The Soul
"Sure. Let's examine this through the lens of the archetypal hero's journey. The hero answers the call to adventure, departing from his comfortable life and walking into the unknown. He meets a wise mentor who assists him in overcoming many obstacles. He is eventually put to the ultimate test. He slays the dragon, completes the quest, claims the prize, and returns to 'normal' life as a changed person. Therefore, two simultaneous journeys are happening in the story: the external journey that constructs the plotline, such as the monsters and battles and whatnot. Then the internal journey that transforms the hero's character as he becomes the grander version of himself. No hero completes a quest without internal change.
The hero's journey is an archetype as old as time. It's everywhere, from old mythological tales to our modern-day movies to the real-life stories of war veterans and innovative entrepreneurs. But, like the King archetype, this isn't a coincidence. The hero's journey is a symbolic way of communicating the mathematical journey that every soul takes through life."
"So, the hero's journey is actually a symbolic representation of a mathematical idea?" Zac asked.
"Yep. It's communicating a deep fundamental Truth about how this game called 'Life' works. To understand this, I'll need to explain how a soul works in tandem with the mind and body. Let's read this passage from Conversations With God…"
You are not on this planet to produce anything with your body. You are on this planet to produce something with your soul. Your body is simply and merely the tool of your soul. Your mind is the power that makes the body go. So what you have here is a power tool, used in the creation of the soul’s desire.
What is the soul’s desire?
Indeed, what is it?
I don’t know. I’m asking You.
I don’t know. I’m asking you.
This could go on forever.
It has.
Wait a minute! A moment ago You said the soul is seeking to be You.
So it is.
Then that is the soul’s desire.
In the broadest sense, yes. But this Me it is seeking to be is very complex, very multi-dimensional, multi-sensual, multi-faceted. There are a million aspects to Me. A billion. A trillion. You see? There is the profane and the profound, the lesser and the larger, the hollow and the holy, the ghastly and the Godly. You see?
Yes, yes, I see… the up and the down, the left and the right, the here and the there, the before and the after, the good and the bad…
Precisely. I am the Alpha and the Omega. That was not just a pretty saying, or a nifty concept. That was Truth expressed.
So, in seeking to be Me, the soul has a grand job ahead of it; an enormous menu of beingness from which to choose. And that is what it is doing in this moment now.
Choosing states of being.
Yes — and then producing the right and perfect conditions within which to create the experience of that. It is therefore true that nothing happens to you or through you that is not for your own highest good.
You mean my soul is creating all of my experience, including not only the things I am doing, but the things that are happening to me?
Let us say that the soul leads you to the right and perfect opportunities for you to experience exactly what you had planned to experience. What you actually experience is up to you. It could be what you planned to experience, or it could be something else, depending upon what you choose.
Why would I choose something I don’t wish to experience?
I don’t know. Why would you?
Do You mean that sometimes the soul wishes one thing, and the body or the mind wishes another?
What do you think?
But how can the body, or the mind, overrule the soul? Doesn’t the soul always get what it wants?
The spirit of you seeks, in the largest sense, that grand moment when you have conscious awareness of its wishes, and join in joyful oneness with them. But the spirit will never, ever, force its desire on the present, conscious, physical part of you. [...]
The mind very often does seek to exert its will on the body — and does so. Similarly, the body seeks often to control the mind — and frequently succeeds.
Yet the body and the mind together do not have to do anything to control the soul — for the soul is completely without need (unlike the body and the mind, which are shackled with it), and so allows the body and the mind to have their way all the time.
Indeed, the soul would have it no other way — for if the entity which is you is to create, and thus know, who it really is, it must be through an act of conscious volition, not an act of unconscious obedience.
Obedience is not creation, and thus can never produce salvation.
Obedience is a response, while creation is pure choice, undictated, unrequited.
Pure choice produces salvation through the pure creation of highest idea in this moment now.
The function of the soul is to indicate its desire, not impose it.
The function of the mind is to choose from its alternatives.
The function of the body is to act out that choice.
When body, mind, and soul create together, in harmony and in unity, God is made flesh.
Then does the soul know itself in its own experience. Then do the heavens rejoice.
Right now, in this moment, your soul has again created opportunity for you to be, do, and have what it takes to know Who You Really Are. Your soul has brought you to the words you are reading right now — as it has brought you to words of wisdom and truth before.
What will you do now? What will you choose to be?
Your soul waits, and watches with interest, as it has many times before.
Neale Donald Walsch
"Okay," I said. "Let's analyze this through a mathematical lens. You are a tri-part being consisting of body, mind, and soul. Therefore, there are three Markov-blanketed 'things' that exist within your own Markov blanket. Remember, the particular shape of each stencil represents the beliefs of that 'thing.'"
"If I were to combine the beliefs of your body, mind, and soul, I'd get a shape like this. This shape represents the sum total of Who You Are."
"Now, let's place your 'shape' (which represents your beliefs) into physical reality. You'll notice that your soul holds an expanded belief about Who You Really Are that your body and mind resist. This gap between Who You Really Are at a soul level, and Who You Believe Yourself To Be at a physical level, creates surprise."
"We know by now that there are only two ways to minimize surprise. The first option involves your soul 'forgetting' Who It Really Is. To restore homeostasis to the system, if your external reality says you're a failure, your soul would also have to believe you are a failure. But the soul can't do that. As God says…"
The soul watches this whole drama play out, year after year, month after month, day after day, moment after moment, and always holds the Truth about you. It never forgets the blueprint; the original plan; the first idea; the creative thought. Its job is to remind you — that is, to literally re-mind you — so that you may remember once again Who You Are — and then choose Who You now Wish to Be.
Neale Donald Walsch
"So," I continued, "if the soul can't forget who it is, then reality must rearrange in such a way that you eventually remember Who You Really Are. This is the only way to minimize surprise in the system over the long-term. Your entire life, therefore, is mathematically optimized to return you to your true, authentic self. It's like God says: 'Each event and adventure is called to your Self by your Self in order that you might create and experience Who You Really Are.'
Once you understand this mathematical pattern, it's obvious why things seem to 'flow' when you're following your heart and being your authentic self. Your mind and body can resist moving in the direction of your soul, and engage in activities that aren't aligned with Who You Really Are. When you do this, life feels like a struggle. It's like pushing a boulder up a hill or trying to paddle upstream. You're literally resisting your soul's mathematical momentum, which is pulling you in a different direction. But when you finally align your body and mind with the desires of your soul, it's like sitting in a canoe and floating downstream. You become magnetic. Opportunities flow to you, coincidences line up. Life just becomes easier. This is not a 'woo woo' phenomenon — it's a mathematical consequence of this algorithm."
"So, how do I know what my soul wants?" Zac asked.