Your soul is you

by Bill Lambert

In his book Proof of Heaven * American neurologist and brain surgeon, Eben Alexander, tells how he discovered his soul – an inward intelligence which worked incredibly faster than his brain. Before this, he had not believed it existed.

So where do we start in discovering our own souls? Not so easy, because this is a spiritual awareness, and on a plane above our physical intelligence. Dr Alexander brings convincing arguments to show that the sense of consciousness, or self-awareness, lies in the soul.

Sister used to tell us that it was our souls which lifted us higher than animals so that we could go to Heaven. As a small child I used to envisage my soul as something like a loofah – a bathroom sponge – and actually that wasn’t so far off the mark. The soul soaks up good or evil, love or selfishness.

It is the soul which puts you in touch with God. In one of those spiritual moments when God becomes very real to you, your soul may react by bringing tears to your eyes, an emotion so deep you may not feel it on the surface.

Pope Francis says: “Conscience is the interior space in which we can listen to and hear the truth, the good, the voice of God. It is the inner place of our relationship with him, who speaks to our heart and helps us to discern, to understand the path we ought to take, and once the decision is made, to move forward, to remain faithful”.

I think my soul is my spiritual personality. But like my brain, I have to develop and programme it to guide me. That’s what I call my conscience. The power to discern good and evil is already there, but I have to learn to programme it.

Our souls are like our unconscious – buried deep inside … I think that getting in touch with our souls is the beginning of salvation. And our life’s work is to bring our souls closer to God.

I like to imagine that the Holy Spirit is the soul of God. And my soul can find a deeper and closer association with the Holy Spirit. The more intimate that relationship becomes, the closer I’ll be to God when I die.

That old prayer:  “Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of the faithful, and we will renew the face of the earth”, tells us how powerful is the presence of the Holy Spirit.

I believe that one of the first problems with our secular society today is that people have lost touch with their souls.

* Proof of Heaven is a must-read. Check it out on Google and get it from Pleroma.