> > The soul. I believe the soul is located not in the heart, but in the subconscious. That's how true passions tend to knock obstacles out of your way for you - the subconscious manipulates them. Taking control would mean the loss of your soul, the loss of love, the loss of passion. You would no longer care about anything. You'd be a robot.
>
> Sometimes I think I'd like that. But can you explain your reasoning? If the soul is *in* your subconscious, how would taking control of your subconscious involve the *loss* of your soul?

Well. Frankly, I think that the entire base of the soul is unpredictability. The soul does crazy things like fall in love, which a rational mind would NEVER do. The base of the human mind is logic - it's the soul that brings to life new ideas. Creative concepts simply cannot be the product of a chemical reaction.

If you *control* it, it no longer can produce random ideas. It is inherently uncontrollable. The upper mind as master of the lower would be a real switcheroo, and that's what it would probably result in. The conscious does rational stuff - the soul, irrational.

As for the location of the soul - where do you think? Where's the one part of the body we don't understand, which is constantly misinterpreted? The brain, of course. And the most dark, mysterious part - the subconscious.

>I also think you're out of luck if you expect this to avoid becoming a religious discussion, when you pose questions like the location and nature of the soul. The soul is not found on any anatomical charts, so if you're going to restrict us to hard scientific evidence, this is going to be one short thread. ;-)

I'm trying to stay away from religion, as you know. I think we can have a rational discussion without bringing God into it.

Finally, just responding to the person who mentioned they went through this stage once - I'm offended. Really. Maybe LATER I'll think it's just a stage, but right now it's absolute truth, and I really don't appreciate having my convictions shot down. It's like walking up to Billy Graham and saying "You'll get over it."

-Mar"I'm right and you're not"kusRTK