If it's possible to "sell your soul" then it must also be possible to "not have a soul." You don't have one because you've sold it. That's an interesting question to ponder Bro. Tyab14 because you know we hear about Black folks that have so-called "sold their soul" to the "Devil" all the time. They said that about Robert Johnson and even DMX.
And it's true that depends on how you define soul. I was watching some old 60's movie where White folks were dancing on the beach. With the volume down it looked like they were violently trying to attack each other but stopping in mid-stream. Which basically means there was no rhythm or melody whatsoever as far as how the dances where being conducted. You turn on "soul" train and turn down the volume, heck- you can practically tell what song is playing by how we move to it. For most Black folks that's soul. Not just rhythm, but the ability to synchronize ones self with the flow of life and music.
When I lived in harlem as child an old Woman used to come around in the summer time selling crabs in a brown paper bag. I remember sitting outside in the hot sun all day waiting for that Woman to show up. I'm not sure if it was her seasoning, the paper bag, the type or crabs she used, the summer heat, or perhaps it was everything in concert. But everyone called her the Soul Woman.
Some musicians believe it's the spaces between the notes that make the music. Soul for me has allot to do with space. Sometimes not just doing but "not doing" also makes a big difference- but it's about knowing when to do what- that's Soul.
If you are enter too logical or too intuitive you've lost the ability to know when to do what. Then you start looking like those White folks dancing on the beach, arms and hands flying every which a way. You're not intune with what's really happening...like cats with their whiskers cut off.
I'm not certain if "soul" itself is irretrievable for those who have lost it, sold it or compromised it- but it's clear we don't all have a soul- but again that is based on definition.
For some people "Soul" means you are as conscious of your spirit reality as you are of your physical reality. That soul is also your primordial self- connected to the source. Now that's a very hard standard to live by. It might also mean that there is some type of "soul learning" our people did in order to stay focused on that side of reality. Not keeping up with that soul learning, not returning to it- generations and generations later may also result in a - lost soul.
Excellent points brother Meta. And I was not joking about the "cant dance" remark. Or was I? lol!
Ever been with a Sister who couldnt "slow dance"? Only to then hit the floor with one who got you off? Big difference. Like you stated its not just rhythm but hw we move with it. The "flow". This isnt to say that someone who cant dance doesnt have any soul but without the "hustle and flow" well perhaps one is closer to being spiritually dead than they realize.
"What Profit a man or woman if they gain the world but lose their Soul?"
I think that a similar situation applies to folks who cant sing. Singing is basically the gift of Divine Utterance. This is one thing that the Black church most definitely has retained from African traditions. The hymn, chant, liturgy all forms of Divine Utterance. Of course this also involves rhythm and "flow" and what some jazz Fam of mine refer to as Harmolodics.
Why are some folks able to sing or play an insturment (the voice being the most Divine instrument of all) without a "fakebook" or book of hymns and others can improvise enough or pick up a tune almost instinctively? And this last point is the basis of my opinion on this.
Fakebooks. When I first started working as a musician the earliest band I was in during the late 70s had some serious personnel issues and it began with our drummer. He had gotten so addicted to smoking "sherm" and "angel dust" (ironic I know) that he started having problems during rehearsals hearing and at the time our music was kinda a cross between Miles Davis post B-Brew and The Clash meets Sun Ra. lol!
Ao lets forget about the Clash but consider what kind of folks during the 70s were into Miles Davis and Sun Ra. Both of their bands were heavy into electronics and at the time were considered "avante garde". Sun Ra's band was "all black" while Mile's was "multiethnic". Whose band actually created the most prolific jazz composers of this era? No doubt Miles. Shorter, Zawinul, Corea, Jarrett, and earlier Coltrane, Herbie H., Jack DeJohnette, Tony Williams. This is not to say that Sun Ra's band did not have soul. Quite the opposite. Ra was deep on so many levels and his group operated more as a Family and the Arkestr continued after Ra's passing.
So I personally use Miles and Sun Ra as a litmus test. The third part of this is Thelonious Monk who I styled my own piano playing after (along with Duke and Jelly Roll Morton.lol!)
Monk used to trip folks out because he also would dance to his compositions while playing and when other musicians in his bands were playing solos. Ornette Coleman once impressed me with a release entitled "Dancing In Your Head".
The thing is this. These Black, jazz musicians I mentioned had/have a mostly white following. I can be in the company of some "black" folks, throw on some Sun Ra and they will leave the room.
We know that Ra, as was Coltrane, communicated on a much higher frequency. These brothers were on a deep and haighly advanced spiritual level. Ra referred to himself as Brother from another Planet and his film spoke concerning black folks losing their souls (Space is the Place) and even spoke of the Mothership taking us away from this place to recapture our souls which were stolen by the slavemasters on this Earth.
If there are no physical bonds of slavery that still exist but there is mental bondage then one cannot be considered a free man or woman thus one has lost their soul. If one is trapped in physicality then they are not even close to reaching the actuality of the Etheric body, which manifests at the highest spiritual level. This is the meaning of the old cliche "Out of touch, out of mind".
Who can deny that the "crazy man" on the street sitting on a boxcart outside the local 7/11 talking to himself asking for loose change has on some level "lost his freaking mind"?
Some folks sem to think that we got "soul" just because of our complexion and white folks aint got soul because of their complexion. I dropped that kind of thinking exactly 30 years ago because my experience as a musician taught me otherwise. My recent experience in Atlanta only confirmed what I learned long ago. As I was on the brink of losing my own mind listening to other people telling me how I dont make "any sense at all" I had to look at that more carefully and consider the source.
The conclusion I came to is that some of the most "souless" Black people are those who outwardly seem the most spiritual. But they can be inwardly the most vain. The most shallow. And the coldest creatures walking on the face of this earth. And many have gotten involved with the church because they are missing somewhere down the line, often within their own Families. Some folks are branches broken off from their family tree only to fall on stony ground.
Thats why some can be considered "shapeshifters" just like a chamelion. They may appear to be black on the outside but are just cold hearted snakes who have no heart. And there is nothing worse than a snake who cant dance since that is a snake's form of mating ritual.