6/17/2024 Word Count – 853 Reading Time – 3.75 minutes

The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary defines spirit as:” an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms”. When we check the Oxford Language Dictionary we read that spirit is:” the non-physical part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character, the soul”.

So, if we combine these definitions we can conclude that the spirit is something that exists outside of the physical body but serves to animate or give life to the physical body. We also see that spirit is the seat of our emotions and character.

Most of the major religions of the world recognize the human spirit and maintain some perspective on the eternal nature of the spirit. Although each belief system has its own teachings on what happens to the soul after death, they all acknowledge an essence particular to each person that continues on after the physical death of the individual’s body.

Frequently the term “soul” is also used when referring to the part of us that lives on after the death of the body. It is easy to assume that the terms soul and spirit are interchangeable. To me, they are separate items, performing different functions. However, they both live on after the death of the body.

From what I have read and felt, the soul is an interface between the body and spirit. Our physical bodies form the connection between us and the physical world through sensors that inform our minds, via the brain, of the nature of our physical surroundings. Our spirit provides a connection to the spiritual world in which we also exist. I believe these 2 worlds overlap in our daily lives and form the environment in which we function. While our understanding of the physical realm is tangible, understanding our existence in that space is pretty basic, as long as all our physical, chemical and electrical parts are functioning as they should. We see, feel, hear, and smell material things and those signals are sent to the brain for processing. In the brain the input from our physical sensors elicits input from our emotional component. If we are to believe the Mirriam-Webster definition of spirit, we believe that it is in the spirit that our emotions and our character are seated.

It is my belief that as the brain takes in information associated with the physical sensations we receive it attempts to come up with an appropriate response by processing an accumulation of physical memories, emotional memories, and our personality characteristics. This also happens when we are attempting to process emotional input. Our personality may act as a filter through which the information passes that influences the end product.  If we get a sense of Déjà vu when we enter someplace new, when we get a sense of joy or foreboding from a set of circumstances, when an aroma triggers a memory, these and a myriad of other unexpected feelings arising in response to physical inputs could be due to the spirit based emotional part of the processing taking place in our brains. How we feel about those impressions, feelings of fear or curiosity, or  nonchalance, may be influenced by our personality. Understand that this is all just my take on things. I have not done the work of researching whether my theory holds up against any scientific studies. It just makes sense to me.

At this point I want to bring the idea of the spiritual world back into view. My goal in all of this is to impress upon the reader that we not only live in physical surroundings, but in spiritual surroundings that are just as real as the material world we experience.

As we speak of emotions and personality we should keep in mind that the spirit is considered to be the “seat of emotions and personality”. If we accept what Mirriam-Webster says about spirit it would not be much of a stretch to assume that anything happening from an emotional or personality standpoint is of spiritual nature.

Science does not like to acknowledge anything that is not available to be examined. As a result, many scientists have been satisfied ignoring the spirit and persist in trying to understand spiritual things through an examination of material properties. This is why scientists try to understand and explain emotions and personality as products of chemicals, hormones, and neurology. Although these material components may be part of the physical processing of emotions, they do not address the spiritual nature of emotions, and thereby miss at least half of the equation.

So far, I have only attempted to establish the veracity of our spiritual selves. If, to you, I have not, and you remain thoroughly convinced that there is nothing more to man that what is evidenced in our material being then you can stop reading here. However, if you believe, or are willing to consider, that there is a spiritual side to humans and other living things then stay tuned.

So far we have discussed the individual’s spiritual nature. Next I want to take a look at how our spiritual selves interact with the spiritual realm around us.