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| Frame from Planet of the Apes (2001) |
By TCC Team Member Dorraine Fisher
Professional Writer, a nature and wildlife enthusiast who has written for many magazines.
Does
The Soul Really Exist?
Soul Series Part 1
By TCC Team Member
Dorraine Fisher
When you had no real
spiritual guidance as a child like me, it’s easy to lean on the side of what you
believe is practical and logical when you choose what to believe about the
world. If you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. And you’re convinced you’re right
and that it’s completely sensible. And no one can tell you otherwise, and you
won’t believe otherwise.
But if you’re lucky like me and have
had weird things happen to you, that weirdness has a tendency to move your brain
forward. Every time you have a strange experience it challenges you to think in
new ways, and ask new questions. Cryptozoology challenges us in such a way. We
have to wonder if there are a lot of things that exist around us that just
haven’t been proved. And one of my big
questions of the universe once was, “Do I really have a soul?”
After years of deliberation, I
decided I do, and I’ll tell you why.
I’ve asked a lot of different people
this question over the years, and reactions were mixed. Sometimes the eye
rolling would begin from non-believers, and others most definitely believed the
soul exists, but couldn’t really define it.
So what are we really talking about
when we talk about the human soul? I could only go from my own frame of
reference to start.
When
I have, in the past, described a person as having “no soul,” I meant this person
was cold, distant, and uncaring. If I described someone has having a “beautiful
soul,” I usually meant this person had a warm, caring, and inviting nature. So
if you really think about it, aren’t I talking about an energy
source?
Most people exude something. Whether
it’s negative or positive, everyone gives on an energy force that other people
respond to in kind.
Now, when we’re trying to put a
definition to it, it’s difficult. It’s
really easy to see the soul as that part of us that’s intangible or indefinable.
But is it really?
If your soul is simply the type of
energy you exude, then that energy is either positive or negative. How often are
you drawn to people who radiate positive energy, or are repelled by someone
throwing out negative vibes? We pick our significant others, friends, and
colleagues and make our life’s choices based very much on the energy we receive
from them. You choose the house that feels like home. You pick the kitten that
tugs at your heartstrings. You pick the mate you feel like you’ve known forever.
How real are all these things; these decisions that sprout from this part of you
that supposedly can’t be defined? Are they really intangible?
Are
your thoughts intangible? What about your personality, your beliefs, your hopes
and dreams, aspirations, opinions, ambitions, fears, and insecurities? No. They’re very real because they’re yours.
They belong to you. You feel them and you know they’re real because you
experience them every day. And they are the things of which your “soul”
consists. All these things combined create it.
Science refers to it as “the self,” but every term boils down to your
energy source; all the things about you together that make you who you
are.
So “the soul” becomes a pretty important part
of you. Maybe the most important part, because without it, you aren’t you at
all.
And without it, you can’t perceive
what you see around you. You can’t make determinations about anything without
all these traits of which your soul is made. Maybe you believe in Bigfoot, the
Loch Ness Monster, ghosts, UFO’s, etc. Chances are, you believe in something.
But how can you decide anything in this world is real if the self or soul that’s
making that determination ISN’T real. And the answer is: you can’t.
Your
soul is as real as any other part of you. *******DF
(Read: Soul Series Part 2 )
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