Soul mates. Usually, when we think of two people as being “soul mates”, it is in a romantic context in which a couple comes together to “complete” each other. This concept has been deeply imbedded in our collective psyche and supported by ancient and modern fairytales and legends. But what is the reality of soul mates? What, or rather, who are they? And more importantly, how on earth will we ever find them?

In attempt to tackle this incredibly complex topic, I am first going to start by attempting to define, or rather redefine soul mates. Because I am operating from the viewpoint of being somewhat of a past life specialist, I am going to give my particular definition of a soul mate as a person that you encounter in this life that you have known before in a past life.

Sometimes this soul mate relationship is characterized by a feeling of familiarity or an instant connection upon meeting that is unexplainable. It could be a person that you have known your entire life. But, it could also be the person that you walked by on the street that caused you to feel a strange sensation as you passed them, as if they were eerily familiar. Anyone that we knew before, in a past life, in any way is a soul mate under my definition.

Many of us also believe that by finding your soul mate, you will be blissfully partnered with your “other half” in an intensely passionate relationship

If you can, think about all of the people that you have met in the years that you have been on earth so far in this incarnation. If you are at all like me, that is more than likely a rather long sexy Sri Lankan mujeres list of individuals. I have moved around quite a bit in my life and currently reside in a large metropolitan area, but even those of us who have spent their whole lives in a rural and less populated place have encountered many other human beings in various capacities. Now imagine that you have lived many, many other lifetimes in which you have met various family members, friends, co-workers, enemies, frenemies, etc. That is quite a large number of potential soul mates.

And yes, you read that correctly, I included enemies on that list (frenemies might well be a 21st century term, but a timeless phenomenon so I'm keeping it on my list). What that means, under my proposed definition of the term, is that we have lots and lots of soul mates of all different types.

There seem to be several categories that our various soul mates seem to fall into that can help us to further define who they are and what their presence might mean in our lives. Because I am attempting broad strokes in a topic fraught with subtlety, I will be break them down into three different types: karmic soul mates, soul family mates and twin souls.

The person who you love with tremendous intensity, the person that you just can't stand, and everyone else (who more than likely falls somewhere in between) can be and is a soul mate

Karmic soul mates are more than likely the majority of the soul mates that we will encounter in our lifetime. These are the individuals that we have a “karmic debt” to somehow, by the choices that we have made in the past pertaining to them. (Please refer to my previous article on this specific topic for additional clarification.) Or, perhaps they have a karmic debt or lesson connected to us. It is also possible to have a debt equally to each other that has accumulated over many lifetimes in our dealings with each other, in fact that is the scenario that is most likely in a situation of this type.