Do We Really Have A Soul?

Seemingly almost every religion says that we all have a soul. What would actually define a soul?
If we have this soul and it continues on in the afterlife to be reborn again... why do we not retain that knowledge.
For example, if Marilyn Monroe was really assassinated, why has her "spirit" not come back to tell of who killed her?
Even more so, why is it that everyone that says they've had a "past life" always someone famous?
Could this idea of a soul just be an attempt to make us believe in something that we are not sure that exists....

Iam not famous in any way, I dont belive.....and maybe not yet that is. But Ive been told from a psycic friend of the family, that indeed Ive had a past life and maybe more. You see, supposively my mother and I met each other on a ship that I was the captain of in my past life (She was some sort of an Ambassator of sorts). This is also why I think I feel a great spiritual connection with some people in preticular. It must be spirt involved for someone the see me in another body, but know me as me and not the body from the other life. Much pondering this will take youg Padawon.

If you want to think of it technicly, we have all had past lives. This is because the energy that makes up your matter is simply transfered to another source after death. That is not to say that it is always transfered to become another living organism, but instead that it is/could be transfered to any other thing in existence.

How can you be sure that we have had past lives? How do you know that we are not programmed to believe that we have had past lives, thus making an unstated understanding that their is in fact such thing as a soul.

On a side note, if we indeed, as humans, have souls, would animals have souls? Do animals have a heaven and hell then?

One definition of the soul is:

"An entity, conceived as the essence, substance, or actuating cause of individual life, especially of life manifested in psychical activities; the vehicle of individual existence, separate in nature from the body and usually held to be separable in existence." [74]
- Webster's Dictionary, Edition of 1923.


Here's an interesting site which tries to answer some questions on the subject:

beaskund.helloyou.ws...

So if we have souls and past lifes which apparently some people believe in, that does not explain the existenance of ghosts. It's funny how religions call for the beliefs of souls but not of ghosts.

That would make sence to me in basic terms...........but is this accually what happens when we die scientificaly? (as in energy transforation) I dont belive that is know, only speculated. There must be some sort of energy transfer, honesly there must be a higher power the desides who gets turn into a tree and who gets turned in Charley Sheen (has slep with 5000+ women, my hero!).

[Edited on 8-3-2004 by HumptyDumpty]

If we didnt have a soul we would be no different from animals

Originally posted by cheshire cat
So if we have souls and past lifes which apparently some people believe in, that does not explain the existenance of ghosts. It's funny how religions call for the beliefs of souls but not of ghosts.

Who is that say that ghosts were once living humans? Maybe the phenomenon of ghosts is something completely different from the general ideas that we have of it.

Originally posted by Ashlar
If we didnt have a soul we would be no different from animals

Who is to say that we are any different from animals? We have instincts and a desire for self preservation just like animals. We feel pleasure and pain just like animals. Humans are first and formost animals; we may be more intellectually advanced and elevate ourselves through the seperation of 'dumb beasts', but we are still animals.

Originally posted by Ashlar
If we didnt have a soul we would be no different from animals

All living things have souls.

animals have no concept of religion, which is more than simply intellectual

there are many other things also

If ghost weren't once human beings, how do we explain their "supposed" communication through mediums? Are they just full of (c)? Leading into the fact that animals could have souls, what about insects, bugs, fish...
It just doesn't make sense.
It seems so absurd. We might as well say vampires and werewolves exist today also, which in turn would quite possibly return us to the question of a soul... vampires are "living" dead, without a soul correct?

Originally posted by cheshire cat
So if we have souls and past lifes which apparently some people believe in, that does not explain the existenance of ghosts. It's funny how religions call for the beliefs of souls but not of ghosts.

A ghost is a soul. Of which do you speak. Many ghosts that we see are scared of the light, and have not recognized the father.

Originally posted by Ashlar
animals have no concept of religion, which is more than simply intellectual

there are many other things also

So if you do not believe in religion you are an animal? Am I hearing this correctly. Over the history of man, more people have been murdered under the guise of religion then anything else. Even animals of the same species rarely kill each other; We, humans, are the true barbaric organism.

only the ultimate self remembers past lives (atman)
unless you are highly spiritually developed
some times children remember past lives when they are very young but then forget as they grow older.
there is a reason why we dont remember past lives...
The ever flowing divine consciouness does not want us to become attached to people from past lives and give our love to only a small clique of persons
there are people though in your present life who you were familiar with in past lives and you may have to work out problems with them in this life that you shared with them in the past life

Originally posted by cheshire cat
If ghost weren't once human beings, how do we explain their "supposed" communication through mediums

You are assuming that the actions of mediums are true. This has never been proven to my knowledge.

As far as I am concerned, we have souls.

My idea of the 'afterlife' is that the soul inhabits a body here in this 'dimension'. At death, the soul leaves the body and enters another state of being. (Rather like the driver of a car who leaves his vehicle and gets into another). Whether that state is 'Heaven', 'Hell' or 'The Summerlands' is dependant on the state of the soul at the moment of death. I also believe that their time in the 'otherworld' is dependant on how long they wish to stay and what they need to learn.

As for reincarnation, I believe that it is factual, having read far too many instances of past life regression to deny that something is going on (Yes, there are nutters and those seeking attention, but putting those aside, there are still many instances of what are considered factual happening of past life regression). I think that the early Christians also believed in reincarnation, but that the Church decreed it to be heresy once they realised that it was a bar to their conmplete control of the people.

As far as I know, there are two types of 'Ghost'. Some are souls who have been unable to complete their transition to the 'otherworld' (or have chosen to stay to aid someone still living). Others are an emotional 'recording' - like a kind of hologram - picked up and recorded onto the area of the 'haunting'. Given the relevant circumstances, people are able to 'watch' this recording.

I believe we have souls, because the alternative to not having a soul is to be an empty shell walking around.

I think some people have had past lives and some have not, and are 'new' souls. Some people actually do retain knowledge from their past lives, like dreaming about them.
How do we know that rather than instincts and gut feelings, those are lessons and knowledge from past lives?