# Can there be a soul when your soul has an off switch?



## Carrie (Jun 10, 2010)

Okay, so I grew up in a protestant middle class neighborhood with my protestant white middle class friends. I was preached to. Abortion was wrong, homosexuality was wrong, sex before marriage was wrong, etc. At the center of a lot of these 'sermons,' was the fact that _all humans have souls_.

Enter depersonalization:

Where was I? If this was a malfunction in my brain (which I assumed it was), where was my backup drive - this cloud like "soul?" I thought my soul was supposed to carry my conscious experience around for me, like iCloud. It's not here with me but it's there on another level, right? It wasn't there - there was no backup for me. My spiritual experience died that day.










So is there a soul? Or is this idea of "soul" just a part of our cingulate gyrus that can switch on and off? Have we been fed a myth since our birth? Do severely brain damaged patients have this experience of 'non-existence?'  Define the soul for me!

Further Reading: Spook, by Mary Roach


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## kate_edwin (Aug 9, 2009)

I don't generally beleive in religion or anythng, but I don't think dp or brain damage would effect your soul, I'd see the soul as some energy that's "above" or trensends the mind and body?


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## forestx5 (Aug 29, 2008)

The soul can be looked at from different angles. Neuro researchers say an individual's concept of self/soul resides in the limbic area of the brain.
This is where the Amygdala, hippocampus, and some other structures reside in the temporal lobe of the brain. And those with traumatic brain injury certainly do experience "loss of self", depersonalization, derealization, and any other deficits that can be induced by brain injury. You can search traumatic brain injury on google books, and read all about it.


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## medeuv (May 14, 2011)

Carrie said:


> Define the soul for me!


The fact that you're aware that you are suffering is evidence that you have a soul.

Soul =/= Psychology residing in the physical brain

Your soul remains even if your point of view on reality changes.

As for what the soul actually is, that's something I'm still trying to figure out myself.


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## Pablo (Sep 1, 2005)

Perhaps the part of you which yearns to recover is your soul?


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## Visual (Oct 13, 2010)

kate_edwin said:


> I don't generally beleive in religion or anythng, but I don't think dp or brain damage would effect your soul, I'd see the soul as some energy that's "above" or trensends the mind and body?


Why to you feel this way?


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## InfiniteDivine (Aug 9, 2011)

Visual said:


> Why to you feel this way?


Because even when there is no longer thinking, you still are being. The "soul" is larger than thought, it is a manifestation of the cosmos. The soul does not need thought to still exist, however without thought it would no longer be called a soul, or anything for that matter. Without thought, separation and boundaries disappear and all things blend together. However, even though there is no longer separation, something is still happening, the heart still beats, the hands and feet still move, the wind blows etc. This is soul and this is beyond thought.

It is beyond body, this can be proven when you see a corpse if you have been to a funeral. It becomes obvious that whatever that person was is no longer, even though the body remains. The body is merely a vessel used by the "soul" while we are here as human beings.


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## forestx5 (Aug 29, 2008)

InfiniteDivine said:


> Because even when there is no longer thinking, you still are being. The "soul" is larger than thought, it is a manifestation of the cosmos. The soul does not need thought to still exist, however without thought it would no longer be called a soul, or anything for that matter. Without thought, separation and boundaries disappear and all things blend together. However, even though there is no longer separation, something is still happening, the heart still beats, the hands and feet still move, the wind blows etc. This is soul and this is beyond thought.
> 
> It is beyond body, this can be proven when you see a corpse if you have been to a funeral. It becomes obvious that whatever that person was is no longer, even though the body remains. The body is merely a vessel used by the "soul" while we are here as human beings.


A corpse is brain dead. The brain is the central processing unit of the body. It sends electrical and chemical signals to keep the body running. The self resides in the temporal lobe of the brain. Researchers say that if you believe in the concept of a soul, and you believe the soul resides in the body, then the soul resides in the temporal lobe.
I happen to agree with this because I had a nasty temoporal lobe seizure which spread to both lobes and also involved my visual cortex. This, because when I had epileptic discharges, my vision convulsed (metamorphopsia) and distorted horribly. I recently read a case abstract that thought it was establishing this circumstance for the very first time. lol
It happened to me 40 years ago. And, it is an experience not easily forgotten (as some on this forum will can attest. lol)
After the seizure, my temporal lobe was toast. I lost all my positive emotions, including "my spirituality" or soul. All that remained was horrible irrational guilt and a profound sense of hopelessness. For those who will never experience an electrical storm in their temporal lobes, you are free to believe what you want. But, I know where the soul resides. And, the eyes are the window to the soul. When you can look into the mirror and look into your eyes and are not able to see yourself, then you know your temporal lobe/soul took a hit.


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## InfiniteDivine (Aug 9, 2011)

forestx5 said:


> A corpse is brain dead. The brain is the central processing unit of the body. It sends electrical and chemical signals to keep the body running. The self resides in the temporal lobe of the brain. Researchers say that if you believe in the concept of a soul, and you believe the soul resides in the body, then the soul resides in the temporal lobe.
> I happen to agree with this because I had a nasty temoporal lobe seizure which spread to both lobes and also involved my visual cortex. This, because when I had epileptic discharges, my vision convulsed (metamorphopsia) and distorted horribly. I recently read a case abstract that thought it was establishing this circumstance for the very first time. lol
> It happened to me 40 years ago. And, it is an experience not easily forgotten (as some on this forum will can attest. lol)
> After the seizure, my temporal lobe was toast. I lost all my positive emotions, including "my spirituality" or soul. All that remained was horrible irrational guilt and a profound sense of hopelessness. For those who will never experience an electrical storm in their temporal lobes, you are free to believe what you want. But, I know where the soul resides. And, the eyes are the window to the soul. When you can look into the mirror and look into your eyes and are not able to see yourself, then you know your temporal lobe/soul took a hit.


And so the question is asked, would the universe still exist if people weren't here to say it did? I see your point and I would agree that the self resides only in the brain. However, how did you get to be who you are to begin with? If the self resides in the brain how is it that you made it to this point as a human with a brain to begin with? This is what I think of as a soul, whatever it is that caused you to be. And you can't say it was your brain or your thoughts who got you here as a human, because that happened before you had a temporal lobe. The soul is whatever life itself is on the deepest level. The soul is what is keeping life going, with or without your temporal lobe. And if it is true that all resides in the brain, then it could be said that my thoughts are all that is true and the rest is merely illusion. To have a self you need other things to compare yourself to: other humans, animals, trees, etc. Are you making those things with your temporal lobe alone? Sure it is part of it, but is it all of it? If you are making these things with your sense of self or any other part of your brain for that matter, how is it that everything exists as it does? There must be something larger than just thought.


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## Ivan Hawk (Jan 22, 2010)

I personally say the soul is essentially the universal life-force in everyone. It speaks only truth while the human mind can warp and flex this truth in survival, fear, desire, hate, whichever the case.


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## TheStarter (Oct 19, 2010)

I wish i could answer the question, but infact i don't have a soul.. Cause im a daywalkahhh...

Greetings,
Steffa


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## stillhaventfound (Jan 19, 2012)

Carrie said:


> Okay, so I grew up in a protestant middle class neighborhood with my protestant white middle class friends. I was preached to. Abortion was wrong, homosexuality was wrong, sex before marriage was wrong, etc. At the center of a lot of these 'sermons,' was the fact that _all humans have souls_.
> 
> Enter depersonalization:
> 
> ...


I think that the soul is the sense of self that transcends time and matter, and therefore transcends whatever is going wrong with you at the moment. Whether you believe in the supernatural idea of a soul or not, I still think the very properties of the human mind affirm the properties people have always given to "souls." The soul is not, in my perspective, an illusion created by the mind but a real, profound existence that exists _because of_ the mind. but that's honestly just my wishful thinking. I'm just as uncertain as you.

Since we don't know if there is an afterlife I don't think we can answer whether or not we have souls, if you define them as immortal.


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## daydreambeliever (Jun 15, 2011)

I believed in God at one time. When life became too cruel to believe in a loving caring God, I decided It was either not, not all powerful, or didn't even exist, the latter I came to view as most probable. But I have had a good portion of folks go before me now that I knew well, and I don't feel like they came to an end. I don't feel like I will either and that is cool. I contemplate it often and make myself crazy at times but we can never know so I ask myself, why bother? What ever comfort I can derive from my way of thinking is just that a comfort, and that is all it is. Sometimes that alone drives me crazy. I don't know what a soul is. I know I did not make myself and I find it totally interesting that I could have turned out to be anyone, except that certain circumstance happened to me from the time I got here, and that's what made me who I am to my inner most core. I did not raise myself to be me. I was raised by forces and matters out of my control. It made me, what ever it/they is/are, and I am forever grateful. To have gratitude is a healthy feeling for me. I am glad to be me in spite of my terrible struggles, even if I end up dying by my own hand. In a way I have made peace with life. But who made me able? What made me me? I may never know, even after death. To have gotten to live at all and dream the dreams I have had is a gift I don't believe I gave to myself.


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## cris24333 (Oct 30, 2010)

Carrie said:


> Okay, so I grew up in a protestant middle class neighborhood with my protestant white middle class friends. I was preached to. Abortion was wrong, homosexuality was wrong, sex before marriage was wrong, etc. At the center of a lot of these 'sermons,' was the fact that _all humans have souls_.
> 
> Enter depersonalization:
> 
> ...


ur soul isnt gone it just feels like it


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## Macky (Mar 22, 2012)

That's like asking "Is there really such a thing as personality? When someone's depressed their personality seems to be deadened, so doesn't that prove that personalities don't exist?"

I think, like anything in life, something can be covered without being annihilated. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's non existent. It's like people who don't believe in God. They can not believe in God their entire lives, and live as if that being doesn't exist...but does their non belief make the being not exist?

Here's a helpful quote by my man C.S Lewis.

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." - Can be applied to the soul as well.


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## tlemon (Apr 29, 2012)

In as much as the soul, which could also act as your conscience could be turned off at times, that is not the sole basis for religion. It is also what your mind and heart would believe on. But as it goes with the term believe, you really cannot put that much emphasis to what you would think because it would cause some conflict with what you ought to believe.


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## ashley50 (Feb 17, 2006)

Deleated


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