Belief in the Soul
by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground
Windows to the soul or just how we see?
I had a sudden realization this morning. I don’t know whether or not my husband believes in the human soul. I would ask him – but he’s at work and it seems a frivolous thing to call him about. Much better to save phone calls at work for profuse bleeding. Or when I need him to pick up milk.
Jim and I have been married for six (seven?) years. Anyway – we started dating in or about 2001….so it’s been a while. It would seem that I should know something that basic about my own husband after all of this time.
And yet….I don’t. Not because we don’t communicate. Not because we never talk about deep subjects. I don’t know the answer to this for one reason and one reason only. I never thought to ask him.
Jim and I talk about all sorts of things. We talk about consciousness and what causes it, we talk about quantum physics. We talk about the paranormal. We talk about spiritual beliefs. And by recalling some of those conversations, I might be able to posit what he thinks. But the truth is, I couldn’t really say for sure. The man never fails to surprise me with the way he thinks about things and the conclusions he reaches. Don’t tell him I told you this – but he is a genius. Seriously. But he would get a big head if he found out I said so. Whether he would believe that head is connected to a soul or not is beyond me. I’ll ask him when he gets home.
Anyway….here’s the reason I never thought to ask my husband whether or not he believed in the human soul. It’s because I have never – not for a second in all of my questioning and fence sitting – considered that the human soul didn’t exist. It never even occurred to me.
I spend all of this time thinking about things like ghosts, reincarnation, consciousness and near-death experiences. I always winding up saying, “Well – I just don’t know – no real evidence either way.” And yet I have never EVER doubted that we had souls. Or considered that we didn’t. I guess I believe in something after all.
Now that I’ve started to think about it, I wonder. Will I now begin to question the existence of the soul? Will I now look for scientific proof for the one thing I have always known at the very core of my being to be true? I have a soul. I’ve never questioned it. It has never even occurred to me that I should.
Here then, is that one tiny sliver of belief that I have longed for. All of this searching for belief. All of this questioning. I’ve always envied belief in others, thinking that I had none. Surprise! I do. And now realizing this – it seems so obvious, this belief that I hold. How could I have missed it?
I have zero evidence scientifically that backs up my belief in the human soul. How could I? I – for all of my questioning – never thought to question it. How did this one belief sneak in when all others have bounced off of me? I have no idea.
Now that it has occurred to me to question the existence of the soul, there is no doubt I will. And the question remains. Will an unquestionable belief that I have held all of my life be held to the same standard of evidence that I require for everything else, or will my agenda of belief step in and cause me to dismiss evidence against while only remembering and considering the evidence for? Or will my fear of losing a fundamental belief that I have held all of my life leave the human soul in the realm of belief, unexplored and untested? Only time will tell.
Read Jim’s response to Karen’s question: The Soul of the Matter or the Matter of the Soul
Paranormal Underground Magazine, Edition May 2013 
Paranormal Underground Magazine, Edition Apr 2013 
Paranormal Underground Magazine, Edition Mar 2013 
When I clean my smoking pipe,I perform the same ritual almost every time. Careful pokes and gentle scrapes so that I don’t damage the bowl or the stem, and the ash and resin are discarded, but they are still here. Just not in their former location. With every year that passes I become more skeptical,and like yourself I seek a logical or scientific solution or view towards many things.I am a father of five, and anyone with that many little devils running around, your bound to hear all the LIL BUMPS IN THE NIGHT! So you tend to shrug off the idea of any real paranormal activity in the house.I’ll catch what I think is a moving shadow or the lamp over the dinning room table slightly moving sometimes.what could it have been? The head lamps from a passing car? A breeze created by the vacuum effect from the front door being open or closed? Hmmmm? BUT… once when I was 14, I woke up from what I think was THE most awesome and vivid dream I have ever had. My room was at the front the house, and a very light glow would shine in through my window from the street light on the farm road we lived on near San Antonio Tx. when I awoke I remember very little movement, only raising my head slightly and looking forward. All I could see was a silhouette of an average sized man in height with broad shoulders standing in front of my bed. I then closed my eyes for a second, and then open again and the figure was still there! Motionless it stood! Frightened as I was I clamped my eyes shut. I prayed and prayed until I prayed myself back to sleep. I awoke the next morning to the alarming sound of my mother calling me from her bedroom,and this is what she told me… Boy, you’ll never believe who came to me last night! I woke up from some one calling me… Georgia…Georgia, and when I open my eyes I saw a shadow of a man standing at the doorway , and I recognize the shape of that man anywhere, anytime. IT WAS YOUR FATHER!!! He told me you were headed for great danger, and for me to keep a careful watch over you, and keep you on a safe path. My parents were married for 16 yrs, and by that time they’d been divorced for 9 yrs. It was Oct of 83, and he had just passed away a month earlier. I then explained to my mother what I saw that same night. It confirmed that what we experienced that night was real and not just dreams. It was my father standing at the foot of my bed, watching over me worried, even in death. It was my father reaching out to my mother for my safety, even in death. So, I too have always believed that the human body has a soul. As I grew older I started to believe that all things living have a soul,and that’s before I found out that people were all ready practicing this way of thinking in certain religions in different regions of the world. I believe that the strongest souls are the souls that were NOT prepared to leave the world of the living, like my father, he was 53 yrs old and built like a mack truck, strong willed, he was very poor,6th grade education, G.E.D., some college courses, a staff sargeant in the army, one of the nicest men you’d ever want to meet, and died a mechanical engineer. Now to me that is a very strong soul. What an awesome display of power, the way he infiltrated the living world, did what he had to do, said what he had to say and got out. Never seen or heard from him again. Not even another dream. So I believe his soul has completed it’s mission. So his mind and his body were like this cool host that nurtured and gave great character to his soul. Food and drink keeps the body alive. The body keeps the soul grounded. When the body expires. The soul detaches itself from the body, it lingers for how ever long it takes to complete it’s mission or until it has been helped to move along out of the living world. SO like the smoking pipe, ash and resin are what’s left from the pipe and herb. The souls are the ash and resin of the expired body host. Therefore, they are still here. Just not in there former location. If you’ve come in good contact or have had a genuine experience with a human spirit/ghost, then I would say that your experience is YOUR scientific proof that souls do exist! When you for what ever reason glance at your husband and he glances back at you, and you see the expression on his face, loving, happy, sad, mad, confused and you care about what emotional state he is in, then your soul has just glanced into his soul and both souls are judging each others character… L D M A… You know that awesome dream I spoke of, well it was about a real close cousin of mine and I. We went to my fathers grave site, and we started digging it up (I guess I wasn’t convinced that he had passed). Finally we get to the top of the casket,(I forgot to mention that this took place under SPECTACULAR MOONLIGHT!!!And all the white military crosses seemed to glow.) and I opened both lids and knelt over him, I patted him on the chest, and I could feel the lump on his chest from the two back to back massive heart attacks that took him. After I patted him he awoke and gave me a confused look, and then he said to me…What the hell is going on, and where the hell am I.I explained what had happened, he then said, ” get me outa here “, so we got him out of there, he dusted himself off and he said ” come on boys, lets get the hell outa here, and that’s exactly what we did. I never felt so much joy in such an eerie place. THE END.
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