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Warning: Potential wall of text to follow.

I see both points. Personally I am a believer in destiny and twue luv (and Mawwaige too!).

I've actually had a very similar experience to Lunarkit. I've also had dreams of a mysterious fellow. Only in my dream I think he's a little bit older. He's sort of an antagonistic sort, like he's not quite up to good. But in my dreams I feel powerfully drawn to him. I have yet to meet anyone like him, unfortunately. I had an ex who came close, but no cigar as the saying goes.

(Apparently my tabby is my soul mate, he's taken residence on my lap as I type heart )

I think I've always imagined that what happens will happen. You cannot stop two people connected on a deep, soul level any more than you can stand by the ocean and stop the tide. It's like two magnets with the opposite poles facing each other-- just try to stop the magnetic force. I think for this reason it's important to be cautious when you get committed to someone that you are truly happy with them. It's also important not to cling to ideals.

That's the big thing. I do not see my true love/soul mate/etc as "perfection". Hell, if I meet him he'll probably have a huge chunk of broccoli wedged between his teeth and be wearing some tattered Kiss t-shirt salvaged from the 80s. I agree with Sydney's point that romance is found all around. Love is about embracing scary and gross things like back hair, male pattern baldness, flab, wonky toe nails, bushy eyebrows, smelly burps, etc

Wow, this makes so little sense. For me it's very rare I'm truly attracted to someone. I'm not picky in the least about looks. Only on a blue moon occasion will I actually be in a room with someone and feel that pull. But when I watch things like Inu Yasha or listen to Phantom of the Opera, a part of me cannot but yearn to feel that kind of longing again.

But remember, the heart is MALLEABLE. I always keep myself open, and believe that if something is truly meant to be, it'll happen. In the meantime I simply enjoy being happy, and if the game is right, committed in whatever level works out. But this is perhaps why I'm not married (I actually have strangers ask me why I'm a spinster). I'm not getting hitched until I -know-. And also, so far only one guy has (seriously) popped the question. That story, is for another night.

I honestly don't believe in soul mates. I don't think that there's "someone out there for everyone" any more than I think there's a script to the universe.
I believe in free will, genetic and learned predispositions/conditioning, and compatibility between personality traits that go down to tiny little quirks in a vast, intricate dance of behaviors, viewpoints, compromises, and hormones.
Rather than that one special person out there for someone, there are thousands, maybe a million or so. Because while nobody's the same, very few if any are so utterly original that the things that make them themselves aren't mirrored elsewhere by some random human in China.
Or India or Germany or America or Switzerland or Antarctica or whatever.

Either way, there are different requisites for everyone, and different things that can be compromised on.
For instance, I myself have an intense love of food, random conversation, a slightly macabre aesthetic, an open mind, and a ravenous *ahem* carnal appetite, shall we say.
But I can turn off some of those traits like a light switch--If she wants to wait, I'll wait, even if it means I never experience it again. I can eat plain foods, though I don't see why I would have to.
But I won't settle for someone I don't find intellectually stimulating, and I do kinda have a requisite for someone who has a dark sense of humor.

Thank god I didn't have to turn anything off for my girl.

Regardless, you see what I'm saying. Many experiences thought of as spiritual are really manifestations of the subconscious mind trying to send a message across.
"THIS IS THE ONE I WANT" in the words of subconscious translates to a strong sensation that this person is penultimately, inexplicably different from everyone else you've ever known.
Then again, your brain also settles for lesser connections just as a drive to procreate and keep the species going, and thus you have the stupid chicks who go after a*****e guys because they're attractive and work out, as well as the guys who go after well-endowed females and fall in lust--erm, I mean love--for a few months before ditching them for the next one.

Soul mates, I believe, are the small minority of people your subconscious is almost preternaturally aware fits the framework of the one who truly completes you. It's not exactly how many romanticize it; I couldn't have said it better than Antonia--
"He'll probably have a huge chunk of broccoli wedged between his teeth and be wearing some tattered Kiss t-shirt salvaged from the 80s."
--and thus the tall, dark, and handsome stranger who enchants the woman into his arms is really just some stereotypical fantasy who, if he tried to "enchant" my girlfriend, would in reality be met with a taser to the face and wake up in his weighted descent to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Anyway, yeah. That's all I've got for now.

I believe in soulmates to a certain point, but that doesn't mean that its the truth.

Nicely said Mr. Lamb.

After all:

Salt has Pepper

Peanut Butter had Jelly (but PB isn't always faithful to J, I have heard PB fools around with chocolate sometimes)

Chocolate has Caramel (mmmm) but once again, Chocolate sometimes fools around with peanut butter.

I think there's probably a hundred people for every one. I say this because in my short life I have met two sometimes three people who are practically the same person, which means, no matter who you like, there are probably two or three people in your area who are practically just like them.

I don't know, but I wish it were true! heart

Okay this is weird but I didn't know where to place it here or dreams. If you read the pass replys here you should know about the mystery guy in my dream. Well please read my journal under dreams and tell me what you think. I don't have the heart to rewrite it again but tell me what you think. I still feel the pain in my heart but I figure I would share it with you. Thanks for listen to me, it helps. heart