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Soulmate

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Soulmate (or soul mate) is a term sometimes used to designate someone with whom one has a feeling of deep and natural affinity, friendship, love, intimacy, sexuality, and/or compatibility.

A related concept is that of the twin flame or twin soul – thought to be the ultimate soulmate, the one and only other half of one's soul, for which all souls are driven to find and join.

However, not everyone who uses these terms intends them to carry such mystical connotations; they are sometimes used simply as an expression of strong emotional feeling for someone.

Definitions

Soul lovers - someone you love, and would do anything for, and someone who loves you, and would do anything for you. And in that love, nothing is required for either person, because everything is already given

Soul sister/brother - someone belonging in the same soul group as you and therefore having an unusually strong bond and likeness to you

Classical – Greek mythology – Originally humans were combined of 4 arms, 4 legs, and a single head made of 2 faces, but Zeus feared their power and split them all in half, condemning them to spending their lives searching for the other half to complete them. This theory was presented as a half-serious story by Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium, after all the participants at the Symposium ("drinking party") were charged to philosophize on the topic of love.

Spiritual and religious – concepts of reincarnation and karma. Soulmates have spent many previous lifetimes together.

Karmic soulmate - someone who has a special mission or influence on one's life

Companion soulmate – People with whom one has made a connection

Twin soulmates – Very close friends with whom one has strong bonds. Twin Flames often enclose their initials for the public to see. It gives them a sense of harmony with on another and seals their eternal bond.

Twin flame soulmate – A popular romantic belief that there is only one true soulmate.

Scientific soulmate – (If) a relationship can be quantified, and scored according to an internal happiness scale. A scientific soulmate is the person with whom you are the absolute happiest. You would therefore be less happy with any other person in existence.

Balance partners and messengers – The people you meet along the way who help you create balance in your life. [1]

Divine complement – A new colloquialism for a 'match made in heaven', a twin soul, who holds inborn potentials that match and complement one's own and who is linked eternally through a signature in the heart at the dimension of the spirit.

Concepts

More in depth in classical definition

"Plato wrote in his Symposium that humans have been looking for their soul mate ever since Zeus cut them in half. In his mythic story, Plato describes a world where there were men, women and people who were both men and women. Apparently, humans began discussing how they could climb up to heaven and replace the gods. The gods were upset by this and discussed what should be done. The simplest solution would be to destroy mankind, but Zeus came up with a better idea. He suggested cutting all human beings in half. This would serve two purposes. First, it would immediately double the number of people making offerings to the gods. Second, it would weaken the humans, so they would not be able to carry out their plan. Zeus' idea was accepted, and the humans were all divided into two. Naturally, the humans were upset at this, and Zeus decided to enable each half to have intercourse with their opposite, symbolically creating a whole. Consequently, the males sought their female half, and the females sought their male half, allowing them to reproduce.

New Age concept of soulmate

There is a prevalent concept in some segments of the New Age movement that some souls are literally made and/or fated to be the mates of each other, or to play certain other important roles in each others' lives. These souls are thought to have created something in a past life and they have chosen this lifetime to help each other "heal." Following this concept, one can have many soulmates. For example: One could see another person they have never met in this lifetime and instantly hate or love them because of previous interaction(s) with the other in one or more previous lifetimes. The most popular use of this concept is in applying it to those who were loved intimately in other lifetimes which were then found in this one.

Also, being conscious of the "soul mate connection" is not necessary, according to this idea.

Soulmate emotional theory

Ultimately the consequence of this notion is the unfortunate reality that soulmates often possess the ability to inflict serious emotional injury unto their twin flame, greater than any other being could. This often results in the separation of idealized love, due to the severe emotional impact. Many soulmates are destined for an eternal search, not for lack of meeting, but rather lack of acceptance. The encounter is often analogous to the collision of matter and antimatter, a violent explosive reaction will occur, but if held through to completion only pure energy, and thus harmony, will result. A soulmate can also be a person who is not of the gender they are naturally attracted to or compatible with as a conventional romantic couple. This can cause a lifetime of profound sadness and depression as there is no possibility of resolution.

By definition, a soulmate is the one person on this earth that completes you, complements you, and is your "better half." Most people will, unfortunately, never meet his or her soulmate. It is that one person that you become one with; emotionally, spiritually and physically. You connect with that one person on a whole different level, and all else become insignificant. You are yin, they are the yang. One balances and steadies the other.

Films with soulmate themes

  • Somewhere in Time (1980) with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, directed by Jeannot Szwarc.

Overview from Internet Movie Database

Two souls (Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis) marry in Heaven but are soon separated when one is born on Earth. The other follows and has to reunite with the other before time runs out or endure eternal soul-searching.

Two souls, Bodhi and Johnny, are each other's karmic soulmates and develop a deep relationship with each other

  • Lovers on the Artic Circle (1998)

Otto (Fele Martinez) and Ana (Najwa Nimri) experience life circles that inevitably bring them together in this beautiful love story set in Spain and Finland.

Overview from Internet Movie Database

Chris Nielson (Robin Williams) meets his true soulmate Annie Collins (Annabella Sciorra). He dies in an accident and goes to heaven and she later commits suicide. Can he find his soulmate in hell and save her? Alternate ending in DVD also deals with soulmate searching.

Deals not only with concepts of gender and sexuality, but how those that straddle lines would find others that would "fit" or "complete" them. In the film, the song "The Origin of Love" directly speaks of Plato's classical notion of a soulmate.

  • Serendipity (2001) with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, directed by Peter Chelsom.

In this movie a man and a woman were set for a date, but before the date the woman was involved in a car crash that caused her to go into a coma. Eventually the man moves into her apartment not knowing whose apartment it is. The woman appears before him numerous times, to find that it is her soul or spirit, and he is the only one that can see her. Eventually they realise that they were supposed to meet on that blind date. Thus realizing what was supposed to happen, he kisses her real body in the hospital and she awakens to have no memory of him and his help. When they eventually touch hands all her memories come rushing back and they realise they were supposed to meet because of fate or destiny.

June (Sarah Laine), a mermaid, is in love with a Harbor Patrol officer named Randy who happens to secretly be her soulmate. Her two other sisters comically complicate matters throughout the movie.

  • The Fountain (2006)
  • Garance and Emeric (2007)

Television

See also

References

  • 1 Segal, E. (Ed.). (1986). The Dialogues of Plato New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books
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