Terro Wrote:Alright, most of us believe in one, or at least the general idea of a spiritual essence that exists as our core being.
The question is now, if that soul exists, is that soul eternal?
What is the nature of the soul in and of itself?
Can a soul split into multiple souls or essence, on that same note, can multiple souls or essences combine into one?
What of the ideas of "Astral Death?"
The trouble with questions like these, is it talks about possibility, not probability. I think all this things are pretty much possible, but some are so improbable for various reasons they should be considered impossible.
Is a Soul eternal? That question has two variables, what does Soul mean, and what does Eternal mean? I'm not trying to split hairs, but even the notion of eternity can have different means. Soul, in the sense of the Higher Self/Essence that spits out little pieces of it to make me, is it Eternal and going to last for all time? No, my Soul lasts as long as it is needed, before it is reabsorbed into /its/ Higher Self. Just as when I physically die, Ges is no more, and becomes one in the Higher Self, so that Soul/Higher Self will one day finish what it needs to do, and become one in its Higher Self. Just as a glass of water (minus the glass) isn't truly destroyed when you pour it into a bucket of water, it also doesn't exist as it was anymore. That's how I see Souls the energy can't be destroyed, but it will be absorbed up the Divine hierarchy as each "Soul" finishes its purpose, until...The end.
I can see a lot more purposes for a Soul having multiple incarnations than for multiple Souls have a single incarnation (not like being a multiple, but like a mix of Soul A and B).
I'm all for the notion of Astral Death. This physical form contains a subtle form, which contains my Lower Self. When my physical form ceases, that doesn't mean my subtle body has to. Now it is hard to really maintain yourself in such a state without a body, leading to psychic vampirism (in the Fortune coining of the word, not the modern sense) being a spirit that needs to steal energy to maintain itself. (Oddly enough it seems like you can incarnate to not take a body, and be relatively fine, but losing a physical body makes it hard to maintain the subtle). After a time, which I think is relatively short (the Buddhist in me wants to say 49 days) the subtle or astral body dies, it falls apart being unable to maintain itself, which then releases the Lower Self, to continue incarnation.