What is the Soul?

[Ragnarrök]

This is an interesting topic that I had participated in on Draconity.org.
It was post by the one called Selroth:

What is a Soul?

I look forward to read everyone's reply to this mysterious subject.
I will post my reply soon on this, but I wish to see your's first.

To be fair, I should warn all who reply: When this topic was first posted, it was found in the Cooled Debate area, where things are discussed calmly. Then I came along, and I ignited a massive Heated Debate, like a cube of ice to hot steam in less that a second. So be careful of what is said.
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Into Eternity,

Ragnarök

[dragonclaw]

Well what i beleave is that the soul is an energy that is inside us all and can't be destroyed it just changes into a different type of energy, thats the way i look at it anyway.

[Hyraxylos]

I'm curious as to how something as personal and subjective as a soul could have ignited. o.O That said my findings on the nature of spirituality itself are (as always) open for disagreement and skepticism. :3

This is actually pretty hard to talk about starting out because of how simplex the subject is--like trying to write out a dictionary definition of the word "to" without using the word "to". The soul is the... um, THING, that enables what's called "life", although the scientific criteria for what does and does not qualify as "living" is actually very different. I believe that alongside the two prime elements that constitute existence (matter and energy) there is a third called "spirit". The properties I can recall from the top of my head are as follows:

1. Spirit cannot become matter.
2. Spirit cannot become energy.
3. Spirit cannot be created or destroyed. (a bit of explanation on a blurry detail below)
4. Spirit is not made up of particles or waves and yet somehow it can be split apart into different entites called "souls". I have no idea why.

As for souls being separate from each other, somehow they can individually feel, think, store and recall memory, and react to stimuli just as a brain can. But they have an extremely limited capability of interacting freely with matter. Instead a soul has to bind itself to a physical body for that. Specifically, it binds to a body's central processing unit(s) such as a brain or nucleus (but I'll just say "brain" from here for the sake of practicality). The soul interacts with the brain through use of an interface called the "mind". Hence soul --> mind --> brain --> rest of the body.
Shortly after a soul becomes "alive" (i.e. gains a body) it begins relying almost exclusively upon the body (particularly the heart, brain, and nervous system) in order to perform duplicates of its original functions (thinking, feeling, etc.). When this happens the soul usually forgets how to do these things on its own and becomes dependent upon the living body. The soul almost never copies its memories over into the brain's memory banks (a few exceptions such as myself), though memories accumulated by the brain are typically copied over to the soul almost immediately. Typically the body forgets it even has a soul, or that such things as souls even exist. Although multiple souls can inhabit one body, I know of no case of more than one soul actually BINDING to the same brain simultaneously. For that to work they would have to merge completely into one being. There could be mental disorders involving multiple minds or personalities, but that doesn't apply to raw spirit.
Souls do not spontaneously arise from empty space, nor do they vanish utterly from existence. I've said some things previously about how I would "cease to exist", but only in that my IDENTITY would cease to exist due to merging with another soul. Multiple souls can meld completely into one and such an occurrence is usually irreversible due to the manner that they "dissolve" one another. It's like how you could put a water droplet into a larger body of water--what are the chances of somehow managing to extract the original water droplet back out again, down to the finest particle? Souls can also break apart into multiple entities, but that can be reversed. My belief here is that if a soul does break apart and the two halves remain within close proximity to one another for a length of time, they will gradually begin to "hunger" for each other and desire very strongly to recorporate. This is why Master had to lock himself away from me. :P
Hinduism and Buddhism present the hypothesis of a "universe" soul, which all others currently in existence today originated from. I share the same belief actually and that this mysterious force constantly spits out smaller souls while snarfing up others in a constant cycle. I suspect this being might have even been responsible for setting off the Big Bang, but such a speculation is too far beyond what I can grasp for me to explore any deeper than merely wondering on it.
Finally there's my personal definition of what something means to be "living", and that's pretty straightforward. A living being consists of matter, energy, and spirit that all enable each other to function towards more complex functions than merely drifting around. And that's all. An inanimate object is not alive no matter how much energy it has, and a soul floating around randomly without a body is also not alive by my definition of the term. Thus, my definition of "death" is when the body and soul sever their connections with one another. A "dead" soul is a soul that has lost its body (this differs very strongly from what others think would mean for a "soul" to "die", i.e. wink out of existence which I believe to be utterly impossible). A "dead" body is a former organism that has lost its bind to a soul.
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The statement below this one is false.
The statement above this one is true.
This statement is false.

[LEE]

The soul is our mind, will, and emotions.[/i]
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truth is only revealed to be true to those who believe it.

[DragonMancer]

The soul.

The energy that is.

Without it we would not be.

With it we feel, think and live.

It can destroy us but subsequently we can destroy it.
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On a sleepless evening I sing alone. Tomorrow I'll sing with you on the wings of a dream.

[Namhias]

I think the soul is what makes us, us. it's the life energy that inhabits this body. I think it's what makes us who we are and what we are. I don't think it can be changed, but I do think it can learn and grow.

[Solid]

The soul to me is something that gives us the ability (sorry for the spelling) to feel emotions.

Please use correct grammar, it's very hard to understand your posts otherwise. ~Namhias.
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Rest in Peace, Ronnie James Dio, from Mortal to God, Rest in Peace.(1942-2010)

[Ragnarrök]

I am very pleased by everyone's knowledge on the Soul. I feel that not enough people in the world wonder of such things, so it makes me glad that we can discuss such matters here.

I will wait for a few more people to reply and then I will present my theory of the Soul and what it is.

Stay Tune...
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Into Eternity,

Ragnarök