Animals and Consciousness

If the body is a vessel for the soul, and the brain with a spirit is what is understood as consciousness. Do only mammals, or all animals or anything with a brain have a spirit? Is this limited to non brain having life in any way?

The reason I ask ATS, is because some of the most spiritually insightful people I have ever come across are right here on this fourm.

Thanks for any comments.

Ah your sure to get some varied answers here but I personally believe anything that is living, growing, regenerating, consuming, etc. has a soul.

I really like to think deeply about the soul of something that has been around for a loooooong time like some of the oldest trees on the earth and everything that it has witnessed.

There are several religions and groups of peoples here on this planet that believe just about everything living and nonliving has a soul.

A very good question.

I have always wondered the same, what makes us so special.

And if animals have souls, then I'd think plants must too.

But then we get into Viruses and other smaller "living" organisms.

I think it's either just us, or all of us, but I have no idea which!

Originally posted by breakingdradles
A very good question.

I have always wondered the same, what makes us so special.

And if animals have souls, then I'd think plants must too.

But then we get into Viruses and other smaller "living" organisms.

I think it's either just us, or all of us, but I have no idea which!

This is where I am at with it as well. I mean, I believe I am conscious, I believe I have a soul. If all things exist as part of the universal spirit, then all things vibrating have that spirit in them.

I guess I am asking if anyone has any information about specific teachings that I could benefit from digesting.

[edit on 30-4-2009 by sticky]

I just picked up "The Self-Aware Universe, How Consciousness Creates the Material World" by Amit Goswami, Ph.D.
www.amazon.ca...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241075417&sr=8-1

though I haven't read it yet, but I would imagine that it will postulate that the entirety of all creation is en-souled by spirit and consciousness.

I wonder if there's rock or mineral consciousness?

I know that dogs are happy, and that birds sing praises of joy..

Wow,this all depends on your definition of a soul,scientifically i think it has something to do with consciousness,which i don't think inanimate objects would have,otherwise no one's actually electronically or scientifically registered a soul,and every experience about the soul is individual and subjective.

I would be interested if someone had registered it or something close and posted a thread on it.That would be cool.

I think there is one spirit of the universe, with varying degree of consciousness, but that at the apex of it all, the whole universe is a self aware information processing quantum holographic mind. One soul - many manifestations, and so from that perspective, there is such a thing as rock consciousness..

Right, Spirit is life and consciousness. That tree might not have a brain, but most would agree it has a consciousness, but perhaps not in the same way as you or I experience it.

I sort of think that trees run on a global tree consciousness inwhich all trees are of and that would be something like the Spirit of the forest.

Humans may actually be the same way. Spirit is you, so find yourself in a frog, a spider or a rock and you will most certainly feel its Spirit.

[edit on 30-4-2009 by Wisen Heimer]

We don't have spirits. We are souls. Animals are souls. Plants are not souls. When we die, we die. We do not have souls that fly away.

The universe has what is called a lifestream. A stream or flow of energy. When a lifeform dies it's energy or soul returns to the lifestream and begins new.

reply to post by sticky this story is so sad and horrible that i may even make enemies posting this but yesterday my dog stepped on a cactus and his paw was bleedind so i put some antibacterial lotion on it and wrapped it so he wouldn't lick it off. my dog stayed on the other side of the room for most of the day, i assumed he was mad at me for doing this but when my husband came home from work he noticed echo's (my dog) foot looked sore so he took the bandage off and my poor dog's paw was swollen from my wrapping it too tight. why didn't echo tell me this? he can tell me just about anything by the way he looks at me, he has a look for outside, hungry, play, etc..., he understands at least 75 words. my dog has a conscience, he felt bad for being angry with me and for ignoring me due to what he thought was a punishment by wrapping his paw. after seeing my pain for what i did to him he lovingly forgave me. i believe if you show love to anything alive it will flourish. there will be plants and animals in the afterlife, i don't think plants have souls but i think they can feel, i do believe animals have souls and we can make a difference in what direction they take. as for wild animals? God takes care of them. our country isn't the same since we have destroyed and not shown any respect for what God has created, it is turning against us, but that is another thread

Id like to restate my answer.

The Spirit doesnt exist intill you find it. And this Spirit is as much within you as it is in everything else. This Spirit is the divine and intimate connection you share with the entire universe. This Spirit as I have experienced it is what I believe God to be. This Spirit is just as much a part of yourself as it is with absolutely everything else. Everything is Spirit.

So I guess Im agreeing with omegapoint.

[edit on 30-4-2009 by Wisen Heimer]

Show me a soul.

It could be human or squirrel, I don't care. Just show me a soul.

Then we'll talk.

reply to post by Astyanax

Buddy, you need to do some reading up on the implications of modern science.

Start with "The Holographic Universe" by Talbot and "The Self Aware Universe" by a quantum physicist by the name of Amit Goswami. That'll get you started. Things are not what you think they are or as they seem, not at all.

[edit on 1-5-2009 by OmegaPoint]

reply to post by Wisen Heimer


What a joy it is to realize that everything is alive and that it's all one, without separation, and that the whole universe is implicately enfolded within a leaf or a drop of water - that's just frick'n awesome. I've been doing some reading up on it, on the full implications of modern science, what many of the physicists themselves prefer to ignore, and it's incredible. Everything is made up of mind, and the whole thing is a construct of consciousness. Separation is an illusion, everything is just a variation of the one whole thing. Even sticks and stones and trees and sand and stars may not be concrete material objects, but waveforms of the one thing, which are only percieved by us as being separate, but that are really manifestations of the same thing arising from the same enfolded implicate order or ocean of quantum potentiality.

The materialist view will soon be dead and it is dead. Didn't serve humanity well either.


[edit on 1-5-2009 by OmegaPoint]

reply to post by echodogene


Oh your poor pup! I hope it's feeling better. At least you tried.

Animals are one of the base forms of consciousness, they are like the nails that holds the walls of reality together.

All animals are conscious, just to varying degrees.We are pretty much leaps and bounds in the realisation of self department and also the ability of "putting yourself in someone elses shoes" compared to other animals.Right up close to us are or little ape cousins but unlike them we can look through the eyes of many different people,say a shakespeare play where the writer must put himself in multiple characters mindsets etc..i saw a documentary about this,but i can't remember what it was called but it showed how our little monkey friends hit a stumbling block when it came to this.

[edit on 1-5-2009 by Solomons]

reply to post by wyleecoyote thanks for posting that, my dog is doing great now. i wasn't sure if that story fit in this thread or not but it was heavily on my mind when i woke up
there were some good post's here about souls and a conscience but concerning any life form, i believe, needs to be appreciated and treated with respect. if you look at the true history of the american indian you will see how they kept this country the way it was intended to be by doing just that
i was cutting back my dead tall grass from the winter and i guess i cut one down too far and a bit of red goo? dripped out of it, i cut down too far, that made me wonder.....could that grass/plant have felt that?




[edit on 1-5-2009 by echodogene]

Originally posted by OmegaPoint
Buddy, you need to do some reading up on the implications of modern science.

You mean popular-science cash cows like the ones you named? I'll get my science from more respectable sources, thanks. I didn't learn my physics on the internet; I read an honours degree in it. Thanks for the advice, all the same.

Things are not what you think they are or as they seem, not at all.

Well, get off your rocking-horse and explain how they really are, then. Contribute some real content to a thread for a change, instead of just sitting there scoffing.