For me the soul is the essence of who I am, the central core apart from such incidentals as my current waist size, hair colour and style, age, nationality, etc. It is not something apart from my physical body nor is it one part of it. If I lost my arms and legs my soul would remain unchanged, but if I lost my head I’d be dead and so would my soul. My soul is the sum of all my memories and dreams and personality, how I see myself and the world. It can get sick if I become deeply depressed and possibly die before my body does. If I fall in love with someone it’s their soul I fall in love with. Being a Catholic I do believe in life after death, including my unified body and soul, both of which died, but I have no idea how that occurs. My hunch is that it never and nowhere occurs since, for me at least, time and space cease to have any meaning.
