Difference between soul and spirit?

[evedawn]

I believe that we are made of " a trinity" - body, soul and spirit...Is the soul the persoality of an individual whilst the sprit is the part that lives on after death? Or the other way around? Or does anyone else have there ownpersonal theories or believe soul and spirit don't exist?

[Llamatron]

Actually it's body, soul and chakra.

[Dassie]

The soul is what makes the difference between a live body and a dead one. Once the soul leaves the body it becomes spirit form.

[evedawn]

Ok Llamatron...if you call spirit chakra then what is the difference between soul and chakra? Dassie I've hears your theory before and it does seem plausible.

[jake-the-peg]

I don't believe that the soul or spirit exist - or at least that they die when we do.


Why do you believe that this spirit survives ?

[WaldoMcFroog]

If a person takes LSD and alters their personality as a result, is this reflected in the soul?

I'd be interested to hear the views of the religiously-minded on the above.

[Octavius]

I would have thought that it is Mind, Body and Spirit. The soul being part of the spirit. But then I suppose it depends whether you view yourself as a body with a soul, or a soul with a body. You can pretty much do anything to the body and mind, but the spirit and soul remain untainted.

I think I need to cut down on the caffeine intake.

[crossroads]

It is mind body and spirit except the mind is the councense.
(spelt terribly wrong!)

[WaldoMcFroog]

Octavius, so you can do anything to the mind or body without affecting the soul?

Do you mean to say that the soul contains nothing of the mind? This is at variance with how I'd always understood the concept.

[Octavius]

Most peoples concept is at variance with one another, I do not wish to dissuade you from your own perceptions.

I always worked on the basis of torture. Henry VIII�s favoured master-torturers would be expertly capable of breaking the body, then the mind, then the spirit.

[ruby27]

The concept of personality is not universal, it is a western idea and not every culture has this as way of explaining the who we are and why we are not all the same. My view then if it is not something universal to all human societies, it is only a cultural construct. So if there is such a thing as a soul it is not a personality.

Similar to the post about reincarnation. Once you are dead, that's it. However if we did have souls I might be tempted to sell it to the devil if the price was right.

[China Doll]

I would sell mine to be able to go home right now.

Also going back in time one day might be nice too.

Other than that I don't know where I stand on the soul/spirit thing. I think we're all connected.

[blu3wave]

The soul is dominant in the body when you're alive, while the spirit is what's left when you die.... if this is true though, how come more ghosts are not spotted by more people as there must be millions of spirits roaming around the earth, from years and even centuries back?

[WaldoMcFroog]

"I always worked on the basis of torture. Henry VIII�s favoured master-torturers would be expertly capable of breaking the body, then the mind, then the spirit."

Surely spirit in that context is analogous to willpower, not any exclusively religious conotation?

Anyway, as an atheist, I have no personal concept of 'soul', merely an understanding of you believers say, and your interpretation isn't one I've encountered before.

[Dassie]

blue3wave.

Not all spirits are in ghost form. Ghosts are those souls who for one reason or another still roam our earth. In the main, however, souls or spirits go on to another level whether it be heaven or hell so to speak.
I have personally only seen one ghost.

[Llamatron]

A lady where I work recently had a stroke. She now has no memory of the last two years.
Has her soul forgotten? Or is it her spirit or her body?

When she eventually shuffles off this mortal coil and floats on up to heaven will she get those two missing years back?

[Dassie]

Llamatron.

No it's her human body's mind that has forgotton. There is no such thing as getting 2 yrs back as that is in the brain's past. The spirit knows no time or space. Look at it this way, on a clear night when you stare at the stars in the sky the human mind tries to put a boundary on time and space but it doesn't exist. If you were able to just keep going into space without any limits the mind cannot comprehend something that has no end!

[naomi24]

Llamatron, that's an interesting question. Her physical brain has forgotten, there's no doubt of that, but when she does shuffle off this mortal coil, then her soul will know all. I don't believe the soul surviving physical death has anything to do with religion, which in all cases is man-made. Spirituality is far bigger and far more complex than anything we can ever imagine.

[Octavius]

Waldo, I never said that the soul (or spirit) was exclusively religious. You are words my up muddling?

[WaldoMcFroog]

I was going to post this to one of the religious people, as I genuinely don't understand how they can square the point I'm about to make, but Octavius, the only one to respond has a new take on what the soul is such that it didn't quite work. However, I can take it from Naomi's point.

If the soul captures the essential essence of the human being, what happens when you have someone who has a condition like bipolar disorder, not drug or otherwise artificially induced, but occuring of its own volition? It can often be controlled with drugs, but the 'balanced' state of mind is not the natural one; that is the bipolar disorder, so what does the soul retain?

If the soul takes the bi-polar condition as the 'correct' version of the person, it seems rather unfair, since with a little chemical assistance, the person can lead what we would recognise as a normal life. Does this mean that a person naturally inclined to psychopathic behaviour, but controlled by drugs is spiritually a psycho?

If the soul takes the 'chemically-corrected' version of the person, then you're opening up a whole barrel of worms there too. What if someone takes drugs and destroys their mind? We know this happens.

How do those of you who believe in such things square it?

[WaldoMcFroog]

Well, I'm not sure what you - or evedawn - mean by spirit. I presumed you meant it in some sort of religious sense, but your torture analogy uses it in a mundane sense.