Are you an old soul? The term is commonly used to describe someone mature beyond their years, or spiritually defined as someone who has lived many, many lives.
However, our many years of past life regression research has shown us that there are younger souls who are just as or more spiritually aware as the so-called older souls; being an older soul could be, in many cases, that it’s taken them a lot longer to learn their lessons. Just because you’ve gone through the motions of attending class and enduring exams doesn’t mean you’ve done well in school.
For the purpose of this article, we’ll refer to an older soul as someone who is wiser than average. Their wisdom and spiritual awareness is the result of mastering many challenges in difficult past lives.
Note: Just as a senior in high school is not guaranteed to be smarter than a freshman simply because of the age difference, being an old soul doesn’t make you superior to someone who hasn’t progressed as far along. While past lives are important because they can greatly affect your current life, what matters most are your actions now, in this life. Besides, how far along a soul is on the path to completing the karmic circle is less important when you realize we’re all in this together.
We have found that it’s fairly easy to spot an older or younger soul by their actions (not their words). Choose your first response (Agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Disagree) to the following to consider your spiritual progress.
1) You think only of yourself and do what’s best for you when dealing with others, no matter what their needs or the consequences.
2) You tend to be a follower, even in situations where “doing the right thing” would require you to lead.
3) You don’t question potentially harmful social norms, customs, and traditions and prefer to just comply to societal standards.
4) You don’t strive to be honest with yourself and others 100% of the time.
5) You are more likely to take the easy way out instead of paying your dues now so you can be rewarded later.
6) You don’t do the “right thing” when you can get away with it and doing otherwise benefits you.
7) In an argument or debate, you are less likely to rely on facts or what’s best (ultimately, not immediately) for all involved, and more likely to let your emotions rule and focus on how you or your group have been wronged in the past.
8) It’s difficult for you to put yourself in another person’s position and understand their viewpoint.
9) You feel no guilt when you hurt someone, especially if they don’t find out.
10) If someone wrongs you, you are likely to retaliate to even the score.
11) You fully attribute your insights to mental faculty and believe that the idea of intuition or psychic ability is foolish.
12) You accept and strictly follow a traditional religion, and shun those who aren’t of your faith.
13) You identify 100% with your gender and believe those who don’t need psychiatric help.
14) You don’t think it’s possible to be born gay or bi.
15) You believe you are your body and mind and the soul is not significant, or is non-existent.
16) You don’t think that past lives matter and you don’t believe in karma.
17) You identify 100% with your race and don’t accept that you’ve been other races in past lives or that your body, including skin color, is just a temporary home for your soul, who you really are.
18) It’s difficult for you to imagine what it’s like to be of a different race.
19) You hate spending time alone.
20) You believe that there is a lot of injustice in the world.
21) You have a difficult time taking responsibility for your actions.
22) You believe that the world owes you.
As you probably figured out, the higher you scored, the more likely it is, generally, that you are a wiser soul. We base our theories on the findings of our long-term empirical research. Again, how “old” you are is much less important than doing the “right thing,” even when no one is looking.
By the way, you may be wondering why we didn’t cover status, money or appearance. We believe it’s a myth that if someone is an old soul they naturally don’t care about such things; how one treats others when they have prominence, wealth, or beauty is much more revealing about a soul’s progress.
Copyright © 2011 Stephen Petullo, Scott Petullo