The Soul/Spirit, what is it and how does it work?

Originally Posted by rjwould

Only the person experiencing the emotion can attempt to explain those things. What is your inquiry?

I'm not inquiring anything. Pheasy asked earlier for someone to prove that a soul or spirit exits and I'm saying you can't. I said mine is a feeling. You said science proves a feeling by brain activity. I said brain activity may only prove "a" feeling took place but it doesn't prove to the observer reading the brainwave monitor that it was my spirit or soul.

Originally Posted by rjwould

But you can prove it. All you have to do is agree on a definition. As long as you are not speaking the same language, you will not agree.

Again I disagree for I don't think it can be defined. And that's my point.

Again, you are defining the 'word' spirit but you can't define the 'spirit' of the word itself.

Originally Posted by rjwould

I guess some would call that your soul. There is no right or wrong, only interpretation. If that is your philosophy, then it's your soul.

While I still use the term soul, I've been learning lately that it is simply another part of the brain which is functioning. I still choose to call it a soul even though medical science has shown differently. In reality, I am just calling a certain portion of my brain a soul.

I think our intellect is only one third of our soul. The other parts are our will and our emotions.

Together they make the soul.

Then we have three distinct parts to our being, our body, our soul and our spirit. Our soul makes up our total consiousness, it put the 'I' in 'I am Jester'.

The body is for the journey through this world and this part of our life. Our soul is what connects us to each other primarily through compassion and interaction, it's what makes us able to see past the body into the person, your mentioning empathy before is a good example. Our spirit is somewhat harder to define. Its exclusively for communication with other spirits, it has no known entity and in my opinion it is only recognizeable when it is re-enlightend by God.

I hope I didnt lay in the religion too thick for you to look past this as my opinion.

Originally Posted by rjwould

Not at all, I'm enjoying it.

Your use of the word 'consciousness' is intriguing, can you define that more narrowly please?

I have tried, it is best summed up by seeing some one trying to explin who they are without their picture identification to an authority, at best all one can keep claiming is your identity, whlel one beats his chest claiming the body is he, the one inside.

I am me, I am consiouss that I am me.

Its an awakening to the understanding that one exists in a specific form that is undefineable. It may be better to remove the body and ask yourself who then are you?

[theia]

Originally Posted by rjwould

Well, if they have no definition, the words soul and spirit should not even be uttered. They do have definitions, some just refuse to adhere to them.

I think that we speak these words in an attempt to define the indefineable and to try to communicate what can't be truly communicated in words. Maybe soul is a reference to those rare moments in our lives when we realise, for just a fleeting second or two, that we are not our bodies, our minds or our thoughts, and that there exists something indescribable way beyond what we believe ourselves to be.

If we identify ourselves with our bodies, does that mean we are merely water, blood, bone, flesh etc? Is that me? Is that what I am, a mere pile of bodily components? If we identify ourselves with our minds, then are we just our thoughts? If so, what happens when, for a moment, I don't have a thought? Do I cease to exist? Maybe the idea I hold of "me" doesn't exist?

I really don't have a clue what soul is but perhaps that's because I'm limited by the concepts I have of what I am?

[Galbally]

Originally Posted by Jester

I have tried, it is best summed up by seeing some one trying to explin who they are without their picture identification to an authority, at best all one can keep claiming is your identity, whlel one beats his chest claiming the body is he, the one inside.

I am me, I am consiouss that I am me.

Its an awakening to the understanding that one exists in a specific form that is undefineable. It may be better to remove the body and ask yourself who then are you?

That's like Descartes, he was the one who said, "I think therefore I am", which is an expression of that state of being that all humans seem to experience. The problem with it is that its impossible to share that experience with anyone else, or be sure that anyone else is fully experiencing it, except by describing it using language, either written or spoken, and then of course all that might be an illusion created by your mind, in fact the whole lot might be, and its impossible for any single human to disprove that.

Two philosophers called George Berkeley and David Hume discussed this problem, with Hume explaining why reason itself cannot be trusted fully, in that every human's ability to reason and their sense of logic is simply based on a set of experiences, and that there is no way for that human being to be sure that their rationality is really anything of the sort, or that any of those experiences have any validity, and its never been possible to fully disprove that proposition.

However, collectively what we assume (for the sake of practicality and sanity) s that reality is not a shared (or singular) delusion, and that you can use deductive reasoning based on experiment and evidence to come to a shared, agreed human idea of how the world works. Why it works, is a much more difficult question, and probably not one we can answer, at least outside of a religious context.

[koan]

In regards to the OP, I recall having a brief conversation with spot about soul and spirit. I understand spirit to be the Higher Self, or more evolved of the two, and soul is the result of the spirit melding with a body. Soul is specific to this lifetime. Some people reverse those two and call the Higher Self soul. They are just terms of convenience for those who wish to discuss spiritual matters. It's very inconvenient that the two can be reversed. Causes some confusion in some spiritual discussions.

As with any conversation, the words represent concepts and are, in themselves, meaningless. They are only tools of communication... and poor at that, until we agree to stick to which is which.

[Galbally]

Originally Posted by koan

In regards to the OP, I recall having a brief conversation with spot about soul and spirit. I understand spirit to be the Higher Self, or more evolved of the two, and soul is the result of the spirit melding with a body. Soul is specific to this lifetime. Some people reverse those two and call the Higher Self soul. They are just terms of convenience for those who wish to discuss spiritual matters. It's very inconvenient that the two can be reversed. Causes some confusion in some spiritual discussions.

As with any conversation, the words represent concepts and are, in themselves, meaningless. They are only tools of communication... and poor at that, until we agree to stick to which is which.

Sure, but don't forget that you also use language to think and dream, to remember, and anticipate, you construct the world around you based on the language you use, its nouns, syntax, and grammar, and wthout language humans don't process things in the same way as people with language. Noam Chomsky has discussed this at length, and a lot of 20th century philosophy is just really about language and its role in human conciouness.

[american parable]

As I've been looking around here for a couple of days, I'm beginning to think I'm a big dummy. But I do think that RedGlitter has a soul that is animated by the Spirit. I wonder what needs to be going on with our own soul/spirit in order for us to recognize that life in another.

Funny, After I wrote this first thought, I went to see who RedGlitter is or was, apparently. Seems she's gone. Thought I might have a buddy.