This question has rolled around in my psyche forever, and, while rarely voicing it, I’ve noticed myself using one term rather than the other in various contexts, without knowing why, or being able to clearly distinguish in my conceptual mind what each one refers to as distinct from the other.
Kryon has an interesting analysis of this whole area of questioning, calling it, in part, a matter of linguistic, not real confusion. If you google “free photos soul and higher self” you’ll see a proliferation of images, some with the higher self above and infusing the body, some with the higher self or the soul as the center of a series of concentric rings, some with an elaborate diagram that basically confuses the two, and so on.
I might add, that I also wonder how to parse a three-way distinction — soul and spirit and higher self.
Today, on rumormillnews, I came across this intriguing post. I give it in full, with youtube video and transcript below.
Perhaps, like me, you have been aware of these two “spiritual” aspects of humans, but have not understood the difference. The following may help:
Richard Presser – Today is Monday, the 30th of July 2012, and I was enquiring about the distinction between the soul and the higher self; and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin has said that he wished to come forth and provide some input on this subject, and so let us see what he has to say.
It is a notion that is not at all understood by humanity. I say not at all because, whilst there are those who are aware of the terms, there is no-one on the planet that currently has this picture clear, and that might sound a very powerful statement. But from where I now sit, I am able to see these things, and so I say that without fear or favour. And this distinction is an important one, and so let us take a moment to examine it.
Firstly, let us begin with the soul. The soul, as you understand it, is a group of particles that have been sent forth by the monad, that is the totality of the soul as it was originally created by All-There-Is, and it is that soul, that group of particles which comes down through the dimensions and then connects with the forming physical body. Indeed, this path involves two stages because the soul interacts with the physical body at the moment of conception. As some of you listening to this will be aware, there are the two cells that represent the first division after fertilisation, and these first two cells continue to divide to form what is known as the nucleus, and it is this nucleus which then goes on to divide to form the physical body in all its form.
This nucleus represents the expression of the DNA; however the soul influences how that DNA is expressed, so there is this combination of influences in the nucleus. That nucleus of cells continues to exist in the body, and indeed it is in what you might consider a protected chamber in the pineal gland. It is protected so it cannot be interfered with by any external influences, including any other beings or any pharmaceuticals, or any other form of influence; and so the soul influences the expression within that nucleus, and it influences how that nucleus then begins to be expressed in the physical form, because the way that physical form unfolds and how it grows and is expressed in its fullness, is very deeply connected to the mission that has been taken on by that particular soul.
So, for example, if the choice has been made by the soul to come forth with some physical deformity that was chosen for the learning and experience of the soul and the monad in its totality, then the soul will influence the unfolding of those initial cells, such that there is this deformity which is expressed in the physical body, even though that deformity is not expressed in the nucleus, because the nucleus contains perfection.
And then, once the physical body has progressed to a particular point, and this point can vary depending on the choices of the soul, the soul comes down and connects with the physical body and, you might say, becomes resident with, at the very least, and perhaps within that physical form. The point during the pregnancy at which this occurs varies, depending on the individual. Usually it is several weeks before birth, but indeed can be quite early in the pregnancy or quite late, and there are many factors that influence this. And the soul continues to communicate with and influence the physical form, and indeed influence the intuition of the individual and the kind of choices that that individual makes.
It has been said that we choose the life that we live, and that choice is very powerfully expressed through the soul and how that influence comes forth in that life experience. And, of course, that group of particles then continues to exist beyond the point of crossing over, the point of what you call death.
The higher self, on the other hand, is an energetic form that is sent forth, again by the monad, and it is like this communication path back to the monad, and it is also what you might consider a guide to the individual, to the egoic self, that can be connected with and communicated with, and it carries great wisdom and guidance, and some of that guidance is specifically placed within that higher self for that particular lifetime.
It may be that the higher self is replaced during a lifetime, a choice made by the monad because the mission is fulfilled and the life heads in a very, very different direction. These things happen in people’s lives, as you know, and the higher self may be replaced to support the change in life path.
So this is a powerful and important source of wisdom and guidance to the egoic self, and it can be connected with consciously, or it might remain in the background as it does for most people, giving prompting and suggestion to the individual, and it communicates back to the monad on a continuous basis; so these two are complementary in this manner. And so these are the thoughts and guidance that I wish to give to you today.
Carolyn Evers – The question has come up to decide the difference, not to decide but to get information about what we call the soul and the higher self. Understand that there is a relationship between these two factions; not only a relationship in the sense that they are able to work together, but a relationship in the sense of the particles themselves.
As you have been told many times, everything is vibration. There is a difference in vibration, and we would consider it the frequency, and these particles that come to form the soul and that is forming the higher self has an extremely high frequency. It is one of the arrangements or the reasons for this arrangement, because of this high frequency. As you might suspect, the frequency of the higher self is even much higher than the frequency of what we call the soul itself, and this is an important configuration to understand, because it is what engenders the necessity for the higher self and the soul to be two distinct constructions, even though they are connected with one another.
Those particles that form the soul are of such a nature that they can be in your dimension, and they can literally have interplay and connection and infusion with the physical body itself so, in a sense, to work on an optimum manner. The soul should be able to enter the physical body, the complete physical body, not ride above the physical body but actually move down into the body, all the way down to the toes. That is the optimal manner in which these particles can work.
Now on the other hand, there is no way that the higher self could be involved in such an arrangement, because those particles are an even higher frequency than what you consider the soul and what you might consider the physical body. Therefore, it never enters into the physical body itself but rather, messages can be sent forth so there is a direct line of communication in the consciousness of the individual, and actually the consciousness of the soul, that connect to the consciousness of the higher self. It was this difference in vibration that allowed the, we guess you could call it, an infusion, an incorporation of the soul into the body.
If the particles in which you find yourself were spaced differently, there would be a much closer relationship between the human being and the higher self. So, because of this difference, many times the higher self is not activated in such a way that the human being can actually feel and hear and sense the direction of the higher self. Those individuals who are on a much lower frequency can only be taught and guided on an intuitive manner and, you might say, that’s almost a Catch-22, because those of very low vibration are working under a disconnect between themselves and their intuitive functions. So for many of a very low vibration, that guidance that should be available to them with regards to the higher self is, for all intents and purposes, cut. It is the very reason why the higher self, then, must communicate with the soul directly.
Now, there is a communication, there is no doubt about it, but those of a lower vibration have difficulty even in the connecting to their soul, because they are not in a frame of mind where they actually believe that there is such an arrangement. So for many people, they wander around with a complete disconnect from spirit. Now, true, some of this inspiration could come through the portion of the subtle bodies that you call spiritual. There can be communication between that aspect and the very soul itself. It’s more desirable for the individual to have communication with the higher self, but for many people, we are sad to say, this communication does not exist. There is a barrier that has been placed there.
Now the reason this becomes so important is because the higher self, as you know, is the gateway, is the doorway to the Monad itself. Again, there is a great difference in frequency between these two bodies of which we speak, and therefore, this higher self has been set up so that it can have communication with the Monad. A person must be very advanced to be able to connect with those soul particles, with the higher self, and move beyond to the Monad. Actually the most desirable part of all this would be to go directly to the Monad, but for most people this is an impossible task, and it is because they do not sit in a place where they are spiritually adept.
Most people, who sit in this place, sit there because they do not believe. As you know, belief motivates and moves all aspects of the human being into other more advanced realms of vibration, energy and manifestation. So there sits over all of this an impetus that comes from the human being itself. The very basis of all of this is belief; and so there is the central core of belief that sits at the bottom of this triangular configuration; belief at the bottom. This would be like an inverted triangle – belief at the bottom and the two aspects of the top of the triangle, of course, would be the soul itself and the higher self.
Over the top of all of this, so that it would be, what you might consider, a diamond shape would be the soul Monad. The Monad is a very powerful, extremely powerful; we don’t even want use the word configuration, even though it is. It is a very powerful aspect of what All-There-Is in the Center of the Cosmos has allowed to be sent forth to direct all of these different aspects of soul, higher self, encouraging the belief system; and at the very apex of the soul Monad, there is still this connection to All-There-Is, to Source, to that configuration in the Center of the Cosmos.
That part was never really disconnected so, even though the souls were told to go and to experience, they did but there was a part of them that, you might say, was held back. It’s a very large part, but by comparison of the Monad itself it would be considered a small part, like a seed. And so that seed still sits in the heart of All-There-Is. It is a part that was held back, that was not released, and this was a very conscious decision of All-There-Is, so that there is a direct communication. This is what enables it to be a direct communication, in a manner that is hard for you to understand.
There are these seeds in the very heart of All-There-Is, and that energy is held back until and unless that being that you call human, that walks upon the Earth, actually opens the gates and elevates the desire to communicate directly with All-There-Is. Even though there is a possibility to do this, very few members of humanity understand any of this, so that they can have a direct communication with their Maker. And you know what that communication looks like, because you have seen it. It is a language of dots and dashes, and it is connected within what seems to be a strand or a thread. It is generated by the love force that is within the very heart of All-There-Is. It is a special kind of a love force, because it is the very essence of the language within what we call the heart of All-There-Is.
Souls who have experienced this understand what we speak of. If one does not understand this through the use of this ladder of energy, they have no concept of what we mean. In the early days of Atlantis, this was practised quite commonly, as the souls understood this; and it was an extremely powerful language, because there was a time when the soul was not divided, where there was the male/female aspect, the plus and the minus, the androgynous state. It was much easier to communicate with Source in the fullness of what Source held, because Source is androgynous also; and if we look from the standpoint of electrical values, as we have said many times, there is the plus and the minus in this electrical force, so that the soul was completely attached to this connection. As androgynous, it held these two electrical forces, and it connected directly into those electrical forces of All-There-Is.
After those deviant priests convinced the human beings that the soul should be divided, that these two aspects, the male/female should be divided, there never again could be that direct connection to the heart of Source in all of its fullness. What was left there was a communication, but never again in the fullness of what was held in Atlantis. The deviant priests understood this. It was one of their first steps that they used to control humanity. That is all we wish to give for now.