The Seat of the Soul: 25th Anniversary Edition

This book was given to me as a gift some twenty years ago, and although it was highly recommended to me, I never read it. I have always been an avid reader, but I always found other titles more appealing--that is until I read `How to find God', by Deepak Chopra. Chopra mentions in his book that `The Seat of the Soul' is the best book he has read about the soul. Upon finishing Deepak's book, I plunged into `The Seat of the Soul', finally, and thankfully. I guess I need to send my friend a twenty years late thank you note.There are many interesting concepts in the book.According to the author, animals have a group soul. I found that to be extremely fascinating. For example, all horses share the same soul; all elephants share the same soul; all dolphins share the same soul; and so on. An animal does not have its own soul, but shares one soul with its entire specific species. There is only one soul for the hundreds of millions of cows in the world. This is why animals function on instincts.Some group souls are higher spiritually than others. For example, the soul of dolphins is higher than all other sea creatures. In fact, many spiritual sects believe that a dolphin is the last stage of a soul before becoming reincarnated into a human being. So even in the animal kingdom, there are souls that are more evolved than others.Every soul, whether human or animal, has a purpose. A dolphin, for example, has as a mission to bring beauty and love to the sea. But what if the soul cannot accomplish its mission or purpose? We have recently seen an increase in dead dolphins washing on beaches. Why is that? According to the author, dolphins are dying because they no longer can accomplish their purpose. It is not a mass suicide, but because dolphins are bringing onto themselves diseases that are killing them. Man is not respecting nature, and is killing the creatures of the sea, such as whales for example, at an alarming rate and for very selfish reasons. In other words, life forms are being massacred for profit! Other sea creatures are dying because of the pollution we are creating. As a result, the sea is no longer a peaceful, beautiful, and pure world, and the dolphins are no longer able to perform their duties as guardians of beauty and serenity to the sea. As a result, their soul has become diseased, and they are dying off.The author uses the following analogy to describe disease and its effect on the soul. Imagine a piano and a piano player. If the piano is broken, it can be repaired. But no matter how perfect the piano is, if the player is sick, the sound or melody coming from the piano will be less than perfect. However, if the piano is less than perfect, with some faults in it that can't be repaired, but the player is in perfect spirits, the music played will be beautiful. Furthermore, if the piano breaks, the player can always fix it. But if the player breaks (so to speak), the piano cannot repair the player. In this scenario, the piano represents the body, and the player represents the soul. If our soul is healthy, we will always be healthy and we will be projecting positive energy. However, if our soul is diseased, we too will be diseased, and we will be projecting negative energy.There are many reasons why our soul can become diseased. One of the main reasons is that we find no purpose to our life, or in other words, are unable to fulfill our soul's purpose. Disease and soul are therefore linked. Ever hear of miraculous healings, such as the paralyzed suddenly walking or terminally ill patients suddenly recovering? In their case, their soul was healed, which in turn healed their bodies. Now that's a really interesting concept. Instead of trying to find ways of healing the body, science must now concentrate on better understanding the soul and diagnosing and treating the soul, not the body. When the soul is healthy, the body is healthy.Another powerful healer is Love (with a capital `L'). Love heals all. The soul is Love. In fact, when we die, we return to our state of pure Love. The soul cannot know anything but Love, and all its intentions are for Love. However, here on earth, our personality takes hold of us, and shapes our actions. At death, the soul and personality are separated, and the soul returns to its pure form.It is really important that we, as individuals, aim to achieving the purpose of our soul. We will earn negative karma if we do not succeed. For example, a giving and caring person might have as a `soul purpose' the goal of making the world a better place by giving to the poor or by creating humanitarian organizations. However, such a person's personality might interfere with his soul's purpose, and instead of directing his kindness and caring to the world, he might direct it towards his loved ones only, which will be interpreted in the universe as a selfish act. This is the reason why our soul falls ill, and as a result, our body falls ill too.Another interesting concept is the `Law of Attraction', which has become popular in the book `The Secret', by Rhonda Byrne. According to the law of attraction, the universe gives you what you want. For example, if you always feel anger, the universe will give you more anger. If you feel love, and are surrounded by loving people, the universe will give you more love. In other words, positive energy attracts positive energy, and negative energy attracts negative energy. By being positive all the time, you will be attracting positive people and situations around yourself. So be positive!How does the author know all that about the soul? Is he making this all up? After all, writers can easily create imaginary and fascinating worlds. Take Tolkien as an example. Or is it all a play with words? For example, Chopra says in `The Book of Secrets', that on death, it is the body that leaves the soul, and not the other way around. Is this merely a play with words, or a truth? And how does the author know this?This book is fascinating, but because the soul cannot be proven scientifically, it remains in the domain of speculation and faith. The soul, like God, depends on faith, and faith alone. But what splendid things can befall one in such a belief!Read this book and be inspired, and get to know yourself...ergo your soul.

This book definitely streches the mind to being open and thinking beyond.

I’ve read thousands of books and this book is in my top 10.

Very inspiring and insightful

I give this book as gifts to family and friends. Oprah claims this book changed her beliefs. This is very inspirational and brought me so much peace.

I read the book in one week and plan to read again - it is really grate but you need to read more than one time to completely absorb all the information - highly recommended

Anyone who is intentional about their spiritual journey needs to read and re-read Seat Of The Soul! So much truth and healing information packed into one short book! I listened first on Audible and felt I had to have the actual book so that I could read again and highlight and have as a reference tool for my faith development and to assist and share with others, too. You are a soul who has come into this plane to grow and learn. If you like Carolyn Myss, Michael Sanger, Joseph Murphy, Joe Dispenza- you will definitely enjoy Zukav and be graced by some universal truths to help you understand your inner workings and how to strain against emotions less so that you can learn your soul’s lessons with more grace and ease.

The Seat of the Soul, is the first spiritualty book I read and it fundamentally changed the way I view everything. I first read it in 1998 when I was nineteen and it ignited something inside me that was so profound... it is difficult to articulate. The lessons I found among its pages inspired me to embark on a personal journey to become the best version of myself by living a more fulfilled conscious life full of intention. It sparked my thirst for more knowledge.The book is broken into the following chapters: Evolution, Karma, Reverence, Heart, Intuition, Light, Intention, Choice, Addiction, Relationships, Souls, Psychology, Illusion, Power and Trust.The most enduring lesson I received from this book is that my intention creates my reality and that I can manifest anything in my life through conscious intention. I always knew that my thoughts were powerful, but everything seemed to click inside me when I read Gary Zukav's explanation on how intention creates karmic energy that ultimately comes back."Every action, thought, and feeling is motivated by an intention, and that intention is a cause that exists as one with an effect. If we participate in the cause, it is not possible for us not to participate in the effect. In the most profound way, we are held responsible for our every action, thought and feeling, which is to say, for our every intention."I related to the concept that every energy I release ultimately comes back to me and have witnessed this play out hundreds of times in my life. Sometimes I have found myself not wanting to accept the fact that I have indeed created a particular outcome but when I examined my motives and my intentions I always found my part and thus the truth of a particular situation.After reading this book, I questioned my motivation and intention of everything I did and looked at my behavior in a new way. I tried to minimize complaining and started asking myself inquisitive questions such as: What is my intention with sharing this? Am I looking for a particular response? What do I hope to get out of this?After reading the book, I tried to make more responsible choices and take into account the consequences of my choices by asking: do I really want what this choice will produce? Am I ready to accept all of the consequences of this choice?Here's a few of my favorite lessons from the book: "Forgiveness means that you do not hold others responsible for your experiences." "An intention is not only a desire. It is the use of your will." "Only by feeling compassion for yourself can you feel compassion for others." "The Universe backs the part of you that is of clearest intention." "Temptation is a dress rehearsal for a karmic experience of negativity."I wasn't able to relate to everything Gary Zukav talks about in this book. The concept that my soul is part of a huge mother ship was a bit too much for me to grasp or understand, so the parts I didn't like I ignored. Instead, I chose to focus on the lessons that spoke to me and I dismissed the rest which is my philosophy for any non-fiction book. There are so many amazing concepts I would highly recommend reading this book.My advice would be to read it with an open mind, take what you want and leave the rest.

Book arrived in perfect condition.....it is new!

The first time I read the seat of the soul, I failed to understand most of the concepts. Then I read it again this year and had a few light bulbs moments. The greatest concepts of all for me and a life changing one too, is the concept of 'Intention'. When I finally grasped what it meant, everything literally changed in my life. Intention is what will determine the success or otherwise of whatever we do. If your intention for doing something is wrong, it will never provide you with the result you want. For things to work out the way we want them to, the intention underlying them have to be right or noble. So in a nutshell, if you live your life intentionally, you cannot do things that don't feel right. Everything you do comes from the heart and is real. Because it is such a major shift in consciousness, it inevitably means having to upset people. But it is either that or continuing to live a life that does not bring you peace.

It’s a decent read and whilst I agree with falling into line with our soul, I don’t buy into humans being the embodiment of individual souls. I believe in a universal soul that is one and the same as God that sits in everyone and everything. As humans, we have a consciousness that offers us the opportunity to awaken and align to this soul and God.

I’d heard Oprah Winfrey say this book changed her life. I am on a spiritual journey however didn’t find it and easy read in that it wasn’t written in a style I found easy to understand and it has left me with lots of questions and chapters to revisit. There were lessons however that made perfect sense.At the moment I am just confused. If you are ready for it go for it

Makes statements with no view of reality. Wishy washy, entitled preaching. Had to stop reading it after a dozen pages.