In conversation with my soul
“… And now I ask you in pairs to enter into conversation with your Soul…”. It is now the third and last day of the module “Deepening, in search of meaning” (Block 5 Master Year) and a perfectly logical question at that moment.
So I confidently entered into this exercise with fellow participant H.. We had then already spent the previous days exploring deeper themes such as grief, issues of life and death, and questions of meaning in various ways. And I myself have already worked quite a bit with my Vulnerable Child and The Field. Yet this very exercise brings another tremendously deepening insight. And brings previous experiences together into a bigger picture.
In a separate room at the training location I pick up the thread with H.: I feel my Soul again just below my sternum. At H.’s invitation, I allow that energy to expand. It occupies my whole body, unusually only not in my legs. My entire torso, arms and head, though.
A conversation with my Soul will not succeed I notice immediately, but I can experience and perceive my Soul very strongly. It is as transparent as a drop of water, as agile as mercury, as strong and brilliant as a diamond and with the soft glow of a pearl. Warm, light, bright, soft, vulnerable and invulnerable at the same time.
It is not me, this Soul. It is in me, but it does not coincide with who I am. It does give me the life force, the spark so to speak, and ensures that I am alive at all.
I have no right to it either, I can feel very clearly. My Soul is given to me, belongs to me, and only to me, but I cannot claim it in any way. Have no grip on it, no control.
On the other hand, I don’t have to earn my Soul either. I don’t have to do or leave anything for it. I cannot do anything wrong in that respect either. My Soul remains with me until the moment it will leave me and I leave life.
And very importantly, it is this Soul that makes it possible for me to truly connect with others. Both with people, animals and plants. But also with the feeling of eternity for example in contact with the mountains or the sea. From this Soul connection I experience the other on a deeper level, which gives a solid feeling of mutual recognition.
With my death this part of me goes back to the big picture. Then it merges like a raindrop into the great ocean of the Universe. It blends with all the other Souls. It takes with it essential crystals of mine, which give my Soul a different color in a minuscule way. But I – as a whole – remain here. Then a new Soul will again give new life to something or someone else.
At the conclusion of this exercise, I am especially grateful to have been able to experience my Soul, with its everlasting wisdom. This experience brings much love and awe for life and the greater whole of which we may be a part.
Many thanks to Robert and fellow participant H. for making this experience possible.
A. February 2024
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Here below also the 2013 article of Jerien Koolbergen, about the use of Voice Dialogue to connect with the soul:
The next step: in conversation with the soul
In Christian thinking the soul is deemed to be the vital principle that leaves the body at the time of death: giving up the ghost. And psychology used to cling to the word “psyche”, without being articulate about the exact meaning of the concept. Only in modern day psychology has “psyche” been defined as consciousness or mind.
In Voice Dialogue, which is, after all, a method that aims to start a process in consciousness, a “next step” could be the search for a location where that consciousness may be addressed. At the moment, there is no clear scientific postulate where consciousness is lodged. In orthodox thought it is believed to be the result of the functioning of the brain. Alternatively, there are assumptions that consciousness is present in the area around the heart, or lodged everywhere in the body, for instance in the chakras. But now, it seems, things may become a bit more clear…
A quantum theory of consciousness
Two eminent scientists, Prof. Dr. Stuart Hamerhoff and Sir Dr. Roger Penrose, in a new quantum theory of consciousness, stipulate that the essence of our soul, the carrier of our consciousness, consists of quantum substances, which are present in structures that are called micro tubules, within our brain cells. Our experience of consciousness would then be the result of quantum gravity effects within these structures. Our consciousness is more than an interaction between our brain cells, but is derived from the basis quantum energy in the Universe. (1)
Researchers claim similarities with Buddhism and Hinduism, both of which maintain that consciousness forms an integral part of the Universe.
A dialogue with the soul
If the soul, that quantum particle of energy within our brain cells, is the carrier of our universal consciousness, it follows that we can speak to our soul about this consciousness, just as we can talk to our vulnerable energy through the Vulnerable Child. After our birth, we quickly forget this cosmic, soul/consciousness energy that has come down to us, and we start to develop our own ego consciousness, based on heredity and life experiences. Often we lose contact with our soul because of the expansion of an egocentric consciousness.
In spite of this, some people occasionally catch a glimpse of this universal consciousness, for instance as the result of a near death-experience, during a peak experience, or under the influence of certain drugs. Others think they may have caught a glimpse of it during meditation because it can become so unbelievably quiet inside and things feel so different. Perhaps, at that stage, we have reached an altered state of consciousness, but it does not last. We are not in contact with our soul, that small, clean, cosmic particle of consciousness.
What would last is striking up a dialogue with our soul. In that case, what would we talk about? I believe the conversation should be about “innocence”. It must be a dialogue with the “Innocent One” within us. And, obviously, with the “Guilty One”, too. That Next Step will be a decisive one. We will not get away with a few “Hail Mary’s” any longer. Courage will be of the essence, and the presence of a seasoned facilitator, full of compassion. Is this taking matters one step too far? I do not think so, the world demands it.
(1) Quantum theory concerns the study of elementary, non-traceable, sub-atomic particles in the universe. These can manifest themselves both as particles and as waves (cf. light and photons). Einstein named them “quantum” (Latin for “quantity” or “how much?”) in order to stress the uncertainty of the phenomenon.
