# Some girl just told me that I have "an old soul". What the heack does that mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 24, 2004, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848 "2004-02-24T06:48:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/21 "2004-02-24T14:44:41Z")
\*\*Muad’Dib \*\* —it means she’s into reincarnation, & other creepy-weirdy-ass stuff, so unless she wants to sleep with you **right now** , you need to drop her like she was a six-inch putt. If she _does_ want to sleep with you, do her & drop her like a bad habit afterwards. Priorities, ya know. ---
**Author:** ![Bobby\_Roberts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Bobby\_Roberts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobby_Roberts)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/22 "2004-02-24T15:31:17Z")
> [@Muad'Dib](#): > > I am not too clear. My response was somewhere along the lines of “Yeah baby, that’s, um, deep.” Best I can figure is that I gave this impression because I am smart and moody. Don’t know if that quite qualifies me for ‘old soul’ status. :rolleyes: It means that she wants to appear to be intelligent and mysterious by using meaningless psychic crap that she probably doesn’t totally understand. Basically, if she wants to be with someone with an “old soul” and she likes you, then she says that you have an old soul. If she’d rather be with a “new soul”, then she doesn’t like you. So essentially she’s just arbitarily labelling you to match what she wants. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/23 "2004-02-24T15:47:39Z")
I was told this once before, and at the time felt flattered. However, now that I’m older, I realize that everyone likes to think that they have an “old soul” (whether that means literally, as in reincarnation, or more figuratively, as in “wise beyond one’s years”). I once heard Jamie Gleicher on MTV’s “Rich Girls” insist that she and Ally Hilfiger are old souls–indeed, she believes she’s probably the reincarnation of either Benjamin Franklin or Muhammad Ali. If the term can be applied to her, then it’s obviously worthless. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/24 "2004-02-24T15:50:47Z")
Or maybe she’s a cobbler, & wants to fix your boots. ---
**Author:** ![Shirt\_Ninja\_13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19b73/32.png) [@Shirt\_Ninja\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirt_Ninja_13)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/25 "2004-02-24T15:56:33Z")
> [@LunaSea](#): > > In my experience, it’s something teenagers say to other teenagers. Yeah, that’s when I heard it, the most: around about the age of 15. Usually it was in response to cynicism and/or skepticism on my part, although once it came up during an amateur palm-reading. “Wow, you’ve had more lives than Jesus,” was the remark that preceded the “old soul” comment, at that point. I think it’s silliness, personally, but that’s just me. _bamf_ ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/26 "2004-02-24T17:25:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Yeah, yeah. Ogre TALKS a good game but I’m tired of him hiding behind this false persona on the internet. > > Last week, I tried to drag him out for anight of Bukowski-inspired debauchery and he keep insisting that I sit down on the couch until he was done reading his tea leaves, and then he said we weren’t going anywhere until did a tarot reading. I kept sneaking away and taking hits from my flask until I got so loaded that I took his runes and crashed through his coffee table, “DOMINO, MUTHAFUCKA!” style. Ogre then cried and said that the table was made from a Tree that was infused with Native American spirits and that they had all escaped. > > I left shortly after that. Flask, my ass. I’m not sure how you can get whacked out of your skull on that yohimbi-rooibos organic berry infusion crap mouthbreather carries around in his “flask” (really a plastic Thermos with a Phish sticker,) but he manages it somehow. I think it has something to do with the mold growing in it, since his filthy hippie ass hasn’t washed it since Reagan was in office. Anyway, I asked him if he wanted a chance to win back the last poker money I took from him. Imagine my surprise when he wanted to play seven-card stud with a Tarot deck. Then he keeled over and busted my coffee table with his face. Of course I was pissed. I dropped him off at a sailor’s dive down by the waterfront, with a sign around his neck that said “Swabbies are pussies.” Seemed funny enough at the time, but then, gin makes me a little mean. ---
**Author:** ![Genghis\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/45deac/32.png) [@Genghis\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genghis_Bob)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/27 "2004-02-24T17:38:07Z")
> [@Hamish](#): > > . . . I think it simply meant a soul that was already “old and wise” when the person was born. It was generally used to refer to children who were unusually mature and kind-hearted. That’s my understanding also. My son was called an “old soul” when he was ten years old and the only child participating in an adult Tai Chi class. He was unusually reserved, quiet and contemplative for a ten year old. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/28 "2004-02-24T18:33:54Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Flask, my ass. I’m not sure how you can get whacked out of your skull on that yohimbi-rooibos organic berry infusion crap mouthbreather carries around in his “flask” (really a plastic Thermos with a Phish sticker,) but he manages it somehow. I think it has something to do with the mold growing in it, since his filthy hippie ass hasn’t washed it since Reagan was in office. > > Anyway, I asked him if he wanted a chance to win back the last poker money I took from him. Imagine my surprise when he wanted to play seven-card stud with a Tarot deck. Then he keeled over and busted my coffee table with his face. Of course I was pissed. > > I dropped him off at a sailor’s dive down by the waterfront, with a sign around his neck that said “Swabbies are pussies.” > > Seemed funny enough at the time, but then, gin makes me a little mean. This is a total fucking fabrication and I won’t sit here and be made a fool of. To set the record straight: I covered up the Phish Sticker on my thermos with a Moe. sticker a couple months ago. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/29 "2004-02-24T18:52:28Z")
> [@Skopo](#): > > believes she’s probably the reincarnation of either Benjamin Franklin or Muhammad Ali. A good trick, considering that Muhammad Ali is still alive. And it would be a good trick even if Ali were dead, considering that this would involve some sort of a “soul swapping” (or maybe Ali’s soul would be “assimilated” á la the Borg) rather than a strict reincarnation (which is dubious in the first place). BTW, Abe Vigoda is still alive, too, and today is his [birthday](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001820/). ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/30 "2004-02-24T21:21:23Z")
Funny story about souls old and young. Years ago I worked with a woman who believed in reincarnation, had traveled to Tibet many times, etc. She told me that I was a young soul, and explained that I experienced the world as if I was doing everything for the first time without having lived through it all before. Although I don’t believe in reincarnation, this particular description did really match my attitude toward life, and ever since then, when discussions have turned to old souls, I’ve always explained that I am a young soul, still on my first incarnation. Fast forward a few years, and I have a boss who’s a real jerk who keeps claiming different backgrounds and interests depending on the woman he’s trying to impress at the moment. One day he asks me what I know about old souls. I tell him my story about how I am a young soul. The next day I hear him on the phone to some new conquest, telling her my story word for word, except he’s claiming that it’s all about him – he’s the one with the young soul and the fresh outlook toward life. I guess if I were an older soul, I would have know better than to feed him B.S. to use on unsuspecting women. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/31 "2004-02-24T22:21:24Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > I guess if I were an older soul, I would have know better than to feed him B.S. to use on unsuspecting women. [Chris Rock] Just tryin’ to get himsef a little pussy! Ain’t nothin’ wrong wit dat! [/Chris Rock] Any line that works is a “Good Line”. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/32 "2004-02-24T22:55:42Z")
[QUOTE=Spiff] A good trick, considering that Muhammad Ali is still alive. QUOTE]That’s what I thought, too. Of course, according to Jamie, Ben Franklin is the guy who invented the lightbulb. If Jamie is an old soul, then God help us young souls. ---
**Author:** ![CadburyAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@CadburyAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CadburyAngel)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/33 "2004-02-24T23:01:55Z")
[QUOTE=Skopo] > [@Spiff](#): > > A good trick, considering that Muhammad Ali is still alive. > QUOTE]That’s what I thought, too. > > Of course, according to Jamie, Ben Franklin is the guy who invented the lightbulb. > > If Jamie is an old soul, then God help us young souls. Perhaps Jamie’s soul is so old, it’s gone senile. “Oh, YOU have an old soul? My soul dribbles applesauce from its toothless gums, beeyotch!” ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/34 "2004-02-25T00:07:59Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > It means she watches _Everwood_. Yes, it sounds to me that that pretty much is _all_ it means. No need to overanalyze this. I doubt that she has. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/35 "2004-02-25T02:31:08Z")
**Muad’Dib** It means you should tell her about the waters of your homeland. It means you may be the Lisan Al Gaib, the Voice From The Outer Worlds. Or the Laserium Al Dilah, the Bright Light Of The Italian Lovesong. Or even the Kumkwat Hagendasz, The One Whose Fruit-Like Soul Is Tempered To A Soft Consistency! ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/36 "2004-02-25T02:45:30Z")
I’ve been told that I have an old soul as well, and I am relatively intelligent and somewhat dark and moody, so I suppose that there is a pattern. To the best of my knowledge, I am brand new. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/37 "2004-02-25T03:09:19Z")
A brand new _vampire_, that is. ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/38 "2004-02-25T03:37:08Z")
Holy shit! It’s Abe Vigoda’s birthday? Damn! Unfortunately, I have no idea how to properly celebrate…I mean, Bob Marley’s (Feb. 6) was easy…but Abe Vigoda…? Maybe we should all go hide guns behind toilet tanks or something… ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/39 "2004-02-25T03:47:09Z")
> [@Muad'Dib](#): > > My response was somewhere along the lines of “Yeah baby, that’s, um, deep.” The correct response to that is always, “Does it make you horny, baby?” ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848/40 "2004-02-25T03:51:26Z")
> [@Shirt Ninja 13](#): > > Yeah, that’s when I heard it, the most: around about the age of 15. Usually it was in response to cynicism and/or skepticism on my part, although once it came up during an amateur palm-reading. “Wow, you’ve had more lives than Jesus,” was the remark that preceded the “old soul” comment, at that point. 3(maybe 2)? The Jesus comment dosen’t make a lot of sense [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-girl-just-told-me-that-i-have-an-old-soul-what-the-heack-does-that-mean/230848.md?page=3)