Here’s a (tragically very common) scenario of how dissociation works: It’s a defense mechanism that prevents us from totally shutting down and being incapable of functioning. This disconnection happens as a result of a traumatic situation or environment that we’re subjected to.

If you’re familiar with basic psychology, you’ll know that dissociating means disconnecting from something, in this case, ourselves.

Soul Loss, in a sense, is another way of saying dissociation. And usually, we feel numb, empty inside, and a sense of hopelessness that we try to smother with work, family life, friendships, gossip, and various addictions. We may live with fear, guilt, and shame as a constant backdrop to our lives. What happens when one of our psychological ‘complexes’ emancipates itself and becomes a tyrannical usurper of consciousness? The result is an increasing feeling of being alienated from ourselves, life, and the Divine. Lingering in the unconscious mind, these parts of us long to be integrated and to be made conscious, and can resort to extreme measures to get our attention (such as suicidal depressions, self-destructive behavior, sudden rages). What happens when our psyches fragment? The answer is that individual parts of our personality (e.g., the shadow self, anima, animus, etc.) are made independent and thus escape the control of the conscious mind. To understand Soul Loss as a loss, or disconnection, from the most vital parts of who we are, is known in psychology as dissociation: the root of many mental illnesses. We just know that something is missing from our lives – but many of us struggle to discover what exactly is missing. But simultaneously, developing an ego (which is basically one big defense mechanism to ensure that we’re loved, accepted, taken care of, avoid pain, etc.) means that we lose touch with the authentic essence of who we truly are: the Soul.Īs a result of Soul Loss, we begin experiencing symptoms of weakness, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and emptiness. We must develop a sense of self, a separate sense of “me” in the world in order to function. Sadly, in our modern world, Soul Loss is the rule rather than the exception.Īs individuals, we lose connection with our souls (or True Nature) every time we identify with our egos and seek to feel whole again through addictions, stimulation seeking, dogmatic beliefs, conditional relationships, and workaholism.īut there’s a reason why we identify with the ego and disconnect with the soul in the first place: it’s a survival mechanism.

Lost soul aside chinajoy