Soul age is the soul's stage of development relative to the physical plane.

As we continue through our thread of lifetimes, gathering experiences, learning lessons, and fulfilling agreements, an evolutionary process transpires and this course of development is called Soul Age.

There are five soul ages that we progress through during our reincarnational cycle on the physical plane. Infant souls deal with issues of survival; Baby souls have a need for structure and tend to live according to beliefs based on dogma, such as religion; Young souls are success oriented and set high standards of personal achievement; Mature souls are relationship fixated and tend to gravitate towards emotional drama, and Old souls try to seek the larger perspective of life, and have less interest in playing the material game.

Infant souls do not yet have a basis for making sense of what is “out there”—they only know that it is “not me.”

Baby souls, focused as they are on bringing people together under the umbrella of civilization, see others, sometimes simplistically, as being “just like me.” They can become confused and upset when those “other me’s” act differently than expected.

Young souls, learning to impact the world, see others as “you”s they can impact.

Mature souls, delving into their inner world and exploring relatedness, can keenly feel other people’s “stuff,” and perceive it in the same way they perceive their own. This can make for much intensity and, often, subjectivity.

Old souls tend to be more detached, and try to see themselves and others within a larger context.

It is not better to be an old soul than to be mature or young, just as it isn’t better to be forty-five years old than it is to be thirty-two or fourteen. A young person may be wise, and an old person foolish. A baby soul may be loving, and an old soul spiteful. People of every soul age are capable of manifesting their true personality—that is, of acting out of their positive poles, which are motivated by love.

Soul age refers to how a person has grown from experience on the planet, not just to how many lifetimes he or she has lived.

No person, essence or entity is "ahead" or "behind" any other, but is simply occupying another place in the continuous circle leading to and from the Tao.

Ways of being are supposed to be different in different developmental stages; at some point we experience it all, moving continually along to different levels of understanding and responsibility. Michael always emphasizes that while each stage is unique and manifestly distinct from the others, no one place is better or worse than any other; they all belong in this game we have chosen to play.

Transcendental and infinite souls normally dwell on higher planes and very rarely come directly to the physical plane; when they do, it is to assist in social or spiritual transformation. A transcendental soul is a representative of a reunited entity, and an infinite soul is a representative of a reunited cadre. Transcendental souls perceive others as self and directly experience what others feel. Infinite souls exist in oneness with everything, almost to the same extent as the Tao itself, since the infinite soul is the Tao’s “messenger.”

First, to clarify, a grand cycle represents our experiences that begins when we are cast from the Tao. It includes our physical-plane incarnations and our subsequent progression through the higher planes. It is complete when we are fully reabsorbed back into the Tao.

Soul age identifies how old we are on this planet, as opposed to how many other planetary cycles we have experienced. The impression of being an old soul, as it is meant in common new age parlance, can derive from many factors, but the number of previous cycles probably contributes more to that than soul age as Michael defines it. Having had many previous cycles does impart the look of having been “around the block a few times.”

Just as a person who is twelve years old in this lifetime can seem wise because he’s had many past lives, a person can be young on this planet but seem deep because of having many other planetary experiences “under his belt.” A young soul with fourteen previous cycles may in certain ways appear older than an old soul with five, although the young soul is primarily outwardly focused, whereas the old soul emphasizes the larger context and tends to be more casual about life on the physical plane. The young soul remembers, on some level, having been a mature and old soul fourteen times before. The circumstances each time were unique, but the fundamentals were the same.

If we think of the old soul cycle as being equivalent to being in college, an old soul with three previous cycles might be compared to a person attending a community college, whereas someone with ten might be compared to a person attending a state university, and someone with seventeen might be compared to a person attending a rigorous private college—each is at the same point in his process, but with different levels of complexity.

However, soul age, number of previous cycles, and also physical age are merely quantitative measures of potential levels of sophistication or complexity. The depth and quality of the specific lessons that an individual has gained are at least as important. Extensive spiritual study and practice, for example, or simply maintaining high levels of integrity, in this lifetime or in past lives, can contribute to the impression of being older. A young soul (as defined in the Michael teachings) who has lived many lifetimes with a relatively high consciousness tends to seem older than an old soul who has not. Imprinting by older souls can also give an impression of being older.

Ten percent infant, twenty-three percent baby, thirty-two percent young, twenty-four percent mature, and eleven percent old. (This was said to be valid for cetaceans—dolphins and whales—as well as for humans.)

Through Shepherd Hoodwin, Michael gave the following breakdown of soul ages in the U.S.: three percent infant, fifteen percent baby, thirty-eight percent young, thirty-two percent mature, and twelve percent old.

Yarbro gave mottos for each of the soul ages:

A client asked Michael through Shepherd Hoodwin for more positive restatements of them. This is what they came up with: