In yuor opinion, does the soul exist? The soul refers to that part of every human that makes us self-aware…it can also be referred to as ‘the mind’ of a person. Is there something that seperates us from the animals, that makes us different/superior?
Or is the soul just a religious concept, brought around to control the masses? (Not my opinion, I’m just throwing ideas around)
Once I straighten out my thoughts, I’ll let you know how I feel…
Considering that every single function of ours is explained by a physical body part, there really isn’t anything for a soul to do.
So, you have trouble even explaining what a soul could/should do? Can you think of anything that seperates us from animals?
here’s a web site which can enlighten you. it is owned by a retired psychiatrist who spent most of his life dealing with
multiple personalities and has wrtten several paprs as well as a book about what the various personalities told him. i’m not sure
just what to believe…there are so many opinions around. the
“great” sylvia brown was interviewed by larry king last wek on tv…
she made the statement that “the other side” is real and we are transparent. another place to look is “messages from michael”.
if what it says is true the other side is much like here on earth.
oh yes, sylvia says the same thing “the other side is just like it is here”. i hope to hell that’s not so!
sorry…I don’t see any URL in your post…not I really want to see what it is!
sorry about that. it’s late here in calif and i should be in bed. the
address is dissociation.com…i thik it’s well worth taking a look at.
i,ve has some personal correspondence with him and find him to be very oliging guy.
Then why not simply call it the mind and be done with it? There is a great deal of physical evidence that consciousness emanates from the brain, but no physical evidence that it emanates from anywhere else. We don’t understand everything about the brain, but that’s no reason to postulate an additional entity, especially one that isn’t defined in any meaningful way.
We appear to be better at using tools and at abstract thought, but I don’t see any reason to assume that other animals aren’t self-aware.
Because I felt that if I had simply called it ‘the mind’ people would have assumed that I meant ‘the brain’; the two terms get confused easily by some people, and I felt I should minimise confusion.
But do you think that humans have a heightened sense of self-awareness? Does this make us superior/equal? What I’m trying to find out is what people think seperates us from the animals…
Our brains are a bit more complex.
…That’s about it.
**So, you have trouble even explaining what a soul could/should do? Can you think of anything that seperates us from animals?
**
Not much. We are smarter. That’s about it.
once you have actually witnessed the soul leaving the body that they have inhabited there really is no question of if there is one… it is much more than the ‘mind of the body’, it is the energy of that body… and no, i dont mean body heat…
by the way, what makes you think that animals dont have souls??
Where have you been when I needed you?
Yes, animals do have souls also, there is a mountain of proof now available for the existence of souls, thank you.
http://www.ndeweb.com/discus/messages/65/6142.html?1054332224
Love
Leroy
The soul is a concept invented by man’s mind to represent the subject of all those acts of man which man could not directly trace to his visible body, in times past when science and technology has not yet come up with ways and means to link up such activities like thinking, dreaming, wishing, deciding, etc., to his body or a part of it, the brain.
Then religion found the concept very useful as the subject for the period between death and resurrection when a man’s body is dead but religion teaches it will come back to life again, and the soul will be reunited with it. In the meantime during the body’s death, the soul will be punished or rewarded for the deeds of the man during his earthly or bodily lifetime.
Well, does that make any sense to anyone?
Susma Rio Sep
I’ve seen a fair few people die and I can honestly say I’ve never seen their soul leave their body…maybe it waits until I leave the room 
I’m sure most people who believe in souls though would probably agree that it’s something you can’t see, you just know it’s there.
I have to agree with Susma rio sep here, that the soul is just a concept that man made up to explain stuff that science was not yet able to and was reinforced by religious teachings.
Every single function is explained by a body part? Can you demonstrate this, please?
I’d like a reasonably detailed explanation, please. Saying something like “free will is explained by the brain” is insufficient, insofar as it is an assertion, not a verified statement.
Jumping in here: What do you mean by “free will”? There is a great deal of scientific evidence to show that that choices originate in the brain. The electrical signals occurring in a subject’s brain can be monitored, and electrical activity in particular portions of the brain can be shown to coincide with actions taken by the subject. There is also evidence to show that the brain is causing the action, rather than reacting to it. First, it has been shown that the brain activity precedes the action by a fraction of a second. Second, damage to the spinal cord can result in the body parts below the damage not functioning, but the brain remaining active. So yes, it is verified. We can debate the meaning of “free will”, but that would be another matter.
But I don’t think you are minimizing confusion, and here’s why: The classical concept of a soul usually includes the idea that it survives the death of the body. If you posit that “soul” and “mind” are the same thing, yet leave out the part about transcending the body, then you’re really redefining the word. It makes it much harder to discuss a concept when the definition is allowed to be murky. That was my point - if you are going to say that the soul is the same as the “mind”, then you don’t really have any need for the word “soul”.
As for the mind, or consciousness, emanating from somewhere other than the brain, I don’t see any evidence that that is the case. Given the 2 choices: 1) Consciousness emanates from the brain, or 2) Consciousness emanates from another undetectable structure; Occam’s Razor suggests that the first choice is more likely.
The thing is, we don’t really know. I know that I have a sense of self-awareness, and I know that other humans do, because we share a relatively complex language that allows us to share this sense with others. But we are unable to communicate on that level with other species, so the best we can do right now is guess. My guess is that self-awareness is related to intelligence, so that the more intelligent an animal is, the more self-awareness it has. In other words, there is a sort of sliding-scale of self-awareness. It’s not something that’s “on” or “off”, it exists in varying degrees. Again, that’s just a guess.
In spite of our egos wanting to tell us we’re special, the truth is we’re just another animal.
Another thought… Do you really want to be able to detect the soul by instrumental means?
Suppose the soul is real… Suppose humans, and some animals, have 'em. Suppose the soul is “spiritual,” but interfaces with the physical world… The soul connects to the mind somewhere inside the brain. Descartes is said to have thought the Pineal Gland was the site of the connection, so, for the moment, let’s take that as true…
That means that, by excising a man’s Pineal, I can “damn” him, take away his divine free will, and, in essence, make a zombie out of him…
It means that it would be possible to create a ray-gun that would zap people right in the body/soul connection. A damnation gun!
It means that it would be possible to amplify this effect, and start shooting angels right out of the sky! It means that, with enough energy, we could build a cannon big enough to hurt God!
Well…maybe not… But, seriously, if souls can be seen, it means they interact with light…which means they are at least partly “physical.” This has serious metaphysical implications.
Science fiction writer Arsen Darnay wrote several stories and a couple of novels exploring this notion… (And I swiped some of my exaggerations, above, from “Hellblazer, John Constantine.”)
Trinopus
More on the soul from Susma Rio Sep:
In order to really have a very down to earth in depth idea of what the soul is, and thereby also answer the question whether it exists outside the mind, proceed along the following steps:
Q1.What kind of concept is the soul, one validable directly by the senses or not?
A. Not one validable by the senses, like for example apple, meat, Susma.
Q2. If it is not validable by the senses, where is it, in the mind or outside?
A. It is not outside the mind, but all in the mind.
Q3. If it’s all in the mind, how did it get there?
A. By the mind’s imagination.
Q4. If it’s from the imagination of the mind, why the imagination?
A. Imagination has two purposes: pure entertainment or some utilitarian ends.
Q5. Entertainment is all right, but what about utilitarian purposes?
A. Some of the utilitarian purposes of imagining the existence of the mind have been stated by me already in an earlier post above:
Q6. What are the general utilitarian purposes of the imagined but mind-embedded soul?
A. There are two broad groups of utilitarian purposes of the soul, the second deriving from the first, namely: attitudes in the mind and heart of man, and behavior consequent upon the attitudes.
Q7. Can man live without the imagined-embedded soul with all the engendered attitudes and consequent behavioral actuations outside the mind?
A. Yes, but for social control it is better to keep the masses ignorant about what Susma says in regard to the soul. Perceptive minds can also keep the soul in their mind and heart, however always on alert for any exploitation by smart guys to take advantage of them psychologically or materially, by appeal to the soul.
Psychyologically being taken advantage of happens when people show that you are inferior to them or subject to them on the basis of all kinds of grounds founded upon your soul; materially when owing to the psychological subserviency conditioned in you, you conduct yourself to the loss of your time, trouble, and earthly resources to the control or enjoyment of these exploiters, many of which are into religion.
I will have more to say about the soul, but think about my two messages so far.
Susma Rio Sep
SirMuffinMan
Unlike Susma, blowero and others who dismiss spiritual matters, I do believe everyone has a soul and spirit which are related, but not one and the same. It is my belief that your spirit in the energy or spark of life given to us by God of himself. Our souls are the accumulation of our thoughts, words, and deeds… an on-going written “record”.
There are those who would use religion, science, affluence, intellect, etc., to demean or control others. Any one of those can be as destructive as the others when used for that purpose.