Thursday, August 27, 2009

Souls.

Today i wonder if souls exist.

What makes me, me?



I'll warn you now. :P

In order for me to not sound like a raving lunatic (although i probably still will), you must be willing to put what you know aside for now, and just go with what i say. It's probably the most out-there thing i've ever written and makes very little logical sense. :D



Okies.

The notion of a soul is quite romantic. It is a pure essence inside of you, inside of everyone. It is you. It is what feeds your 'heart' and your 'mind'.

I know i've touched on this before in my Humans post. I said that i believe that how a person thinks and behaves is determined by our surroundings. What we see as 'good' and 'bad' is determined by what see and are told.

But is that it? Is that all? Are we 100% sponge, acting upon only what we soak up? Or is there something else, so deep we can't even see it, driving us?



In most cases, children mirror their parents. That can be explained by the 'you become your surroundings theory'. But let's say that this happens because your soul, and your parents' souls matched. So, they were brought together to exist alongside one another. Was it meant to be? Can you imagine living as the child of other parents that you know of?

Ask yourself this. If instead of your parents, you had been born to someone else. Would you be a completely different person?

If there was one small part of you that was the same, inside, in your mind or your heart, would that be a part of you that is pure you? That no matter what happens, no matter where you grow up, will always be there? Is this a result of your soul?



On the 'meant to be' thing between children and parents. I guess you could easily call that soulmates.

There are friends that you come across, completely by chance. At some point in time, in both your lives, you cross paths, and from then on you are inseperable. I suppose it's like it was meant to be.

And there are people that you love so deeply, you feel like, together, you are one. When they suffer, you suffer, and when they feel joy, you feel joy. A connection runs so deep between you and them...

And you can not see it, but it is there. And it is strong.

So if the connection exists, what is it connecting? It certainly isn't anything physical.



Let's look at the facts against souls and soulmates.

Your genes match your parents. So even if you grew up away from them, some parts of you would still mirror them. That's hardly souls, just science.

And if are parents soulmates, then why are there some such terrible mismatches?

You could become friends with people because you have similar interests. You have similar senses of humour. You are just similar.

And i'm not certain, but what we call 'love' can probably be explained by science too. It's just a bunch of chemical reactions inside you, that create emotion for someone, and at the same time exist inside another person, for you.



I have no answers. But i am writing from the point of view that souls exist. So i do have theories. ^_^

Yes, genes will make some parts of you similar to your parents, but not all of you. Like i said before, if 0.00000000000001% of you is not determined by outside influences, and inside influences like genes, then that part of you, is you. And that small part could be the most crucial part of all. And that crucial part might be the missing piece of the puzzle that are your parents' souls together. So in your existence you are brought together.



Now in order to explain mismatches, i must first determine why souls exist. ^_^

If they do exist, i believe it would be to learn. We are born, and we live our life, and then we die. While living, we experience emotions. We experience sadness and happiness. We experience what makes us feel good, and what makes us hurt deep down. We experience every emotion, and feeling. We experience everything imaginable.

When we have learnt enough, we die and our souls are set free, full of knowledge of what it is to truly exist and live. And perhaps our souls all go back to where they came from, and become one again, and pass on their knowledge. And when they reach their destination it is like a drop of food colouring in an ocean.

It is no big deal if a soul did not learn enough, or had to move on before it was their time. For another soul, eager to learn, will be created from the soul pool. Inside that soul will be a little part of every other soul. And it comes to existence to fill in the blanks, to know what it is to live. So if one soul missed out on something, or everything, another soul will take on the job.

If that is true, then we are all connected. In our existence we are all unique puzzle pieces from one huge beautiful picture. Sometimes we find a match and so experience a 'meant to be' feeling. Although perhaps more accurately between friends or partners, it was a 'match by chance'.



Okay that turned into a tangent. Back to why there are mismatches.

While a tiny part of us is our soul, the rest isn't. While our soul learns, the rest of us does as well. And that part of us may be learning what is not best for it. So if a child and a parent do not match, it may be because what the other parts of us know and feel and have learnt, clash with what our souls want. It gets in the way of what could have been a good match and the 'soul relationship' never reaches its full potential.



I'll go on to 'love' now.

Love is the ultimate definition of soulmates. People who are perfect matches, created for each other. Unfortunately we can't always find them. And maybe, i dunno, there isn't a soulmate for everyone. Perhaps part of what our soul needs to learn and feel involves doing it for ourself.

But that doesn't mean soulmates can't be made.

I think if we find someone that makes us happy, someone that fills us with joy, and makes us feel complete, our souls would change. And that change would be a good thing, because it brings our souls closer to their destination, and that could be to become one with itself. Our soul pool could be full one day, with no more need to learn. Souls would have done what they needed to do, and spend the rest of eternity, happy.



Jeez i'm a raving-mad lunatic. lol

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loves me some raving mad lunatics though :)

Interesting thoughts, I would respond with a long response but I've got a TON of reading for school to do.

I did like what you had to say though.

Oh and I miss talking to you.

Kthxbai.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't say lunatic just a curios boy who thinks about life more then I EVER did at your age
Then again being Christian was basically my answer to a lot of those questions.

Like I said before, the Great Thinks of Our Time can't find an answer to this

Planetx_123 said...

No not a raving lunatic. I think you already know what my opinion will be. However, just to make a few comments:

I think that you are spot on with your intuition that a major part of 'you' is 'genetic predispositions' + 'environmental influences'. This is why 'twin studies' are so useful. Identical twins have identical genes, and when you study identical twins that were separated at birth you can see strong evidence for the impact of environmental effects.

I don't have any data handy, but there have been numerous twin studies on homosexuality which support the idea that genetic predisposition is a major component for someone identifying as gay or not.

One thing you hit on which I find interesting: the notion of 'you'. What is 'you'? If you define 'mirrorboy', how do you define it? Well, one answer could be: a sum of his personality and memory.

Personality and memory are the components of how we define a person. If I were to destroy a part of your brain that helped regular certain neurotransmitters you might become a much more anxious person. So new people that you met would define 'mirrorboy' differently: Your old friends would think you are a kind, caring, and smart person, and your new friends would describe you as an anxious, kind, caring, and smart person. Which is right?

The point is that 'you' is changing; it is dynamic. 'You' changes because our personalities are 'emergent' from the current state of our brains. Car accidents, strokes, powerful medication-- anything that can change behavior of the brain, changes our personality.

What I'm trying to illustrate is that when people talk about souls-- they seem to be referring to some version of their personality. This version is a physical thing-- its not some metaphysical 'floaty' thing that is 'perfect'. 'You' is not static. You today are NOT who you will be in 25 years-- that's certain. So it seems tricky to define something like a soul. If our souls are not equal to our personalities than what would the value of such a concept be? I.e. if there were a soul, and after you died it went to 'heaven' what could it be? Would it be some version of your personality? But that's part of your brain-- part of your physical being... is it some 'perfect version' of your personality? That would suggest that there is some way to define your 'perfect personality' and that seems awfully convenient and preferential towards our primitive human emotions (fear of death, hope that we live on) and nothing else in physics seems to show that preference (don't throw an anthropic argument here).

So at the end of the day if our memories (in our brains) and our personality (in our brains) can't be part of our soul--- then what is the value of a soul? I think the value of such a concept is meaningless--it is arbitrary; regardless if such a thing exists or not it has no relevance. If it did exist then 'steve' wouldn't go with it, in which I, 'steve', don't care.

However, your points are still valid-- the notion of soul mates really doesn't need a 'soul' to have meaning. The question is are there 'things' about us that make us particularly suited for one person over another. I think the answer is yes, and the reason is because our personalities are so complex. We have a tremendous number of nuances and behaviors that 'fit well' with others. It seems very plausible that this 'congruence' with another person would heighten each's sense of togetherness. Love and emotion are physical things-- not metaphysical. We can see this by artificially creating them (drugs, etc). That doesn't make the feelings less real, but less magical. We shouldn't settle for magic-- we should only settle for knowledge, and where we lack it, we humbly work harder.

I love this post, and I love thinking about this stuff. Heck, I just love you MBoy :-)

Steve

Jason Carwin said...

That was a very interesting post.

There are somethings I disagree with, and some things that I want clarifications on, and some things that I think you hit right on.

First, I do not think that we are sponges. I am reminded of a quotation from the movie Milk. Harvey says, "If it were true that children emulate their teachers, we'd have a lot more nuns running around."

I believe that our identity, which is not quite our soul, but I think our soul is a part of our identity, is the function of the experiences we go through in life. For example, I do not believe that being gay is part of one's identity because it is not an experience. However, being gay does lead to certain experiences that a heterosexual person may not go through, so in that respect, it becomes a major catalyst for the experiences that make up our identity.

How does his relate to our soul? Well, I have an idea, but first I want to know if you think the soul is inherent and unchangeable or something that is constantly changing within us?

At first, you seemed to imply that it was inherent. The soul is the most basic part of us that makes us who we are. However, as you continued writing, your belief seemed to change towards the idea that the soul learns and changes just as we do.

So, I want to know what you think is the correct interpretation. Is there a correct interpretation or is our soul somewhere stuck in between?

If we take the first interpretation as correct, then we might say that "soulmates" who do not work out simply were not actually soulmates. In other words, they made the wrong decision.

If we take the second interpretation, then we can say that the soulmates were mates at one point, but then their souls continued to evolve and after some changes, they no longer fit together.

Personally, I am a stronger believer in the second interpretation. I do not think there is an unchangeable bit of ourselves that makes us who we are. I think that we are the masters of ourselves and that we affect who we are. Maybe we don't have conscious control over our soul, but I think that our soul is changing just as we change. How can it be otherwise? how can someone change and grow and still be stuck with the same soul?

Of course, I think I just repeated your point at the end there, so in short, I agree.

Anonymous said...

Interesting thoughts. *calls funny farm* :P

Aek said...

Okay, it's way too late and I'm way too tired to make a long intelligible comment. I may do so later. But there's one thing I'd like to mention.

Out of the 3 billion or so nucleotides (~25,000 genes) that make up the human genome, a couple hundred of those nucleotides are unique to each individual and each individual alone. There are mutations that are uniquely yours and yours alone, now and forever.

Even identical twins may differ slightly in a few of these. And as time goes on, the way their genes are turned on/off continue to change. So yeah, we learn, our bodies learn, and things change. I'll agree with you on that. :)

And now I think I've said a lot more about genetics than I had planned. So good night and take care.

Tyler said...

.....interesting :)



and I wouldnt say 'lunitic', or w/e. you're merely someone who's thinking- which is good! >_> not enough people think these day...

Tyler said...

ps- fuck me! steve made a long post.

Mirrorboy said...

@Jason. Well you've got me there. lol

I would say that the soul is definitely changeable, because the reason for its existence is to learn and grow.

That doesn't mean soulmates don't exist though. It could mean that when 2 people come together, they grow together. So they wouldn't outgrow each other kind of. lol. The opposite could happen as well, and they could grow apart too.

Yeah idk lol. :P

WkBoy714 said...

*sigh*. D - Mirrorboy..
you're too good for me.

I will read from here with awe. And stay silent.

Anonymous said...

not a raving lunatic - just a philosopher in the making :-) start with Plato (Phaedo or Dialogs on Friendship) and Aristotle (De Anima) and then just go straight for the existentialists .... enjoy!

cvn70 said...

mboy

I dont nccessary agree with you but i love that you think of these things. and one thing i disagree with Jason and you a bit on is that our souls are grounded i believe

I do believe they come wih preset values and wher these come frm i dnt know. You can modify your oul but you do that conciously

Now im off to work bu hey i might write you an meail on this one :)

take good care and be very safe
my friend

ob

Mirrorboy said...

Thanks ob lmao

Mr McCabbage said...

Mboy, thx for this post. I recommend a book that you will like, it will also help you to help others. Don't underestimate due to title, namely
Conversations with God, Book Three, by Neale Donald Walsch. (Books One and Two are covered well enough in Three.) Deadwing also needs to read this book - will make his dating more successful.

Ryan said...

I am new on here and definetely overwhelmed by such a post.

First off, I think that you hit on a lot of great ideas. I certainly do find it interesting to even think of the subject in terms of your name. Mirrorboy.

I know that you probably have resons for that name, but when I think of it, I picture a person looking at himself in the mirror. He is pictureing himself as he would possibly like to see himself and reflecting on what he sees and thinks.

I believe that in this study of souls that the actual soul and the soul he sees would definetely be different yet the same.

Different in the fact that I believe we can change our souls or rather that our souls can be changed by major life decisions and experiences. Also in the fact that we see in mirrors sometimes what we want to see and sometimes what we do nto want to see.

The same in the sense that a mirror is a true reflection of ourselves. On a more philosophical(eek on spelling! sorry) level, when we look into a mirror we can view parts of us that we normally would not see. Sometimes looking into a mirror can inspire us to act or to stay, to long for or to despise. These feelings would greatly interact with the so mentioned 'soul'.

All that aside, I do not think you are crazy at all. Your ability to spur such a forum of discussion about something so deep as souls by so many people, and to do it with only your words. Is amazing to me.

Thank you for the post, the time and for allowing me to ramble!

Have a good day everyone,
Ryan

Jason Carwin said...

Good answer to my question, mboy. I hadn't thought of growing together. That makes perfect sense, and explains how some soulmates become even closer as time goes on.

Benji said...

Hey mirrorboy !!! josh and i broke up tonight, and i'm quite sad, and i was hoping you could come on msn to speak a bit, because i miss speaking to you, and i really need it now -_-'
Anyway, if you cann't, its okay ^^'
Benji

Mirrorboy said...

Thanks? lol

Jason Carwin said...

I think it's a compliment, don't you?

Wolf said...

That pretty deep stuff, which has now got me thinking! lol love ya posts mirrorboy, keep it up =)

- Wolfi-

Eirik said...

Great thought provoking post! I don't want to digress into what everybody has said already, but I also beleive in souls & I beleive in "Sould Mates" But my take on it may be different. I think the term of "Soul Mate" has become a cliche term that has nothing to do with souls at all. It is more of a term we use to indicate a person that at that particular moment in time of our life fills a certain void. I beleive a "soul mate" can be for a short time or forever and maybe we can have more than one over our lifetime.

Again, great post - Thanks!!

Kevin Wilson said...

Since this is a gay boys blog, you probably won't get too many Christians coming on to defend the existence of souls simply based on the notion that their creator wouldn't create gay souls.

I personally don't believe that the soul exists nor that at the end of my life, any part of me will continue on some spiritual plane of existence. Who I am is the product of my upbringing, the decisions I have made about my life (both good and bad) and the actions I take in living that life.

I would suggest further reading into the existence or not of souls but make it balanced - don't rely on one particular argument for or against.

Daily Dan said...

i really miss u babe. A LOT!!!! i thought about u yesterday. i remember when i first started talking to u. man i was sooo nervous.

i love u babe, and we gotta talk soon.

Mr McCabbage said...

Ok further reading is The Michael Teachings. You Mboy might well have a Sage Role at this time. You are of Old Soul age, manifesting as Mature age though. You probably have Jupiter in your body type, and some Mars (thick hair, stamina) and Pluto (oddities). Pluto is found in people who transform the world in a big way, but whose contribution is sometimes not recognised during their lifetime. Jupiter attracts Mercury (cuties) so don't be shy when it happens .. It's a glandular "chemistry" thing, those who are aware will truly desire you.

J said...

"To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise..." --Thomas Jefferson What you say is a soul is the intelligence, self awareness, and human connectivity that gives you a personality and a spirit. We have no knowledge or experience arising before our birth, when we were non-existent. When we die we become non-existent again. If by soul you mean some essence that survives human non-existence, there is no evidence of it, and there's no sense worrying about it. So make the best of living while you're here, and never supress the greatest of human sentiments--love.