The word "spirit"seems to mean many different unrelated things, ranging from “the old school spirit” through “my horse has lots of spirit” to “the Holy Spirit” and “will my spirit go to heaven?” Can anyone give me a general definition of the word that covers all these cases?
Incorporeal consciousness - or - the vital principle or animating force within living beings. The latin *spiritus * - breath, sould, courage, vigor. Greek - Pneuma, breath.
I assume you are not looking for the philosophical renditions.
Does that mean in the case of the “old school spirit” that the school has a consciousness?
Why do you think a single definition will cover all cases? That’s not the way language works.
Is “spirit” synonymous with"consciousness?" Are spirit and mind the same thing? I ask because once a priest tole me my soul and my mind were not the same thing.
Marklar
It was also the name of a rock group active from the mid-1960’s until 1997 when lead guitarist Randy California was drowned off the coast of Molokai.
I’m guessing this is not what you wanted but as others have said, just one definition does not cover all the bases.
Please, is my mind and my soul the same thing or not?
Old School Spirit refers to the “spirit” of the people attending the school through the generations. Not the building itself.
Soul and Mind are waaaaay too broad to call them equal.
There just isn’t any single, straight, absolute answer to this question. Most people would agree on a definition of the term ‘mind’ (even if we don’t know exactly how minds work), but ‘soul’ isn’t something on which everybody agrees - regarding the existence, properties or definition of the thing.
You quoted yourself when you asked this question, so I for one assumed you were just talking to yourself.
So we seem to be going in a circle. People can’t agree on what the soul is, but most will probably agree it is an example of spirit. That’s how this thread started. I contend people don’t agree on what is spirit. Most would say conscousness is a major part of mind, and the first replier said spirit is consciousness.
Well, there it is. Job well done.
The problem is that the various sets of things said about soul, spirit, consciousness, mind are not all said or believed by the same people. You’re treating this as a confused consensus. It’s actually a confused debate.
Heres what I think. People use the word spirit the way physicists use the word energy (except that spirit is not conserved). Its some kind of “oomph” that makes living beings (people mostly, and collections of people, like societies) act differently than nonliving objects, just as a physical object at absolute zero or in its lowest energy state is different than one possessing energy because it doesn’t do anything. Beyond that they can’t say any more about it. So spirit is somehow connected to the concept of life. But as biology advances the dichotomy between living and nonliving matter is breaking down, so the difference between spirit and energy is getting fuzzy. If you waht to hear more let me know. I’m preparing a 500 page exposition of my thoughts on this.
So you are writing a book. Ok, join our minions as we are a wealth of Knowledge. Og knows how many authors got some of their content from these very pages. 
Welcome!
I can recommend some books about “spirit” to you. You see talking about it already diminishes it’s inherent awareness, just mentioning the word. I suggest Eckhart Tolle’s new book A New Earth. Very good read…
It this is what you want to discuss, General Questions is not the correct forum. It’s better off in IMHO or Great Debates. This forum is for questions with factual answers.
viccums, if you already had an opinion on this, why did you post this thread in GQ? Why didn’t you tell us your take on it in the OP and put the thread somewhere like GD?
Sorry. I’m new here and can’t get all this thread category stuff straight. I’ve already been chewed out by one moderator on this. Although I’m flattered you would consider this a great Debate.
Thank you, Philosphr, for your kind offer. But I’m being told this is not the proper forum so I will have to move on. Actually I’m not writing a book, and my wife is an avid Tolle freak.