WHAT HAPPENS TO THE SOUL WHEN YOU EXPIRE

The concept of death and what happens to our souls after we die has been a subject of contemplation and debate for centuries. Despite our efforts to understand it, the soul remains an elusive and complex concept that is difficult to define. If you are someone who is fascinated by facts and constantly curious, consider subscribing to Unveiled for more thought-provoking content on this topic. Don't forget to ring the bell for updates on our fascinating content!

The question of what happens to our soul after death has been a subject of contemplation and debate for centuries. Depending on one's beliefs, the soul can have various interpretations, but generally, it is considered to be the immaterial essence that guides our consciousness and character.

In an attempt to understand the nature of the soul, Dr. Duncan MacDougall conducted the 21 Grams Experiment in 1901, measuring the weight of individuals before and after death. Although his study has been discredited due to its limitations, it reflects the long-standing belief that the soul is separate from the physical body and unaffected by death.

Despite the ongoing quest to comprehend the soul, it remains an elusive concept that defies easy definition. Whether there is something beyond death or if death truly marks the end, the nature of the soul continues to intrigue and perplex humanity.

We know this thanks to the 2008 discovery of the Kuttamuwa Monument in modern-day Turkey;

an inscribed, stone tablet to mark the death of Kuttamuwa (a high-ranking official).

On it, there’s mention of offering “a ram for my soul”, seeming to suggest that

the ancient Assyrians believed a part of them survived even when their bodies perished.

The concept shifts for later belief systems like Christianity and Islam, and in classical

mythology, where it’s often held that the soul is what gets judged by God, before being

either allowed into Heaven (for eternal peace and happiness) or cast off into Hell (to be

tormented forever or destroyed completely).

The specifics differ between religions and denominations of religions, though, with some

believing that the soul actually doesn’t leave the body when we die, and instead resides

there in unconscious sleep until the dead are resurrected.

Meanwhile, for the Church of Latter-day Saints, the soul exists in a spirit world until it’s

reunited with the body and exalted into eternal life.

For many branches of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism there’s a more significant change

of direction, though, in the form of reincarnation.

Loosely speaking, this is the idea that while your body will die, your soul (or spirit)

will pass on and into something else.

In pop culture, its next destination is usually an animal of some kind… but, depending on

belief system, your soul could also migrate to trees and plants, or even into a new-born

child.

The key aspect is that there’s a cycle that your soul is moving through, with many believing

that it’s only when the soul is freed from this cycle that it can achieve its ultimate

goal… what some refer to as nirvana.

From a philosophical standpoint, the soul has intrigued and tormented many of the greatest

thinkers in history.

Plato believed, too, that the soul survived beyond when the body carrying it died, and

also that it could move between bodies to regenerate anew.

Plato also mapped out what he believed the soul actually was, however, with his tripartite

theory being one of the earliest recorded attempts to make some sense of it.

The tripartite theory of the soul divides the soul into three main sections; the logos,

which is found in the head and covers logic and thought; the thymos, found in the chest

and the birthplace of anger; and the eros, which was said to be in the stomach, and responsible

for desire.

The key to a healthy soul was keeping these three aspects of it in balance.

Aristotle also devised a three-tier mode of thinking about the soul, but this time he

sought to differentiate between the souls of people, animals and plants.

For Aristotle, there were three levels.

The first related to souls needing to grow and reproduce, only… so that’s all of

life, including plants.

The second related to animated souls responding to senses with sensitivity… so, that’s

all animals and people.

And the third related to souls capable of reason… so, only people.

Where Aristotle most differed to Plato, though, is that he didn’t necessarily believe that

the soul was immortal.

Critics are still divided on exactly where Aristotle stood regarding the soul post-death.

In the days since Plato and Aristotle, this toing and froing over what the soul is, where

it is and what ultimately happens to it has never truly been resolved.

But, for more modern philosophers and scientists, it’s been less a question of trying to physically

define the soul, or translating it into some kind of knowable substance… and more a question

of determining what we really mean when we refer to it.

For the eighteenth-century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, the soul (as with God and the

afterlife) was unavoidably beyond human comprehension.

We could only ever trust in its existence, rather than know that it existed… which,

to some interpretations, takes the question of death out of the picture.

Another major player in the history of the soul (and how we understand it) is the seventeenth-century

French thinker, René Descartes.

His most famous work centred on the mind-body problem, and his argument for dualism - the

idea that the soul and body are separate, but very closely linked.

For the dualist Descartes, the body couldn’t exist without the mind, but the mind could

exist without the body… and therefore the death of the body needn’t be the death of

the mind.

That part of us, the part that comprehends the rest of us, might then carry on forever.

This tying up between the soul and the mind (and consciousness generally) has also been

a key theme in more recent studies.

Descartes suggested that there could be some kind of filter within the human body, connecting

our immaterial thoughts to the material world - with the pineal gland in the brain being

where he thought that was.

But that idea, the idea that the pineal gland held the key, has since been widely thrown

out and ridiculed.

Descartes’ general concept of dualism hasn’t been dropped though, although it is contested

by monism - the idea that mind and body are one; that neither exists without the other.

For those searching for an outlook wherein at least a part of us lives forever, monism

(particularly one version of it, physicalism) probably isn’t for you.

Here, if there is a soul, it’s the product only of our physical, biological matter being

arranged in exactly the right way; we only have a soul because we have a brain which

can power it.

So, when we die and that all-important brain is no more, the soul disappears forever, too.

In the twenty-first century, the Franco-American cognitive scientist and writer, Julien Musolino

- who wrote the 2015 book, “The Soul Fallacy” - has become one of the most prominent voices

on this side of the argument, against there being a soul to survive our deaths… while

the US physicist Sean M. Carroll is another leading the charge against the soul, arguing

that there’s nothing we know of to support even its existence.

Clearly, there is no one, certain answer to this question.

If there was, we’d all be one huge step closer to deciphering the meaning of life!

Most religions teach that the soul in some way lives on, be that in an afterlife, in

unconscious sleep until resurrection or via reincarnation.

For philosophers throughout history, it has been just as important to determine what the

soul is before wondering what happens to it when our bodies expire.

Meanwhile, for modern-day scientists, the soul is just as unknowable and, according

to some, it might not exist at all.

No matter your belief, though, if we understand the soul (abstract, or not) to be what guides

our lives… to be our own, individuality, personality and essence… then let’s all

try to put it to good use.

Because a little soul goes a long way!