Consciousness: Reach Your Soul

[DISCLAIMER]

When writing about Stoicism which is interwoven into theory and practice of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), I often encounter related sources which reference a soul (the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life).

In Tyrant or King? I stated of this concept, “I don’t subscribe to the unfalsifiable notion of a ‘soul.’ Rather, I maintain that ‘free will’ can be substituted for this concept.” That view regarded the notion of a supernatural soul. As well, in What Do Your Vices Cause? I expressed:

Although I don’t concur with some of the verbiage used by ancient Stoics (e.g., reference to a soul—the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe), I can appreciate their message nonetheless.

There was a time when I subscribed to religious doctrines and believed in the soul as a matter of faith. Noteworthy, atheism is a lack of belief in a god or gods, while agnosticism is the view that the existence of a god or gods is unknown or unknowable. Currently, my views reflect the latter.

All the same, I can appreciate both religious and secular concepts regarding the soul. As it pertains to the practice of mental, emotional, and behavioral health care (collectively “mental health”), the American Psychological Association (APA) thusly defines “soul”:

[T]he nonphysical aspect of a human being, considered responsible for the functions of mind and individual personality and often thought to live on after the death of the physical body. The English word corresponds to the Greek psyche, often also translated as “mind,” and the Latin anima, usually translated as “spirit.”

The concept of the soul was present in early Greek thinking and has been an important feature of many philosophical systems and most religions. Some traditional areas of debate have included whether the soul is material or immaterial, whether nonhuman animals, plants, or seemingly inert natural objects have souls, and whether the soul is individual, allowing the personality to persist after death, or whether it is a reflection of a universal “cosmic” soul.

Because the existence of the soul has resisted empirical verification, science has generally ignored the concept, and those who adhere to materialism, positivism, or reductionism reject it absolutely. Despite this, the term survives in the general language to mean the deepest center of a person’s identity and the seat of their most important moral, emotional, and aesthetic experiences.

Regarding my current secular perspective, I view the soul of an individual as one’s mind (the conscious mental events and capabilities in an organism; functional processes of the brain) and personality (the complex of characteristics that distinguishes an individual).

In crude terms, whereas the brain is the body’s hardware, the soul is the brain’s software. From this view, as stated by the APA, the soul is the “deepest center of a person’s identity.” Adding to this characterization, one source states:

According to cognitive scientist Jesse Bering and psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, humans are initially inclined to believe in a soul and are born as soul-body dualists. As such, religious institutions did not need to invent or inherit the idea of the soul from previous traditions; the concept has always been present throughout human history.

Echoing that sentiment, American philosopher Steward Goetz has claimed that according to anthropologists and psychologists, ordinary human beings are soul-body substance dualists, who, at all times and in all places, have believed in the existence of a distinction between the soul and the body.

In consideration of the dualist outlook, one which I hold (i.e., my mental processes are separate from my physical functions), I now turn to the topic of consciousness. The APA states of this term:

[I]n medicine and brain science, the distinctive electrical activity of the waking brain, as recorded via scalp electroencephalogram, that is commonly used to identify conscious states and their pathologies.

Beyond these succinct, in some cases everyday, senses of the term, there are intricate philosophical and research controversies over the concept of consciousness and multiple perspectives about its meaning.

Broadly, these interpretations divide along two (although not always mutually exclusive) major lines: (a) those proposed by scholars on the basis of function or behavior (i.e., consciousness viewed “from the outside”—the observable organism); and (b) those proposed by scholars on the basis of experience or subjectivity (i.e., consciousness viewed “from the inside”—the mind). The former generally represents the reductionist or materialist perspective, whereas the latter generally represents the immaterialist perspective.

For example, functional or behavioral interpretations tend to define consciousness in terms of physical, neurobiological, and cognitive processes, such as the ability to discriminate stimuli, to monitor internal states, to control behavior, and to respond to the environment.

According particularly to this view, the contents of consciousness are assessed through their ability to be reported accurately and verifiably, although recent brain imaging research suggests that brain indices of conscious contents may become available.

Experiential or subjective interpretations, however, tend to define consciousness in terms of mental imagery; intuition; subjective experience as related to sensations, perceptions, emotions, moods, and dreams; self-awareness; awareness of awareness itself and of the unity between the self and others and the physical world; stream of consciousness; and other aspects of private experience.

According to this view, the contents of consciousness can be assessed to some extent by their reportability but must also, given their phenomenological nature, rely on introspection.

To varying degrees, I value both “from the outside” and “from the inside” perspectives of consciousness. Offering more insight into the matter of a soul that plausibly functions in unison with consciousness, one source elaborates (page 868):

The soul cannot be thought of conceptually, because it is that which witnesses thought going on; it is the matrix within which mental life happens. In spite of the claims of cognitive-behavioral approaches, behavior and ideas are of a different order than the order of the soul.

There is a distinction between a science of the mind and the reality of the soul, which is not just about behavior. The realm of soul is the realm of meaning that is discovered when we look into ourselves, when we are inspired or deeply affected by music, art, ritual, relationship, nature, love or beauty, whatever really matters to us.

Mainstream psychology rejects the language of the soul because it seems too religious. The soul is impossible to study using empirical criteria; it needs its own methods of study.

Dreams and spiritual experiences have no rational explanation, or they have their own rationale – they defy the inductive scientific approach because they produce something new and impossible to replicate, so they are anathema to positivistic approaches.

The word psychotherapy means attending to the soul, and the word psychopathology means the suffering of the soul. If the therapist does not work at the level of the soul, by default we work only with the ego, the sense of personal identity, and with the personal unconscious.

But soul is the larger context of experience, so that the ego’s attitude may be mistaken from the point of view of the soul. Therefore, psychotherapy that only supports adaptation to the environment may produce a “cure” that ignores the values of the soul.

I’m aware that whether regarding a secular or metaphysical “soul,” claims of existence regarding the mind, conscious, ego, and other such terms are difficult (if not impossible) to prove. I grant the unfalsifiability argument in this regard. Nevertheless, I value some concept of a secular soul.

Additionally, when providing mental health services as a psychotherapist, my secular soul is “attending to the soul” in attempt to address “suffering of the soul.” My level of consciousness facilitates this process. Thus, I envision consciousness as the dwelling place of the soul.

Further contemplating this matter, I’m reminded of an electronic dance music (EDM) DJ set by Nici Nice during which she spun her own song “Reach Your Soul” (2024). As I practice REBT, I’m attempting to reach the souls – rather secular or spiritual – of other fallible human beings.

Sometimes, my efforts are unsuccessful. Other times, the clients with whom I collaborate are said to benefit from my labors. Irrespective of the outcome, to try is my goal. Therefore, each and every time I make an attempt to reach a soul, success is attained.

Given this healthy perspective, my soul which dwells within my consciousness is content—and that’s good enough for me. If you, too, want contentment (the quality or state of experiencing satisfaction with one’s own situation), then I’m here to try to reach your soul.

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As the world’s foremost EDM-influenced REBT psychotherapist—promoting content related to EDM, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters. 

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

Photo credit, fair use

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