Where is my soul?

[natlegend]

If we all have a soul, then where does it reside? Cut off my arm, I'm still the same person. Replace an organ and I might experience 'organ donor memories'...

http://theophanes.hubpages.com/hub/Cellular-Memories-in-Organ-Transplant-Recipients

The most stunning example of cellular memory was found in an eight year old girl who received the heart of a ten year old girl. The recipient was plagued after surgery with vivid nightmares about an attacker and a girl being murdered. After being brought to a psychiatrist her nightmares proved to be so vivid and real that the psychiatrist believed them to be genuine memories. As it turns out the ten year old whose heart she had just received was murdered and due to the recipients violent reoccurring dreams she was able to describe the events of that horrible encounter and the murderer so well that police soon apprehended, arrested, and convicted the killer.

Damage my brain and if I survive, I may be a completely different person...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traumatic_brain_injury

TBI[1] may cause emotional, social, or behavioral problems and changes in personality

1.	Traumatic Brain Injury

So my question is, how does this soul thing work in the above examples? What happens to the 'piece of soul' the donor gives when parting with a kidney?

[natlegend]

Or even, is it possible to remove my soul and if so, will I still be alive?

Of course, these questions are mainly for the theists out there...

[BaalServant]

If we all have a soul, then where does it reside?

So my question is, how does this soul thing work in the above examples? What happens to the 'piece of soul' the donor gives when parting with a kidney?

I've heard many places proposed - way down in the bottom of our chests, the cockles of our hearts, maybe below the cockles, maybe in the sub-cockle area, maybe in the liver, maybe in the kidneys, maybe even in the colon. We don't know. 

Of course, these are just things I've heard from assholes.  No actual evidence  : )

For some reason, I'm unable to find it at the moment, but there's actually something from the watchtower (I think from the 70s) about how heart transplants will cause some kind of problem the soul because of some kind of soul connection between a person's brain and their heart.  Funny stuff - if I can locate the source I'll post it.

[ungod]

Or even, is it possible to remove my soul and if so, will I still be alive?

Definitely. Soul-less, you will, however, be restricted in your choice of occupations. Musician will definitely be out, but politician, banker, preacher,  or mercenary would be  ideal.

[RaymondKHessel]

For most people, the soul is located below the Maxillary second molar.

Except for the French. Because everybody knows the French don't have souls.

[dloubet]

I've heard it said that our brains are nothing more than the radio by which we communicate with our souls. This was an ad-hoc excuse to explain why physical damage to the brain can sometimes result in a different personality. You've damaged the radio.

Where the soul itself is I have no idea. Supposedly it's hunched in front of a microphone with a cigar and a glass of whiskey.

[pingnak]

I have your soul.  I keep it in a box.

[Historicity]

Our souls exist in a nearby dimension.  Our brains are just fatty tissue.  The pineal gland is the interdimensional antenna.

That was Rene Descartes' theory on the matter.

[pingnak]

Seriously, your 'soul' is the software model your brain hardware maintains and runs. 

It is not likely to be immortal: Brain destroyed, soul destroyed.

Great catalogs of brain injuries and the effects on the victims' 'souls' exist. 

It's pretty fucking hard to believe a 'soul' is immortal after someone has a stroke and gets demented and seriously disabled, and watching them suffer on and on for years.

The more important question for 'soul' believers is, say a child at a tender age gets his/her head caved in and survives, brutally, horribly handicapped, learning disabled, barely enough animal instinct left to be able to feed him/herself.  This person lives to be 60.

Which version goes to 'heaven'?  The damaged, barely animal soul that lived out that whole, wretched life being restrained, or the original child?  When was the backup snapshot taken? 

The child?  Is that fair to the barking mad adult who lived 50+ years as a drooling veggie?

The veggie?  Would an eternity in 'heaven' as a drooling, barking mad veggie be nice?

[Historicity]

The veggie?  Would an eternity in 'heaven' as a drooling, barking mad veggie be nice?

In the one true church -- the TV show Supernatural -- the angel Castiel met one of the Winchesters in a park in Heaven where a man was flying a kite.  Asked why it looked that way, Castiel explained that the many mansions of Heaven were made by the saved.  The park was the eternal Tuesday afternoon of an autistic man.

Considering how boring eternity would become (unless the Mormons are right and you are assigned your own planetary system to be God) then "drooling, barking mad veggie" would solve the problem.

Still more fun than Nirvana.

[ungod]

Seriously, your 'soul' is the software model your brain hardware maintains and runs. 

It is not likely to be immortal: Brain destroyed, soul destroyed.

Great catalogs of brain injuries and the effects on the victims' 'souls' exist. 

It's pretty fucking hard to believe a 'soul' is immortal after someone has a stroke and gets demented and seriously disabled, and watching them suffer on and on for years.

The more important question for 'soul' believers is, say a child at a tender age gets his/her head caved in and survives, brutally, horribly handicapped, learning disabled, barely enough animal instinct left to be able to feed him/herself.  This person lives to be 60.

Which version goes to 'heaven'?  The damaged, barely animal soul that lived out that whole, wretched life being restrained, or the original child?  When was the backup snapshot taken? 

The child?  Is that fair to the barking mad adult who lived 50+ years as a drooling veggie?

The veggie?  Would an eternity in 'heaven' as a drooling, barking mad veggie be nice?

Considering that God's "Word", the Bible, forbids those "wounded in the testicles" from approaching the altar in a church, it would seem unlikely that the keeper of the gates would allow a drooling imbecile into paradise. Such a kind, loving God.....and it's all according to His plan!

[natlegend]

Oh! Maybe the male soul is in the testicles?

[albeto]

Oh! Maybe the male soul is in the testicles?

That would explain why the Catholic Church wondered if women have souls at all. 

[nogodsforme]

I heard that  ginger babies have no souls. But jelly babies do. Tom Baker said so. They're soul food. I'll be here all week. Try the hog maws.

[Xero-Kill]

I've heard many places proposed - way down in the bottom of our chests, the cockles of our hearts, maybe below the cockles, maybe in the sub-cockle area, maybe in the liver, maybe in the kidneys, maybe even in the colon. We don't know. 

Of course, these are just things I've heard from assholes.  No actual evidence  : )

If you are going to quote/paraphrase Dennis Leary, at least give him the credit. 

[natlegend]

I've heard many places proposed - way down in the bottom of our chests, the cockles of our hearts, maybe below the cockles, maybe in the sub-cockle area, maybe in the liver, maybe in the kidneys, maybe even in the colon. We don't know. 

Of course, these are just things I've heard from assholes.  No actual evidence  : )

If you are going to quote/paraphrase Dennis Leary, at least give him the credit. 

Ooooh Baal, you been busted...   lols... although you did leave a clue...

[Nam]

It's in a pickle jar being pickled to death.

-Nam