Unravelling the Mystery, Part 1

     As I posted before, I discovered a deep connection to a person I'd never met before, simply by hearing a recording of this person's speaking voice.  It was like remembering something that had been  buried deep in my soul, and the feeling shook me to the core.  At the time, I didn't understand what this connection was, nor had I ever heard the term "twin soul" before.

     This is how I started to unravel the mystery of this connection.

     At the time, I was studying the native Hawaiian religion, called Huna.  I read a few of Max Freedom Long's books about Huna and found some of it a little hard going, but when I read What Jesus Taught in Secret, it was like a light bulb turning on.  Things suddenly made sense. 

     I won't go fully into Long's teachings, but the short version of Huna is this:  each person's soul is made of three parts -- the lower, animal self; the middle, every-day self; and the higher self, which is a bit like a guardian angel.  The Hawaiians described this higher self as an "utterly trustworthy Father-Mother spirit."

     In What Jesus Taught in Secret, Long explained that as we cleanse our souls and learn to love fully and completely, we are prepared to "move up."  According to Long, moving up means that we are meant to become a higher self while the lower self becomes a middle self.  Think of it as moving to the next rung on a ladder, or the next level of a pyramid.  But as we move up, we are rejoined with our other half, our "soul mate" as he termed it, and become the Father-Mother guardian spirit of the higher self. 

     It made sense to me, and helped shed light on some of what I was experiencing.  But the sceptic in me wanted to know if this was just Long's take on this phenomenon, or were there other sources which taught similar things?

     This led me to see if similar teachings could be found in other traditions.  So, I went exploring.