Where is our self/soul/consciousness located?

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Ben_Sinner

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This question is asked many times by religious figures in history that don’t believe in a self/soul. When the ones they asked don’t have an answer, they go “A Ha. See there is no self/soul!”

So I’m assuming Catholics would be able to answer the question better. Where is the location for the self? Where is the soul? Where is our consciousness?

Here is also a quote by the Dalai Lama as well

“Try to leave your mind vividly in a natural state… Where does it seem that your consciousness is? Is it with the eyes or where is it? Most likely you have a sense that it is associated with the eyes since we derive most of our awareness of the world through vision… However, the existence of a separate mental consciousness can be ascertained; for example, when attention is diverted by sound, that which appears to the eye consciousness is not noticed… with persistent practice, consciousness may eventually be perceived or felt as an entity of mere luminosity or knowing, to which anything is capable of appearing… as long as the mind does not encounter the external circumstances of conceptuality, it will abide empty without anything appearing in it.”

How do we refute his stance as well?
 
I would answer that question with another question: What part of the human body can be destroyed or removed without affecting the soul/consciousness?

When one finds that part of the body, the destruction/removal of which would cause the soul/consciousness to depart, then one has found where the soul/consciousness is located.
 
From the Bible, James 2:26 says:
“As the body w/o the spirit(soul) is dead
so faith w/o works is dead”
Mark 12:30 seems to view the soul as
co-equal with the heart and mind.
“Love the Lord your God w/ all your
heart, with all your soul and w/ all
your mind…”
2 Cor. 5:1 seems to see our BODIES
as a tent that the consciousness lives
in. “Now we know that if the earthly
tent we live in is destroyed, we have
a building from God…”
 
Michael_Mayo said:
It permeates the entire body.
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That’s one way of putting it. The soul is immaterial–it is spirit, and spirit does not take up space. So, our soul takes up no space whatever. At the same time, a spirit can be said to be where it acts. Soul is the animating force of the body, so it acts on the entire body, permeating it, yet the soul takes up no space.
 
JimG said:
That’s one way of putting it. The soul is immaterial–it is spirit, and spirit does not take up space. So, our soul takes up no space whatever. At the same time, a spirit can be said to be where it acts. Soul is the animating force of the body, so it acts on the entire body, permeating it, yet the soul takes up no space.
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Yes, and I think exists in that “nonlocal” dimension where God can refresh it to better deal with this earthly locality.
 
We don’t have souls, we are souls. It is our spiritual immortal body… Jesus explains it when He teaches this…

Matthew 10: 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

The body is our physical being, our soul is our spiritual being. Our Conscience lies in the seat of our heart which is what God speaks to us through…

CCC 1776 "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths."47

I. THE JUDGMENT OF CONSCIENCE

1777 Moral conscience,48 present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil.49 It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

That is why our hearts should be joined with Jesus’ heart… The Sacred Heart of Jesus…
 
Ben_Sinner said:
This question is asked many times by religious figures in history that don’t believe in a self/soul. When the ones they asked don’t have an answer, they go “A Ha. See there is no self/soul!”

So I’m assuming Catholics would be able to answer the question better. Where is the location for the self? Where is the soul? Where is our consciousness?

Here is also a quote by the Dalai Lama as well

“Try to leave your mind vividly in a natural state… Where does it seem that your consciousness is? Is it with the eyes or where is it? Most likely you have a sense that it is associated with the eyes since we derive most of our awareness of the world through vision… However, the existence of a separate mental consciousness can be ascertained; for example, when attention is diverted by sound, that which appears to the eye consciousness is not noticed… with persistent practice, consciousness may eventually be perceived or felt as an entity of mere luminosity or knowing, to which anything is capable of appearing… as long as the mind does not encounter the external circumstances of conceptuality, it will abide empty without anything appearing in it.”

How do we refute his stance as well?
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Nobody really knows, somewhere within the body in some way.
 
The soul, or life, fills the human body; the mind, or consciousness, seems to reside in our heads.

Therefore, a knock on the head, or neck, can interrupt consciousness but the body lives on. In the short term, life does not require consciousness, though consciousness requires life.

ICXC NIKA
 
Souls don’t have locations. A soul is spirit and spirit has no physical space.

Bodies have a location.
 
GEddie said:
The soul, or life, fills the human body; the mind, or consciousness, seems to reside in our heads.

Therefore, a knock on the head, or neck, can interrupt consciousness but the body lives on. In the short term, life does not require consciousness, though consciousness requires life.

ICXC NIKA
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However Eddie please hear this out and consider this…, There is a difference between conscious and conscience… note spelling… Our eyes and ears and even our brain are receptors but is not where our conscience resides…Our heart is where the seat of Gods will is and also the law that is written on our hearts naturally because it is from God and so put there by God in order for Him to connect with us… Furthermore, the more we hear the Word of God the more it is set upon our hearts, not because we heard it and processed it with our brains but because our hearts were open to receiving it and so it becomes who we are as Christians…And as the catechism and scriptures state…

Romans 2:14 When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. 15 They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them 16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.

1777 Moral conscience,48 present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil.49 It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

To be made aware of something is to be conscious of it, but to have a conscience is to be guided by a voice within us. And so it is our hearts which drives us to do what we should and shouldn’t do… The laws of God being written on our heart so if our mind does not follow those laws, our minds, our bodies and our spirit wont be in sync with God… But to listen to the voice of God and to obey it puts us right with God and at peace…:bible1: I would say to you even if a person is unable to speak or do things for whatever reason, they can be directed by the voice of God an so have their minds and actions directed by it because God speaks to our conscience on a very deep level, deep inside our hearts…And so if we want to truly hear Gods voice we must open our ears and quiet our minds and let God speak to our hearts…If we don’t do these things, we will miss the wonderful things God has to say to us…🙂

1776 "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil**, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God.** . . . His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths."47

St. Teresa of Calcutta said, “Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.”

Well this is how I understand it to be… God speaks to our hearts because that is where our conscience is… That said, I believe this is a mystery of the human body and the spirit of God working within us so deep that its hard to understand but even-so it comes all naturally to us and we don’t have to think about it so much… For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do…Eph 2:10 … Peace…
 
Fine by me, Karen.

I’m not too concerned with conscience, except as it rests on the consciousness or mind, the same way consciousness and the mind rest on the physical life.

I would say however, that as with the mind, the conscience would reside in our head.

The ancients believed the physical heart to be the locus of the soul and its functions, because without its beating there is no life. But they also thought the brain served only for a heat dump.

ICXC NIKA
 
Think about this GEddie… When we bring people to Jesus we bring them to the heart of Jesus not to the mind of Jesus because the heart of Jesus is where Gods love is planted…

Keep reading the scriptures and this will become a clearer picture…
Ephesians 3:16…I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

What that says to me is that love, which comes from the heart, surpasses what comes from the mind… For example, a persons mind may say keep from going inside a burning building to save someone, but their heart says go inside and save that person even if it means danger to oneself…The heart ruling over the mind…
 
Karen107 said:
Think about this GEddie… When we bring people to Jesus we bring them to the heart of Jesus not to the mind of Jesus because the heart of Jesus is where Gods love is planted…

Keep reading the scriptures and this will become a clearer picture…
Ephesians 3:16…I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

What that says to me is that love, which comes from the heart, surpasses what comes from the mind… For example, a persons mind may say keep from going inside a burning building to save someone, but their heart says go inside and save that person even if it means danger to oneself…The heart ruling over the mind…
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Karen, chica,

We will just need to agree to disagree.

Hearts get transplanted every year but nothing spiritual or even emotional gets transferred to the “new” body, gooey chickflicks notwithstanding.

On the other hand, the soul fills the whole human body, which includes the heart.

The heart is also nearer the body center, where the warmth of embrace resides :):)🙂

ICXC NIKA.
 
GEddie said:
Karen, chica,

We will just need to agree to disagree.

Hearts get transplanted every year but nothing spiritual or even emotional gets transferred to the “new” body, gooey chickflicks notwithstanding.

On the other hand, the soul fills the whole human body, which includes the heart.

The heart is also nearer the body center, where the warmth of embrace resides :):)🙂

ICXC NIKA.
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Now Eddie, I would prefer you not calling me chica… ty…

I must say this… when you put the spirit of a person in terms of a physical dimension you’re missing the spirit of God in it… The soul isn’t material, it’s spiritual as there is a physical heart there is also a spiritual heart… 1 Corinthians 15:44 and so how do you know that a person who receives a transplant doesn’t also receive the spirit of God in them especially as God made each one of us with a place for Him in our hearts?? I imagine a person who received a heart would feel the love of God especially when receiving another persons heart… 🙂 The heart can rule over the mind… So I still think you’re missing the point about the heart… Now Jesus said for us to"‘Love the Lord your God with all **your heart **and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ I’m not about to leave the heart out now and I don’t think you should either or redefine what Jesus said to mean about the heart, the heart rules over the mind. sure the mind has to discern it and organize it, but the mind is not always centered in Gods will that’s why we pray to hear Gods voice…🤷
 
I think that the consciousness/soul/self will need
to reside in the brain, if you had a brain transplant
you will obviously have a NEW consciousness/self,
I don’t know about the soul part.
 
GLam8833 said:
I think that the consciousness/soul/self will need
to reside in the brain, if you had a brain transplant
you will obviously have a NEW consciousness/self,
I don’t know about the soul part.
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Soul is the life, so therefore the whole body.
 
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