April 28, 2025 • 26 mins
What compels an intelligent, all-knowing soul to choose the limitations of physical existence? Dr. Douglas James Cottrell tackles this profound spiritual question with wisdom, humor, and practical insight that bridges ancient understanding with modern curiosity.
The journey begins with a striking metaphor - we are like exquisite statues hidden within rough stone, with life's challenges serving as the divine chisel revealing our true nature. "If our souls knew everything," Dr. Douglas observes wryly, "we would know better than to come here." Yet it's precisely the soul's innate curiosity and drive for growth that draws it to Earth's challenging classroom.
Drawing from decades of spiritual exploration, Dr. Douglas unpacks the paradox of intelligent consciousness choosing limitation. The soul, a genderless "ball of light," seeks diverse experiences across lifetimes - sometimes male, sometimes female, sometimes experienced in this realm, sometimes novice. When souls transition between lives, they retain the wisdom gained but shed the emotional attachments, allowing for fresh perspectives with each incarnation.
Particularly fascinating is the exploration of souls who seem "not worldly wise" - are they first-timers to Earth or perhaps advanced beings testing our compassion? Ancient traditions across cultures treated strangers with special care for this very reason, recognizing potential "angels in disguise." This wisdom reminds us to approach everyone with patience and kindness, while maintaining healthy boundaries.
The conversation expands beyond philosophical musings to practical spirituality, challenging us to reconsider how we treat society's most vulnerable members. In ancient communities, caring for those unable to care for themselves wasn't a burden but a sacred privilege - an evolutionary perspective that could transform our modern approach to social challenges.
Have you ever wondered about your soul's journey through multiple lifetimes? Join us for this enlightening exploration of consciousness, purpose, and the profound reasons we choose to experience life on this "little blue marble" we call Earth.
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Episode Transcript
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Announcer (00:00):
Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell,
your source for helpfulinformation, advice and tips to
live your life in a mindful wayin this increasingly chaotic
world.
For over four decades, DrDouglas has been teaching people
how to develop their intuitionand live their lives in a
conscious way.
His news and views of the worldtomorrow, today, are always
(00:21):
informative and revealing.
And now here's your host, DrDouglas James Cottrell.
Douglas James Cottrell (00:30):
Welcome to the Wake Up, a broadcast
where curiosity leads to deeperunderstanding.
I'm your host, Douglas JamesCottrell, and my good friend and
co-host Les Hubert is here withme, along with editor Jack
Bialik, as we delve into thefascinating realms of life,
metaphysics, spirituality andthe pressing questions that
shape our world.
Good morning, Les.
(00:51):
What's on the menu today?
Les Hubert (00:54):
We have another intriguing question for you,
Doug, from our listeners.
If our souls are intelligentand indeed come from the God
Source, why do we incarnate inthis world?
Douglas James Cottrell (01:07):
Because we don't know it all.
If we knew everything, we wouldknow better than to come here.
Okay, so, number one, this isnot a nice place.
This is a place of work, ofevolution, of development, and
all those things are hard.
You know, like it's like we'rea statue inside a block of stone
(01:29):
, and the hammer and the chiselare the hands of God and they
got to come by and chisel offall that rough stone so that we
get down to that finished figureinside the stone which becomes
a marvelous, beautiful statue.
However, on the outside itlooked pretty rough, didn't it?
We are constantly attempting tochisel away the rough outside
(01:55):
layer to find the beauty insideof ourselves.
So, our soul having beencreated with all the other souls
at the same moment, when Godcreated the heavens and the
Earth and went through the stepsof creation, God created human
beings.
By the way, it was the lastthing that God created in
(02:17):
creation, which kind of makes mewonder if we think we're so
important, how come we were thelast thing to be created?
But who knows what's in themind of God?
I certainly don't know.
But of that creation, the soulswere created to inhabit physical
bodies.
That's why in religions aroundthe world this is called the
(02:38):
temple.
This is the home of our soul.
Inside, our heart is the seatof our soul.
In religious paintings, you'llsee, the heart is always the
house of the soul.
So you know, looking around theworld's great religions, and
they all refer to this physicalaspect as a covering.
It's the clay that is thrownaway when you pass away and we
(03:02):
get to see like the physicalpart is temporary.
But the permanent aspect is thesoul.
And if the soul is reallyintelligent, well, it's smart,
it's intelligent in a way wecan't understand, because our
physical self is like (whoosh)in existence, just a breath, but
(03:22):
our soul is there forever.
So let's's say our soul is kindof curious.
Okay, let's look at that littleblue marble down there.
They call that place the Earthplane.
Let's go down and see whatthat's like.
And so it comes down and ittakes on a human form.
Comes, exists and leaves.
(03:43):
And it says, well, you knowwhat?
I kind of like that.
Let's do that again.
Comes, takes on existence,takes on a body, has the
experience and leaves, back tothe great post-existence, which
is actually the pre-existenceand the post-existence.
(04:04):
Same place.
And it says you know what?
That was very interesting.
Let's go on the other side ofthis little world and see what's
going on over there.
And then it repeats that.
And repeats it again becauseit's curious.
Because in everybody that'sintelligent, every animal that's
a sentient being, that has somelevel of intelligence, is
(04:26):
curious.
If you're not smart, you're notintelligent, you just sit there
and stare in a pond.
That's it.
Sounds very boring.
Exactly.
So, to answer your question, youknow it smacks of a little
sarcasm.
Like hey, if you're so smartand spiritual, what are you
(04:48):
going down here in the world for?
It's a difficult place to be.
Well, because people who areintelligent always like to solve
problems.
People who are intelligent likechallenges.
People who are intelligentcannot waste their time away.
They have to read a book, theyhave to go do something.
They create a painting, theycarve something, they achieve
(05:11):
something, like climbing up amountain.
God forbid, I wouldn't do that.
But the point being is thatthe soul, having the same
qualities of creation, wants toknow what is here.
Now, that presupposes that Godknows everything.
That's true.
God is all-powerful,all-knowledgeable.
(05:32):
God created everything, yes.
But wouldn't it be interesting-- again, we don't know what's
in the mind of God -- butwouldn't it be interesting that
God created all this stuff toentertain itself?
To do what?
To gain more knowledge that itdid not possess.
Or to put things together, anexperiment, a project, and then
(05:56):
let it play out, to see if theproject worked.
It created this place we callthe world.
And this world has a duality toit.
Light and darkness, up and down, in and out, and on and on it
goes.
But again, we don't know thelimitations of this duality,
(06:16):
this place we call Earth, thisEarth plane.
We only know that we're hereand we're in the maze.
We're like the little micerunning around.
We don't know enough to look up.
We just keep bumping our headson all the little short blocks
here, the alleyways, there, eachother, you know.
We're just having a ball,because we're not smart enough,
(06:37):
as people, to look up.
And so, in that playful way ofexplaining existence and why a
soul decides to come into theworld, it's because the soul is
intelligent, because the soulwants to know, and so it comes
into this world where it doessomething, and then, oh my gosh,
there's another side.
(06:58):
Let's go find out about thatother side.
And then, of course, gender.
The soul has no gender.
Ever think of that?
Sort of speaking to everyonelistening.
No, the soul does not have agender.
The soul is a ball of light.
(07:18):
A soul is not a physical being,it's not a sentient being.
It is something, aconsciousness.
We can't even describe what oursoul looks like.
We've had visions and dreams.
We've seen things.
We've had glimpses of what oursoul might be.
Maybe we've seen an orb.
Maybe we've seen a little dotfloating across the ceiling.
(07:40):
Maybe we have an apparition ofectoplasm, or we see something
that looks like the shape ofwhite milk floating through the
air, or light flicker, flitter.
Okay, I'm not smart enough toknow that and I've been looking
for this for 50 years.
I have ideas, I haveexperiences and I have drawn
conclusions, but in no way,shape or form, can I say yes,
(08:04):
that's what it is.
I can say most likely, probably.
I believe.
It appears to me.
And that's the closest I cancome to understanding anything
spiritual and, in particular,what a soul is.
So, taking that to the next step, Les, if there's no gender,
then what are we getting caughtup about things about gender
(08:26):
here in the world?
What are we getting caught upwith race colors, the different
colors in our skin?
Why are we getting caught upwith people who live in
different parts of the worldthat are different than us, but
they all have the same soulinside?
Well, this is how the game isplayed.
Differences, and the soul'sattempting to understand the
(08:51):
differences.
You know, if you have a team, abaseball team, or a sports team
of some sort, and you're thecoach and you want to find out
who the best players are, whatdo you do?
You pit them against oneanother.
Oh yeah.
Test them out.
Test them out.
Maybe God is doing that to us.
We're on God's sports teamsomewhere and he's trying to
(09:13):
find out who is the best, andevery now and then he finds one,
and he reaches down.
Come on Enoch, Come on Moses,Come on Christ.
And he plucks them out becausethey've achieved that pinnacle
of success.
Complete awareness.
And they become an avatar, agodlike being in a physical form
(09:36):
.
Okay, all fun aside, but if thesoul is so smart, what is it
doing here?
Well, the short answer is (09:41):
it wants to know.
It's curious.
I've read like in near-deathexperiences where people said
you know, I visited the otherside and had this tremendous
360-degree awareness and I kneweverything that was going on.
All my questions were answered.
Why do we lose that when wecome here?
Douglas James Cottrell (10:04):
Well, it's like why do we put on the
helmet when we play football?
Why do we put on the race carwhen we go to race on the track?
Why do we put on hockeyequipment when we go to play
hockey?
I know everybody's thinkingprotection.
Well, yes.
But we put on the vehicle, weput on the attitude, we put on
(10:27):
that equipment, that appearancethat puts us in that environment
.
So we're not all knowing, whilewe've chosen something to wear.
Here I am.
What we are all knowing iswe're outside of the maze, we're
now above, looking down, and weare remembering what's in the
(10:49):
great beyond, and that's why wecan see.
You know, you go to the top ofa mountain, you can look 360
degrees and you can see far away.
But if you go half the way downthe mountain or all the way
down the mountain, your view islimited.
Les Hubert (11:06):
And also, the denser we go, the less knowledge we
have.
Douglas James Cottrell (11:11):
Well, I'm trying to say, if we take on
a certain role to play, wedon't get to be in that great
beyond where we can see 360degrees.
We can only see the role we'replaying.
It's a way of putting it.
The denser we get in physicalflesh, then the more we're
adulterated by the physical body.
(11:31):
Limited.
We take on the physical body.
Well, it's like wearingfootball equipment.
It's really heavy and you can'trun a 100-yard dash in football
equipment and expect to do well.
And you can't run a marathonwith a suit of armor.
So, the envelope, theenvironment, the circumstance is
(11:56):
what limits our view and alsocurtails our knowledge, and it's
why we have to die.
Oh.
We have to die because what ifyou remembered every lifetime?
Wow.
What if, you know, in somelifetimes you weren't such a
nice person, you know.
You worked for the king and youhad a big axe and that was your
(12:17):
job, you know, dispatchingpeople who were.
.
.
the king decided that one goes,that one stays.
Anyway.
So we have to die so that welose the consciousness of that
previous existence.
More exactly, what we do is welose the emotion attached to
that experience.
Okay.
Now, as we're up here as a soullooking down, we're observing,
(12:40):
we're not sentient beings beingemotionally pulled this way or
that way.
Now we're able to objectivelylook and see: oh, look at that
life when I lived in Australia.
Look at that, I was a very goodspirit chucker.
I could have a boomerang and,uh, you know, I rode kangaroos
around.
Okay, now in this other life,I'm in North America and I'm
(13:03):
running through the forest andI'm hunting deer and I live in a
little tent.
This is wonderful.
Two different experiences.
But limited to the perspectivethat you take on in the world.
And by that I'm only talkingabout is that the soul can't
remember those lifetimesemotionally, but it can remember
them in a spiritual sense, byan experiential way, and that's
(13:29):
how it gains wisdom.
Now, that's not to say theydon't remember, because people I
know have done past life recall.
They remember when their headwas chopped off.
They remembered when they weredrowning, and some people
remember coming out of the womb.
Wow.
Remember.
And they say how come I can'tmove my fingers?
This is not fair.
(13:50):
Why did you make me a babyagain?
I can't control my hands.
Oh, wow.
I've had people tell me that.
So they remember.
So this curiosity and I've beenvery privileged to see people
and talk to people for 50 yearsabout these experiences, but it
comes down to answering yourquestion that, as we go through
life, as we observe, the higherup we go, we see more.
(14:12):
We also know how to deal withourselves at the lower levels of
evolution.
And so it's wisdom that we have.
And, from a soul's perspective,as we continue to write this
book of life, you know dailyjournal, chapter by chapter,
what we experienced, what we did, what we learned, where we
gained, where we lost.
Then, at the end, when we'reable and capable at that highest
(14:37):
level of consciousness, we'reable to go back and look at all
the experiences we've had, in anobjective way, and then we can
understand why we did things indifferent lifetimes.
But at the end of the trail,now we're made whole, we know
more.
And then what do we do?
Well, look at that.
There's an orange place overthere.
(14:57):
Let's go over that way, on theother side of Beta Articuli, on
the far side of the nebulas,let's go there.
Or something like that.
Les Hubert (15:07):
Edgar Cayce likened it to, he said you're up on top
of the ocean on a raft.
And he said if somebody puts aheavy copper helmet on you and
this heavy leather canvas suitand they lower you down into the
abyss and you get down thereand you can't see anything and
you don't know where you are.
And then later on they yank youback up and they take off your
(15:28):
heavy suit and they go wow.
Douglas James Cottrell (15:30):
What do you remember?
Dark.
Except being terrified.
Well, well, I'll accept that,Les.
I mean, that's, you know, thesou l comes into the world, you
know like, hey, we're going tothe amusement park.
Look at all the other souls.
We're rushing over to thislittle blue marble.
Yeah, okay.
And all of a sudden you're in aphysical life and you're going,
what happened to me?
(15:52):
How did I get here, oh my God?
And down you go into the greatabyss.
The abyss means the level ofconsciousness you have none.
It's like going someplaceyou've never been before, you
know.
Parachuted into, let's say,Madrid.
Now what?
I don't have any clue where I'mat, I can't speak the language,
(16:13):
I don't even know where I canget a sandwich or where I can
sleep tonight.
And so you're bewildered.
Well, let's use that analogy ashow a soul comes to Earth for
its very first time, and maybegets mixed up.
Maybe it enters into a rock, ora tree or an insect or
something else.
Again, we don't know what's inthe mind of God, and we don't
(16:35):
know what's in our mind as aspiritual being able and capable
of possessing physical matter.
So I'm just going to let thatone coast out there Les.
But the idea is that.
.
.
that's a good analogy, I couldsee it in my mind.
Big helmet, you're down in theabyss you go, and you're going
like, oh, this is exciting untiluntil you get there, and then
you're just lost.
And somehow, think of it,somebody's up there saying: I
(17:00):
think he's had enough.
Pull him up.
Not to sound chauvinistic, thatgoes for women too.
You know they're down there,okay pull them up.
But we started off theconversation, remember the soul
has no gender.
And so, does it not make sensethat, as part of the soul's
journey, sometimes it would bemale, sometimes it would be
(17:29):
female, and then maybe it wouldlike one gender over the other,
and so for a thousand lifetimeswant to be male.
It's a man's man.
And maybe for another thousandlifetimes it wants to be a woman
and becomes a woman's woman.
And then maybe there's sometimes where it crosses over,
where it's been male gender butnow in a female body, and it
acts like a male memory, butit's in a female body.
(17:53):
It's confused.
Somebody explained that me.
That's not my own wisdom, but Iheard that.
I think my teacher, RossPeterson, had told me that and
it makes perfect sense to me.
So when we see people that areconfused in gender, we can
understand that might be thecase.
But what if, at the end of yourspiritual journey, you've lived
(18:18):
enough lives as one gender andthe other that you're now two
genders together.
Lord Shiva in the Hindu religion- in my understanding, which
is limited - is that that's ademonstration of both genders
coming together.
And what do we know in the mindof God?
What do we know in thespiritual world as soul's
consciousness?
Very little from our limitedperspective.
(18:41):
We're down that abyss, lookingup, you know, because I'm sure
that person with a big helmetdown in the abyss looked up and
could see that little raft upthere.
It said help, ringing the bell,pulling the chain, come on, let
me back up.
And then, okay, well, he's hadenough, come on up.
Come on up Les, we'll pull youup.
(19:01):
I know I'm making light of itand I don't want anybody to be
insulted.
It's supposed to be light, soyou remember it.
It's supposed to be that you'llsee these concepts in a
humorous way, so you understandthat these are very serious
concepts, but there's no need tobe solemn.
Les Hubert (19:20):
In in wrapping this up Doug dog, and thank you -
it's it's been a great - we'vewe've come people, people all of
us, sure, sure that seem to benot worldly wise.
They almost.
.
.
like They seem to have not alot of experience in this.
dimension Is it isn't reallythat the, case or Or, like you,
come across somebody who seemsto have everything going their
way.
They're wrapped up, they'reintelligent, they're there, they
have wisdom.
It's like, is that?
(19:40):
And they would call that, Ithink, an old soul.
Is that true?
Am on in the right track there?
Douglas James Cottrell (19:45):
Well I'm going to go on a little bit of
a take, but let's come back tothat.
What about people that arementally handicapped?
What about people that justdon't have smarts Right?
?
.
are people that have?
have, they're an infant of fiveor six years of age, all of
their life.
So is that not an experiencethat the soul would like to take
(20:07):
on, to find out what it's like?
Les Hubert (20:09):
True yeah.
Douglas James Cottrell (20:11):
In ancient times, special people
that were in need were honoredby their tribe.
It was a privilege for thetribe to take care of this, I'm
going to call them handicappedperson, physically challenged,
mentally challenged.
Whatever terminology, myfriends, that you're comfortable
with.
These were people that were notable and capable of taking care
(20:35):
of themselves.
And so the tribe, the community, in their spiritual
understandings, believed that itis their duty and privilege to
take care of people that were inneed.
What a concept.
If we believe that today wewouldn't have any homeless
people, we wouldn't have anypeople who are in institutions,
(20:59):
children locked away in placesbecause they can't walk or talk
or speak or act.
We would not have thesewarehouses of people because we
would find it a privilege totake care of them.
So, as we understand that, thesoul goes through those
experiences too, but so does thecommunity, and there, but for
(21:20):
the grace of God go I.
Les Hubert (21:22):
When we come across souls who are, they don't really
seem, they're not reallymentally challenged or anything
like that, but somebody who justseems to be a bit of a
primitive.
They don't have a lot ofworldly wisdom, as opposed to
somebody who is really very wiseand very sophisticated.
Would that indicate that theyhaven't had a lot of experience
here or, in such a case you justmentioned, they just came in to
experience that type ofvibration?
Douglas James Cottrell (21:45):
Very good question, because who says
all the souls created, thebillions of them, are here in
the world at the same time?
They're not.
Billions and billions of soulsspread out through all the
galaxies and all the universe.
Wow.
And a few of us have found ourway to this little blue marble
(22:09):
and we're working on what'sgoing on here.
Occasionally, one of ourcousins gets close.
Maybe they land in some nearbygalaxy and they go: oh, what's
going on over there?
And they come over andincarnate into the world.
Well, here I am.
What's this all about?
They have these primitiveexperiences, this lack of
(22:34):
experience or knowledge, justlike anybody else, first day on
the job.
Right?
Right, right.
I've got the job.
I don't know what I'm doing.
Tell me what to do.
Where am I supposed to be?
When's lunch?
When do I get paid?
Where's the washrooms?
So those souls that come intothe world that are not well
endowed with experience, maybe,just maybe, it's their first
(22:54):
time here or their tenth timehere.
They're not well-versed, and so, as us pros we've been here, we
know our way around right?
We should always be on thelookout that somebody coming
into our midst maybe is afirst-timer, or maybe they're a
divine being testing us.
Oh.
(23:15):
If they are a divine being - ifyou go back in other religions
and even the time of Christ andbefore, people who show up are
strangers, you're supposed totake care of them.
Why?
Because they might be angelslooking very much like sentient
beings.
like you and I.
But they're divine beings andthey're testing us and so we
(23:40):
should take care of them.
This story in the ChristianBible of the Good Samaritan to
all kinds of other religions inthe East, where Father Abraham
was the commencement of all theworld's great religions, or at
least Christian, Jews, andMuslims, we need to look at that
and say, okay, if somebodyshows up, they're a little weird
(24:00):
looking, is this an angel?
And so if we keep thatmentality going, then what
happens when strangers come intoour midst?
We take care of them.
What happens when somebodyshows up in our life and they're
in need?
We take care of them, becausemaybe it's a test and maybe that
(24:21):
angel's opening the door andsaying: over here, here's two
doors, one to your spiritualevolution and reward.
The other one, well, it goesdown a floor to the cellar.
Which one are you going to gothrough?
Think about it that way.
It's a good question, Les.
I mean people who are in ourworld will show up and they're a
(24:41):
little off, be patient withthem.
Maybe they are first timers ormaybe they've been here and they
don't have that connection wehave in the world and they need
a little guidance, they need alittle love, they need a little
patience.
But beware you don't let themtake advantage of you.
Remember, you want to be adoormat or a doorway, and so you
(25:03):
allow yourself to cooperatewith them to the level that
you're able and capable of.
In an overview, to answer yourquestion, yeah, that's what I
think.
They're first-timers or they'reangels in disguise.
Les Hubert (25:17):
Ooh, intriguing.
Well, thank you for tuning infor another great podcast.
You can support our show for aslow as $3 per month.
Go to douglasjamescottrell.
com and click on the podcastlink.
It's the big blue banner andthank you very much for tuning
in and hopefully we will see youagain soon.
Douglas James Cottrell (25:35):
Well, we had to throw it to some friends
of ours.
I want to say special thanks toPJ in California, to Maria in
Spain, and we have some othergood folks who are supporting
the show right now, and we'llgive you a shout out if you just
sign up and support the showfor a very few dollars a month.
We'd love to hear from you aswell, so we're open to your
(25:56):
suggestions.
But, again, my friends supportLes and I as we continue to help
you with this podcast.
And we hope, Les, that we'vetouched on a few points.
Excellent questions tonight.
Until next time, God bless.
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(26:30):
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Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell,
your source for helpfulinformation, advice and tips to
live your life in a mindful wayin this increasingly chaotic
world.
For over four decades, DrDouglas has been teaching people
how to develop their intuitionand live their lives in a
conscious way.
His news and views of the worldtomorrow, today, are always
(00:21):
informative and revealing.
And now here's your host, DrDouglas James Cottrell.
Douglas James Cottrell (00:30):
Welcome to the Wake Up, a broadcast
where curiosity leads to deeperunderstanding.
I'm your host, Douglas JamesCottrell, and my good friend and
co-host Les Hubert is here withme, along with editor Jack
Bialik, as we delve into thefascinating realms of life,
metaphysics, spirituality andthe pressing questions that
shape our world.
Good morning, Les.
(00:51):
What's on the menu today?
Les Hubert (00:54):
We have another intriguing question for you,
Doug, from our listeners.
If our souls are intelligentand indeed come from the God
Source, why do we incarnate inthis world?
Douglas James Cottrell (01:07):
Because we don't know it all.
If we knew everything, we wouldknow better than to come here.
Okay, so, number one, this isnot a nice place.
This is a place of work, ofevolution, of development, and
all those things are hard.
You know, like it's like we'rea statue inside a block of stone
(01:29):
, and the hammer and the chiselare the hands of God and they
got to come by and chisel offall that rough stone so that we
get down to that finished figureinside the stone which becomes
a marvelous, beautiful statue.
However, on the outside itlooked pretty rough, didn't it?
We are constantly attempting tochisel away the rough outside
(01:55):
layer to find the beauty insideof ourselves.
So, our soul having beencreated with all the other souls
at the same moment, when Godcreated the heavens and the
Earth and went through the stepsof creation, God created human
beings.
By the way, it was the lastthing that God created in
(02:17):
creation, which kind of makes mewonder if we think we're so
important, how come we were thelast thing to be created?
But who knows what's in themind of God?
I certainly don't know.
But of that creation, the soulswere created to inhabit physical
bodies.
That's why in religions aroundthe world this is called the
(02:38):
temple.
This is the home of our soul.
Inside, our heart is the seatof our soul.
In religious paintings, you'llsee, the heart is always the
house of the soul.
So you know, looking around theworld's great religions, and
they all refer to this physicalaspect as a covering.
It's the clay that is thrownaway when you pass away and we
(03:02):
get to see like the physicalpart is temporary.
But the permanent aspect is thesoul.
And if the soul is reallyintelligent, well, it's smart,
it's intelligent in a way wecan't understand, because our
physical self is like (whoosh)in existence, just a breath, but
(03:22):
our soul is there forever.
So let's's say our soul is kindof curious.
Okay, let's look at that littleblue marble down there.
They call that place the Earthplane.
Let's go down and see whatthat's like.
And so it comes down and ittakes on a human form.
Comes, exists and leaves.
(03:43):
And it says, well, you knowwhat?
I kind of like that.
Let's do that again.
Comes, takes on existence,takes on a body, has the
experience and leaves, back tothe great post-existence, which
is actually the pre-existenceand the post-existence.
(04:04):
Same place.
And it says you know what?
That was very interesting.
Let's go on the other side ofthis little world and see what's
going on over there.
And then it repeats that.
And repeats it again becauseit's curious.
Because in everybody that'sintelligent, every animal that's
a sentient being, that has somelevel of intelligence, is
(04:26):
curious.
If you're not smart, you're notintelligent, you just sit there
and stare in a pond.
That's it.
Sounds very boring.
Exactly.
So, to answer your question, youknow it smacks of a little
sarcasm.
Like hey, if you're so smartand spiritual, what are you
(04:48):
going down here in the world for?
It's a difficult place to be.
Well, because people who areintelligent always like to solve
problems.
People who are intelligent likechallenges.
People who are intelligentcannot waste their time away.
They have to read a book, theyhave to go do something.
They create a painting, theycarve something, they achieve
(05:11):
something, like climbing up amountain.
God forbid, I wouldn't do that.
But the point being is thatthe soul, having the same
qualities of creation, wants toknow what is here.
Now, that presupposes that Godknows everything.
That's true.
God is all-powerful,all-knowledgeable.
(05:32):
God created everything, yes.
But wouldn't it be interesting-- again, we don't know what's
in the mind of God -- butwouldn't it be interesting that
God created all this stuff toentertain itself?
To do what?
To gain more knowledge that itdid not possess.
Or to put things together, anexperiment, a project, and then
(05:56):
let it play out, to see if theproject worked.
It created this place we callthe world.
And this world has a duality toit.
Light and darkness, up and down, in and out, and on and on it
goes.
But again, we don't know thelimitations of this duality,
(06:16):
this place we call Earth, thisEarth plane.
We only know that we're hereand we're in the maze.
We're like the little micerunning around.
We don't know enough to look up.
We just keep bumping our headson all the little short blocks
here, the alleyways, there, eachother, you know.
We're just having a ball,because we're not smart enough,
(06:37):
as people, to look up.
And so, in that playful way ofexplaining existence and why a
soul decides to come into theworld, it's because the soul is
intelligent, because the soulwants to know, and so it comes
into this world where it doessomething, and then, oh my gosh,
there's another side.
(06:58):
Let's go find out about thatother side.
And then, of course, gender.
The soul has no gender.
Ever think of that?
Sort of speaking to everyonelistening.
No, the soul does not have agender.
The soul is a ball of light.
(07:18):
A soul is not a physical being,it's not a sentient being.
It is something, aconsciousness.
We can't even describe what oursoul looks like.
We've had visions and dreams.
We've seen things.
We've had glimpses of what oursoul might be.
Maybe we've seen an orb.
Maybe we've seen a little dotfloating across the ceiling.
(07:40):
Maybe we have an apparition ofectoplasm, or we see something
that looks like the shape ofwhite milk floating through the
air, or light flicker, flitter.
Okay, I'm not smart enough toknow that and I've been looking
for this for 50 years.
I have ideas, I haveexperiences and I have drawn
conclusions, but in no way,shape or form, can I say yes,
(08:04):
that's what it is.
I can say most likely, probably.
I believe.
It appears to me.
And that's the closest I cancome to understanding anything
spiritual and, in particular,what a soul is.
So, taking that to the next step, Les, if there's no gender,
then what are we getting caughtup about things about gender
(08:26):
here in the world?
What are we getting caught upwith race colors, the different
colors in our skin?
Why are we getting caught upwith people who live in
different parts of the worldthat are different than us, but
they all have the same soulinside?
Well, this is how the game isplayed.
Differences, and the soul'sattempting to understand the
(08:51):
differences.
You know, if you have a team, abaseball team, or a sports team
of some sort, and you're thecoach and you want to find out
who the best players are, whatdo you do?
You pit them against oneanother.
Oh yeah.
Test them out.
Test them out.
Maybe God is doing that to us.
We're on God's sports teamsomewhere and he's trying to
(09:13):
find out who is the best, andevery now and then he finds one,
and he reaches down.
Come on Enoch, Come on Moses,Come on Christ.
And he plucks them out becausethey've achieved that pinnacle
of success.
Complete awareness.
And they become an avatar, agodlike being in a physical form
(09:36):
.
Okay, all fun aside, but if thesoul is so smart, what is it
doing here?
Well, the short answer is (09:41):
it wants to know.
It's curious.
I've read like in near-deathexperiences where people said
you know, I visited the otherside and had this tremendous
360-degree awareness and I kneweverything that was going on.
All my questions were answered.
Why do we lose that when wecome here?
Douglas James Cottrell (10:04):
Well, it's like why do we put on the
helmet when we play football?
Why do we put on the race carwhen we go to race on the track?
Why do we put on hockeyequipment when we go to play
hockey?
I know everybody's thinkingprotection.
Well, yes.
But we put on the vehicle, weput on the attitude, we put on
(10:27):
that equipment, that appearancethat puts us in that environment
.
So we're not all knowing, whilewe've chosen something to wear.
Here I am.
What we are all knowing iswe're outside of the maze, we're
now above, looking down, and weare remembering what's in the
(10:49):
great beyond, and that's why wecan see.
You know, you go to the top ofa mountain, you can look 360
degrees and you can see far away.
But if you go half the way downthe mountain or all the way
down the mountain, your view islimited.
Les Hubert (11:06):
And also, the denser we go, the less knowledge we
have.
Douglas James Cottrell (11:11):
Well, I'm trying to say, if we take on
a certain role to play, wedon't get to be in that great
beyond where we can see 360degrees.
We can only see the role we'replaying.
It's a way of putting it.
The denser we get in physicalflesh, then the more we're
adulterated by the physical body.
(11:31):
Limited.
We take on the physical body.
Well, it's like wearingfootball equipment.
It's really heavy and you can'trun a 100-yard dash in football
equipment and expect to do well.
And you can't run a marathonwith a suit of armor.
So, the envelope, theenvironment, the circumstance is
(11:56):
what limits our view and alsocurtails our knowledge, and it's
why we have to die.
Oh.
We have to die because what ifyou remembered every lifetime?
Wow.
What if, you know, in somelifetimes you weren't such a
nice person, you know.
You worked for the king and youhad a big axe and that was your
(12:17):
job, you know, dispatchingpeople who were.
.
.
the king decided that one goes,that one stays.
Anyway.
So we have to die so that welose the consciousness of that
previous existence.
More exactly, what we do is welose the emotion attached to
that experience.
Okay.
Now, as we're up here as a soullooking down, we're observing,
(12:40):
we're not sentient beings beingemotionally pulled this way or
that way.
Now we're able to objectivelylook and see: oh, look at that
life when I lived in Australia.
Look at that, I was a very goodspirit chucker.
I could have a boomerang and,uh, you know, I rode kangaroos
around.
Okay, now in this other life,I'm in North America and I'm
(13:03):
running through the forest andI'm hunting deer and I live in a
little tent.
This is wonderful.
Two different experiences.
But limited to the perspectivethat you take on in the world.
And by that I'm only talkingabout is that the soul can't
remember those lifetimesemotionally, but it can remember
them in a spiritual sense, byan experiential way, and that's
(13:29):
how it gains wisdom.
Now, that's not to say theydon't remember, because people I
know have done past life recall.
They remember when their headwas chopped off.
They remembered when they weredrowning, and some people
remember coming out of the womb.
Wow.
Remember.
And they say how come I can'tmove my fingers?
This is not fair.
(13:50):
Why did you make me a babyagain?
I can't control my hands.
Oh, wow.
I've had people tell me that.
So they remember.
So this curiosity and I've beenvery privileged to see people
and talk to people for 50 yearsabout these experiences, but it
comes down to answering yourquestion that, as we go through
life, as we observe, the higherup we go, we see more.
(14:12):
We also know how to deal withourselves at the lower levels of
evolution.
And so it's wisdom that we have.
And, from a soul's perspective,as we continue to write this
book of life, you know dailyjournal, chapter by chapter,
what we experienced, what we did, what we learned, where we
gained, where we lost.
Then, at the end, when we'reable and capable at that highest
(14:37):
level of consciousness, we'reable to go back and look at all
the experiences we've had, in anobjective way, and then we can
understand why we did things indifferent lifetimes.
But at the end of the trail,now we're made whole, we know
more.
And then what do we do?
Well, look at that.
There's an orange place overthere.
(14:57):
Let's go over that way, on theother side of Beta Articuli, on
the far side of the nebulas,let's go there.
Or something like that.
Les Hubert (15:07):
Edgar Cayce likened it to, he said you're up on top
of the ocean on a raft.
And he said if somebody puts aheavy copper helmet on you and
this heavy leather canvas suitand they lower you down into the
abyss and you get down thereand you can't see anything and
you don't know where you are.
And then later on they yank youback up and they take off your
(15:28):
heavy suit and they go wow.
Douglas James Cottrell (15:30):
What do you remember?
Dark.
Except being terrified.
Well, well, I'll accept that,Les.
I mean, that's, you know, thesou l comes into the world, you
know like, hey, we're going tothe amusement park.
Look at all the other souls.
We're rushing over to thislittle blue marble.
Yeah, okay.
And all of a sudden you're in aphysical life and you're going,
what happened to me?
(15:52):
How did I get here, oh my God?
And down you go into the greatabyss.
The abyss means the level ofconsciousness you have none.
It's like going someplaceyou've never been before, you
know.
Parachuted into, let's say,Madrid.
Now what?
I don't have any clue where I'mat, I can't speak the language,
(16:13):
I don't even know where I canget a sandwich or where I can
sleep tonight.
And so you're bewildered.
Well, let's use that analogy ashow a soul comes to Earth for
its very first time, and maybegets mixed up.
Maybe it enters into a rock, ora tree or an insect or
something else.
Again, we don't know what's inthe mind of God, and we don't
(16:35):
know what's in our mind as aspiritual being able and capable
of possessing physical matter.
So I'm just going to let thatone coast out there Les.
But the idea is that.
.
.
that's a good analogy, I couldsee it in my mind.
Big helmet, you're down in theabyss you go, and you're going
like, oh, this is exciting untiluntil you get there, and then
you're just lost.
And somehow, think of it,somebody's up there saying: I
(17:00):
think he's had enough.
Pull him up.
Not to sound chauvinistic, thatgoes for women too.
You know they're down there,okay pull them up.
But we started off theconversation, remember the soul
has no gender.
And so, does it not make sensethat, as part of the soul's
journey, sometimes it would bemale, sometimes it would be
(17:29):
female, and then maybe it wouldlike one gender over the other,
and so for a thousand lifetimeswant to be male.
It's a man's man.
And maybe for another thousandlifetimes it wants to be a woman
and becomes a woman's woman.
And then maybe there's sometimes where it crosses over,
where it's been male gender butnow in a female body, and it
acts like a male memory, butit's in a female body.
(17:53):
It's confused.
Somebody explained that me.
That's not my own wisdom, but Iheard that.
I think my teacher, RossPeterson, had told me that and
it makes perfect sense to me.
So when we see people that areconfused in gender, we can
understand that might be thecase.
But what if, at the end of yourspiritual journey, you've lived
(18:18):
enough lives as one gender andthe other that you're now two
genders together.
Lord Shiva in the Hindu religion- in my understanding, which
is limited - is that that's ademonstration of both genders
coming together.
And what do we know in the mindof God?
What do we know in thespiritual world as soul's
consciousness?
Very little from our limitedperspective.
(18:41):
We're down that abyss, lookingup, you know, because I'm sure
that person with a big helmetdown in the abyss looked up and
could see that little raft upthere.
It said help, ringing the bell,pulling the chain, come on, let
me back up.
And then, okay, well, he's hadenough, come on up.
Come on up Les, we'll pull youup.
(19:01):
I know I'm making light of itand I don't want anybody to be
insulted.
It's supposed to be light, soyou remember it.
It's supposed to be that you'llsee these concepts in a
humorous way, so you understandthat these are very serious
concepts, but there's no need tobe solemn.
Les Hubert (19:20):
In in wrapping this up Doug dog, and thank you -
it's it's been a great - we'vewe've come people, people all of
us, sure, sure that seem to benot worldly wise.
They almost.
.
.
like They seem to have not alot of experience in this.
dimension Is it isn't reallythat the, case or Or, like you,
come across somebody who seemsto have everything going their
way.
They're wrapped up, they'reintelligent, they're there, they
have wisdom.
It's like, is that?
(19:40):
And they would call that, Ithink, an old soul.
Is that true?
Am on in the right track there?
Douglas James Cottrell (19:45):
Well I'm going to go on a little bit of
a take, but let's come back tothat.
What about people that arementally handicapped?
What about people that justdon't have smarts Right?
?
.
are people that have?
have, they're an infant of fiveor six years of age, all of
their life.
So is that not an experiencethat the soul would like to take
(20:07):
on, to find out what it's like?
Les Hubert (20:09):
True yeah.
Douglas James Cottrell (20:11):
In ancient times, special people
that were in need were honoredby their tribe.
It was a privilege for thetribe to take care of this, I'm
going to call them handicappedperson, physically challenged,
mentally challenged.
Whatever terminology, myfriends, that you're comfortable
with.
These were people that were notable and capable of taking care
(20:35):
of themselves.
And so the tribe, the community, in their spiritual
understandings, believed that itis their duty and privilege to
take care of people that were inneed.
What a concept.
If we believe that today wewouldn't have any homeless
people, we wouldn't have anypeople who are in institutions,
(20:59):
children locked away in placesbecause they can't walk or talk
or speak or act.
We would not have thesewarehouses of people because we
would find it a privilege totake care of them.
So, as we understand that, thesoul goes through those
experiences too, but so does thecommunity, and there, but for
(21:20):
the grace of God go I.
Les Hubert (21:22):
When we come across souls who are, they don't really
seem, they're not reallymentally challenged or anything
like that, but somebody who justseems to be a bit of a
primitive.
They don't have a lot ofworldly wisdom, as opposed to
somebody who is really very wiseand very sophisticated.
Would that indicate that theyhaven't had a lot of experience
here or, in such a case you justmentioned, they just came in to
experience that type ofvibration?
Douglas James Cottrell (21:45):
Very good question, because who says
all the souls created, thebillions of them, are here in
the world at the same time?
They're not.
Billions and billions of soulsspread out through all the
galaxies and all the universe.
Wow.
And a few of us have found ourway to this little blue marble
(22:09):
and we're working on what'sgoing on here.
Occasionally, one of ourcousins gets close.
Maybe they land in some nearbygalaxy and they go: oh, what's
going on over there?
And they come over andincarnate into the world.
Well, here I am.
What's this all about?
They have these primitiveexperiences, this lack of
(22:34):
experience or knowledge, justlike anybody else, first day on
the job.
Right?
Right, right.
I've got the job.
I don't know what I'm doing.
Tell me what to do.
Where am I supposed to be?
When's lunch?
When do I get paid?
Where's the washrooms?
So those souls that come intothe world that are not well
endowed with experience, maybe,just maybe, it's their first
(22:54):
time here or their tenth timehere.
They're not well-versed, and so, as us pros we've been here, we
know our way around right?
We should always be on thelookout that somebody coming
into our midst maybe is afirst-timer, or maybe they're a
divine being testing us.
Oh.
(23:15):
If they are a divine being - ifyou go back in other religions
and even the time of Christ andbefore, people who show up are
strangers, you're supposed totake care of them.
Why?
Because they might be angelslooking very much like sentient
beings.
like you and I.
But they're divine beings andthey're testing us and so we
(23:40):
should take care of them.
This story in the ChristianBible of the Good Samaritan to
all kinds of other religions inthe East, where Father Abraham
was the commencement of all theworld's great religions, or at
least Christian, Jews, andMuslims, we need to look at that
and say, okay, if somebodyshows up, they're a little weird
(24:00):
looking, is this an angel?
And so if we keep thatmentality going, then what
happens when strangers come intoour midst?
We take care of them.
What happens when somebodyshows up in our life and they're
in need?
We take care of them, becausemaybe it's a test and maybe that
(24:21):
angel's opening the door andsaying: over here, here's two
doors, one to your spiritualevolution and reward.
The other one, well, it goesdown a floor to the cellar.
Which one are you going to gothrough?
Think about it that way.
It's a good question, Les.
I mean people who are in ourworld will show up and they're a
(24:41):
little off, be patient withthem.
Maybe they are first timers ormaybe they've been here and they
don't have that connection wehave in the world and they need
a little guidance, they need alittle love, they need a little
patience.
But beware you don't let themtake advantage of you.
Remember, you want to be adoormat or a doorway, and so you
(25:03):
allow yourself to cooperatewith them to the level that
you're able and capable of.
In an overview, to answer yourquestion, yeah, that's what I
think.
They're first-timers or they'reangels in disguise.
Les Hubert (25:17):
Ooh, intriguing.
Well, thank you for tuning infor another great podcast.
You can support our show for aslow as $3 per month.
Go to douglasjamescottrell.
com and click on the podcastlink.
It's the big blue banner andthank you very much for tuning
in and hopefully we will see youagain soon.
Douglas James Cottrell (25:35):
Well, we had to throw it to some friends
of ours.
I want to say special thanks toPJ in California, to Maria in
Spain, and we have some othergood folks who are supporting
the show right now, and we'llgive you a shout out if you just
sign up and support the showfor a very few dollars a month.
We'd love to hear from you aswell, so we're open to your
(25:56):
suggestions.
But, again, my friends supportLes and I as we continue to help
you with this podcast.
And we hope, Les, that we'vetouched on a few points.
Excellent questions tonight.
Until next time, God bless.
Announcer (26:09):
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(26:30):
and other related products,please visit his website
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com.
Until next time, we wish youall of God's blessings: health,
wealth and peace of mind.
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