Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-08-16
THE SOULS APPEARANCE
BY H. Addington Bruce

TN his History and Power of Mind
volume of lectures on psychic themes,
~ Richard Ingalese tells of the curious an
SWers various people gave him when he asked
them what they thought the soul looks like
One 'well-known churchwoman'' held the
opinion that the soul is something white
that fiutters like sheet in the wind An
other deemed it something like an alarm
clock attached to the body, which kept ring
ing when one did something one ought not
to do
Dundry other persons stated their belief
that 1.-The soul is a body, something like the
physical, only more beautiful because it has
wings like bird Commenting on these
answers, MI. Ingalese remarks:
with nine-tenths of the people there is
no distinction between themselves and their
bodies for man knows very little of himself
at the present time"
Mr. Ingalese's own conception of the soul,
it should perhaps be added will be regarded
by many as being quite as curious as any Of
the conceptions that excited his astonish-
ment.
For he not only depicts the soul as spe-
cies of force, of which the body is "a mate
rialized picture" but he also insists that the
soul is colored according to it's character. So
that, for example, a soul motivated by I'M
worthy desires is colored a vivid red, while
a soul that has reached it's highest develop
ment is beautiful blue in color.
Souls neither uncommonIy vicious nor I'M
commonly good are of other colors, the ma
jority being brown. Though, indeed, the same
soul may from time to time change in color
as character changes for better or for worse.
All this Mr.. Ingalese afirms on the au-
thority of certain occultists, who, it would
seem, have a special gift for perceiving the
color vibrations of souls. Not everybody,
however, will be disposed to share Mr.. Inga-
1ese's faith in the credibility of these occult
lists. In such matter, quite obviously,
there is large scope for self-delusion.
Moreover, it is possible to contrast with
the teachings of the occultists a view widely
held by men of science who, accepting the
actually of the soul, hold that it is quite
without form.
1.-THE soul is the controlling and guiding
principle which is responsible for our per-
sonal expression. In it's higher develop
ment it includes also feel ing and intelligence
and will, and is the storehouse of mental ex-
perinece. The body is it's instrument or Or
gan"
This, undeniably. is a cear-cut definition.
Yet to most people, it is safe to say, form
less soul will seem altogether unsatisfactory.
Nobody wishes to think of himself with
out form. And the natural tendency is to
think of ones self as existing, whether in
this world or the world beyond as one knows
ones self in the form of the body. Hence,
rightly or wrongly the prevailing idea OF
the soul is likely always to be a body-form
idea.
And, after all, the important thing is not
absolute gertrude as to what the soul looks
like, but appreciation of the truth that,
whether the soul looks like the body or not,
it is something distinct from the body, some
thing more than ga function or a by-product
of brain processes
Copyright, 1921, by Associated Newspapers