[8FOLD/MISC] What is this 'soul' thing you speak of, Earth man? (was: 8FOLD: Mighty Medley #7)

[Andrew Perron]

On 7/10/2014 9:31 PM, Saxon Brenton wrote:
> Hurm.  Okay, for a very long time I have been aware that when
> I start a thread the post I send gets posted almost immediatley,
> but when I respond it takes maybe half a day for it to turn up.
> That said, it has been several days now, and I will regrettfully
> conclude that the post below has been eaten by Shub-Internet.

Ooooo, I'd been hoping for a response for this. <3

> On  sat 5th July 2014 Andrew Perron got to the nub of the issue and asked the
> pointed question:
>  >> To obliterate your soul is neither easy nor painless, and requires a
>  >> single-mindedness that is quite rare these days.
>  >
>  > Hrm. Okay, question - what are we treating the soul *as*, in this case?
>  > There's a lot of different takes on it both in religion and in fiction.. Is it
>  > an integral part of the self (apparently not, in this story)? Is it a "get
>  > into the afterlife free" ticket? Is it some immaterial source of ethics and
>  > nice feelings? Is it an agglomeration of "life force"? I'm good with any of
>  > these takes, I'm just curious as to which you're following.
>
> Oo, er. You know, thinking about it, I have to admit
> I haven't given much conscious thought to that angle.

Oh, that's my favorite thing to comment on <3

> I find that for the most part I'm reflexively working
> on a model derived from a Harry Potter fanfic that I
> read years ago - combined with bits and pieces from
> other fiction and real world occultism  (To explicate
> the Harry Potter connection: there's a subtle (very
> subtle) distinction between soul and life force (and
> even magical power, for those who have that ability)
> but they're entwined together and unless you know what
> to look for or have meticulous observation skills most
> people don't notice.  Nevertheless that soul is the
> basis of the persistence of identity when in a
> disembodied state, including after death.)

Hmmmm, I see, I see...

> [And, yes, part of the reason I've taken so long to
> answer has been because I went back and looked up the
> reference to make sure I wasn't misremembering too much...]

I do that all the time. <3 I love living in the "extended memory" age.

> In the context of this story I'm not sure how well
> that working model will do.  This is a superhero setting,
> and the existence of the soul is a lot less nebulous when
> you have supermages releasing that astral forms.  It
> already has a certain amount of conflict with other
> background info that I have for this story: for instance,
> I don't think I'm giving away too much to say that the
> reason that Marcus' wife died on cancer is because it
> wasn't based a purely material malady: she caught an
> infection of her astral double/soul which then had ported
> over to her physical body, and the medicine available at
> the time was only able to treat the physical symptoms,
> but not the metaphysical disease.  (I'm pretty sure this
> idea is based on something I once read from the Victorian
> era British occultst Dion Fortune.)

Ahhhhhh, makes sense. That said, "this is a superhero setting" also allows for 
contradictory accounts of How It All Works. You can also put in the idea that 
each account is simply a simplified human understanding of a far-beyond-human 
reality.

> Uhm, I'm babbling, aren't I?  Perhaps if I make up a
> metaphor on the spur of the moment: just as the phsyical
> body has lots of parts, some of which can be compromised
> and have greater or lesser effects (compare have an appendix
> out versus the need for insulin injection or an iron lung,
> or how some types of brain injury can be recovered from)
> the metaphysical existence of a person is also made up of
> bits (life force, soul, possibly other stuff) which can
> also be compromised by injury, disease or loss.  Having
> all the bits is usually a good idea, but losing some of
> them can survival depending on the exact circumstances.

Ahhhhhhh, I see. So, I would guess, what he lost was either not the full soul, 
or not other parts of that vague metaphysical being.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, far-beyond-intelligent-snail