"Soul” and “spirit” are often used interchangeably. It has not always been so. In Western society, people once spoke of four elements of human beings: “body, mind, soul, and spirit.” Between two and three hundred years ago, during the “Burning Times” and the so-called “Age of Enlightenment,” we suppressed women as healers, mystics and spiritual leaders. Church leaders associated soul with these feminine aspects of ourselves, and suppressed all references to the soul, making it the same as spirit. Thus we came to see ourselves as only “body, mind and spirit.” Today, however, soul has become the subject of many popular writings, and it is returning to our consciousness of self. We can no longer deny the existence of soul any more than we can suppress or deny the existence of spirit. As we are in the process today of remembering that sad part of our history, soul and spirit are not synonymous, and yet they certainly do have similarities. By examining our old traditions of thought and our popular idioms we can see how soul and spirit differ and what they also have in common.

In The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri tells us that there is but one commandment, “Be!” and there is but one response, “I am!” The commandment is the source of life, the spirit that continues to transform all being. The response is the essence of life, the soul that is in relationship to all of the responses to “Be!” The source, spirit, is ethereal, and, like the breath (Latin, spiritus) it can not be grasped. The essence, soul, is tangible, and, one’s body (Latin, anima) feels its presence. The spirit is fundamental and transcendent (Kabbala, Maqom), universal and collective. The soul is manifest and immanent (Kabbala, Shekhina), personal and individual. Spirit is the masculine (yang) principle of life, whereas soul is the feminine (yin) principle. Spirit sets the concept of existence, and soul is the content and context of existence. The first three chakras, the chakras of form (body), contain the essence of life, the soul, the experience of being. The next four chakras, the chakras of concept (mind), connect the body or form to the spirit, the foundation of being.

Soul and spirit have properties in common, especially those that make them both eternal and infinite… time and space do not define them. The great truths of the Universe can not be defined, they can only be described. The infinite, eternal aspect of spirit is quite easy to grasp, but when one thinks of soul it appears more finite. However, as Heraclitus would have us know, “You would not find out the boundaries of the soul, even by traveling along every path: so deep a measure does it have.” Indeed, we can not take the measure of either soul or spirit. Neither can we understand them; for to understand is to stand under as Atlas stands under the world and takes the measure of its size and weight. Thus we take the measure of whatever it is we stand under or understand. However, by traveling along the paths of soul and spirit, we can experience them. In the experience of them we encounter that which flows from deep within both of them… love. For our purposes here, we describe love as caritas or agape rather than as eros, sexual love or passion. This love is without condition and it is the quality of all of the relationships of soul and spirit.

For us humans, the younger we are the more difficult it is to sense these qualities, because they are subjected to the loud, attention-getting, soul-shadowing demands of the ego. Ego takes the credit for making individuals of each of us. Soul and spirit are then shy of the ego, and, on the other hand, the ego fears these infinite, eternal qualities that speak to the awesome strength and integrity that comes with their limitless qualities. Soul and spirit can wait for the ranting and raving of the ego to fade into time, biding that finite time with their timelessness until it is right for the individual to recognize that there is this dimensionless aspect of her or his life. These qualities of soul and spirit are the paradigm of wholeness and health. They are also the source of all of the lasting examples of our creativity. They live in the Parthenon, in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, in the splendor of the Taj Mahal, and in the majestic wonder of Machu Picchu.

For those who enjoy discussion and argument about the nature of soul and spirit, let this introduction become the basis for a wide variety of dialogs about the nature of human psychospiritual experience. Because in some ways they are opposites, soul and spirit are not the Source of the Universe, but they are manifestations of that Source. Insofar as they are similar, they are close to the Source. As we come to learn more about them, their similarities take us nearer to that Source because they resolve some of our most challenging paradoxes. As our awareness of both grows it leads us to the appreciation of our potential to take part in the greatest transformation that our species has ever undertaken… indeed, soul and spirit are the focal dynamic, the engine, of this transformation.

The Art and Soul of Healing:           top
An Experience in Relationship-Centered Care
Helping medical and mental health care providers bring relationship-centered care to their practises is the focus of a weekend workshop that HOPE and the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine are hosting in June. This 2 1/2 day workshop will take place June 12 to 14 at Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine. The cost for the workshop is $150 to $200 (sliding scale). Room and Board will be $75 for a double room or $100 for a single room for the entire weekend.

12.5 Category 2B CME credits from the American Osteopathic Association and contact hour certificates will be earned.

Joining HOPE’s founder, Ken Hamilton MD, as facilitators for this workshop will be Jane Hindle Bamberg, M.S.Ed, Barbara Sinclair, Ph.D., Bruce St. Thomas, Ed.D., and Susan Thompson, M.Ed. (See related article on Nurturing the Nurturers.)

The Art and Soul of Healing has been described as “a weekend workshop for medical and mental health care providers to unlock personal wisdom, remove blocks, renew goals… maintaining the integrity of your profession in this time of change.” Participants will discover that in loving themselves deeply, they can discover the truths of being in relationship.

Based on the format of Circling the Soul: Coming Home to Yourself™ workshops, this extended version is specially designed to give healthcare providers the skills needed to apply the concepts in their own practises. These are the skills Ken Hamilton started using in both his life and practise twenty-three years ago.

After a full day on Saturday, participants will be able to relax and enjoy an evening of entertainment by Maine singer/songwriter Leah Wolfsong and Her Very Fine Band. T-Shirts will be available on which participants can draw “mandalas of becoming.” The outdoor facilities on Hebron Academy’s picturesque campus, including cross country ski trails for hiking, tennis courts, a track, and ball fields, will be available for participants, as well as the indoor pool with open hours both Saturday and Sunday.

For more information or to register, call Laurie at 207-743-9373. If you have a favorite healthcare practitioner who might like to have a brochure on the workshop, let Laurie know.

Nurturing the Nurturers          top
by Jane Hindle Bamberg
The Nurturers group was conceived in the spring of 1996 with Ken Hamilton as its primary and initial mover. Its formation and development have been driven by the knowledge and perception that the health care field is seriously lacking in nurturance.

Several professionals involved in healthcare and other aspects of individualized service to the public convened every two to three months, spending weekends together. Initially the group’s purpose was two-fold. Based on the premise that service professionals can offer better quality services in proportion to how well they take care of themselves, the group devoted significant time to nurturing themselves.

Our second purpose—evaluating the areas and extent of unmet nurturance needs in the health-care field and determining where we might be able to remediate those unmet needs—has continued for the group and become our primary focus.

Despite changes in the group make up, the core group has remained stable for over a year. Three original members, Ken Hamilton, Bruce St. Thomas, and Susan Thompson, have been joined by Jim Mitchell, Jane Hindle Bamberg, and Barbara Sinclair.

During the past year, the Nurturers' core group has concentrated on developing and presenting one- and two- day workshops The Art and Soul of Healing and Circling the Soul: Coming Home to Yourself™. In these workshops, reviewing one’s life experiences through art, writing, and small-group sharing enables one to clarify intention and promote growth. This can be valuable to anyone, but is particularly valuable for health-care providers. For these providers, the quality and degree of nurturance is potentially much greater for clients, through enhanced relationship-centered care.

Through offering more and more workshops and professional presentations in a wider and wider geographical area, the Nurturers plan to expand this awareness and potential for greater nurturance in healthcare.

The Big Ride          top
by Susan Scully
The journey began long ago before the knowing, but the knowing started before the trek, and the trek started last August. The minute I saw the full page ad asking for volunteers to ride The Big Ride Across America by bike this summer for the American Lung Association, I knew I had to go. It grew into an unexplainable Light which I couldn’t ignore, urging me upward to places I’ve only dreamed of going, and inward to places I’ve never been.

It’s almost a fever which has riveted me to what is, and what can be, and has driven me to do things which I least want to do —

• like training for hours every day before sunrise,
• like asking people for help,
• like giving up hot fudge sundaes

—but whenever I ask, “why?,” my soul answers, and I hear my name.

Journey
by Susan Scully

I heard a mantra of Light
which does not speak, except in
the safe silences of my knowing
where it has spoken me—
changed my name;
become my breath, become
your breath becoming mine—
being my soul’s Utterance;
being my whole life’s cadence and
the cadence of the earth, breathing
me over her fierce mountains,
across her wild and wrinkled plains,
Home.

Susan Scully is a HOPE’r from Portland, Maine

HOPE Ripples: and Membership in the Circle of Friends of HOPE
Edited by Ken Hamilton, MD, the founder; © 1998. Ripples is distributed quarterly without cost to members of The Circle of Friends of HOPE and to HOPE group participants. To all others, the cost of an annual subscription is $5.00.

HOPE members and group participants are invited to submit personal stories and information about individual or group activities and experiences. HOPE is a human interest organization that believes in the value of the anecdote. We’d like you to consider submitting yours!

Memberships in the Circle of Friends of HOPE come with your voluntary, tax-deductible contributions, less the cost of Ripples, are used to support HOPE’s development and implementation of outreach programs such as the highly successful Hope for Schools. Membership in the Circle of Friends of HOPE gives access to the tapes, books and T-shirts that we sell bringing our simple yet challenging message. Please make out your check to HOPE Your support makes our mission a success. Thank you.

HOPE’s annual fund drive is under way. Through a direct mail appeal and now this request in Ripples, we are asking our supporters to consider a donation to help with the operating costs of HOPE Your generosity makes it possible for us to continue providing services. Please consider one of the the following levels of giving:

Friend: $50-$99
Donor $100-$499
Patron $500-$999
Benefactor: $1000 and above

Please send your tax-deductible donation to: HOPE. PO Box 276, South Paris, ME 04281

We would love to have your HOPE story for Ripples! Please send it to the HOPE office, PO Box 276, South Paris, ME 04281 or email it to hope-at-hopehealing.org. If you don't think you are a writer, record it onto a tape and send that to the office. The editor will transcribe and edit it for you!

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