Welcome, all listeners and viewers, to my channel. I am Volch and I’ve decided to create this channel and thematically related series of videos on psychology and spirituality. The central subject of my research on this channel will be the human being as an individual and a part of society. This topic is very interesting and extensive, and I hope and believe it will capture your interest and perhaps even help many of you.
This introductory video should mainly serve as the background for understanding all the other topics that will be discussed in the following videos. For the purposes of this channel, we should define the basic relationships and contexts that will accompany this channel’s content throughout. Because this channel is about the human being and society, we first have to define the fundamental element that this channel will center around – and that is the human being, which will be analyzed from a spiritual or psychological perspective. The human being has been explored very thoroughly from a physiological viewpoint, but our essence seems to be different, intangible, and for some odd reason, we don’t pay much attention to this deeper essence. On this channel, however, we’ll be striving to give more consideration to these issues.
Theoretical background
Because the human being is complicated and complex and it’s difficult to understand complicated topics and systems, we must specify and analyze ourselves as human beings in greater detail. The basis for the whole following analysis will be the division of the human being’s spiritual essence into: spirit x soul x personality. Spirituality and psychology are very old disciplines of knowledge about the human being and many theories and philosophical strains have been created. The personality has been the subject of extensive research and many theories and typologies of the personality have been created – for example Jung’s persona archetype, the typology of introvert x extrovert and many others. In our interpretation, the personality and persona will signify the same thing, i.e. the part of us that develops and is created from our early childhood based on our interaction with the world either consciously or unconsciously. On the contrary, the soul has been less analyzed, which is a great shame – therefore, I will dedicate more attention to the soul on this channel. Finally, we must not forget about the thing we would call the spirit and what we understand to be the most essential and at the same time most remote part of us, which resides beyond the bridge to the worlds in which we dwell in our dreams and after abandoning our bodies in this world. But, because our spiritual essence is very detached from our physical one and the goal of this channel is not to deal with life and the world outside our physical existence or before and after it, we will not be directly discussing the spirit on this channel.
The soul and development of the personality
Let us then take a closer look at the aforementioned fundamental parts of who we are. We’ll provide an explanation in the context of time. Our soul, our essence, the deepest essence of ourselves, is born in this world and settles in the human body. The human body is characterized by its limiting existence from its very birth. The body is small and it seems it would be difficult for the soul to inhabit in such a small and limiting form. This process seems to be difficult for the soul, as if the natural habitat for the soul was different and the human body was, we might say, an unnatural home for it. In the first years of life, we seem to be full of feelings and experiences, wonderful or less wonderful, all of which is an experience on the level of the soul. We might say that, for the soul, the whole of existence on this planet is very traumatizing and difficult; for the soul in an infant’s body, each interaction with its surroundings is a very strong experience. Expressions of the soul seem to be completely direct, unregulated, spontaneous and authentic, which are difficult to accept in our world and often for our surroundings. In our development, our surroundings direct us and create borders within which society is accustomed to being and which are passed on to our children. Our parents, school, individuals and organizations – all of this shapes us. And because the soul itself is highly sensitive to existence in this world, over time the thing that we’ll call “personality” is created. In our interpretation, this term will also include others, such as: persona, mask, self and so on.
As we grow, our personality is formed over time based on interaction with our surroundings. The layer of personality gradually becomes more complex; every experience of the soul at the same time forms our personality and provides stimuli to our personality in terms of the direction, intensity and character of our growth and development. Every situation and experience that we encounter in life creates a reaction of our soul, which in some way then creates or develops a certain personality aspect. The stronger the situation that the soul experiences or is touched by, the stronger the layer of personality we’ll create. And during every such interaction, our personality is created and formed. The fundamental and most important reason for the creation of the personality is the difficult and impossible functioning of the soul itself in this world. We can perceive the personality as a kind of buffer for the soul in contact with its surroundings in this physical world and, at the same time, as a regulatory aspect of the soul’s authentic reactions to its outward surroundings. Therefore, contrary to the soul, which is inherently independent of our physical existence, the personality is directly linked to our physical existence in this world; the borders of its existence are determined by the border of living in this physical world, as the existence of the personality outside of this world is unnecessary. One of the main goals of the entire process of personality formation is that, in the event that the same challenging event is repeated, a person does not experience such a strong reaction of the soul, and measures are taken in the personality layer to either avoid this situation or create some kind of defense. Therefore, personality formation in many cases goes against our nature. A sensitive person creates the personality of an insensitive person who disguises his sensitivity in humor, ostensible toughness or suggested frivolousness. Or, for example, we all know women who at first glance seem strong, self-confident, indomitable and bold. However, I’m strongly convinced that this is simply a built up personality mask; in their essence, they are on the contrary very sensitive, fragile, perhaps irresolute, and are afraid to open up. Because strong sensitivity and perceptiveness in the real world is in fact hard to manage without the corresponding protection. And therefore we are able to create a strong personality and disconnect from our nature (our soul). The problem can then intensify by the degree to which we identify with a personality created in such a manner. If we lose contact with our deeper essence, we’re not left with many other options of what to identify with. We feel and sense only personality, and therefore we identify with it.
Heterogeneity of the personality
Personality formation is naturally a highly complex and intricate process affected by many aspects. It is also suitable to note that the personality is not as homogenous as it might seem. The personality is formed based on many aspects and impulses. These diverse impulses create equally diverse personality traits. Each of us possesses multiple diverse personalities formed based on various impulses, and every personality has its own requirements, desires and fears. We can notice this in moments when we feel as if we are “torn”. One part of us wants one thing and the other wants something else. Everything takes place within us, but this contradiction is created from two or more differing personalities built-up within us. Maturity of the whole personality then occurs the moment we become aware of the primary personalities within us, listen to them, give them room to express themselves and, wholly ideally, explore the impulses on which these various personalities began to form. Therefore, we can dig deeper into our deeper essence and, for example, find that one of our personalities, which is desperately looking for a feeling of security, was searching for this feeling in childhood and did not find it. At the same time, another part of the personality that yearns for freedom and adventure comes from an unfulfilled curiosity in childhood that was rigidly suppressed by our strict parents. In other phases of life, these two diverse parts of the personality can culminate in an inner contradiction and create the feeling that we don’t understand ourselves. However, we can communicate with both of these personalities, listen to them and fulfill the deeper feelings that were responsible for their creation.
The soul and personality
The relationship that we will focus on the most on this channel is the relationship between the soul and the personality, and we will also independently explore these two psychological attributes. The basic definition of the soul is our deeper essence, which is full of pure human feelings and experiences. On the contrary, the basic definition of personality is the more superficial part of us that we ourselves create and shape consciously or unconsciously in this world. Layers of personality in various people differ in strength. Some people are equipped with the ability to create a strong personality, while others, on the contrary, are embodied with a strong soul and less room for the personality layer. Both cases have their positive and negative aspects. In terms of physical existence in this world, a strong personality is useful, as it regulates the influence of one’s surroundings on the soul while at the same time allowing for the creation of various patterns and masks of behavior that can help avoid or protect one from various potentially dangerous situations. Contrary to this, in terms of deeper spiritual development, a strong soul does not allow for deviation from the needs and pull of the soul. The disadvantage, of course, is that physical existence in this world is much more demanding; one senses everything much more intensely than an individual who has been able to develop a strong personality. However, there is a reason for everything. It is much harder for a person with little room for personality to deviate from their path (or their destiny, if you will), and they will feel life more intensely due to their weaker layer of protection. A typical example of this latter person are artists. Art, real art, always comes from the soul. Creativity, the search for beauty in the world, is all an activity and nourishment for the soul, and people practicing this activity are always people with a strong pull of the soul. These people are born to have their soul filled with the experience or knowledge that the soul is directed towards. I believe that the purpose of life for all people is to reach the place to where our soul is pulling us, but for these people, this pull is so strong that they seem to pay less attention to how the impact of their behavior will "look" in society, what people will think of them, and if and how they will be accepted by society. The personality in these people is weaker, and therefore the internal correction of the soul’s pull and the power needed to suppress this pull is weaker. Such a person often comes into conflict between his own desires and internal, family or social conventions and beliefs. And while the soul is always right, what is located in the upper layers of the personality, such as convictions, habits, faith and opinions, may be wrong.
The interpretation provided above may give the impression that I consider personality to be something negative. This is not however the case. Personality can play both a positive and a negative role. Personality allows us to have a more secure and less painful existence in this world. Moreover, personality formation is an absolutely necessary and natural process in the early stages of life.
However, a significant part of our personality is formed unconsciously; we are not fully invited into this process and it is as if shaped by some internal mechanism inside of us. Unfortunately, however, this inner mechanism has a limiting intelligence. Although it can create a very sophisticated personality aspect as a defense against strong inner expressions or hurtful situations from the outside, it can only function reactively and is not able to evaluate personality formation in the long term. This mechanism within us usually chooses the shortest and easiest path. It puts up a shield in front of you to defend you or puts on a certain mask so that certain wounds to the soul are not visible, but it no longer addresses the fact that it is impossible to adequately live behind that shield, or that the mask being worn presents someone completely different from who we are in our essence.
A fundamental pitfall in the constructed personality is that some aspects of the personality in later phases of life may prevent us from connecting with our soul, with our deeper essence. It is therefore my assumption – although it is at first glance quite strange and illogical reasoning – that one of the most important tasks in a person's life is to transform the constructed personality at some stage in life, especially the unhealthy aspects of the personality that prevent contact with the soul, and to build new ones. Therefore, personality holds a certain irreplaceable role in our lives, but should ideally serve for our benefit and growth, not inhibit it.
Functional independence
It is also important to realize that each of these parts of ourselves develops to some degree independently and therefore has its own intelligence. If we turn to our physical body, it has mechanisms and functions that take place within us independently of our consciousness (producing hormones, regulating organ function, managing blood circulation, and so on). Likewise, unconscious and subconscious patterns of behavior, reactions and learned procedures for responding to external stimuli without our conscious participation are developed in our personality. And the soul? The soul does absolutely whatever it wants 😊. And just as disease is created when we neglect the body, so too does a neglected soul create emptiness in our hearts, inner pain, depression and other inventive signals that force a person to concern themselves with their soul.
Conclusion
As I mentioned at the beginning, this introductory video is more of a theoretical background for further interpretation. We may discuss at length the existence of spirit, whether soul and spirit are the same or not, whether the spirit exists, and so forth. The same would be possible concerning the concept of personality, into which I’ve lumped many different terms and concepts, which is something I’m sure many different psychological interpretations would disagree with. However, the goal of this channel and my interpretation is not to argue over terminology and create precise definitions of terms, but rather to present in a practical and illustrative way my understanding and view of the human being and society. Thank you for your attention and for watching this introductory video all the way to the end, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing you during my following analyses.