“Soul mates” or “split soul theory” is a belief originating back in Egyptian Greek religious mythology, creation myth based, the origin of the human model, positing that humans were created in pairs, bound in one day, with one original soul but were split in two.
Etymologically, the term ‘soul mate’ first appeared in the English language in a letter by poet Samuel Coleridge in 1822, who wrote in his poetry “, To be happy in Married Life…. you must have a Soul-mate.”
According to Coleridge, a successful, happy marriage requires a spiritual connection rather than merely social or economic compatibility.
Greek philosophers had coined the soul mate theory before Coleridge. In his work, ‘Symposium,’ Plato wrote about the reasons behind the human yearning for a soul mate, illustrating that humans were united with their other half, but Zeus split them apart out of fear and jealousy.
Plato quoted the idea of soul mates reuniting in the following way from the Aristophanes in the following words:
“And when one of them meets with his other half of himself…………the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other sight, as I may say, even for a moment.”
According to Aristophanes, everyone is a half-self until they meet their soul mate.
“Love is an inherent part of every human being; it brings people together and tries to heal the wounds of humanity.
Then, each of us is a matching half’ of a human whole….and we are always seeking the half that matches him.”
A study conducted in 2021; found out ‘The One theory’ has taken root across many cultures worldwide; in addition, during the last 50 years, the idea has only increased in popularity.
Our understanding of love and relationship might have evolved since 385 BCE when Plato wrote Symposium. Yet, the idea of having another half still endures for many and has lasted across numerous cultures throughout history.
Hindu traditions have a belief in the statement that people have karmic connections with particular souls.
In the Yiddish religion, they believe everyone has his ‘bashert’, a term for an ideal or predestined marriage partner.
According to Brad Wilcox, a professor of sociology and the director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the US, in the appeal of soul mates, he supposes that People are actually much more likely to search for relationships that cause them to be satisfied and fulfilled.
He argues: “Soulmate myth is also facilitated by unprecedented prosperity in the West, which made people less dependent on marriage for economic survival.
In our daily lives, marriage and love are intertwined. Yet, with the ‘soul mate myth’ engaging in people’s lives, several young men in modern times are found to take more extended periods of bachelorhood and spinsterhood merely because they are waiting for their other half to appear.
A recent survey finds that society is better off if people marry and have children as a priority. However, a study on marriage conducted in the US in 2012 found that 50% of respondents disclosed that society is just well off if people have priorities other than marriage and children.
This implies the young generation would remain unmarried for the rest of their lives rather than engage in relationships they deem wrong or not top of their priority.
A professor of religion at Skidmore College, the USA named Bradley Onishi, while describing the soulmate, said there is something innate as to why people believe in mythology.
“The soul mate myth promises that the isolation and loneliness that are often part of the human experience are only temporally.”
Onishi believes the soulmate myth is a defensive mechanism to restore the past wounds people incur in their first relationships.
“The soulmate myth is good at taking all the bad first dates, the break-ups, the dashed hopes and disappointments and putting them in a hopefulness that someday all of this will fall into place,” he said.