They say life is a “journey”, a “school” and is here to teach us “important lessons”. But why?
Have you ever considered the possibility that the lessons we learn and wisdom we accumulate in this life, extends into other lives? Is it perhaps possible that our life is not the only journey of experience, advancement and maturing – but the whole of conscious existence is?
Is it possible that reincarnation, also known as metempsychosis, is responsible for the tremendous range of world views, instinctual drives and essential life decisions we make?
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What makes us so different from one another? What makes one person wise beyond their years, another driven by power, and another childlike, despite their age?
Regardless of whether you believe in, or entertain the possibility of reincarnation or not, you will find that the following Soul Ages theory applies to the vast variety of people in your life.
Table of contents
What Exactly is a “Soul Age”?
According to the Soul Age theory, man doesn’t have simply one shot at living and learning. He has multiple lifetimes in which to grow, learn and mature.
Soul Ages are based on the different levels of advancement a soul obtains throughout its reincarnational journey (inspired by the Michael’s teachings framework). As a person progresses through the hierarchy, paying off karma as he or she advances, it is said that he or she is free to return to universal and infinite consciousness at the end, achieving final liberation.
Some call this the state of “nirvana”, others “heaven” and others “paradise”.
The 5 Soul Ages
Understanding the different levels people exist on is a useful way of developing empathy, understanding and insight. Also, these are all essential keys to enhancing the connection we have with our souls through inner work.
Below are the 5 Soul Ages in order from ‘beginner’, to ‘intermediate’, and then to ‘advanced’. You’ll also discover the sixth Soul Age which transcends all others: the Elder Soul.
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1. Infant Souls
Primary Focus: Being alive.
Lessons To Learn: Basic life skills, survival, mortality, physicality.
Age Comparison: 0 – 4
Key Characteristics: Raw, untamed, playful, excitable, unsophisticated, tribal, cautious, childlike, group-reliant, hunter-gatherers.
Also known as Newborn Souls, these people are often perceived by others as being ignorant, childish and innocent to the complexities of life. Possessing a very simplistic understanding of life, and a genuinely guileless approach to the world, Newborn Souls find it hard to adapt to ‘civilized society’. Instead, they prefer familiar clans, tribes and groups of people in wild, untamed environments. If this sounds like you, take the Infant Soul Test.
2. Baby Souls
Primary Focus: Belonging.
Lessons To Learn: Social structure, rules, roles, human relations.
Age Comparison: 4 – 13
Key Characteristics: Compliant, regimented, dutiful, role-defined, absolutist, disciplined, traditional, strong values.
Also known as Child Souls, these people seek to make meaning, order and stability out of the chaotic and uncertain nature of life. Perceived by other people as being clean, modest and rigid, Child Souls tend to be very conservative, religious and rule-bound. The Child Soul’s beliefs and senses of self are defined by their culture and traditional moral or religious system. If this sounds like you, take the Baby Soul Test.
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3. Young Souls
Primary Focus: Independence.
Lessons To Learn: Personal-advancement, free will, personal-achievement.
Age Comparison: 13 – 29
Key Characteristics: Ambitious, competitive, innovative, material gain, enterprise, freedom, individualism, self-centered, self-expression.
Also called Teenage Souls, these people often live by the maxim “my way or the highway”. The Teenage Soul, similar to an adolescent, seeks independence, social status and material gain. Essentially, these people are agents of change and are responsible for many of the greatest advancements in the world. Driven and externally focused, Teenage Souls tend to be “workaholics”. If this sounds like you, take the Young Soul Test.
4. Mature Souls
Primary Focus: Interpersonal harmony.
Lessons To Learn: Empathy, psychological stability, interdependence, self-awareness, relationships.
Age Comparison: 29 – 55
Key Characteristics: Sensitive, inquisitive, neurotic, diplomatic, introspective, egalitarian, cooperative.
Also known as Adult Souls, these people enter life seeking interpersonal and psychological harmony. Adult Souls are often perceived as being neurotic but caring. Focusing on the inner world, these people often struggle with the complexities and subtleties of life. The mature soul is liberal, relationship-orientated and visionary. Life is no longer about survival, role-filling or material gain for the Adult Soul, but about understanding, empathy and camaraderie. If this sounds like you, take the Mature Soul Test.
5. Old Souls
Primary Focus: Spiritual fulfillment.
Lessons To Learn: Non-attachment, autonomy, wise counsel, spiritual awareness.
Age Comparison: 56+
Key Characteristics: Solitary, spiritual, detached, philosophical, humanitarian, tired, unmotivated, empathetic.
Right at the end of the reincarnational cycle comes the Old Soul. Having already experienced the previous 4 stages of existence, the Old Soul has a well-rounded knowledge of society, relationships and the world at large. At this point, the Old Soul finds day to day life very uninteresting, and little can surprise or compromise their self-assurance. Relaxed and philosophical about life, Old Souls radiate depth, calmness and wisdom. The Old Souls focus is on self-actualization and self-fulfillment. To the Old Soul, life is an interconnected tapestry – one of which they strive to become One with. If this sounds like you, take the Old Soul Test.
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6. Elder Souls
Elder Souls are the completion of the Soul Age cycle. An Elder Soul is an Awakened Being who has gone through a spiritual awakening and reunited with and embodied his or her True Divine Nature. In our society, we often refer to Elder Souls as “enlightened” or “spiritual Masters.” Read more about Elder Souls.
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Although most people don’t fit strictly within each category, often overlapping others, many people tend to inhabit one Soul Age more than the other.
Which Soul Age are you? I’d love to know below!
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I wonder where you get all the information from. I just love what you guys do. I enjoy reading your work so much. Very appreciated, Aletheia and Mateo :)
Reading your words feels like second home to me if that makes sense. Lonerwolf is a place I can always come to and enjoy venturing into peoples thoughts on things I’m also interested in and from both of you wonders!
I am definitely a baby soul, got a score of 100%. Never really knew what soul ages were, so I am glad I have figured out where I am in my life cycles. Guess I have a lot more years to go then. Before I finish my soul life cycles. Awesome article!
Soul ages are never set in stone but they do give us an idea of where we are in life. Glad you could benefit from it. :)
I’m 17 and i got 100% as an old soul. I have always found that I wasn’t interested in what those of my age were, and it was so difficult to me to understand why .
I found that I am an old soul almost 3 months ago and from then everything is better. I’m so glad that I found your articles.
I’m sorry for my english, I’m romanian .
Your English is pretty fine Georgiana, don’t worry. ;)
I’m glad that this article/site can expand your self-discovery!
I have always found that I was more “mature”, older, or wiser beyond my years. I read both of your articles on the old soul and the mature soul as well as this one and I find I am in between these two soul ages with characteristics of both. Is that possible? Nevertheless, it is nice to know that I am not alone.
It is possible Will — most of us are rarely “one or the other” but are in transition, sharing a little bit of the characteristics of a variety of soul ages (but with usually one that is more dominant).
I have always found that I was more “mature”, older, or wiser beyond my years. I read both of your articles on the old soul and the mature soul and I find I am in between these two soul ages with characteristics of both. Is that possible, but always it is nice to know I am not alone.
Yes, it is possible Will. :) I too am transitioning from one level to the other and am almost there. And yes, it’s comforting to know that we are not completely alone — there are many, many others like us out there.
I scored 93 on old soul test :D I already know I’m old soul before I take the test, I’m 24 Thank you for this wonderful article ^_^
My pleasure Ray!
I was curious so I took all 5 tests. I found that I’m an old soul and that as I went ‘down’ my percentages went down as well. Infant-39%. Baby-44%. Young-48%. Mature-67%. Old-75%. I’ve always felt like my friends were so childish compared to me. I enjoy talking to older souls too as we can actually talk about real issues and topics. Im 13 years old. Also I’ve joined your Facebook group. It’s fantastic that I’ve found so many others like me :D
It is fantastic :), especially in the teenage years, it’s so important to find others who you feel you can connect with. I’m really glad that you joined the group!
how fun are the old souls who are actually 56+ yrs old in this incarnation. woo doggy ;)
:D
one-hundred percent moldly and oldy. … :)
:D haha
Great site – thanks so much Alethia!
I’m 32 and scored 84% Mature and 88% Old which doesn’t surprise me. I’ve always felt like I am mature beyond my age and tend to see/experience more deeply than those around me. I see connections and patterns where others see chaos. I get life differetly – it’s not that I think I’m better, I just know I’m different.
I’ve started active self-analysis and introspection in my early-twenties. it started as an effort to learn why I do what I do and change the patterns I inherited from a dysfunctional family to more productive skills but I continue it because I genuinely enjoy learning about myself. I recently realized that I experience spatial-sequential synesthesia which helped fill in a lot of the missing pieces – it helped explain my ability to remember everything about situations and experiences (literally everything, I have a photographic memory) and why I think the way I do.
Lately, I’ve been having a lot of difficulty and frustration expressing my thoughts, feelings, observations and the patterns and cycles I see in relationships that I want to change to more positive patterns. I feel like I’m explaining these thoughts as clearly as possible but what I’m saying gets misinterpreted or the listener just has no interest in what I’m saying at all. This article helped me see that a very possible explanation for this is because the majority of my close family members (parents, grandparents etc) are likely infant and/or baby souls.
I always felt so confused because they presented everything as rigid, flat and linear, black or white with no overlap or room for change, “it is because I (they) say so and that’s the way it is”, people who do bad are bad – everything has it’s own box that’s separate from the rest – and they still function this way. I felt/feel so out of place with them – almost alien – because my experience is fluid with spectrum and dimension. To me, there’s overlap, everything is connected and constantly changing, it’s necessary to be flexible to survive. As I’ve experienced more in life and the world in general has changed in the time I’ve been here, my understanding of the world has expanded and changed but that group of family members, specifically the way the see and interact with other people, has stayed exactly the same. They still treat me as they did when I was growing up even though I’m now an adult with my own family. It’s been difficult to make sense of who they are and understand where they’re at because I didn’t know prior to reading this webpage that some people can’t experience the world as I do. As I write this, I’m realizing what I’m really struggling with is that I can’t share what I know & experience with those who aren’t there yet. Also, I think I need to connect with other people that can relate to where I am but don’t know where to find them.
I don’t know if any of what I wrote here makes sense to anyone else, but it makes sense to me and gave me some clarity.
Sugaree, what you wrote made a great deal of sense to me. I can relate to a lot of what you have written, especially in regards to family and the whole linear black and white, good and evil, compartmentalized way of viewing the world. I really like your way of describing the fluid way in which you perceive existence, I feel this too and this was primarily why I was so estranged from my family, so distant from them as on a conscious level we were not on the same wavelength. That is not to say that I am better, just different.
After a while I have realized that it is impossible to change people or to force them to see my perspectives. The change must come from within them and they must first be ready and receptive. Otherwise, it is wasted effort. But I live with the hope that my own family will gradually awaken, if not in this lifetime, then the next.
Thank you for such an interesting comment!
It’s so nice to hear what I posted makes sense to someone else Aletheia!
After posting my comment, I checked out the more of you site and the bios of you and your partner. There was so much that both of you wrote about yourselves and in other articles that resonated with me and helped me sort out the frustration and confusion that’s been bothering me lately.
I got so much clarity and resolution from realizing what you just said about not being able to change the perspective of others. I’ve known instinctively that I can’t make someone change and for the past 8 or so years I’ve focused on being an example of change for my family members rather than trying to make them change with the hope they would change for the better but not expecting them to. It just never occurred to me until reading the info here that they may not be able to see the world the way I do. It also never occurred to me that they may need to see the world the way they do in order to learn whatever lesson they’re supposed to get from this life.
I’ve also realized that a big part of my frustration and confusion was rooted in that I was forced to experience the world as a baby/infant – compartmentalized, black and white, flat, etc – but my natural way of experiencing the world is how I explained above.
Until coming across the info on your site, I didn’t have the framework I needed to make sense of all the puzzle pieces I had collected but couldn’t fit together. I honestly didn’t even know if it was anything other than random nonsense in my mind. Like when one of my kids comes to me with an idea or thought that to them is brand new but I say “oh, yeah that’s called (whatever it is)” and I explain further or show them a picture, diagram etc. Then the lightbulb goes on and they see this thing/idea that was kind of foreign and unknown in a completely different way that makes sense now.
I couldn’t reconcile how/why the rest of my family and most people around me experience the world so linear and one dimensional when my experience is the exact opposite. It also didn’t make sense to me why others couldn’t understand my way of experiencing the world – I thought it was a lack of acceptance. I’ve been able to understand and reconcile a lot of the differences between myself and others as psychological, philosophical and/or personality differences (areas I studied for fun while getting my BS in Biology/Environmental Science). But the deeper, core differences that seemed to be the driving force behind those more surface differences didn’t fit as psychological, philosophical or personality so I couldn’t make sense of them until I came across the construct of soul age. There’s so much more too but that’s the most profound – I’d be here all day typing trying to explain all of it ;)
It sounds as though you’re in a kind of “awakening” stage, where everything that you previously thought and felt is starting to make sense and the puzzle pieces are starting to fit together. In a sense, a lot of the content on this site is an expression of the discoveries I (and Sol) personally made during this process. I remember at one point in my life I felt completely lost, confused and frustrated, nothing at all made sense to me. But slowly, through time, it becomes better. I hope our work can continue to fill in the gaps. :)