Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 3, Issue 11, 1 May 2019 | Page 5

The Stages of Soul Evolution – Part 4
In Part 1 of this series, we saw that the soul’s journey is really a process
of evolution and suggested that all human beings are, in reality, spiritual
beings on a journey. We reincarnate in human form in order to evolve as
souls. We are here to know ourselves and be all we can be, step by step.
According to spiritual thinkers, we are all going through different stages
of evolution as we reincarnate and live out our various lives. The belief
is that we pass through 5 stages as we incarnate on earth - Infant, Baby,
Young, Mature and Old. By having a deeper understanding of the stage
we are in, we can focus more on what it is we are here to do i.e., our Life
Purpose, and gain a deeper understanding of what might drive some of
our actions and beliefs. There is also a doctrine which holds that, within
the 5 stages of soul evolution, there are 35 steps (7 per stage) in the
reincarnation process.
In Part 2, we discussed the first of these five stages, the Infant Stage, and
saw that during this stage we focus on issues of survival such as shelter,
life and death, learning how to control impulses. Infant Souls often live
on the fringes of society. They tend to react violently to perceived threats
and lash out physically and may even be deemed to be psychopathic or
have some sort of developmental disorder. They are naïve and
impulsive, acting on impulse or habit with little or no thought for
consequences. Because they lack both social understanding and self-
inhibition, they are capable of committing antisocial or immoral acts
without any sense of wrongdoing.
In Part 3, we discussed the second of these five stages, the Baby Stage.
After the helter-skelter, wild, wild, West, no holds barred experiences of
the Infant Stage, where we are so free with our actions and have no
understanding of right and wrong, we then leap to the other extreme in
the Baby Stage. Here we might become the proverbial “stuffed shirt”,