Old Souls – Am I an old soul? 4 questions for you to find out!
Do you find it tiring or annoying to face life’s challenges over and over again?
Do you find the misery in this world hard to bear? Do you wonder what it is all for?
Do you find people predictable? Do you get bored watching them make the same mistakes?
Are you tired of making a career out of elbows or driving around in a big, fat car to impress people?
If you answered YES to any of these questions, then read this article:
Human history is more complex than science believes.
The current scientific consensus is that our species originated around 400,000 years ago. Discoveries and findings on the African continent seem to prove this. Since then, mankind has continuously evolved into the kind of high-tech culture that we have today.
In contrast, Hinduism has a different view of things and a different calendar.
The so-called Yugas are epochs that span several million years and mark the gradual decline of our human culture.
According to this, man has already seen his best days at the beginning of his career and is now heading towards Kali-yuga – his decline. Is there any truth in this? Monumental structures such as the pyramids or Machu Picchu in South America testify to the existence of highly developed cultures on our planet.
Many discoveries from the distant past are still puzzling researchers. For example, it is still unclear how the pyramids were built and how the heavy stones at Stonehenge were set up. All these unanswered questions leave room for many fantastic theories and speculations. One of the most fantastic theories about the origin and development of mankind can be found in the books „Flower of Life – Volume 1 & 2“ by Drunvaldo Melchizedek.
In Melchizedek’s and many other spiritual works, the reason for the creation of man is seen as his spiritual development from life to life to eventually become a God-like being. The principle of reincarnation, the wandering of our souls through many lifetimes, is omnipresent in most traditional scriptures.
So it’s no wonder that many of us who are familiar with this principle ask ourselves: What roles have I played in my past lives? Have I achieved anything in the spiritual realm? Or is there still much to be done?
The childhood of the soul
The discovery that we can reconnect with the knowledge of the soul in regression sessions allows us to find some answers to these questions. We have found the following when working with clients: Souls who are just beginning to incarnate are open to new experiences and new challenges. These souls are in what is called a „childlike“ stage.
They walk this planet with their eyes open, eager to try out all the different possibilities that life has to offer. Of course they struggle and occasionally fail. Whether or not these souls draw the right conclusions from their experiences will be crucial to their future development.
It is still essential for them to train their ego to the right degree (not too much and not too little). This will help them deal with interpersonal relationships such as family and friendships, and with material challenges such as getting food and money. If we try to skip lessons during this ‚basic training‘ period, it will come back to bite us in subsequent incarnations.
We rarely encounter ‚childhood‘ souls in therapy as they do not ask themselves big philosophical questions such as ‚where do I come from‘ or ‚what is the reason for all this‘ and suffer from the lack of an answer. They also do not feel that they have been suffering from the same problem for a very long time. Therefore, young souls do not develop the kind of „hangover“ feeling that old souls tend to have.
You may ask, where do these beginner souls come from? There are many answers to this question and we can write another article about it. Perhaps just this much here: If you assume that even viruses, of which there are an infinite number in this world, have a soul (or at least a spark of it), you can get an idea of how big the pool is for replenishment in our world. If you want to know more about what a soul really is, read my article: „What is a soul? A scientific dispute“.
The puberty of the soul
At some point, when we decide (or it is decided) that we are ready for a greater task, we are entrusted with an incarnation of greater responsibility. We are born as healers who are responsible for the health of many people, as artists who have the task of inspiring people and teaching them to see things in a new way, or as guides and signposts.
This is a very delicate moment for the development of our soul, as our words and deeds have an effect not only on ourselves and our karmic fabric, but also on the fate of others. It is often at this stage that karmic entanglements arise that shape our further incarnations.
A judge who often rules well and correctly, but at a crucial moment acts wrongly, may shy away from making decisions for many further incarnations. Or a general who gets a terrible bloodlust during a battle and no longer distinguishes between soldiers, women and children and slaughters everything in his path. This rage can remain with his causal body, his soul, for a very long time.
If the soul does not face the consequences of its actions, the bloodlust or the fear of responsibility will never leave it. It will always avoid responsibility or, as an aggressive husband and father, it will never develop a loving relationship with family members.
The story continues until the soul is ready to look in the mirror, admit its mistakes and learn from them. Normally this process of ‚mirroring‘ between two lives happens when the soul is preparing for a new incarnation. However, a LBL session (life-between-life session) or Past Life Therapy can definitely speed up this important maturation process.
The two examples of the judge and the warrior explain why many of us feel like old souls. It is as if the soul is saying: „What? Another incarnation with a difficult woman? Another incarnation with a monotonous job? It’s like a curse!“ It cannot find a way out of the problem and feels worn out and exhausted by these tasks.
From the point of view of more evolved souls, this soul is only in its adolescence. It has not yet understood how to use its most important tools. These tools are the mind, the ego and the intellect. Together they make up the consciousness, which is constantly striving to expand.
The ultimate question of a pupating soul might be: „What is this all about? Who came up with all this nonsense about people and the world? It doesn’t make sense!“ This conviction burns deeper and deeper into our minds until we almost despair.
At this stage, our karmic shackles are pulling and tugging at all our nooks and crannies, and we lack the courage and strength to continue working on change. We are in the midst of a „soul development burnout“.
That’s why my teacher Hans TenDam often says: „Old souls are slow learners.“ They no longer want to be helped. They feel they have tried everything and therefore think they know better than others. And they are right. They already know from experience that this or that well-meaning piece of advice is useless.
But that doesn’t make it any easier for them. The developing soul now needs to find someone who has already passed through this stage and can offer some help for self-help. We need someone to help us develop the strength to overcome our weaknesses, to show us our blind spots and how to transform them ourselves.
Our darkest moments in life hold the potential for all-encompassing transformation. They are given to us when it is time for us to take that great leap of consciousness. Every crisis is an opportunity for transformation and should be seen as such. „Ah,“ you may say, „I already know that!“ Well, in that case, let’s get started! 😉
If you need some inspirational reading, check out „Conversations with God“ by Neal Donald Walsch. It’s a classic example of how an adolescent soul can finally jump over its shadow and start a new life.
Sounds good, but how do I put it into practice? If you want to learn more about soul transformation, read my article „What is Regression Therapy“.
mastery of the soul
Yes, there are those souls who (almost) made it. They live among us, often unnoticed. A soul that has achieved mastery is released from karmic bonds. A few may still remain to keep the soul attached to the body.
Master souls indulge in a state that we cannot describe in words. But this state is not visible from the outside, it is hidden deep in their hearts. Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, a great yogi who lived in the 20th century, used to say that such states can be recognised ‚only by those who have eyes to see‘.
Sometimes Master Souls themselves are not aware of their high state. They still consider themselves to be seekers, servants or abhyasis (Sanskrit word meaning ‚practitioners‘).
Now, how can we recognise such a Master Soul?
When we come into contact with such a person, we experience a deep peace and a new kind of balance within ourselves. We relax and feel good about being ourselves. This is because such personalities create a loving atmosphere of peace around them that others can feel.
If this is the case, spend some time with this person. Strike up a conversation. Find out what he or she does. New worlds may open up for you. Some say that we can tell the age of a soul by looking into the eyes of that person. This may be true, but these highly evolved souls are usually shy and avoid direct eye contact.
If you are able to look into the eyes of such a person, you will be amazed to find that there is an almost infinite depth behind them. It is like looking deep into the infinity of the universe.
It is beyond the scope of this article to go into these things in detail. However, those who wish to learn more about the highest and oldest souls in our world can read the book ‚My Master‘ by Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari.
In this book Rajagopalachari describes how he found his Master and what kind of (divine) qualities he was able to discover in him. The subtitle gives a clue as to what he found: „The essence of pure love“.
conclusion
If you are wondering how old your soul is and how to recognise other old souls, you have probably been wandering around on planet Earth for quite some time. Young souls are still busy finding their way in this new world, and old souls (so-called master souls), well, they no longer care about their soul age.
To believe that you are already an old soul and that you have nothing new to learn in this incarnation hinders your spiritual growth. As long as we are here on earth, there will be tasks to fulfil, first for our development and later to help others. The journey and the learning goes on and on, no matter how old and wise we feel.