Been there and know how great it can be. Neither of us believed in souls, though, but we did have reason as our base. Emotions can actually screw things up.

The book Connected is about social connections that affect our partner choices. Fascinating read. [amazon.com]

I consider a soulmate to be someone with whom I can be completely bare emotionally. It is someone with whom I share trust and vulnerability. That person is not necessarily the best match as a life partner, though.

I tend to lean towards defining your soul mate as someone who is committed to your team. Wanting the best, their happiness and support for each other always. Finding a partner who excels in and is strong in some areas you are weak in and you are stronger in some of their weaker points. For me a soulmate is someone 100% compatible with you and together you make a strong force to accomplish great things together. Adventures, life’s best and worst moments, any given single moment shared with a soulmate is a beautiful thing. You connect on a somewhat psychic level and can easily read each other’s emotions and they should make you laugh and feed off each other’s energy and enjoy comfortable silence as much as rational debate and be open to learn from each other constantly with zero doubt or fear of judgment or harm. They lift you up and never put you down. You encourage each other to better each other through a deep psychological connection and an equally mutual high sexual passion and expression expectancy.

I don't believe in happily ever after with one person. There are many types of people and many types of love and friendship that come in and out of life. Some of them are romantic, others not at all. I have a best friend that is like my other half. He and I have no romantic interest in each other though. I loved my ex husband for many years. Right now, I'm pretty content with the love of my children and my friends. It fulfills me.

I don't believe in soul mates...mostly because I need a lot of support staff in my life and I would NEVER ask one person to be my everything. That would be selfish of me.

I personally define the term differently. I believe that soulmates (the plural is necessary, as the relationship can only function bidirectionally) are people that understand and compliment each other so profoundly that they live and function better together than apart. I don’t think there is just one person out there who would fall into this category; if nothing else, it would be numerically preposterous. I also don’t believe in a “soul” so I don’t define it in the literal. Nor do I think that it only applies to sexual relationships. You can be soulmates as lovers, as friends, or as family. Hell, if the memes are to be believed, Barack Obama and Jod Biden are soulmates. I miss those dudes...

I was extremely career oriented so to say I’m experienced in dating is not quite right but I have had a few crushes, as it were. I even married a man that seemed to fit the right boxes. But I will say this, when I met my starmate a whole new world opened up and I saw the world from whole new eyes like never before. No other man ever affected me like this, not even close. It was profound! I believe there is a starmate out there for us all, but I also have to believe there are more than one as “love is not enough” or other factors that may imped a successful long lasting relationship. My starmate and I, though both of us atheists, had Christian values and societal pressures come between us but it can’t be over. If vulnerable intimate relationships can be created in a science lab it can happen again, I believe that, I want to believe it at least.

Idk. I would have said it's a bunch of hooey until I met a person who synced up with me in almost every way. It was uncanny, literally saying the same thing at the same time, regularly. Still mystified by thst.

I stopped believing in soulmates and other happily ever after stories when my wife of 16 years had an affair.