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Souls and Spirits

Eddi

Agnostic
Premium Member
Hello there!

I'm aware there is a distinction between "soul" and "spirit" even though the two terms are often used interchangeably.

I've looked into it but don't really get it.

Could someone please explain the difference:

What is a soul?
What is a spirit?
What is the difference between the two?

Thanks in advance for any help :)
 

bobhikes

Nondetermined
Premium Member
Hello there!

I'm aware there is a distinction between "soul" and "spirit" even though the two terms are often used interchangeably.

I've looked into it but don't really get it.

Could someone please explain the difference:

What is a soul?
What is a spirit?
What is the difference between the two?

Thanks in advance for any help :)

My interpretation

Soul is the self's religious link to God

Spirit can mean several things, Religiously Angels, Genies, Ghosts entities tied directly to the afterlife or God that interact with humans. Naturalist religions usually a force of life that can be connected to and used in some form or way. Lastly a natural force different from observed natural forces that can be reach through the conscious or conscious improvement.
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
Hello there!

I'm aware there is a distinction between "soul" and "spirit" even though the two terms are often used interchangeably.

I've looked into it but don't really get it.

Could someone please explain the difference:

What is a soul?
What is a spirit?
What is the difference between the two?

Thanks in advance for any help :)

I personally don't make a distinction. As I see it, both point to the Atman (true Self), which is the same as Brahman (the highest principle; Ultimate Reality).

But then again, one of them may refer to the causal body, which is, IMO, the impermanent self that experiences rebirth in samsara.

So I guess that the causal body may point to the spirit, and the Atman may point to the soul.

Salix,
Sometimes works through a thought as he types, especially before he finishes his first cup of coffee
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
Hello there!

I'm aware there is a distinction between "soul" and "spirit" even though the two terms are often used interchangeably.

I've looked into it but don't really get it.

Could someone please explain the difference:

What is a soul?
What is a spirit?
What is the difference between the two?

Thanks in advance for any help :)
Soul is your mind, will and emotions
Spirit is that part which makes you an eternal being.

In the book called the Bible, you have to look at context to find out which of the two it is taking about.

In the Believers of Christ arena, the spirit is what hooks up to God's spirit and His spirit speaks to your spirit. Your soul connects the spirit world to the physical world and your body. It needs to be renewed to the mind of Christ or God's way of thinking.

The word "heart" could mean soul, spirit or both. Context helps or a Strong's Concordance.
 

Deeje

Avid Bible Student
Premium Member
Hello there!

I'm aware there is a distinction between "soul" and "spirit" even though the two terms are often used interchangeably.

I've looked into it but don't really get it.

Could someone please explain the difference:

Sure....it’s quite simple, but first you have to lose some common misconceptions about what the soul and spirit is from Christendom’s beliefs. These makes no sense.

From the purely Biblical perspective......

What is a soul?.....a soul is all of who a person is. It is the living, breathing organism. The soul is not separate from the body but is alive as long as the body is alive. A soul cannot live without the body.

Incidentally, animals are also described as “souls” in the Bible. They live and breathe but are never promised everlasting life....so souls can die... (Ezekiel 18:4)

What is a spirit?....the spirit is the animating force in all living things. It is sustained by breathing. When breathing stops, and the last breath leaves the body, the soul dies. All thought processes then cease. (Psalm 146:4)

What is the difference between the two?
Both are necessary for a living thing to exist.

A body + spirit (breath) = a soul. It’s really that simple.
Neither the soul nor the spirit are entities that are separate from the body. Neither the soul nor the spirit are immortal.

The Bible teaches resurrection...i.e. that souls will be restored to life on earth, with a chosen few joining Christ in heaven to assist him in the administration of his Kingdom. Earth will be restored to its original paradise conditions.

Thanks in advance for any help :)

It’s what the Bible teaches....and it’s beautifully simple IMO.
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
In Judaism, the soul is broken out into 5 dimensions or levels. The 2nd of these 5 is spirit, ( ruach in hebrew )

Does thst help?
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
Hello there!

I'm aware there is a distinction between "soul" and "spirit" even though the two terms are often used interchangeably.

I've looked into it but don't really get it.

Could someone please explain the difference:

What is a soul?
What is a spirit?
What is the difference between the two?

Thanks in advance for any help :)

I looked into it also and it was hard to understand, especially since the term soul and spirit seem to be used interchangeably at times and in different ways in the Bible. I could try to explain my understanding of it but it may end up confusing you more than you are now. But I'll try. :)
The soul is the whole person. The spirit is the spiritual life force in the person. But this life force is more than a force, it is what gives us consciousness and has abilities (think, will etc) This life force is what ends up being our inner man, our spiritual soul. Our body dies, but that death does not cause our inner soul to die and so at death our inner soul becomes the whole of us and goes off to wherever God wants it to be, to await the resurrection and the reuniting of the spiritual soul with the body so that we can be whole again as human beings. At that time the whole person will again be body plus spirit and we will be living soul just as Adam became a living soul when God breathed life (spirit) into him. But whereas with Adam the spirit was sort of generic life and at the resurrection the spirit that comes back to the body will be the essence of who we are, just like in the beginning we had an empty audio tape and at the resurrection the tape has stuff on it.
See I told you that you would be more confused.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Hello there!

I'm aware there is a distinction between "soul" and "spirit" even though the two terms are often used interchangeably.

I've looked into it but don't really get it.

Could someone please explain the difference:

What is a soul?
What is a spirit?
What is the difference between the two?

Thanks in advance for any help :)

Soul is your personality. The seat of who you are. Just as one says they have an ol' soul or a child personality and demeanour and knowledge of an adult. Soul music and soul food captures the I guess inner essense or core of why and how sounds and foods touch ones heart and unites people. Many religions base their union with meals.

Spirit is force of energy. It's the actual movement (a verb) that makes all things flow, form, cause, and effect. Spirit is sometimes called breathe because it's life. Without it, we would be dust. Spirit moves the oceans (the movement of the wind, for example). Some say he has a buoyancy in spirit. Or he is joyfully alive. Spirit is the click you get when you get something. It's that ah ha movement. Clarity itself. Spirit of love is another. Spirit of life is another way to phrase it.

Our bodies (and brain) hold the seat of our personality, behavior, and thought: our soul. Because of these things, we're able to move, be free, act in love, be in prayer: our spirit.

Layman's terms: personality and energy.
Mystics: essence (of a person) and life (or god)
 
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`mud

Just old
Premium Member
`Spirit` evolves into the inner `Soul` of one
`Soul` is the want of the knowledge of life
`Spirit` is the doing of same
`Spirit` goes on from there
`Soul` dies with one
And the `Spirit` always goes on
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
What is a spirit?....the spirit is the animating force in all living things. It is sustained by breathing. When breathing stops, and the last breath leaves the body, the soul dies. All thought processes then cease. (Psalm 146:4)

I think this is the only theological view I agree with in the Bible. Some say this spirit is god. It's termed holy as a adjective. The force can be said as love and grace. Makes "force" more personal.

Interesting.
 

Hawkins

Well-Known Member
Hello there!

I'm aware there is a distinction between "soul" and "spirit" even though the two terms are often used interchangeably.

I've looked into it but don't really get it.

Could someone please explain the difference:

What is a soul?
What is a spirit?
What is the difference between the two?

Thanks in advance for any help :)

They can be used interchangeably in referring to a human without a body form. Technically however are different parts in terms of how a human is composed of.

A body is needed because humans lack the ability to reckon another human by its soul (only angels and some chosen saints are given the ability). Humans rely on a body acting as the image to recognize another humans. They don't recognize each other in the soul/spirit form. Humans/souls (to other humans) are transparent in the spiritual realm. Some have the ability to manifest as anyone, they can disguise themselves to be anyone. So when see the "ghost" of a relative past away don't think that it must be the one you used to recognize.

Soul is needed for the purpose of continued witnessing. Say, when you died and with your body decayed no one can say for sure that you are the same you when you are resurrected. Only God knows whether the you remains the same you before the resurrection. This won't form a valid testimony on an open Judgment. It is analogue to a killer, he killed someone but died then cloned to stand trial. It is not valid as the clone is the killer himself. Similarly if only God can tell that you are the you before resurrection, it doesn't stand a valid witnessing generally speaking in terms of reflecting a fair God (God can actually stand a valid witnessing here technically as God is a Trinity, however He can't be a fair God if in all cases that only He knows but no one else). You thus need a soul to represent you even under the circumstance that your body is decayed. Some angels and saints can still continue the witnessing of who you are. Satan also reckons you whether you are dead or alive, as he reckons humans by their souls but not bodies.

A spirit is needed because the life of humans is staged. Our this stage is on earth, our next stage is Heaven or hell. Thus we need something to "store" what is needed by our current stage. Say, we need the spirit to carry our earthly emotion. After our death, the spirit is said to return back to God such that the same earthly emotion is no longer with us. We love our parents and children here on earth, but not after death with our spirit gone. In Heaven then we have something new that we treat each other as brothers and sisters, but no more the affection type of parents or children or wives and husbands. It is analogue to your love with your ex-girl friend, you can still have the memory with her but your love has gone.
 

February-Saturday

Devil Worshiper
In alchemy, there's the trinity of spirit, soul, and body. The idea is that each step is further removed from God.

So spirit would be an individual reflection of God, it's the whole within the part. The soul would then be the basest individuating nature. Then there would be the body. There isn't a hard division where one turns into the other, it's a sliding scale. There's plenty of room to view it in a Pantheistic sense, where the whole (God) is just the sum of its parts and the spirit is your undiluted experience of that whole.

Taken mystically, spirit normally refers to awareness and the soul normally refers to the unconscious mind, which sort of overlaps with indefinite monism. Nonetheless, the "spirit" and "soul" can be understood purely through naturalism, and we can have a secular conversation about spirituality (concerning the spirit) and psychology (the study of the soul).

You can be suddenly aware of your connection to your community, or your family, or your friend group, or the universe, without needing any sort of supernatural stand-in; I would still consider that awareness spiritual. I don't think a discussion of the supernatural, metaphysical, paranormal, or transcendent properties of the soul or spirit is really necessary to understand them.
 

`mud

Just old
Premium Member
That's a lot of imagination being used there !
I love the ``supernatural stand-in``.
Oh well...
NuffStuff
 

rational experiences

Veteran Member
The Earth is a spirit body of stone, the tomb for its spirits.

Science ascertained spirits in creation were the various gases, so said that they were of Noble birth, having been arisen out of the God stone mountain ejection into the spatial womb. How the Immaculate heavenly body formed in space....by cooling/pressure.

Pressing therefore owned the blood of the spirits, the gases.

God the O stone owned the face of rock. It had been sealed in ancient history Satanic sun attack, so the face of God the planet was formed on the deep of water and space, in spirit of.

That history has nothing at all to do with humans.

Natural light as gases burning, cold gases without light and water/oxygen formed what is taught to be the soul of God, or in science pi O. O is the movement of God the spirit on the waters. O in burning light forms a carbon point O changes into its heated fall in light, forms G spiral...and G then moves cooled back to O.

As the soul of God on the face of the deep of spirit light and water cooling.

That heavenly presence of God keeps us safe by its stated science conditions, as it was explained by science itself.

Humans as a pre owned spirit came out of the eternal body, and self manifested...as did all other Nature bodies. Pre owned and pre formed spirits that came across from the eternal and merged into the atmospheric body.

So we each own our own spirit.

Without the God soul, none of us would own presence or life....for light would not exist. As simple as it was taught.
 
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