I hope so too.
I personally do not see us as souls. We are human beings. It’s possible that there is a part of the brain where what we consider to be a “soul” ~ that affects and influences us ~ resides. Brain chemicals, emotions - beautiful imagery, beautiful music ~ they all go into animating a deeper part of us which feels like a soul.
But whether there actually IS a soul which resides somewhere in the brain or without, we can’t actually know.
If there is no life after death, we still have nothing to worry about since the moment after will be nothing but oblivion. What this can do though is allow us to be aware of loving those who we love, being grateful for them, showing them this and living every moment we have in the best way we have.
Aha!!!
I’ve thought about this over the last several days and I have come to this conclusion:
There are two ways that we come to identify the self–
-
Looking in the mirror. When I look in the mirror, the person I see is “me”. ← That’s how I identify myself. So I am, at least, my body.
-
OBE thought experiment. ← This is the one Descartes proposed. He imagined himself without a body and found that in the thought experiment, he still felt like he was himself. This suggests that the way we understand the “self” doesn’t depend on being in a body (you can imagine the contents of your brain being transferred to a machine and you would still identify yourself as “you” except in a different body).
Which is the true self?
^ This is a difficult question to answer, but it would seem that if the “soul” is the inner self, the self not requiring a body, then you lose a part of yourself after death. It’s funny because, in the OBE thought experiment, it doesn’t seem like it would feel like you’ve lost a part of yourself–you’d feel like you are still your whole self–but instead you’ve lost an “appendage”. So it’s weird. You’d feel like your whole self, but really you’d only be half yourself. But then again, wouldn’t you just stop identifying yourself with your former body? And then you would be your whole self?
idunno. Requires more thought.
Take two sugar cubes laced with LSD, then call me in the morning.
Gib
If 2 then not 1 though… If you were say a brain in a vat with bluetooth connectivity to any number of bodies, as in scenario 2, the identifiers would become utterly mutable. …like nothing to identify the reflection with.
Descartes was imagining himself ~ with his brain! I couldn’t possibly imagine thought, awareness or consciousness without a brain to do it with. Out of body should include out of brain - seeing as the brain is a biological functioning part of the body.
The self has interchanging parts and facets, but I do think there is one thing there doing the inheriting. At the worst extreme there would be a total memory wipe at death, but what everything means [like you said before] is in that emptiness. In a way I wouldn’t mind to forget everything and be reborn - but in the otherworld and not here tho lol. ‘you’ are then, the product, the world is the machine which shaped it, your total experience denotes who you are. - kind of blue print for a machine to 3D build the form.
Could we say; you caste your own shape with experience, but it is the whole of that which is who you are? Food for thought I hope.
Just discovered this thread … some really interesting/deep thoughts expressed.
Here’s my intuitive reaction to what I just read.
A soul requires some kind of apparatus for transport in our physical world.
When we take a taxi somewhere we want to go … we leave the taxi behind without thinking we left part of our-self behind.
OTH … when some people invest in a very special auto and it eventually dies … some people think a part of them died with it.
What about snakes …
[b]
[/b]
Maybe a soul sheds it’s body to allow for further growth as well … as in reincarnation?
Most people associate the concept of reincarnation with the Buddhist religion ONLY … not so.
The NT includes the notion of reincarnation … though it’s not easy to perceive … it’s in the ‘mist’ of the resurrection story.
Mary Magdalene … the first person to see the resurrected Jesus … with whom she had a teacher/student … guru/devotee … some even say intimate … relationship with did not recognize Him.
She thought he was the gardener … so she had recognized the human(ness) of who she saw … she recognized the male gender … absolutely no indication of him being some divine being. Yet she did not recognize her “Rabbini” … didn’t even recognize his voice! The resurrected Jesus was in a different body … ergo: reincarnation.
The imagery and language is clear in the Gospel of John Chapter 20 Verses 14-15
[b]
[/b]
If you are capable of displaying empathy and compassion, you have a soul.
Yet another subtle profundity Ierrellus !!
You have just revealed the appropriate metrics for the measurement of progress to a higher consciousness.
Given these 2 metrics humanity has made woefully little progress.
The ladder to heaven is empathy and compassion … LOVE is the fruit of empathy and compassion … or the seed?
Don’t misunderstand me … this planet is “heaven” … not some unknown space up in the sky.
The premise is that your soul has existed and does probably still exist outside of your body.
But what if this premies isn’t true?