Information Referee

You can choose your thoughts. The com­plex­i­ties of the brain are many, but the abil­ity to actu­ally detach a bit from it and work it is the task of the soul or spirit. This “ghost in the machine” is con­tro­ver­sial. Some deny it, but most main­tain its real­ity. Even brain sur­geons have noticed that thoughts are not con­trolled by their pro­ce­dures on patients. They can stim­u­late a mem­ory or a sen­sa­tion in a patient, but the patient con­tin­ues to be free to observe and expe­ri­ence the stim­u­lated thought, while main­tain­ing a sep­a­rate con­ver­sa­tion with the surgeon.

Coun­sel­ing is giv­ing peo­ple per­mis­sion to choose their thoughts, atti­tudes, and view­points. It affirms the soul’s options. There is a lot more to a human than a phys­i­cal being try­ing to get its needs met. The soul can fatigue. It can be over­whelmed. When this hap­pens, the mind can be left to vic­tim­ize itself (and a “ner­vous break­down” ensues). The soul is your infor­ma­tion ref­eree. It dis­cerns. It chooses what is worth remem­ber­ing. Most of all, it has a char­ac­ter. That char­ac­ter can par­tic­i­pate in good or evil. It can “spin” infor­ma­tion by giv­ing it a slant or a per­spec­tive. The soul is any­thing but neu­tral, which is why we pre­fer the com­pany of some rather than others.

We live in a spirit-denying world — one that thinks that we “live by bread alone” and that our prob­lems would be solved if every­one had about the same amount of stuff. It is a world that set­tles for amuse­ment instead of search­ing for ulti­mate mean­ing. Peo­ple are seen as prob­lem­atic instead of sacred. We are here to be “man­aged” more than loved. Our soci­o­logic cat­e­gories define us, rather than being part of the cre­ative vari­ety of nature.

You can embrace a thought or feel­ing with­out get­ting lost in it. The more you choose the more you are able to choose. Over­com­ing your­self is supe­rior to over­com­ing oth­ers. Tend the soul. Respect its needs for art, beauty, and reflec­tion. Let it rest. Never treat it as an object. Notice how it works like an infi­nite set of mir­rors. Take a few steps back from your­self and learn to enjoy the bless­ings of your own soul. It is going to be around a lot longer than your body or your mind. Get to know it. When every­thing else is gone, it is what you have for­ever. Make friends with it.