HJ: Terms like soul, spirit and higher self are often used in an interchangeable and confusing way, but there is definitely a hierarchy and system to it all, which spiritual teacher Michael Roads explains in this fascinating, slightly esoteric article on the makeup of your consciousness.
– Truth
The Difference Between Soul, Spirit and Higher Self
By Michael Roads
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You and I are souls clothed in both a physical body and identity. It is soul that is supposed to incarnate from one so-called lifetime to another, but the words we use to describe this tend to create a false picture. The suggested image is that we die, then through rebirth we incarnate onto Earth once again. In other words, the image is birth, death and rebirth, over and over. This image is false.
Body dies, identity clings, and soul continues forever. Our life is actually the continuity of soul, using one body/identity after another to continue our journey of soul growth, of expanding consciousness, of Self awareness. I mostly describe this process as a movie, The Continuity of Self. Who we are never dies, thus is never reborn, but continues on in a greater frame of timeless time. Soul/Self has no linear measure of time. Body/identity measures the passing of linear time by the ageing of the body, for physically we live in a linear reality. This gives us “cause and effect” and “polarity”, both wonderful tools for the growth and expansion of our human consciousness.
Unfortunately, however, it has also caused us to believe in our mortality, to believe and accept that we actually die. For many people death means the absolute end, while others think that we lay in a grave waiting for a clarion call to rise again from the dead. Yet others think that we live in heaven… or hell… all according to the way we conducted our single life. And, oh so many people believe in a judgement day by some vengeful God.
In a Greater Reality all time occupies the same space. I call this Spherical time. It means we live in the eternal moment. Both soul and Higher Self know this, but soul moves in and out of linear time as part of its growth process. And during this growth process, which in linear terms can span many thousands of years – while in a greater reality occupies the eternal moment – the soul forgets its Truth. Soul forgets, so it depends on identity to give name and meaning to life. But as soul grows, so it gradually – or suddenly – connects with its greater Truth, and soul knows itself as Self. In this process, identity/ego no longer has any true meaning, no longer serves us the daily fear and illusions of separation, for Self knows its Oneness with all life.
Personally, I do not like to use the term ‘Higher’ Self. Higher Self implies that the identity – I/me – is a lower self, and this is not true. You and I are soul/Self on a journey to discover the ‘I Am’ Self through the experiences of the identity/soul self. This is why we are here. There is no other reason. Ambition, goal setting, and all the ‘trappings of success’ are exactly that, subtle traps that feed the fears of identity/ego while further trapping identity/ego in illusion.
Okay, how can financial success feed a fear when it would appear to alleviate it? Fear is always based in falsity, in illusion. So anything that makes fear appear to go away is feeding and nourishing fear. Many years ago I kept pigs. When it was their mealtime they would scream in loud and piercing shrieks for their food, and with over a hundred of them I would hurry to get them fed to stop the ear-splitting crescendo. Of course, the peace lasted only until the next mealtime. This is how fear is. You buy the meal ticket to stop fear screaming, but the moment you can no longer buy the next meal ticket, the screaming begins again. And during this whole process the appetite of the pigs/fear gets bigger and bigger. You can see where this leads. It leads to lifetimes of conditioned reaction to doing anything to stop the screams of fear that echo through your very Being. This is the journey of soul when the going gets tough.
I look at some of the people who consider themselves very successful, and I am aware that in their self-delusion/illusion they have no idea of the process of soul/life. They are driven to make more money, to create more financial security for their ego/identity driven fears that many of them do not even recognise. This condition keeps the hospitals full and busy! Blind faith can be a temporary fix, but it offers no permanent solution. To make matters even worse, most people in this situation – and they number billions – have no idea of what the situation truly is. Their whole focus is the illusion/problem, rather than the Truth/solution. An intellectual approach will offer nothing, for it is the intellect that believes in and creates the self-deceit of illusion. Intellect is a long- established isolationist, while intelligence expresses through and from wholeness. When, or if, we use intelligence to deal with fear, we quickly find that fear has no foundation within itself; it has to be created. Wholistic intelligence never gives any valid reason to create fear; isolated intellect creates fear by following a negative “what if” set of worst possible scenarios.
Before I leave this I would like to offer the way out of fear. Trust! Trust in Self. Trust that despite all possible evidence to the contrary, you are both adequate and capable. Trust that the immortal Being you truly are has the intelligence to deal with anything that comes into your life. After all, you are the author of the book of your life! Trust that you truly are a magnificent, metaphysical, multidimensional Being of Love and Light. This is your Truth. Trust it.
In all life there is spirit. You are a spiritual Being. The soul whom you are is the growth of the individualisation of spirit. In every moment of your life you are expressing spirit… and all spirit is One. Spiritually, you are One with all life, with every person. Positively accepting or negatively critical, the way you think is the way you will treat yourself and other people, and it is the way you will create for life to deal with you. Every life form in Nature is an expression of spirit, the same spirit that expresses in you.
Through spirit you are connected to everything. Nothing is outside Self, for Self is a boundless and measureless expression of spirit. When soul withdraws from the body, spirit remains with soul, for just as soul is an expression of spirit, so is body an expression of soul. Spirit cannot die, life cannot die. All that happens at so-called human death is that consciousness/spirit/soul withdraws from the physical body, continuing as a metaphysical Being of Love and Light on a non-physical level of expression. You are an eternal Being of Love with the freedom to express Self in whatever way you care to imagine. Your imagination is creation; whatever you continually imagine you will eventually experience. Be careful with your imagination. Look on imagination as meaning; the inner images you create will invariably be part of your life. Imagine yourself as a Being of Love and Light. That’s wisdom!
In Love and Light,
Michael
Stepping… Between… Realities…
Michael Roads’ latest book “Stepping… Between… Realities…” is available now on Amazon.
In “Stepping…”, Michael’s metaphysical adventures take him to the galaxy in which we physically live – a galaxy with which we have only a remote relationship. He metaphysically enters a black hole for an experience beyond his wildest imaginings, encountering amazing astral worlds and meeting a galactic Being who is a galaxy within itself.
Michael explains, “Over my lifetime I have learned that it is possible to move into my metaphysical Light-body and access that greater reality. I step between realities. This book is filled with my own insights gained by metaphysically journeying into realms and realities beyond imagination. My consciousness-expanding journey into the dynamic, living energy we call our sun, is just one such indication of the miraculous universe in which we live. The galaxy is not dead matter and endless space; it is filled with consciousness, purpose, direction… life!”
Stepping Between Realities is available on Amazon in softcover and kindle editions. You can also check out Michael’s back catalogue of books here.
Michael Roads discovered at an early age he was able to communicate with nature and go beyond linear time and space. He immigrated to Australia in 1963 where he was a beef and dairy farmer, and prominent in the early organic movement. He wrote the first book on organic gardening in Australia, which was an immediate best seller.
After becoming spiritually awakened in 1986, Michael wrote about his metaphysical experiences and has since published 14 books, translated into 16 languages. 2014 marks his 23rd year of traveling around the world giving talks and 5-day intensives on unconditional love and emotional balance.
Connect with Michael at michaelroads.com and Facebook/MRoads.
“For you to respect life, nature and people requires first a respect for yourself” ~ Michael
