What is the soul?
Great question. If you ask anyone: Who are you? Most will not be able to respond such a simple question. Are you your head,? your arms,? the whole body? Here is the answer. The soul is me. My form is a minuscule point of light. The soul is imperishable. It is beyond death and it is eternal. Without a soul, life is meaningless because the body will get older and perish. The body is perishable, the soul is not.
Any proof? If we are looking for scientific proof, we are wasting our time because the soul is not a material entity like the body. Scientific proof is not possible because the soul is not in the realm of science. However, using our intellect which is a faculty of the soul, we can use some reasonable, logical premises to understand its existence. The reason that most human beings are not aware of the soul is because our consciousness resides in the awareness of the body. Spirituality on the other hand, realizes the importance of the soul and develops our awareness of it. There is spiritual proof of the soul. It is called experience. Once you have the experience that you are not the body, that which remains, is you. The soul.
Here are some points to think about: Thoughts. Are thoughts material or non material? If thoughts were material (matter) then they should have some properties like weight, size, dimensions, etc. Thoughts do not have those properties. Therefore, logically thoughts are non material. Is it logical for a material body part such as the brain to produce non material things? Is it possible for a brain to produce thoughts? Clearly the answer is: No, is not logical. Then the question becomes, who can produce non material thoughts? A non material entity such as the soul. Thoughts exist. Everyone has them, they are such an important part in our lives. Thoughts are our life. Logically, the producer of thoughts is the soul because it is a non material entity.
Not enough? How about re-incarnation. Science has recorded cases of people who have come back in another body, from another life fully remembering their previous life. There are so many new age books citing scientific research about that. However, logic and reason are the way to understand this.
Because human beings are souls, past experiences are brought in the new life. It is the principle of cause and effect which is scientific after all. Eddie was a heavy smoker. Eddie died with cancer in the lungs. In his next life, the soul takes a body which is called Maria and baby Maria is born with lung problems or with addictions or when the time comes, Maria will re-live cigarette addiction and hopefully this time, that soul will be able to overcome it. Perfectly logical. That is the soul.
Another logical proof? Have you ever felt peace? Is peace a bodily sensation? Is peace a chemical potion introduced into your body? Or perhaps it is a pill changing the way you think? Peace is not related with none of those occurrences. When you look at a sunset and feel that peace, you know that you are a soul, because you have feelings which are not produced by bodily chemicals. The body is not interested in peace, but perhaps in pleasure and pain. When we change our awareness from the pain/pleasure dualistic roller coaster, we can go into the spiritual realm. That is the soul.
Knowing the soul, meaning experiencing the soul is possible through meditation. Meditation is the experience of silence of the mind. It is not the absence of thoughts but to be able to slow them down, to increase that space between thoughts, that is silence of the mind. Here the awareness that you are something besides the body is clear.
The soul is not a foreign concept. Many religions speak about it. For instance in Hinduism (the oldest religion of all) there are many memorials of statues sitting in meditation with a red dot in their foreheads, symbolizing the soul. The third eye is the soul as well. Plato's philosophical concepts are based on the soul as well.
While I was at school, I was taught that the pituitary is the master gland, because it is the manager of all glands and pretty much controls the body with its bodily secretions. Then the concept of the master of the master gland came up. That is the Thalamus (related with the brain). Am I the thalamus? No. Consciousness is not related with the body. It is a higher interaction not only with matter but with that which is non material such as feelings, vibrations, etc.
Logically, the master of the thalamus is something else besides our material brain; that is the soul. I am a soul, not a body.