What is the “soul,” anyway? Is it a ghostly blob of magic stuff within us that keeps us connected to the world of dreams and the divine realms? Is it an amorphous metaphor for the secret source of our spiritual power? Is it a part of us the rational mind can’t pin down and control, ensuring that 
we remain accessible to the numinous?
Yes. And also: The soul is a perspective that pushes us to go deeper and see further and live wilder. It’s what drives our imagination to flesh out our raw experience, transforming that chaotic stuff into rich storylines that animate our love of life. With the gently propulsive force of the soul, we probe beyond the surface level of things, working to find the hidden
meaning and truer feeling.
“If you need to visualize the soul,” wrote Tom Robbins, “think of it as across between a wolf howl, a photon, and a dribble of dark molasses. But what it really is, as near as I can tell, is a packet of information. It’s a program, a piece of hyperspatial software designed explicitly to interface with the Mystery. Not a mystery, mind you, the Mystery. The one that can never be solved.”
P.S. Here’s Robbins’ conclusion: “By waxing soulful you will have granted yourself the possibility of ecstatic participation in what the ancients considered a divinely animated universe.”
As part of the Beauty and Truth Lab’s ongoing crusade to wrestle the English language into a more formidable servant of the ecstatic impulse,we’re pleased to present some alternate designations for “soul.”
See if any of the following concoctions feel right coming out of your mouth:
1.undulating superconductor;
2. nectar plasma;
3. golden lather;
4. smoldering crucible;
5. luminous caduceus.
—Robert Breszny
“I tell you the more I think, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”
-Vincent van Gogh
Pablo Neruda says:
“To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life.
But to feel the affection that comes from those we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and our weakness — that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens the boundaries of our being,
and unites all living things.”
– as reported by Lewis Hyde in his book “The Gift”
