Many years ago at a Monastery at Pecos New Mexico I had a dream. I was descending down a damp dungeon like stairway that emptied out into a huge cavern. At the far end of the cavern were three cells with barred doors that appeared like they had been locked and shut for many years. I approached them with a fair amount of apprehension wondering what I would find inside these cells.

What do you think I found? Well much to my surprise what I saw in each of the cells were mounds of riches, diamonds, gold, silver and all manner of valuable jewels. The question is; where did this dream information come from -- my ego or my soul?

I feel the dream was my soul's way of telling me that I had been secretly hiding from myself and others, vast amounts of riches in the form of wisdom, knowledge, gifts and abilities that I hadn't allowed myself to become conscious of.

Today other levels of consciousness are referred to as 'bilateral thinking' and are being explored by scientists, psychologists and academics. Studies now show that geniuses are not usually born that way. In fact many like Albert Einstein had trouble at school. What they did have in common was their ability to develop bilateral thinking processes that allowed them to go beyond rational thought to other internal sources of information.

For example, Einstein was said to shut down his ego brain and do a process he called 'word image streaming', which brought forth the unique information that made him famous. Thomas Edison usually took a nap in the afternoon and then programmed his dreams in such a way as to provide answers for the inventions he was working on.

Spiritual teachers, mystics and gurus have referred to this other information source as the 'soul'. "The soul is the spiritual and immortal part in man...the animating or essential part." - Webster's Dictionary. The word 'psyche' in Greek means 'soul'. Therefore, psychology originally meant the study of the 'soul'. However, today much of psychology's focus is more on the ego than in the area of the soul.

The two alternative centers of information I focus on are...

• The mind involving the ego
• The heart involving the soul

Have you ever wondered where you go when someone tells you to "Get out of your head"? The truth is we do have other places to go, such as our heart. Who of us has not experienced the pangs of the heart, or been misled by its fickleness?  Much of the information it holds can be related to some of our deeper emotions and feelings.

The intelligence of the heart now has scientific support. Heart Math Inc. has reported studies showing 65% of the heart's cells are actually neurological cells similar to those found in the brain. Also, the brain gives out messages that the heart turns off, as if to say the heart at some levels is wiser than the brain.

Many heart recipients report altered ways of thinking. One of the most amazing examples was reported by Doctor Paul Pearsall, in his book 'The Heart's Code.' A young eight year old girl who received her heart from a young lady who was murdered. Once she recovered from her operation she became so agitated and convinced of who the murderer was that her mother and doctor called the police. The eight year old girl was then able to lead the police to the murderer of her young heart donor.

Notice in the following quote how two thousand years ago the Bible indicates that they already knew about these alternative sources of information. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind." (Mat: 22-37) Heart - Soul - Mind. We could also say the Heart, Soul and Ego.

By now you may be wondering how to get in touch with the deeper and often more intelligent sources of information that comes through the soul. There are many ways to approach this, dreams and meditation being just a couple. Recently there has been an increased focus in the area of bilateral thinking in connection with the soul. Many scientist and psychologists are forging ahead in this area. Examples are; Dr. Scott Peck's book 'Denial of the Soul,' Thomas Moore's 'Care of the Soul' and Gary Zukov's 'Heart of the Soul,' just to mention a few.

In my experience, the benefits of accessing the soul are unlimited. Going to your soul allows you to access your deepest wisdom, intelligence, intuition, creativity, inspiration, happiness and joy that is without limits and is available to everyone.

Dr. Phil Winkelmans has for the past several years been working with psycho-spiritual bilateral thinking technologies. He has written the internationally acclaimed book 'The Art of Purposeful Being: Your Destiny Project,' and has recently developed a Tools For The Soul™ Kit. His 'Unlocking Your Soul's Secrets' Seminar is a self-solution process bridging the gap between the ego and soul. It accesses intuitive information centers to get unparalleled results from beyond the intellect and offers a fascinating mix of psycho-spiritual and scientific counseling self-healing techniques. For more information please visit The Self  Directional Institute.

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