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This is a series of lectures given by Mr. Edward Rabel, member of the faculty of S.M.R.S.
Winter semester 1976 - 2nd. Yr. Class. Lecture given on June 3, 1976
Soul: Metaphysical Bible Dictionary
Soul: Revealing Word
I had a very interesting conversation with a first-year student who thought she was confused about the soul. She questioned how we make the difference between our usages of consciousness and the word soul. She felt there must be fine lines of distinction there which you must not cross over, that there are times when one must not use the word soul because you really mean consciousness. Then you must be more specific and really mean this level of consciousness, etc. As we talked, I began to realize that she really was creating an unnecessary problem for herself, that she was surmising something that will probably never come up.
I suggested that she remember that the words Spirit, soul and body are not words that existed before we made them up. These are not self-existent things that need be named. They are not three separate things. They refer to three aspects of being, perceivable by the human mind. You are not really a spirit, a soul, and a body. You are a being, you are a whole being; but you express in different manners, on different levels, with different modes, and people can perceive this. So people have to invent words to refer to these perceptions of wholeness or being that we all share in common. So the word spirit was invented to refer to that aspect of you which you know as spirit. The word body was invented to refer to that aspect of you that you know without question is body, but between spirit and body there is a vast grey area, which is a conglomeration and really overlaps into spirit and into body. It is sort of the leverage, and so we have had to make up a word to refer to this grey area that is not pure spirit or body. We have come up with a doozie: soul! Even the word itself sounds grey-ish. In other words, anything.
Technically speaking, in the Unity fundamentals teaching, we use the word soul when we are referring to awareness within consciousness on all levels below super-consciousness. I have given it to you in the nuttiest of nutshells. When Unity uses the word soul, we almost always are referring to the totality of all your levels of awareness below super-conscious.
When you are referring to super-consciousness and anything above it, it is Spirit. Another suggestion that I made to her is that she can feel safe in her usage of the word soul, is when you are referring to any aspect of a person that is not purely Spirit and not purely body, you are perfectly safe in using the word soul. Do not be afraid of our terminology. There is a real system of explainable logic behind all of our canon of terminology. Just a little bit of clear thinking reveals this logic, and you know, in your fundamentals classes, and I pray that you will all be involved in teaching fundamentals. How we need this! We need ordained ministers teaching fundamentals. We do not have enough of this. We have too many ordained ministers teaching psycho-cybernetics and having their staff teach fundamentals. You have the best training, and you can explain the logic. That means so much to people. Anybody can know what “Lessons in Truth” or “Christian Healing” says. They can read it, but if you have a teacher who can elaborate and amplify and make connection, people will simply love it, as you did, when you came into Unity. Bible Interpretation really is that. It is Unity fundamentals amplified and connected with Bible symbols, Bible logic.
Text of the original transcript at the second paragraph to the end of p.289.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on 04-13-2014
