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InvisibleRebelSteve33
Amateur Mycologist
Male

Registered: 05/28/02
Posts: 3,774
Loc: Arizona
Some Questions on Souls...
    #1579459 - 05/26/03 07:58 PM (20 years, 10 months ago)

Many of you here believe in the existence of souls. My concept of a soul is simply a person's energy, which is reflective of their core personality traits, emotional balance, and overall spirit. I don't necessarily believe this energy remains "alive" after death, though.

Anyway... I had some questions for those of you who believe in souls that might help me better understand them. If you care to answer them, please state your opinions in an intelligent, open-minded manner; and be tolerant of others' opinions as well. I am just looking to get a better grasp on the whole concept through other people's views.

Here are my questions:

1. Do you believe animals have souls, too? If so, does this mean all animals? Even things like earthworms and mosquitoes and plankton?

2. Do you believe plants have souls, too? If so, how do plants' souls compare to those of animals? Are they the same, in essence?

3. Do you believe that souls live on after death? If so, and you answered yes to questions 1 and/or 2, do you believe that the souls of animals and/or plants live on after death as well? If so, what do you believe happens to these souls?

4. Do you believe we are in complete control of our own souls? Or can they be influenced and changed by outside factors, such as disease, or even just plain old age? This may take some explaining...

For example:

My dad's mom died when I was in 9th grade. In the years prior to her death, she developed very severe Alzheimer's disease. She, in truth, became senile and demented. She couldn't even recognize her own children.

So did her illness affect her soul?

Same thing with my other grandma... She died about five months ago from brain cancer. The tumor in her brain caused her to become demented as well.

Did this tumor affect her soul, though?

I'd especially like to know your feelings on this last issue. Even elderly people who do not experience any specific illness usually go through some form of memory-loss. Does this mean they have lost something of their souls, too?

Any responses would be appreciated.

Peace,

RebelSteve


--------------------
Namaste.

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Anonymous

Re: Some Questions on Souls... [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1579954 - 05/26/03 10:34 PM (20 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

1. Do you believe animals have souls, too? If so, does this mean all animals? Even things like earthworms and mosquitoes and plankton?




I'm not sure about this myself, but I tend more toward the yes side. I do however think that a human beings brain/body enable higher states of consciousness and evolution than other animals could acheive. The question gets tricky when you start thinking about insects and whatnot, but it shouldn't, and the trickiness only reflects our own bias against "gross" or "microscopic" lifeforms. I would say we all have the same essense, some sort of spirit/soul. Some of our forms are just so highly evolved that they are able to experience states of being that others cannot. But the spiritual essence remains.

Quote:

2. Do you believe plants have souls, too? If so, how do plants' souls compare to those of animals? Are they the same, in essence?




Yes and yes, but I have more to say, I'll answer these next two first.

Quote:

3. Do you believe that souls live on after death? If so, and you answered yes to questions 1 and/or 2, do you believe that the souls of animals and/or plants live on after death as well? If so, what do you believe happens to these souls?




Yes, and yes. As for what happens to them, I have no idea, as I have never died before, and words would surely fail to convey whatever it is anyway.

Quote:

4. Do you believe we are in complete control of our own souls? Or can they be influenced and changed by outside factors, such as disease, or even just plain old age? This may take some explaining...




Very interesting how you phrased this. "Do you believe we are in complete control of our own souls? If you believe in the existance of a soul, wouldn't that be you, not seperate? In any case, I think a more accurate way to think of it is that your soul is in control of your body, not vice versa. The illnesses you mention did not "damage" the soul, in fact they probably "added" to it in that they gave it an experience it had never had before. While they obviously damaged the body and mind of these people, I don not believe a soul can be damaged by physical processes. I don't think a soul can do anything except grow. So while I guess you can say that the soul is affected by these outside factors, in that it adds to its experience a new one, the way you said it sort of had a negative connotation, ie an illness damaging the soul, and I don't think that is possible.




As for the plants having souls thing - of course, me and you probably have a different opinion of what constitutes a soul, so for my answer to make sense, let me explain what I think of the soul as.

Before the big bang, when all of the matter of the universe was contained in a single point (a point of course has no dimensions, right? we're talking infinitely small), basically what happened was that physical matter was created out of thin air. What was there before that, that did this creating, is what I would call God. I would go further and say that God is the sum total of all souls, or spirits, or whatever you want to call them. So, to me, a soul basically just means an aspect of of God.

Now, I believe everything is all connected and a part of the same being ultimately (God). If I see God as everything, and a plant exists, than a plant must be an aspect of God too. So yes, it has soul too.

As for how a plant's soul compares to an animal's soul, I'm guessing the animals body allows it to experience much more than a plant could. If the soul has put itself in such a position, I would assume that is because it already knew everything there was to be learned from being a plant. It is more highly evolved. And more highly evolved still is the human body, which not only allows us to seek out and act on impulses like sex and hungriness like animals can, we can also seek out states of being such as love.

Really, the best way I can think of to explain this is that every soul is just a tiny part of a spectrum, and that spectrum (God) is more like a circle than a line.

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OfflineGolem
Dirt Monster
Registered: 06/27/02
Posts: 354
Last seen: 6 years, 9 months
Re: Some Questions on Souls... [Re: ]
    #1580097 - 05/26/03 11:38 PM (20 years, 10 months ago)

Wow. Nicely written response.


--------------------
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.

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OfflineMurex
Reality Hacker

Registered: 07/28/02
Posts: 3,599
Loc: Traped in a shell.
Last seen: 16 years, 6 months
Re: Some Questions on Souls... [Re: Golem]
    #1580313 - 05/27/03 12:48 AM (20 years, 10 months ago)


1. Yes. Anything contious has a soul in my book. Animals are just at different stages of developement.

2. I don't know about plants. Just bekuz they're made of living matter, doesn't really mean they have contiousness. They gots no brain for one thing.

3. Yes, the soul lives on. Some souls might not want to keep their ego and rejoin the collective contiouss (Very large soul).

4. I don't think our souls will ever die. But I have no proof so it's just what I think.

5. Illness affect her soul? I think allzheimers indicates the soul allready somewhat un-attached to the body. No harm to the soul, but a very strange vantage point from the person I'd think.

6. Same answer as 5.

7. Brain cells are deteriorating and thus the soul disconnects from the brain. The soul is imprinted with the brain's knowledge thow, so no harm done. It is only an illusion that the person is crazy or whatever. It's kinda like someone tripping all the time.


--------------------
What if everything around you
Isn't quite as it seems?
What if all the world you think you know,
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection,
Is it all you want it to be?


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Offlinecleaner
Stranger

Registered: 04/02/03
Posts: 508
Last seen: 19 years, 4 months
Re: Some Questions on Souls... [Re: Murex]
    #1580842 - 05/27/03 07:14 AM (20 years, 10 months ago)

Plants don?t need a brain to have a soul.

Brain is like a car, a vehicle for the soul.

All "souls" are just parts of a bigger soul which we call God or satan as may it be.

Soul is what my scientist buddies call quantum consciousness. It's a non biological sentient latticework of pure energy. It connects to neuro centre via pineal gland and note majority of animals have it. Soul is simply living energy, however within proper use of physical brain it can grow and develop and become self conscious.

As for plants, jus' open your 3rd eye and talk with some trees.

Remember in Wilsons cosmic trigger, scientists connected electrosismatic meters to vegetation and had some people near by raise their energy with sexual thoughts, plants responded by raising their emotion levels and it was indicated on the meters.



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InvisibleRebelSteve33
Amateur Mycologist
Male

Registered: 05/28/02
Posts: 3,774
Loc: Arizona
Re: Some Questions on Souls... [Re: cleaner]
    #1581143 - 05/27/03 10:43 AM (20 years, 10 months ago)

Thanks for the responses thus far, everyone!  Fiend, your replies were especially well thought out and articulated!  I appreciate everyone's comments. 

Anyone else have thoughts on the questions I proposed?
You don't have to answer all of them if you don't want! :smile:

-RebelSteve


--------------------
Namaste.

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Offlinenubious
1up on the rest

Registered: 10/20/02
Posts: 534
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 1 year, 5 months
Re: Some Questions on Souls... [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1581229 - 05/27/03 11:19 AM (20 years, 10 months ago)

1. Do you believe animals have souls, too? If so, does this mean all animals? Even things like earthworms and mosquitoes and plankton?

I view the soul a little differently, which kind of answers this quesiton.  Science has basically proven that energy can neither be created nor destroyed - just transferred from one place to another.  Your soul is everything that makes you you - all we are are atoms vibrating super fast combined to make something on the physical plane - nothing more - just a complex series of molecular combinations.  Until we have a better understanding of reality in general, ie: what the entire brain does, and what happens when things vibrate faster and exist on different frequencies, we won't be able to perceive what the soul is actually composed off, which leads me to use my explanation as a "temporary explanation".


2. Do you believe plants have souls, too? If so, how do plants' souls compare to those of animals? Are they the same, in essence?

Yes, but not neccassarily on the same level as animals/humans.  My feeling is that everything "alive" (plants, bugs, whatever) are ALL part of reality interacting with itself - and I mean this exactly how it sounds - we are all part of one massive whole bouncing off each other in different ways creating the massive clusterfuck known as the universe.  As seperate as we seem to each other, we all originated from the same inital spark of life.  Plants and animals are just different ways of realitic communication - they all have their purpose, whether that be upcoming, present, or past.



3. Do you believe that souls live on after death? If so, and you answered yes to questions 1 and/or 2, do you believe that the souls of animals and/or plants live on after death as well? If so, what do you believe happens to these souls?

That's an iffy one..  I personally believe there's more than meets the eye, and being that energy only gets transferred from one place to makes me think that the part of you that gets transferred to something else when our physicial bodies expire - this could be classified as a soul.  In a sense, we are timeless creations that recycle upon ourselves forever creating newer and more intricate patterns. (Talk to Pattern on this forum.. he can explain it..)


4. Do you believe we are in complete control of our own souls? Or can they be influenced and changed by outside factors, such as disease, or even just plain old age?

Absolutely not.  I feel that the more common explanation of a soul being something that reflects how 'good' or 'bad' a person is, is nothing but an old religious scare tactic for keeping people in line.  I think it goes deeper than that, and whether people agree or not, I feel that scare tactics are for those who live blissfully ignorant to other people's point of view.


Any questions? :wink: 


--------------------
No one knows the worth of innocence till he knows it is gone forever, and that money can't buy it back. Not the saint, but the sinner that repenteth, is he to whom the full length and breadth, and height and depth, of life's meaning is revealed. Good and evil loose all objective meaning and are seen as equally necessary and contrasting elements in the masterpiece that is the universe.

Edited by nubious (05/27/03 11:19 AM)

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InvisibleOlgualion
Shaman-In-Training
 User Gallery

Registered: 11/13/01
Posts: 1,253
Loc: Currently Earth...
Re: Some Questions on Souls... [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1583328 - 05/27/03 11:39 PM (20 years, 10 months ago)

#1. I can't really express my thought on this, it is very deep, and I can visualize it, but can't quite understand exactly what is going on. But yes, just not on the same level as us.

#2. Practically the same answer as 1.

#1 & #2. Different animals and plants belong to different soul groups (as do we!), and some are much more advanced than others.

#3 Definitely. The souls go back to their group.

#4 We are not in complete control of our soul, and our soul is not in complete control of us. There are three levels. Body mind, and spirit. Body and mind are influenced by our experiences, essentially making us who we are. Our bodies are only shells!!

Your grandmoms souls were not affected by the senility or the tumor, only the shell and mind were. The soul may have been angry about this, but was not harmed. Once you reach the other side, you are home, you look back at your past lives and see what you did right and wrong. Soul advancement is key, at some point there is no reason to come back here. That is just one step closer to becoming a part of 'all that is'. Even spirits on the other side do not know if there is a single 'god'!!!!!!! I don't think there is!

This is soo tough to say. Everything i say is what i know, but there are other things which are fairly differnt. Like the soul groups: What you believe is what is! Faith is everything! All of the religions on earth are right!!! The heavens gate people are where they intended to be! Everything works together and this is the big picture. I wish I could verbalize my visions.

I'm just going to leave this mess unedited because if I try to make it clearer and more concise I will be here all night. I can answer specific questions much better.


--------------------
Study the past...
See the future...

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