Snow White and Prince Charming. Romeo and Juliet. Beauty and the Beast. Harry and Sally. These are all names that come to mind when one thinks of the term, 'soul mate'. But do soul mates really exist? Read this excerpt from my latest book, "Romancing the Soul", to be released in 2002, to find out.

"Friends will keep you sane, Love could fill your heart, A lover can warm your bed, But lonely is the soul without a mate."
~David Pratt~

Soul mates. When one hears these two magical words, she/he visions two lovers on that glorious path to ecstasy, enlightenment, and eternal love. Two bodies, two souls, intertwined in a communion that no one could tear apart.

In the dictionary, “soul mate” is one of two persons compatible with each other in disposition, point of view, or sensitivity; someone for whom you have a deep affinity. This explains the basic qualities, but we all know the soul mate theory goes much deeper than that.

According to the Celtic wisdom, our souls begin their journey together as one being that becomes broken apart. Through this, two souls emerge and move on into their journeys. Perhaps, we find our “other” soul in this life. Maybe we find it in another life.

Throughout time, we seek to rejoin our soul mate that was created as our perfect match. In our search for our “Anam Cara”, the Celtic word for “Soul Friend”, we must know this. In order for our soul mate to appear, we must be ready for them.

You will not meet your soul mate if you are still coming from a place of fear or jealousy in relationships. You wouldn’t run before you could walk and you won’t meet your soul mate before you are ready to learn what she/he has to teach you. In order to find our soul mate, we must be emotionally secure and know what we want from life.

In doing research for my upcoming anthology, "Romancing the Soul", I discovered there is more to this 'soul mate' theory than just being a normal relationship between two lovers. Just what is a 'soul mate' and how are soul mate relationships different from other long-term relationships?

They are one and the same and different at the same time.

Take Mary* and Bob*, two of the authors in my book, for instance. Mary is in a life-threatening situation and is in the hospital clinging to the last threads of life. In her semi-conscious state, she 'dreams' of a man. He is tall and thin, has reddish-brown hair, and his name is 'Bob'. Meanwhile, a man named 'Bob' is serving in Viet Nam and gets this vision of a slender, freckle-faced woman. Both have these recurring dreams and can't escape them. They lead different lives never coming into contact with each other until they meet at party years later. He sees her from afar and feels as if he knows her. She sees him and feels the same. She walks over to him. Before he says one word, she stops him and says, 'I know your name. It is Bob'. He says, ‘Yes, it is.”

A young girl and her friend had become inseparable since their mom’s daily morning coffee trysts. The girl realizes that her friend was special in ways she couldn’t put into words. One day, while walking on an icy pond, he slips and falls in the frozen water. She saves him from his icy tomb. Was she put into his life to perform this miraculous heroic deed? They grow up and lose contact. Years later, he dies of AIDS. She cannot forget him. He is in her mind every waking moment. She cannot let hold of him to this day.

A woman takes her toddler to a nearby park. She could hear the most beautiful sounds of a little girl’s giggle and her father playing with her. It takes her breath away and her eyes fill with tears as she could see feel the warmth and the bond between them. Five years later, she sees a father at a museum with a girl about the same age as her son. The girl’s beautiful blonde hair shone brightly in the sun and bounced as she skipped up and down the steps. The father approaches wearing a big smile and a twinkle in his eye much like the twinkle she had seen five years before on the face of the man in the park. They are lost in their own world oblivious to their surroundings and lost in each other.

Meanwhile, the woman’s marriage is falling apart because of her husband’s drug abuse. She only wants what is best for her son and her and is very unhappy. She leaves her husband.

Four years later, she is dancing at a karaoke bar and a sudden calmness overcomes her. Through the smoke and the haze, a man’s face seems to glow and she can’t take her eyes off him. Time and existence freezes and she feels as if she recognizes those eyes that are full of love and compassion, those eyes that she had seen before. It is the same man she saw in the park and the museum.

The man asks her to dance. She feels a power or electric current flowing between them as they dance. They know they are meant to be. Soon after, they wed.

It is coincidences such as these that prove the existence of soul mates. You cannot force this experience. You are either soul mates or you aren’t. An electrical force only felt through a spiritual connection must exist. These stories prove this incredible phenomenon, the soul mate mystique, really does indeed exist.

© Dorothy Thompson 2001

Excerpted from “Romancing the Soul”, True Stories and Verse of the Existence of Soul Mates Around the World and Beyond, to be released in 2002

*names have been changed