knees and asking Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and be willing to commit yourself to living in the Life, Light and Love of God, the Father from now on and allowing for the Holy Spirit to guide you. Do this and you will be renewed. Amen, let it be done.
However, knowing that the Kingdom of Heaven is within, this website site contains the mystical (inner) teachings of Christ for those who want to be disciples. When followed correctly, these teachings will enable one to experience the presence of Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit within the Sacred Heart. Using the diagram above to illustrate – through the practice of focused breathing in Stages 1 & 2 Meditation, one can cleanse the lower psychic and the shadow self of the darkness and sin in the lower nature. This purifies the Sentient and Psycho-cognitive soul and based on one’s faith and commitment, the disciple will rise in consciousness to experience the higher psychic/spiritual energies in the Sacred Heart in Stage 3 Meditation.
The Consciousness soul is connected to the Sacred Heart of the Thinker (reason & conscience) and to the higher Self of the Knower (Self-knowledge & Self-Identity). The purification of our heart and lower nature enables the disciple to enter into the stillness and presence of the Divine God-Self through Stage 4 Meditation. The Kingdom of Heaven is truly within.
SpiritualChristian.com
