I was talking with a friend of mine recently about ghosts and ghost stories, and the subject turned to our souls.

Most religions or metaphysical belief systems believe our bodies are host to a soul that makes us who we are.The question my friend posed is what happens to the soul when we die. Where does it spend its time?I am not an expert on religion, but I know from my upbringing the Judeo-Christian belief has different ideas depending on the denomination.One idea is the soul remains in a sort of stasis until the Christ returns and raises them from the dead to return to heaven. Another concept is that because of the Resurrection, when we die as Christians we immediately return to heaven.My father's side of the family was Catholic, and when I was a child, I learned they believed in purgatory, which was this place where souls went when our loved ones die to wait for liberation to heaven.The intriguing part about this belief was they were taught they could buy favor with God to liberate their loved ones to leave purgatory for heaven by purchasing Mass cards so the priest will pray for them regularly. I was not clear on how many Mass cards earned paradise or even how God knew when the magic number was reached. This logically did not make sense to me.I did do some research that made it more clear. From what I can determine, purgatory is a state between here and heaven in which those who were not holy enough to immediately enter heaven would reside to atone until they were purified enough, and then they would be released to heaven.This is a very basic understanding of the concept, and the idea of Mass cards or buying indulgences is meant to reduce the atonement periods for a loved one to work through, from the best I can determine.The Christian denomination in which I was reared did not acknowledge a purgatory, but rather believed that when we die if we believe, Christ's angels will bear us off to heaven. There is no waiting period or atonement required to be united with God. I think both the Catholic and Protestant beliefs are versions of the same belief in life after death and that ultimately both support the soul's ultimate destination.Where they differ is what happens along the journey.Interestingly enough, the research done by Dr. Michael Newton, a noted hypnotherapist who specializes in studying through hypnosis what happens to our souls when we die and before we are born.In his tens of thousands of cases, he has discovered that the soul will leave the body at death and travel to another realm, where it spends a period of time in isolation for the purpose of introspection about the life experience.When this process is completed, the soul is reunited with its soul group in a state of "grace" so to speak.The problem with all of these beliefs is time. We track time carefully as humans because it is the one resource of which we only have a limited amount. Our bodies only last so long before they fail and we end up without physical form. To those who do not believe in an afterlife, this physical breakdown is the end of the road, and there is nothing beyond it.I tend to believe once we die, the soul is released and remains a cohesive form of energy for an indefinite time. I think this energy has a consciousness or is our consciousness unbounded by physical handicaps. These energy beings are all around us until they are ready to vibrate into a different level of existence and leave this physical plane they may interact with us, but most do not normally.If these souls are all around us, the logical question is why would they not let us know they are there.I think many do, but we do not pay attention to the signs and they quickly learn that it is a waste of resources to attempt to make communication. Every so often someone comes along who is open and will allow them to communicate, and the spirits will be drawn to that person.The logical question is if these spirits are everywhere, why isn't everyone living in a haunted house? The answer is fairly simple. If we ignore someone repeatedly, do they not eventually leave us alone? I think just because a soul no longer has a physical host does not make it any less an entity than you or me. If we do not acknowledge people we do not like, do they stay with us or do they eventually go away? If they have a normal psyche, they will eventually leave us and go to somebody open to receiving them.So perhaps purgatory or the place for atonement really is here among us, and only when our soul is ready to move on does it leave this plane. It could be waiting for justice or the fate of a loved one before the soul passes to the higher planes. While it waits, it silently observes the ramifications of others' actions and may give advice or acknowledgment where needed. We probably will not find out the answer until we are there as well, but it is an interesting question to ponder.Till next time …