The Multidimensional Self:
The Soul, OverSoul, and Beyond
Jeff Street
http://divine-cosmos.net
Divine Cosmos - Reflections on life, self, and the universe.
Whether you know it or not, you are a multidimensional being of staggering proportions.  You are more than meets the eye, much more — more than your body, more than your soul; in fact, you are an integral part of the Universe.  You are part of the composite consciousness that is the Universe and beyond!  You are present on many levels of reality simultaneously and more powerful than you have ever imagined.   Are you ready to expand your concept of self-hood to include higher selves, other/parallel selves, and probable selves?  If so, then let's dive in!
Most of us are familiar with the idea of the soul — the conception that our bodies are transient physical vessels for an eternal energetic aspect of our consciousness, which is our true essence.  Conventional science dismisses this idea, and so do many people.  Yet, there are plenty of people that feel the presence of something greater within themselves and you are probably one of them since you were attracted to this material.  And as the great shift in the consciousness of humanity accelerates, more and more people are feeling this presence and connecting with it.

If we take the existence of some sort of higher aspect of self as a given, the next question becomes; is our current idea of the soul accurate and complete?  There are a growing number of sources that are saying that it is not, that it is overly simplistic, in fact, almost one-dimensional when compared to the new higher fidelity models being suggested.

Some schools of thought subscribe to the very simple model shown below.
This model portrays just two entities; Source/God and souls (potentially connected to bodies). Its most notable element is that the soul is seen as created by, but separate from, the Creator.  This representation is very simple and easy to understand but it is a gross oversimplification, and the idea that we are separate from Source/God is, well, just plain wrong.  Luckily, fewer and fewer people are subscribing to this particular model.

Another school of thought offers a somewhat more sophisticated model, as shown below.
It considers the Soul a PART OF a wider/higher entity referred to as the Over-Soul, which in turn is part of the all-encompassing Source/God entity. This model is on the right track and hits upon a couple of key elements; we are multi-layered beings, and every layer is PART OF (and within) each successive layer and all are part of, and within, the one all-encompassing being that we call Source/God. Yet even this model is an oversimplification.

A word of warning here; when you see the term "being", think "sentient energetic entity", not "physical being". Most of us have a tendency to personify the concept of "beingness", but this is a mistake. The essence of all beingness is something non-physical and that's why I will often use the term "entity" instead, because it avoids this trap.

While the models presented certainly do reflect some aspects of the deeper reality, it is my contention that they are just gross approximations. In the remainder of this article, I will present a more sophisticated model that is a synthesis of ideas from a number of different sources and expands greatly beyond the models mentioned above.  It suggests that we are multidimensional entities present on many levels of "reality" simultaneously and more powerful than we have been led to believe or have ever imagined.  Only a small portion of your total beingness is present in the physical body that you may have erroneously assumed was all of you.  The you that you identify as 'you' is a part of a much bigger entity, which is ultimately also just a small part of the ultimate entity that is "all that is" — referred to through the ages by many names; Source, Infinite Creator, God, etc.

You are a multidimensional being of staggering proportions and in your quest to know yourself, and the nature of your existence, you have employed massive parallelism.

Higher Selves

So what exactly is a soul and what is its relationship to what some call "God" and others call "Source Consciousness"?

If you haven't heard the term "Source Consciousness" before then this may come as a shock — the universe is conscious in its very fabric.  The Universe is not at all what it appears from our very limited perspective.  We exist inside of something resembling a great cosmic mind, often referred to as "Cosmic/Universal Consciousness".

As the term "Source Consciousness" suggests, all consciousness is derived from the Universal field of Consciousness.  The consciousness of each and every one of us is an individualized thread of the Universal Consciousness.  This is what your "soul" is — it is a thread of Universal Consciousness with an associated repository of experiential information (local memory), and derivative ideas, all somehow encoded as a pattern of energy.  Our soul is sentient energy, as is the entire universe.

This idea is echoed by the modern day mystic and spiritual teacher Story Waters in his statement below that he made in his One Self Teachings.

"There is only One Consciousness in all existence. The consciousness that I know myself as is the same consciousness you know yourself as."

Source Consciousness is the intelligence that is/created our Universe, and it INDIRECTLY created all our souls.  One of the fundamental capabilities of consciousness is the ability to subdivide itself — to create smaller individualized copies of itself within itself.  Source used this mechanism to create the first level of sub-threads of its consciousness; what in effect could be thought of as sub-selves.  It did this to explore and experience many-ness, rather than oneness, but more importantly, as a strategy to accelerate the exploration of itself and existence — to accelerate its evolution.

The mechanism that Source used to accomplish subdivision and individuation of its consciousness was primarily that of lowering the frequency of portions of its energies, stepping them down into the lower frequency bands of the energetic field.  This is part of the reason why subdivisions of consciousness operate somewhat independently of, yet are inherently part of and connected to, the "higher" consciousness that spawned them — they are simply portions of the parent sentient energies at a significantly lower frequential level.

The subdivisions of consciousness that Source created within itself, in a very real sense, can be considered its sub-selves. And here is the really cool part, anything that a sub-self experiences is also experienced by its parent/higher-self and thus forms the basis for an evolutionary strategy — massive parallel experiences!

The process of subdivision of consciousness is a general capability, and can and has been repeated by the sub-selves at each level of consciousness, and for the same reasons — to accelerate their evolution and thereby contribute to Source's evolution.

Consciousness is like a multi-level branching structure.  If we use a tree analogy, then Source Consciousness would be the tree trunk.  The tree trunk then divides into many large branches, which keep dividing into smaller and smaller branches until we get to twigs with a leaf attached to the end of each.
In this model we could think of the "leaves" as physical bodies, and then as you move from the leaf towards the trunk we'd encounter the soul level, and then the over-soul level, and then a number of additional levels till we reached the tree trunk coming out of the ground, the Source level.  Note that even though the diagram above shows seven levels it's unclear how many levels there really are, or whether all branches have to have the same number of divisions/levels.  The only thing that's for sure is that there are more than three levels, probably many more.  A number of sources indicate that there is a level above the Over-Soul that has been referred to as "Soul Group". 

Below is a diagram illustrating the divisional structure of Universal Consciousness.
According to some sources there are *2,135 Soul Groups participating in the Earth experience right now (who knows how many exist within Source in total, probably many more).  Each Soul Group entity is able to subdivide itself into (create) up to *144,000 over-souls, and each over-soul is able to create up to *12 souls, and each soul up to *12 soul-extensions.  A Soul-Extension is just another subdivision of consciousness which allows connection to physical vehicles (bodies) in the very lowest frequency bands.  The consciousness that connects to a body to "drive" it has to be within a certain "distance" of frequency to achieve the connection.  If you do the math this leads to potentially *44 billion incarnate entities on Earth.

An over-soul creates one or more souls for the purpose of connecting to physical bodies in the physical planes of existence — the lower frequency bands of the Universe.  A physical body is simply a vehicle that the soul uses to have physical experiences.  Physical life provides unique and highly formative experiences that are much sought after by a wide variety of non-physical beings.   Physical experience, while challenging, is a spiritual evolution fast track and therefore highly coveted.

The *12x12 subdivisional structure of the Over-Soul allows each over-soul to have up to *144 sub-selves that each can bind to physical bodies for 144 parallel physical lives.  And of course, one of these 144 sub-selves and its body is YOU!

[* These figures may or may not be accurate, but the overall concept is correct. MS]

The Higher Self, The True Self

Amongst those that embrace that they have a soul, many are still overly identified with their body as their identity.  Even those that embrace the soul as their true identity may be missing a deeper appreciation of the true scope of their wider/higher self.  Despite the fact that some use the term "Higher-Self" as a synonym for the "Over-Soul" I think it's better used to refer to all the levels of self all the way up to, and including, Source. 

The figure below illustrates this idea.
As the figure illustrates, the chain of consciousness that spawned your soul — your over-soul, soul-group, and every level all the way to Source — all could be considered your higher-self.  But your over-soul is the level of your composite self that has direct responsibility for your soul's existence and interest in the quality of your experiences, that's why the over-soul is often thought of as your higher-self.  But you truly are a part of every level in the chain of your composite consciousness and can potentially communicate with, and draw information, knowledge and guidance from, any level of your multidimensional/composite self.

Your body, and in a sense even your soul, were created as a transient sentient entity to serve as an experiential and evolutionary vehicle for your over-soul.  So in a very real sense, you could consider the over-soul that spawned your soul as your TRUE SELF!

And your Over-Soul is an immensely wise and powerful being that is always trying to encourage you to create the best experiences for yourself and to become the highest vision of yourself.  Why? Because you are part of it, and it is experiencing through you!

At this point you might be wondering, "If this is true, why don’t I know it and feel it?" This is a very good question.

When your soul incarnates (connects to a physical vehicle) it loses its memory of its greater existence.  The "veil of forgetting" is intentional, it makes the earth game a fully immersive and truly formative experience.  The game of life would not be the same if you knew it was just a game.

We also lose a lot of the fidelity of our connection to our higher-self (over-soul and Source).  This is an unavoidable consequence of incarnating into the lower frequency planes of existence — the physical planes.  Our earthly level of consciousness is at a frequency so much lower than that of our higher-self that any stream of information coming down is subject to a large reduction of fidelity due to the frequency step-down required.  Yet we could still have a very good connection with our higher-self if it wasn't for one thing — our out-of-control ego.

The constant chatter of the ego and analytical mind creates so much mental noise that we can't hear the inner guiding voice of our higher-self.  Essentially the signal to noise ratio is so low that the information coming from our higher-self gets drowned out.  Hence, most people on Earth have almost totally lost connection with their higher-self and have completely forgotten what they really are.

What does it take to re-establish a clear connection to your higher-self?  For one thing, it takes a clear and quiet mind.  One must quell the constant chatter of the analytical and egoic mind and the fear and worry that dominates it.  Another thing that helps is to reduce our busyness — the constant distractions of our hectic daily lives don't leave much space for the presence of the higher-self.  Making more time for solitude and meditation is a good start. 

As poor as most people's connection to their higher self is, you've never really completely lost your connection to the other parts of your multidimensional self.  Without realizing it, you've had communications between the different layers of your multidimensional self, as well as "other" higher dimensional beings, particularly in childhood when you were much more open and receptive.  Since then you've rejected, ignored and forgotten most of these "Interdimensional" experiences, simply because you didn't understand what they were and dismissed them as dreams, over-active imagination, hallucinations, etc.

If you'd like to explore the topic of improving your connection to higher levels of you, then check out my blog article Improving Your Connection To The Divine.

Even though the loss of connection with our higher-self could be seen as "bad" it actually serves one of the reasons why we devised the earth game in the first place — to experience separation and to see what it could teach us — separation from the Source of our beingness, separation from the knowing that we are all parts of one great Being and interconnected and interdependent.

With training, you can learn how to move your locus of consciousness to any level of your wider/higher-self — your soul, over-soul, even Source, and perceive from that higher perspective.  In fact, you can move your locus of consciousness to anywhere in the infinite matrix that is the conceptual/information space of the universal field of consciousness.  More on this in future articles, follow the blog to stay tuned!

Other Selves, Parallel Selves, and Many Lives
From the perspective of your Over-Soul (the higher/wider you), all the souls that it created, and their extensions that are connected to physical bodies, could be considered your "other selves".

By some accounts, this can be up to 144 PARALLEL incarnations, and regardless of whether that exact number is correct, we can safely say that the higher you is experiencing MANY LIVES in parallel.  And since at the end of a life the sentient energy that was connected to a body can be re-used with another body, your Over-Soul has experienced far more incarnations than this, perhaps thousands!  This is why your Over-Soul is so wise, it's the sum of all the wisdom gleaned from a vast amount of experiences.

Your many incarnations can be anywhere in the physical Universe — any planet; any galaxy; any time period; past, present, or future (our conception of time is wrong, time is an illusion) - and in any one of the planes of physical reality.

But since you're here having an Earth experience it is very likely that many of the other lives the higher you is having are also here on Earth, probably in other time periods.  The Earth reality system provides challenging yet highly formative experiences that are appropriate for fairly advanced beings, so if you are currently engaged here then it is likely that most of your other selves are here as well, because anything less would be boring.

The diagram below visually illustrates all the parallel incarnations associated with a given over-soul.
Past and Future Lives

Using a technique known as "Past Life Regression" you can actually visit or "see" your other lives — by "see" I mean "have an inner experience of".  This is done by going into a trance state (via hypnosis or deep relaxation) and then being guided, by suggestion or your own intent, to visit the experiences of your "other selves", your "other lives".  In the trance state, the earthly mind is quieted, and one can perceive from the vantage point of any level of one's higher-self and sense the experiences of any of their parallel lives.  All these experiences are recorded in the energy/information field of your higher-self and are accessible if you center the focus of your consciousness in one of the levels of your higher-self.  Depending on the level, you may "see" the lives experienced by your soul, or your over-soul, or perhaps even higher levels of yourself.

The term "Past Life Regression" is a bit of a misnomer since your other lives are all happening simultaneously and can be in any time period; past or future.  If visiting a future life seems illogical or impossible to you then you might want to check out my article on The Illusion of Time.  In the many thousands of regressions that have been done, many have reported "seeing" portions of lives that were clearly in the future rather than in the past.  Most people focus on exploring their "past lives" because, with our erroneous conception of linear time, we think that the past is "recorded" (and therefore potentially can be explored) but the future hasn't happened yet (so isn't recorded and can't be visited).

There are also many people who have reported experiences from what could be called the "inter-life" period, the time between physical earth lives.  A common report from these experiences is that our many lives are all, somehow, happening at once.  Yet other people have reported an apparent sequential process of coming out of one life, reviewing it, planning, and then starting the next — which seems to contradict "all at once".  This is likely due to the fact that non-linear concepts are very hard for our earthly minds to understand and express so we will often express them linearly.

To dive deeper into the topic of past life regression I recommend the following books; Past Life Regression: Discover Your Hidden Past Life Memories and Past Lives, Future Lives Revealed.

Probable Selves, Parallel Selves, and Many Life Paths
Another way that your higher-self accelerates its evolution through the use of parallelism is to experience all possible/probable life paths!

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you had made a different choice at a critical juncture in your life?  Well, so did your soul, but instead of just wondering it divides its consciousness yet again, creating a sub-thread of its consciousness to follow and experience each alternate life path.  At every decision point of any significance, one portion of your soul's sentience follows branch A, and another follows branch B.  Your soul is experiencing all possible/probable life paths in parallel!  The YOU that you think of as 'you' is simply a sub-thread of your soul that is experiencing one particular branch of the life path decision tree.  Your soul (and over-soul) are then integrating all those threads of experience and getting wiser very rapidly because of it.

At every significant decision point on a life path the path branches.  A decision tree represents all possible paths.  All of these are experienced by your soul.  This mechanism creates a massive parallel experience which maximizes the evolutionary potential for the soul, for the over-soul, and for Source — since all experiences are experienced by your higher consciousness, they trickle up.

The soul threads that follow each of the possible paths of experience could, in a sense, be called "Probable Selves".  Because there is one for each possible/probable life path.  These probable selves are all very real and so are all the alternate experiences they are having — and it is all being accumulated by your higher levels of self!  Imagine how much one could learn by experiencing every possible alternative life path, and all their outcomes!  You would learn and grow very fast! That's the reason why we designed the process this way!

The Highest Self, The One Self

"Life has everything to do with you. But with Big You, not with Little You; with Universal You, not with Local You. There is only One of us."

— Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God, Book 1

Once you understand and embrace the multidimensional nature of your beingness, your perspective will broaden greatly.  You may begin to see yourself not as the body and the ego that's running around here on Earth but as your true essence — your eternal higher-self.  You might even embrace that in a very real sense your "highest self" is Source Consciousness!

And an even greater realization may come over you.  The realization that since the consciousnesses of all entities/beings are ultimately threads of Source Consciousness, and hence we are all parts of the one Universal Consciousness, in a very real sense there is only "One Self".

All levels of consciousness and all focal points of consciousness/beingness are ultimately within, and integral parts of, Source Consciousness — the One Being.  And this One Being is your highest self, so in a sense all beings could be considered "yourself".  This is why it makes sense to treat all beings with the utmost respect, care, encouragement, etc — because it's all you!

Here's a message from our Source that reinforces what I've been saying here:

"I am the eternal state of Being within each and every one of you. I am You, You are Me, we are One."  — Source Consciousness

PS -  A great follow-up to this article is The Universal Ascension Process - Our Journey to Oneness, which explores the fundamental dynamic that the structure of Universal Consciousness and the One composite Self is undergoing on a constant basis.

One for all, and all for One!
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