The search for the soul is partly an attempt to answer the question: what makes a person human? There is no clear definition of the concept of "soul" as such. It means a specific substance of non-physical origin, which is a manifestation of a higher nature. The ancients believed that the soul determines the ability of a person to feel, be aware, perceive, think, shape character. At the beginning of the 20th century, the whole world started talking about the fact that the soul's existence was finally scientifically proven when the American biologist McDougall published the results of a study, according to which it even has a very definite weight - 21 grams. So what is the soul from science, and why are we so desperately struggling to find it?
The history of the soul is almost as old as the history of the human race itself. Long before the appearance of philosophical concepts, people tried to explain the nature of this phenomenon. It was believed that the soul leaves the body with its last breath and that it can travel outside the physical shell - this is what the ancients explained, say, dreams. Plato believed that the soul is immortal and is born before it enters the body, being in the immaterial world, where it acquires knowledge and contemplates ideas. Aristotle also believed that the soul is immortal and is the driving force that turns the human body into a real person. The ancient Greeks came up with the idea of considering the soul as a separate philosophical concept. Plato believed that the soul is immortal and is born before entering the body.
The soul's phenomenon was carefully studied by later philosophers, for example, the German classics Kant and Hegel. Hegel's "philosophy of spirit" is devoted precisely to the search for an answer to the question of what the soul is. He separated the concept of the soul from the mind and consciousness. According to Hegel, the main sign of the true spirit is freedom, but only in codependency with nature (body and environment) can acquire the form of a soul. Kant, on the other hand, actively criticized Plato's concepts of the soul, trying to prove that the statement about its immortality is more speculation than knowledge. Sigmund Freud was among those who believed that some of the human impulses coming from the inside were not related to reason and consciousness. He divided the soul into three components: Id (it), Ego (I), and Superego (superego), thereby recognizing the chaotic-unconscious background (id), from which the other two develop.
In the 70s of the last century, it became known that human DNA is 99% identical to that of chimpanzees. Later studies have shown that this figure varies between 85 and 95%. How to explain civilization, the development of craft skills, language, self-awareness, and the entire layer of human culture - everything that distinguishes a person from an animal, something that some explain precisely by the existence of the soul? Even if we take 5% of the difference in DNA as a derivative, given that human DNA consists of 3 billion base pairs, it turns out that the dispute will be about 150 million base pairs, and this is already a space for the activities of nature and evolution.
One of the most important reasons for searching for a soul for philosophy and psychology is an attempt to answer the question, is there anything further after that physical death? The stories of those who have experienced clinical death are widely known: about the "light at the end of the tunnel" and the life that "flashes before your eyes." Such stories serve as support for lovers of mystification and metaphysics to explain the phenomenon by spiritual experience and confirmation of the existence of a soul, there, and life after death. After all, if what a person saw during his stay in a borderline state is true, does this confirm the hypothesis of the possible existence of the soul separately from the body?
The state between life and death provokes visions
Science has its assumptions about what exactly happens to those who have experienced the state between life and death. Scientists note that similar visions can be triggered by the use of specific types of drugs. Our brain passes off as reality what is the sum of impulses of sensory information. In moments when a person is in a borderline state or under the influence of substances, the brain does not work quite well. As if we got a head injury.
The brain's attempt to interpret the signals it receives gives a sense of experiencing a new experience that we perceive as reality. According to some scientists, an overabundance of information entering the brain provokes the vision of a powerful approaching light flux, often described as traveling through a tunnel, at the end of which is light. As for the sensation that the soul is separating from the body, this may be the result of the brain's misinterpretation of spatial cues. In combination with the lack of oxygen, which often accompanies such borderline states, there is a feeling of "floating" when we see our bodies.
Theories about a mortal or immortal soul are related to what you believe
The same is with the feeling of euphoria that accompanies a state on the brink - the injured brain responds with the release of endorphins into the blood, which plunges into a state of happiness and serenity. Oxygen deprivation, misinterpretation of signals, and the release of endorphins, as scientists believe, in some cases provoke the so-called visions, during which those who have fallen into a dying state "communicate" with spirits, angels, and God. After returning to life, the pictures of hallucinations, passed through the filter of consciousness, do not seem to be dreams, but an authentic spiritual experience.
There are some things that science cannot explain. The interpretation of borderline states and experienced experience depends solely on what the person himself wants to believe. Some call this providence and spiritual insight, while others believe that everything can be explained by the influence of external factors on the brain.
Science still has no answer to the question of what the soul is, and whether it is immortal, and the physical process of dying is only the body. Religion and philosophy have their theories on this matter, and "according to your faith, let it be to you."
