Spirit

[Gavmacp]

This is a subject that interests me. As to whether we have a spirit.
Due to an experience as a child I have always been interested in Near Death Experiences. I am a nurse and have heard of people that have been successfuly resuscitated (the unsuccesful ones strangely remain quiet on the subject) that have recounted experiences that are interesting though I could explain using a scientific approach. An article that I read that I find difficult to explain was that of a casualty doctor in America who put posters on top of cupboards and occasionally people that were resuscitated would ask why they were.

[Gavmacp]

There were a lot of colleagues who visited a Medium. He was reortedly very good. I questioned my colleagues as to whether he got anything wrong and how specific his answers were. This again interested me but then I have heard that there are people who can cold read people without any prior knowledge of you will tell you whether you are married or not etc.

[Gavmacp]

There have been enough people reuscitated to suggest the possibility of a spirit. Their experiences though on the whole can be explained by a scientific basis. But occasionally there have been experiences that I am completely baffled by.
I do not expect to see, feel or sense anything during the process. I am just observing it.

[Old_Geezer]

You have to form your own opinion, but I think it is fair to say the question is not whether we are a body that has a spirit, but whether we are a spirit that presently inhabits a body.

[boxtops]

well put, O-G.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm sure there are folk with skill enough to gain information about you without you knowing you have given any clues. But I've yet to see an explanation of a medium who insists a piece of extremely unlikely information they had given to you about your past family is definitely true, whist the person receiving is confident it isn't and denies it, only to find later it was true after all. In those circumstances the medium seemed to get access to information that is not available from "normal" means, and if they say someone who have lived and are now dead gave them that information why should one not accept that ?

[naomi24]

'Mediums' on the whole are tricksters, but having said that I was once approached by a stranger who told me, among other things, something particularly random relating to my father's childhood - which made no sense to me at all. When I got home, I asked my father about it - and he knew exactly what the man was saying. In fact he almost fell off his chair with surprise!! Extraordinary!

[sandyRoe]

Isn't it ironic that some of the AB atheists can think that people may have a soul and yet fervently deny a place for it to dwell after its left the body.

[naomi24]

Sandy, not ironic at all. Suspecting a soul exists and claiming to know where it resides after departing its shell are two entirely different things.

[flobadob]

I think that there are little robots that we cannot see that are inside every atom, including the ones that make up human bodies. It is these which are our spirits.

[sandyRoe]

Well, maybe 'ironic' isn't the mot juste. If it's not ironic, it is remarkable.

[jomifl]

The poster thing sounds to me like an urban myth.

[sandyRoe]

I think we've all had posters at one time that we'd be ashamed to show now. Top of a cupboard is as good a place as any for them, I suppose.

[naomi24]

Sandy, why remarkable? Your religion has taught you to believe that there is a specific place where souls reside, and you automatically assume that everyone else believes the same, but they don't. Behind the pearly gates, perhaps? No, I don't think so.

[goodlife]

Most people in Christendom have a rather vague idea about the spirit. They may remember that the holy spirit appeared as a dove at the time Jesus was baptized and in the form of tongues of fire at Pentecost, but that is all. While they may feel certain the holy spirit is a person, the fact remains that “there was some indistinctness in the teachings of Justin Martyr and others of the early church fathers concerning the spirit,” as to being a person.

To understand a Scriptural subject it is always well to begin by going to the original tongue. The Greek word pneuma literally means “wind” and it will help you to understand that in all the various ways in which it is used it is like the wind in that it is invisible and powerful, showing itself in visible effects.

[sandyRoe]

Good Heavens, Goodlife!!! Are you really trying to say that The Holy Spirit, or as we used to be taught-The Holy Ghost, is wind, divine flatulence?
You've gone too far with that.

[RATTER15]

I would love to find something to believe with spirits, I just really cant find anything remotely believable.

[Carakeel]

naomi, there seem to be a fair few of us atheists who think like you do. I too am not sure there isn't something like a soul we leave behind. We still have so many questions unanswered and just like your good self and cazzz, I have had experiences in the past I simply cannot explain, but which seemed to help me in some dangerous and difficult situations.

[RATTER15]

Carakeel, put that bottle of Gin away!!!

[Carakeel]

Darling watter ... sorry Ratter, hic! I am not dunk! I just do not always agree with you, my sweet! Hugs! xx

[naomi24]

Carakeel, like you, inexplicable personal experiences leave me with no alternative but to consider the possibility of the existence of a 'soul'. Since, in my opinion, nothing is 'supernatural', there's no sense whatsoever in attributing one unknown to another unknown, and therefore I do not believe for an instant that, if it exists, it carries religious connotations.

How's the hangover? ;o)