Do You Have A Spirit?

I usually hang out over at the Aliens & UFOs section, (Which means I'm a little whacky to begin with) but I've been surprised to discover during the course of those discussion, how many folks on ATS deny they have, or even think about whether or not they have a spirit residing within.

So, I'm asking you; do you have a spirit? Are you a spirit being? Are you a light being?

If so, how did you discover your spirit? And how do you know for sure?

There aren't any right or wrong answers to this question believe it or not, because we're talking about your own personal understanding. Just saying you have a spirit because someone, or some book told you so, isn't actually answering the "spirit" of the question. LOL!!

Also it would be great if we could discuss this without folks attacking each other with dueling scriptures, unless you are the author of said scriptures. LOL!!

Have at it brothers and sisters!

Yes, we all have one although it may be (for some anyway) more of a group soul than an individual one.

My soul's (Spirit's) name is SORICE. I am one of many on this forum with an individual consciousness. You would be surprised how many here are a). asleep and b). awake. There are a surprising number of awakened souls who are trying to find themselves, some who don't really care, and most are in between...

bs

[edit on 13-4-2007 by biggie smalls]

I believe we all have a soul. The fundamental question for me is simply, who are we? Some say we are just a highly organized meatloaf of carbon, calcium and water. When we die, that's the end. Personally, I find that depressing, and highly improbable that we would just evolve that way purely by chance. I believe "I" am a soul, a spirit who is stuck in fragile, dying body. Proof is the sole domain of science, and science concerns itself with that which can be measured and quantified. The spirit realm cannot be scientifically studied, because it is not physical. I cannot prove the existence of my soul, but for myself, I don't need to.

charles

I used to think everyone had a soul, but I have come to believe that there is no way for sure to know if some people are merely animated objects, or actors in a play that we call life.

Spiritually speaking the purpose of the physical world is a form of training for something bigger and better, therefore it is not necessary that everyone have a soul but just that it appears that everyone is the same.

I can find no proof of souls outside of my own consciousness.

I don't even know if you guys are real or actors. It could all just be an elaborate version of the video game "The Sims"

[edit on 17-4-2007 by ben91069]

Originally posted by ben91069
I can find no proof of souls outside of my own consciousness.

I don't even know if you guys are real or actors. It could all just be an elaborate version of the video game "The Sims"

I feel this way too sometimes.. wondering if the world really does revolve around me and that everyone else is an actor.

I know that i am spirit through practicing lots of meditation. I feel this feeling of contentment within myself, I know that which I am and I am that I am.

We are all one.

I have a Consciousness, but that Consciousness is universal.

If you like, individuality is the illusion.

We are under the illusion of being individuals when in reality we are just different aspects of the one Consciousness.

We are different expressions of the whole. But the soul as you call it is the ONENESS that so many people feel but can't describe.

It get's even weirder than that..... Consciousness is not just you and me but it is everything in the universe...

Have you ever felt like you were just watching your actions being played out in front of you like it was a film??? Ever felt the numbness that drives you to create???

I am willing to bet a lot of people have felt this but either couldn't relate to it or have ignored it as they do not have words or thoughts to express it.

Are life and consciousness connected to the funda-mental level of reality?

Consciousness defines our existence and reality, but the mechanism by whichthe brain generates thoughts and feelings remains unknown.

Most explanations portray the brain as a computer, with nerve cells ("neurons") and their synaptic connections acting as simple switches. However computation alone cannot explain why we have feelings and awareness, an "inner life."

We also don't know if our conscious perceptions accurately portray the external world. At its base, the universe follows the seemingly bizarre and paradoxical laws of quantum mechanics, with particles being in multiple places simultaneously, connected over distance, and with time not existing. But the “classical” world we perceive is definite, with a flow of time. The boundary or edge (quantum state reduction, or ‘collapse of the wave function”) between the quantum and classical worlds somehow involves consciousness.

Two Schools of thought....

1: We are living in a quantum simulation.
2: We are living in a naturally arising quantum reality.

If 1 is correct we have no soul other than the observer or the creator of the simulation

If 2 is correct then what we think of as our souls are only different aspects of a quantum universal Consciousness.

Something to think about huh?

All the best,

NeoN HaZe.

[edit on 17-4-2007 by Neon Haze]

I don't believe I have a soul. I have a brain, which provides me with a consciousness, but not a soul.

My belief is that the very thought of having a soul is a comfort to people, much the same as religion, it tells them that there's something after they die. That their soul will live on.

Not me though, I think that when we die, that's it, we go in the ground and it's game over.

Originally posted by Zanzibar
Not me though, I think that when we die, that's it, we go in the ground and it's game over.

I concur with one exception...

Zanzibar will be gone, no more, but consciousness will always exist.
Your brain is the RECEAVER of consciousness not the creator of it.

That said, the you that you think of as you is the consciousness. I'm not talking about your thoughts; I'm talking about the you that observe what is happening.

You are the ultimate potentiality of which the all-embracing consciousness is the manifestation and expression.

"We are in oneness, there is nothing else. Any 'levels of experience' are in the mind only. "Just as each flower has its own colour, but all colours are caused by the same light, so do many experiencers appear in the undivided and indivisible awareness, each seperate in memory, identical in essence. This essence is the root, the foundation, the timeless and space-less 'possibility' of all experience."

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

A good experiment to underline this concept would be to point at an object with your finger... say out loud what you are pointing at 'i'm pointing at the door' for example...

Now point your finger at your eye, look at the end of your finger, can you say with all certainty what it is that you are pointing at??

The hardest part of this concept to grasp is that everything exists and nothing exists as a result as everything cancels everything out to become nothing... It's a never ending cycle... Nothing turns into everything and back to nothing again.

The only thing that can exist is pure potentiality.

All the best,

NeoN HaZe.

[edit on 17-4-2007 by Neon Haze]

most people belief of a soul or god is mostly just a belief (be-LIE-f) but when one tries to experience rather then just believe something different happens it is beyond words that is mostly what i will say.
To experience "soul" feel the eternal stillness which is the root of all things and you will feel great aliveness . just be here and "now" feel the moment.

I believe that there is something akin to what is referred to as "Spirit".
I also think that it is possibly all part of a whole universal consciousness.

Okay, so if the universal consciousness is what people aspire to with their "higher self", attainment means we lose free will as I see it. Fit the mould or get out you reject.

I feel that this "free will" certain beliefs talk of, has taken us from nature and the intended plan. Harmony is conformity.

Once you accept that there is the possibility that there may be some element of interaction of a consciousness beyond our own, can we be sure that we really have free will? That is, are we really independent of that consciousness?

Could our dalliances and encounters with that consciousness just be our seeing artifacts, imperfections in a program or glimpses of the gaoler / jailer?

Anything that I believe exists physically, emotionally, mentally or in an other dimension that I may believe in, may be just constructs of my existence, or maybe all of that plus me are constructs of thought. I may have constructed all that I know, subconsciously from thought. Or thought may have constructed me and all that I know subconsciously.

Para-science has it that we can create through thought, perhaps all that there is, is just a thought or two.

All that man has created started with but a thought, or perhaps thought created man?

Thing that gets me about this spirit stuff, is that man, the lucky ape, has been about for a few million years or so. A lot less time than the Earth and universe is supposed to have existed. Where were the spirits lurking then? In a Diplodocus, a T Rex or primeval slime?

Did the universe create man as vehicle for spirit to experience consciousness, time...life? Is this why man suddenly appears in fossil records?

As for spirit, where does it end and begin. In the right frame of mind I can feel trees are alive. There is more than we can see. I cannot believe that spirit just manifests in man.

I believe you shouldn't limit your beliefs. And that's what alot of people seem to do. Like I'm right & you're wrong. There is no way possible for any of us to know such things as fact or fiction.

For all you know we could be in some sort of experiment, where none of the things we think we know actually exist.

I believe I have a soul/spirit. I also believe a soul/spirit can die, be reborn & evolve. But that's just my belief, I can be very wrong about that. The..."After we die, we rot & that's the end" can be very true. How do I know? How do you? Because your religion says so? Because God came to you in a dream & said so?
The Bible says the only thing Satan cannot do is Love. So why can't Satan come to you in a dream & fool you? Why can't Satan be your God? Who wrote the Bible? How do we know that we should believe what the Bible says? After all, it's been edited by man many times...right? But atleast that's what they tell us? They tell us about this & that. Most of which we cannot prove, because we do not have the tools to do so. We take it in, try to filter it out with common sense to reach a logical answer. Or do we? Or do we think we have a logical answer?

I believe your soul is you. Not the way you look, not the way you sound, but you! But what do I know?

[edit on 18-4-2007 by sdrawkcab]

Why must we be unsure as to whether spirit is, or is not?

The obvious, is that spirit is not flesh, or material.

And if spirit is not either of these, then it must be greater than, right?

And if it is greater than, then why can't we manifest spirit, in this material space for all to see?

What I mean is, if we say "I am/or have a spirit", then why isn't our spirit obvious to all?

Or, is it?

semanticly for myself a soul is my mind will and emotions
my spirit is my life force from God
I have both and a body

Originally posted by junglelord
semanticly for myself a soul is my mind will and emotions
my spirit is my life force from God
I have both and a body

junglelord,

I'm not asking to challenge you, but rather as a means of gaining further insight:

Do you know this from an intellectual level, or do you have experiences in spirit, which are different from your mind, will, and emotions refered to as your soul?

[edit on 4-5-2007 by eyespy2]

Originally posted by sdrawkcab
I believe you shouldn't limit your beliefs. And that's what alot of people seem to do. Like I'm right & you're wrong. There is no way possible for any of us to know such things as fact or fiction.

I believe your soul is you. Not the way you look, not the way you sound, but you! But what do I know?

[edit on 18-4-2007 by sdrawkcab]

sdrawkcab,

So is it possible to know thyself?

[edit on 4-5-2007 by eyespy2]

Originally posted by T Trubballshoota
I believe that there is something akin to what is referred to as "Spirit".
I also think that it is possibly all part of a whole universal consciousness.

Okay, so if the universal consciousness is what people aspire to with their "higher self", attainment means we lose free will as I see it. Fit the mould or get out you reject.

I feel that this "free will" certain beliefs talk of, has taken us from nature and the intended plan. Harmony is conformity.

As for spirit, where does it end and begin. In the right frame of mind I can feel trees are alive. There is more than we can see. I cannot believe that spirit just manifests in man.

A couple of questions, T Trubballshoota,

If I am the spirit of a tree, do I aspire for universal consciousness?

If not, does this mean that there is inequity in spiritual consciousness? Or, am I, the spirit of the tree, better capable of living in harmony with nature, because all I aspired for is to be a tree?


[edit on 4-5-2007 by eyespy2]

Originally posted by Neon Haze

Originally posted by Zanzibar
Not me though, I think that when we die, that's it, we go in the ground and it's game over.

You are the ultimate potentiality of which the all-embracing consciousness is the manifestation and expression.

"We are in oneness, there is nothing else. Any 'levels of experience' are in the mind only. "Just as each flower has its own colour, but all colours are caused by the same light, so do many experiencers appear in the undivided and indivisible awareness, each seperate in memory, identical in essence. This essence is the root, the foundation, the timeless and space-less 'possibility' of all experience."

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

The only thing that can exist is pure potentiality.

All the best,

NeoN HaZe.

[edit on 17-4-2007 by Neon Haze]

NeoN HaZe,

I wonder;

What if the only focus of my pure potentiality, was to negate the manifestation of your all-embracing consciousness, expressions?

Would it be possible under this senario for us to all be one?


Peace

Originally posted by Zanzibar
I don't believe I have a soul. I have a brain, which provides me with a consciousness, but not a soul.

My belief is that the very thought of having a soul is a comfort to people, much the same as religion, it tells them that there's something after they die. That their soul will live on.

Not me though, I think that when we die, that's it, we go in the ground and it's game over.

Hmmm... then I must ask Zanzibar,

What purpose does your existence serve?

[edit on 4-5-2007 by eyespy2]

Maybe he serves no purpose on Earth other than to fulfill basic survival mechanisms.

I for one do not view the world so robotic and dead.

I believe everything has at least a rudimentary level of consciousness, all the way down to atoms/quarks. Down the chain of complexity, organisms simplify in structure. However, they are no less significant.

Without the bacteria, there would be no way we could digest food in our stomach. We rely on plants for food the same way a cow does. We all rely on sunlight and warmth. Certain rudimentary needs must be fulfilled in order for us to survive.

Spirit is one of those needs. We need purpose. We need the breathe of life. God gives that to us, we are here on loan. God is lending us this body and space on Earth. We must use it wisely. Or not (karma?).

Sorry for the tangent, but Spirit is the only real thing in this world.

All else is Illusion (Maya). God is all there is.

Originally posted by biggie smalls
Spirit is one of those needs. We need purpose. We need the breathe of life. God gives that to us, we are here on loan. God is lending us this body and space on Earth. We must use it wisely. Or not (karma?).

Sorry for the tangent, but Spirit is the only real thing in this world.

All else is Illusion (Maya). God is all there is.

What's up biggie smalls,

Why do you believe that our God wants us to suffer?

[edit on 25-5-2007 by SatansQue]