Soul Ages and Soul Levels

Thoughts on the Soul and its Existence

Is it possible that we humans are more than the sum of our parts? Could there exist characteristics on an etheric or non-physical dimension, both unique but still definable and identifiable to every individual? A set of memories that tie us to some lineage of the past? Does reincarnation (formally called metempsychosis – the transmission of consciousness from one body to another) and karma make sense to you?

Or are we here for a one time shot and after that, we are merely “dust in the wind”? Indeed, whether here for one life or many…does a “soul” even exist? Such notions of course imply a Creator with a before -and after-life existence. In spiritual teachings, proof is always anecdotal or idiosyncratic. Yet, the countless generations of stories which place images or memories in our minds which cannot be accounted for by any other means, have been attributed to other lives. Lives that were seemingly once our own.  Thus, if you perceive more than you could have possibly directly experienced this life, you might be convinced of other lives. And, if the idea that we grow with each successive life seems reasonable, then the concepts of Soul Ages and Soul Levels should expand your understanding of the process.

Why would a Soul “evolve”?

In the Michael Teaching, the primary answer to that question is for “learning lessons.” Yet, from other perspectives, we are here to remember our wholeness, to accept and stop resisting until we are able to once again be completely free of the grip of MAYA, or to experience and simply enjoy the ability to create in an atmosphere where we live as separate individuals.

In each example, there is an implied progression and with the accumulation of experience, advancement in understanding. That advancement or maturing of our Soul’s knowledge base are the foundation ideas which the structural concept of Soul Age and Soul Levels are based.

Expansion of awareness, first for the individual,  and then  successively cumulative in the groups to which you are a part. This becomes a process of fulfillment of all the possible variations of experiences, encounters, endeavors, and decisions one could possibly be exposed to and then make accordingly.

The Psychology or World View embedded in Soul Age

To help illustrate the Soul Age concept, I will also call each phase of development World View as not to confuse literal physical chronology nor senescence. Realizing that beliefs themselves can vary widely, even within a Soul Age, what is remarkably similar are the underlying attitudes and structural the context of those beliefs. Thus, Southern Christians and extremist Islamist may have differing surface narratives differing according to their cultural learning. But the underlying attitudes of rigid beliefs in hierarchy, a desire to have security based upon a rigid belief system with righteous absolutes, is identical. In this example, we are comparing the Baby Soul mentality just in two opposing forms but with a singular structural foundation.

The obvious analogy between Soul Aging and the maturation process of a person within a single lifetime is a good place to begin. One key element that I want to mention has to do with the level of beliefs, values, and personal philosophy advancing from very concrete, fixed, and sometimes simplistically black and white at the initiation of the Infant Soul stage to very abstract multifaceted and personal mores held by an Old Soul. As lifetimes compile, the experiences will cause adapting, changing, becoming more abstract, mutable, and more acknowledging of selfhood.

World View 1 – New Born – Infant Soul

Keyword Characteristics: Tribal, Atavistic, Group-Reliant, Labor, Hunter-gatherer, Cautious, Concrete, Terse, Simplistic beliefs,

Relative age comparison:  0-4

Primary Needs and Drives : Survival: Food, comfort, safety, sex is lustful and transitory.

Movies that show Infant Soul Age:  “Clan of the Cave Bear”

World View 2 – Child – Baby Soul

Relative age comparison: 4-13

Keyword Characteristics: Regimented, Absolutist, External, Warring, Militaristic, sex is repressed, obligatory, and used as a tool of power or procreation.

Movies that show Baby Soul Age: “Wizard of OZ”

World View 3 – Adolescent – Young Soul

Relative age comparison:  13-29

Keyword Characteristics:  Inventive Self Righteous, acquisition, Enterprise, Selfish, Competitive, Rule Benders

Movies that show Young Soul Age:  “Wall Street” – Gordon Gecko Icon

World View 4 – Adult – Mature Soul

Relative age comparison: 29-55

Keyword Characteristics: Communitarian, neurotic, diplomatic, sensitive, egalitarian,

Movies that show Mature Soul Age:  “The Hours:” Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep

World View 5  – Elder  – Old Soul

Relative age comparison: 56 and older

Keyword Characteristics:  Philosophical, brooding, detached, spiritual, humanitarian

Movies that show Old Soul Age:  “Defending Your Life” Comedy – Albert Brooks

Soul Age Paradigm Shift

This painting illustrates in a more classical style, the cycle of birth and death. It also shows as a secondary theme of the experience of suffering that can occur along the way. However, as you can see from the procession on the right side of the portrait, life can get joyful as you begin to let go and simply live.

Within the Michael Teaching, notions of Soul Age paradigms take on a greater significance at times like these, when the Mature Soul Cycle (or paradigm) has finally entered into the consciousness of the greater US population as evidenced by the election of Barack Obama. This turn of the page of Soul Age paradigm signals many new opportunities in store for the United States and for the world. Many of those opportunities will come in the wake of some people’s panic and uncertainty with how to cope with the destabilizing forces which will alter the playing field of human society and the physical environment. Large scale “game-changers” to apply a current cultural idiom is required for the restructuring of attitudes and the institutions the influence.

Obviously, within the confines of the Michael Teaching, the idea that a soul not only exists; but matures, evolves, and subsequently can be said to “age” is a primary premise of this cosmology. Yet many who hear these terms have an intuitive understanding about what these mean. But for those who may not have clear awareness about the concepts, below is a brief summary of each. There are 5 Stages of main development containing 7 phases or levels within each for a total of 35 increments of consciousness development through ever increasing complexity and nuance. The end product to all of this is learning that leads to remembering the Essence of our Being, at the core of any one personality.

As the concept of aging implies, beginning with 1st Level Infant and moving toward 7th Level Old. During that period, it is possible to categorize large and seemingly disparate groups of people, institutions, and more personally behaviors and attitudes which underlay each of the five Soul Ages.

***In the months to come, I will introduce a Soul Age Survey that covers many of the issues associated with the process and hopefully fill out the concepts with some real self reports. In other words, I want descriptions of people or events or inventions or philosophical concepts that to you represent an example of a specific expression of Soul Age and Level. You will note that many of the menus offer quick ways of categorizing or identifying traits. This was designed merely as a method for my database. Come back soon.