The Soul
Genesis 2:7 says that the man formed from the physical elements “became” a “living being.” The King James Version says in this verse, that the man became a “living soul.” I want to point out here that the verse does not say man became an eternal soul. Living still means that it can die.
As the Spirit-man idea is expressed it becomes animated. Animated is to be full of life or full of energy – life force. This is the “Natural-man.” Animation is the state of being alive therefore you can say that Spirit-man became alive (animated) in the material realm or as the Bible says, became a living soul or living being. Being is a state of existing and in the case of Spirit-man, existing physically or materially.
Spirit-man in the material world is not only spiritual but now also physical existing as mind, body and spirit and is therefore subject to both the spiritual laws and the physical laws.
As the man-idea begins in physical form another consciousness is needed to keep a record of Spirit-man’s material life experience. This new consciousness is called the sub-conscious and is associated with the soul and memory. Each one of us has a soul-memory that constitutes evidence of our past lives.
The soul is the sum of our achievements or activities and is an official record of our conduct as living beings. In a nutshell the soul is our will and memory and a record of our mark of perfection. Without our soul there is no record of our progress towards at-one-ment.
Man’s sub-conscious (soul) contains what man has perceived from his impressions of the world (earth) and the understanding he has gained from spiritual inspiration (heaven). The soul is the combination of the natural or carnal mind and the spiritual mind. The soul is made up of both conscious thoughts (body-mind) and spiritual thoughts (Superconscious-mind). The soul-mind (subconscious) does not have ideas it is more the thought-form of unexpressed ideas. The soul is what separates man from each other. Each experience is different therefore each person’s memory is different.
Collectively we are all a part of the Like-mind which is connected to the Divine Mind. Every man’s influence comes from the Divine mind (Super-conscious, Christ-conscious, Spirit-conscious) and from the conscious mind (body-mind).
The influence from the Super-conscious is always the same – good, but the influence from the conscious mind can be good or bad because its impressions are based on feelings, emotions and opinions and not always on the truth. All that is in the world is good, there can’t be anything else. The physical is just a shadow of the spirit therefore spirit is good and therefore physical is good. It is just our impression of the world that makes it bad in our minds. Man can see or experience the world as good, or he can see it as bad (Luke 11:34).
The soul is man’s memory of two forms of thought; spiritual (unseen) and material (seen) and memory of his feelings and emotions that are associated with each of these thoughts. The internal soul of man is a good indicator of the external man. As in heaven (spirit) as on earth (physical). The soul, as you will see, began in pure innocence but over time has been tainted with impressions of the outer world or the realm of false ideas. Again, impression is an idea, feeling or opinion about something, especially those formed without conscious thought or thoughts formed on the basis of little evidence. The soul is a mixture of impressions of what is false (error) and what is truth – the real and the unreal. It is man’s purpose to purify his soul and fill it with only thoughts that are true.
Man’s mind is dual and consists of two aspects: one of spirit and one of material. Until man only expresses his divine consciousness of purity, he will continue to live a life of duality.