I'm sure I'm not the only person to have sensed that there's at least some small part of us that resembles God.  This seems to be the aspect of our being that, if it’s virtuous, is traditionally viewed as enabling us to escape the finality of death, and be accepted into heaven for eternity.  Would it be too much of a leap to envision this aspect of ourselves transcending time and space in pretty much the same way God does?

If this parallel seems plausible, then maybe it’s only natural for those we call “deceased” to still be in existence—just not in a form we can readily detect and interact with in our own present state.  

What if the aspect of people’s being that we can most readily sense when they pass from the life we know into something beyond it is the ability to empathize and connect with other beings, in a manner that’s supportive and…well…loving?  Is this maybe a capability we develop over the course of a lifetime spent genuinely caring for others?
 
It’s long been reported that people on the verge of death talk about seeing their deceased loved ones.  Maybe this is a natural manifestation of transitioning to our next state, in which a kind of broad and selfless altruism becomes the essence and sum of our being.  If so, perhaps the reason dying people feel they’re in the presence of their departed loved ones is that this is a situation where the energy of love is strongest on both sides.
 
And if that’s the case, then possibly the reason all of Jesus’ apostles felt that they actually saw him after his crucifixion was that his powers of love, connection, and empathy were extraordinarily great.

At the opposite end of the spectrum from Jesus, what if rather than an eternity of burning in hellfire, the fate that ultimately awaits people who spend self-centered lives being rotten to those around them is that they haven’t developed enough altruistic, caring capacities to amount to much of anything in their next state of being?
   
Or to phrase this a little differently, what if there’s no such thing as a bad soul—just a lamentable shortage of one?  Maybe the soul is simply whatever altruistic, loving part of us is may survive into our next state of being.
 
If this is the case, it seems to me that what lasts in us might well be little pieces of the same stuff that the most perfect being in the cosmos, God, is made of.  

To some people (including me), this suggestion may at first feel uncomfortably presumptuous or arrogant—possibly even outright blasphemous.  But we've been told by a long line of mainstream religious authorities that God is our father.  Isn't it the essence of children to be made of the same stuff as their parents?  And as they grow, don't they become ever more like their parents?

With these considerations in mind, it seems reasonable to suggest that not only might we have bits of God in us, but that in turn, possibly God may be the sum of all souls.