What is a soul?

[Harbal]

I suppose a soul could be various things, depending on which culture’s conception of soul you were considering. In my part of the world a soul seems to be thought of as a sort of immaterial spirit that inhabits the body of a living human being. The usual implication is that the soul is somehow the core essence of the being it inhabits; even perhaps what we regard as “I”. But what could a soul possibly amount to after separation from the body?

An immaterial spirit doesn’t have physical sense organs, so it would have no means of seeing, or hearing, or sensing anything in the material world. Our memory is in our brain, and our capacity for thought is made possible by the brain, and our character and personality are produced by the brain, and these are our main sources of identity. A spirit does not have a brain, hence no memory, no thought, and no identity. What’s left for a soul to be?

It seems to me that, at most, a soul could be nothing more than a kind of awareness, but with nothing to be aware of other than awareness itself, and even that could only be a vague awareness. I don’t think I’m looking forward to being just a soul.

[bobmax]

I agree with you.
But I think we should take one last step.

We are our own soul.
What else would we be?

And this soul, having no quality, is nothing.

[Harbal]

I agree with you.
But I think we should take one last step.

It's difficult to know what steps could be taken. There may be laws of physics that are not yet known that would allow a soul to be more than I suggest, but without knowing if there are, and what they might be, it is hard to know what more can be said.

We are our own soul.
What else would we be?

And this soul, having no quality, is nothing.

Well there is also the metaphoric soul; the soul with which we are said to appreciate things like art, but I am concerned here with what the nature of an actual soul might be.

[henry quirk]

Henry, if a man is a separate mind in a separate brain/body, how do mind and body connect with each other ? We know they do connect as we experience mind knowing what body does.

Well, I'm goin' full whacko here, B: take care not to get any of my craziness on you.

Man is a composite of mind & matter or spirit & flesh. Two very different things melded together irrevocably. Neither worth spit without the other. Man isn't an embodied spirit bidin' his time till he can cast off his meat suit. Man is both mind and meat, together. Man is an amalgam, an alloy.

[Harbal]

Henry, if a man is a separate mind in a separate brain/body, how do mind and body connect with each other ? We know they do connect as we experience mind knowing what body does.

Well, I'm goin' full whacko here, B: take care not to get any of my craziness on you.

Man is a composite of mind & matter or spirit & flesh. Two very different things melded together irrevocably. Neither worth spit without the other. Man isn't an embodied spirit bidin' his time till he can cast off his meat suit. Man is both mind and meat, together. Man is an amalgam, an alloy.

So when the flesh perishes, does the spirit evaporate, henry?

[henry quirk]

Well, I'm goin' full whacko here, B: take care not to get any of my craziness on you.

Man is a composite of mind & matter or spirit & flesh. Two very different things melded together irrevocably. Neither worth spit without the other. Man isn't an embodied spirit bidin' his time till he can cast off his meat suit. Man is both mind and meat, together. Man is an amalgam, an alloy.

So when the flesh perishes, does the spirit evaporate, henry?

I think so.

[Impenitent]

a homeless ghost in the machine...

-Imp

[Walker]

I suppose a soul could be various things, depending on which culture’s conception of soul you were considering.

Hold it right there.

There can be various views of what a mountain is. That view changes while walking the nature trail. Does the changing view of the mountain change what the mountain, is?

[Harbal]

I suppose a soul could be various things, depending on which culture’s conception of soul you were considering.

Hold it right there.

There can be various views of what a mountain is. That view changes while walking the nature trail. Does the changing view of the mountain change what the mountain, is?

I'm not concerned with mountains.

[Walker]

Hold it right there.

There can be various views of what a soul is. That view changes while walking the nature trail. Does the changing view of the soul change what the soul, is?

[Harbal]

Hold it right there.

There can be various views of what a soul is. That view changes while walking the nature trail. Does the changing view of the soul change what the soul, is?

I don't know, that's why I started the thread, to get thoughts about what a soul is.

[Walker]

Does your view of any thing, change what that thing is?

[Age]

When the 'soul' word refers to an invisible part of the human being, then the soul is just the 'person' within a human body. The 'person' word refers to the thoughts and internal or emotional feelings, which are usually associated with the brain.

The 'human being' words refer to the whole or the physical visible part and the invisible part. The 'human' word refers to the physical, visible body and the 'being' word referring to the non visible part.

Now, the 'I' word refers to the One that is within everyone, which is what the 'God' word, in the 'Spirit' sense, refers to, but which is not the soul. The 'soul' word refers to the individual one or 'person', which the 'i' word refers to.

Now, the 'Spirit', of which there is only One, and which is not the soul, is eternal. The soul (or the 'you') is born, or is in creation, but has an everlasting affect, forevermore.

Although you, the soul, or the individual 'i', is, in a sense, aware, you and i are only aware, from and because of the five senses of that individual human body we are individually within. So, we, individually, only have a limited and relatively very small and narrowed field of view, and so also generally only have a limited and relatively very small and narrowed view, or opinion, of things.

The Spirit God, or the collective of ALL I, however, is aware of ALL things. Also, only because and from ALL of the sense that ALL individual physical bodies have.


Now, after a human body changes from being a breathing air, heart pumping body, the you, and i, within, existing as the invisible thoughts and feelings, or just the soul, stops being aware anymore, and so also stops gathering new thoughts or just stops becoming anew. But, the reason it is said the soul keeps existing and exists forever more is because what influence you have made and changed on the world and on other beings will have an everlasting effect, on one way or another.

[Age]

Does your view of any thing, change what that thing is?

Only to 'the one', with the view.

[Harbal]

Does your view of any thing, change what that thing is?

No more or less so with a soul than with anything else, as far as I know.