⭐ A Small Revision—and Why

Not long ago, one of the early readers of The Soul Remembers asked me what I meant by “dualistic consciousness.” It was a good question, and it eventually led me to write What Do I Mean by Dualistic Consciousness?

Recently, I went back and read the article again. Something bothered me.

I had explained how the dualistic mind divides the world into opposites—light and dark, good and evil, superior and inferior, “us” and “them.” But I realized I had not made something else clear enough.

Beneath these divisions, I believe there is an even deeper one: the belief that we are separate from the Source that gave us life. Once we experience ourselves as separate from the Divine, it becomes easier to experience ourselves as fundamentally separate from one another. From that first separation, the familiar divisions of “us” and “them” can begin to grow.

That is an important part of what I mean by dualistic consciousness, and I had not said it clearly enough.

As I reconsidered the article, I noticed something else. I had written that from the beginning of recorded history, the human mind has organized reality into opposites. I still believe that is a reasonable observation. But my words could leave the impression that dualistic consciousness was necessarily humanity’s original state.

That isn't quite what I intended to say.

Many spiritual traditions preserve stories of an earlier unity between humanity and the Divine. The story of Adam and Eve is perhaps one of the most familiar. Whether we understand such stories literally, symbolically, or somewhere in between, they leave open an interesting possibility: perhaps separation was not the beginning of the human story.

So I made two small revisions. Neither changed what I believe. They simply made clearer what I was trying to say in the first place.

I suppose this is also why I value thoughtful questions from readers. Sometimes a question causes me to explain an idea more clearly. Sometimes it causes me to look at something again.

And occasionally, I realize there is something more I need to say.

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