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miriam_eSorry it has taken me a while to post this. I spent the last few days mostly sleeping. I didn't realise how tired I'd let myself become. What follows is a slightly improved version of my old "Soulless" post. Hopefully it is easier to read and understand.
What do people think of when the soul is mentioned? Most would say that it is your essence -- this consciousness, this feeling of "I", that feels emotions, understands the world, the one who makes moral decisions and accumulates or loses karma.
If that is what the soul is then the soul dies with your body, because it is fairly easy to show that those things are a function of that wonderfully complex organ, the brain. Alter the brain and you alter your consciousness, your emotions, your understanding, your moral sense. Stop the brain's action that is consciousness and naturally your conscious self disappears.
There is the case of the French businessman who woke up one morning to find that he could no longer read -- he could still write, and although he could remember what he had just written, he was unable to make sense of what was on the page. During the night a blood clot had jammed in a blood vessel feeding the part of his brain that understood writing, and starved of oxygen and food, it had died. A central part of his understanding of the world had vanished from his conscious reality.
The construction worker who was a pleasant guy, happily married, and liked by all others. One day, at the worksite, he was standing over a crowbar in a hole packed with explosive. The explosive went off and fired the crowbar through his head, under one cheekbone and out the top of his head. Amazingly, he survived, but it radically altered his personality. He was not the congenial person of before and was now given to fits of rage. His morality and personality had been altered by changing the architecture of the brain.
Split-brain surgery, done many years ago in an attempt to control awful attacks of epilepsy, worked by cutting the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerves that let the two halves of the brain communicate with each other. It resulted in two separate consciousnesses inside the one skull -- where there was one, there were now two. If the soul is something insubstantial, then how does a knife create two souls from one?
Every time you go to sleep at night your brain goes through cycles roughly every 20 minutes or so where consciousness actually disappears for a while, then reappears in the weird, internally stimulated state of dreaming. On waking, normal consciousness restarts, the memories stored from the previous day providing the illusion of continuous existence. If the soul is this feeling of personal existence then this stops every night as the brain alters its own operation.
A bad blow to the head stuns the nerves which make up the brain, causing consciousness to stop till they recover. (I wish movies wouldn't show this as a common way to put someone out of action -- in actual fact a blow that causes such a blackout has almost certainly caused brain damage and is extremely dangerous.) Consciousness is incredibly fragile.
Anesthetic chemicals administered during surgery alter a patient's brain function causing their consciousness to cease for a while. The person administering the anesthetic has to be very careful because it brings you close to death.
When you take various psychoactive drugs your brain's function is altered which changes your consciousness and quite often your personality and your ability to make moral judgements. Morality is not only affected directly by drugs, but also indirectly through lack of them. Withdrawal from some drugs can cause shortness of temper, vindictiveness, and depression.
Clearly your conscious, moral, emotional self is really an action that your brain performs. It can no more survive your death than a horse's gallop can continue after the horse dies. If consciousness, understanding, morality, and this "I" are the soul is, then it dies with your brain and your body.
Wait! you say. The soul doesn't have to be consciousness. It could be something less tangible; something not related to our feelings or brain actions; something far more ethereal.
Yes, but that now becomes a waste of time. If I told you that I could keep one of your fingers alive after you died, you would wonder what was the point. Of what use is a finger without the consciousness to operate it? It is this feeling that is important -- it is what we are. Such an unconscious soul, even if it did continue beyond our death is irrelevant.
Without a soul, all gods and all religions become unnecessary. Their very reason for existing evaporates.
*poof*
What do people think of when the soul is mentioned? Most would say that it is your essence -- this consciousness, this feeling of "I", that feels emotions, understands the world, the one who makes moral decisions and accumulates or loses karma.
If that is what the soul is then the soul dies with your body, because it is fairly easy to show that those things are a function of that wonderfully complex organ, the brain. Alter the brain and you alter your consciousness, your emotions, your understanding, your moral sense. Stop the brain's action that is consciousness and naturally your conscious self disappears.
There is the case of the French businessman who woke up one morning to find that he could no longer read -- he could still write, and although he could remember what he had just written, he was unable to make sense of what was on the page. During the night a blood clot had jammed in a blood vessel feeding the part of his brain that understood writing, and starved of oxygen and food, it had died. A central part of his understanding of the world had vanished from his conscious reality.
The construction worker who was a pleasant guy, happily married, and liked by all others. One day, at the worksite, he was standing over a crowbar in a hole packed with explosive. The explosive went off and fired the crowbar through his head, under one cheekbone and out the top of his head. Amazingly, he survived, but it radically altered his personality. He was not the congenial person of before and was now given to fits of rage. His morality and personality had been altered by changing the architecture of the brain.
Split-brain surgery, done many years ago in an attempt to control awful attacks of epilepsy, worked by cutting the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerves that let the two halves of the brain communicate with each other. It resulted in two separate consciousnesses inside the one skull -- where there was one, there were now two. If the soul is something insubstantial, then how does a knife create two souls from one?
Every time you go to sleep at night your brain goes through cycles roughly every 20 minutes or so where consciousness actually disappears for a while, then reappears in the weird, internally stimulated state of dreaming. On waking, normal consciousness restarts, the memories stored from the previous day providing the illusion of continuous existence. If the soul is this feeling of personal existence then this stops every night as the brain alters its own operation.
A bad blow to the head stuns the nerves which make up the brain, causing consciousness to stop till they recover. (I wish movies wouldn't show this as a common way to put someone out of action -- in actual fact a blow that causes such a blackout has almost certainly caused brain damage and is extremely dangerous.) Consciousness is incredibly fragile.
Anesthetic chemicals administered during surgery alter a patient's brain function causing their consciousness to cease for a while. The person administering the anesthetic has to be very careful because it brings you close to death.
When you take various psychoactive drugs your brain's function is altered which changes your consciousness and quite often your personality and your ability to make moral judgements. Morality is not only affected directly by drugs, but also indirectly through lack of them. Withdrawal from some drugs can cause shortness of temper, vindictiveness, and depression.
Clearly your conscious, moral, emotional self is really an action that your brain performs. It can no more survive your death than a horse's gallop can continue after the horse dies. If consciousness, understanding, morality, and this "I" are the soul is, then it dies with your brain and your body.
Wait! you say. The soul doesn't have to be consciousness. It could be something less tangible; something not related to our feelings or brain actions; something far more ethereal.
Yes, but that now becomes a waste of time. If I told you that I could keep one of your fingers alive after you died, you would wonder what was the point. Of what use is a finger without the consciousness to operate it? It is this feeling that is important -- it is what we are. Such an unconscious soul, even if it did continue beyond our death is irrelevant.
Without a soul, all gods and all religions become unnecessary. Their very reason for existing evaporates.
*poof*
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-14 02:29 pm (UTC)I think I see it certainly like an observer, really *the* Observer as it concerns me. Not the thinker, or the decider.
I think it's the reason this body took root and grew.
I think it likely will take the information and experience and wisdom accumulated in this life once I'm done being me and choose another place to express it's energy.
I know I've heard from various sources about different configurations for souls. The Egyptians believed there were multiple souls for each person (though I don't know enough of the details to fill you in on that). I know the Huna system (that's the Hawaiian shamanic system) believe there are three. I could look up the details on that if you'd like.
I've heard the world "oversoul" used and as far as I know the definitions for that word vary but in at least one instance it seemed to be a collection of consciousnesses that worked together in supporting the one incarnation.
All of these things interest me.
Energy doesn't just cease, it continues, though it may transform in infinite ways. I think consciousness often accompanies energy and passes through transformations (like death). It may come out changed but it can and does continue.
That's how I see it, feel it.
I'm sorry I've not got much more detail to offer. Do feel free to ask what you feel like asking though.
I'll do what I can with the questions.
:)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 04:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-18 03:26 pm (UTC)