What do you think happens to your soul when you die?

Thank you for your ideas. I like the idea of 'filtering' - it's something like the way I see it.

Thank you for your ideas. I'm interested that you don't think 'soul' is emotional. Maybe it has to do with emotions or has an influence on them but is more permanent than most human emotions.

yes I think that's what I meant! I think the soul is beyond human emotion. It is maybe used when you have children or are with someone you love so much you can;t describe it. That's your soul because there isn't enough love just from your physical body. If you get my meaning.

Oh yes! I understand you perfectly! I have very occasionally felt so much love for someone that I feel it isn't coming from me so much as through me - as if I were allowed to be a channel for an enormous ocean of love that needs directing to that person.

I think you are right, John, it is up to us to do as well as we are able in order to open our souls to the 'power of the Spirit' (I put the term in quotes because I am not always happy with some religious terminology). Being in tune with a greater being is more what I mean. Maybe the soul is the soundboard which picks up those vibrations and the more sensitive we are to them, the better use we have made of our soul.

Thank you for your ideas. They are startlingly close to the way I think of it, too!

My feeling is that our souls are something like drops of water which are independent, yet have a memory of which pool or ocean they came from. Sometimes we meet someone whose soul came from the same pool as our own and then there is a spark of recognition for no reason that we can determine. When we die, it seems to me, our souls return to the pool or the ocean. It may be the same one that we started from or it may be a different one, but it returns to share what it has gained in this life with that pool. In due course, a new soul is drawn up, as water is drawn from the sea to the clouds, and falls as rain - each drop a new soul.

I think I have to agree that 'mind' has something to do with reasoning and intelligence and that soul has SOMETHING to do with feelings and emotion. Some 'emotions', though, are just a result of 'having a bad day' which is often a physical thing ... as when we are tired we become grumpy, short-tempered and angry! I do feel that is a different kind of anger to the kind that we feel for injustice or when we see something bad happen that we might do something about.

Thank you for your thoughts. I agree that there is a great deal to be said for the idea that the soul is the part of us that keeps returning to feed wisdom into humanity.

I agree that it is all suppostion and nobody really knows! I suppose if anyone really knew (in detail) there would be no need to ask the question! I am very interested in everyone's different answers and I very much like your image of nucleus, electrons and atoms. That is one I shall have to think carefully about!

Thank you for your comment. I can see that the brain is purely a physical thing and really does die with the body, but I'd love to know what distinction you make between 'mind' and 'soul'. It seems to me that neither has a physical existence (in the same way that the brain does).

Thank you. Yes, I hope that it does, myself (whatever 'heaven' is ... different people have different ideas about what exactly it is, but it generally amounts to 'a good place to be'.

I'm not sure what you mean by your comment. I was hoping that you would tell me (and the other people in the discussion) what your thoughts and feelings are. I have been trying to steer clear of giving my opinion, except as I comment on other peoples' comments! I was wondering if, by hearing many people's views, something like a truth or a pattern, at least, might emerge.