When attempting to tackle how to describe what is the soul, one must first dissect the meaning of the word. In this paper the soul will be discussed as the nature of a living being; a human, animal or plant. The next issue is whether or not the soul is separate or as one with this living being. Is the soul the same or a separate mechanism from the body? In this paper I will argue that the body and the soul are of separate forces that make up a living being. In other words, the combination of the soul and the body amount to liveliness. Moreover, the soul has a unique property that differentiates it from the body; that of being unperishable – the soul has a separate life line than the body.
First to determine whether or not a soul exists; one must distinguish whether or not the soul is separate from the body. When examining a body closely, it seems that it has many functions that occur simultaneously to our consciousness. In fact, many processes such as digestive systems, metabolic systems, and neuronal signalling occur without our mental awareness or control. These automatic responses are both orchestrated and played by the physical body alone. But, even the act of thinking consciously seems to be occurring naturally and out of our control. For example, we don’t direct our brains to think, they just do. We don’t direct our brain to understand language when reading it, or to manually hear a speaker talking. It seems that our body has the ability to function somewhat automatically, but when looking closely at the elements that produce these functions, there is some force that pushes them to play their role. In other words, a neurotransmitter as the chemical does not walk down a neuron to the synapse and shout out a command for the body to respond to, it plays out a function in the orchestra that is motivated by something greater than it. Consciousness has been ruled out as the cause of these functions, for they are automatic, therefore there must be an additional influencer of these systems.
Motivation is the force or the drive to cause something. The difference between a dead body and one that is alive, is the existence of a motivational force. The influencer of these automatic systems, is a motivation for properties to play out their role, a drive occurring due to the presence of life. If then, it is in fact the principle of life that allows for automatic systems to be motivated independently of one’s consciousness, then it must be clear that there is something responsible for this life force existing but separate from the body; the soul.
If we agree thus far, then the soul does exist. But what it is, is still in question. The soul of the body is like the God to a world. It is the giver of life, the sustainer, and the creator. It comes before the body in order to bring it to life, and sustains it by exerting its powers through the body like God does with the beings of his earth. If a soul is needed for a body to be alive, then it must exist prior to the existence of the body. If it is prior to, then it must have a separate time line than the body in which it inhabits. If it has a separate life line than the body, then it can also be possible for it to exist after the body. Because, the body and soul are different — in the sense that the soul does not perish with the body– and because the soul is what gives the body life, it can only be dormant or living but never dead, for its property is life. If this is so, then it is safe to conclude that the soul does not only exist, but it exists separately from the body with a separate timeline, without ever perishing.
Next step, if the soul is thus as we assume, then there must be something that differentiates your soul from mine. A body for example, is differentiated from another body through physical attributes, genetics, or neurobiology. But an individual is differentiated from another by their soul. A soul is the essence of the body, for without it, a body would not function, the genes could not be physically expressed, there would be no matter. The essence of a soul is life, so the essence of an individual is its personality. A personality can be seen by scientists as the combination of genes and socialization. Personality in this case is the energy that a soul emits. A soul emits an energy depending on the influences of previous times in which it was imbedded in a body. Every time a soul keeps a body alive, it also lives through experiences alongside the body. Events that cause the soul to react, or allow the body to react, in certain ways. Through this interaction between soul to body to world and back, the soul forms an energy that reflects its history or growth. In other words, souls are the conjunction of all its ‘life’, that emits a specific energy. Therefore, a soul does not only essentially exist separately and independently from the body, but it is also unperishable and distinguished by the energy it emits depending on the specific lives it bore.