People on a spiritual path want to have a lot of free time to meditate, contemplate, worship, and go within in other ways. Therefore, my spiritual pursuits have determined how I’ve interacted with people in social settings. It’s not that I don’t love a good party, it’s just that superficial interactions are too much on the surface to stir any continuing interest in me. Spiritual people like to dive in deep to the Heart of the Universe.

I can participate in small talk, but eventually desire much more. I want to understand the Soul of the person I am interacting with. If I find that they are a young soul, or perhaps have not examined any of life’s important questions, I will participate with kindness send them on their way with love. But they will never be part of my life. It is tedious for me to be with people on a shallow and superficial level, whether it is in a party atmosphere or a casual encounter.

One of the reasons for this is that on my path, I have not bought into the values that so many people in my society ascribe to. The large, expensive weddings, gaudy extravaganzas and pointless displays, mass entertainments are not pleasurable. The whole medical-industrial complex, the premises it is based on, and attention-seeking social media culture mean very little to me and I avoid them.
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It is an indwelling life of great peace and freedom. But to live it, it is important to set up boundaries and not be dragged into the whirlwind of activity that characterizes so many people’s daily lives. So I have become a hermit. A happy, voluntary, and completely satisfied hermit. And that is how my spiritual pursuits have shaped my life.

Descartes’ famous statement, “I think, therefore I am (Cogito ergo sum)” could be debatable. By this criterion, a tree does not exist because it does not think. A human in a coma, who does not have the capacity to think, does not exist. So right away we get into difficulties with what exactly what Descartes was trying to say.

If he is referring to the time-bound human ego, then “i think, therefore I am” makes sense. We begin to accumulate memories and conditioning when we are babies. From this collection, we construct a person with a name, cultural background, and parental teaching and examples. We then believe that this is who are are and therefore, “I am.” We create something solid out of a constantly changing whirl of atoms and we call it “me.”
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It is more accurate to say, “I embody the eternal Soul of the Universe, therefore I am.” The smaller ego-me, consisting of thoughts, memories, opinions, fears, and beliefs is a transitory thing. It is changeable and constantly evolving. Are we going to call something that is in a continual state of flux “me?” But there is something that exists beyond our cognitive abilities: The Soul. It is the eternal principle of the Universe, contained in each one of us and it is beyond the limitations of thought.

Souls, by their definition, are eternal. That means they are never born and they never die. They do not conform to the laws of Newtonian Physics or to entropy. They are not visible and are not destructible the way matter can be. Actually, even matter is not destroyed, only transmuted into another form of matter.

Eternity also means all the time before you were born as well. It is difficult for the human mind to grasp the idea of eternity. Often people think eternity starts after they pass away out of the body, or die. No. Eternity is everything before we were born into these bodies as well.

Not every soul incarnates at the same time. Many stay in Pure Positive Energy (what some call heaven) until the setting is right for their next incarnation. This depends on the unique growth needs for that soul.
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Our souls are like rays of the sun—they all originate with the sun and cannot exist without the sun, yet each is an individual. As for the point of it all that is something each person must discover, for each soul is on its own journey and will eventually return to its Source.

Ever since researchers sequenced the chimpanzee genome in 2005, they have shown that humans share about 99% of our DNA with chimpanzees, making them our closest living relatives. So DNA is not what makes us “human.”

If a miniscule 1% in our genome distinguishes us from the apes, that 1% contains the stupendous ability to attain higher consciousness and to communicate about it.

What really distinguishes us and makes us truly human, is our eternal Soul.
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Animals have souls too but they are on the pre-conscious and pre-linguistic level. Humans are eternal souls inhabiting physical bodies as they continue on their journeys toward growth and expansion. This is the only difference. Otherwise, we are driven by our genes to reproduce ourselves, eat and drink to enable us to reproduce, and that is all, like any other living thing on this planet.

I am an old soul who came into this world already knowing certain things. I felt, even as a young child, that I was an observer. I was watching the absurdity and beauty of human behavior from a detached point of view, as if seeing it all over again. Certain areas of knowledge and experience were available to me that were beyond my years, based on other lifetimes.

Old souls are beings who have incarnated many times, through many lifetimes on this and other planets. Young souls have not incarnated as much, for a number of reasons. Even people who are not spiritually intuitive can detect a young soul. No matter what their chronological age, they seem like an empty room, with the breeze floating through. Whereas an old soul, no matter if he or she is only a baby, gives the impression of having seen it all, having experienced it all, and knowing it all too.
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Many different stages of incarnation distinguish old and young souls, for each person is a unique individual. Each has karma, each soul has a journey. Some of us have a lot of karma to balance out. Some of us are at the end of what the physical experience can contribute to our soul’s growth and expansion.

We all vibrate at different energy levels. If we are on the same wavelength, then we can feel another’s soul. This is what happens when soul mates meet each other. They feel the instant attraction. It cannot be denied. They feel that they have met before, in another lifetime, or in many lifetimes. There is something so familiar about them.

This is your inner self that finally feels it can come to rest in the heart of another. It is not always a romantic kind of interaction, either. You can even feel this with your pet, a baby, your teacher, parent, or your best childhood friend. You look into their eyes and you know that they understand your deepest feelings. You feel they understand who you are, without the need for words or for you to explain yourself.
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But this is not a common occurrence. That is why it is to be cherished and appreciated. You will look into their eyes and you will know. When we talk about the soul, we are entering into territory that is beyond description with words and into the formless world of feeling and intuition. And that is the reason for the expression, “someone can feel your soul.”

We are all souls that inhabit the human body for a brief time. During that time, we are really the Cosmic Consciousness experiencing itself on the physical level. But we get so attached to the body, its needs, wants, and cravings, that we begin to think we are the body.

Then we struggle to maintain this body and fear its ending. But this fear is unfounded, since, by its definition, the Soul is eternal. Our true selves, our soul, never dies. Even the body, when it finally has no more vital breath, is only transformed into other substances. And so the cycle keeps going.

This is something we have to experience for ourselves We know that deep down inside there is an eternal entity that keeps changing its forms. First we are babies and you don’t even know we exist until our parents tell us about ourselves. Then we start building this self based on many influences: Our culture, education, experiences, and peers. We get lost in this too. And we think we are right and defend this point of view and even kill each other over it.
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But, we are really, at base, souls. Some of us realize this and others will go through many lifetimes before it becomes apparent to them.

Every day we think and rethink the same thoughts, most of which are based on fear and its attendant stress. No wonder so many people feel exhausted. According to Michigan State University’s Stress Less with Mindfulness program, a person has 80,000 thoughts a day. 90% of these thoughts are the same ones we have had before, and 80 percent of these are negative.

If you’re tired physically, it’s hard to think clearly but being plagued by the same negative thoughts is even more depleting. And so it becomes a vicious circle. Our negative thoughts, if they create anything at all and are not just a rehashing of old stuff, create more fear. They are extremely draining in this way. How can we wake up fresh in the morning to face a new day when the same miserable thoughts start automatically repeating themselves?

These thoughts deplete the body by producing chemicals and hormones that weaken the physiology. Worrisome thoughts about our survival, the state of the world, how people behaved towards us, how we behaved back, swirl around automatically unless we find a way to rise above them. This is where spiritual techniques come to the rescue.
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Getting in touch with our Soul rather than constantly being churned by the mind is the way out of all of this. It is refreshing to watch the thoughts and not be emotionally affected by their ups and downs. Peaceful contemplation or meditation is one of the many methods to control the tsunami of negativity and fear. As we experience ourselves as the Eternal Observer, we can weed out the thoughts that don’t support us and cultivate the ones that do. In this way we can change the ratio of negative to positive thought patterns.

Low level mundane, happiness does not last. It is only momentary. It can quickly turn into sadness and disappointment.

The famous comedian Jackie Gleason once told a story about growing up very poor and always wanting a billiards table. When he became wealthy later in life, he finally bought a beautiful one. He was thrilled for about two days and little by little, it just became another piece of furniture. It didn’t bring the happiness and now it was one more thing to clean and take care for.

Or, you eat a scrumptious sweet dessert. It brings happiness for the moment. Then it might bring guilt for the additional empty calories and disease-causing sugar. You might even criticize yourself for being weak and succumbing to temptation. Or someone can take the delightful treat away from you and now you feel deprived and actually hate them. Or you might feel bloated and sluggish after your blood sugar plummets and all you have is a few crumbs.

But higher, spiritual happiness is something that is in the background of any and all experiences no matter what. Even when the most horrible, painful things are happening. On the surface you may feel anger, upset, or any number of unpleasant emotions. But underneath it all is a deep calm. You are a knowing observer, watching the procession of physical existence.

To Ivan Denisovich, a prisoner in the Soviet Gulag, even the cockroaches in his cell became his friends and visitors. He saw them as amazing manifestations of the One Eternal Intelligence behind everything we perceive or can contemplate. They were life forms, just as he was and he greeted them as co-prisoners in the Physical realm.
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The deep, underlying happiness that comes from the Spiritual point of view is continuous. But it isn’t wildly frolicking around tossing rose petals and shrieking with laughter. It is a quiet, observant space. The fleeting happiness that comes from mundane stuff is up and down, always changing, morphing from happiness to sadness and back again. It is a rough roller coaster ride.

It’s actually very simple. Call them to you. Most people don’t believe it’s that simple. But. . .

. . . you must be ready to recognize their signs. They may speak to you in a whisper or come to you in a dream. You may feel them as a disembodied presence. They can bring an object to you that will help you with your decision. They can show signs, literally, such as street signs or words on the side of a truck or in a book. But you must take the first step and call them to you.

Most people think you have to set up amazing altars or perform complicated rituals. But it’s not necessary. Maybe you want to set the mood for yourself with candles and a serene safe place. Or maybe you want to go into a church. Kneeling is a good way to approach angels because it shows receptivity and humility.

Really though, you don’t need to set the mood. Sometimes you will need to call your angels in the midst of danger or chaos. There’s no time to get fancy and decorative. Just call your angels within your heart and allow yourself to feel their presence.
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Also, don’t look at your watch and start making demands; “It’s been five minutes and I haven’t gotten a sign yet!” The angels come to you in their good time, when it is the right time according to their higher wisdom. And that may not be when you think it is the right time. We cannot force them. Out of their love for us, they never let us down, but we must be open to their signs.