We do not understand the properties of the soul or body, yet the body was given to us so that we could learn from it. The properties of the physical and  the earth are meant to lead us into the nature of the soul. We create physical reality, yet without knowing how we do , so that the wondrous structure of the earth itself is meant to lead us to question our own source. Nature as we understand it is meant to be our teacher. We are not its master.

To some extent we realize that the world has physical contents, existing at one time yet varying in their characteristics. In those terms, the world is composed of its physical ingredients. That “package” is the only part of the picture that we see, however.

Psychically, our world is composed of the contents of its consciousness. We have maps or continents and oceans, and in the entire view each portion is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, all fitting together perfectly, smoothly flowing into the natural structure of the world. So at any given time there is a world consciousness, a perfect jigsaw of awareness in which each identity, however large or small, has its part.

There are earthquakes that erupt physically, and tracings are made of them. There are also inner earthquakes of consciousness from which the physical ones emerge–storms of mind or being,eruptions in which one segment of the world consciousness, repressed in one area , explodes in another.

If we could orbit our planet in a different kind of craft, we could view the psychic content of the world, seeing the world consciousness shining far more brilliantly than any lighted city. We could spot the point of intense activity, see the birth of new myths and the death of old ones as certainly as we might be able to see a mountain slide or a tidal wave. The physical portions of the earth are all related. So does consciousness form its own kind of inner structures from which, the physical ones emerge. We are indeed counterparts, then, each of the other. Yet as there is great variety to physical form, so counterparts follow a still more expansive inner freedom that finds an even greater diversity of characteristics.

I am not telling you that each if us do not have a soul to call our own. We are a part of our soul. It belongs to you, and you to it.

Memories exist as patterns. In this life, each of us come together and part, come together and part again, forming a counterpart relationship when it suits our purposes, as streams of consciousness mix and merge, and then separate.

These counterparts are psychic, relationships, formations that in the deepest terms flow into historic time and out of it. Some, in our terms, last a lifetime. others represent psychic encounters that happens between two individuals at several points, say, but are not continuous. They may be no less intense, however.

One might be the upstart, another the perfect achiever. Psychologists now often try to deal with the family as a whole, by allowing the different members to see how they may be exaggerating certain tendencies at the expense of others.

The upstart, for instance, may be displaying all of the bold aspects inhibited by other family members. Through this person the others may vicariously share the excitement or suspense of those experiences that are otherwise blocked. On the other hand the others may be completely hiding such impulses, while expressing faithfully the desires of other family members for “excellence” discipline. Now the same can apply to counterparts, and those in our experience can show to us, in exaggerated form, abilities of our own upon which we have not chosen to concentrate. We can learn much from our counterparts, therefore, and they from us. Those counterparts that we meet will be working, playing, and being more or less within our own culture. This does not mean that we are bits and pieces of some hypothetical whole self.

Pretend that the psyche is a plant sending out seeds of itself in many directions, each seed growing into a new plant in different conditions. Growing to plant-hood, those seeds send out further new variations. A handful of seeds from any tree might fall in the same backyard. Others might be blown for miles before they land.

We usually live with our physical family, though this does not always apply; sometimes our ancestors come from various countries, so there is a physical lineage that we understand. There are often homecomings, were distant relatives return to the homestead. Now psychically the same applies in terms of counterparts. If we belong to any particular groups, often our closest counterparts will also be there. We will be a counterpart from their viewpoint, by the way. many political, civic, educational or religious groups are composed of counterparts.

Conventional families are counterparts that form psychic families. They are family representations on another level. First of all, such groups have a built-in focus–political, civic, religious, sexual, or whatever. Certain members of the group express the repressed tendencies of others. Yet each is supported through a common sense of belonging, so that the group sometimes seems to have its own overall identity, in which each member plays a part. Anyone can discover this by examining the groups to which he or she belongs.

Now there are races, psychically speaking. There are also psychic counterparts of races–families of consciousness, so to speak–all related, yet having different overall characteristics or specialties.