The Nature of the Soul-- From Believing To Knowing by Eliot Jay Rosen Part 1: The Nature of the Soul In an English translation of a book published in India in 1894, the renowned mystic saint Soami Shiv Dayal Singh--who spent a full 17 years in seclusion in almost continuous meditation--describes the "Original Region" from which the soul emanates as being "formless," "nameless," "unending," "fathomless," "without beginning," "spaceless," "quality-less" and "indescribable." He further remarks, "There is no symbol here from which an idea could be given as to what it is like." In the same way that the "Original Region"--the Home of the Soul"--is impossible to describe but can only be experienced, describing the soul itself is also an impossible task. At best, we can only hint at the attributes of the soul using inferences, concepts and metaphors, though it seems we humans have an insatiable need to describe our soul-experiences to others. This book is filled with such testimonies, and only begins to illustrate the diverse ways people experience their souls before life, during life and after death. But is it possible to define the soul? Most people who believe in the existence of the soul agree that the soul is not a physical "something." The soul is usually conceptualized as a non-physical, spiritual essence that mysteriously and paradoxically exists in physical creation, yet is itself beyond the time/space constraints of physical creation. Views on the nature of the soul can be reduced to three major schools of thought. One view is that the soul is a formless essence--consciousness itself--which is non-different from God's essence. To use an analogy, the soul is like a drop of sea-water that will ultimately merge back into its Source--God, the ocean of All-Consciousness. A second view is that the soul has a permanent and indestructible form that, even though it is "created in God's image," is not in its primal essence the same as God. In this view, the soul, when it returns to God, experiences a separate, dual relationship as would a servant to his or her master. On its homecoming, the soul is permitted to be in the presence of God for eternity. The third view combines aspects of both views: Although the soul in its pristine, essential nature ultimately has no form, in its progress on its spiritual journey back to its Creator, the soul is covered by physical, astral and causal layers of form-- until its final dissolution into the Formless. The soul's homecoming consists of the progressive peeling off of these subtler layers of material form that have attached itself to its formless essence. Resorting again to analogy, this would be like the soul wearing several protective layers of clothing, and while wearing this apparel, identifies itself as the clothes it is wearing. Over time, however, the soul begins to shed each layer, one by one, as warmer weather approaches. In the winter-time, at the beginning of the soul's evolution, the soul wears a heavy "physical-matter" overcoat so that it can function in the physical plane of existence. In the fall, the soul only needs an "astral-matter" vest so that it can function on the astral plane of existence. In the spring, it wears only a thin "causal-matter" shirt so that it can function on the causal plane of existence. And in the summer, the soul removes even this last thin shirt worn in the causal plane so that the warm rays of the light of God shine directly on the soul for the first time since it left its Original Home in the Beginningless Beginning-- before the Creator created the Creation. The soul now knows that it is not the physical, astral and causal clothing it has been wearing all this time. According to this third view, this last stage in the soul's journey is not unlike the scene in the movie, The Invisible Man, when the "Mr. Invisible" unwraps the white surgical bandages that give his body the appearance of form. With bandages removed, he is formless and invisible yet still present. That's as far as analogy can take us in describing the nature of the soul. It is said by many spiritual traditions that all human beings consciously experience their souls at least once in their earthly lives--even if this one time is but a fleeting moment at the time of biological death. Throughout recorded history, there have been people who claim to have the continuous, conscious experience of the transcendent nature of their soul every moment of life, even while engaging in the everyday activities of daily life, even while sipping a hot cup of homemade soup. To what degree we pursue this ultimate experience of soul is something that each of us chooses, consciously or unconsciously--by our thoughts, words, and deeds--every moment of our lives. Part 2: From Belief To Knowing Perhaps a common starting point in our inquiry is to agree that the direct experience of the soul is the only way to truly know the soul. Roger Bacon (1214-1292), the great English scientist, philosopher and member of the Order of St. Francis, clarifies the distinction between the direct experience of the soul and analytical reasoning when he says: There are two modes of knowing: through argument, and experience. Argument brings conclusions and compels us to concede them, but does not cause certainty nor remove doubts in order that the mind may remain at rest in truth, unless this is provided by experience. The very basis of non-belief in soul comes down to non-experience of soul.1 In the winter of his life, the great "scientist of the psyche," Dr. Carl Jung, suffered a heart attack in which he experienced what today has been coined, a "near-death experience." In the few minutes that he was clinically dead, before his physician administered the potent heart stimulant that brought him back to his body, Jung found himself: ...high up in space. Far below I saw the globe of earth bathed in a glorious blue light. Ahead of me I saw a shining temple and was drawn towards it. As I approached, a strange thing happened. I had the certainty I was about to enter an illuminated room and meet all those people to whom I was beloved in reality. There I would understand at last the meaning of my life.2 The experience of transcending his physical body had a profound and enduring effect on the life and work of this trail-blazing scientist/psychiatrist. Again, from his autobiography, Dr. Jung wrote: What happens after death is so unspeakably glorious that our imaginations and our feelings do not suffice to form even an approximate conception of it. The after-effects of this transforming event forever broadened Jung's view of human nature and the universe. For him, the sheer force of this meta-physical experience expanded the frontier of human possibilities to include "the soul" as well as the psyche. At least for Dr. Jung himself, the reality of life after death was no longer dependent on mere belief or traditional religious conviction. His understanding was now firmly grounded in direct experience. This inner knowing, based on direct revelation, is sometimes called "contemplative knowing." Afterwards, in his efforts to share this experience with others, Jung clearly recognized the age-old philosophical dilemma that the impact and truth-value of one person's inner experience cannot fully be imparted to others. For in the very process of sharing inner experience, the first-hand immediacy of the experience is lost. The inherent difficulty lies in the fact that the direct experiencer's inner knowing becomes someone else's mere belief, which all too often devolves into unfortunate misunderstandings and meaningless debate. Though contemplative knowing cannnot be proven in the strict scientific sense--at least at this time in history--this doesn't make "the life of the spirit" any less real, meaningful or effective as a way of being in the world. Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mother Teresa was once asked why she didn't use her world-wide recognition to actively support political causes she believed in. She replied, "I find the power of prayer much more powerful." Her first-hand spiritual experience of the power of prayer informed her way of being in the world. The question then arises, in reading this book, how do you really know that the accounts shared by the authors are authentic? The answer to this question represents--in miniature form--a basic challenge we face all throughout life: By what criteria do we choose our sources of information--and how do we know what we know? Speaking for myself, I realized that it all came down to some type of faith--faith in God, faith in the findings of science, faith in a chosen spiritual tradition, faith in the inherent goodness of human nature, faith in life itself. So too with this book--some measure of faith is necessary in order to decide for yourself its meaning and truth-value. In asking you to approach this book with this experimental faith, all I can say, dear reader, is that in interviewing each of the contributing authors, this writer used all the faculties at his disposal--the discriminative faculties of head, the felt-sense of the heart, the intuitions of the soul--and then took "a leap of faith" based on the unmistakable, palpable genuineness and integrity that I recognized in each of the contributing authors. I hope that you also recognize these qualities in them, and throughout this book.