what is the human soul?

[hazetwostep]

what do you believe the human soul is?

is our soul a seperate entity from our physical bodies making our body some complex human suit for who we really are in our soul-being? when our soul leaves our human suit will we still retain our identity... does our identity grow forth from our individual and specific life experiences or is it seperate and is just shaped by them?

is our soul our consciousness? is it the sum total of our brain's neurons, working together with uncomprehendible complexity that far execedes human capability to reproduce? does the soul stem from our brain's thoughts? when the body dies is all identity lost.. or does a piece carry, maybe in the DNA or maybe in the rotation of the energy strings that make all matter (according to string theory), not causing a loss of identity but a spreading and sharing of it? immortality and reincarnation in one...

is our soul a physical part of ourselves that is directly connected to our body but it simply exists on another dimension, so we cannot see, understand, or comprehend the connection? we cannot see the space-time dimension but it exists and has direct relation (both cause and effect) to the physical world as we see it. maybe our souls exist on another plane that like space-time cannot be seen but has direct interection with.

what do you think???

[afghooey]

More people should ask themselves this question, I think.

We say, "I have a soul." We also say, "I have a body." What's this 'I', then, that possesses both soul and body?

I think our 'soul' is just another word for our consciousness; but not necessarily a 'sum of neurons'. Actually, it's now theorized that our thoughts and memories aren't stored in our neurons at all -- which would explain why "local lesions in the brain do not selectively impair one or another memory trace" (source:http://www.acsa2000.net/bcngroup/jponkp/); but rather, that the information is stored in the actual impulses that flow between neurons, which act more as conductors. So, what happens to this energy when the brain dies?

Well, we can speculate. The fact that these impulses can be disturbed (people have been legally reported as braindead, and then revived with little or no loss of memory) might be an implication that when we die, the energy doesn't just disappear or disperse. Most descriptions of near-death experiences seem to support this, also.

Maybe if this energy (we could refer to it as a soul, but detatching the connotations of supernatural forces) has an unusually obstinate attachment to the physical body, it attempts to reconstruct it with other energies, which we might percieve as ghosts?

[Samwhore]

I find the soul as more of a legacy. For the fact that many say, "When you die your soul lives on." We all know it doesn't, but your legacy does.

[PureEvil760]

The human soul is the product of the combination of being human and a spirit at the same time. Our higherself (like your spirit) can be anywhere at anytime until you begin to use it. The soul is what you use all the time, combining yourself with your higherself is the challenge and reason for life itself. The soul is not of much importance in the longrun.