Why Truth Feels Familiar to the Soul

Have you ever met someone who felt instantly familiar—or heard music, smelled something, or recognized truth in a way that felt deeper than logic? In this episode, Cydni and Sher go back to the basics and explore the idea of the pre-existence: where we came from, why truth feels familiar, and how cultures, philosophers, and prophets across history have asked the same questions. With humor, honesty, and a whole lot of heart, they talk Plato, world religions, President Uchtdorf, the Light of Christ, and why remembering home might be the key to peace, hope, and joy on this journey.  This episode is, "Why Truth Feels Familiar to the Soul" and we are so glad you are here! 

This Week's Challenge
This week, notice what feels deeply familiar—truth, beauty, peace, or goodness—and choose to lean into that light instead of dismissing it.

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Show Notes

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Transcript

Why Truth Feels Familiar to the Soul

Cydni: [00:00:00] You look familiar.

Were you in that one meeting where we were all together and God was like, Hey, you're all gonna get bodies and go through trials and lots of trials and more trials, but you have to find joy in your sufferings 'cause you're trying to be more like me and we're gonna go down and do this and you're gonna get beat up and bruised and you're gonna not have any memory of any of this and then you're gonna die. Were you in that meeting? 

Sher: I don't think I voted for that. Cydni 

Cydni: You did? No. You're gonna get a prize at the end. We're like pinatas being beat up and there'll be a prize inside and that makes it all worth it. Yay. For the pre-existence, I knew you looked familiar. Welcome to the Cydni and Sher podcast. 

Sher: All right, Cydni. It's a new year, new us. We're moving on two bigger and better things, which isn't difficult for where we were. 

Cydni: It's all uphill from here downhill. I think it's a hill. It's, it's all a dumpster fire from here just like last year, but a better [00:01:00] dumpster fire, like a more bold and confident. Dumpster fire. 

Sher: Yeah. I like where you're going with that. Thank you. So last year we focused on the pursuit of happiness and joy, and this year. We decided we wanted to just get back to the basics, because that's basically where we are. Basic. We're basic, absolutely basic dishes.

I think that just sums up everything. We're basic dishes, dumpster, fires. So we wanna go back to the beginning, start at the basics before we came to Earth, and we wanted to talk about the pre-existence today. As you have already mentioned, Cydni 

Cydni: right? When I said you looked familiar, you do sometimes meet somebody and you're like, I think I knew you before. Sure. Has that never happened to you? Have you never met someone and you're like, I feel like I've known you before this.

Or maybe we do, and I forgot because I have a poor memory. They're like, we met at last year's Christmas party. Oh, right. You were familiar. [00:02:00] I thought it was a divine moment, but nope. It's my brain. . Not remembering. Not remembering. Yeah. 

Sher: So As Cydni and I have been studying this topic, we've learned that there are a lot of cultures that believe in a pre-existence, or they believe that our souls existed before. one of the things that I latched onto was the teachings of Plato and Plato taught that the human soul existed before birth and that we lived there in perfect truth, which aligns exactly with what we believe with the pre-existence.

He believes that we lived in perfect beauty, perfect goodness, justice and virtue. And then when we were born, we forgot the truth, but the truth is still inside us and that's the part I really believe that truth really is still inside us somewhere. We just gotta unbury it. So when we learn something good or recognize beauty, it's actually our soul remembering what it once [00:03:00] knew, which I think is just beautiful.

I. So truth feels familiar because our soul already knows it and recognizes it. And Socrates also taught about this. He said that as the soul is immortal and has seen all things here and in the underworld, there is nothing which is not learned. So we've learned all of this before. And so learning is nothing more than recollection. The word for that is ESIS in Greek and it literally means recollection. So things that are good and beautiful, those are things that are familiar to us. We have a recollection of 

Cydni: I will say from the time I was a child, this is something that has really grounded me into my beliefs. I just felt truth in my soul that I existed before Earth and that we all have, I actually find it interesting that some people don't believe that because to me it just seems logical.

Not even a spiritual impression, but it just seems [00:04:00] logical and there's a poem that summarizes this very basically, but it's not my words. So I feel like maybe people trust it more, by, I'll trust it more, that's for sure. Right? Unless that's my pin name. And then I tricked you, but it's not. This is written by Elroy and it says, if I exist in the present, I have existed before, and if I existed before and after. I have existed forever.

And one thing I've always found interesting is how people can believe we will exist after this life forever. But the idea that we existed before this life forever is a lot more difficult to grasp and to be comfortable believing. It's a little bit beyond comprehension to imagine we've always existed.

Sher: It's definitely beyond my comprehension. 

Cydni: Mine too. But besides that, we're here teaching about it anyway. I've just recently been in deep discussion with my friend [00:05:00] who grew up in the Hindu religion and. This was so perfect for this topic because we've discussed this a lot recently and their beliefs, they're super similar in a lot of ways to what we believe.

But since you talked about different cultures believing different things, I will recap some of that. Hinduism, they believe that the soul is timeless and it reincarnates across lifetime until they reach the liberation of rebirth. They believe in one soul. And he explained it to me. It's just like you're changing your clothes so the same soul goes into another body or another something, but it's just a change of clothes.

So I said. Could my next close be, I don't know, six inches taller and the pocket's a lot deeper. And he said, from what I know about you, no, you'll probably be a cockroach. I was like, thanks a lot. He knows you well, Cydni I know too well. I was like, who are you really? [00:06:00] And then Buddhism. Buddhism and Hinduism, we actually learned about this not too long ago, but they come from the same ancient spiritual traditions, but they are different.

Buddhism doesn't believe in a permanent soul, but they believe in a consciousness and so it streams from one rebirth to another. I found this interesting. I didn't know that many Islamic traditions believe our souls were all created at once, alongside with Adam, and then our soul enters into our body at birth or during the final fetal development. and some early Jewish text. They refer to the souls as being prepared or existing before the world formation. And even some early Christian thinkers believed and taught that the soul existed before. But then they were later condemned as heresy by the church. 

What I loved a lot though is when I was Googling or AIing or anything, all of these different cultures, [00:07:00] it was always the Hinduism, Buddhism, and Mormonism. And they were a lot more connected than I would've expected. I think that there's people in our ward, who also believe I'll be a cockroach. So whatever. See how that ties together with my friends philosophy. 

Sher: I can testify to that. There's several people in our ward that think Cydni gonna come back as a cockroach. 

Cydni: Right? Well, they don't understand Mormonism as well. They might be more on the Hinduism side. I did love having this conversation with my friend though because we found such vast differences, but we also found that there was some similarities that matter, which was centered around how you live your life and what you do with your agency matters much more deeply than sometimes we care to spend time thinking about. 

Sher: One of my favorite classes I took in college was a world religion class, I absolutely loved it because as I'm looking through all of these different religions, it was amazing to [00:08:00] me how many different religions that I could find that were very similar to my own. And I just really enjoyed doing that, finding the things that we agreed on. And it actually was quite a testimony builder for me to see that. And a lot of it, again, has to do with, it does sound familiar to me as I'm looking at these different. Types of religions, you can see something that does look or feel, or sound familiar in it. And I really do believe it's because we recognize it from where we began in our heavenly home before we came here. And so when we see those things that are good and beautiful

somewhere deep in our soul. Like we said before, it does remind us of where we came from. I was thinking about this and I was wondering like are there certain things that might remind us of where we came from? And the one that just popped into my mind was music for me.

There are certain songs that just sound familiar to me. I know I haven't ever heard [00:09:00] them before, but it's like I can hear it in my soul and I know I've heard it before and I recognize it just as Socrates and Plato taught also, I feel like this happens. For a lot of people in nature the beauty of it is familiar and the obedience of the creations of God is familiar.

And these things help remind us, of where we came from. I think that there might be certain things that all of us have that we might recognize, our soul recognizes it and then somewhere deep within , it's longing for us to go back home to be again with our Father in Heaven.

Cydni: For me, it's the scent love spell. If I smell that, do you remember? It was really popular smell once upon a time for me in high school. I probably hated 

Sher: it. I was probably, that's right. I'm gonna guess teaching and I was probably like, stop it. And anything that smells good, I'm allergic to it. So I was probably. Chucking stuff and children outta my room or something 

Cydni: because all of us middle school [00:10:00] students were spraying love spell on us. Mm-hmm. Hoping that the boy that we're in love with would smell it and that actually had a love spell on it and they'd fall in love with us forever like that. Yeah, that's what I was hoping every time I put it on. Never worked, not once, but when I smell that, it takes my mind back to High School

Sher: obviously I'm allergic to the love spell because it didn't work at all. If I wasn't allergic to it, maybe I would've had a better outcome. 

Cydni: Maybe we could get you some and you could find, and then I drop dead from the smell. Someone rich. No, just someone ready to die themselves and then you're rich. That would be ideal. 

Sher: So President Uchtdorf talks about this, he talks about migration in animals and how they just have an instinct. Something that drives them to go back home.

And he asked the question, do humans have the same instinct, something that drives us home? And the answer, is that yes, he believes that. He said [00:11:00] that our Father in Heaven has given all of us, all of his children have the light of Christ placed within them. But some choose to suppress this light.

And that ties in with agency. We have a choice to either suppress that light or we can lean into it and. Make it grow and we can start our migration back home. President Uchtdorf said, there is something that is in us when we let that light grow, that as it gets brighter, it's calling us and leading us back home quicker, faster, stronger, whatever word you wanna choose, and guiding us and letting us know that we are on the right path.

Cydni: So Neil A. Maxwell kind of says all of what we just said in a Neil A. Maxwell way, which means I had to Google like 15 of the words. He uses that man. He smart. His vocabulary is extensive. Mine is not. nor is mine. And I'm not even gonna read the big words. I'm gonna skip over them. I think that's fair. I feel more intelligent listening. Even if [00:12:00] I'm not comprehending, I just feel like, look at me.

Look at me listening to this. I hope someone overhears it. I hope my Bluetooth disconnects at the grocery store. So people are like, wow, she's intelligent listening to that. That's what I hope happens. The one time it happened was like a Barbie song that my kid had on and I was like, dang it.

Okay. Let me just read you what he said. 'cause it really is so beautiful. He is talking about what you have already covered, which is you hear music or a certain sound, or you see something and it awakens a memory in you

then he continues and says, or we have encountered a particular fragrance, which has awakened memories deep within us. Things, which once were in such moments, we have felt a deep yearning as if we were temporarily out of something to which we actually belonged and of which we so wanted, again, to be part of, there are spiritual equivalents of these moments.

such seem to occur most often when time touches [00:13:00] eternity. In these moments, we feel a longing closeness, but we are still separate. He goes on to say that we call this a veil. We define the veil as a border between mortality and eternity. It is also a film of forgetting which covers the memories of earlier experiences.

This forgetfulness will be lifted one day and on that day we will see forever, whereas the bird is at home in the air. We are clearly not at home in time because we belong to eternity time as much as any one thing whispers to us that we are strangers here. He concludes. Thus, the veil stands not to shut us out forever, but to remind us of God's tutoring and patient love for us. Any brush against the, produces a feeling of not yet. Sher I don't know that quote worked right there, but I just really apparently wanted to use it.

So I'm just going to say that I feel that as much as we have those experiences in our earthly [00:14:00] experience where something reminds us of high school, we also have these beautiful moments that remind us of something more eternal. 

Like when you have that smell of maybe your grandma's cookies or something, and it brings us so much joy, I feel we are blessed with opportunities of meeting somebody or certain feeling that reminds us that we are strangers here

Sher: And those little clues, those little memories that we have. those are the little things that help us grow the light of Christ in us. When we have those memories, it builds our testimonies and helps us to know that we really and truly are going on the right and correct path.

And honestly, Cydni I feel like I have those moments every once in a great while, but I am so grateful when it does happen. I feel like, oh, maybe I am going the way that the Lord wants me to go. 'cause a lot of times I just feel like a lost sheep out in the middle of nowhere. And then every once in a while I'm like, oh, maybe, I'm doing good.

And that's kind of what this life is all about. It's all of us [00:15:00] really. Every one of us struggling to try to figure it out and find the correct path that will get us back home. And these little memories of how life was in the pre-existence is part of helping us. Get back to our heavenly home.

And . We do the same with truth. When we hear truth, our soul recognizes it if we don't shut the light of Christ off. If we practice and learn and are obedient, then the light of Christ will grow stronger in us and it will help us to recognize that truth.

But our Heavenly Father, He gave us help and President Uchtdorf said. Our Heavenly Father knew how difficult it would be for us to sift through all the competing noise and discover truth during our mortality. He knew he would see only a portion of the truth, and he knew that Satan would try to deceive us.

So he gave us the heavenly gift of the Holy Ghost, and this is why it is so important for us to be [00:16:00] obedient and to. Work on growing the light of Christ because then it will make it easier for us to hear and recognize the Holy Spirit within us that will guide us back to our Father in Heaven.

But not only that, the Holy Ghost will help us recognize those truths and the good and the beauty that we have seen before. And that is why that is such an important and wonderful gift that the Lord has given us. 

Cydni: I also listened to a President Uchtdorf talk he talked about different journeys and he says that , all cultures love a good journey story.

It is also known as like the hero's journey and that nobody wants to listen to a story about someone having a great old time all of the time. He didn't say that part. I did. But he talked about different journeys and he brings it to the journey we believe in. And he says, back in the first estate, you knew with absolute certainty. God existed because you [00:17:00] saw and you heard Him. You knew Jesus Christ who would become the Lamb of God. You had faith in Him, and you knew that your destiny was not to stay in the security of your premortal home as much as you loved that eternal sphere.

You knew you wanted and needed to embark on a journey, you would depart from the arms of your father, pass through the veil of forgetfulness, receive immortal body, and learn and experience things that hopefully would help you grow to become more like your Father in Heaven and return to His presence.

And then after that he gives us a few reminders to help us on our journey. That if you consider what we believe, which is that we all live together before we came to Earth, then you would consider who we are to each other as well.

And he said he has three messages and I loved them very much, so I'm going to share them. His first message was, do not fear. For I, the Lord Am with You. He said, you are not alone on [00:18:00] this journey. Your Heavenly Father knows you even when no one else hears you. He hears you when you rejoice in righteousness.

He rejoices with you when you are beset with trial. He grieves with you. The second message was to love one another as I have loved you. This is a reminder of who we are. To each other, and this was something my friend and his Hinduism beliefs talked about a lot they don't believe they are in the same family always, that you're with different people.

So I said, how do you really even connect with your. Children then, or actually, is it better maybe to know that you might not have to see them again? Because, I mean, I've made mistakes with my kids, so if there was like the relief of like, they don't have to hold that against me for all eternity, that doesn't sound so bad.

But then the topic turned to how connected we really are. That it's okay if you don't have the exact same son because we to each other are so connected that even if your next family is different, it's still your brothers and sisters, and I actually found that [00:19:00] to be very beautiful.

So when you think about love one another, as I have loved you. Then that just puts into perspective that we are in this together, truly, guys. And he says, the love of Christ is not a pretend love. It's not a greeting card love. It's not the kind of love that is praised in popular music and movies.

This love brings about real change of character. It can penetrate hatred and dissolve envy. It can heal resentment and quench the fires of bitterness. It can work miracles and his final message for this journey was to be of good cheer. He said, I invite you to walk confidently and joyfully.

Yes, the road has bumps and detours, and even some hazards, but don't lose focus on them. Look for the happiness. Your Father in Heaven has prepared for you in every step of your journey. Happiness is the destination, but it's also the path. Peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come is [00:20:00] what he promises.

Sher: All of these quotes and things that we've been talking about, I couldn't help but think about. How often? I don't think about going home. I'm just kind of like going with the flow and I don't really think about where I was, what I'm doing here and where I'm going. But as you were reading the last few quotes, I had this thought Cydni where.

There have been times in my life where I really was focused on where I was, what I'm doing here and where I'm going. And one of those times is when my parents were passing away you could see how much they deeply. Desired and how excited they were to be, not only with their family again, but with God.

And my dad at one point, he wasn't doing very well, but then all of a sudden it's like he just set up and was alert and he looked at his watch and he said, so what time was it again that I'm gonna die? Is really what he said. [00:21:00] And that is a scheduled man. That is a very scheduled man, I guess.

Really? That was more my mother. So it's kind of odd, but that really speaks to how he was looking forward to being with his loved ones and with God again. And I thought about being with my mom as she passed away you could just feel how much she desired to be back home. It did the same for me.

it gave me a little avenue, a little shortcut I guess you could say, into what the heavens are like. Just a little bit of how beautiful and how wonderful our heavenly home is. I don't know if you've ever had that experience where you've been with somebody as they returned home, but it's like, you can fill. What you're missing. Does that make sense? 

Cydni: It makes sense and I feel like it gives such a sense of peace. 

Sher: Yes it does. That is the exact word that I would use to describe those moments. It is a sense of peace, and that's exactly the word that [00:22:00] I would use to describe when I hear songs that are familiar To me, it's a sense of peace and calm, knowing that in the long run everything's gonna be okay. we do get those moments of filling that connection to our Heavenly Father's home, and it's hard to keep it in your heart and soul all the time because Satan is so good at deceiving and being confusing and causing chaos.

But there are those signs in those moments that God sends to us. We know that we are his child, we are his daughter, we are his son, and that we can return back to what we knew before. 

Cydni: I know we've used a lot of quotes in this one, and I thought about that. Why am I using so many quotes or relying on so many quotes? And I think sometimes when you know something is true, I like how it feels when other people have come to the same conclusion, and I have found this with different cultures and different beliefs that different people have had the same question of [00:23:00] where did I come from?

What is all of this for these type of questions and have led to the same. Realization that there's no other explanation than we've existed before this. We exist now and we will continue to exist, that we are eternal. And the thought came to me, why would it even matter to believe this or to know this?

I have decided that the reason it's worth knowing is if we know that we existed before and that we will exist after that helps us understand our identity, which is very important and it helps us understand the choices we make will matter and impact other people, and it helps us to find comfort in death. And our existence currently as well. 

Sher: And that gives us hope, which everything that we learned last year, that hope brings us peace, calm, and happiness, even when things around us might not be so happy.

Cydni: And one more thing it does is it gives me [00:24:00] confidence in asking questions. To the right source. I loved so many different philosophers or Christians in the beginning started off with such similar questions. And one that has stood out a lot that I've been studying is St. Augustine, he has different meditations and he asks these questions. Who am I? Who was I before? It was in my mother's womb. And he goes through all of these and he actually goes to where you first went, which is memory. And he says, if I can close my eyes and see blue, then I've seen it before. And if I can remember what a scent of of flower smells like, it's because I've smelled it before. And here's a quote directly from him. The images in my mind of mountains, billows, rivers, and stars, all those things that populate my memory could not be there unless a prior time I actually saw the mountains billows rivers and stars. Because if a thing is imprinted upon my memory, it must have first been [00:25:00] present, but what of God and the life of godliness. For when I seek thee, my God, I seek a happy life. How can that be possible? Clearly, by analogy, those who seek God and the happy life must have been happy once. Knowledge of God, therefore must be a memory of God.

This has strengthened my testimony and helped me to understand that when I, myself, am seeking to know God and to understand the gospel, it's because I was once with God.

And I once was in his presence and I deeply long to be back in His presence because I know what it was like to be there before. So when we talk about going through this life and the trials and did we sign up for this? We did. And we understood exactly what the payoff was, which is to be with our Father in Heaven again, and it is worth it.

We challenge you to remember the messages from President Uchtdorf as [00:26:00] you go into the new year. Do not fear for the Lord is with you. Love one another as he has loved you and be of good cheer. We challenge you to take that into the new year.

Sher: This brings us to our final thoughts, Cydni I love the idea that when something is good, true, or beautiful, it feels familiar. It's not a random thing. It's our soul remembering and recognizing where we came from. Whether it's music the peace we feel in nature or truth that just suddenly clicks.

There's something inside of us that recognizes that. And makes us long for home. God didn't send us here without help, though. He gave us the light of Christ Truth and the Holy Ghost to gently lead us back to him.

When we listen, lean into the light and don't shut it off. We're reminded of who we really are. And where we are headed. This is our prayer from Cydni and Sher 

Cydni: [00:27:00] He's outta control. Mm-hmm. Me too, Rudy. Okay. And some people would try to say that we, I forgot, I forgot all of this. Just scratch this. I'm going home. Great. Forget this part. And then I will say blah, blah, blah. 

Sher: Okay. Okay. Okay. 

Cydni: am I insane? Don't answer that. I promise that No, I don't make any promises. Nevermind. Did you just hear what I said? The lights went outta in my head. Well, I'm gonna maintain that. I want my life to be so easy, peasy, beautiful, and everything goes well.

And I receive eternal life for having a good attitude. And, and then other people could tell me about their drama. That's the journey I would like to sign up for. We're here for the participation [00:28:00] trophy. I have no problems with that. I'll take it. 

Sher: And we and where we Have a good week. Bye.