The soul of Barack Obama – eight profiles compared

The 2008 U.S. Presidential election prompted a number of spiritual channels to get the soul and personality profiles of Barack Obama. This provides an interesting opportunity to see how different people can receive or intuit similar (though not always identical) information about the same soul.

Eight profiles

Who is Barack Obama really?

What better way to find out than to have his “overleaves” channelled. That is, to have his soul and personality profile described using the framework of the Michael teachings.

To quickly summarise what this means: Any individual can be described in terms of both their outer personality and their inner soul. The personality overlays the soul like garments covering the body. The personality consists of a goal, a mode, an attitude and a character flaw or ‘chief feature’. These can change from one life to the next. The soul can be described in terms of its soul type (essence or true nature), which does not change, and ‘soul age’ or reincarnational level, which gradually evolves over many lifetimes.

To the best of my knowledge (and Google’s) I have gathered here all online versions of Barack Obama’s overleaves. Eight profiles given by eight (or maybe nine) different channels:

• José Stevens (www.josestevens.com)
• Karen Murphey (www.polarisrising.com)
• Shepherd Hoodwin (www.summerjoy.com)
• Holly Coleman (holly-howdoesyourgardengrow.blogspot.com)
• Terri Claire Benning (www.michaelmosaics.com)
• Troy Tolley (aka “CocteauBoy”) (truthloveenergy.ning.com)
• Emily Baumbach (causalworks.com)
• J.P. van Hulle and Michael North (www.michaeleducationalfoundation.com)

The following table summarises the profiles of Barack Obama provided by these channels (click the table for larger image in new tab/window):

 

Seven of the profiles are given as direct readings, while one of them (Emily Baumbach’s) appears to be more of an intuitive impression. This is a bit of a false dichotomy, though, as all channels must have their own intuitive impressions as well as whatever impressions they receive from higher intelligence, whether that is Michael or some other source.

Only four of the profiles are complete. Two of them omit centering and another two do not give overleaves, just the soul age and type.

Now let’s see what this can tell us about Barack Obama—and about getting overleaves from a Michael channel.

Barack Obama – Mature Priest

On one point all channels are in absolute agreement: Barack Obama is a Mature Priest.

That is, the soul of Barack Obama is the inspired and inspiring Priest type, out to serve the highest good (however he sees it). He certainly has the classic almond-shaped head and striking eyes of a Priest.

And this Priest is currently progressing through the fourth stage or “Mature cycle” of its evolution through reincarnation. The focus of the Mature cycle is self-knowledge, sincere endeavours, and meaningful relationships.

As with all of the stages of soul evolution, there are seven steps (“levels”) within the Mature soul cycle. It is not clear whether the soul of Barack Obama is in the middle or late phase of the Mature cycle, as the actual level given by the various channels is inconsistent—either 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th.

What is consistent, however, is that he is a Mature Priest. Other famous Mature Priests in history include Dante, St. Francis of Assisi, Princess Diana, Tony Blair, the composer Richard Wagner, the actor Peter O’Toole and the writer Anne Rice.

According to Holly Coleman, the soul of Barack Obama was also incarnate as the Roman Emperor Constantine I (also known as Constantine the Great, 272–337), the first Roman Emperor to embrace Christianity. In that life he would have been a Young Priest.

In a more recent life, according to Holly, he was Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), one of the most prominent figures in African-American history. I have no way of verifying if this was the case, but it’s fascinating to compare their faces.

Personality Traits (Overleaves)

Now for the overleaves of Barack Obama. By way of reminder, overleaves are personality traits or character attributes chosen by the soul for a specific lifetime. There are three main overleaves chosen prior to incarnation: the goal (underlying motivation in life), the mode (preferred way of acting or doing life) and the attitude (preferred way of viewing life). Another overleaf formed in the first few years of life is the centering (preferred way of processing experiences). A final overleaf is adopted at the coming-of-age transition in late adolescence / early adulthood. This is traditionally known as the chief feature, though a more descriptive term would be character flaw.

—— GOAL ——

The goal is the personality’s motivating force, the direction it seeks to go in life. The seven possible goals are: Dominance, Growth, Acceptance, Relaxation, Submission, Rejection and Retardation.

Of the six profiles which give the goal, five agree that Barack Obama’s life goal is Growth. In other words, he is driven to seek opportunities to grow and evolve in consciousness through challenging and contrasting life experiences. The positive potential of the goal of Growth is COMPREHENSION, which means gaining insight and awareness through such experiences. The negative potential of Growth is CONFUSION, which speaks for itself. The personality just ends up feeling overwhelmed by life.

One of the profiles gives a different goal: Dominance. This is the goal that seeks power and control in life. The positive form of Dominance is LEADERSHIP while the negative form is DICTATORSHIP.

Given the rich, varied and often difficult nature of Obama’s life experience, my instinct is to go with Growth on this one. I may be wrong, but to me, Obama’s leadership qualities seem to be coming from his Priest essence rather than a desire for power per se.

—— MODE ——

The mode is the personality’s characteristic way of moving into action towards the life goal—in other words, a modus operandi or behavioural style. The seven possible modes are: Aggression, Passion, Power, Observation, Perseverance, Caution and Repression.

Of the six profiles which give Barack Obama’s mode, four give it as Observation. The mode of Observation is a tendency to stand aside and watch before moving into action. This is a neutral stance which offers flexibility.

The positive potential of Observation mode is CLARITY, becoming clear on what to do in any given situation. The negative potential is SURVEILLANCE, getting stuck in observing without actually moving into action.

According to one profile, when Obama does move into action from the Observation mode he tends to “slide” into a mode of Power (acting with breezy confidence). Another one has him sliding from Observation into either Power or its opposite, Caution (planning the action carefully).

One profile has his mode as Caution and another as Repression.

My personal sense of Obama in terms of mode is that there is nothing overt about it, no outward thrust or pressure. I would therefore rule out all the “cardinal” modes (Passion, Aggression, Power). This leaves the neutral mode of Observation and the “ordinal” modes of Caution, Repression and Perseverance. In this instance, I feel I do not have enough to go on to be more specific except to say that, for me, there is a “removed” or “detached” look about him which would be consistent with Observation.

—— ATTITUDE ——

The attitude is the personality’s overarching perspective on life, a philosophical way of viewing things relative to the life goal. The seven possible attitudes are: Realistic, Spiritual, Idealistic, Pragmatic, Cynical, Skeptical and Stoical.

Of the six profiles which give Barack Obama’s attitude, three give the attitude as Idealistic and two give it as Pragmatic. One of those which identifies Pragmatic as the attitude also gives it as sliding into Idealistic.

The positive potential of the Idealistic attitude is COALESCENCE (seeing the positive potential that may arise from different situations) while the negative potential is ABSTRACTION or NAÏVETY (getting stuck in seeing only the positive possibilities, not appreciating the concrete reality). The optimism of Obama’s message—part of his mass appeal—certainly smacks of Idealism. But then, all Priests serve a higher ideal anyway, and all campaigning politicians tend to sound optimistic for the duration of the campaign.

The positive potential of the Pragmatic attitude is PRACTICALITY (seeing each situation on its own terms) while the negative potential is DOGMATISM (getting stuck in seeing different situations in certain ways). As a neutral overleaf this attitude again offers flexibility: a pragmatist can slide into another perspective to look at a situation in whatever way seems best at the time.

My sense of Obama from reading his autobiography is that he is much more focused on Pragmatism than Idealism, but I have no definitive sense of what his attitude really is.

—— CENTERING ——

Centering refers to the personality’s way of processing experiences on a moment-by-moment basis.

There are two aspects to it: the centre in which life is experienced and the “part” (aspect or component) of that centre through which reactions are expressed. There are seven possible centres, but the three centres people tend to use in ordinary life are the Emotional, Intellectual and Moving (or Physical) centres, each with their Emotional, Intellectual and Moving parts for expression.

Two profiles give Obama’s centering as Intellectual (more specifically, the Moving part of the Intellectual centre), while two give it as Emotional. Looking at Obama’s eyes, I am inclined to go along with Intellectual.

—— CHIEF FEATURE ——

The chief feature or character flaw is an entrenched defensive pattern, and the personality’s main stumbling block in life. It is normally adopted at the coming-of-age transition phase to protect the emerging adult personality from whatever it fears the most. The seven possible chief features are Impatience, Arrogance, Greed, Stubbornness, Martyrdom, Self-Destruction and Self-Deprecation.

Four of the profiles agree that Obama’s chief feature or character flaw is Arrogance. This is a defensive pattern which involves wearing a mask of “perfection” or “superiority” to deflect attention away from one’s weaknesses and failings. The positive potential of Arrogance is PRIDE, whereby the person recognises their own better qualities for what they are (rather than as signs of specialness or superiority). The negative potential is VANITY, whereby the person actually believes their own persona.

If Obama has Arrogance as his chief feature, it would seem to me to be working at a subtle level. Perhaps he has it in check, so that it mostly manifests positively (as pride). However, according to this blog post on the Psychology Today website:

Barrack Obama is a supremely confident person. He thought he could defeat Hilary Clinton for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. As President he proposed one bold sweeping plan after another, especially a makeover of national healthcare, energy policy, and our financial system. He planned to do all this, moreover, while expanding the war in Afghanistan and pulling the economy back from the brink of economic depression…

Barrack Obama is self-confident because he has little fear of failure, criticism, or rejection. He doesn’t expect it, and when it comes his way, he is very confident he can deal with it successfully. His attitude is, “Yes, I can” as in, “Yes, I can change the world.” …

Under stress confident people have a tendency to become overconfident. They overestimate how much they can do and how quickly they can do it. They set themselves up for failure by trying to do too much, too soon.

Our Overconfident President Obama

Two of the profiles give his chief feature as Stubbornness. This is a dogged resistance to change and novelty out of a fear of new situations. I think someone advocating change and apparently committed to change would probably not have Stubbornness, unless of course he was stubborn about pushing forth his own agenda.

One of the profiles citing Arrogance adds that he has a secondary flaw of Impatience. The secondary flaw works against the person’s attitude while the primary flaw works against the goal. In this case, Obama’s Arrogance would be having a detrimental effect on his goal of Growth (leading to Confusion) while his Impatience would be having a detrimental effect on his attitude of Pragmatism (leading to Dogmatism).

Similarities and Differences

So there we have eight views of Barack Obama’s soul and personality.

Although there are gaps and discrepancies, there is an impressive amount of overlap and consistency—far more than would be expected statistically if these were just random shots or even educated guesses. The chances of seven people all agreeing on both soul type and soul age cycle are, by my estimation, 1 in 481 million! Statistically, there is definitely something here.

Wearing my scientist’s hat for a moment, consistency between channels does not actually “prove” that their information comes from a higher source—there is still the possibility that the channels are merely thinking about the same person and drawing similar conclusions. But even if that were the case, the fact that there is some consistency means at the very least that the overleaves system “works” as a way of describing individuals.

The fact that there is less than total consistency is disappointing, however. After all, these profiles are all supposedly from the same source, or at least reflecting the same truth. It just goes to show how channeled material should never be taken as infallible truth. Individual channels are imperfect human beings doing their best to “download” information from a non-physical source. We have no reason to expect there to be no noise in the channel. Any good channel will caution us to that effect about their own channeling.

[ ADDITIONAL: Jose Stevens has emailed me the following comment:

Public figures are notoriously hard to channel because there are so many projections, hopes, and fears to discard in order to get to the core info. One has to have a fairly deep trance state to do this.

An excellent point. ]

It is interesting that some features are easier to get consistently than others. All agree on soul type and soul age cycle. The overleaves, however, prove more tricky. Here, consistency drops from 100% to about 80%. I wonder if this is true of overleaf readings in general: the soul type and age are likely to be accurate while the overleaves are more “iffy”.

What we cannot tell from this survey is if any of the channels were more right than others. Are all channels equally unreliable? Well, I have encountered at least one “channel” who was so consistently way off it was embarrassing. There are others in whom I do have a lot of trust.

Further Information

You can see José Stevens discussing Barack Obama’s overleaves on this YouTube video:

Further reading on the Michael teachings –

• The Michael Teachings

Messages From Michael

Messages From Michael by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is the book that introduced the Michael entity to the world. This is the 25th anniversary edition, and includes even more of the unique voice and dry wit of Michael.

See Messages From Michael at Amazon.com

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The Michael Handbook

The Michael Handbook by Jose Stevens and Simon Warwick-Smith gives an excellent overview of the Michael teachings and is a really useful reference to have to hand.

See The Michael Handbook at Amazon.com

PersonalitySpirituality.net