How can you get to know your soul? Listen. Listen to silence to hear your Soul speak. Or use any other sensory modalities to detect your Soul communicating with you. For example, when I call on my Soul, I see an internal Mind’s Eye open and blinking back at me, as if saying “I am listening.” Others feel a chill or a heatwave over their body. There are always signs and symbols on the road- one must learn to read them. It helps to be in Joy and Wellbeing when connecting with your Soul because that is when the Soul listens and replies back. Negative emotions undercut your connection to your Divine Self.
This is the “Soul meditation” that I teach: Be in Silence, close your eyes, center, pay attention to your breath for a few minutes- moving air and oxygen through your entire body and all cells of the body. Then say “I would like to know you better Soul- give me a sign that you are here with me.” And Listen for an answer, or wait for a sensation or a hug. The Soul’s hug is something to experience;it is very special. You will definitely recognize it when this occurs.
When I experimented with 15 stressed caregivers who felt overwhelmed by multiple demands and duties and stressed by life, they all cried when they felt that Soul’s hug. First of all, it was amazing that they all acknowledged the existence of Soul. But their acknowledgement was mostly mental or cognitive in nature as in “ I Believe that Soul exists.” Mostly, it was related to their spiritual beliefs in the Higher planes of existence and other realities than just having a physical body. However, none of them had the experience of embodying the Soul. After about a 15 minute meditative process that I facilitated to help quiet their minds and bodies, and expand them beyond their physical body, and feel comforted, safe and nurtured, they were invited to have a conversation with the Soul about some events in their childhood that you could call “adverse” or “traumatic” to ask why these were allowed to happen to an innocent child.
In this comforting and safe situation, participants were asked to listen to the “answer” that typically came in the first or in subsequent attempts. It can come in as a mental image or an inner knowledge explaining the reason for the event as a “lesson in some important skill.” Then, at the end of the conversation, people asked the Soul for a hug, which was also felt as a sensory experience- a heatwave, or a vibration in the part of the body, or a smile in the heart. Only a few felt it as an actual “hug”, but invariably, people cried. They cry from the realization that they are never alone, they have never been alone, and their Soul has been always watching after them. They also cry because of years lived in the dark, and the darkness of separation from the Soul- “the lost years of ignorance.”
The participants were then asked to practice this meditation on their own daily to strengthen this conscious connection to their Souls. They reported a shift in their awareness that they can feel Soul’s presence and they can feel supported without relying on others that gave them a boost in self-mastery. This may be one of many approaches to dial the Soul, and one should not be discouraged if there is no answer received on the first attempt- Soul is listening.
We also perform fMRI scans to see how the brain changes during Soul-awareness meditation. Participants practiced the above meditation and were shown a picture of a cosmic universe and galaxies. They were asked to remember the body’s feeling during Soul’s embrace and recreate this in the scanner when the picture is shown. The group MRI scan showed activation in the visual and orbital and medial frontal cortex.
Other brain studies of spiritual or religious experiences examined changes in the brain associated with experiences and found several brain regions being involved like the medial frontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, default mode network, and caudate, finding these areas relevant for treatment of mental conditions like depression, anxiety and pain. We have spent many years examining spirituality-based mind-body interventions like yoga and meditation making a big difference for mental, physical and brain health. Something to thank the Soul for!
