SoulCircling Book Chapter Summaries

SoulCircling: the Journey to the Who ©2002

We have two directors of our lives, the ego and the soul. The one is finite and secular; the other is eternal and spiritual. The ego is the master of “the what” of our lives and the soul is the master of “the who” of our lives. Reason can not prove the soul’s existence; so, as the result of the Rationalists of the Age of Reason who said, “if it can’t be scientifically proven it doesn’t exist,” we have been living without it for about 400 years. The unopposed ego is responsible for all of the destruction, rape, and murder we’ve ever experienced. However, the ego’s strengths are valuable to the soul; so we must turn to our spiritual guide for the direction of our lives and encourage the ego to work for and with the soul.

• This book will take you though the exercise of identifying your ego’s strengths and your soul’s purpose. It will teach you how to do this work in a small circle of supportive friends.
• The book is available for purchase as an e-book download or soft cover hard copy. You may place your order now by going to the H.O.P.E. Store page.

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Chapter SummariesGreen Square

Foreword: Written by the social architect, August T. Jaccaci, who, with three other wonderful souls, helped Ken develop the theses behind SoulCircling.

Prologue: Eden, the garden of ego. The legend of the Garden of Eden is the story of the ego. In it, even God has one! This enjoyable chapter reviews our history and lays out ways of looking at our selves that suggest a different potential than just being doomed to eternally wander far beyond Eden’s gate.

Introduction: A surgeon sheathes his scalpel. Here, I tell you about the way in which the Mystery of the Universe revealed Itself to me, changing my life forever, and leading me into this adventure of bringing the ego and the soul together.

Chapter 1: In the Beginning. The Creation is greatest adventure of all time—a perfect, pure intention rising out of an indescribable void and uttering its only commandment: “Be!”—a perfect, eternal thought encompassing a perfect, infinite body in a single, evolving point of light.

Chapter 2: Ego, the Navigator. Ego is “that portion of the human personality experienced as the ‘self’ or ‘I’ which perceives, remembers, evaluates, plans, and in other ways is responsive to and acts in the surrounding physical and social world (Encyclopedia Britannica).” In other words, it is the navigator of the Ship of Life. This chapter describes the characteristics of the ego, and why it is important to who we are.

Chapter 3: Soul, the Captain. Our soul comes here with “Earth Orders” (Kirkegaard). The soul is the only aspect of “self” that knows the point of origin, the cargo manifest, the ports of call and the ultimate destination for the ship of life it captains this time around. This chapter develops this idea and gives the history of how we came to stop seeing ourselves as souls creating a sacred experience, and how we can turn that around.

Chapter 4: Out of Body. Five important soul phenomena have appeared in our Western experience in the last quarter of the 20th century: fragmentation of soul; out-of-body experiences (OBE), with or without a near-death experience (NDE); reincarnation, especially in respect to past life regression therapy; shamanic practices; and visits from beyond. A grasp of these concepts will help us to understand more about soul.

Chapter 5: Homecoming. Life is the journey of a soul that comes here to gather knowledge and create experiences of Universal value—experiences of compassionate love. The journey takes many lifetimes to complete. Each lifetime collaborates with a different personality and its ego. At our present time in human history, having relegated soul to a tiny spot in the brain, we pay little attention to it beyond acknowledging its presence and that it seems to have something to do with feelings, passion, and Spirit. We focus, instead, on developing “ego strength” and on gratifying our ego’s view of life in which it “perceives, remembers, evaluates, plans, and in other ways is responsive to and acts in the surrounding physical and social world (“ego” Encyclopædia Britannica http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=32639 [Accessed June 24, 2002].).”

Chapter 6: H.O.P.E, Healing Of Persons Exceptional. In Chapter Five, we brought together in a homecoming the most vital aspects of self, ego and soul. Now that they are both in the “House by the Side of the Road … and be a friend to man” (Sam Walter Foss, 1858-1911), they need to keep up the dialogue they began while the captain still secluded itself in its private quarters. (It needed to wait for the ego to develop its strengths by the age of thirteen.) Ego needs to talk about its worries and concerns and soul needs to talk about its passion. They need to add another chair to the great room on the north side of their house and sit in safety and intimacy while they figure out the ways to get the soul work done.

Chapter 7: SoulCircles. In the last two chapters, we brought together two vital aspects of self, ego and soul, in a homecoming. Now that they are both in the same house, as it were, they need to keep up the dialogue they began when the captain emerged from its private quarters. Both want to love and be loved. Both ego and soul need a safe place in which to talk about their needs, desires and passions. A SoulCircle provides just such a place.

Chapter 8: SoulCircling. It’s time to set the gossamer web in which you will catch your butterfly-soul and find out what it came here to do. It will allow itself to be held in the loving hearts of your SoulCircle and help you develop the four elements of SoulCircling: Portraying and Telling Your Story; Taking Your Fearless, Loving Inventory; Clarifying Your Intent; and Affirming Yourself. We take them in order.

Chapter 9: Moving On. The greatest constant in the universe is change. In this chapter, I shall show you a pattern to life’s changes that helps understand how we got to where we are and why the future will be so different. We shall come to understand how important it is that we take what we have learned about ourselves and use it to clarify an intention for our lives… today.

Epilogue:
Eden, the Garden of Soul. Consider how this might apply to our wonderful species. What is our story—told and listened to with love and compassion? What do our species’ incredibly rich resources for becoming “collaborators in creation” (Teilhard de Chardin) look like? (They are our “acres of diamonds” in Russell Herman Conwell’s story of the discovery of the Golconda diamond mine.) What resources of talent and temperament do we share? What are our human passions? What is our will? Whose will?
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