The soul and consciousness.

Soul and consciousness are the same thing. The terms may differ but the phenomenon is the same. The terms emerged from religious and secular communities respectively.

I think, therefore I am

Cogito ergo sum is Latin for this statement. It was made famous by Rene Descartes.

The soul is an interesting subject with a long and tangled religious history. Dictionary has this to say about soul:

the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part.

the spiritual part of humans regarded in its moral aspect, or as believed to survive death and be subject to happiness or misery in a life to come: arguing the immortality of the soul.

Depiction of a soul being carried to heaven by two angels by William Bouguereau

Religions conceive of the soul in a variety of ways. Scientists are still trying to unravel the mystery of consciousness- its source and its nature.

My personal view is the soul and consciousness are one and the same. Consciousness is a subject of investigation in the secular fields of psychology and identity philosophy. Soul has been a subject of consideration in the domains of religion and metaphysical philosophy. They intersect on many fronts.

My interest in human consciousness goes back to my early 20s when I began reading about ‘higher consciousness’ and practiced Transcendental Meditation. For anyone who is interested in expert discussions about consciousness, I recommend The Consciousness Podcast.