The Soul, Death, the afterlife and near death exp

What is the soul? An intangible essence of who we are? Christianity seems to reference it a lot. Mostly a lot of repetition about loving god, and devoting with all of your soul, etc. But what exactly is a soul? And how could it possibly exist. We are computers, biological computers. Whose parts operate simultaneously, to create our senses, and our thought processes.

DNA makes up who we are behaviorally. So where is the soul? And what is it? Because it's certainly not your body, your traits, your memories, your senses.

That being said, a body is a physical thing with senses, when we leave it, and go to "heaven" or "hell". What happens? Certainly nothing out of Dante's Inferno. Or What Dreams May Come.

Also, what is a near death experience? It isn't physically possible for someone to look at themselves floating around. Because if they are just a soul, they wouldn't be able to see. This criticism can be applied to each thing in an out of body experience. Because they're always sensual experiences.

A more likely explanation for this would be Dr. Strassman's theory, in which '___' is released by your pineal gland prior to or near death. This would account for the trips people experience. Because '___' itself is a psychedelic tryptamine. That is found in the body, and also in nature.

but his theory of dmt being released wouldnt account for the dmt that is normally present in our bodies. there is a theory, however, that says it is also responsible for our dreams when we sleep.

Wikipedia
'___' is created in small amounts by the human body during normal metabolism[1] by the enzyme tryptamine-N-methyltransferase.

That would be why it's usually present in the body.

Our mind is part of a concoiousness. Some people call a conciousness a soul.

I for one belive in the possibility that absolutely nothing but a conciousness exists, and everyhting we observe and experience is nothing more than a manufatured reality, created by our own minds out of boredom.

Originally posted by prototism
Our mind is part of a concoiousness. Some people call a conciousness a soul.

I for one belive in the possibility that absolutely nothing but a conciousness exists, and everyhting we observe and experience is nothing more than a manufatured reality, created by our own minds out of boredom.

In order for that to work, we would all have to be one collective consciousness. Ignorant of the fact that we all are from one, in our reality we are separate. Maybe thats why individuality is such a necessity for us humans. Sort of an unconscious urge to separate in our own way from the group.

Originally posted by norbin

Originally posted by prototism
Our mind is part of a concoiousness. Some people call a conciousness a soul.

I for one belive in the possibility that absolutely nothing but a conciousness exists, and everyhting we observe and experience is nothing more than a manufatured reality, created by our own minds out of boredom.

In order for that to work, we would all have to be one collective consciousness. Ignorant of the fact that we all are from one, in our reality we are separate. Maybe thats why individuality is such a necessity for us humans. Sort of an unconscious urge to separate in our own way from the group.

Perhaps that so-called individuality is also a product of boredom?

A silly analogy: On World of Warcraft, each player has an account. Each account can make a total of 8 characters on each realm. There are 50+ realms.

Each character could represent a "human", or even an "individual" conciousness. Now, who controls the account? "The Singular Force"?

So are you suggesting that we are all just consciousness' linked together via a network, aka earth and physical forms?

Your soul is YOU, the conscious being inside the body. The driver, the pilot, the computer operator, whatever. The body is a container. When the container is finished with, the soul moves on.

But how do people that get a near death experience(by which I mean the heart
stops) have an outer body experience? How does the '___' function if the
blood is not pumping to the brain to make it functional?

wigit: the conscious being is physical, it's your brain.

Equinox:
When they are nearing death I hypothesize that it is then released, and the person has a trip, it could seem to last longer because of a skewed perception of time. They then die, and once they come back, they don't register the part of them actually being dead because, well, they were dead.



[edit on 7-8-2007 by norbin]

Originally posted by norbin
wigit: the conscious being is physical, it's your brain.

.



[edit on 7-8-2007 by norbin]

I disagree. I have been conscious outside the body on more than one occasion.

Originally posted by wigit

Originally posted by norbin
wigit: the conscious being is physical, it's your brain.

.



[edit on 7-8-2007 by norbin]

I disagree. I have been conscious outside the body on more than one occasion.

That doesn't make sense; tell me were you aware of this (as in did you see it, etc). Because sensory perceptions are the minds doing. And if the consciousness left the body that perceives the world around it then you would lose sight, etc, etc..

Sensory perceptions may well be the [brain's] work but if you're out of your body you can still see. Maybe it's via your "astral" eyes? Maybe the "driver" is still sending signals to the brain? Though that doesn't explain brain dead folk who are conscious outside the body then come back. Maybe they come back then input all the info. into the brain afterwards? It's certainly a complicated subject. You see I think we have a brain AND a mind. It just depends how you use those terms, I might also say I have a mind (brain) AND a soul. I mean the same thing really. I've had a good few spontaneous out-of-body experiences and know that I did SEE, exactly the same as if I was using my eyes.

Neat Death exp's are real..

King Lizard a moderator here or something had one.. he will be the 1st in line to tell you they are real..

Not knocking you dude, just stating fact.

I however never exp this.. I did however have an AP or OOBE.. (Astral Projection - Out Of Body Exp) Where i was out for a few sex and such but I wasn't able to recognize myself for that time i was out.

There are documentaries out there that talk about NDEs and such. There was this one I don't know where i seen it.. But they talk about NDE's and this lady who had to have her brain operated on cause of some tumor anyway they had to kill here for some of this surgery.

Anyway under a CONTROLED setting she heard people talking and saw things going on in the operating room and described in detail a device they used to cut her head open.

Anyway I pretty much accept that we are something else other than what religion stated. I have research enough NDE's to know that when we go from here, we will be back.

Look up Edgar Casey and Near Death Experiences. You can learn a lot from them.

In order for that to work, we would all have to be one collective consciousness. Ignorant of the fact that we all are from one, in our reality we are separate. Maybe thats why individuality is such a necessity for us humans. Sort of an unconscious urge to separate in our own way from the group.

"Reality cannot be found except in One single source, because of the interconnection of all things with one another." Leibniz 1670

"All things are woven together and the common bond is sacred, and scarcely one thing is foreign to another, for they have been arranged together in their places and together make the same ordered Universe. For there is one Universe out of all, one God through all, one substance and one law, one common Reason of all intelligent creatures and one Truth.
Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe.
We should not say ‘I am an Athenian’ or ‘I am a Roman’ but ‘I am a citizen of the Universe." Marcus Aurelius

Just some interesting quotes concerning that idea.

Originally posted by ThichHeaded
Neat Death exp's are real..

King Lizard a moderator here or something had one.. he will be the 1st in line to tell you they are real..

Not knocking you dude, just stating fact.

They are real to those who have them, sure. But there's a scientific reason for why they have them.

Neither it being real or fake is a fact, so don't use that argument here.

OBe's are real. I've had a few when I was younger. I don't know what triggered all but 1. 1 of em I fell on my head from the top bunk and that was that. Saw myself laid out from the ceiling somehow. I was just floating there looking. Very surreal experience to have.

also I've had time slow down sometimes. What's the deal with that?

Edgar Cayse has some amazing accounts of his obe's...

I think a common mistake made by many exploring the far regions of conciousness [expansion] is that the spiritual and the physical have to be two seperate things. My belief is that we project (some measure of) our concious mind onto what could be considered the soul. We may lack the sensory responses such has touch or taste, but sight and sound remain available to some degree. Whether these are responses transmitted from a loose connection to the brain at the time of the experiance or not is something I cannot answer with fact, but my personal feeling is that when in such a state (ND or OOB), the sensory information is gathered in a different way (a level of awareness beyond current sensory transmition), but interpretted the same (in a way the concious mind can understand.)

Wells tahts a little jumbled I know, but I lack the time to clarify at this moment and will attempt to do so later tonight.

My advice to the author of this thread, if you are really having a tough time with things like this, consult south american shamanism. Its incredible what teachers they have to offer.

I've always known the soul as a metaphysical 'thing'.

Now if we say for the purposes of demonstration that the soul is a ball, when you have the ball, that’s when you 'live', when you are classed as sentient. When you die, the ball doesn’t die with you, it is passed on to another thing (person or animal) that is just about to be born. (Yes as far as I believe humans do get animal souls and vice versa).

In no way does this mean a baby doesn't deserve to live whilst it is still foetal, the foetus will receive a soul eventually so you are still taking a life if you kill the foetus.


As for the afterlife I've always known it as this: when you die your mind (which is separate from your brain) and spirit (separate from body and soul) join as one to form another body similar to that which is experienced in astral travel/projection, this is then what the 'ex-person' 'lives' in, when they go to where-ever they go. They still have all their senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, etc).

And near-death experiences are just the persons mind+spirit joining and trying to leave their physical body too early i.e. before it has died fully.

NDEs are false! They are dreams induced by astral projectors. Not all of us become ghosts either.