Souls and Memories.

Late one night, many nights ago, this popped up in my mind. And, finally, I've got around to typing it up.
Okay, a weird attempt of mine to blend science with spirituality, which, although I've stated previously that I avoid doing so, I am going to do anyway.

So, we've learned through science, a basis of understanding facts which is just as subjective as any other field, although deemed objective, that your brain holds your memories. Your memories are clouded by many things. Your memories are highlighted in some areas that your brain deems important, and fuzzy and faded in less important areas of them. You do not remember everything. You have short-term and long-term memory.

Ok.

Now we have our "true" selves, unhindered by such things as bodies in the long run, if you're going by the reincarnation theory, which I am. These selves of ours have memories that pop up in this body as being unverifiable, but to us, they are true. We have memories of things that we could not possibly have experienced in this body, in this lifetime. We feel deep down inside that they are neither dream, nor delusion, therefore we label them as real to us. These are just as subjective as the memories we hold of this life, introspectively speaking.

My question is: if our bodies have brains, and our brains hold our memories, if our "souls" just up and popped out of our bodies, leaving the shell behind, would the body retain these memories? Could one soul leave a body and have another one take its place, and still remember what was going on before it took over?

Could our soul's memories implant themselves in a brain, for any other future inhabitant to discover?


I'd like some answers here, some perspective. Honestly, if you find reincarnation to be bunk and you're all for the psychological aspect of it all, answer hypothetically. If all you can come up with is a topic party pooper answer, please refrain from putting your fingers on the keyboard. <3

I'd say: Yes. Since past life memories have to be processed through the brain for humans to understand, then anyone with access to said brain should have access to the memories.

Deros said everything I was going to say.

Theory only!
I would think that the body itself would still hold those memories, but they would be confused at first. The "brain" and "soul" would have to learn to communicate through the bridge of the "mind". Once they're communicating, memories would be able to be shared between the two... but there would probably be memories that the "mind" couldn't translate, so a fair few things might remain patchy at best.

Ok, well, then, that leads me to another question:

What's the difference between memories carried on by a soul, and memories stored in a body?
Is there a difference at all? Are they made of a different stuff?

When people claim to be a walk-in, they do tend to remember a lot of what the mind contained before. So by that token, I'd say yes, it is held in the mind.

From my own stance, I'd also agree, as it was said, that the brain has to process the memories, so would retain it. Think of it like the internet, if you go to a webpage, and then disconnect from the net, that page is still in the cache, even though the source of it, is gone.

I'd say there is a difference in memories, but how, I'm not sure how to express. I think I would agree that in the Higher/True Self memories are largely incorruptibles, but not so with the memories of our brain. Again, for the computer/internet analogy, memories in the Higher Self are stored on some server, but to get to our brain/computer it has to travel, and probably a byte here or there gets lost, and the brain has to recode it into a method it can understand.

simim23 Wrote:Ok, well, then, that leads me to another question:

What's the difference between memories carried on by a soul, and memories stored in a body?
Is there a difference at all? Are they made of a different stuff?

Personally, I think that brain-memories are based on fact, while soul-memories are based on emotion. They paint the same picture, but they're experienced differently.

Personally it is my own belief that the brain is not as concrete as modern medicine would have us believe...and the studies they choose to ignore support me.

There was a child in Africa I saw in a special once, had less than 10% of a normal brain. What he WAS born with was basically just a thin coating around the inside of a malformed skull. Yet, he had perfect normal mental function. Science would tell you this is not possible. If we follow directly what medical science tells us the brain is and what it does, it is not possible. Yet, there he was. Thinking breathing and experiencing life just like any of the rest of us (save for being able to wear normal hats, probably).

My theory is that the brain is merely a conduit for the soul, a connector or translator or conduit of a fleshy sort. To me, this also explains how one soul can connect to a wolf, and then in another life, shift to a human without much problem. The mind adapts because the body's brain simple gives the soul a different 'language' to speak through.

simim23 Wrote:Ok, well, then, that leads me to another question:

What's the difference between memories carried on by a soul, and memories stored in a body?
Is there a difference at all? Are they made of a different stuff?

I think that they are the same thing. Experiences make an imprint on both, but exactly how such imprints are preserved- either way- is a mystery to me.

First up, I don't believe in "the soul" as some kind of separate component of any entity.

I believe "soul" is simply "the sum total of what makes me me" (or you you, etc). I think "soul" is a product of life, rather than the cause of it.

That said - memory is a very interesting subject to me for all kinds of RL reasons, so I have a few comments to this thread anyway.

simim23 Wrote:My question is: if our bodies have brains, and our brains hold our memories, if our "souls" just up and popped out of our bodies, leaving the shell behind, would the body retain these memories? Could one soul leave a body and have another one take its place, and still remember what was going on before it took over?

Could our soul's memories implant themselves in a brain, for any other future inhabitant to discover?

If there is something my non-physical self remembers, and I sit and think about it here and now - then my physical brain is doing the thinking. As such, I think the act of recovering other-life memories does itself encode them into the physical brain. As for a soul up and leaving a body - given how I understand the concept of "soul" I don't accept the idea of a walking talking body without "a soul" in it anyway.

What I can answer, or at least speculate on, is what it would be like for the "left overs" if a fundamental part of that person became disconnected. I can discuss this because it has happened to me on a number of occassions, in my opinion as a direct product of the kind of multiple I am. When I am "disconnected" from the rest of myself, I still have access to all the memories I had when I was fully connected, but they seem irrelevant and meaningless.

Ever had one of those days where you have homework, or a work assignment, or something requiring thought to do - and even though you know it's not that hard, you simply cannot coerce your brain into working the necessary way to get it done? It's a little like that. I recall everything as normal, but I cannot/will not/do not actually *consider* it, because it is an irrelevance which I do not have the energy/ability/will to focus on.

The sensation is unpleasant.

It is also a form of dissociation (broadly - a set of mental phenomena in which you feel disconnected in some way from the world - that the world is not connected to you, that you as a person are not real, or that everything you experience is not real). I am sure this phenomenon can have purely physical reasons rooted in brain structure and chemistry (it certainly happens a lot to "regular" people to an extreme, and in a non-extreme form happens almost every day to almost everyone). As such I think it highly possible that "otherkin dissociation" is, rather than anything spiritual, just a product of some wayward brain chemistry; but that's a point for another thread.

Palmer Wrote:Personally, I think that brain-memories are based on fact, while soul-memories are based on emotion. They paint the same picture, but they're experienced differently.

Unless you're suggesting a metaphysical explanation for even regular day to day memory, then I disagree. (Even then, in fact!) Brain memories are very much based on emotion; there are in fact a number of specific and very strange disorders that result in, for example, a person being unable to attach emotions to visual memories.

The strangest of which is Capgras Delusion. This is a disorder in which the person believes that their close family and friends (sometimes all, sometimes just one) have been replaced by identical looking imposters, clones, or aliens. No amount of factual evidence to the contrary will shift the belief.

Best theory for the cause of this is that people with Capgras Delusion have damage to the emotional memory pathway. When they see a loved one they retain all factual memories of who that person is, but with absolutely no emotional response whatsoever. The only reasonable conclusion to "looks like my husband, but doesn't FEEL like him" is that it's not him, but an imposter.

Lots of strange stuff like this has been tied to specific physical areas of the brain. The human as a physical entity is not lacking in weirdness; quite the opposite in fact. Many truly strange and bizarre experiences have very physical causes.