My theory on what a soul is and how it is related to therianthropy

I was just bored so I decided to write about my theory on souls.

Disclaimer- everything I say in this is just my belief - I am open to other ideas so feel free to reply with your own beliefs, I'm interested to see what other people think about it!

I believe everyone has a soul. A soul is what makes you who you are, and what determines how you think and your personality. Whilst there isn't much proof for this, my reasoning is that I feel like there is a deeper meaning to why everybody is unique as an individual and we all have different personalities and mindsets. It's something I feel like can't be explained fully by just science. Which is why I feel as though something other than our brains is required to properly explain this.

So what does it have to do with therianthropy?
I believe in reincarnation as well. When you die, your soul goes in to another body. So when I was a lion, I reincarnated into a human body, but still kept the soul of a lion. My theory is still developing and I'm open to other explanations for it, however what I do definitely believe in is that I had a past life as my theriotype, and I doubt that belief will change.

So yeah. What do you guys think about it? Anyhow, have a good day

Yes, that's exactly what I believe

(2022-11-13 19:36)House of Psychos Wrote:  Yes, that's exactly what I believe

Oh lol, that's cool

I don't really know what I think, part of me thinks the brain encompasses what we think/believe and that can change thru a traumatic event on it. The other part is being born and having your mind ingrained thru the help of a soul.

I do believe in reincarnation though. I am just kind of on the fence with this soul thing.

with the concept of the soul, there are many problems.
both logical and religious.

for example, in many popular concepts, the soul is not reborn, but is sent to heaven for eternal storage.

and etc.

(2022-11-14 0:34)Pushy zver Wrote:  with the concept of the soul, there are many problems.
both logical and religious.

for example, in many popular concepts, the soul is not reborn, but is sent to heaven for eternal storage.

and etc.

I agree with Pushy, all beliefs concerning souls are different. I love the idea of reincarnation though, which seems to be a generally accepted explanation to therianthropy, although I don't believe I myself to have been reincarnated or that I ever will be at all. Personally I'm a Christian and believe in the example Pushy gave, being that when I die I will go to live eternally in Heaven, and that my therianthropy is just a product of how my God intended to create me. He wanted me this way, and so here I am; quite simple really and although I could go into more detail it would become more religious and therefore biased if I did

religions in which there is a concept of reincarnation, or deny the concept of the soul or the one god and the concept of the soul (where it exists) differs from that in monotheism.
which is very funny when Orthodox People talk about souls in Buddhism or the reincarnation of the soul as in Judaism.

as a result, it turns out that the concept of the soul is individual for each person or (in the best cases) repeats the teaching.

Buddhism is closer to me... it has the concept of reincarnation, but there is no concept of the soul, the soul is denied as everything eternal.

I have similar belief, but for me I make a distinction I rarely see mentioned. This distinction is that there is a soul and there is a spirit.

The soul is the energy signature that is developed in the process of living a life. It holds all the information of the current life and experiences. The spirit is is the origin signature, that "eternal" piece of being that cannot be destroyed. The "spirit" is that part of Source of all things, it is the animating component of consciousness, the "breathe of life" itself, if you will. Each spirit is still unique but it does not have a form specific to the life lived it is truly a mass of animating energy. This is what normally travels life to life.

The "soul" is typically temporary and fades at the end of a given life. When reincarnation happens typically a whole new soul is developed in that life time. To me the term "old soul" refers to a soul that has more or less managed to actually transfer over multiple times from previous incarnations, instead eing left behind, which on a surface level normally manifest as an innate wisdom, strength, "age" and maturity to a person that would seem beyond a their years. On less frequent occasions however, some or all of the soul "data" comes along so things like entire memories of the previous life time or multiple life times become apparent to and influence the current incarnation.

This view is similar to the concept of the Ka and Ba in kemetic(ancient Egyptian religion).

Ba being the current life "data" and Ka being the "animating spark".

The Ba is essentially the personality, the mind, of a given life and the ka being the animating life force that transcends the personality and physical life of a being, but is unique. My beliefs differ from Kemetic as far as how the afterlife operates though. But the concept of Ka and Ba themselves resonate with my view.

Typically in death the personality dies as well and what goes onto the next life is the spirit. It takes with it the experiences and data but not the personality and memories of the previous life.

Sometimes however, for one reason or another, this is not always the case and then you get folks like us who feel we have past life memories, emotions, and sensations that are influencing our current life. I also have the belief that in instances of "mythical" beings the soul is a bit different and tends to actually go along with the spirit from incarnation to incarnation. I also believe in some cases spiritual cultivation may the cause.

Daoist masters(Masters of Chinese spiritual systems) have a practice called Neigong in which they seek to strengthen their spiritual bodies; so that their sense of self survives death and would be able to incarnate with full recollection of previous lives, as well as consciously traverse the after life. They referred to these practices as cultivation or "internal alchemy" and referred to this spirit body variously as the "golden core", "spiritual embryo", "Dan tien". To develop it was essentially to achieve a level of "enlightenment" and be able to consciously choose to continue the cycle of death and rebirth or not continue it at all. Typically to continue the cycle was to come back to be of assistance other sentient beings to some capacity.

There is the "bodhisattvas vow" which is a vow taken by Mahāyāna Buddhists which last many life times; that is to assist other sentient beings in achieving "enlightenment" and to continue incarnating. What that means exactly is anyone's guess, but my point in mentioning it is that there is this concept of consciously choosing or not choosing to continue to incarnate in multiple spiritual systems and retaining knowledge of previous life times.

I believe that in some cases various animals, creatures, people can also unconsciously have a very strong or developed "soul" for whatever reason, which retains itself incarnation to incarnation to various degrees.

Essentially to me it seems that the more the soul (mind personality ego) is developed in a given life time, the more likely it is to carry over consciously or unconsciously to another life. What exactly needs to be developed and how it is developed is of course speculative. But I believe certain experiences a soul goes through can cause it to develop what is needed for it to pass along with the spirit into a new incarnation instead of being left behind and dying with the previous life.

This is just my theory based on my own spiritual journey and studies of different spiritual systems. Hopefully I was not terribly confusing with this.

---

(2022-11-14 0:57)Kotuko Wrote:  my therianthropy is just a product of how my God intended to create me. He wanted me this way, and so here I am; quite simple really and although I could go into more detail it would become more religious and therefore biased if I did

While I do believe past lives and that it plays a part in my therianthopy. I also hold the same belief that I am ultimately the product of exactly how whatever higher power or guiding force of creation intended and that it is in my best interest to be in alignment with it.

It's refreshing to see someone speak of their therianthopy that way. Don't feel like sharing your beliefs is biased, it's just sharing

I agree with Pushy, all beliefs concerning souls are different. I love the idea of reincarnation though, which seems to be a generally accepted explanation to therianthropy, although I don't believe I myself to have been reincarnated or that I ever will be at all. Personally I'm a Christian and believe in the example Pushy gave, being that when I die I will go to live eternally in Heaven, and that my therianthropy is just a product of how my God intended to create me. He wanted me this way, and so here I am; quite simple really and although I could go into more detail it would become more religious and therefore biased if I did
[/quote]

That's cool, I've never really thought about Gods and that kind of thing. I generally believe in the big bang theory, however I do see logic in the idea of some kind of higher power. It's an interesting theory.

And by the way, don't worry about talking about what you believe in - it isn't biased, it's just sharing your opinion, and you have every right to do so!

---

(2022-11-14 9:13)WolfThing Wrote:  I have similar belief, but for me I make a distinction I rarely see mentioned. This distinction is that there is a soul and there is a spirit.

The soul is the energy signature that is developed in the process of living a life. It holds all the information of the current life and experiences. The spirit is is the origin signature, that "eternal" piece of being that cannot be destroyed. The "spirit" is that part of Source of all things, it is the animating component of consciousness, the "breathe of life" itself, if you will. Each spirit is still unique but it does not have a form specific to the life lived it is truly a mass of animating energy. This is what normally travels life to life.

The "soul" is typically temporary and fades at the end of a given life. When reincarnation happens typically a whole new soul is developed in that life time. To me the term "old soul" refers to a soul that has more or less managed to actually transfer over multiple times from previous incarnations, instead eing left behind, which on a surface level normally manifest as an innate wisdom, strength, "age" and maturity to a person that would seem beyond a their years. On less frequent occasions however, some or all of the soul "data" comes along so things like entire memories of the previous life time or multiple life times become apparent to and influence the current incarnation.

This view is similar to the concept of the Ka and Ba in kemetic(ancient Egyptian religion).

Ba being the current life "data" and Ka being the "animating spark".

The Ba is essentially the personality, the mind, of a given life and the ka being the animating life force that transcends the personality and physical life of a being, but is unique. My beliefs differ from Kemetic as far as how the afterlife operates though. But the concept of Ka and Ba themselves resonate with my view.

Typically in death the personality dies as well and what goes onto the next life is the spirit. It takes with it the experiences and data but not the personality and memories of the previous life.

Sometimes however, for one reason or another, this is not always the case and then you get folks like us who feel we have past life memories, emotions, and sensations that are influencing our current life. I also have the belief that in instances of "mythical" beings the soul is a bit different and tends to actually go along with the spirit from incarnation to incarnation. I also believe in some cases spiritual cultivation may the cause.

Daoist masters(Masters of Chinese spiritual systems) have a practice called Neigong in which they seek to strengthen their spiritual bodies; so that their sense of self survives death and would be able to incarnate with full recollection of previous lives, as well as consciously traverse the after life. They referred to these practices as cultivation or "internal alchemy" and referred to this spirit body variously as the "golden core", "spiritual embryo", "Dan tien". To develop it was essentially to achieve a level of "enlightenment" and be able to consciously choose to continue the cycle of death and rebirth or not continue it at all. Typically to continue the cycle was to come back to be of assistance other sentient beings to some capacity.

There is the "bodhisattvas vow" which is a vow taken by Mahāyāna Buddhists which last many life times; that is to assist other sentient beings in achieving "enlightenment" and to continue incarnating. What that means exactly is anyone's guess, but my point in mentioning it is that there is this concept of consciously choosing or not choosing to continue to incarnate in multiple spiritual systems and retaining knowledge of previous life times.

I believe that in some cases various animals, creatures, people can also unconsciously have a very strong or developed "soul" for whatever reason, which retains itself incarnation to incarnation to various degrees.

Essentially to me it seems that the more the soul (mind personality ego) is developed in a given life time, the more likely it is to carry over consciously or unconsciously to another life. What exactly needs to be developed and how it is developed is of course speculative. But I believe certain experiences a soul goes through can cause it to develop what is needed for it to pass along with the spirit into a new incarnation instead of being left behind and dying with the previous life.

This is just my theory based on my own spiritual journey and studies of different spiritual systems. Hopefully I was not terribly confusing with this.

---

(2022-11-14 0:57)Kotuko Wrote:  my therianthropy is just a product of how my God intended to create me. He wanted me this way, and so here I am; quite simple really and although I could go into more detail it would become more religious and therefore biased if I did

While I do believe past lives and that it plays a part in my therianthopy. I also hold the same belief that I am ultimately the product of exactly how whatever higher power or guiding force of creation intended and that it is in my best interest to be in alignment with it.

It's refreshing to see someone speak of their therianthopy that way. Don't feel like sharing your beliefs is biased, it's just sharing

That's an interesting theory. I never really thought about there being a particular distinction between a spirit and a soul, and the idea would make sense. In my current theory, however, a spirit and a soul are basically the same thing, but they have a slightly different definition to how you described it. What that difference is, though, is complicated, and would take me ages to explain - if I could even figure out how to put it into words.
And I also just wanna say - how do you know so much on this subject??! Your knowledge is intimidating me

If you clone a dog (it has been done) and treat it the exact same way you did to the original dog, it will still have a different personality. The only reason I can think of why this happens is because of souls. You can't clone souls.
Also sorry if my English is bad right now, I'm half dissociated and kind of lightheaded. I just lost a lot of blood hah.