How can one know they have a soul or spirit?

[Mindmaster]

Can you talk to dead people?

Maybe, then there is a soul or spirit.

Either that, or you're crazy!

Take your pick!

O.K., I am sort of joking...

But, really what do a bunch of atheist/skeptics and religions that are forbidden necromancy know of these things?

Do you ask your family doctor about your plumbing?

There are plenty of spirits around if you want to talk, and I have no idea why someone wants to make a soul distinction or some other stupid argument based on garbage they read in books. The amount of stupidity that goes on in this place with the presumptions on all sides is just ridiculous. Get your hands dirty, eh?

I guess it is easier to keep doing whatever you are doing than do this work however. Your ancestors must be proud... LOL

 

[George-ananda]

There are plenty of spirits around if you want to talk, and I have no idea why someone wants to make a soul distinction or some other stupid argument based on garbage they read in books. The amount of stupidity that goes on in this place with the presumptions on all sides is just ridiculous. Get your hands dirty, eh?

I think there is a good point behind that paragraph (even though presented with a too combative style for my taste). As frequent viewers know, I am a supporter of the existence of multiple types of so-called paranormal phenomena. The collective human experience should be considered in forming our theories about the nature of the universe; like 'materialism'. It seems some create the neat and simple materialist view of consciousness and then get insulting to anyone that points out contradictory consistent evidence from the human experience. The evidence t is called superstition, pseudoscience, irrational, fraud, all hallucination, etc. to try to take it out of the domain of intellectual thought.

Basically, we need theories to fit the evidence NOT forcing all evidence to fit the theory.

 

[JustWondering]

The body is a vehicle through which the self (which would otherwise be invisible) interacts with the visible world. The brain is the CPU which controls messages passed between the self and the body. When the brain fails, the self becomes limited in the way it is able to express itself.

Only I don't ever remember not being able to interact with the physical world because my brain and body were sleeping. People waking up from coma's never talk about how it was horrible that they couldn't interact with the physical world because their body was broken for a while. A doctor once put a sign in a spot in his surgery room that could easily be seen if "looking down" on oneself from outside your body. Those claiming out of body experiences in his surgery room never reported seeing the sign. This itself disproves your premise that the self is separate from the physical body. Consciousness is a physical phenomenon.

 

[atanu]

So, souls are physical (and macroscopic) after all. They need to break an electromagnetic barrier in order to escape.

Aupmanyav Is a materialist. His post was purported to be a joke .. actually a bitter sarcasm??

 

[atanu]

"How can one know they have a soul or spirit?"

It is a very simple experiment and has been done in India - put a dying man in a air-tight glass casket. As soon as the person dies, the casket develops a crack proving that something has gone out of the casket.
....
So simple, I wonder why people ask this question!

If it is meant to be a joke, it is in bad taste.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Ah, I am sorry that you don't like it.

 

[viole]

Aupmanyav Is a materialist. His post was purported to be a joke .. actually a bitter sarcasm??

Good for him. i think euthanasia is a delict in India.

Ciao

- viole

 

[Blastcat]

I do not say that anyone really observes it, and it only appears so. I hold that the sense of being is entirely void.

Well, maybe the sense of being is an illusion of some kind, a persistent one, in any case, and one that seems to be part of our shared human experience. Most people that I know have a sense of "being", or awareness.. of some kind. I don't exactly know why you would call that sense "void" or what you really mean by it.

 

[Blastcat]

The soul is permanent, in that it can't be destroyed. However this permanence doesn't mean that the soul doesn't change. Our life experiences do in fact change our souls.

So you say. Must be nice to just "know" things like that.

 

[Blastcat]

I use two different terms soul ('the seat of the self (lower-case 's') as you put it) and spirit (which is the infinite One consciousness or Atman).

- You use terms, I use questions like... "How do you know this?", instead of pretending to know what I don't really know. Who CARES what someone calls a fantasy?

"The sense of being you are talking about is an ego (us) formed by the events of bodies (of the physical/astral/mental lower planes). This ego does have an ever-growing soul (a vehicle/body on the Causal plane) that experiences and influences the ego. This soul is not permanent but lasts for many lifetimes/experiences until Liberation/Nirvana/Moksha."

- Must be so nice to just "know" things. Popped into your head, did it, all this wonderful knowledge?

"Yes, the ego is built from all its experiences and thoughts."

- The ego is a concept.. a theory.. we can say that the ego is built from cream cheese for all I care. I really don't like people who pontificate as if they really know something when they don't have a clue EXCEPT for their over-rated opinions.

"The soul is the repository if its many lower plane experiences. In normal reality we are the ego (physical/astral/mental). At a higher more real level we are a soul body having a physical experience. At the ultimate reality we are spirit/Atman."

- You should always say "In my OPINION.. and by way of my personal set of religious beliefs.... " Because it almost sounds as if you really think you KNOW something about the soul and spirits... and, well, anything worth noticing at all, quite frankly.

 

[Blastcat]

I dont believe in a soul. Our spirit compromises all of what we experience and take in personally that it becomes our identity. It is how we relate to others, ourselves, and how we view reality (our faith). We become so attached that we put aside the psychology and sociology etc that shapes why we think what we think in relation to ourselves and to others.

So when someone says "the spirit of god is in them" I take that to mean the sum of all his experiences he attributed from god is a part of his identity (self) and a part of how he sees the world.

Does he have a real spirit? No. Its not isolated from our experiences in the world. Our spirits are in everything and everyone. But soul? I honestly dont know what that means as we are spirit.

You seem half way there. You say you don't know what "soul" means, but you still pretend to know what "spirit" is, where it is and so on.. how do you KNOW anything about the spirit?.....and not the soul?

 

[Blastcat]

It is the parable of the prodigal son.
The soul goes on a journey to the far country and the spirit stays home.
Eventually the soul comes home.

So what's a soul, what's a spirit?.. we know that PEOPLE can come and go from home.....

 

[Blastcat]

I understand about the tricky part.
We do not have science to rely on for an answer to this question so we must turn to our experience.
This is a tricky notion because it involves the inability to convince others that what we know is the truth.
We have to rely on ourselves."

- A lot of people tell me that they "have" a truth. I usually raise an eyebrow. "How did you get that knowledge/", I ask.

"It is my experience and the experience of many others that the one doing the observing is our eternal soul.
It appears as a being of light, it is not the direct light of God but rather the light from our higher-self (our soul).
Some would call it God but it cannot be God because it is us.
Our soul is separate from God like our body consciousness is separate from our soul."

- Well, it's not my "experience" ... so now what?

"This means that we can communicate directly with our own soul.
and through our soul, communicate with God the Logos or the Word."

- "This" doesn't mean anything of the sort. What you tell us is your OPINION.. it's no fact.

 

[Blastcat]

Souls of enlightened persons can cross hundred meters of concrete. It is a matter of 'soul power'. But there are few such persons.

Some people believe the weirdest stuff.

 

[Blastcat]

"How can one know they have a soul or spirit?"

It is a very simple experiment and has been done in India - put a dying man in a air-tight glass casket. As soon as the person dies, the casket develops a crack proving that something has gone out of the casket.

Further more, Christians use wooden caskets which do not break and retain the soul, so that the person can be raised by God at the end of times. That is why evil spirits (Dracula and other vampires) sometimes come out of their caskets. Hindus do not use caskets because they need the soul to be free for reincarnations. Their souls are immediately freed with the funeral.

So simple, I wonder why people ask this question!

There is a difference between simple and simplistic. Your silly ideas about how to run a scientific experiment is quite useless.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

You seem half way there. You say you don't know what "soul" means, but you still pretend to know what "spirit" is, where it is and so on.. how do you KNOW anything about the spirit?.....and not the soul?

I dont see them as interchangable. I dont know what a soul is.

A lot of what people call "supernatual" are based on personal experience, how we aee reality (our faith), how we interpret it (psychology), interact (sociology), how we attribute it/source (god, self, others, spirits, etc), and so forth. The spirit is our identity.

How do I know? I exist. Spirit isnt a supernatual word. Reread my original post.

Our spirit compromises all of what we experience and take in personally that it becomes our identity. It is how we relate to others, ourselves, and how we view reality (our faith). We become so attached that we put aside the psychology and sociology etc that shapes why we think what we think in relation to ourselves and to others.

The spirit is a collection of traits that keeps us alive and defines us as humans, animals, plants, etc.

Spirit is:

"the nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul."

I dont use soul. Confuses me.

Spirit is energy.
Spirit is breathe.

Please keep your tone respectful.

 

[Akivah]

So you say. Must be nice to just "know" things like that.

Yes, it is.

 

[Blastcat]

I dont see them as interchangable. I dont know what a soul is.

A lot of what people call "supernatual" are based on personal experience, how we aee reality (our faith), how we interpret it (psychology), interact (sociology), how we attribute it/source (god, self, others, spirits, etc), and so forth. The spirit is our identity.

How do I know? I exist. Spirit isnt a supernatual word. Reread my original post.

I don't need to read the post again. I really got it the first time. But thanks for quoting yourself below, it's very useful.. I'm new here and find it a bit difficult to format my posts the way I'm used to.

You have a very personal and rather unique way of using the word "spirit"... Most people use the standard definition for the words "spirit" and "soul" which are BOTH taken to be supernatural. But you can define words any way that you like.

IF you declare that "spirit" isn't supernatural, but that the "soul" is, you are just defining a problem out of existence.

The spirit is a collection of traits that keeps us alive and defines us as humans, animals, plants, etc.

So you say. Well, then... it must be so.

Spirit is:
"the nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul."

I have no idea what you mean.. do you mean "brain"?

I dont use soul. Confuses me.

I don't use spirit OR soul for the same reason.

Spirit is energy.
Spirit is breathe.

So you say. What do I do now.. just take your word for it?

Not my style, really.
I have a few questions about your ... ideas.

1. What is that energy?
2. Are "spirit" and "breath" identical?.. then why not just use the word "breath" , then? It would save you a lot of explaining.

Please keep your tone respectful.

Forgive me if I sounded in any way disrespectful.
I respect all people, I don't immediately respect all ideas that they might have, nor all the actions that they might perpetrate.

That's what an exchange of ideas is about. Some ideas are good, some are NOT.
I would say that your thinking suffers from inconsistency, and vagueness, and I don't respect either, should I?

But of course, I do respect your person.

 

[Blastcat]

Yes, it is.

Popped into your head, did it, all this truthiness?

 

[Akivah]

Popped into your head, did it, all this truthiness?

Nope.