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Concept of a soul

King sns

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I have cared for many people who died, and many caregivers and family members, (more than just a few) have the tendency to open a window when someone dies. While I don't think it's a terrible idea, (just freshen up the room a bit) they always go on to say that the soul went through the window, (which is always open just a crack.) During one death I mentioned that I had a warm and happy feeling a few minutes after his death and about three people insisted that this man's soul gave me a hug before proceeding out the cracked open window. This implies that the soul has physical properties that allows it to fit through cracks and screens but not to slide under doors or simply float up through the ceiling. It also implies that the soul knows exactly where to go and what to do immediately following the passing of the body, and not only that, it needs to definitely go outside. Surely it wouldn't want to spend time with it's grieving family! This topic, and anything else having to do with a soul. What it is, where it goes, etc.

(Edit: Topic not really intended for people to debate the existence of souls or afterlife, we have plenty of room for that in other threads- let's just say, given someone has a soul of some kind, what do you think that means?)

(Anyone ever seen the movie soul takers?? I saw the MST version and it was hilarious!!)
 

xisnotx

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The concept of a soul scares me. How can anyone be sure that they have one? I mean, even if you believe in them, how can you be sure that yours is intact? Does every human have one?

If you know someone has a soul, and you can tell "for sure" does that mean you do have one? Or you don't? If souls exists, and solemates exists, can two solemates ever be one, given that they are in two different bodies?

Or, when you meet a (your) solemate (or when your sole meets a sole it wants to "evaluate") do they leave their respective bodies and intermingle in the in spiritual world? If so, what are the two now sole-less bodies (and the sole less people who occupy them) to do?

If two soles leave each others bodies, do you think that they ever decide to exchange bodies? If so, does that mean that by whichever means you recognize your soles existence, you could actually be recognizing another person's sole?

What's to stop one person from stealing your sole? Can two soles be in one body?

Like I said, scary stuff.

I prefer to just think that these questions weren't meant to be answered. Maybe one day I'll meet a person who'll prove me wrong/right lol
 
A

A window to the soul

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The concept of a soul scares me. How can anyone be sure that they have one? I mean, even if you believe in them, how can you be sure that yours is intact? Does every human have one?

If you know someone has a soul, and you can tell "for sure" does that mean you do have one? Or you don't? If souls exists, and solemates exists, can two solemates ever be one, given that they are in two different bodies?

Or, when you meet a (your) solemate (or when your sole meets a sole it wants to "evaluate") do they leave their respective bodies and intermingle in the in spiritual world? If so, what are the two now sole-less bodies (and the sole less people who occupy them) to do?

If two soles leave each others bodies, do you think that they ever decide to exchange bodies? If so, does that mean that by whichever means you recognize your soles existence, you could actually be recognizing another person's sole?

What's to stop one person from stealing your sole? Can two soles be in one body?

Like I said, scary stuff.

I prefer to just think that these questions weren't meant to be answered. Maybe one day I'll meet a person who'll prove me wrong/right lol
Scary stuff? :rofl1:

I've never seen so many sissy limitations to out of the box thinking of the 'unknown' as I have the past two weeks on this forum. The irony is how many of you think this means you are somehow more open, flexible, sane, and intelligent than the rest of us who study, analyze, and embrace possibilities of the unknown with fearless vigor.
 

Southern Kross

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To me, it's consciousness: something intangible that exists within the tangible that creates the flow of experience, sense of self and perceptual awareness. Consequently, I see the soul as mortal, as it dies along with the body.
 

xisnotx

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Scary stuff? :rofl1:

I've never seen so many sissy limitations to out of the box thinking of the 'unknown' as I have the past two weeks on this forum. The irony is how many of you think this means you are somehow more open, flexible, sane, and intelligent than the rest of us who study, analyze, and embrace possibilities of the unknown with fearless vigor.

Perhaps your lack of fear has more to do with your own limitations instead of limitations to my relatively "in the box" thinking?
 
A

A window to the soul

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Perhaps your lack of fear has more to do with your own limitations instead of limitations to my relatively "in the box" thinking?
No. No, there's not much I'm afraid of other than commitment. Or being trapped. In a boring box. :laugh:
 
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the soul is not an ethereal wisp. it's your very consciousness. it is you. and your conscience is eternal, you are aware now and will always be aware, even more so after death.
 

Saslou

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My mother used to work in a mental hospital and elderly peoples home so was used to death. I loved listening with fascination about how she'd feel a breeze as she walked into their rooms to wake them only to find out they'd passed away in the night. This breeze kind of gave her relief knowing that it isn't the end when the body dies.

I think there is more to us what what meets the eye, science just has to catch up and figure it out.

When i leave my body, i don't want to hang around, i'll going to start a new adventure. I may come back occasionally and scare a few people though :devil: oh and also comes into peoples dreams, if i'm capable of it.
 

FunnyDigestion

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I think souls float thru the windows at night because they can move thru glass.

I tossed a bucket of pink fairy dust in the air & someone's soul moved in it, letting me trap it. I looked it right in the eyes, it was the shape of a Tetris block. I think souls can move in wormholes from one side of the universe to the other. They also can breathe underwater & talk to the spirits of trees.
 

Qre:us

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This implies that the soul has physical properties that allows it to fit through cracks and screens but not to slide under doors or simply float up through the ceiling.

But, if it has physical properties, it means that it is subjected to the laws of the material universe. Which raises many questions about its "metaphysical existence".

(Edit: Topic not really intended for people to debate the existence of souls or afterlife, we have plenty of room for that in other threads- let's just say, given someone has a soul of some kind, what do you think that means?)

It means that the arrogance of the human race, that we are too special to just simply *stop existing*, and our attachment to our relationships, makes us resistant to the point of willful ignorance such that we believe that death cannot, possibly, just end the existence of the person. We are not satisfied with them living in our memories. We need to believe there is something more....always something more.

They could die physically, but they've truly not died.

It is our game we play with ourselves to think that we've cheated death. Somehow.
 
A

Anew Leaf

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I have cared for many people who died, and many caregivers and family members, (more than just a few) have the tendency to open a window when someone dies. While I don't think it's a terrible idea, (just freshen up the room a bit) they always go on to say that the soul went through the window, (which is always open just a crack.) During one death I mentioned that I had a warm and happy feeling a few minutes after his death and about three people insisted that this man's soul gave me a hug before proceeding out the cracked open window. This implies that the soul has physical properties that allows it to fit through cracks and screens but not to slide under doors or simply float up through the ceiling. It also implies that the soul knows exactly where to go and what to do immediately following the passing of the body, and not only that, it needs to definitely go outside. Surely it wouldn't want to spend time with it's grieving family! This topic, and anything else having to do with a soul. What it is, where it goes, etc.

(Edit: Topic not really intended for people to debate the existence of souls or afterlife, we have plenty of room for that in other threads- let's just say, given someone has a soul of some kind, what do you think that means?)

(Anyone ever seen the movie soul takers?? I saw the MST version and it was hilarious!!)

I have experienced simple things as well.

I think our souls exist and I don't think it's a human conceit to think thusly. I have left most of my idea on souls open ended just because I like thinking about this topic. And ultimately we will all find out what it means.
 

RaptorWizard

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The eye is the window of the soul. Every difficulty can be overcome by effort. The natural desire of good men is knowledge.
—Leonardo da Vinci
 

nanook

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judging by lucid dreams with out of body type of content i would suggest, that a soul may be limited by it's believes about what is possible, not by actual physical properties. some would conceptualize that a soul raises "its own vibration", as it changes it's belief. this construct is only descriptive of gradually overcoming such a limitation, by changing the belief/the self-concept of how one relates to the world. and the experienced result of such a shift would be the ability to pass through walls. walls may feel solid or dense but liquid or they produce no sensation at all, on passing.

nevertheless i wouldn't care to open a window. such a restriction can only be a temporary state. the soul will quickly figure out a way beyond it's restricting believes. if it felt like it was locked into a room, it would most likely be provoked to question itself (it's false sense of idenity with space), which is a good idea. besides, the true way out isn't one of moving around spacially. the whole sightseeing tour is just a temporary dream happeing inside of the soul. the soul has no spacial location. the way out is inside. and it's a letting go of the physical world and time.

a quote from ken wilber follows (typos may be mine): "the soul as i use the term is a sort of halfway house, halfway between the personal ego-mind and the impersonal or transpersonal spirit. the soul is the witness as it shines forth in your and nobody else. the soul is the home of the witness in that sense. once you are established on the soul level, than you are established as the witness, as the real self. once you push through the soul level, then the witness itself collapses into everything witnessed, or you become one with everything you are aware of. you don’t witness the clouds, you are the clouds. that’s spirit.

in a sense the soul or the witness in you is the highest pointer toward spirit and the last barrier to spirit. it’s only from the position of the witness that you can jump into spirit, so to speak. but the witness itself eventually has to dissolve or die. even your own soul has to be sacrificed and released and let got of, or die to, in order for your ultimate identity with spirit to radiate forth. because ultimately the soul is just the final contraction in awareness, the subtlest knot restricting universal spirit, the last and subtlest form of the separate self sense, and that final knot has to be undone. that’s the last death, as it were. first we die to the material self - that is, dis-identify with it - then we die to an exclusive identity with the bodily self, then to the mental self, and then finally to the soul. the last one is what zen calls the Great Death."
 

Munchies

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there is no legit concept of the soul unless you encompass all life onto it. All life has the same origin an all life is one
 

ilikeitlikethat

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I refer back to my usage of Descarte's Cogito Ergo Sum theory that says I'm here, because I am,
"hello."
As bad as an example as that was for a concept that we take for granted today, back the in the 1600s, was ground breaking sh*t. It really went something like this;
If I believe I exist, then I, in some form or another, must exist.
The world is only what our perceptions make of it, and a broken brain or dieing one, could distort the world in very funny ways indeed. To liken the mind to the soul would suggest that the brain is the organ for the soul and therefore no imortal soul could be; However... Time does get distorted with broken brains and who knows how long the shut down sequence of our one is meant to feel like, sure we have stories of tunnels and light and dark and doom as it starts but... People who tell those stories all come back from them so, we never know how the sequence plays out because, the brain survives.
 

Venom

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21 grams. http://www.snopes.com/religion/soulweight.asp

The science channel show "dark matters: twisted but true" had a spot about the Dr who weighed people at the moment of death and repeatedly found "21 grams" to be the weight of the soul...


]
Claim: * A physician once placed dying patients upon a scale in order to measure the weight of the human soul.

Status: * True.

Example: * [Evans, 1946]

Those who believe that the body becomes lighter [at the moment of death] seem to think that the soul has weight, weight that must of necessity depart with it, and — with that brisk disregard of strict veracity which so frequenly marks discussions of this nature — have claimed that dying men, at the very moment of their decease, have been placed on delicate scales that have recorded their mortuary degravitation. But these persons have never been able to specify in just what ghoulish laboratory this took place, or what private home was so interestingly equipped, or the names and addresses of the relatives who so commendably placed scientific and religious curiosity before sentimental concern for the patient's comfort.1
 

Eric B

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Funny; what shows up these days, but an article like this:
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/qu...roof-soul-exists/story-fneszs56-1226507452687

I myself think this is very likely; and here's my take on it:
http://erictb.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/a-quantum-explanation-of-the-soul/

I see two commenters on the article accuse the scientists of being "religious" or "reading too many sci-fi novels", and protests: I will be compost not soul you when I die you clowns. Alive is alive and dead is dead unless you are one of the wierdos who thinks you will recieve 100 virgins or you will turn into a tree when you die

They sound just like the worst of the religious people, clinging onto cherished beliefs in the face of possible evidence. But why would anyone cherish being "nothing" after this? Perhaps, reacting against the fear of judgment, "if it so happens to turn out to be true". So one person counters: "So you atheist defend scientist cause they 'proved' how the world began and now they prove souls and you are all mind bedazzled who to defend now ? ahhaah silly atheist sheep's''
But this theory does not even necessarily prove the religious concepts people are afraid of.
 
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