Pathwork Lecture No 111 - Soul Substance

Soul Substance -- Coping With Demands

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, my dearest friends. Welcome, all of you. Blessings for all of you.

This evening I should like to discuss, first, the healthy versus the sick soul from a new aspect, as seen from a spiritual view. This may help my friends again toward an increased and deepened understanding for their further development and inner growth.

When a new child enters this earth its soul stuff is very malleable, very soft. Underneath this soul stuff lie all the potentials -- the talents, qualities, tendencies, characteristics, and also the unresolved problems. According to these potentials -- the positive as well as the negative -- the entity grows. This malleable, soft substance of the soul is, by its very nature, very impressionable. Therefore, when the child collects impressions during its early years, the impact of the impressions will be according to the underlying potentials. Where the soul is potentially healthy and strong, even negative impressions will not make a deep dent into the soul. The experience is registered and is dealt with by assimilating it according to its reality significance so that the personality learns and grows from the experience, regardless of whether or not it was a happy or unhappy one. Where the underlying potential is positive, the underlying soul stuff will be so resilient that a seemingly most detrimental occurrence will bounce off, so to speak. It will not leave a lasting mark, other than the benefit of increased understanding.

But where the underlying potential is of unresolved problems, the soul stuff in these areas is so unresilient that the impressions form deep dents and remain imbedded in the soul substance. When you recollect my explanations about how images are formed, it will be easier to understand when you visualize what I say here. Such visualizations, when one makes an insight into oneself, may be of immeasurable help.

When you have retained an impression due to unresilient soul stuff, your entire mechanism functions according to this impression, way beyond its reality value. As you know, the one-time occurrence is generalized, and thereby falsified. Thus a destructive pattern is set in motion, which the reason is unable to prevent so long as the impression remains imbedded in the soul stuff and the dent is not alleviated. This happens through the healing activity of the kind of self-finding that you are engaged in.

We speak of flexibility versus rigidity. Flexibility is the result of resilient, elastic, healthy soul substance. When it comes to rigidity, there exist two different kinds. So far this fact has been disregarded. But now it will be quite helpful for you to determine their difference. The one kind is based on the following circumstances. When the soul is constantly exposed to these deep impressions that cannot be assimilated, and which therefore form dents so that the imprints remain imbedded in the soul substance, the effect on the personality is heavy. Unfavorable circumstances create suffering way beyond their reality value. Therefore the soul suffers more than it would have to. Even favorable impressions create an exhausting effect. You may all have experienced that when you are overly excited about good happenings their effect is a disrupting one. You are unable to assimilate the experience, it hangs on you and makes you restless. Assimilation and digestion is such a slow process that it takes all the personality's faculties to cope with it, thus arresting the growth and functioning of other aspects of the psyche. In other words, in order to deal with one experience that would need normally only a certain amount of strength, faculties, attention, and investment, leaving part of all these forces free to deal with other aspects of living and being, all the inner forces are required to serve a comparatively unimportant event. The fact that you are joyful and gratified about the event as such does not change the fact that an unnecessary amount of forces is wasted. This creates an unrest, with the resultant deep effect that blocks the soul. The psychic forces persist in remaining in the experience. Needless to say that this may not be a conscious occurrence, but when you are attentive to your inner reactions, you are bound to learn that such over-preoccupation exists. It may manifest in intense thoughts about a relatively unimportant happening; an inability to let go of it in its emotional impact, such as the inability to forgive and forget; and, mainly, in the much more subtle procedure of automatic reaction, that is not commensurate with the outer occurrence because a one-time experience is falsely applied to a happening of an entirely different nature. In short, something that frightened you once will cause you to be frightened again by an outer event that is really quite dissimilar to the first; but certain factors make you believe that the latter happening is similar to the earlier. Such automatic reactions, which you have begun to observe and begin to understand in yourself, are based on the too malleable soul stuff that did not grow healthily into resilient elasticity.

Since all this is painful -- consciously or unconsciously -- and since the effect is bound to be detrimental, the psyche seeks a remedy. Such unconsciously sought remedies are often more destructive than the original evil (as, for example, with pseudo solutions). The false remedy in this case is an artificial protective wall set up in order to prevent this constant heavy impact, the hurtful dents on the soul substance (experienced as "over-sensitivity"). Such a wall is hard and brittle. It prevents feeling and experiencing and causes the one type of rigidity.

The other type of rigidity is caused by the very fact that the soul is incapable of assimilating experience, but rather holds on to it. When the indentation upon the soul is so deep that one cannot let go of it, the subsequent result is that preoccupation with the experience excludes important reality-factors.

One sees and evaluates only that which appears to bother or disturb, but disregards other factors that are important for understanding the occurrence in its full light. Such a limited outlook, or subjective evaluation, is inevitable if the soul unduly suffers. And such suffering makes a wider and more truthful view quite impossible. This one-sidedness and inability to perceive differently constitutes the second type of rigidity. The personality can deal only with what he immediately sees and perceives, according to the highly over-sensitized area of the too vulnerable soul substance. Every other aspect of the situation, or of the other person involved, is overshadowed. If it were out in the light, the understanding would be a different one. But this is not possible because one is too preoccupied with the unpleasant effect of the dent upon the soul stuff. If you suffer a physical pain in a certain area of your body, you are bound to have all attention focus to this area, disregarding others. It is the same process. What makes this more complicated is the fact that here we deal with very subtle and unconscious reactions that can be verified only if and when you become sufficiently attuned to your inner mechanism as a result of extended progress in self-recognition.

To briefly summarize the difference between the two kinds of rigidities. The former dulls feeling and experiencing; the latter colors views and experience to such a degree that perception of reality is highly limited. It is often the case that perception of reality is limited. It is often the case that people have both kinds of rigidities, alternately and simultaneously, one overlapping the other, one caused by the other. But often one is predominant. When this is so, it is relatively easy to recognize. When the second type explained here is predominant, it often also manifests as harping on details; by seeing only certain facets of others and situations which may, in themselves, be correct but are incomplete because other factors are overlooked. This may even apply to your attitude towards people and situations where you are not importantly involved, but you are so conditioned by this way of reacting, due to the lack of resiliency of soul substance, that you cannot function differently, even when you are not personally involved. Such over-malleable soul stuff makes you incapable of adjusting to ever-changing conditions, circumstances. You cannot see and evaluate them, for you are conditioned to react only to the direct imprint made upon your soul substance. This prevents you from being in the constant flow of life, from being in truth and reality. In order to make this possible, your soul stuff has to have the healthy elasticity to quickly assimilate incidents according to their real significance.

Needless to say that healthy soul substance cannot be created by an act of will. Only the finding and changing of misconceptions, pseudo solutions, and distortions can bring this about. In order to facilitate this process, it is very important that the inner perception of healthy and unhealthy reactions of soul substance be seen in this light. And also the recognition of the two kinds of rigidities. If you feel their difference within yourself, it will be very helpful. They feel different, have a different "flavor," as it were. As indicated earlier, both may exist. The one may be a counter-reaction of the other. Hence, in this work you may first find the brittle wall of rigidity. Then do not expect to find healthy flexibility beneath. Often be prepared to find this other kind of rigidity that may, at first glance, appear to be the very opposite from rigidity because it is overly soft in substance. But upon closer inspection, this very softness, devoid of healthy resistance, cannot let go of impressions received, therefore mulls them over and over, is persistently influenced and governed by what should already be obsolete, and thus becomes rigid. Exaggeration of truth brings untruth in both directions. This holds true for everything and has often been discussed in many other instances. Here, too, too much resistance, the brittle pseudo protective wall, has similar effects to that of too little resistance, over malleability of soul stuff.

How can you cope with your life when you are not in reality? How can you be in reality when either of these two kinds of rigidities exists? How can you adapt yourself to the ever changing flux of life? Evaluate objectively, perceive in truth? None is possible if your soul substance is so easily indented that an impression of passing importance for you, of minor significance, remains imbedded and dictates your reactions towards future events, thus distorting the relationship of the event and of your reactions.

With the foregoing I have shown you a new aspect of factors already known to you. But such increased sight, from a different vantage point, is often a very helpful element in the necessary impact and impetus of the work on the Path.

Let me finish this this topic by briefly describing what a healthy soul looks like, as compared to an unhealthy one, as seen from out view. In the healthy soul the form is rounded, very smooth and even. The substance is flexible, elastic -- a mixture of resilient, healthily resistant softness. This combination produces the ideal conditions to go through life with the capacity for deep experience while being able to quickly assimilate such experience, so that new impressions and new experiences are always possible.

By contrast, in the unhealthy soul, the form is bumpy, uneven in shape, with the bumps hardened, like scab. The scabbed substance, as I have said, is so malleable that it is sticky and pasty, retaining all imprints, with the inability to throw them off.

Many of you, in the course of your work, have glimpsed, even if only vaguely, that all unhealthy reactions are artificial. They are much more difficult to maintain and follow through than the natural reactions. When such insight comes, be it ever so seldom to begin with, it is a decisive step to growth and self-realization. For, in that moment, you understand how strenuous pseudo protections and pseudo solutions are. How much easier, more reliable, and more safe your natural being guides you through life. That is not to be confused with the line of least resistance and the giving in to one's destructive instincts. Before you have reached certain levels of inner recognition, such a statement might easily be so misinterpreted. But once these levels have been reached through the steady progress and ongoing growth that persevering work is bound to eventually bring about, you will understand and experience for ever more the certainty of this truth, that pseudo solutions are strenuous and energy consuming, while experiencing the real self is safe and easy. I mention this again here because I see a tendency to overlook the importance of such vague glimpses. Please ponder over them. Look at the first rare occasion of such experience so as to attain the full value and deep significance that they harbor. Such glimpses of health, as compared with the distorted, artificial, strained inner ways of living, are the best way to heal your soul substance.

Once again, it holds true that awareness of unhealth leads to health, while unawareness of it, and covering up this unhealth, leads further away from health.

Now I would like to discuss a different topic, although it is, of course, related to and connected with the foregoing, as everything in the human soul is connected and interrelated. In the course of this work, we have often found and discussed your demands. I am now referring mainly to the hidden, unconscious demands that existed without your being aware of them. After sufficient progress, you found their existence and you were often surprised to discover how stringent these demands of others, of yourself, and of life really are. The discovery of their existence often took considerable time and effort on your part and you might have often been shocked by how incompatible they were with your conscious concept of yourself. Whoever has not reached full awareness of his own demands may be well advised to investigate his previous findings in this particular light. On this particular phase, you will find that an imbalance exists. On the one hand, you have excessive demands in that you expect more from others than you are willing to give, no matter how much you may cover up this fact by substitution. On the other, you will also find that you may be too modest in your expectation. This is a logical consequence that occurs automatically within. It is based on the balancing quality of inner law.

But let us consider another aspect of this theme. That is, the demands that are made upon you. How do you react when demands are being made upon you? How do you cope with them? Before going any further, let us be clear that you may no more be conscious of demands made upon you than you are conscious of your making demands upon others. The fact that you are unaware of demands made upon you does not eliminate their effect upon you and on your special inner way of dealing with them. You certainly react strongly to such demands, even though you may never know it consciously. It needs the increased awareness that is cultivated on a Path such as this that will finally make you capable of being aware of others making demands upon you, and, subsequently, of your real reactions to these demands. It is my advice, my friends who work in this intensive study, to devote some attention to this topic, to look at their associations and relationships from this particular viewpoint. When you establish this fact -- that here or there you feel a demand being made upon you and you have this or that reaction to it -- then you can go a step further. I will outline the way, even though, of course, these subsequent steps cannot be made before you have clearly established the awareness of your demands upon others and of the demands of others upon you, as well as your real reaction to them. To understand your reactions, it is important to understand them also from the point of view of the first part of this lecture. When your soul substance is too impressionable, when you unduly retain impressions -- in this case, the currents of the demands of others upon you -- when you cannot healthily assimilate, evaluate, and come to terms with the effect that others have on you, it is then that their demands have an undue effect upon you. Either you will interpret something as a demand that is no such a thing, and an inner defense against it will be triggered off, or you may have a tendency to be impelled to give in to the most immature, unjustified demands from others, otherwise feeling guilty or fearing unwelcome consequences. In both instances the result, inevitably, is resentment, defiance, hostility. None of it may be conscious at that moment. Or the existence of such emotions may not be linked with the fact that you respond to demands being made upon you in this way. You are often unconsciously so fearful of demands, or of your compulsion to give in to them, so afraid of what might happen if you do not give in, that you set up a defense against them. It is often as though an inner alarm rings whenever an actual or imaginary demand is being made of you. Your guilt and fear do not permit you to become aware of this process and thereupon to investigate it with your reasoning faculties. Thus, a blind reaction occurs on your part. This rejection is not so much a rejection against the demands themselves, but against temptation and compulsion to give in to them; against your inability to discriminate. By keeping this hidden, such discrimination is even less possible. But also, your lack of security in yourself makes you unable to determine and differentiate. Such security, in turn, can come only when you establish an integrity that is, somewhere and somehow, impaired. To return, once again, to the subject of unelastic soul substance, too great influence-ability creates such an aversion to deal with impacts coming from the outside that outer influxes are cut off. Thus healthy intercommunication cannot exist.

Your response to demands of others may frighten you, so that you may withdraw more or less from meaningful relationships. When we discuss, again and again, the fear of involvement, it is now very important to realize that such fear not only exists due to the fear of hurt and disappointment, but also due to the fear of having to cope with the demands of others.

Now, my friends, it is important to become aware of the fact that demands are all around you. The more you are involved, the more demands exist. When you calmly consider them, after having become aware of them, you will see that in some instances the demands of others are excessive and childish. In other instances, they are a part of human communication and relationship, and your fright and refusal is unjustified. This indicates an excessive demand on your part: wanting the advantage of a close communication without giving in the real sense of the word, although perhaps over-giving instead on a different level, thus putting the entire relationship out of balance. Since the other person receives what he really does not ask for (inwardly), his demands become more urgent, while you become more guilty and resentful.

Whenever this knowledge is not sufficient to make you free to deal with the demands being made upon you, the key always lies in the fact that you have not recognized where you have an excessive demand -- perhaps in another area, hidden from sight, or explained away and rationalized. Whenever you cannot cope with demands of others, important as it is to establish this fact, it is not sufficient. It is then of equal importance to find where hidden demands of your own exist. When you find this, and change the unreasonable greed of such childish requests, you will become perfectly capable of coping very satisfactorily with other people's demands upon you, thus maintaining good, deep relationships.

And now, my friends, to your questions.

QUESTION: I would like a clear definition of what the soul is. I think it has been done, but if I could have a brief definition, I think it would clarify this lecture.

ANSWER: As you know, there are many interpretations of the soul, and they may all be quite accurate. If they seem contradictory it is because words are so limited to describe an inner process that is on a different dimension than human language. Therefore it is so easy to become confused with words and verbal explanations. This is the reason that higher dimensions can never be made accessible by verbal learning, but only by inner experience which, in turn, becomes possible if and when inner error and distortion is dissolved.

Let me explain the soul as we use it here. The soul is the sum total of the inner personality. The thinking, the feeling, the concepts, the potentials, the attitudes, the patterns, the characteristics, the temperament, the emotions, the idiosyncrasies -- everything that is behind the physical being. It also includes, of course, unresolved problems. But it does not include the cover-up for the unresolved problems: the pseudo solutions, the false defenses. This is not the soul itself. But the particular choice of the pseudo solution is an expression, or manifestation, or indication, of the soul behind.

QUESTION: Karma, then, is the memory of the soul from former unresolved problems?

ANSWER: I would not say the memory. It is the result of all previous incarnations. Karma is the effect the soul has produced.

QUESTION: The sensitivity is carried along?

ANSWER: Of course. The sensitivity, the perception, the ability to experience. All these faculties have scales. One's person's sensitivity may be on the lowest note of the keyboard, another on the highest. The latter may exist in the healthy or unhealthy way. Karma, as you know, is the result of everything up to the present point.

QUESTION: You gave attributes to the soul of a physical, material nature. You gave it roundness and malleability in a physical sort of substance. Is it localized, like any other organ in the body?

ANSWER: No, it is not localized in that sense. It is a body, consisting of matter very similar to your earth matter, although not perceivable with your physical organs. As you know, and have often heard, it is a "subtle body." When I spoke of roundness, it does not mean it is a round form, like a ball. The subtle body, its surface, can have all the attributes I discussed. You might best compare it with the consistency of skin and flesh. Only, the surface of the subtle body of the soul has much more extreme variety than the variety of physical skin and flesh. The words are so limited that I realize they may often seem preposterous, but this is the best way of conveying it. For I do wish to give you an idea of what the soul-body may look like.

QUESTION: May I ask about the relationship between the subconscious and the soul?

ANSWER: The soul is the unconscious mind. It is not only the unconscious mind, but it certainly is part of it. Much of what is of the soul is very conscious, if you consider what I have said about it. But the unconscious motivations, attitudes, driving forces, inclinations, etc., are also from the soul. Then, there are also deeper regions of the unconscious self which go to the real spiritual being.

QUESTION: We claim that attitudes determine the happenings in our lives. How is it that people with bad motives so often derive all the happiness and success in life? I know of such cases.

ANSWER: I have answered this question in previous sessions, but I may answer it briefly again. In the first place, man's view is very limited and his way of judging is based on his ability to see cause and effect immediately together. Whenever effect does not immediately follow cause, he loses the link and is therefore unable to see their inter-relationship. Thus, if he nevertheless attempts to judge, his judgment must be faulty. It is often the case that cause and effect are far removed in time. In other words, a human being may experience the effect of a cause from way back, while the new causes he institutes have not yet taken effect, but will do so later. With increasing spiritual development and inner health and oneness, cause and effect come closer together. When they are separated in time, an inner chasm and division of the soul must exist. The overall development of the soul, its potential for growth at this period, and as regards particular areas of development, is still limited when cause and effect are removed from one another. Only when the potential is greater than the development, are cause and effect closer together.

Moreover, there is still another consideration related to this question. When motives are split, the effect is influenced. For example, as I pointed out in a recent lecture, if a person is still so crude in his spirituality that he has no conscience, bad motives will not be interfered with by a nonexistent conscience and will, therefore, be unified. Thus the bad motives have an apparently favorable effect. Only later, when the conscience has grown, the retrospective guilt will have an effect and manifest as though punishment existed from outside. When motives are already split -- in this sense an increase of development as compared with the person who can have destructive motives without inner conflict -- the results do not come. One side of the personality has acquired much higher standards than another. And I do not mean superimposed standards from outside, but real inner standards. When such is the case, destructive motivations will not bring the desired result, even though they may be quite conscious. On the other hand, constructive and good motives, no matter how conscious, will not bring the good results either, if they are undermined by unconscious destructive motives. Hence, a quite ruthless person may not attain the results of his ruthless aims because an inner voice, that he may be completely unaware of, hinders the impact of his will. His own inner development, still hidden, and very very contradictory to some facets of his being, prohibits an unsplit will. When such is the case, a conscious determination to be ruthless will have no effect. The soul has already reached a new potential. Similarly, the person who tries very hard to be good, but is unable to cope with his hidden selfishness and cruelty due to repression, is unable to attain the desired positive result. It is always the split motives, the unaware part of the split motives, that hinder the will and subsequently the result.

QUESTION: How do you explain the function of drama, myth, fairy tales in the personal development of the human being?

ANSWER: I believe the foregoing lecture really answers this question. I suppose the questioner means the effect that myth, drama, fairy tales, etc., have upon a human being. Any effect from outside depends on its assimilation, on the impressionability of the soul. Whether fairy tales, myths, etc., have a good influence on a growing person, and also on the adult person, cannot be put into a generalization. It depends on the material. And it depends on the interpretation. We can only consider a young child, for when a person is an adult, it is up to him to utilize and assimilate an impression. He is no longer dependent on interpretation by others. But a young child is dependent on the interpretation given by adults who surround him. Such interpretation may not even occur in words, but in the atmosphere that emanates. The adult's feelings have a much stronger influence than his words. Whatever he really understands will make itself communicated to the child. If an apparently cruel fairy tale or myth is taken literally, of course a soul-particle that is already afflicted will be negatively influenced and impressed. The healthy soul substance will not react even negatively when it is misinterpreted. False myths will not have a negative effect either. For not all myth is truthful. Untruthful literature, or other influences, as well as misunderstood and misinterpreted truthful influences, will take effect only where the soul is already afflicted. When the soul is afflicted, and truthful interpretation or truthful influxes occur, the soul is given a chance to assimilate such helpful influences. Whether or not it does so depends on the person.

QUESTION: I should like your differentiation between feelings and emotions.

ANSWER: There is a difference between the two. One way of describing the difference would be that a feeling is deeper-rooted and more permanent. By this I do not wish to imply that feelings do not change. I do not mean permanent in time, but in quality, in consistency, in character, in being. A feeling may truly change faster, in time, than an emotion, and yet it is permanent in essence. This is very difficult to explain and, in order to understand, you would have to perceive this with your inner faculties. An emotion is something much more superficial, even though it may be retained longer due to circumstances, as discussed in this lecture. Yet it has a less permanent character, even though it may last longer in time. An emotion comes from superficial conditions in the soul. Reactions and responses, based on superimposed modes of coping with life, not coming forth from the real person, are emotions. The seal self sends forth feelings. Hence a feeling is something much more substantial. This cannot be evaluated by the apparent worth of the feeling or emotion. A positive reaction is not necessarily a feeling, while a negative one an emotion. You may have an unpleasant feeling, yet it is based on truth, on reality. An emotion is based on a subjective inner condition. Let me give you an example: let us suppose you sense a detrimental, negative quality in someone else, or in yourself. If this quality is a fact, you deal with a feeling, even though it may be highly unpleasant. However, you may have the same perception, but you do not sense this fact because you do not merely observe what is, but because you are frightened, suspicious, guilty, resentful; because some image or pseudo-solution is at work. The same correct perception in this instance is an emotion. When you do not push the feeling aside, you will come to see that you have a valid intuition, be it about yourself, or about someone else. When you do not push aside an emotion -- and you should not push aside an emotion, a feeling, or anything else, for that matter -- you will come to recognize factors within yourself that make you subjective, distorted, away from reality. In short, you will see all the blocks that prohibit feelings and intuition. A feeling is something that reacts to reality, however temporary this respective reality may be, but it exists now.

Let us now examine a favorable, or unpleasant emotion. Gratified vanity, greed, or pride may produce a pleasant emotion. Or, to go a step further, even a true factor perceived, but utilized subjectively, will produce an emotion, not a feeling. Feelings are based on objectivity, emotions on subjectivity. In both instances they may be pleasant or unpleasant. In the language, it is often confused. One speaks of emotional maturity or emotional involvement. One speaks of expressing one's emotions, when feelings are meant just as well. But the words do not matter so much, as long as you understand the essence.

QUESTION: Am I correct in understanding that anything can be either feeling or emotion. Fear, for instance?

ANSWER: Yes. That is right. But, my friends, my advice is: do not try to label it. That is always a dangerous procedure. If you instantly give it one name, as distinct from another, you somehow close a door to further understanding. Rather, try to deal with it as it comes up, to see whether or not it is based on objective factors, or personal, colored, subjective ones.

May these words help you again toward a deeper and broader understanding. My love, my help go to all of you. The blessings and the assistance is accorded to each one of you who has the great courage and dignity, the human dignity, to want to develop, to grow, to change, to want to face himself in utter candor so as to make this growth possible. The dignity lies in the fact that this endeavor is pursued regardless of the cost of facing negative aspects; of shattering one's cherished idea about oneself. When this is done, the fruits must be yours. If you tend this beautiful garden now, by weeding out that which does not belong, the spiritual help along the way will always be yours. Be in peace, my dearest friends, be in God.

The Guide
by Eva Pierrakos
February 1, 1963