by Peter Novak
The word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword and cuts so deeply it divides the soul from the spirit.
Hebrews 4:12
Thanks to modern research into Near-Death Experiences, Past-Life Regression, and other afterlife phenomena, one of humankind’s most ancient afterlife traditions—the Binary Soul Doctrine—seems to be making a triumphant comeback. Although few realize it today, cultures all around the globe once believed virtually the same thing about death and the afterlife—that human beings possess not one, but two souls, which tend to divide apart from one another after death. Surprisingly, the data patterns emerging from modern paranormal research seem to be pointing in this same direction, causing many to take a fresh look at some of mankind’s oldest teachings.
Many cultures thought that one of their souls reincarnated after death (mirroring our Eastern religious traditions), while the other soul would become locked into a heavenly or hellish afterlife experience (matching our Western traditions). Some traditions held that this division could be prevented or reversed, but others thought it was inevitable and permanent. Once found in China, India, Greece, Egypt, Australia, Alaska, Hawaii, and even the Dakotas, this belief in an after death soul-division seems to be as close as humanity has ever come to having a single world religion.