# Do you have a spirit? What is it? How do you know? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 8, 2023, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245 "2023-08-08T12:30:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Clu-Me-In](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@Clu-Me-In](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clu-Me-In)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/1 "2023-08-08T12:30:54Z")
Most of us believe we have a “Spirit,” but do we ever wonder where our spirit comes from and if it is a young, old or dateless spirit? How do we know we have a Spirit? ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/2 "2023-08-08T12:32:04Z")
Sincerely not to thread-shit, but I don’t believe I actually do have a spirit, so I would be curious to see your definition. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/3 "2023-08-08T12:32:40Z")
I’ve got spirit. Yes I do. I’ve got spirit. How 'bout you? ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/4 "2023-08-08T12:36:55Z")
**Pilate:** “The wittle wascal has spiwit.” **Centurion:** “Yes he did, sir.” **Pilate:** “No, no! Spiwit, bwavado, a touch of dewwing-do.” **Centurion:** “About a quarter to twelve, sir…” - _Life of Brian_ ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/5 "2023-08-08T12:43:24Z")
I am currently dispirited. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/6 "2023-08-08T12:44:14Z")
I do not have a spirit. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/7 "2023-08-08T13:36:56Z")
Spirit? I have several. Eisner wrote them in the 40s and 50s. Great fun. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/8 "2023-08-08T13:37:44Z")
I have demons, do they count? I also have spunk, but I don’t talk about it much becasue people hate spunk. As for spirit, I don’t think I will actually know until I pass away. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/9 "2023-08-08T13:41:14Z")
Serious question: Is there a difference between a spirit (in the sense that the OP is asking about) and a soul? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/10 "2023-08-08T13:46:41Z")
Spirit? Utter nonsense. Soul? Utter nonsense. All garbage promulgated by childlike and ignorant minds. Or by conmen. Or now, millenia later, by unthinking people misled by the long-standing nature of the original highly-touted nonsense. Humanity lurves them some bad ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/11 "2023-08-08T13:47:40Z")
Definitions matter, here. If we define “spirit” as “the set of qualities that distinguish a living thing from a nonliving thing”, then yes, we all have spirits, because we’re alive. If you define it in some other way, then the answer might be “no”, or “we have no way of knowing”. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/12 "2023-08-08T13:49:46Z")
I’ve still got half a bottle of Evan Williams 1783 bourbon in the cupboard. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/13 "2023-08-08T13:51:56Z")
I think souls have a train but spirits have an airline (of sorts). ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/14 "2023-08-08T14:43:28Z")
I hope the OP comes back to explain what a spirit is. I think a spirit is a magical being that lives in your garden. Not a soul. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/15 "2023-08-08T15:11:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Definitions matter, here. If we define “spirit” as “the set of qualities that distinguish a living thing from a nonliving thing”, then yes, we all have spirits, because we’re alive. I’ve seen dead bodies (e.g. at open-casket funerals) and been pretty clear that what I was looking at was not the person I knew but only the body that they used to be using. The person themselves—what you could call their spirit—either no longer existed or was elsewhere, but they were no longer in that body. In that sense at least, we have (or are) spirits. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/16 "2023-08-08T15:42:43Z")
I personally do not believe in supernatural spirits or souls. I think it’s a concept made up to “explain” how dead people go to the afterlife. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/17 "2023-08-08T15:51:03Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I think a spirit is a magical being that lives in your garden. No, that’s a gnome. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/18 "2023-08-08T15:52:58Z")
If I have an intangible essence of some sort, it is still inextricably connected to my physical manifestation. The “two” are inseparable. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/19 "2023-08-08T16:22:38Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > > I think a spirit is a magical being that lives in your garden. > > No, that’s a gnome. Actually, that’s Harold. He’s cool. Wants to be an interior decorator but has to work through some stuff first. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/20 "2023-08-08T16:29:46Z")
My spirit animal is the mosquito. We could redefine it as the process of life, of course, but I thinks it’s normally intended to mean something supernatural. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245.md?page=2)