INTRODUCTION: What is man and the soul?

In these lessons we will explore numerous aspects of the soul and its connection to man including these:

• Your Thought Adjuster initiates and fosters the growth of your soul.
• Your soul is not physical but morontial in nature.
• Soul consciousness leads to God-Consciousness.
• The destiny of your soul.
• Your soul grows as you do the Father’s will.
• The Spirit of Truth and Seraphic guidance stimulate soul growth.
• Worship and prayer promote your soul’s growth.
• Your soul grows through loving ministry and wise living. 

But before we begin, we must acknowledge a very real and significant obstacle to taking a wholesome and stimulating adventure of soul discovery, and that is the paucity of words and meanings about the soul in the English language. For this reason it is necessary to begin this course by developing a core vocabulary, and an associated set of meanings and concepts.

What is man?

The physical biological organism.

Who is man?

The potential spiritual dimension, the personality, relationship to the soul.

Nature of the soul

We must first understand the fundamental concept of what the soul actually is. The soul can be thought of as a growing embryo "like a fetus" an unborn child that is growing within you. You are the mother of this growing child and therefore it is important that you care for your own health (both mental and physical) because of the consequence it may have on the growing child within. You would not smoke, drink alcohol, take harmful drugs, or partake in dangerous activities, for this may have a detrimental outcome on the child's health when it is born and could lead to developmental disabilities. Moreover, you would love this child while in the womb, speak to her, read, sing perhaps, and nurture this child even before you could hold her because this child is a part of you.

You would put the very best of who you are into the care of this unborn child knowing she will be wholly dependent on you for all her needs when she is born. In anticipation for her arrival, you prepare the child's room, find a comfortable crib, gather little outfits, and fill the room with stimulating objects, toys, and artwork, perhaps even start a college fund for her education. You are planning for the future of this child's life and wanting the very best for her life experiences.

The soul can be viewed in a similar fashion. It is wholly dependent on you for its development and therefore it is beneficial for you to take great care in the decisions you make in life, both great and small. The soul is the very best part of who you are and what you are becoming. Therefore, this unborn soul is really you! It is the "you" who will pick-up and live life in the next phase of your ascendant career (after the resurrection) on the mansion worlds of Heaven. Wouldn't you want to build the very best "you" there could be while you are living in this world? This is what is meant by "Lay Up Treasures in Heaven". You have everything to do with the healthy development, or disease and decay of your soul. It is a choice to be made, and the better informed you are about the various aspects and requirements of this decision, the more confident, effective and wise you can be in carrying out your decision.

Many of you have never thought about the soul this way, yet this is so important for your future development both here and hereafter! The womb is your current life — your interest, your relationships, your activities, your adventures, your thought life — all those things that feed your experiences, which become the palate for the appetite of the soul. Not all of the foods on your plate will become integrated into the body of the soul, only those worthy experiences, values, and moral decisions that embody Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, and deemed to be of survival value by your Thought Adjuster to become a part of your growing soul.

Nurture of the soul

By knowing the process for nurturing your soul, and how these processors work together, you may become more effective in growing a weightier soul by making conscious decisions where you determine the quality of your experiences — what goes into your soul. These lessons are designed to stimulate you to think about the pediatric care of your soul — the unborn you — and what you are feeding your nascent soul and how you are nurturing it.

There are three primary soul processors — the mind, the heart, and the Thought Adjuster (TA). Each of them play an important part in determining what experiences, meanings, and values are harvested for soul building and eternal survival. The order in which these three processors are listed here is sequential to the order in which all experiences are processed — from the physical aspect of human awareness (the brain and the five senses), to the emotional center (the heart), to the spiritual operator (the TA). All three are necessary and all three work together in accordance with the free will prerogatives established by God the Father which assures relative untethered and diverse experience harvesting.

The mind, the heart, and the TA can be thought of like the three branches of democratic government:

• the legislative branch (mind),
• the executive branch (heart) and,
• the judicial branch (the TA).

To build a healthy and weighty soul, all three must function together harmoniously, and communicate laterally sending feedback for wisdom gathering, yet for many, the executive branch can often bypass the judicial branch by executive order and make decisions that are not necessarily of survival value. The ability of a government to serve the highest good for its constituency is determined by the quality of the members of the legislative and executive branches; the judicial branch only contains one member (the TA) and He retains sovereign authority in what passes through to the soul.

There is a two party system at work in the first two branches — those members (human thoughts) that are more aligned with fear and those that are more aligned with human love (conditional love) — the TA operates exclusively on Divine Love (unconditional love). There is constant debate among these partisan members which does not always serve the greater good of the soul, yet the debate is essential to the functioning of free will. The judicial branch (TA) has no authority over what the other two branches do or what experiences they will entertain, yet the TA will express its opinion in certain matters, which the executive and legislative branches can take under consideration or ignore completely.

The legislative branch (mind) searches out and brings life experiences through the senses and presents them to the executive branch (the heart) for a decision on whether it will pursue the current course of action or will choose another based on the wisdom of past events. If the majority of its members belong to the Fear Party, then it is more likely the decisions of the executive branch (heart) will be subservient to the ego and the experiences will be discordant and not likely to pass through the judiciary. If it is more dominated by the Love Party, the decisions of the heart are more likely to fall in favor of love, mercy, and compassion and the experiences are more likely to pass through the judicial branch and on into the soul. The judiciary (TA) holds the experiences up to the light and compares them to the precedence set by the Father by the criteria of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness (the constitution).

The operations of the three soul processors are more complex than this parity suggests, yet it is meant to stimulate your own thoughts about how experiences are processed. 

Soul food

In this introduction on the soul we will now look at what constitutes a survival value experience and what practical value those experiences have in forming the surviving morontia soul. In the short duration of time spent in earth life, it is wise to give thought to the value of your experiences and to maximize your time in building the best you there can be.

As with any well prepared traveler, it is beneficial to plan ahead for a long journey and pack things that you would most likely need when visiting a new land. Your "backpack" is the embryonic soul, it is the container for all those worthwhile experiences that will help you to navigate and explore this new land you will surely visit. Because you are traveling light, you would not pack unnecessary items that would weigh you down and knowing that you are not always adept at deciding what to take and what to leave, your "Smart Assistant" and "GPS" the Thought Adjuster (TA), knows the way and proficiently filters your check list of items deemed necessary for the journey.

So, what should you bring? Imagine what it will be like to visit this new land. What are the people like there? What are the customs? What's the weather like? What is the economy like? Are there any dangers? Imagine this heaven-like place and think about what you would need to actually live there.

Since there is no money economy, you will not need currency, silver, gold, or any of the experiences in your current life that pertain to the procurement of money. Wow, that's a huge chunk of human life experience is it not? What about all those experiences you are not proud of that include anger, resentment, cruelty, abusiveness, judgment, selfishness, un-forgiveness, and other experiences that did not serve you well in your current life? They will not be needed there, because there is no practical or future use for such valueless meanings.

If you think about only the very best experiences you had in life, the joys of life that you retain fond memory of, those are the things that will serve you in your next life on the mansion worlds. Loving relationships are the first and most important experiences the TA will likely retain for you. Those experiences that involve the discovery of truth, the joy of creating or beholding beauty, and the experiences of being in a state of goodness, those times and situations where you enjoyed living life are the most valuable experiences to bring with you. All the hurtful, shameful, contemptible experiences (non-survival values) will fall away like scaffolding when you make the transition.

Think about this: If 90% of your life experience was lived in the pursuit of non-survival values, what would be in your backpack? Only crumbs, my friends, and there would not be much of "you" left to begin this new life. You would be unprepared for your new life and would have a difficult time making the transition.

When life experience encompasses Love in any way, shape, or form, it is sure to make the check list and be included in your backpack. Pack wisely my friends and choose to experience life in a way that will progressively serve you in your present life and in your future career.

The weightier your soul is rich with survival value experiences, mastery, and character in this life, the greater will be your ability to grasp the new meanings and values you encounter in this new and amazing life on the mansion worlds, for each progressive realm of existence builds upon the experiences of the former and the wisdom gleaned from those experiences is what perfects the mind and raises the vibratory signature of the surviving soul, elevating it closer and closer to the Source of all creation.

Become aware, my friends, of this process as you go about your daily lives and think about how your current life shall work into your new life on the mansion worlds and how you can build a better you.