On the Nature of the Soul

 One of mine asked, "What happens to energy when we die?" This gave me cause to think on the subject.

There is, of course, the scientific explanation. We are a bouncing mass of kinetic and potential energy, and when we die it is redistributed to the Universe, as heat, as food, as nutrients. If we donate, part of our energy is used by others for science or to restore life. Energy is neither created or destroyed.

And that is all true, but what happens to the energy that makes us...us? I responded that it really depended on what you believed a soul was. 

The existence of a soul is a fairly hot debate, and some religions are defined by it. We all are taught to believe in our souls, imagining some glowing ball in our chests, but this is not so. There is no physical manifestation of a soul to our knowledge. Some faiths place the soul in the head, near to the third eye, while some place it in the chest, near the heart. This demonstrates an alliance with reason and faith or with love, respectively. However, the concept of a soul is exclusionary. It is predicated on the belief that we as humans are special, pulled aside from creation to be given our sentience and will. It is hinged on the thought that our soul lives on when we die and is the recipient of our reward or punishment. 

I find that to be somewhat counterintuitive, if for no reason than its oversimplification. Do we have a unique energy that is certainly our Divine Self? Of course we do. Do we continue after we die? I believe so, yes. But I define a soul differently. 

In Primali, we have an axiom: The soul lies not in the head or in the heart, but in the hands. That is to say, what we choose, our words and works, our interactions and will is our soul, because it is a collection, not unlike an imaginary number, of our experiences. This imaginary quantity is labeled with a singular word - our soul - but represents all our choices, both that we have made, but that we will make over the course of our lives. Each question answered, each wrong done and whether it was righted, each hand extended with an open palm or a closed fist. This, I believe, is a better representation of the soul, for when we step through the final door, while our physical energy is redistributed, our soul, our memories and our will, leaps forward if it can into the great Dreaming Place with the purpose of eventually leaving those memories with the collection of the Universe and trying again.

The Universe gave us each the energy that creates our soul over the course of our lives, and one day we will return it, like the gift of a blank book returned full of drawings and illustrations and shelved in the infinite library of the Universe. Some are broad and full of bright illustrations. Some are dark with burned edges. Some are pamphlets left behind. But all are part of the Universe, and we will keep writing them.

What is your story, your soul, going to say? Will you paint it with bright colors and odd illustrations? It's your story. You're writing it every day. And that soul is the most precious part of your Divine Self, shown through your works and through your choices. 

Make it a good one.