The Science of SoulWork

      

By Jane Bailey Bain

Your soul story is the theme of your life. It explains who you are, dictates what you should do and shows where you should go. So it’s important that you believe it matters. Before we start work on your story, let’s take a quick look at the science that underlies it. Body, mind and soul: these are the three pillars of your existence. Your body performs in the physical world. Your mind functions on the mental plane. Your soul comes from the spiritual realm. Together, they form the ‘self’ as which you operate in this manifest world. Your body, mind and soul are intimately connected. You have a physical body which interacts with the outer world. You have a mental operating system which lets you control your body and affect external reality. And you have a soul, which connects with the physical world through your mind and body, but transcends both. How can we see these three levels working? Let’s look at this empirically. You’re fairly convinced that your body exists. On a functional level, this is easily evident: scratch yourself, and it hurts. Your mind also seems fairly incontrovertible. Sometimes the inside of your head seems more real than the external world. The soul’s existence is more difficult to prove. By definition it’s subjective, because it is your ‘self’. It reveals itself in subtle ways: dreams and visions, premonitions and intuitions. All of these are manifestations of cosmic energy. And energy by definition manifests through movement: positive and negative, joining and separating, forwards and backwards. All of these are aspects of relationship. So a good way of studying interpersonal energies is through your relationships with others. Physical, mental and spiritual: these are the dimensions of a good relationship. When you connect with your bodies, you have physical attraction. When you connect with your minds, you have intellectual compatibility. When you connect with your souls, you have true friendship. When you have all three, you have the potential for lasting love. But are these connections ‘real’? Maybe you think love is an illusion: something we imagine because no-one wants to be alone. Let’s look at the science and see how it works. When you touch someone physically, it forms a connection between you. The touch might be anything from a casual brush to a full-body hug. The feeling can range from a small fuzz to a lightning strike. It’s a very real sensation, and it has a tangible effect on the body. That’s because we’re all made of atoms. Any level of contact causes a flow of energy. When you sense these electric impulses, they operate like nerve impulses generated inside the body. Your brain arranges the release of neurotransmitters – oxytocin, cortisol, dopamine – which cause a physical response. You experience this response as emotion, arousal, excitement. Touching someone literally lets your bodies interconnect. When two minds meet, something similar happens. You don’t need physical contact to conduct electricity. The most dramatic example of this is lightning. In fact, even nerves inside the body don’t actually connect: the electrical impulse jumps over a tiny gap at each junction. (There’s a good reason for this design: if neural pathways were all set at birth, it would be much harder to repair or develop new networks.) When you are on the same ‘wavelength’ as someone, you can share thoughts without putting them into words. Is this a crazy new age idea? Not according to neurological research. Experiments at Washington and Harvard using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) show that telepathy is a real phenomenon. So far, so good: but what about the spirit? When you have that soul connection, it is truly magical. That is to say, it transcends the laws of our phenomenal world – as do the findings of modern science. Quantum physics shows that we are all part of a universal energy field. Some of this energy manifests as matter; some as heat; and some as light. Energy is never created or destroyed; it merely changes form. This is how plants make food out of sunlight. Photosynthesis is the basis for life on earth. But it doesn’t transform energy, merely its appearance. You were probably taught at school that everything is made of atoms. At CERN, physicists study the basic units of matter. They have found that an atom is not a solid structure but a vortex of electric particles. So the great mystics were right: everything is made of energy. Jane Bailey Bain is an author, speaker and creative coach. She studied Psychology at Oxford and Anthropology at LSE. Her books include ‘LifeWorks’ (2012), ‘StoryWorks’ (2015) and ‘SoulWorks’ (2018). Jane’s work draws on profound insights from psychology, anthropology and spirituality. Her approach is rooted in story analysis, life trajectory and personal development. She combines this with a wide range of practical tools and techniques. These help you actualize your dreams into future plans and goals. Soulworks is published by O Books, ISBN: 978-1-78535-713-8 (Paperback) £12.99 $19.95. janebailybain.com Jane Bailey Bain