What if…what we imagine as the soul is just mammal ego using words? Then do we still have a soul? What are the spiritual implications of having no soul; does it matter?
The Soul
My online dictionary define’s soul as the immortal spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal. I appreciate that it includes animals; I’m glad my cats have souls too. What does a soul mean, what is the point? Do you float on an etherial plane like in an Ayahuasca journey? That would be like imprisoning your thoughts with no corporeal body, and probably quickly lead to madness. So I would rule that option out. Maybe our soul lives on in the memory of those who love us.
The thing about the ego is how self centered it is. Ego is a bubble around ourselves. Today most people drive by expanding homeless camps, and don’t even slow down. We don’t consider that people living there could be us. The point is, that our ego is what keeps us focused to keep living. Adding words and imagination to the ego, makes it something more in our minds than it already is, a soul.
Why Was Religion and The Soul Invented?
Religion is a modern concept used to support civilization through concepts such as giving man dominion over other life (take whatever you want), and detachment (chill out). The soul is a modern religious concept. Modern religions in effect gave a do over to make up for the enslavement of civilization. Civilization is a lot more work and drudgery than living in harmony with the Earth. “You get a do over in Nirvana if you join our club and convert more people to join it.” Because they are afraid of dying, millions of people believe this today. People even get baptized in hospice, just in case. My father and my best friend both did. It’s hard to shut off fear once it is implanted in your brain by a death cult.
Think about it. We do not have a soul just because someone at the local death cult told us we do, “Because you are human, you are special, you have a soul.” Instead, could it be that because our ego’s talk, we think we are special, so we imagine we have a soul?
Planet Observer Dialog
Think of animals as the Mars Rover. As animals, we walk this Earth and observe it with our fives senses. We look for ways for our home to meet our needs from food, shelter, to mating. Depending on what kind of animal, fish, or microbe we are, everything as a different meaning. The more developed our brain is, the more complex the story is we tell ourselves about our surroundings. As we encounter others of our own species, we develop dialog with them. This dialog develops as we mature, we literally spend a lifetime talking to ourselves in our minds. This develops our ego and the illusion of our soul. We are afraid to shut off the dialog.
Deception of Words And Imagination
When we say something to one another using our words, we share what we imagine: heaven, hell, soul, god, superheroes. There seems to be no limit to the imagination of the human analytic mind. That’s the problem: more imagination than wisdom. You give words to a mammal and they may think up anything. Share a new idea with many and it becomes a meme, then the meme becomes the truth.
Did Civilized Man Lose it Soul?
A strong argument can be made that humanity lost its soul the day it took the world into its own hand. Chapter one, verse one of the old testament declares man’s dominion over the land and beasts. In doing so, civilized humans began to destroy God’s creation. I would therefore flip Abrahamic religions on their head and suggest we have lost our soul by taking the world of God; we forfeit our soul, and that only indigenous people’s retain theirs because the live in harmony with God’s work.
The Fire of Life: Is This The Answer?
What if we are just compost in the end? I look at that as positive. Many Native cultures have the concept of the fire of life. When we die, we pass our fire on to the next. Consider the fire as our complex molecules created in stars that have lived and died before our sun was born. When we die, we give our molecules back to the mother for others to use: be it fungi or human. Maybe, call that giving our soul back. Earth is the mother and teacher of us all.
Giving the fire of life back, not living forever, letting go, this is peace and balance.
[Image] WikiMedia. Photo by Morjana Jalal. This picture represents light candles and at the end of it a picture for dead woman name Israa.
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Chuck Burr is author of Culturequake: The Restoration Revolution. Revised Fourth Edition. 10th Anniversary.
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