Awakening your Soul or:

Becoming aware that you are a Spiritual Universe

BY FRED ALAN WOLF, PH.D.

Kingdom of One would like to thank  Fred Alan Wolf, PHD. for his article.

 

Experiments designed to expose quantum physics principles have shown that observing

nature depends on choices made by the observer. These experiments lead to new

concepts describing the relation between an observer and the thing observed. These

concepts also can be applied to subjective observation and hence to observing and

awakening the soul. The popular aphorism, what you see is what you get, appears to

apply to the world we experience as “out there.” However an equally appropriate maxim

appears to be, what you see is what you expect. When applied to observation of the soul,

the two maxims show that you also have two complementary ways to observe your

subjective reality: spiritually and materially. In this article National Book Award winner

Dr. Fred Alan Wolf shows us how this most modern perspective of quantum physics can

be applied to the questions: How do I awaken my soul consciousness? How do I become

aware that I am (not just have) spiritual nature? By learning to invoke both aphorisms the

soul can be awakened and you can feel its presence in every thing you do.

INTRODUCTION

The old adage what you see is what you get appears to apply to the world we see all

around us. However, we little appreciate that a different way of observing

complementary to the adage exists. It states what you see is what you expect. These

adages may appear to be saying the same thing, but the two are really quite different.

That difference arises from understanding some principles of quantum physics and

spiritual practice. Our appreciation of these principles will help us to grasp conceptually

what it means to awaken our souls.

To accomplish soul awakening, we first look at how and why the world is not as it

seems. This helps us grasp the quantum physics principles involved, particularly how

observation changes the world. Next we see how and where we lose our soul awareness,

and why this naturally occurs as a result of our desire for objective or “out there”

stimulation. This helps us grasp the spiritual practice principles involved. Next we

explore three simple secrets of awakening our soul. Finally after reviewing the three

secrets, we conclude with an imaginary dialogue with our soul.

THE WORLD IS NOT AS IT SEEMS

Most of us take it for granted that we see the real world. Of course we know that much

more of the world exists than what we see with our eyes. There are worlds of sounds,

smells, tastes, skin sensations, and thoughts. Although those worlds may appear to be

distinct because they appeal to different sense organs, we nevertheless take it for granted

that each sense organ only picks out from the world-in-total a particular aspect of that

world that registers on that particular sense organ. We rarely consider that any other

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world exists, although we have learned from the practices of science that the world

consists of far more that just that world we sense with our normal senses.

How different is the world of quantum physics from the everyday physical world

that we experience using our normal conditioned senses? As a physicist I have learned

that it is very different, however the difference may not be easily appreciated by

nonscientists. The quantum physical worldview leads to observations often very

dissimilar from the world we ordinarily see. Usually the dissimilarity is difficult to see in

everyday life. According to quantum physics principles, there is no reality until that

reality is perceived. This means that the world cannot simply exist independently from

the means used to perceive that world. We call this the observer effect.

This effect, long unsuspected in the physics before quantum physics, first came as

a big surprise to the early scientists who discovered it. They saw, at times much to their

dismay, that any time they attempted to perform an observation on an atomic or

subatomic system, the tools they used to make the observation appeared to introduce

uncontrollable errors into their measurements. They were as the adage pictures, “bulls in

the china shop” when they attempted to make such refined measurements. However,

they soon realized that it wasn’t the tools that made the errors in their determinations, but

that they had stumbled on a very stubborn part of nature herself. Like a mysterious fan

dancer, she always kept part of herself hidden. But when asked to reveal herself, she

demanded that each observation, regardless of the measuring tool employed, make its

mark on the thing being observed in a completely irreversible and often unpredictable

way. Whether they liked it or not every observer ended up disturbing the thing he or she

sought to look at. This observation went far beyond eyes alone, and included any sense a

human being used to observe from listening to tones coming from an instrument such as a

Geiger counter, or watching dots on a flashing oscilloscope. Since anything reveled by

observation depended on the observers choices, nature demanded that we must be an

integrated part of herself, even though our minds sought to believe that a natural and

physical world existed objectively separated from us.

Because we usually don’t pay attention to ourselves in the perception processes

involved in observation, our immediate experience will not appear to show that our

actions of perception changed anything. To our unsophisticated minds it just seems we

make errors. However, if we construct a careful history of our perceptions they often

show us that our way of perceiving indeed changes the course of our observations and

even our personal history. Further examination shows that by making different choices,

not only would our perceptions of the outcomes change, but also the very things we were

observing would also exhibit traits that would not have appeared had we not looked for

them.

That may make sense to you when looking at something new and deciding what it

means. But you may wonder, “I’m not actually changing reality, am I? I’m just

changing my interpretation of reality.”

The answer is often difficult to appreciate, but as surprising as it may seem, you

are changing reality simply by observing it. In the world described successfully by

quantum mechanics, ultimately and fundamentally observers affect the universe

whenever they observe it or anything in it. If we refine our ability to see by looking at

atomic and subatomic processes with sophisticated instrumentation the differences would

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be quite magnified from our normal way of seeing and would appear astonishing to our

minds.

THE PRINCIPLE OF COMPLEMENTARITY

Physicists’ observations of nature taught us a new principle of physics exists in the world.

As I simply put it the principle states, what you see is what you expect. By choosing one

way to see the world, another equally likely aspect of that world becomes hidden.

Physicists have carefully made a map of the way our expectations alter our perception of

the world. They noticed that there were always two complementary ways of seeing.

Let me give you an everyday example. Suppose you are a student of music.

Undoubtedly you learn how to listen to music, particularly how to hear rhythms, motifs

or themes, and the notes different instruments sound. While listening to a particular piece

of music, you can find yourself listening to particular instruments, say the violins or the

trumpets, and by focusing your mind you can pay attention to each note played, and to

the beat of the music. Or if you wish you can pay attention to the theme or the blending

of the music into a whole. You find from your listening experiences that you can’t do

both at the same time. In fact paying attention to themes alters your ability to hear notes,

while paying attention to notes alters you ability to hear the melodies. This alteration in

your observing ability illustrates a principle of complementarity that exists in listening

ability.

Take another example. While you are speaking to someone, you most likely find

yourself not paying attention to the individual words, consonants, or vowels you use,

while you focus on the meanings and nuances of your sentences. However, at times, you

find that you must stop speaking and momentarily search your memory for a particular

word. Maybe you notice that once you find that word you have to go back and

reconstruct your sentence all over again. This illustrates how a principle of

complementarity exists in your thought processes.

Probably the most astonishing fact that emerges from a quantum physical study of

matter and energy is that a complementarity of our choices effects the results we do

observe in a manner similar to the examples shown above, yet somewhat differently. In

other words what you choose to observe can not only nullify your ability to observe

another complementary aspect, it can render it nonexistent. The difference tells us that

what you observe not only hides the complementary aspect from your sensory awareness,

it renders it imaginary altogether. It would be as if when you listened to a symphony’s

melody being played by a grand orchestra, the individual orchestra members disappeared

into a sea of sound. But when you decided to listen for the violins, they popped out of

the sea while the symphony’s melody stopped to make room for your appreciation of the

violin’s parts.

This quantum physics complementarity principle was made well known nearly

eighty years ago by the wave-particle duality that showed up in quantum physics and

equally mystified its discoverers. That mystery persists to this day and provides a basis

for our understanding of modern technology particularly a whole new breed of devices

based on it called quantum computers.1

1 These computers are able to perform extremely rapid calculations in an imaginary space not within the

devices themselves. See David Deutsch. The Fabric of Reality. NY: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1997.

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Briefly, if you look for matter to behave with a wavelike nature it does (as if

listening to a musical motif), but if you look to see matter made of individual units,

particles, or quanta, it appears that way (as if attempting hear the individual notes of the

music). Matter waves behave in a manner completely in opposition to particles of matter.

A wave of matter can and does appear to be in several places simultaneously while a

particle of matter can only be at one place at one time.2

The wave-particle choice was always yours, and the results were

consistent with your way of looking. However matter itself could not possess both wave

and particlelike behavior simultaneously; one always precluded the other.

Thus the world is really not as it seems if it seems to you that it exists

independently of your observations. It certainly seems to be “out there” independently of

us. The world hardly appears to depend on any choice we might make. Yet quantum

physics destroys that idea. What is “out there” depends on what you choose to look for.

The world isn’t made of objects as our common senses tell us. The world’s apparent

objects are linked to our minds in surprising and often mysterious ways. By our

observations in the world, we influence it. To account for everything we see and do, all

that humans observe, we must take into account the act of observation and the choices

made by the observers during those acts. We do this by watching our thought processes

and considering in those thought processes that whatever we observe about the world, no

matter how consistent we believe our observations to be, another equally likely way of

seeing may exist that would give entirely different results for that observer. We call this

tolerance.

You may ask, doesn’t the observer effect violate all the normal laws of cause and

effect? Yes it does. We usually think of cause and effect in terms of an action we take

on an object to start something off and the consequences we observe as a result. We

usually think that the relation between cause and effect has everything to do with the

object and the physical laws it obeys and nothing to do with us once we set it in motion.

Quantum physics has changed all that. It has told us that we count as observers in

the world. Mere observation suffices to alter the history of an object. That history, in

other words, will be changed by the manner in which we observe its course. By

observing an object in the universe, each observer disturbs the universe and as a result,

disturbs her or himself in the process.

MIND IS NOT IMMUNE TO COMPLEMENTARITY

Mind is not immune to the principle of complementarity. Mind and therefore memory

are affected by it as well. As you construct a memory you must use the same tools of

awareness as you use to look at the world “out there.” In other words you must construct

2 Subatomic electrons for example, “wave” whenever they are inside of the atoms they come from but the

minute they pop out of an atom, they are only observable, when they are observed at all, as particles in one

place at any given time. If subatomic electrons did not “wave” inside of their atoms, no atom could remain

stable for long. Waves appear to be spread out through space at any instant of time and they can interfere

with each other often canceling themselves out or multiplying in strength. Because of this wave property

electron-waves form stable patterns much like a whirling propeller makes a disk pattern. In this way the

electron-wave provides structural integrity to atoms making them appear solid and somewhat impenetrable.

Electron-particles can never do that. They must appear to be at specific places at any time, hence they can

not provide patterns of structural stability.

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a memory in the same way that you construct a view of the world. Each observation

tends to create a memory of the world as existing “out there” and the role we play by

choosing tends to become obscured. By observing the world or one’s thoughts as one

constructs a picture of the world or a memory, each observer separates into a self and a

thing (out there) or mind object (in here). And in either mind object (in here) or sense

object (out there) the complementarity principle rules.

Consequently, by observing, the observer gains specific knowledge, but also pays

a price. He or she loses an alternative way of constructing the world or one’s thoughts.

Since the observer always loses alternative information as he or she gains objective

information, the price appears as an incomplete transaction or an imperfection in one’s

knowledge. The most important imperfection that arises comes about in the

observational process itself. Just as the objects of the world must be seen in wave or

particle modes, so too must the individual see her or himself as alone and isolated or part

of humanity. By focusing on the individual accomplishment that arises through

objectivity and the absorption of the thoughts of others, the observer becomes more and

more alone and isolated from the humanity he or she is equally a part of. Perhaps this is

what the apple on the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden represents. The first bite

of the apple is sweet, but costly. Our eyes are opened and we see a world “out there” and

we see ourselves alone, separated from everyone else and everything else.

HERE IS WHERE WE LOSE OUR SOUL AWARENESS

Gaining objective knowledge has been costly from that very first bite. Each chomp, each

bit of knowledge gain, results in a brief “aha” followed by an immediate “so what.” And

by becoming conscious of the universe, by paying attention to it, we do change it. Since

the universe includes you, the boundary between you and it also changes whenever you

observe anything. Simply put, it changes because you change and you and it are parts of

a greater whole. You are invisibly connected to the whole universe, so the change not

only occurs within you but outside of you as well.

What happens when a change occurs? We call each occurrence of this the “I/it”

split. When the split occurs an act of consciousness always takes place. The occurrence

of the “I/it” split as you experience it is identical to your consciousness of the “it.” Hence

whenever you become conscious of anything, the “I/it” split arises. The split has no

unique location in space or time even though it appears as objects “out there” and your

inner experience of cognition or perception that you feel “in here.”

Consciousness is what consciousness does. There are many different forms that

consciousness takes depending on the sense organ accompanying it and the object or the

“it” that consciousness responds to. Each act of consciousness creates a momentary split,

a quick division between “I” and “it.” Any object can be reflected upon by consciousness,

including the “I” part of the split. When that occurs, self-consciousness takes place. But

note that the “I/it” split is different for each object and for each of the senses employed,

including the mind sense that reflects on thought, feeling, sensation, and intuition. Just as

the sense organ and object differ, so does the “I” change so that the “I” that smells a rose

is quite different from the “I” that feels the prick of the thorn. And just as the objects of

consciousness are different, that rose-smelling “I” in turn differs from the “I” that smells

the rotting fruit in a neighbor’s garbage or hears the ending note of taps at sunset.

Before we knew quantum physics we thought that consciousness simply was an

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accompaniment to the objective world, that it played no role other than taking notes,

mapping the external world, and storing data as memory. The “out there” was indeed out

there and had no connection with mind. But with quantum physics we found that

consciousness actually acts on the physical world. It makes its mark so that the world is

not and cannot be the same without consciousness present.

Hence consciousness performs a dual role in the universe. In the world of

quantum physics, it forms at once both the awareness and the creation of experience.

Each act of consciousness not only marks for memory the event of awareness noted but

through the principle of complementarity—namely that the observer changes the

observed by the way the observation is performed—it creates the event noted.

The I/it split experience at once becomes the mind in the act of knowing and the

thing being known. The experience occurs in the mind and “out there” in the world. In

fact since there is no scientific evidence that the mind even exists in the body. (Yes I

know we have nervous systems and brains, but where, O where, is the “I” in all that

neural wiring?) We can just as well take it that your mind is just as much “out there” in

the world as it is in your body.

Philosophers say mind and matter interact. They say there is a problem in this

interaction between mind and matter or knowing and being. Is the act of knowing

something a physical act? Is mind a tangible thing? They call questions like this the

“mind-body problem.” Descartes was probably the first to call our attention to it, but I

am sure that many philosophers can claim originality. In fact it is probably “the”

problem of philosophy.

Is there a mind-body problem? If no separation really exists then why is there any

problem at all? Most likely the problem arises in our minds when each of us puts into

action any desire we happen to feel. What is the problem with this? This problem has to

do with each person’s awareness of will or intent. Many philosophers, Taoists for

instance, consider “will” the source of the problem. They speak of “non-volitional”

living—that is living one’s life as it comes. In this manner thought or mind simply arises

as an accompanying property to the physical world, much as sharpness arises when a

knife is used to cut something.3

How do you will something to happen? In other words, when you choose to do

something, how does it get done and how do you know that you are doing it? This is

perhaps the heart of the mind/body mystery. If one had no experience of will or intent it

is problematic that one would pay any attention to a mind-body split. In my latest book,

Mind into Matter,4 I describe intent as an alchemical force in nature. I point out that the

world we perceive “out there” and the world we perceive with our mind’s eye “in here”

connect in an imaginal realm—a world of ideas, dreams, and desires.

Is this realm real? Does it exist? Henri Corbin, the noted scholar of Islam and

European author, coined the term “imaginal realm” to describe it. In his view, this realm is

ontologically real, and as the Australian Aborigines and my research into the nature of

3 This was Aristotle’s view of the soul—namely it arose in relation to the body as sharpness arose in

relation to the knife.

4 Mind into Matter: A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit. NH: Moment Point Press, 2001.

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shamanism5 and dreams suggest, it may just be more real than the reality we perceive. It is

however, a reality that usually exists beyond our normal waking perception, though it does

appear to us in the form of lucid dreams, prophetic dreams, and other related phenomena

such as near-death experience (NDE) and possibly UFO abductions6.

In the imaginal realm relationships are paradoxical and even contradictory. An

object can appear both upside down and right side up simultaneously. And since a selfconcept

also exists within its boundaries, you can exist as both good and evil, short and tall,

light and dark or within any pair of opposites you care to imagine. Not only that, but the

relationship between the “out there” and the “in here” can be observed in complementary

ways. An object can appear to be moving and standing still, and in terms of the

complementarity discussed by Jung, you can perceive yourself as having a feeling and a

thought at the same time. By changing your internal perception, you can shape each

experience to give rise to thought or feeling. Ancient alchemists knew this very well

when they realized the maxim “as within, so without.” Shaping an experience meant

using one’s powers of intent and intention.

INTENTION: BELIEF IN THE SELF

Here I make a distinction between “intent” and “intention.” Intention is the common or

garden-variety use of will. It usually helps us deal, by reaction to the world, with

survival issues. We use our intention to learn to grapple with the world we commonly

believe is “out there” separated from “in here.” For example, we learn to ride a bicycle

using intention. We go to school and learn our “ABCs” using intention. What we

usually fail to see is that intention is a choice, a way of observing, and complementary to

it is another way of observing—one that is not based on survival or skill mechanisms

needed to cope with a universe of “out there” stuff. When we use intention we foster the

I/it division into what I label as the “particle” mode of behavior. We see the world as

composed of separated parts. We become aware of the “I” within as if it were a separate

entity, an ego.

When I describe myself as I using my intention, I mean an instinctive survivalbased

sense that you and I both have that we are individual beings, that we exist

separately, and that we see ourselves as distinct human individuals with diverse and

seemingly specific, airtight, conscious minds. That innate sense appears so personal that

we hardly suspect that it really is a universal survival mechanism, part of the soul/self

complementarity of nature.

However, as I wish to point out, intention only arises as one way of existing in the

world. It is as if you were taught to hear music by only listening to the notes and never to

the melodies. What we often fail to see is that all sentient life forms experience this

intention “I” sense just as you and I do. We call this suffering.

5 Fred Alan Wolf, The Eagle's Quest: A Physicist's Search for Truth in the Heart of the Shamanic World.

New York: Summit Books, 1991.

6 See for example, Peter M. Rojcewicz, "Signals of Transcendence: The Human-UFO Equation,” Journal of

UFO Studies. (New Series, 1989): Vol. 1, p.111.

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INTENT: BELIEF IN THE SOUL

When we use intent we foster the melding of the “I/it” into a single composition, a

joining or unity experience—one that enables you to feel a part of the whole universe by

not separating yourself from it. You become aware of your soul (see sidebar) and the

unbroken wholeness of the universe to which your soul is intimately joined with no

boundaries.

Intent arises through the most basic recognition that the egoic I, myself, exist

paradoxically and selflessly at a boundary between real and the imaginal realms.

Where does this “recognition” come from? If you look deeply enough within

yourself you will find that it has always been present. You could say that it exists at your

deepest level of being. You recognize it as love or compassion. You feel its presence

whenever you become aware of anyone suffering in the world.

By recognizing this and learning to use our selfless intent, we are able to take the

three steps necessary to awaken the soul.

A SOUL DEFINITION (SIDE BAR)

I use, as models, metaphors based on my understanding of how the physical world works.

Using metaphors allows me to explain things that are unfamiliar in terms that are

familiar. For example, the concepts of soul, matter, spirit, self, and consciousness can be

defined by imagining two basic physical objects: one is a vibrating string as you might

see on a violin; the other is a mirror which reflects back images of the real world. In my

model, both are placed in the context of quantum theories. Spirit would be akin to the

vibrations of the string. We can imagine that the string is infinitely long and, due to

random inputs of heat, air, or just the fluctuating vacuum of space, it vibrates. Its

vibration represents the movement of the spirit.

This constant movement of energy—or life—provides the modus operandi of the

string or spirit. In modern science, physicists understand that we can model the vacuum

as if it were filled with an infinite number of vibrating strings, and thus the vacuum itself

becomes vibratory and a natural place to look for a metaphor for spirit. The soul, then,

appears as the reflected vibrations of the vacuum within the domain of time. The soul

(and time) extends from the beginning and ending points of time, known respectively as

the big bang and the big crunch. The vibration reflects from these end points, just as an

image reflects from a mirror. The reflection from the ends of time gives the soul

consciousness in the same way that we become self-conscious when we gaze at our own

mirror reflection. Our mirror-image consciousness arises in space and becomes the self.

The soul consciousness arises in time. The soul therefore embodies in matter as the

“self,” or the “self-process.” The soul relates to itself continually in the body and

therefore it involves itself with the survival of the body. The soul isn’t necessarily

embodied to begin with, but the self must be.

Consciousness or mind in general arises whenever a reflection in time occurs.

That means something reflects from points in the present or the future and the past, or

even both past and present, or future and present. What reflects depends on the form of

the consciousness. If we’re talking about primal reflections from the beginning and

ending of time, then the reflection produces a conscious and cosmic soul. I would call

this the one Soul that inhabits each and every being.

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THE SECRET OF AWAKENING YOUR SOUL: STEP 1, BELIEVE

Step 1 is simple to state but for some hard to do: simply believe you have a soul. Or to

put it another way, believe that you can experience the world from a complementary

intent point of view, not just from an intention point of view. This notion cuts into our

whole modern society fabric of belief. However, as I have attempted to show in my

writing, as for example in my book, The Spiritual Universe,7 there is a good basis for

such a belief. Namely that our modern technology is firmly based on an invisible world

of quantum physical principles, including the principle of complementarity, that are

themselves almost impossible to believe. These principles show that mind must enter

matter, as I have been pointing out, whenever an observation occurs, and does not appear

to be a mere side dish to the meal of life, but the main course. Hence to believe you have

a soul is no more difficult than believing that you are made of electrons.

However, as you know many scientists question whether the soul exists. Many

others in our Western culture question, even if it exists, whether the soul has any

relevance in a scientifically oriented, technologically trained modern society. In a certain

sense, using intention as the only way of experiencing the world, they are quite correct.

Because science is largely responsible for portraying the world as merely a collection of

mechanical parts acting on each other, there appears little or no use for a soul or for an

intent way of seeing. Indeed some people feel a little uncomfortable when a quantum

physicist such as myself attempts to define anything like the soul in scientific terms.

Nevertheless, more and more people are concerned with questions dealing with the soul,

the human spirit, and spirituality. But what is it they should be concerned with?

What is the soul? (See the sidebar.) This is really a very old question, one that

has fascinated scientists and philosophers for millennia. Hence it is not really surprising

to have me look into it. Probably the very first observation of the soul took place when

beings in ancient times noticed that at death another fellow being stopped breathing. It

would have been natural to associate the breath with the soul or spirit. Indeed, the word

spirit leads to the words inspire, respire, and expire quite naturally. Just as the breath

leaves the body at death it would have been quite natural to associate the soul with the

breath and observe it also leave the body at death.

Today we see this idea as a simplification of quite complex processes occurring at

death. Yet it certainly seems true when are witness to the moment of anyone’s death.

However, I should point out that the soul really has no where to go, that is, nowhere in

any ordinary sense of the meaning of place. It is more likely that it remains while other

processes of degradation simply take over. These processes are going on all of the time,

its just that the soul has the job of keeping them at bay, reversing the direction of entropy

so to speak, and providing for the soul within the body a sense of presence in space and

time. At death, that provision ends and it ends gradually, not suddenly with the last

breath.

What the soul was started off a great debate thousands of years ago in ancient

Greece between the followers of Plato and his student, Aristotle. In brief both

philosophers saw the soul as an agent of reality. However there were significant

7 The Spiritual Universe: One Physicist’s Vision of Spirit, Soul, Matter and Self. NH: Moment Point Press,

1999.

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differences in their viewpoints.

Plato believed the soul existed in a more abstract manner. It dwelled in a higher

space than the body. He taught this higher space was a more perfect, non-material realm

of existence. He believed that the soul entered the body and when it did so the physical

senses were always going to cloud the soul’s perception of the universe. According to

Plato, the mere fact that we are embodied makes our perceptions somewhat distorted,

somewhat inaccurate, somewhat of an illusion. While working at the level of the body

and the senses, Plato thought that we could never quite experience things as they are “in

reality,” where reality meant this higher space.

Plato recognized this as one form of the “I/it” split that I labeled above as

intention—preoccupation with survival issues and the self as body.

In contrast to Plato and along with the notion of intention given above, Aristotle

taught there is no world outside of our senses. Plato’s world was mere imagination and

did not really exist. Consequently Aristotle may have argued that the soul was a way of

speaking, an artifact of our human condition. He would have presumed that if a soul

existed at all it was a consequence of the body in much the same way that sharpness is a

consequence of an ax. For Aristotle, seeking the soul would have meant finding the inner

body processes giving rise to it.

Nowadays, scientists have invented sophisticated scientific instruments such as

microscopes and telescopes to extend the power of our senses, but I suppose that the

majority of scientists still share Aristotle’s basic worldview. For Aristotle and them, the

soul would merely vanish as the last breath was expired.

I believe that the findings of quantum physics increasingly support Plato. They

suggests the existence of a non-material, non-physical universe that has a reality even

though it is not clearly perceptible to our senses and scientific instrumentation. When we

consider out-of-body experiences, shamanic journeys, and lucid dream states, though

they cannot be replicated in the true scientific sense, they also point to the existence of

non-material dimensions of reality.

Within these realms, manifestation does not occur, however all possibilities arise

in much the same way that ideas arise in your mind. The notion of self and ego also

arise, hence the issue of survival as body also arises, but only as a concept. The soul I

point to as that which can be felt in selfless intent is transpersonal and ego-less and lives

in that realm. In fact it is at once within that realm and the whole realm itself.

Now most of us were not trained to look for and experience a transpersonal soul.

If we are Buddhists, we long ago gave up to notion of any soul existing at all. If we are

Christians, Moslems, or Jews, we usually refer to the soul as the individual self and

perhaps pray for its survival after death. We hardly know how to deal with an abstract

world such as envisioned by Plato or quantum physics. We’ve been more or less trained

to look for things that can be grasped—things that are physical and solid. But the soul is

not tangible, physical or solid. It doesn’t even belong to you. It’s more that you belong

to it. You cannot just reach out and touch the soul. Yet, according to quantum physics

principles and Plato’s vision, the soul as an animating principle in the universe is

ultimately more important than anything that is physical or tangible.8

8 Aristotle took it that the soul was an animating principle of life one that formed the body. For him the

soul was the unmoved mover of the body.

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Consequently to awaken the soul, it will be necessary for you to believe in this

imaginal world of quantum physics and Plato.

Now as science continues to advance, it may indeed be true that a newer physics

will replace quantum physics. However, whatever that replacement might be, it certainly

won’t regress to anything like Aristotle’s material-based viewpoint. So even if you can’t

grasp quantum physics, don’t despair. The imaginal world is real regardless of what

science one uses, now or in the future.

Hence the first part of awakening the soul is to believe that the transpersonal soul

exists and nothing more is required than to believe in an ethereal realm. You can call it

Plato’s ideal world, the imaginal monarchy of perfection, the quantum physics kingdom,

or the soul realm. Once you believe in it, the next step is to learn to think of your soul as

if it were living there and projecting itself into the world, rather than living here and

imagining that imaginal world. In other words, you need to change your perspective

view.

But this may be too hard to do. In spite of all that I said, how can you do that if

you still don’t believe your soul is real? It is simple enough, just act as if it were real.

Act is if you expect it to appear. If you can do that you are ready to take the next step.

THE SECRET OF AWAKENING YOUR SOUL: STEP 2, DIALOGUE

Step 2 of awakening the soul is to begin a dialogue with your soul as if it were an old

friend. For indeed it is the oldest friend you have ever had. Now by a dialogue I may not

mean what you think. The dialogue I refer to can be wordless. It nevertheless is a

dialogue, a communication between what appears to be separate beings your “self” and

your soul. From the imaginal realm point of view this is no more that you talking to

yourself—your mirror image. You all have dialogues without word before. It is the look

of love between lovers; the silent prayer at sunset; the feeling of ecstasy arising when

music enlivens you. This experience occurs for me a number of times in my life as I

have described in my earlier articles and books.9

You may have spoken about such communication with your friends. Perhaps they

were as skeptical as you may be. Doubts may still linger. The question then arises, “If

the soul is real and anyone can dialogue with it, how is it that more people do not directly

experience the presence of their soul?” They may read about the soul, they may believe

in the soul, but if the soul is a reality, why do they feel a sense of soul loss, an absence of

the soul in their lives?

I go into the matter of soul loss in more detail in my books, The Spiritual

Universe and Mind into Matter. Briefly, the answer may be found in the nature of the

soul itself: how it behaves when it is in dialogue with you. Since that dialogue most often

occurs without any words spoken, if you aren’t listening, the meaning may get lost. At

times the soul can be experienced as “out there,” but usually you will hear it in your mind

and heart.

The transpersonal soul is alive, vibrant, and usually experienced subjectively.

9 “The Physics of Dream Consciousness: Is the Lucid Dream a Parallel Universe?” Lucidity Letter. Vol. 6,

No. 2; December, 1987. pp. 130-135. Also see: The Eagle’s Quest: A Physicist’s Search for Truth in the

Heart of the Shamanic World. New York: Summit Books, 1991. The Spiritual Universe: One Physicist’s

Vision of Spirit, Soul, Matter and Self. NH: Moment Point Press, 1999.

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The world that we see with our everyday eyes—through the filter of our senses—seems

to come from the “objective” world. Most often we experience the “out there” as

material information—something to categorize—put in its place in our memories.

Usually little soul or spiritual content comes into the process. We see a tree, a person, or

a cloud and we associate what we see with our memories.10

However, there is always a sacred light around everything in the universe.

Everything “out there” shines. That light or aura appears all of the time, but usually we

lose sight of it. We can’t just see it with our ordinary material-seeking eyes. We need to

use a complementary way of observing involving our hearts together with our minds to

experience the aura at all. This aura is a remnant of our connection to all things. It

appears most often when we become aware of our soul. We see it when our soul is

awake within ourselves. We need to invoke a spiritual way of observing contrary and

complementary to the usual material way of seeing.11

Ancient spiritual wisdom teaches that the “out there” objective world and the

subjectively experienced “soul world” are often in conflict with each other. This

corresponds to what spiritual teachers say when living spirit descends into objective

matter. There’s a battle, a “war with time” ensuing.12 So, if we become too involved

with the objective, external processes of life, we tend to lose touch with perception of our

soul. It’s when we go within into an internal quietness, as in meditation or silence, we

can begin to perceive something which is deeper and more meaningful than just the

objective “out there-ness.”

Only then can we actually begin a dialogue. Don’t be concerned if the dialogue

does not use words. Don’t be concerned if it does. So, it’s really important for those of

us who have lost touch with our souls to spend some quiet time. Don’t use this time to

think. Do not go over the day’s list of everything that has to be done. But allow the

deeper inner well of well-being reality to bubble up from within your consciousness.

If you practice this you will “hear” a voice inside of you speak. Like any friend

you may have not listened to earlier, that voice may be saying uncomfortable things to

you, especially if you have not paid attention to it for a long time. Allow yourself to

discourse with it without fear. You may wish to even write down what comes up for you

as a written dialogue. Dialogue will begin if you are willing it so. To will it so you need

to learn to choose a complementary way of experiencing your self and the world.

10 Just as your experience of the “out there” world depends on how you choose to go about experiencing it,

so is it for your mind’s contents—your memories. As I mentioned in the article, memories are also not just

“in here” like data files in a computer—although that appears to be a current metaphor. Instead they are

potentially present and only “come alive” when you access them. And just as the rules of complementarity

apply when accessing the outside world, so do they apply when looking inward. I discuss this more fully in

my latest book, Mind into Matter: A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit. NH: Moment Point Press, 2001.

11 Many people claim the ability to see auras. Perhaps they do so because of the use of this way of

“seeing.” In other words, they see auras when they lose their egoic way of being in the world.

12 This constitutes the main battle of the mind/body split. Identifying entirely with the “I” separate from

“it” rather than the unity of the conjoined two, actually adds ammo to the battle.

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THE SECRET OF AWAKENING YOUR SOUL: STEP 3, CHOOSE

The third step in learning to awaken your soul awareness is to realize that you always

have a choice in everything you do. It’s both a what you see is what you expect world

when we use our intent or a determined already “out there” what you see is what you get

world when we use our intention. I call this recognition of the complementarity of choice

between intent and intention, alchemical creativity.13 It means to learn to become aware

of the mind/body split and to become aware when your unconscious mind influences

your body. This always occurs when a thought arises, for if you look carefully enough

you will find its antithesis also accompanying the thought.

With each thought, you need to become aware each time that you feel resistance

arising within yourself. That feeling of resistance is the awareness of choice arising

within you. It is your awareness of the material/spiritual complementarity split. It can

also be noted as the being/becoming split or the quantum physics wave/particle split. In

general it’s the flag of awareness telling you that you have a choice involving two

complementary ways of experiencing anything. Thus when you feel resistance let it be,

give it airtime so to speak. In so doing you won’t transcend from intention to intent, but

you will become aware that the stage for transcendence is present.

If you choose the material intention way of seeing, then once you have chosen,

once you have made your path to be one of knowledge-being-particle, the resistance

becomes inertia—a mind object that connects to a physical object “out there.” When it

arises, you experience your intention taking form and you experience your self as

separate from the object of your awareness.

If you choose the spiritual way of seeing, the intent way, then once you have

chosen, once you have made your path to be one of heart-becoming-wave, the resistance

dissolves—a mind object no longer connects to a physical object “out there.” When this

choice is realized, you experience your intent dissolving, taking no form at all, and you

experience your self as one with all objects. In fact no object appears separate from you.

Choosing to experience intent may appear difficult. For some of us it is difficult. It

actually arises through surrender to your soul, a letting go of intention, and a trust in what

you may call a higher power.

The process is universal. You can think of the universe as having this choice as

well. When the universe chooses to be matter and energy, to see itself materially, it

becomes aware of the arising resistance called material inertia. Hence matter and energy

come into being through the intention of the universe—the desire to see things separately.

This was the desire that made the big bang. Material inertia is for the universe the same

resistance that you and I experience when we discover a new idea. Just as you and I have

the potential to choose to see the universe using intent or intention, and with such a

choice being made have a different experience of ourselves in the universe, so does the

universe. If the universe had not chosen to see itself materially, it would have remained

empty but potentially able to make that choice at any time.

When it does make the alternate choice, seeing itself with intent, nothing actually

13 Although it may not seem so, the intention way of seeing is also creative, you really need to train

yourself to see the world that way. The alchemy comes about through the transformative processes that are

involved when you use either way of “seeing.” I discuss this more fully in Mind into Matter: A New

Alchemy of Science and Spirit. NH: Moment Point Press, 2001.

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manifests. For no objects come into existence. In this “universal frame of mind” the

quantum physics underlying the universe manifests, and through the process the universe

recognizes itself as a single, but nonmaterial entity. By alternating the intent/intention

choices the universe becomes self-aware. As an intention material-choosing universe, it

transforms information into matter, giving rise to physical objects. As an intent spiritualchoosing

universe, it transforms matter into information, giving rise to a mental universe

that models the physical. Resistance arises in each intention transformation. It also

arises as doubt in each intent transformation. This is the order of the transformational

process and the reason that each action always creates an equal and opposite reaction as

Newton, the alchemist realized.

As a spiritual-choosing universe, it becomes what it is called a one-verse. All

space-time-matter remains undifferentiated. We could call this state the Mind of God.

No resistance arises. Nothing transforms. No information actually passes from one thing

to another because nothing is separated from anything. Everything just shines.

But the world seems so disordered you might argue, hardly ever shining in the

above manner. Yet, of course, physical light appears everywhere we look as a reminder

of the “shining” to which I refer. Consequently disorder really doesn’t exist, only nature

playing her hide and seek game with you. So any disorder perceived lies totally within

you. It arises as a result of your choice to see the world intentionally. As Einstein once

said, “God doesn’t play dice with the universe.” We might say that God’s will is

exercised in the world of the ideal causal intent world of exact mathematical accuracy,

but there is no matter present. It is a world of paradox and utter confusion for human,

limited intelligence. For it is a world where a thing both occupies a single place at a

single time and occupies an infinite number of places at the same time.

Yet there is an explicit order to the intent world of paradox. There is a pattern to

the many positions, a symmetry that appears for physicists when they study the quantum

physics structure of matter. People with great spiritual insight into God’s universe also

experience this order. Physicist David Bohm called it the implicate order.14

But we, who exist in the world of conventional intentional mind and matter

distinction, can only disrupt that perfection of paradox by attempting to observe the

pattern. We pay a large price for a material world. By losing awareness of the intent

choice, the price is our sanity. We cannot make total order of our intentional

observations. This leads to suffering and anxiety. With the perception brought forward

by intent we gain our sanity, we see the world is perfect just as it is, in spite of its many

problems.

This is certainly paradoxical to many, so I won’t be surprised if you have

difficulty grasping what I am saying here. There always appears to be something missing

in the intention-driven world. This disruption of God’s order appears to us in an

intention-driven world as the quantum physical Principle of Uncertainty.15 Thus we

14 David Bohm. The Undivided Universe. NY: Routledge, 1993.

15 The Uncertainty Principle is a concept that reflects the inability to predict the future based on the past or

based on the present. Also called the principle of indeterminism, it arose from the ideas and thoughts that

were first stated by Werner Heisenberg around 1926 or 1927. It forms the cornerstone of quantum physics

and provides an understanding of why the world is made of events that cannot be related entirely in terms

of cause and effect. It lies at the root of all physical matter and may manifest for human beings as doubt

Page 15

become helpless, feel inadequate, and long for the order we are helpless to create in the

universe.16 All we can do is go along with it.

On the other hand, we are free to choose. Our very helplessness to create a

perfect order allows us to create. Our helplessness invites us to surrender and to

recognize that perfect order as we attempt to picture it cannot exist in the material world.

You might say that the Uncertainty Principle is a two-edged sword. It frees us from the

past because nothing can be predetermined. It gives us the freedom to choose how we go

about in the universe. But we cannot predict the results of our choices. We can choose,

but we cannot know if our choices will be successful. By choosing to see spiritually we

are no longer interested in prediction anyway. We become one with our soul.

REVIEW

Let me review:

• Step 1: believe

• Step 2: dialogue

• Step 3: choose

STEP 1 BELIEVE.

You can’t awaken what you believe doesn’t exist. So you need to believe that your soul

exists. For me it is helpful to have a model of my soul (see the sidebar). In quantum

physics we deal with the imaginal realm. We imagine waves. We never see these waves,

but we use them to successfully predict the many things we do see. These waves may be

imagined to be real waves, and as far as we know if we do think of them as real, no harm

is done, nothing absurd results. In fact, there is no difference between thinking of these

waves as purely imaginal or purely real.

A similar reasoning applies to the soul. I use imaginal waves to make a model of

the soul by imagining them to be waves of spirit. I do this because I see spirit as a deep

vibration existing even before matter and energy come into being. So I conjecture that

spirit consists of these imaginal timeless, spaceless, waves. Hence for me a model of the

soul encompasses it as a process that arises from reflections of imaginal waves of spirit.

I picture the imaginal world to be a giant hollow cube stretching from infinity to infinity

in all directions. I imagine it contains air or any medium that will support wave

movement. I imagine that these waves behave like sound, fill that medium, and bounce

back and forth from the walls. The walls act as a form of resistance bouncing these

waves back in the direction from which they came. I imagine one of the cube’s spatial

dimensions to be time. Hence when a wave travels from say the left wall toward the

right, it travels forward in time; when it travels from the right wall toward the left, it

and insecurity. If this is so, once it is fully understood, it could create a condition of enlightenment in

which the world appears as an illusion and as a product of mind or consciousness.

16 I believe human beings and all living creatures have a natural need for order. Without order in our lives

we suffer. I suggest that this need for order is at the heart of spirituality. While it is certainly true that we

suffer from poor physical conditions, it appears that our mental suffering arises from a lack of spiritual

order in our lives and that once spiritual order is achieved, many physical handicaps can be overcome.

Page 16

travels backward in time. Thus these imaginal waves travel both backward and forward

through time “simultaneously.”

I call these walls the initial and final nodes of time. According to quantum

physics, the beginning and ending nodes of time, known colloquially as the “big bang”

(when all matter burst forth from the primordial vacuum) and the “big crunch” (when all

will collapse again into nothingness) exist simultaneously beyond space and time. It

matters little whether the universe will crunch or just go on expanding. Eventually a final

resistance will come into being reflecting the waves back through time.

Then, the soul arises when these imaginal vibrations reflect from these two walls

which symbolize the beginning and ending of time. In this manner the soul is an

imaginal process, however since it exists throughout all of time, and since it reflects from

both the ending and beginning of time, I take this to be tantamount to primal

consciousness. I do this because I see that within in our own brains, something similar to

this must occur in order that a conscious experience arise.17

Next I imagine that the cubical space is now filled with dust floating in the

medium. The dust also acts as reflectors of these waves. Consequently as the wave

bounce from the dust particles, the dust responds and moves in the cubical space. The

dust is my metaphor for matter, and the waves moving the dust around is the activity of

the soul acting as an animating principle. Thus the soul involves itself both within and

without the presence of matter.

Consequently, though in human terms the two nodes of time events may be

separated by twenty billion, billion years, the notion of linear time is an artifact of

perception and it is possible for spirit to bounce between them. So soul is the reflection

of spirit between these two nodes.

When the material dust responds to the directing movements of the soul, the dust

begins to act as if it were self-motivating. It then reflects on itself, for the process of

moving the dust around also involves both waves coming from the future as well as

waves coming from the past. This self-reflection of the soul movement is recognized by

the matter-dust as the self. The boundaries attributed by the reflecting dust form the

ego—the boundary separating I from it. Through this reflection process my body spirit

17 Benjamin Libet of the University of California, San Francisco Medical School, in a series of remarkable

experiments, established that sensory information is also projected from the brain backwards through time.

He showed that sensory information appears in the consciousness of the observer “referred backwards in

time.” By this he meant that although the subject’s brain didn’t actually indicate awareness of that stimulus

occurred until some period of time after the stimulus (roughly a half-second), the subject experienced the

stimulus as if it happened very nearly at the time the stimulus was applied (roughly about ten milliseconds

later).

Libet believes that space-time projection is essential to the human mind-body connection. As he

put it in a conversation I had with him some years ago, “Referral in space is, in principle, similar to referral

in time. We discovered referral in time. There is referral all over the place.” Thus the sensation of feeling

something “out there” in space or backwards in time is then comparable to the sensation of seeing

something “out there” in normal vision or feeling that someone is out there when you can’t see a thing. In

fact, in physics today we believe that space and time may not be primary concepts. This indicates that, in

some way, we project space and time as well as the spatial and temporal extent of objects. Perhaps we do

both at the same “time.” See Libet, B.; E. W. Wright; B. Feinstein; and Dennis Pearl. “Subjective Referral

of the Timing for a Conscious Sensory Experience: A Functional Role for the Somatosensory Specific

Projection System in Man.” Brain. Vol. 102, Part 1. March, 1979.

Page 17

becomes aware of itself as soul. Fundamental to this concept is that there is just one soul,

which we all share. Perhaps our individual births and deaths are just reflections of the

universe’s beginning and end.

STEP 2 DIALOGUE

The reflection/resistance process continues whenever we wish information. Spirit will

always reflect from the space that binds it. Confining spirit may seem a strange idea.

The notion here is that the bounding of spirit creates space, time energy, and matter.

Matter is the confinement of spirit in space, and soul consciousness is the confinement of

spirit in time. When the Big Bang occurred space was smaller than atomic dimension.

Waves of spirit got caught in the initial bubble, became confined to this space and

reflected within it. Pieces of reflected waves got caught up within themselves. These

“strings” became particles of matter and when they exchanged waves of spirit, they

formed atoms, then molecules, and in time our very bodies. Spirit also exists unconfined,

and indeed spirit by nature resists confinement. An information exchange between

confined and unconfined spirit makes up the dialogue of the universe and the same

dialogue exists within you. Through this dialogue process a reflection of the soul within

the body takes place. This reflection is felt as your “I.” It is your center of being. To

dialogue with your soul you need to let this center expand outward by relaxation, deep

breathing, and quiet time-spending. To do this requires you to go into silence. Just stop

speaking.

STEP 3 CHOOSE

We live in a what you see is what you expect and what you see is what you get world. By

becoming aware of the complementary choices in observing the universe, each observer

is either disturbing the unbroken wholeness of the universe or becoming one with it.

When you become aware that you always have a choice, to be or to do, you are

awakening your soul as a partner in your cosmic dance. By observing materially, each

observer is separating himself or herself from the rest of creation. By observing material

being, the observer is gaining knowledge, but also paying a price of becoming more and

more alone and isolated.

But by becoming conscious of our choices in the universe, by paying attention to

what you see is what you expect and then choosing the spiritual way of seeing, we change

the universe in a way not predictable. We call this soul consciousness. When we awaken

the soul, we see through the illusion of our senses.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, consider the following words spoken by people throughout recorded

history to aid you in making a spiritual choice.

Seeing into Nothingness—this is the true seeing, the eternal

seeing.

–Shen-Hui (8th century Philosopher)

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In appearance I’m a thing moving about in Space. In

reality I’m that unmoving Space Itself.

–Douglas Harding, On Having No Head: Zen and the

Rediscovery of the Obvious (New York: Arkana, 1986),

He who knows that he is Spirit, becomes Spirit, becomes

everything; neither gods nor men can prevent him . . . The

gods dislike people who get this knowledge . . . The gods

love the obscure and hate the obvious.

–Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (seventh

century BCE.).

To see through the illusion that the universe is just matter and energy, the soul

must be included in everything we do. Every transaction must be compassionately

soulful in awareness of the suffering in each sentient life form. I don’t mean anything

gloomy by this. Simply remember the soul is present in every human being, in every

animal, and in all life forms including our own planet, our own universe. To me, this is

the right answer to every question: remember, your soul is everywhere.

AN IMAGINED SOUL-AWAKENING CONVERSATION

SELF: So what is my relationship with You? How do I become aware of any

relationship with You? In other words, how does my self become conscious of my Soul?

SOUL: You have a very intimate and imaginal relationship with Me. I come to you at

various times, particularly when you are considering earth-shattering questions about

the meaning of life. These can be extremely troubling time or periods of exaltation. Most

of the time you live on what you might call automatic pilot. But then things happen that

you can’t account for. All of a sudden, they happen again and something within you gains

a definite opinion about it. You may not like it. Or you may become quite attracted to it.

In fact, there are times when you become positively addicted to the things that happen to

you.

For example, you are very interested in yourself. You like to look at yourself in

the mirror. You love to hear your own voice. You enjoy the smell of your body even

when it doesn’t smell too good to others. You really delight in you. In fact, if a day goes

by when you haven’t been able to enjoy your self, you get frustrated and a little

despondent. If several days go by, it gets much worse. Finally when you get a chance to

luxuriate in your self again, you feel better, particularly if you think that your enjoyment

feeds Me as well as your body. You guess it’s I, your Soul, that you feed, perhaps it’s

really just yourself. You’re not sure at all.

You see there are also days when you hate yourself. You don’t know who or

what to turn to. Nothing you do for yourself seems to make any difference. You feel

lousy. You then feel that I have left you, and you doubt if you ever had Me inside.

You see you don’t believe that you have an involvement with Me as if I was a real

person. If you were involved with Me, you wouldn’t constantly be swinging from elation

Page 19

to despair, either stuffing your face with everything nice—and scouring the planet to do

it—or denying your humanity by putting your body on a starvation diet. Or, even worse,

if you felt My presence, you wouldn’t attempt to kill your humanity by asking one part of

yourself to destroy another. It’s I that save you from all of this self-reflective destruction.

SELF: I don’t quite get it. Do I have a Soul, or not?

SOUL: It is a bit difficult for anyone to get. I am a reflection of you, or rather, you are a

reflection of me. I am not there right now, but you are. Or, in a way, I am there but I

speak through you, if you let Me. Often I’ll speak to you in your dreams, sometimes when

you are meditating. Sometimes you hear Me when you are traveling. You always know

when I am present because you feel worthy inside, really good, and you’ve done nothing

physical to your body to make yourself feel that well. You may also learn to know me

when you are downhearted.

I, your Soul, always have your best interest at heart and know about everything

you do. I don’t make you suffer, but you make yourself suffer at times, and you don’t

know why you do that. When I speak to you, you don’t hear words, you have feelings.

When you feel My presence, you generally feel as if a great weight has been taken off

your chest. I have lifted it. You feel as if you have expanded your awareness. I have

made you aware. You know after a Soul-to-self talk, you are more than you think you are

and you also know whatever you think you are is always an illusion.

SELF: Let me see if I understand you. I feel my Soul, but I don’t see it, speak to it, or

hear it. Is this correct?

SOUL: You see Me whenever you see a newborn child. You talk to Me whenever you

speak to a five-year-old. You hear Me speak when you listen to an old woman tell you

about her life. You hear Me sing to you in a Beethoven symphony, in a Philip Glass

composition, or a song by Ray Charles. You read My words in the lines of Hamlet, To be

or not to be, or in the words of Eldridge Cleaver in his book, Soul On Ice. you hear Me

in a child’s poem. You feel Me whenever you sense the beauty of the world or its

sadness. You feel me present at moments of great tragedy such as the loss of child or

parent.

SELF: I certainly understand what you are saying, but this still doesn’t prove that You,

my Soul, are anything more than a romantic illusion. Could you explain how I can know

You exist?

SOUL: You can if you change your way of seeing. You don’t know that I exist as long as

you continue to see the world materially. You know Me when you feel the presence of

something sacred within you that can’t be explained by mere satisfaction of physical

sensation. You like all of humanity feel My presence when you feel compassionately

aware of each other.

SELF: So, if I hear You correctly, You are more than comforting thought. I have never

seen You. In fact I have never even heard You speak to me as You are now.

SOUL: I do not appear to you as an object in space. Nor do I speak to you with a voice

separate from your own. In spite of all that, I exist. To call Me an illusion may be

correct from a certain materialistic position. But according to your understanding of

such things as quantum physics, the material world stands on shaky grounds and so

cannot be trusted to provide the complete foundation of reality anyway. It certainly

should not be used as the basis for the evidence of My presence.

SELF: Do you have any advice you can give me to help me cope with the world, life,

death, and all of my problems?

SOUL: I do not have a material form. I am imaginal and therefore the basis for all of

reality. Learn to listen. Take some quiet time. When all of humanity learns to do this My

voice will be heard throughout the universe as the voice of compassion and reason that

Page 20

has always existed. When this occurs, all of humanity will be truly free and I will sing

until the end of time.

Dr. Fred Alan Wolf earned a Ph. D. in theoretical physics from UCLA. He continues to

write, lecture throughout the world, and conduct research on the relationship of quantum

physics to consciousness. He is the National Book Award Winning author of Taking the

Quantum Leap and many other books including The Spiritual Universe. He is a member

of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Scholars and a member of the distance

education consciousness studies faculty of the Holmes Institute.

Dr. Wolf has taught at the University of London, the University of Paris, the

Hahn-Meitner Institute for Nuclear Physics in Berlin, The Hebrew University of

Jerusalem, and San Diego State University in the United States. His latest book is

entitled Mind into Matter.