by Dr. Linda R. Backman, Psychologist

Abstract

You are a Soul. You do have Purpose. You are experiencing Soul Progression lifetime to lifetime and between. Through Past Life and Between Lives Soul Regression Hypnotherapy we gain recognition of our Truth and of The Truth. Presently, our Earth-based Truth is how this life is being lived. Knowledge we are a Soul affords each of us the opportunity to KNOW our Purity as Love residing at this time in body. If we live each moment and each day holding the understanding that we stem from the Divine, we will live in alignment with the Higher Order. Our Soul will travel along the path of attachment to the higher realm mirroring and transmitting Divine Wisdom. When in Ascension with our Higher Self we are constantly on the path of life and Soul, where every person and every experience is a pure vibrational match.

Good for the body is the work of the body, good for the Soul the work of the Soul,
and good for either the work of the other.
Henry David Thoreau

The title of this might have been, “Do I Have A Soul?” Drive, passion, and “knowing” led me to opt for, “Am I A Soul?” First and foremost, we are Souls. It is our Soul that chooses to arrive on Earth via a human “container.” Existence is nothing more and nothing less than Soul enervating our physical body. When discarnate, we are Soul energy. During incarnation our “enlivening force” is the same Soul energy or “Being” allowing us to breathe in our physical body. Some of you reading this may be wondering, “How does she know this to be True?” The balance of this article will offer credence to my assertion.

What is Soul? The following serve as a representative list of definitions of the term Soul:

• The animating and vital principle in humans, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion conceived as an immaterial entity.
• The disembodied spirit of a dead human.
• The central, integral part, or vital core, as in the soul of a company, organization, city, or family.
• A strong, deeply felt emotion conveyed by a speaker, a performer, or an artist.

For millennia, it was generally assumed that the Soul continued to exist beyond death. In early religions, the Soul was a basic and often unstated assumption. The Soul was simply that core essential component of our being which is pure. We live in a time of spiritual craving and spiritual seeking. A circle appears to be progressing toward “360,” where the mysticism of two thousand years ago and earlier “rises from the ashes.” Many lose sight of historical knowledge prior to the birth of Christianity, acknowledging the vast majority of world cultures recognize the Soul resides in temporary corporeal state. Shamanism dates back thirty thousand years, with a foundation asserting the existence of the non-material, spiritual realm accessible for the purpose of healing and enlightenment.

Following in the cosmological footsteps of Shamanism, the eight thousand year old Egyptian culture, refers to the immortal body and a tri-part, immortal Soul. Twenty-five hundred years ago, Greek belief described the Soul in Homeric poems as something the individual risks losing in battle upon death. The English word “ensouled” derives from a Greek word indicating being alive in body. Soul in Greek belief carries courage, temperance, and discrimination of injustice.

To maintain a Western focus on the Soul, and stepping back approximately nine thousand years, the Celtic people held a nature-based belief structure similar to Shamanism. Bamford, in his book The Voice of the Eagle, explains, “The human being exists consisting of a body and a soul. Binding together the body of this world and the soul of the otherworld, the human being, humanity, creates a single cosmos. For the body possesses all bodily nature and the soul a spiritual nature, and these fitting together into a single harmony make up the cosmic world of the human being.”

Population geneticists, having examined the Y-chromosome portion of DNA, suggest the Celtic people are descendents of the first humans to migrate, approximately nine thousand years ago, into north-western Europe after the last major ice age. Many view the core Celtic spiritual structure of three realms, the Sea, Land, and Sky, as a mirror of Shamanic tradition. Is it possible the world’s most ancient spiritual cosmology of spiritual Soul residing in corporeal reality is Universal?

To round out the circle of world peoples, let us continue to examine the spiritual history of the Middle East and the Far East. Hinduism and Judaism chart their origins as the earliest religions. Hinduism refers to the “atman” as the spiritual essence of a human being. The atman is one’s true self, connecting each individual to the cosmos. Mystical Judaism, or Kabbalah, describes the body as a container to receive the “spark” of the Divine. Both in text and in practice, Kabbalah expresses the mystical doctrine of the Divine’s immanence and transcendence. It is noteworthy that Shintoism, the early religion of Japan, also espouses the belief in God’s essence being held in everything, including a human being.

Buddhists believe that they are temporary vessels in this world and that until they attain enlightenment or Buddhahood, they do not know their own self or soul. They believe that this world is an illusion and that as a result, one can not know one’s true nature. Nonetheless, as evidenced by the Dalai Lama, Buddhists maintain that when someone dies the general

qualities of the deceased individual will be transmitted to the subsequent life as a new person. The term Essence, rather than Soul, might be more fitting to explain the notion of continuity of consciousness held in the Buddhist framework.

To culminate this brief overview of the world’s spiritual and religious groups, we turn to the community labeled Essene, whose presence became more widely known following the archaeological discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946. Almost all of the original founders of what would later become Christianity were Essenes, who considered their selves to be a separate people. The distinction of the Essenes was due to the illumination of their inner life, their ability to communicate with the angelic realm, and their knowledge of the hidden mysteries of nature unknown to other men. This very private sect believed they possessed advanced knowledge and worked intensely for the triumph of the light of the Soul over the darkness of the human mind. Some would label these individuals of high wisdom to be hierophants of the ancient mystery of life and the Divine.

The Brotherhood and Sisterhood of the Essenes, whose mystery school allowed admittance to a select core, viewed the purpose of their presence on Earth as one to assist in the awakening of the Soul. Maintaining a strict law of secrecy in regard to their internal doctrine, many pilgrims came into contact with the wisdom and healing powers of the Essenes. Accessibility into the society and teachings of the Essenes could be gained by those who desired and persevered seeking such spiritual elevation.

The core natural Truth known and taught by the Essenes related to Soul and its intertwined nature with the incarnate human. Prior to the last seventeen hundred years, the world’s spiritual community, in various contexts, espoused the realization and understanding of the Soul being “housed” within a time-limited human vehicle.

What has occurred regarding the recognition and acceptance of “ensoulment” since the time of the birth of Jesus? For the first three hundred years of the Common Era (CE – a term utilized by non-Christians) or AD, religious groups stemming from the birth and teachings of Jesus continued to maintain the belief structure of Divine Soul serving as the “inner pilot” merged within a physical body. The new religion of Christianity consisted of numerous small factions competing with one another and challenged by additional Eastern mystery faiths. Nonetheless, Christianity gained power through politics and converts. Three centuries after Jesus’ birth, Christianity was adopted by approximately ten percent of the Roman Empire’s population.

At the time of the collapse of Rome, Christianity possessed a solid organization and spiritual power. In AD/CE 325 the church council led by Emperor Constantine met in Nicaea to mitigate against dissension as to Jesus’ divine nature. Resolution occurred with the Nicene Creed, insisting that Jesus did share the same “Godhead” or level of divinity as God, the Father. No tolerance for diversity in belief was accepted, and the church stressed intolerance for any competing faith or doctrine. Followers of Christianity were required to hold blind devotion to an all-powerful God. Thus, human thought or question was dissuaded. The notion of each individual, via personal Divine nature, being able to commune directly with the highest level of wisdom was suppressed.

While various mystical communities and religions, based in nature and the power of the individual Soul, have survived throughout time, modern Western religion from the Middle Ages forward has upheld a rational thought foundation separate from spirituality. During the Industrial Revolution a reductionist mentality prevailed, with scientists intent upon breaking things down into their smallest parts. In the Twentieth century physicists began to realize that life was far more complex. For example, the brain could be dissected down to its neurons providing very little insight into the brain’s primary functions of thought and emotion. Although thought and emotion could not be measured they could clearly be heard and experienced. Mind was described as an emergent property of the brain, and consciousness an emergent property of the mind.

The notion of Soul, as yet, did not enter into the explanation of consciousness. Quantum Physics arrived on the scene with scientists determining that in order for anything to exist it had to be observed by a conscious mind. David Bohm’s theory, that quantum events are partly determined by subtler forces operating at deeper levels of reality, ties in with John Eccles’ theory that our minds exist outside the material world and interact with our brains at the quantum level. Paranormal phenomena indicate that our minds can communicate with other minds and affect distant physical systems by non-ordinary or non-local means. Research has begun on Consciousness at the quantum level and at the spiritual level. Nonetheless, one could say that consciousness creates reality. Could we assert that consciousness and Soul are one and the same?

The foundation of this book is that Soul and Consciousness are one and the same. If we breathe, we are alive and, therefore have consciousness. In the Judeo-Christian Bible God breathes life into his creation and neshamah is the Hebrew word for breath, Light, Spirit, or Soul. Breath is the vital connection between Soul and body. The English word Spirit comes from the Latin, spiritus, meaning breath. The word Soul stems from an Indo-European root meaning blow. When we are alive, we breathe, and consequently hold Soul within our physicality. For our human brain to function, we must be alive and breathing.

In 2004 and 2005, residents of this planet experienced, either directly or indirectly, two natural disasters of catastrophic proportion. Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in August, and the Tsunami in Southeast Asia in December devastated lives, homes, and businesses. Whether you lost a loved one, were personally affected in any manner, or simply absorbed the details of such dramatic and physically damaging events, many seem to require a deeper sense of believing and knowing there is a higher force, a greater plan which coordinates and manages life. Seeking and maintaining the belief in a higher order seems critical in order to move forward day by day.

On the material level, the Soul is simply pure energy, consisting of waves of light and color. Such information stems from repetitive Between Lives Soul Regression (BLSR) clients while in trance. Vivid rich description at the completion of a Past Life as the Soul exits the body and begins its voyage into the Spiritual Realm (SR), powerfully reinforces the belief of Soul animating our physical body. Clients provide such adjectives as, “misty, peaceful, quiet, a kaleidoscope of color, free, and expansive.”

BLSR sessions illuminate the experience of stepping into the last day of a past life, moving to the point of physical death, and progressing into the Spiritual Realm. The following is a direct transcription of a client session beginning on the last day:

“I’m out milking goats. And, I know this is the day I am leaving. John, my husband, is around. It feels like we are going to go together. I don’t know how you do that. I let the goats go free after I milk them. I go inside and cook breakfast. I do the daily chores. I am old…in my nineties. There is something wrong with my legs. I can’t figure out what it is about the legs.

John is in bed. He did not eat much breakfast. He is sick. He lost a leg. He lost the leg in his work. I tend to him and make him comfortable. He is dying. I am going to go with him (die with him).

My life is done. I did good work. I am old and creaky. It is OK…OK to go. I make a sweet tea. It has bitter herbs. I make it sweet. The tea will stop the heart. John has now died. I am in bed with John when I drink the tea. I took care of everything. Everything is clean. The animals are taken care of. I am now gone.”

Dr. Backman: “Your Soul knows exactly what happens at the point of physical dying. Where are you now as a Soul in relation to your body?”

“It feels peaceful. I am hovering over my body. John left already. He will be up there. I feel much emotion now (tears). The peace is wonderful. To be with somebody I love and to love me. I did good work in that life. I am going to have the peace in my current life like I have had with John.”

Another example of the client’s description at the ending of a Past Life where the Soul leaves the body is the following:

“I have pneumonia. My young apprentice is mixing herbs and plasters. I do not want to die in the work room and contaminate the herbs. There are blankets all around me to keep me warm. I am having trouble breathing; I can’t get enough air.

My apprentice is with me. I die; it is just like a sigh. My apprentice is watching; she seems sad. She knows I am not completely gone. I will help her sometimes; I will jog her memory.

Now, I feel very floaty. I feel a nice pulsing. It is misty and foggy and mostly white. I do not feel alone, but there is no one specific. I am moving now. I know where I am supposed to go. There are more colors in the fog. Someone is here now. I feel at home. I feel a welcoming. They say, “Glad you are back.”

The Soul is holographic. When we are incarnate, a “portion” of our Soul material steps into body, while a “mirror-image” complement remains in the SR. Numerous clients have asked whether their passage into the SR, upon death, will be assisted by a loved one who may have died many years prior and may also have reincarnated. The answer is, “yes,” because a quantity of our Soul always remains in the SR. This is what is termed our Higher Self.

I suspect a minimum of half of you reading this book would report having sensed the presence of a loved one who has left the Earth. What do I mean by sense? This is a wonderful question, and the answer is quite varied. The following statements are a few of the many I have heard from clients:

• “My phone rang three times in a row and no one was there. It was the day of my Father’s Birthday.”

• “Every time I decided to hike on that trail at the very same location a butterfly appeared.”

• “The lamp that always worked beautifully in the past starting turning off on its own.”

• “I simply felt her presence in the room.”

• “I smelled her perfume while I was completely alone.”

If you have experienced the presence of a loved one following their death, you know in your heart what I am describing. The strength and beauty when recognizing the Soul consciousness of a special person who has left the Earth is palpable.

BLSR can afford the client an amazing experience of communing with a loved one in Spirit. Deborah deeply desired to know the reason her beloved husband, Sam, left the Earth and her behind. As she described the Soul bond in current life with her spouse, it was graphically clear how this couple fit together like a “hand in a glove.” Deborah initially scheduled a Past Life Soul Regression (PLSR), where she discovered a previous life with Sam, her comfortably melded life partner who offered strength and protection. During her BLSR, Deborah “crossed through the gateway” into the SR with words such as, bright, warm, tingly, and twinkling lights. Deborah then stated:

“There is someone here. He feels like “home.” He is always there with me. He has to learn something, and so do I. He did make the clock fall off the table in our present house after he died. All Souls can’t move objects, but Sam can. Deborah can’t move objects.

He takes me to a table with something rolled up on the table. These are the “blueprints” of my current life. I will have to learn how to deal with grief. I did not do that well before. I must learn to not be so dependent…to care for myself. We never say good-bye; life always continues. He’s there to help me until my life is over. Sam was done. There will be no more incarnations for Sam. I wasn’t ready to be done.

I must stay to help our son. Sam will assist from the other side. Deborah is to help others deal with grief. Sam is the Soul I am the closest to…we teach each other. We travel together, guide each other, and sacrifice for each other if needed. I will be happy again.”

Via Regression Hypnosis, Deborah is able to feel and to know at a core level that Sam’s Soul energy remains. While the human physical loss of a loved one can be unspeakably painful, the awareness of the continued presence of the never-ending Soul energy can afford a grieving individual profound comfort.

Allow me to digress briefly from accounts of the continuity of Soul energy and share with you a favorite example of the impact and sign that the Soul remains. Carol, a woman I knew some years ago, travelled a few hours from her home with her husband to attend the funeral of her Father-in-law, who had died quite suddenly in his home. After the service, family and friends gathered at the home of Carol’s in-laws to share a meal offering comfort and consolation. Carol walked into the living room and happened to glance at the Grandfather clock. To Carol’s surprise and amazement she noticed the clock had stopped at the exact time of her Father-in-law’s death.

BLSR indicates that at the Soul level we choose our human body prior to our birth. Repetitive BLSR case examples, numbering into the thousands, describe and explain our opportunity and means of body choice. The procedure is quite simple. As a Soul we are offered literal choice of body type down to minute detail. One Caucasian client was presented with three distinct ethnicity options including Afro-American, Latino, and Asian. Clear purpose for such choice was explained as the client being able to benefit from the experience of living within a cultural minority to allow deeper compassion and understanding of not being aligned with the social norm. A support team of disembodied Guides and Teachers make them selves available to offer explanation and counsel with what can be difficult decision-making.

The timing of initial Soul entry, or “touching in,” and final bonding with the body of the fetus or infant is a routine question during BLSR sessions. Most commonly, the Soul has first contact with the new body between the third and sixth month of pregnancy. Very seldom do I hear that the Soul has had initial contact prior to the third month. In addition, first contact does not always mean the Soul remains with the body from that point forward. For many there seems to be a time of moving in and out before final solidification with the fetus or infant. Along with client reports, I have frequently heard a pregnant woman describe that she can sense the Soul of the developing child to be present only periodically until later in the gestational period.

The following are examples of client responses to BLSR age regression questions asked during the time of being in the womb prior to or immediately at the time of birth into current life:

“I feel not 100% wanted. There are muffled voices and concern from my mother who is worried she might bring the child she is carrying into the world with a serious condition called Stenosis where the child could die at six months old. This is going to be a difficult life. I don’t like feeling my Mother’s difficult emotions while in the womb. Where I come from there is unconditional acceptance. I joined this body at five months.”

“My legs feel cramped, and my head feels OK while in the womb. I can hear my mother’s heartbeat and her voice. I know my Mom’s emotions. My mother is worried about being a Mom. I am eager to try the body. I look forward to flexing my limbs. I bring awareness and expansiveness to this new life that is unique to this life. My soul melding with the body has been fine. I have an intelligent brain that is eager to be activated. I first joined the body of the fetus at seven and one-half months and moved in and out for about one month. Once I am born I will whip things into shape.”

“In the womb my legs are OK, and my head feels in a tight space. My Mother is both joyous and sad. She and my Dad do not get along. The body is a good match for my Soul’s Consciousness; it is strong and gentle. I joined the fetus at six months and remained.”

“My legs and head feel OK. I joined the fetus at Month Four. I do not want to be born. I will feel alone when I am born. I don’t feel alone in the womb. My purpose for coming into body is to find a way back home and to take others with me. We are part of everything; like being wrapped up like a ball. When we come into body and when we leave we rediscover the wonder of it all. It is all like magic. I don’t want to forget the magic of it all. It is meant to be fun.”

“In the womb my head is bent to the right. It is OK. My Mother is stressed but I cannot help her. I have a new strong and wilful body with a lot of life force. I am healthy and sensitive. My Soul integrated easily with the new body. I have extra synapses in my brain that are multi-dimensional. My Soul made a good connection with the lobes of the brain and the base of the skull. There is an energy grid. I am a receiver of information, a receiver of galactic energy. I join dimensions assisting others and ground the frequency to this place on Earth. The Earth is changing its vibration. Those who match the new frequency will stay.”

We are, at the core of our being, only Soul.

Tracy Chapman, Pop Artist, sings “All That You Have Is Your Soul.” The lyrics include:

Oh my mama told me
cause she say she learned the hard way
Say she wanna spare the children
She say don’t give or sell your soul away
cause all that you have is your soul
Don’t be tempted by the shiny apple
Don’t you eat of a bitter fruit
Hunger only for a taste of justice
Hunger only for a world of truth
cause all that you have is your soul

Knowing that we are, and that we have a Soul, brings each of us to the kernel of Truth of our life, of all our lives. The Soul is the connecting link between our dispensable human body and our ongoing, never-ending Self, our eternal nature. The Soul is the mediating or bridging principle of consciousness. Believing that our loved ones who have died maintain Soul consciousness affords us a link, a means of continuing to “know” the energy of our loved ones remain. Recognizing we are Soul and our loved ones are Soul develops an awareness of the web of life. We are not visible or invisible; we are both.

We can sense our own Soul and that of others in our heart and not in our head. The Soul is our pure guide, our pure witness. The Soul draws to us the learning we are requesting in order to move forward along the path of development. A so-called crisis in our life is merely a message or signal suggesting a need for cleansing and deepening of who and what we are at the depth of our being.

Our Soul is timeless. Our human minds have difficulty comprehending lack of time. Yet when we simply accept that our Soul comes from and remains in a place lacking time and space then, and perhaps only then, can we hold in our conscious mind and awareness that nothing else matters. The purity of our Soul stems from the Divine, no matter what human language we utilize to label the unknowable, ineffable highest realm and energy of Wisdom and Love.

BLSR draws for each of us the picture and feel of ageless knowledge, where we function simultaneously in body and in the spiritual realm. To experience our self on the level of Soul, while we are ensouled, is to hold in our mind and our heart who we truly are. Recognizing our Soul Self as our core furthers the deepening and progress of the energy and purpose of our individual Soul, as well as the expansion of the Universal Soul. We are always protected and guided from the highest level.

 

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This article is an excerpt from a forthcoming chapter to be published, Spring 2008, in Dr. Backman’s new book.