2: THE DOOR TO PERCEPTION
Soul Ages: The Source of Your Beliefs
Beliefs are a result of the soul’s influence, and are what gives people their perspective on the world. No two people share exactly the same beliefs. Each individual believes the world is as they see it, yet they understand just a small part of it.
—THE AUTHOR’S CAUSAL GUIDES
The Door to Perception opens to reveal the seemingly perplexing world of beliefs.
Before I discovered the source of our beliefs, I used to scratch my head and wonder why two people of similar intelligence and education could end up being poles apart politically and socially.
What made one person join the NRA and another the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence?
Why would two people see the world so differently that one would become a right-wing Republican, and the other a liberal Democrat?
And why do you always seem to get a complete package? Why is it that if someone holds fundamentalist religious views, you can predict where they stand on abortion, gay marriage, the death penalty, and the right to bear arms?
And speaking of religion, why are there six major faiths and not just one?
When I discovered the answer, the wide spectrum of beliefs that appears to be unique to our species suddenly made complete sense. Let’s take a look at some examples of this diversity.
“The death penalty is both cruel and unnecessary. The dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.”
—POPE JOHN PAUL II
“The death penalty is our society’s recognition of the sanctity of human life.”
—SENATOR ORRIN HATCH OF UTAH
“Marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”
—JUDGE FRANCIS YOUNG OF THE DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY
“All casual drug users should be taken out and shot.”
—DARYL GATES, FORMER LOS ANGELES POLICE CHIEF
“What greater pain could mortals have than this: to see their children dead before their eyes?”
—EURIPIDES, THE PHILOSOPHER
“Well, they’re just Communists. They deserve to die.”
—JESSE HELMS, FORMER U.S. SENATOR (ON THE MURDER OF A GROUP OF NICARAGUAN CHILDREN, DOCTORS, AND NURSES)
“Each one of them is Jesus in a distressing disguise.”
—MOTHER TERESA (ON PEOPLE WITH AIDS)
“AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals.”
—REVEREND JERRY FALWELL
There we have it: life is sacred—and we have to kill people to uphold that ideal.
Marijuana is beneficial—and its users should be taken out and shot.
There is nothing worse than the sight of a dead child—unless its beliefs are contrary to your own.
And AIDS sufferers are on a par with Jesus—yet deserve to die.
It probably goes without saying that, when it comes to our beliefs, we humans are the most diverse species on the planet.
Our beliefs both unite us and divide us. They’re at the root of all our conflicts, whether they’re religious, political, or ideological, and yet they’ll bring us together in places of worship and political and social organizations.
The conviction that our way is the only way can lead us to take extreme measures against those who don’t see the world the way we do. Centuries ago, the Crusaders slaughtered their way through the Middle East, convinced of the righteousness of their cause. And in 1568, the entire population of the Netherlands was condemned to death by the Pope in an attempt to stamp out Calvinism.
We’ll even put our beliefs before our own lives. Buddhist monks burned themselves alive to protest the Vietnam War, and in the Middle East, suicide bombers kill themselves along with others for the sake of their cause.
But where do our beliefs come from? Is it the influence of our parents and how we’re brought up? If that were the case, you’d expect siblings to agree on everything. And if you have a brother or a sister, you’ll know how unlikely that is.
It can’t be the result of education. College graduates disagree with each other all the time.
And it’s not just a question of intelligence, either. If it were, all people with an IQ of 104 would see eye to eye on everything.
Quite simply, your beliefs are a reflection of how old you are on a soul level, and to what degree you’re caught up in the Illusion, the barrier between this plane and the next.
In the same way that a five-year-old sees the world very differently from a senior citizen, a young soul has an outlook on life quite unlike that of an old soul.
But how does one soul get to be older than the next?
The answer is reincarnation. The key to our evolution is the fact that we can come back to this plane time and time again to learn what it is to be human.
Your soul wants a master’s degree—not an evening class. If it only had one lifetime here, it wouldn’t really learn very much. Thanks to reincarnation, however, each of us will get a well-rounded education over many, many lifetimes.
Why You See the World the Way You Do
Several thousand years and many lifetimes ago, you came into the world as a Level 1 soul. And by the time you leave, at the end of Level 10, you might have something like 120 to 150 lives behind you.
Your soul’s evolutionary path takes the soul from a state of fear to one of love, from acting out of self-interest to altruism. On its journey, its understanding of the world is in a state of constant flux.
One lifetime might, for example, teach your soul what it’s like to be unfairly imprisoned. From then on, it will have a greater sense of injustice. Another life might be spent as a government official, learning about power and authority. In this way, every lifetime builds upon the last, to create multiple layers of awareness.
A Word about Soul Ages
In this world where youth is worshipped, many people want to be younger than they are. Yet when it comes to the soul, suddenly everyone wants to be old. So let me state as clearly as possible:
• Your soul age is what it is.
• An old soul is no better or worse than a young soul.
• If you’re an old soul now, you were once a young soul and saw the world from a young soul’s perspective.
The soul ages are broken down into two halves or chains: young and old. A chain contains five levels, each of which may take as few as five or as many as twenty lifetimes to complete, depending on the rate at which objectives are achieved. Like the links in a piece of jewelry, each level is separate, yet connected to the whole.
Once the major lesson of each level is absorbed, it will become a permanent part of the soul’s experience. Level 2, for example, is all about learning to cooperate with others. From that point on, an understanding of the importance of cooperation will be with the soul throughout all its lives on this plane.
The Ten Soul Ages
The young soul chain: • The Level 1 soul • The Level 2 soul • The Level 3 soul • The Level 4 soul • The Level 5 soul |
The old soul chain: • The Level 6 soul • The Level 7 soul • The Level 8 soul • The Level 9 soul • The Level 10 soul |
As we progress through each level, we learn lessons that are appropriate for the experience of our soul. As we battle with the Illusion, we learn to overcome the risk and embrace the advantage associated with each stage of our soul’s growth.
Advantages, Risks, and the Illusion
The Illusion is, quite simply, the belief that what you see is all there is—that life begins and ends on the Physical Plane.
Risks are the result of ignoring your soul’s guidance, and prevent you from experiencing everything your soul wants you to in your lifetime.
Living the life your soul intended requires that you break through the barrier of the Illusion. The way to do that is to follow your soul’s guidance by embracing the advantage associated with each element of the Instruction.
Every single person on the planet has the ability to overcome the Illusion. They simply have to want to.
As it makes its way through its many lifetimes, the soul gradually casts aside the Illusion to overcome fear and self-interest. Each lifetime builds on the successes and failures of the last, until we finally learn that love and understanding are the forces that unite us.
The Level 1 Soul
Advantage: Identification
Risk: Apprehension
In their first few lives, Level 1 souls deliberately avoid having to deal with the modern world. They feel apprehensive about being on a planet where everyone seems to know the rules but them.
They usually choose to live in small communities where they can avoid complexity. In simple cultures, these novice souls learn to take their first steps, often through learning trades or skills that will support them.
The Level 1 Need for Simplicity
The Level 1 soul is easily overwhelmed by technology and complexity. You wouldn’t take a three-year-old from a remote farm in Idaho, place it on the corner of fourteenth and third in downtown Manhattan, and expect it to know how to safely cross the street.
Nor can you transport a Level 1 soul from the simplicity of an isolated village and expect it to fit into the rough and tumble of corporate life on Wall Street.
Level 1 souls create rules and rituals that give them a sense of security. It’s all part of learning what it is to be human.
The advantage associated with being a Level 1 soul is identification: learning to see yourself as an individual and, at the same time, discovering the importance of belonging to a culture. Shared beliefs, values, and codes of behavior are an essential part of the Level 1 education. The risk at this level is apprehension, where a fear of being on the Physical Plane can cause many of these very young souls to withdraw from the world.
Level 1 souls are generally poor at using language because it’s so new to them. Their literature, their art, and their understanding of the world tend to be extremely limited.
But by the time they’ve completed this level (and that might take several lifetimes), they’ll be ready to handle more complex lessons about cooperating and sharing with others.
The Level 2 Soul
Advantage: Cooperation
Risk: Mistrust
Level 2 souls are less afraid of the world than they were in their first few lifetimes. Still, they prefer not to take any chances. They protect themselves with AK-47s, draconian laws, and vengeful gods. They see the world in terms of black and white, them and us, and good and evil. Their fundamentalism and obedience to authority helps them avoid facing what might be uncomfortable questions.
Being relatively new to the world makes these inexperienced souls easily taken advantage of. In the past, carpetbaggers would prey on them. These days, they end up being suckered by politicians who ship their jobs overseas while promising to keep them safe from terrorists, immigrants, gays, and other distractions and scapegoats.
By deliberately disconnecting themselves from the mainstream, Level 2 souls can get used to being on the Physical Plane without fear of running into the kind of opposing views that might threaten their rigid beliefs. For this reason, they tend to choose to live in rural areas or small towns where they can learn this level’s advantage: the importance of cooperation with others.
They create strict laws, usually wrapped up in religious language, to help keep them on the straight and narrow. Only their God is the true God, and everyone else will perish in hell or be refused entrance to the afterlife.
Since their experience is too narrow to allow them to understand other souls, Level 2 souls assume that those who don’t subscribe to the same rigid codes of behavior lack a moral compass.
And because other souls don’t see the world like they do, those “others” must be bad. And if they’re bad, they must be punished—which is why Level 2 souls use the courts to legislate morality. The world’s prisons are packed with those whose crimes are victimless but offend Level 2 sensibilities. They include prostitutes, drug users, homosexuals, blasphemers, and political dissenters.
Mistrust of others (the risk) is at its peak at Level 2, which makes it hard to attain genuine intimacy, and leads to a discomfort with sex. It’s their belief that human desires are not something to be enjoyed—they’re dirty and shameful.
Since Level 2 souls lack experience, they can’t begin to understand those unlike themselves. They perceive huge gulfs between races, religions, and genders. Their men regard themselves as better than women, whose place is very much in the home. (Very young souls equate physical strength with superiority.)
Misogyny
Depending on how much they’re wrapped up in the Illusion, and the kind of society in which they live, younger-soul men will find different ways of expressing their fear of women by subjugating them. They jail prostitutes, stone adulteresses, mandate female circumcision, refuse girls an education, and deny contraception or the opportunity to terminate a pregnancy.
In many societies, Level 2 women assist in their own subjugation because of their belief that they should be subservient to men.
The genuine recognition that men and women are equal doesn’t come until after the soul graduates to become an old soul.
Throughout history, those Level 2 souls who are most in thrall to the Illusion have tried to clamp down on what they fear or don’t understand: Elvis, blue jeans, the corrupting influence of other cultures, marijuana, civil rights, equal rights, sex toys, pornography, contraception, conflicting religions, gay rights, alcohol, rap music, and freedom of speech.
It will be a long time before they learn to live and let live.
The Level 3 Soul
Advantage: Belonging
Risk: Conformity
Level 3 souls tend to act emotionally rather than rationally. They’ll buy a truck because they believe it’s the “Heartbeat of America.” It doesn’t matter that it’s actually made in Canada or Mexico.
These souls want to belong (the advantage), whether it’s as part of the family or the nation. They create strong families, which they glue together with firm religious beliefs and strict moral codes.
Their real need is to fit into their community, and as they do this they often slip into the risk, which is conformity. A Level 3 soul would never let their lawn become overgrown with weeds and stand out from everyone else’s. And they’re attracted to places like mega-churches where they can blend in and feel part of the majority.
Few things escape Level 3 souls more than a protestor in a foreign country burning the Stars and Stripes. They see it as a sign of the utmost contempt.
In the US, younger souls have fought for decades to keep the Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina statehouse. For Level 2 and 3 souls, wherever they happen to be, the flag is a vitally important symbol of their own identity, which is why they refuse to surrender it without a fight.
At Level 3, there is still a need for safety and reassurance. Thanks to the influence of these souls, recently published books reveal that the Grand Canyon was formed not five to six million years ago, as science would have it, but in the last few thousand years. Creationism offers a kind of certainty that can’t be found in complex scientific theories.
Level 3 souls’ lives are more urban than those in the previous stages. They develop well-functioning, though insular, societies, where the trains always run on time, and everyone can enjoy the benefits of belonging to a community—providing they fit in.
Work hard, go to a socially approved place of worship, be a good citizen, and everything will be fine.
Contradict the community’s beliefs, upset the status quo, or step out of line, and you’re in trouble. That’s because conformity, and the safety it offers, is so vitally important to them.
Like those at the previous level, these souls are still a little uncomfortable with intimacy. Their focus is very much outward. And because they don’t look within for answers, they place the blame for life’s ills on scapegoats: single mothers, welfare cheats, immigrants, and gays.
Young souls, particularly those at Level 3, are drawn to nationalism (something they confuse with patriotism). Their country, whichever one it happens to be, is the greatest nation on earth. And since they identify with their country, which they see as a reflection of themselves, its strength becomes their strength.
Political and military leaders, who are most often at Level 5, have always exploited this trait to gain support for military or imperialistic ventures. Level 3 souls have traditionally marched off to war, whistling patriotic songs, convinced that dying for their country is an honor.
Dulce et Decorum Est
You might think, given the way younger souls tend to be more willing than older souls to march into battle, that they have no fear of death.
In fact, they have a great deal of fear connected with death. One way they control the fear is through a belief in a glorious afterlife, where they’ll be rewarded for their bravery.
Vikings created a complex mythology surrounding death. Slain warriors, it was believed, would spend eternity in Valhalla, where they’d be treated as heroes.
Level 3 souls believe that certain individuals are innately superior to others. They revere monarchs, presidents, and religious figures (as long as they feel their values are being respected).
Thanks to a belief in their own inferiority and the need to belong, Level 3 souls who are disadvantaged gain solidarity from being around others who are equally disadvantaged. Those who break out of this conformity can be threatening. If one of them flies too high and crashes back to ground, they’ll be held up as an example of someone who forgot their place in the natural order of things.
Advantage: Expansion
Risk: Hypocrisy
By the time the soul graduates to Level 4, it has begun to lose much of the awkwardness and discomfort it once felt so acutely. It starts to get much more involved in the running of things. Like a little kid trying to join in a game with bigger kids, the Level 4 soul wants to emulate those he or she looks up to.
And that would be those at the next level. Like a cool older brother, Level 5 souls are comfortable in their own skins and understand the rules of the game. In contrast, Level 4 souls are conscious of their own lack of sophistication. Still, this level is all about achieving the advantage: expansion. These souls are going to put themselves out into the bigger world whether they’re ready or not.
Level 4 souls make a big impact on their offspring. Their own desire to achieve makes them committed parents. They want their children to do well, in part because their successes will reflect well on Mom and Dad, but also because at this level they’re starting to recognize that their children are unique individuals, not simply extensions of themselves.
This is a difficult stage. Behind them, they have the morality of younger souls, and ahead is the often unabashed materialism of Level 5.
As they try awkwardly to straddle both God and Mammon, they often fall into the risk, hypocrisy, where their lack of worldly experience shows itself.
They’ll rail at others for their moral failings, but will later be found to have a gambling problem, drug addiction, or an illegitimate child. When they get busted, their tendency is to deny they have a problem or blame the media (“they took my words out of context”), their political opponents (“I’m the victim of a smear campaign”), or their past beliefs (“I used to be a sinner, but now I’m born again”).
During their childhood years, many European kings had a whipping boy, a servant who’d take a beating for his young master’s failings in the classroom.
Level 4 souls often find a whipping boy to punish for crimes they themselves have committed (even if they’re not crimes in anyone’s eyes but their own). It helps them exorcise their feelings of guilt or shame.
In recent years, a Level 4 soul mayor of the city of Spokane, Washington, spent much of his career opposing gay rights. He sponsored a bill that not only called for gays and lesbians to be barred from jobs in schools and day-care centers, but would also have had them fired simply for being gay or lesbian.
Then he was caught surfing the net for male companionship. He’d tried to trade sex in exchange for a government job, and ended up losing his own.
The Level 4 mayor’s whipping boys were gays—in whom he saw his own “failings” reflected back at him.
As they begin to branch out into the world, Level 4 souls build strong communities and take a greater-than-ever interest in education and developing particular careers. They’re looking for specific lessons that will help them survive in the competitive world of Level 5.
The Level 5 Soul
Advantage: Exploration
Risk: Exploitation
Level 5 souls are exciting, dynamic, and always striving to push things forward. If it weren’t for them, we’d probably all still be traveling by horse and cart.
Level 5 souls fully embrace the world. In fact, they believe it’s theirs for the taking. The uncertainty of younger soul ages is replaced by a feeling of self-assurance. They roam the world with confidence, determined to make their mark and their fortune in equal measure as they investigate the advantage: exploration.
The grip of the Illusion is at its strongest at this level. Genuine spiritual awakening may still be possible, but it will take great effort to achieve. For many, the Spiritual Plane is about as real as Neverland.
For those who are wrapped up in the Illusion, the risk or downside of their ambition is exploitation. Their tendency is to take what they want, regardless of the long-term consequences.
The courage of their convictions inspires a belief in the civilizing effects of imperialism. Throughout history, they’ve conquered other societies to bring them the benefits of a more technological and, in their eyes, a more advanced culture.
Level 5 souls love the excitement of politics, with all its opportunities for self-advancement and intrigue. Yet those of them who are most in thrall to the Illusion don’t want to govern so much as rule. Even if their country is at war, the real enemy is always the opposition party (if one is tolerated).
And when it comes to war, they find it a great way to express their power. Their leaders send mighty armies to battle the mighty armies of other Level 5 leaders in the belief that the answer to violence is more violence. They equate belligerence with power, which they don’t clearly distinguish from strength. And because the opposite of strength is weakness, and they fear being seen as weak, they feel it’s important to act tough.
After a US Navy warship shot down an Iranian passenger plane, killing 290 civilians, Level 5 former president George H. W. Bush said, “I will never apologize for the United States, ever. I don’t care what the facts are.”
His comments reflect the Level 5 soul’s strength of conviction and fear of weakness, and also a lack of connection that comes from being fully immersed in the Illusion.
Even though aggressors have a poor chance of actually winning a war, the Illusion prevents many young souls from learning from experience or from the past. They’ll invade another country in the belief that the war will be over in weeks, or that they’ll be greeted with open arms. The lessons of history are lost on them.
Level 5 souls build great cities that buzz with activity. And because they’re always pushing forward, technology advances at breathtaking speed. Their thirst for novelty guarantees that a market will always be there for new products.
Power: The Level 5 Soul Aphrodisiac
Each soul age has its own particular focus. At the end of the young soul chain, the soul is learning all about exploration. Part of this lesson is about wielding power.
Power in itself is such an attraction that Level 5 souls will often accept a significant drop in income in exchange for a job with more status and the opportunity to exert greater power and influence.
Wall Street is a Level 5 soul invention, as are massive corporations. They appeal to the Level 5 soul’s desire to make an impact on the world. (It should be pointed out, however, that souls of all ages end up working for these organizations.)
From Alexander the Great to most US presidents, virtually every world leader has been a Level 5 soul. All of them have created change, both good and bad, welcome and unwelcome. They’re the reason political boundaries are continually changing.
These souls have little time for introspection—that won’t come until they graduate to the next level. And they still have the young soul tendency to isolate themselves. In this case, they do it by building gated communities and apartment blocks that limit social interaction.
Face lifts and boob jobs are the Level 5 soul’s way of prolonging youth. The underlying belief is that old age equals death, and young souls have a fear of their own mortality that won’t dissipate until they’re well into the next level.
Old Souls
The Level 6 Soul
Advantage: Introspection
Risk: Self-Doubt
At the point souls evolve from young to old, they undergo a 180-degree flip as their focus shifts from exploring outward to exploring inward. This search for the meaning of life is called the Quest, and will last from the beginning of Level 6 until their final lifetime on Earth at the end of Level 10.
The Quest is the pursuit of self-knowledge. It begins with the desire to understand the purpose of life and gradually transforms into a desire to understand the purpose of one particular life: your own.
Instead of accepting conventional wisdom, Level 6 souls question everything. Thanks to the shift in perspective, the guilelessness of earlier soul ages is replaced with skepticism. They begin to see that the world isn’t quite the place those in authority tell them it is.
When their souls were much younger, they used to put up with injustice in the belief that they’d get their reward in the hereafter.
Now they’re not so compliant.
They want more fairness for themselves and those around them, and they want it in this life, not the next. For that reason, they form trade unions, cooperatives, and other organizations that offer mutual support.
Level 6 souls begin to find materialism shallow, yet they’re not sure where happiness does lie. They sense a need for deeper meaning in their lives. They may even describe themselves as spiritual rather than religious.
They explore themselves through literature and art. (They are creative, though rarely innovative.) Other people become fascinating creatures, and learning what makes them tick helps Level 6 souls learn what they, themselves, are all about.
The fear that once made them wary of those who appear different begins to lessen its grip. Having reincarnated many times in a variety of races and cultures helps them to develop acceptance. It also helps them to lose the fear of death that afflicts so many younger souls.
Thanks to the Quest, and their newfound introspection (this level’s advantage), instead of looking for problems outside of themselves they look inward, often creating mountains out of their own personal molehills. And thanks to the risk, self-doubt, they’ll suffer deep conflicts over issues such as their spiritual beliefs or sexual orientation.
As the Illusion takes a less prominent role in their lives, they gravitate toward pacifism. Discomfort with armed conflict begins at Level 6. There are two reasons.
The first is that multiple lifetimes on the battlefield teach older souls about the futility of war. The second is that the introspection that begins at this level creates a dawning awareness that we humans are actually all connected.
As this consciousness grows, Level 6 souls lose the will to rule and dominate. They see that diplomacy and cooperation are actually the best way to have their needs met.
By the time they leave this stage of their development behind, these souls will have gained the insight necessary to take them into Level 7.
The Level 7 Soul
Advantage: Innovation
Risk: Anxiety
Young-soul drive and old-soul introspection collide at Level 7, resulting in spectacular achievements. Great inventions are created, masterpieces are painted, and new discoveries are made. Level 7 Souls brought us aviation (the Wright brothers), the Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo), and penicillin (Alexander Fleming).
Innovative Level 7 souls played huge roles in the Renaissance, the ages of discovery and enlightenment, and many medical and technological breakthroughs. In fact, innovation is the advantage at Level 7. Never before or after this stage will they be quite so creative, inventive, or curious. Their drive will diminish from this point on.
Having fully embraced the Quest, they can be self-absorbed to the point where neurosis sets in. Angst-ridden poets and artists appear, all of them looking for the meaning of something: art, literature, and particularly life itself.
These souls are unfamiliar with self-analysis, yet they do their best, writing complex philosophies that make life seem much more complicated than it is.
They feel the need to continually further their understanding of the world. This urge, combined with the desire to help each other, results in the creation of societies and organizations dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge.
One Percent Inspiration
The great inventor Thomas Edison had the energy and drive of a young soul. But, in fact, he was at Level 7, and that’s what gave him the ability to tap into inspiration from the Soul World.
One of Edison’s more old-soul habits was to hold small brass balls in his hands while he went into a meditative state. Just as he reached that point between being awake and asleep, his grip would relax, he’d drop the balls, and the noise would wake him up. Then he’d write down the inspired thoughts that came to him.
He claimed that “genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” That 1 percent came from the other side.
It may interest you to know that Edison’s last words were, “It’s very beautiful over there.” Was he referring to the view from his bedroom window, or did he catch a glimpse of a world beyond?
At this level, the world becomes more fascinating than ever before, thanks to a dimension that was previously missing: inner complexity.
Level 7 souls discover unplumbed depths within themselves. Tortured artists look for other tortured souls so they won’t feel quite so alone. They find it exciting to be in the presence of those who share their passion for discussion and analysis.
Insecurity and great art and music go hand in hand because so many artists and musicians are, or were, at this level. Impressionist painter Édouard Manet and composer Ludwig van Beethoven are typical examples of angst-ridden genius. The Impressionists were almost all Level 7 souls. And, like many groups of artists before and since, they struggled with the purpose of life and the meaning of art.
The consequence of all this intensity and drama can be a kind of sensory overload. Anxiety (the risk) ensues, preventing these souls from achieving whatever it was they originally set out to do.
What unites Level 7 souls is a love of life’s luxuries, particularly good food and wine. They take a great interest in the arts of all kind, and are especially drawn to whatever breaks new ground.
The Level 8 Soul
Advantage: Reciprocity
Risk: Complacency
Level 8 souls are fully immersed in their lives. They have emotionally intense relationships that allow them to explore their multifaceted inner worlds.
They admire creativity but, unlike Level 7 souls, they’re more likely to be patrons of the arts than actually artists.
At Level 8, the growing comprehension that we’re all one results in far greater concern for others. The advantage at this level is reciprocity, where the need to learn the ins and outs of mutual dependence drives them to create a better world.
They get involved in politics and socially conscious charities, and seek out groups of people who, like them, want the world to be a better place. You can find them in progressive political parties, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, and Greenpeace. And though these organizations attract all kinds of souls, from Level 5 onward, it’s Level 8 souls who tend to participate the most.
Level 8 souls run the risk of complacency. It can happen when they join a group or committee. They put in lots of work, get heavily involved in the process, but ultimately change nothing. The fire in the belly that once made them highly driven younger souls is, by now, more of a smoldering ember. Sometimes they’ll forget that it’s not all about the journey—there are goals to achieve too.
Most Level 8 souls recycle and drive cars that contribute the least to global warming—traits that will last until they leave the Physical Plane at the end of Level 10. They want to create a pleasant living environment for themselves and others. (And that includes future residents of planet Earth.)
Lifetimes of experience have taught them that there is really no difference between people of different ethnic groups or genders. As the Illusion wears thin, even those who are fully immersed in it can’t avoid becoming more intensely connected to the Soul World. They begin to seek out peaceful solutions to conflicts, both personal and national.
With many dramatic incarnations behind them, Level 8 souls want to be left alone to live their lives in their own way. Their biggest fear is that they’ll have their lives disrupted in some way—by government intrusion, war, or invasion, for example.
Advantage: Self-Improvement
Risk: Preoccupation
Level 9 is a time to work on personal issues: confronting phobias, overcoming addictions, and correcting flaws.
Whether they know it or not, these senior-citizen souls are all working on issues from past lives. With so much grief and heartache behind them, many will spend a lifetime in therapy or finding ways to understand their emotional side.
As the Illusion loses its grip, spirituality gains immense importance. Now that they’re nearing Level 10, and with it their last few lifetimes on the Physical Plane, Level 9 souls develop a greater-than-ever consciousness that we’re all connected to each other.
They seek out faiths in which they feel comfortable, rather than the church they grew up in. Buddhism and contemplative practices allow them to connect to the universe in a profound way.
Spiritual Exploration
Level 9 souls like to explore their spirituality in intimate groups rather than huge places of worship. They’re attracted to retreats where they feel safe investigating themselves in the company of like-minded souls, often members of their own sex.
There are debts from previous lives that must be repaid, or at least worked on. (Level 9 souls don’t want to leave this penultimate level with unfinished business behind them.) They may spend several lifetimes completing lessons and balancing experiences to tie up loose ends from previous incarnations.
The advantage is self-improvement. The risk, however, is that Level 9 souls may become totally preoccupied with their own issues to the exclusion of more worldly concerns, like their careers or even their families.
Despite their advancing age, Level 9 souls still have some drive left in them. They’ll sometimes end up in the corporate world. And when they do (like Ben and Jerry), they’ll do their best to create ethical businesses with quality products. They’ll support charities and find ways to leave the world a better place.
The Level 10 Soul
Advantage: Compassion
Risk: Passivity
At Level 10, the soul is ready for retirement. Conventional ideas of success become meaningless. Materialism becomes less important than ever. Who cares about making money if you’ve got to be part of the rat race to do it?
There is a slightly lower level of self-absorption, now that the intense healing work of Level 9 is behind them. Most live quiet lives, doing work they love, in the hope it will contribute to society.
They can be highly talented but lacking in drive or ambition. Those around them may feel that they never quite reach their potential. The risk at this level is passivity. These easygoing souls have many lifetimes of achievement behind them, and often develop a sense of having been there and done it all before.
Sometimes a Level 10 soul will abandon a successful career to focus on something that interests them, even if it means a huge drop in income or status.
Level 10 souls usually don’t stand out as being anything unusual. More than any other souls, they’re likely to ignore prevailing fashions and go their own way. They might shop in the local Goodwill store—even if they can afford designer labels. Most people who are genuinely eccentric are Level 10 souls.
Clusters of Souls
Souls of a particular age will be drawn to certain countries or cities for the mutual lessons they hope to explore. That’s why whole regions can be identified as being of a specific soul age.
Norway, for example, is a predominantly Level 10 country. It has a strong social infrastructure and is unlikely to ever go to war against its neighbors.
Their focus is on expressing compassion (the advantage) and learning to be both physical and spiritual. Having compassion requires them to be very much part of the physical world in order that others can receive their love. As long as they can receive love in return, Level 10 souls can be happy just about anywhere (though they generally prefer tranquility over noise).
Altruism is at its peak at Level 10. With lifetimes of experience behind them, these souls see another person suffering and remember when they, too, were in that same situation.
As each lifetime takes them closer to returning to the Universal Consciousness, the Illusion becomes increasingly easy to overcome. They have, to some degree, the awareness that all of humanity is connected and deserving of respect. They can see the folly of war, the shallowness of unbridled materialism, and the dangers of unregulated power.
Old-Soul Altruism
Dorothy and Gwen Hennessey are sister-sisters, Franciscan nuns who are also birth sisters. At the ages of eighty-eight and sixty-eight, respectively, they were arrested and sentenced to six months each for protesting outside the notorious School of the Americas in Georgia. The school, renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security, is where soldiers from foreign countries come to learn torture techniques.
Neither Dorothy nor Gwen faces the slightest risk of being tortured in a foreign country themselves. They put their freedom on the line to help people they’ll never meet.
As Level 10 souls, they know in their hearts that we’re all one.
At this advanced age, the soul’s connection to others makes killing unacceptable. Level 10 souls oppose war, the death penalty, and torture.
Like peace activist Cindy Sheehan and Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness (both Level 10 souls who have been jailed for their opposition to violence), they may, in their last few lifetimes, become outspoken advocates for peace and justice.
Old souls like these are frightening to younger souls who are caught up in the Illusion, and they risk derision and even imprisonment for their actions. They often end up with huge FBI files that speak volumes about the way concepts like peace, freedom, fairness, and justice are really viewed by the younger-soul establishment.
Where Does the Self-Interest Go?
The soul’s journey, as I previously mentioned, takes it from a state of self-interest to altruism: selfless concern for the well-being of others.
Let me pose this question: what happens to the self-interest? In other words, where does it go?
I’ll give you the answer at the end of the book.
Level 10 souls, like most older souls, respect the environment, knowing that future generations will have to live with the planet we leave behind.
Their philosophies are uncomplicated and cut directly to the chase. Experience has taught them the profound nature of simple statements like “all you need is love,” “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” and “treat others as you’d have them treat you.”
Determine Your Own Soul Age
Now that we’ve explored each of the ten soul ages, it’s time to figure out where you fit into the great scheme of things.
Begin by entering a meditative state (you might want to refer to the section on meditation), then call in your spirit guides. Ask them for their help in determining your soul age.
Use the ten brief descriptions to help remind you of the focus of each level. Try not to over-analyze. Trust your intuition.
Level 1: Isolation, Apprehension, Simplicity, Naivety
Level 2: Fundamentalism, Nationalism, Conservatism, Discrimination
Level 3: Church, Community, Conservatism, Conformity
Level 4: Religion, Aspiration, Morality, Conservatism
Level 5: Ambition, Materialism, Power, Mainstream Views
Level 6: Unity, Social Justice, Drama, Self-questioning
Level 7: Complexity, Curiosity, Creativity, Intensity
Level 8: Sophistication, Liberalism, Environmentalism, Activism
Level 9: Spirituality, Self-improvement, Healing, Idealism
Level 10: Altruism, Connection, Eccentricity, Inertia
Soul Age: __________________________________________
Ask your spirit guides to support you in manifesting your soul age. Repeat the following:
“I call upon my Causal spirit guides, acting in my highest interest, to help me manifest my soul age to allow me to live the life my soul intended.”
When you’ve finished, thank your spirit guides and tell them, “Session over.”
• • •
The soul age has a profound impact on how you see the world. No matter how old you are in years, it’s your soul’s experience that will have the greatest effect on your beliefs and behavior.
Yet there is clearly more to who you are than just your soul age.
That’s why, next, we’re going to take a journey back in time, to explore an event that created our wondrous diversity and ensured that each of us would be born into the world with an acute sense of our own individuality.