How does a soul control a body
Many religions tell us that WE are a soul inside a body - the body is just a shell etc. I am just curious how do these religions explain that such an ethereal consciousness can control one (and only one) body.
maybe GD … soz
You are not likely to find a factual answer to this question. However, there is some evidence that the brain’s limbic system either fabricates spirituality or else serves as a conduit for it. Science cannot tell us which.
See Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, by neurosurgeon V. S. Ramachandran, Ph.D., M.D. Read the chapter titled, “God and the Limbic System”.
The most promising answer you can get is probably from a high practitioning member of that particular religion.
I’m sure that scientology has an answer to your question. Wouldn’t put much faith in that answer, though.
Since I don’t think we are going to find a factual answer, I’ll move this to Great Debates.
Off to Great Debates.
DrMatrix - General Questions Moderator
You’d have to set up some fairly specific definitions of soul and body to even start thinking about this one. There is too much ambiguity about what a soul is, and moreover - what the identity of a person is with respect to his/her soul and body to begin arguing in such a general sense. I’ve never actually found a satisfactory account of what a soul is…
anyone?
Ah, THAT is the question, isn’t it. An invisible, weightless, undetectable…what? Energy? Substance? What is it made of? Where is it located, exactly, in the body? Can it see, hear, think, and remember? If so, what do we need eyes, and ears, and a brain for? Why do we have any reason at all to believe it exists?
Since the idea of the soul is so subjective and abstract, and i don’t really think it’s possible to give the OP a meaningful answer without resorting to rank dogmatic extrapolations.
Perfect title thread for the question I was going to bring to the SDMB… sorry for the hijack…
In what does a soul reside? If you were to teleport yourself from point A to point B 5 miles away:
-If the teleport A pod scanned the construct of your body, destroyed you, then recreated you in the teleprt B pod from the surrounding elements- would your soul be in the newly created body? if so, how did it know where to go?
-If the teleport A pod scanned the construct of your body, deconstructed you, then reconstructed you with the same particles as before in pod B, would your soul be with you? if so, how was it transferred? Is it in all of the particles at once?
One big issue before any of this can move on…first…can anyone define/state/agree on what is a “soul”…does it exist?
This needs to be answer b4 anything else. (but its probably just gonna pump up more existential questions)
I was never aware that the soul was in control of the body or visa-veyesa-versa. 
Here is an address that may by interesting to some.
Read the quote that starts out
“There have many relatively recent studies on consciousness…”
The University of Virginia is doing a lot of research in this area also. Will provide address if anyone is interested.
I think people are running into a certain problem here: the English Language. The real difficulting lies in the words, “Have a soul.”
People do not have souls. People are souls. The body being a useful but temporary convenience on this earth. Its the makeup and costume on the world’s stage.
The soul need not control all judgement directly. It is the true repository of morality, however. Moreover, one might say that it is the souls which truly decides many things; one may alter the quantum structure of energyu to decide whether or not electron “A” moves through path “Y” or “X”.
These may not be possible, and hence, irrelevant.
So where does mind fit into the equation?
The animating and vital principle, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity, or conscienceness.
The “soul” is a topic, like bandit had mentioned, where many people will stumble in their vocabulary, due to a lack of descriptive words in any language to accurately illustrate certain supernatural entities and/or experiences.
Though, before we could really know “how the soul controls the body,” I think there are a number of things we must first descover, or define.
For instance:
Before anyone can accurately answer this question, they must first truly understand the soul and all aspects of the soul.
This is a topic that is very difficult to approach scientifically, due to the lack of facts and ability to test a formed hypothesis. This is the basic approach of Aristotle:http://azaz.essortment.com/aristotlesoulp_rmeb.htm
The only other ways of approaching this topic are philosophically and religiously. Any particular religion will have their own beliefs on the soul, but most of what you will here is the same thing you’ve heard over and over again with a few variations.
What I find the most helpful in my understanding of the soul comes from a more philosophical approach. Something you may find helpful is some of Plato’s works on the last days of Socrates, probably the best one being Crito. These aren’t necessarily the best translations, but they get the basic point across:
http://socrates.clarke.edu
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain. - Shakespeare
The best explaination of soul I’ve encountered is a Buddhist perspective, going from memory of what taught; Soul is like the flickering flame of a candle; it can jump from candle to candle, and finds fuel in each candle, but it can’t be said that each flame is the absolute end of the flame. That seems to explain it best to me at this point of my limited knowledge.