Inspiration as Proof of the Soul

All ideas come from somewhere. They’re a reaction, like fire, spawned from a connection. This is inspiration. The moment a connection is made between you and the subject, tinder and heat, some intrigue or recognition begins creating something new that’s neither tinder nor heat. Layers, boundaries, and relationships are the equation for inspiration. An idea is a flame turning into a wildfire. 

‘Spirare’ meaning ‘to breath’ spawned both the words ‘spirit’ and ‘inspire’. I believe if we can prove that all inspiration comes from sources that can be considered external, then we can prove the existence of a divine soul. Short of claiming, as the ancients did, that all inspiration is given by the Gods, I believe that the theory of layers within the mind can lead us to one day understanding certain facts about metaphysics. The mind is also an external engagement. 

We still don’t know what the smallest aspect of reality is, nor what substance time, mind, or life is made of. We can measure the effects of them, our experiences of them— decay, thought, or a heartbeat, but why, and what, are they? If we don’t know what the largest aspect of reality is, what is in the grande, or macrocosm, then we can’t claim to understand the absolute most inner parts. We can suppose with decent enough mortal certainty that they may be the same thing, that patterns always bring us back full circle. 

Everything is made up of layers. There is reality holding the universe, holding our galaxy, our atmosphere, our planet— there is our species, citizenship, community, social circle, family, and us— our body, brain, mind, and the many layers of the mind. Just as time can be broken up into intervals of decreasing amounts to infinity, we can also dig through the external layers of the mind into infinity, and that which is eternal is our soul. 

If we believe there may be something more external than reality and more inner than the mind, this is divinity.  

Consider our outward presentation which forms a crust over our biases, preferences, holding our personality and all its quirks and habits. Under our personality is the monologue and active processing, beneath that is our short term memories, our long term. Our traumas and various core influences scar over the inner mind, deeper than we can consciously access, where our subconscious nestles inside the womb of our memories. You may believe in different ordering of layers but you cannot deny the existence of them. All within the mind do not mingle freely but are separated by barriers, informed by each other but remaining distinctly their own concepts. Like time, a mind can be sectioned into smaller and smaller increments, ever deeper inner realms.

This is how inspiration always comes from outside of something. Your memories still lay on the doorstep of your soul, as does the unconscious mind. This is the eternal reality of a mind which is noncorporeal like time— though even substance has eternity in the inside of a subatomic particle. Layers, the most internal existence of things, these are what connects everything. One is all. 

When the truths in the most inner parts of yourself see a reflection in the outside, whether that be in the mind, body, or rest of the external, then comes the reaction. The tinder is the unlimited infinity within the internal, the heat is the unlimited infinity in the external. 

As in all metaphysics, we cannot yet prove anything empirically, I cannot say that it is a fact that all inspiration is from outside ourselves. However, as inspiration is a domain of metaphysics, we must apply rules of opinion and belief. Philosophy learning and questioning. The only value proof of the soul has, is if you can gain something from believing.

Why wish to understand what the mechanisms of the mind are? Why look further than chemicals or areas of the brain? Why explore the nature of creativity? Why worry about the soul, about the spirit? Life is hard, it’s painful, and it’s confusing. Though we may never know the facts of life and what it means to be alive, we can work out our own understanding of why we’re here and what happens when we think and create.