If a sociopath is without conscience, do they have a soul?

Anybody who has been in a relationship with a sociopath, who has been used up and then spat out like last weeks garbage knows, that a sociopath doesn’t have a conscience. Robert Hare even wrote a book ‘without conscience’.

One of my other interests in life is spirituality. So, for me, this raises a lot of questions.

If I quickly share my own personal beliefs with regard to spirituality – they are (briefly)

• That the soul is eternal
• That the body is a vehicle in which to carry the soul – and it continues after death of this body
• That our lives are mapped out before we are born, for greatest spiritual growth
• Some people are teachers and therefore have harder lives to  help others
• That it is our conscience which stops us from hurting others.
• That our conscience, is our ‘higher self’ or our spirit guides warning us
• That love is the  most important thing in life – we  are ‘love’ anything else is fear

I think a lot more than that, and probably more deeply on the subject than I should, but I realise that not everybody is spiritual who will read this (or holds those beliefs), so I have kept it brief.

The one thing that most people who come to this blog do have, is a knowledge, understanding, and the sense of pain that you go through when you have been involved with a sociopath, and the devastation that it does to your life. It is almost against everything that we were taught to be ‘right’ growing up. Against everything that our life experience has taught us.

We are taught to:

• Be thoughtful
• To help others
• To treat others as we would like to be treated
• To have respect for others
• To have respect for ourself
• Don’t stand on others to get to where we want to be
• Do not hurt others
• Do not lie, cheat or steal
• That if we do bad to others, then there will be karma (what goes around comes back around)

These are basic things that any good parent teaches a child. I respect that some people would not have learned these lessons in childhood, but even if they haven’t, life usually teaches this too. By messages we see on tv, by watching others pain etc. Whilst in early adulthood it might take a while to learn, but by later life, most adults know these simple rules.

We learn from past mistakes and from others mistakes

We therefore expect everybody to be this way. Because a sociopath seems so very normal when we meet them, (because we also know that there are people with mental health who do not always follow these rules). We therefore expect them to follow the rules of society. We are fooled into thinking that the sociopath (because he mirrors us) is:

• Just like us
• Has similar beliefs and values
• Is moralistic and a good person

By mirroring us, they are showing us that they are good people and that they share common values of a decent human being.

Whilst I am spiritual, I am not particularly religious, I leave that to the religious folk. For me, religion is simply a road map to spirituality. But if you look at the 7 deadly sins they are:

Pride is excessive belief in one’s own abilities, that interferes with the individual’s recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.

Envy is the desire for others’ traits, status, abilities, or situation.

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

How many of those deadly sins did your sociopath portray? I have witnessed all seven! And so, this is my question, and my thought. If a sociopath does not have conscience, do they have a soul?

If they do not have a soul, and are not guided by their higher self, like everyone else, who are they guided by? We all get that pull in our stomach with anxiety if we have done something wrong. We all get that part of us that holds us back, or if we don’t then we know the consequences. If our life here on earth, is about spiritual growth. what is it for the sociopath? As they cannot grow, or learn, if they repeat the same things over?

If that is the case, if we are ruled by our highest self, then who is the sociopath ruled by?

Words © datingasociopath.com