The Soul *What is it?*

I was curious what you guys think 'the soul' is. Some people do not believe we have a soul, infact don't believe the word 'soul' at all. Why?

Some believe our soul is our sacred energy and when we die our soul continues to live and be re-born again into another physical body.

Some believe we have a soul, but it dies when we die.

There are many many more that I've heard, these are just a few examples. But what I'd really like to know is what YOU think a 'soul' is? What do you think is involved in our soul?

I'll let you guys go first Then I'll tell ya what I think..
Thank you~
Magestica

well my dear,

your soul is you what you are
your body is merely a vessel that enhances your ability to enjoy the five senses for a time
your impact on other souls is your merit
your merit's, in a sixth sort of sense way, determines the future evolution of you, your soul.
this should be common knowledge by now

but it is not, thus turmoil!!

my response is simplified for those here, that is the way all should be, simple
only your minds should contemplate complication and become meritorious

ya'know like boyscouts and girlscouts, get a merit badge move up a level

tut tut

I'm perfectly aware of what a soul is 'my dear', but again it is MY opinion, I've come across and spoken to many many people *as stated above* that have a different view on what they believe our soul is, and some do not even believe we have one.

This post was to find out what all of you thought, it was/is not to be directed to me..I will tell you how I perceive the soul a little later. Although it's close to what you think 'tut'..
Mags

are similar to yours Magestica...

Buddhist say that "soul is a consequence of Karma"...

This mean that all the things you learned and all the thing, good or bad, you have done in your past life have an inluence on your present life...

How do you know what my beliefs are? I haven't even posted what mine are yet..

*Don't go getting me all paranoided out again*

...the energy that makes your body move, your brian think and your heart feel...

Originally posted by magestica
I'm perfectly aware of what a soul is 'my dear', but again it is MY opinion, I've come across and spoken to many many people *as stated above* that have a different view on what they believe our soul is, and some do not even believe we have one.

This post was to find out what all of you thought, it was/is not to be directed to me..I will tell you how I perceive the soul a little later. Although it's close to what you think 'tut'..

Mags

i am deeply sadened that I offended you that was not my intent
"paranoia stikes deep into your Life it will creep"
Buffalo Sringfield if memory serves me

Here's how I perceive the 'soul'..and just so you know *this was/is not based on religion*

Our or I should say 'my'- since others may not feel the same as I do-soul is pure energy that we carry with us no matter where we go. I don't *necessarily* feel that our soul controls us, our emotions, thoughts and so on. As I believe there are certain thoughts and emotions that are held inside our soul that we may be totally unaware of. For instance we may have a flood of emotion, for no "apparant" reason and perhaps it's our soul that's causing this..from a feeling we felt somewhere, some other time, even some other life.

I do believe our soul continues on even after our bodies are dead and gone. I believe it carries what we may have felt *strongly* from a previous life or even this life.
An example is, let's say that in a previous life I was tortured and dealt with a great deal of mental/physical pain, my soul felt this and has carried that 'feeling' into the next life. So some may seem like they are in pain as we look at them, yet they are very happy people, with no deep pain dealt with in 'this' lifetime, so the pain we are actually seeing/feeling from them is the pain within their soul, from another time..a pain that they too may feel and wonder where it comes from and why. *Especially people who do not believe we have a soul or know what it is*

I also feel that we have 'soul' connections..people we knew in another life and may wander upon in this one and we ourselves may not remember, but our soul recalls and re-acts, this may cause us to have a strong overwhelming feeling of 'knowing' them, yet we've never met them before at all. This could be a lover, a friend, a family member and so on..

A deeper connection with another would be 'soulmate' and most all of you know how I feel about that-so I won't repeat it here.

Our soul is perhaps what gives us our own individuality. In a whole, it makes us who we actually are and certain things we strive to do and avoid. It 'feels' things when we ourselves may be unaware of that particular feeling at all. Like my fear of water, maybe that fear is there for a reason. Perhaps my death in another life was drowning or even the death of someone close to me.

I believe that people who have psychic 'gifts' carry those gifts within their soul, thus is why many children are born with the 'knowing'..

Well I feel as though I've made no sense here..lol! Just a bunch of words all thrown together..but it's very hard to explain, and I didn't realize this until trying to do so..
I guess the deeper you try to go with the meaning, the harder it is on you to have to explain it?

Thank you all so much though for your replies..it's neat to hear how others see our soul/or don't. Alot of people feel very differently and some feel very much the same..quite interesting
Mag

* And 'tut' you didn't offend me, just thought maybe you might have misunderstood what I was asking from you guys. But yes, I'm paranoid..just who I am. I'm a paranoid freak *



[Edited on 6/11/03 by magestica]

I absolutely DO believe in Karma...ohhhh and I've had my fair share and continue doing so and will probably continue until my soul withers away..If you look up 'karma', I'm certain you'd see my mug staring at you

Maybe if I stop believing in karma, I won't have to feel the affects of it? Well, that's not going to happen so guess I'll just deal with it as it comes..

Magestica

Man/Woman is composed of a material element (the body) and a spiritual element (the soul) not as two independent elements that happen to be joined together, but as two incomplete elements that need each other to form a complete whole, human person. While the soul after death can exist apart from the body, there is an incompleteness in its condition apart from the body until it will be reunited with the body at the end of the world. Our salvation then, will be fully realized only with the resurrection of the body, when the whole man/woman will enjoy the beatitude of the life to come.

The soul though unseen, is just as real as the body. It is unfortunate, that man/woman is often much more aware of and concerned about the care of his body and its needs than his/her soul, even though the welfare of the soul is by far the more important. It is the condition of the soul at the end of the life on earth that determines our eternal lot, not that of the body.





blackwidow

Some believe our soul is our sacred energy and when we die our soul continues to live and be re-born again into another physical body

Was what I was referring to....mistakenly read it... Don't know if I'd use the word "sacred", but I believe our soul is energy. All matter is inert. Only with the influence of energy does any kind of matter "do" anything...therefore, in order for us as an entity, to move our matter around, it follows that our essential being is that of energy.

Okay, all the suggestions sound agreeable, but in the end I still can't be sure....the thing's I'm more sure about are that souls interact with each other (ie soulmates), souls CAN exist outside of the physical body (from Out of Body experiences) and I'm sure there's a connection with past lives.....but as for details, I can't even guess..........yet

Also, matter is not inert. It vibrates as well, it's just a more gross form of "energy". even the grossest form of matter vibrates; but so slow that it seems to be still. Just as the highest form of "energy" which is spirit; vibrates so fast that it seems to be still. (A fast spinning top can demonstrate this to a degree).

Reincarnation makes sense because energy can't be destroyed or created; only changed. But; does our energy remain a single entity or does it dissipate(spelling?) into the All or vaste sea of Ki energy?


ONE

[Edited on 6-11-2003 by BuddhaCession]

Reincarnation makes sense because energy can't be destroyed or created; only changed.

Hello all,

This post doesn't really have anything to do with the topic but I did want to share something regarding the quoted phrase above.

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The law of conservation of energy states, "Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it may be changed from one form to another." This law appears quite workable, but actually is false. Energy can be created, as the very existence of the physical universe proves, and it can also be destroyed.

The law of conservation of matter and energy states, "The total amount of matter and energy available in the universe is fixed." This law also is false.

If we had a law of conservation of space, it would be false, too. Matter, energy, and space are all increasing in quantity in the physical universe, at a slight rate.

Keep in mind that, as Professor Hawking said, the actual point of creation lies outside the scope of presently known laws of physics.

There are many universes and sub-universes, which can and often do overlap, but this particular physical universe began as a result of seven basic decisions, interspersed with various considerations.

First was the decision to be the creator.

Second was the decision to assume a viewpoint, which created dimension, thereby space. (In contradiction to quantum mechanics, there are only three dimensions in this physical universe: height, width, and depth. Time is not a dimension.)

Third was the decision that the space would endure.

Fourth was the decision that a particle of energy would exist in the space. (Again, the supposition that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed is false.)

Fifth was the decision that the particle would endure in the space, at which point time began. (Time is a decision. Awareness of the existence of time results only from particles changing location in relation to each other.)

Sixth was the decision that at least a second particle of energy would also exist and endure in the space. (The particles then could move in relation to each other, which resulted in the apparency of time.)

Seventh was the decision that numerous similar particles would also exist and endure in space, constituting more energy, and that those particles of energy could be grouped together to form various objects.

Accordingly, thought, and energy in the form of particles, and grouped particles in the form of matter, existed in space and endured (resulting in time), constituting all the basic components of this physical universe, which then increased in size as more dimension was viewed and additional particles of energy were postulated into existence.

Incidentally, at the point that the decision was made that the first particle would endure (the fifth decision), which began time, that decision (like the first four decisions) was made outside time � there was no time, yet. Therefore, the beginning and ending of this universe are both "the same time." They are coincidental, because they are both in "no time."

That is an accurate synopsis of what actually happened at the beginning of the physical universe, despite the fact that it is at some variance with some of Albert Einstein's and Stephen Hawking's theories, such as their contention that the physical universe is infinite. In truth, it is not quite infinite.
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I am sorry but I cannot reveal the source of this until I get permission from the Moderators.

On the Topic of Souls, just to refocus on it, I believe that your Soul is the real you. Your body is basically an electrically charged machine that is completely controlled by your Soul. I agree that the merit your Soul acquires throughout the life of your body is what it will be judged on in the end times. Because of this, your Soul is much more important than your physical body. I have not yet decided if I believe in reincarnation or not but I do have to consider it. If the life of your Soul is Eternal then it seems a waste to only inhabit one body during all that time. Another way to think of it is that your body is but the Larvae that will transform you into your true being.

Well, those are my thoughts.

Thank you
JHAustin

Well,
Officially, I believe that the mind is the electrochemical product of the brain.. that is, I don't think that 'I'm' my brain, but the little zaps of electricity going around inside of it...

Now, unofficially, I actually agree with the 18th Century philosopher George Berkely, an Irish Bishop... in that I believe that the physical world is real, knock on wood, but that it, in itself, is a manifestation of the mind (ok, there;s a lot more to him than that...). Now, I know that Hume, Kant and others went on to better develop his ideas (Hume by pointing out that we only 'see' what we can see, and what we can see must first be assembled from empiracle observation... so we ARE, in reality, our experiences, themselves).

Sorry if I've conflated 'mind' and 'soul', but I can't help it.
Jim

PS I know I've sloppily rendered the thoughts of the above thinkers, so no need for correction (Byrd, Gazrok, etc).

JHAustin:

I can agree with much of that. But everything exists within the All, and the All, is in All. How can something exist outside of the All when the All is All? The All is what was, is and always will be. So that means that there's "nothing new under the Sun". All this changing of matter, energy, ether, etc. is just everything within the All, transmuting and changing their levels of vibration. The closest thing to the All is spirit. Spirit is the highest level of vibration and the only thing that could be considered "real" beacuse it does not change. It underlies All.

For more read this:

bobert1.home.mindspring.com...


ONE

[Edited on 12-6-2003 by Tamahu]

Why do people act as if the mind belongs to the body; when the body actually belongs to the mind?


ONE

If you believe that you are a bunch of nerves and offal encased in skin, and your existence is snuffed out when the electrochemical activity in your brain ceases and desists, then it is a fair perception that your mind is trapped in your body, or more precisely your brain.

Ahhh... But the Universe is mental. Surely the higher forms of vibration(mind and spirit) don't belong to the lower(gross matter and flesh).

When your physical shuts down, that bio-electric and mental energy has to go "somewhere".

The phrase "Mind over matter"; does have roots in "reality" ya know.


ONE

[Edited on 12-6-2003 by Tamahu]