"When an individual persists in negative choices and behaviors, the Soul will turn away and leave Its lower incarnations to go through the necessary experiences that will teach them to choose differently, eventually bringing about a conscious choice to pursue ever greater spiritual realization and experience." - Matt Sharpe 2018
Often in the course of life we see many people that we consider to be very negative, whether in our work life or personal life, and especially within our families. We can also see on the news many that we ourselves would put into this category. We might even consider some of these an outright form of evil. Setting aside the many reasons that this conclusion could be considered purely subjective and wrong, and assuming instead that it be correct, one might wonder how this can work in the spiritual sense. Do these people still have a Soul? Have they been possessed by a negative entity? How can our minds reconcile this apparent contradiction?
Perhaps one of the premises were wrong, Or perhaps there is other pertinent information involved that one was unaware of. Reality constantly changes as does the information about it that one is aware of at any given time. It is foolish to ever assume that we have the knowledge of everything about anything, because inevitably life itself will prove that wholly untrue. At such times the lessons can be difficult to endure and see through until their final resolution which requires a change in point of view as to what are good motivations and choices and what is required to bring this change into our everyday reality.
The thing that makes this topic relevant to us is that we often see negative and even criminal behavior practiced by politicians, religious figures, celebrities and others who seem to be immune to facing any legal consequences for the things that they say and do. Then of course the rumor mill never stops churning out new theories (some conspiracies) and ideas about why these people do the things that we question. Do they even have a Soul? Has it been taken away or replaced? How can they do the things that they do? Are they possessed by a negative entity? Are they not subjected to the same spiritual hierarchy and laws that the rest of us have to work within, with karma and all of the rest?
There are a variety of things potentially going on with such people. These factors are ones that we all could be subjected to should we make the same types of choices, because literally no one is immune from them. Everyone is Soul in the first place, without exception. No one has or can lose one because It, by Its very nature, is unable to be owned, lost, misplaced, or injured. In the same regard the Soul cannot be taken away or driven out because these are literally impossible, again owing to the Divine and eternal nature of the Soul.
There are many situations where a person has negative entities attached to them and while possession is the end stage of this process, all the earlier stages are more an attempt to influence the decision-making process than anything else. With each negative decision an entity gains more control and is heard and heeded to a greater extent than had been before. The influence and eventual possession perpetrated by negative entities often has much to do with the Soul "turning away" as it were. It allows space for the learning that experience alone can provide.
One might ask, "Why would a Soul turn away? Does it become offended or displeased?"
The Soul can potentially have any of a variety of opinions, but one of Its primary concerns is beauty, and negative experiences are hardly beautiful to the one who must go through them. Do not let this imply that viewing what occurs is in any way detrimental to the Soul, because it is not. Soul's natural state has much to do with love, but mixed with knowledge and understanding which allow the fullness of anything It witnesses to be apparent to It. So while It may find the experiences chosen by Its earthly self to be less than ideal, It is also in no way unable to view what transpires.
At the same time, what happens simply may not require Soul's attention to remain fixated upon those events, and having the desire for beauty, It can easily go find something beautiful to observe which can often hold Its attention. Simply because It wants to observe that thing or situation or interaction, whatever it might be. This detachment that It has concerning the events in Its earthly existence must also be viewed and understood in balance with the various levels of being and the fact that overall, the lower human state must literally become interested enough to make the willing choice to seek the higher states of being and thereby set about attaining those for themselves, from the ground floor up to the top of Eternity Itself.
Often when one speaks about enlightenment or the search for it, this detail is completely missed. The secret is that this specific detail is absolutely required before any degree of progress can be attained in the spiritual sense. From the human standpoint there is a considerable way to go before ever reaching the goal, but from the viewpoint of Soul, love and contentment balanced with detachment, patience and understanding make Its job an easy one because It experiences no urgency or impatience. Time does not exist for Soul, so how could It possibly be in any hurry to accomplish anything? It cannot, and even if It were able, It simply would not bother with such a desire.
By the time we gain an understanding of what it means for the Soul to turn away from Its lower forms, it soon becomes very obvious that what we may have assumed at the start about this is not necessarily true, nor is that anywhere near all of what is truly involved within the idea. What is going on according to Soul's point of view is very different from the way we view things from the various lower states as we make our way up the ladder of consciousness. As the human form goes through its experiences in life, it can sometimes choose things that are not the best for himself, or can at times gain an attachment for a desire that can lead nowhere good. When these patterns begin to happen, the time becomes ripe for the Soul to step back and allow the lower aspects of Itself to go through the lessons necessary to teach.
Most often the course of such experiences can be rough and regrettable, anything but pleasant to learn, not to mention the unpleasant nature of recognition of mistakes made and the admission of guilt and taking the steps to rectify what has been created. This is almost never pleasant to experience and the pride can take quite a beating as it is made to see its bad choices and the cost of having made them. The wading out of the cesspool of our choices is not fun, and once it has made its bite felt, the individual tends to not want to repeat it another time. These are the things that the Soul turns away from because Its attention is not required as is the attention of the human and its Astral counterpart who are directly in the thick of things and having to deal with them.
The Soul does not refuse to look because things are unpleasant, nor because It has some problem with watching it happen, it turns away because It can find better uses of Its attention than becoming mired in the day to day profligacy that has been exemplified by the choices made. Repeating such choices can only be a wasteful use of resources that are not necessarily so readily available from the start. A greater degree of prudence is advised at such times, and after a certain degree of mistake making and resolving the responsibilities that they bring, the hard experience tends to bring a greater degree and ability for sagacity not only in identifying the circumstances faced, but in discerning the not always readily visible situations with their varied interpretations.
This is where the value of dedication and fortitude on the part of the human become essential, for without those qualities, many will simply launch into a distraction that allows them to escape facing the truth about themselves that has been revealed to them. The desire for a distraction can be strong at a time such as this, and where a negative entity's involvement is a factor it will not miss the chance to try to tempt the individual with something that they desire. This also shows clearly the way in which these negative entities actually serve an overall purpose by educating us, despite the fact that their personal desire is anything other than to help a human in any way. Nothing escapes the Divine Will, known to us as many names, such as the Holy Spirit, Ism-i Asm, the Shabda or the ECK.
I must say that when the Soul decides to place Its attention elsewhere, this is in a complete and total harmony with the Godhead, what ECKists call the Sugmad. IT knows all things and as the ECK is ITS expressive and creative Force, ITS knowingness must also be obviously included as each are really the same THING. And as God is in contact with Soul and communicates to It, each decision the Soul makes is known and openly communicated. Soul is not an Entity that is capable of deception, therefore truth and a complete honesty are basic characteristics of Its behavior in every endeavor, eternally.
Generally speaking, the human is never aware of these actions of Soul because they haven't the state of consciousness to be aware of Soul. That comes through the constant effort and learning on a spiritual path. At some point Self Realization happens, but even after that no human is ever 100% constantly aware of themselves as Soul. Each of the factors that are and are not relevant to Soul are learned along the way so that information is available to the individual as they pay attention to the various things taking place throughout life. The goal is to be ever more aware of Soul and thereby to become aware of the choices It makes. Doing all of this is no small nor quick thing, but it can be accomplished within a single lifetime. As for the Soul and Its choosing to remove Its attention, that is never the end of the story.
Things always continue moving forward, even though it can be very challenging to be aware of all of the various factors as they develop in real time. The best that can be done is to always be learning more and experiencing more of life and paying very close attention to the processes our choices bring us through, both the good and the bad. Then using contemplation and actively seeking further experience on the inner planes, we can move ourselves forward by resolving our karmic debts and remembering the things we learned along the way. There is always another step to take to move forward. Even while we rest, life never pauses, so that tends to force us to focus the attention on what is relevant and necessary at every given moment. So start paying attention. What useful skills have you learned recently? Which experiences have you lived through that have taught something about skills or awareness? Perhaps the awareness of Soul is not as distant as we tend to think of It as being.