Feeling the Spirit vs Feeling Emotion

I wake up, heart pounding. I feel anxious about something or another. I hope in the shower, and 20 minutes later I'm in prayer. Now I'm calm, serene, even excited about striving for the Good. It doesn't last....

Later that morning I was listening to a philosophy lecture. My mind felt in a trance. Ideas were linking together, further understanding building. Then I got to the gym. The gym is not the time to listen to an intellectual lecture on Plato's Republic. What would focus my soul off of my brain and mind, and into my limbs and muscles? For me, its heavy metal. The hard, extreme, loud sound of guitars and screaming voices put me into a realm of intensity and focus on channeling the strain and growth of my muscles. Then, I'm eventually at work. Car speakers are turned off, and the regular routine of work starts. 

Recently, I wrote about worshipping in Spirit and Truth. I discovered the Christian concept of Spirit: Spirit is God. The Socratics viewed God as the Good, with the human spirit, or Soul, being the divine part within that can fully perceive the Good and the realm of the Forms. Experiencing the Spirit, however, only works through its primary virtues: Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.

The Spirit of God/the Good is perceived once the Soul separates from the body. For Socrates, this comes through the practice of philosophy. But what about religious people? An enumerable number of anecdotes detail experiences connecting to their Soul in prayer, music, and bowing amongst other activities. In most religious practitioners, an experience of the Spirit uplifts the Soul to the realm of the highest Good. Is this real? Are these emotions? Mere focuses? A personality? Or something else? 

The faculties of Intellect, Emotion, and Will engage the virtues of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness respectively. The things of the intellect such as knowledge, logic, and science bring the Soul towards experiencing Truth by engaging the faculty to the point where the Soul gains primary control of one's being instead of the usual state of bodily control. The same occurs with the emotional faculty pursuing beauty with art, music, and nature....the Soul feels stimulated! The same occurs with the Will pursuing acts of service for others and speaking up for what's right. 

These virtues are part of the Soul, not the body. For the Soul to be felt, the body must become an Object Partner, circularly orbiting the Soul centered on the universal Spirit: God. Despite what Socrates said about the flaws of bodily sense perception, we need our body as a starting point in experiencing the world. We need to be able to observe an animal or a piece of art with our eyes first. However, our perception should not end there. Our eyes, instead of focusing only on the body, perceives with the Soul in mind and begins a spherical revolution. When the body acts on its own, emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety, happiness, and calm (amongst all the myriad types of emotions) are used for the body taking possession of the self rather than the Soul. When the body takes possession of the self, one becomes possessed by the emotion itself, the knowledge itself, or the righteous thing itself, rather than the virtue its supposed to lead to.

What determines whether I am feeling the Spirit of God in my Soul (which is connected to God/Goodness) or merely feeling my own bodily thoughts, emotions, and impulses? How can I tell whether the Holy Spirit is moving in my church, or whether the pastor or leader is going his/her own way? The perception of the Spirit comes from my Soul, not someone else's. Only when I am connected to the Spirit can I perceive whether others are aligned with it. When I'm in my body, when I'm thinking I know the answer or am angry at something in the world, I cannot distinguish between an inspired pastor and a corrupt theocrat. 

How someone experiences the Soul differs person to person. But the Spirit of God always has the feeling of Parental Love. The Spirit ignites our Hearts, rather than just the brain or emotions. 

Let the Soul take the lead. Your body will thank you for it.