by Joan Inong

Created on: April 16, 2009

Aristotle claimed that a love so deep and true, whether friendly or romantic love, was like having "one soul inhabiting two bodies." It is admittedly a different way of defining love, but its meaning seems to delve deeper than when one says "soul mates" or "twin souls." Why is this so?

Soul mates implies that two people each have one soul that is seeking the other. This is what we mean when we say, "I am seeking my soul mate." The metaphor of a puzzle seems to fit this situation. People are looking for other people whom they can connect with. There is no inherent problem to this concept, but what it really suggests is that those two people are experiencing a love which can be replicated in many different ways. In other words, one type of soul might like another type of soul, and that soul may like another soul, and so on. The subtle problem lies in the fact that these soul mates are definitively separated.

Twin souls is similar to the idea of soul mates. Twin souls means that the souls must be exact replicas of one another. There is really no problem in that definition. The subtle problem, however, is that twin souls implies that the souls can live without one another. Twin souls means nothing, because it only suggests that two people have similar souls. Does this have anything to do with them being together? Not really. It only means that the two have similar souls that may have similar tastes.

Now when Aristotle spoke about a singular soul, he touched upon the idea that love is an experience, concept, and feeling that is shared by two people at once. In other words, his phrase is more correct than saying "soul mates" or "twin souls" because he is actually tying the two people together. They must be together because they are one soul seeking completion. Some may contend that this is very similar to the concept of "soul mates," but it is not. A singular soul exists in and of itself. It completes itself only if it finds itself. It cannot do so if it first has to find others. On the other hand, "soul mates" can happen between all types of people, whether they are friends or lovers. This singular soul, however, is very specific. It points to a relationship that is special and above and beyond all others, for it is more difficult to find one soul's other half than to find one soul's other mate.

So, soul mates and twin souls and a singular soul existing in two bodies all describe forms of love that are idealized. But, the singular soul that exists in two bodies appears to be more special because it truly connects two people in such a way that is impossible to break.

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