What is a Soul?

[Beyondo]

Schrödinger argued that consciousness is singular and all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness. So from this point of view consciousness is endemic to the universe.

Consciousness is not singular, it is in fact a cataclysm of distributed processes. We sense a singularity because we experience our minds as continuum, but the evidence is contrary. Our brains operate at resolutions constrained by biological systems that don't even come close to signaling at the speed of light, nor even the speed of sound. So in between signal pulses, let's say a fast signaling neuron at 100 Hz, the universe has exchanged information between atoms at the speed of light and at signal rates in the hundreds of Giga-Hertz. A whole lot happened between your brains ability to sense change and the actual changing universe.

The brain's fidelity of reality is by far inaccurate and not continuous but is in fact sampled at ionic transport rates that are in the order of hundreds of miles an hour.

 

[logician]

"It doesn't matter if people don't believe in the existence of their souls. It won't make it disappear."

Actually, the converse is true, belief in souls will not make them real.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

Your soul is the one that made you ask this question in the first place, not your intellect, because it( your mind) already has an logical answer all wrapped up and ready to go.
Your soul are made up out of two "parents".

1. The physical matter with its biological make up and unique brain and all that human functions like thinking processes,ability to learn complex theories and stuff like that.
2. Spirit - which I don't presume I am able to define correctly, but it is not of this world. I prefer to call it "God Breath" or the essence of God..

Was it God's 'breath' that he used to create at Genesis 1:2?_______
We know he used his breath to breathe into the created Adam the breath of life so that Adam could become a living soul. And remain a living soul if obedient otherwise Adam would become a dead soul.

Matthew 12:28 talks of casting out devils by the spirit of God. That doesn't sound as if that is God's breath. Luke 11:20 equates God's spirit as the finger of God. Finger does not sound like breath either. Was it God's breath used at Exodus 31:18 to write on the tables, so to speak, or God's finger.
Finger [power of God's hand, so to speak] and spirit then are the same, but breath being separate.

Back to Gen 1:2 according to Isaiah 40:26; Jeremiah 10:12; 32:17 God supplied the needed dynamic energy in creation. So in harmony with Gen 1:2 then God's spirit is energy. Adam once he unplugged himself from his Creator Adam slowly wound down like a fan unplugged from its source of power. Adam lost the spirit of life when he stopped breathing.

 

[footprints]

The answer is no consciousness cannot exist outside the body, we went through that on other threads concerning your theory of lightning and its mind reading and fortune telling properties.

From a relative time perspective events are experienced normally. Only those from a different frame of reference see those events happening more quickly or slowly depending on thier relative frame of reference. So your arguement of time going in slow motion which is causing the person to experience events happening more slowly is wrong.

Now had you said that because consciousness escaped the body and its new frame of reference had a faster clock (time rate) than planet earth, then at least your statement about a time dialation experience would be right.

The slow motion playback of events that many experience from a moment of crisis, such as a car accident, can be explained by the brain secreting adrenaline at the time of the incident and causing neural metabolisms to increase, which causes a faster signalling rate between neurons. In such a scenario the brain is sampling information more quickly, it would be the equivalent to the playing back of a high speed camera. High speed cameras have a very fast frame rate, information sampling rate. When you play back the film at a normal rate, 30 frames per second, it appears in slow motion.

LOL, nice associations, too bad they do not fit with reality.

LOL we do not know at this point in time whether the consciousness can extend beyond the physical body.

 

[footprints]

If you don't know what a soul is, then why do you assume that perceived "time slowing down" in traumatic moments points to a soul?

What it says is, the brain may be capable of more than we know and accept. Logical reason to keep investigating, and not close the gate.

I'm not reading any minds; I'm reading your last post, in which you said that "an out of body experience" was a premise in an argument for a soul. I can provide a quote for you if you forgot what you wrote.

An argument for a soul doesn't in any way imply a soul. Merely an argument that it may exist. There is no need to quote me, I know what I said, and know what you said, that I implied there was a soul.

Only very unreasonable people draw a conclusion based on one argument point. Albeit I know from human nature, many people do.

However, if you meant for your statement to be a non-sequitir, we can forget it and move on.

Did you mean non-sequitur?

I wasn't talking about my personal experiences; I was summing up the conclusion of the actual scientific research that's been done on the subject.

If you have personally conducted scientific research into these fields, then you have a personal experience in them. If you have only read of such research, you still have a personal experience in them.

And what does the counter evidence against this scientific research you offered say? Or do you only align with knowledge which tends to support your view, and discard everything else?

I suggest that we examine purported clairvoyance and telepathy in a rigourous and scientifically valid way. And so far, any claimed incident of either of these that's been examined in detail has been found to be lacking. On top of that, we have a well-supported understanding of physical phenomena that are incompatible with the idea that these things could be real.

There is a draw back in designing empirical tests to meet the criteria needed to generate such brain responses. The most telling one, is that it is illegal. A person would have to be put under the exact same conditions as it relates to an accident, and be fully monitored at the same time. We are not allowed to put people in life threatening positions in order to do scientific research.

However, if you have knowledge of someone who does have real psychic abilities, then there are many people who would like to meet him or her. And there's a substantial sum of money in it for them as well.

Silly people will always find something to do with their money. On a personal level, I would suggest they start handing it over, money is always needed for research.

Telepathy

 

[Beyondo]

LOL, nice associations, too bad they do not fit with reality.

Right...But fortune telling lightning does fit with reality. LOL

LOL we do not know at this point in time whether the consciousness can extend beyond the physical body.

Yes we do know consciousness does not extend beyond the body. You see your problem footprints is that you are literally saying that the brain is not the source of consciousness but the empirical evidence demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that the brain is the source of consciousness.

Your superstition of some kind of brain manipulation of time proves your misconceptions about time, and your lack of understanding of the brain's sensory sampling rates that do vary based on neural signaling. You make claims about peoples' experiences who are in fact remembering an event. Clinical test after clinical test have proven the human brain's memory can distort reality. The plethora of people who have been falsely accused of a crime because of the testimony of eye witnesses and sent to prison who later after DNA testing are cleared of the crime are proof of the brains ability to distort recall. :yes:

 

[footprints]

Right...But fortune telling lightning does fit with reality. LOL



Yes we do know consciousness does not extend beyond the body. You see your problem footprints is that you are literally saying that the brain is not the source of consciousness but the empirical evidence demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that the brain is the source of consciousness.

Your superstition of some kind of brain manipulation of time proves your misconceptions about time, and your lack of understanding of the brain's sensory sampling rates that do vary based on neural signaling. You make claims about peoples' experiences who are in fact remembering an event. Clinical test after clinical test have proven the human brain's memory can distort reality. The plethora of people who have been falsely accused of a crime because of the testimony of eye witnesses and sent to prison who later after DNA testing are cleared of the crime are proof of the brains ability to distort recall. :yes:

You do have some strange associations, that you use as justifications. :yes:

 

[Beyondo]

You do have some strange associations, that you use as justifications. :yes:

Yeah its called evidence! :jiggy:

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

Consciousness is not singular, it is in fact a cataclysm of distributed processes. We sense a singularity because we experience our minds as continuum, but the evidence is contrary. Our brains operate at resolutions constrained by biological systems that don't even come close to signaling at the speed of light, nor even the speed of sound. So in between signal pulses, let's say a fast signaling neuron at 100 Hz, the universe has exchanged information between atoms at the speed of light and at signal rates in the hundreds of Giga-Hertz. A whole lot happened between your brains ability to sense change and the actual changing universe.

The brain's fidelity of reality is by far inaccurate and not continuous but is in fact sampled at ionic transport rates that are in the order of hundreds of miles an hour.

I agree that the human mind is inaccurate. This has been the belief in the east for 1000s of years. I would say Humans don't sense all conscousness as singular we all think of our selves as completely independent beings. The reality is that all of us are interconnected and are ONE. I believe that we are conscious because it is in the nature of our cosmos.

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

This is an illustration that expresses my view of the soul. Human beings are like clear water glasses submerged upside down in a lake. We call the water inside the glass our soul. The reality of the situation is that both the water in side and out side the glass is all the same lake. There is no individual soul.

 

[Beyondo]

I agree that the human mind is inaccurate. This has been the belief in the east for 1000s of years. I would say Humans don't sense all conscousness as singular we all think of our selves as completely independent beings. The reality is that all of us are interconnected and are ONE. I believe that we are conscious because it is in the nature of our cosmos.

Such an interconnection as you are stating sounds as if it is a real time wireless connection between souls. However such an idea of connectedness can be qualified as a common reference. Such a reference in humanity or any mammal, or even any form of life on earth, I should say, is DNA. All life today is decended from a common ancestor...

 

[footprints]

Yeah its called evidence! :jiggy:

LOL it is called your perception.:ko::kissbette

 

[Beyondo]

LOL it is called your perception.:ko::kissbette

Well now its turning into your miss-understanding or better yet your superstitions over testable hypothesis. You see footprints its not enough to just theorize about something you have to work out experiments to confirm predictions of a hypothesis. From such evaluations one can then build technologies.

So go for it footprints, predict the future with some kind of lightning machine and make a billion dollars in the stock market. Better yet you could really prove your brain transmission theory by winning so many lotteries that no one could doubt that you can travel in time!:jiggy:

 

[Bird123]

Doubly odd, then, that by this model we start each life completely ignorant of the growth and learning acquired last time round, and have to start all over. Renders it all rather pointless, don't you think?

Are we completely ignorant of the growth and learning from before??? If you do not learn the lesson, you are destined to repeat it. Also, as we go through life we see others learning hard lessons. It is a reminder of what the real answers are. Have you ever tried to help someone and no matter what you did, you couldn't. You will not be able to stop a lesson which takes adversity for them to learn.

 

[johnhanks]

Are we completely ignorant of the growth and learning from before???

Unless you can show me hard evidence that babies are born with the cumulative fruits of lessons learned in previous incarnations, then yes, we are.

If you do not learn the lesson, you are destined to repeat it. Also, as we go through life we see others learning hard lessons.

We surely do; but there is no reason whatever to suppose that the lessons learned, or any other aspect of our consciousness, persist beyond death.

 

[Bird123]

Unless you can show me hard evidence that babies are born with the cumulative fruits of lessons learned in previous incarnations, then yes, we are.
We surely do; but there is no reason whatever to suppose that the lessons learned, or any other aspect of our consciousness, persist beyond death.

Because you are not aware doesnot mean it does not exist. How much exists that we simply do not see? Since you are now aware of such possibilities, it should point you to investigate further. Will you search for the truth??

 

[joea]

To my understanding the soul is " The Real You ". Life cannot exist without the soul, our bodies houses the soul. Our bodies eventually dies, but the soul remains.

 

[logician]

When you die, you are dead. There is no evidence whatsoever of anything besides the physical body.

 

[Apollonius]

When you die, you are dead. There is no evidence whatsoever of anything besides the physical body.

Really? .. why then are you at a religious forum?

 

[logician]

Really? .. why then are you at a religious forum?

There are a number of atheists here.