Three Theories of Body and Soul

All the widespread theories of body and soul can be combined into the following three theories:

1. Theory of Faith

This theory maintains that nothing but the soul (or spirit) exists. Adherents of this theory maintain that there exist spiritual entities separated from one another by quality that are called human souls. They exist independently before they descend and incarnate in human bodies.

Afterwards, when the body dies, its death does not extend over these entities, because they are spiritual and not composite. In their view, death is a mere separation between the elements of which an entity consists. It therefore refers to the material body that constitutes a conglomerate of elements separated by death. But being a spiritual entity, the soul is simple and cannot disintegrate, so that its structure would be affected. Hence, the soul is immortal and exists eternally.

According to advocates of this theory, the body is the soul’s attire. The soul dresses into the body and manifests its powers, qualities, and various faculties through it. This way the soul provides the body with life and movement and protects it from injuries. The body turns into lifeless and motionless matter when the soul leaves it. All the signs of life we observe in a human being are nothing but the manifestations of the soul’s powers.

This is the most popular theory; its ideas are shared by the majority of people. However, it does not answer the questions: what do the bodies of other beings other than humans represent? Do they have a soul? We can assume that humans have a certain inner element called the "soul", which dresses into a biological body and sets it into motion. But how does a human body differ from animal bodies so that it is honored with a certain inner element called the "soul"?

Today science has made it possible the transplantation of the different body organs. If not now, then after a few decades or a few hundreds of years it will be possible to transplant virtually every body organ. In this case, it is still unclear what is so particular about a human body. Maybe each body is meant for a particular soul? According to this theory, body is a function of the soul, and aggregated souls shape the body, or its form. But claims of this sort are not in congruence with the reality of organ transplants. Does it affect the soul? Or maybe on the contrary, changes in the soul lead to changes in the body?

This theory poses more questions than answers. Only the following claims are unambiguous:
there is the soul and the body; the soul represents something internal, and the body, something external, and one dresses into another. The soul represents an internal part, while the body is transient. The body lives and dies. It has a separate life that is not directly dependent on the eternal essence of the soul. Each time the body accomplishes its function, it disappears.

 

2. Theory of Dualism

Those who believe in duality, contrive this theory. According to their opinion, the body is a perfect creation that can live, eat, protect itself from all harm and does not need help of any spiritual entity. However, this body is not considered the person’s essence. This role is taken by the intelligent soul, a spiritual entity (this coincides with the first theory).

The difference between the two theories only concerns the body. Rapid development of science reveals that nature has installed in the body all the vitally important needs. Therefore the soul’s function in the body is only confined to passing good spiritual qualities and skills to it. The adherents of dualism believe in the two theories at the same time, but they assert that the soul originates the body.

Based on observations of the animated and vegetative worlds, the theory under question claims that there is a body and its animated soul. This holds for humans and all other beings. However, there is a special "spiritual" soul, which dresses only into a human being. This soul can dress into the body and leave it, which means that there is reincarnation of souls in the framework of a bodily life. Meanwhile, a body continues to exist regardless of the presence or absence of the spiritual soul in it – its vital functions are provided by its animated soul. In this way, a human being receives the spiritual soul in a special way, at a special time, thanks to special efforts. Thus, not everybody can tell that the person has it, while everybody has an animated soul.

This theory is more convenient. While the first theory does not answer the question about animals and plants, a dualistic theory, making a distinction between the body with its vital force and the soul, talks about the latter as a certain "addition" that dresses into the body. However, this "addition" is not mandatory, one can live without it.

Contemporary science argues that the body is able to sustain itself. It does not need a force or the presence of something truly spiritual, or some sort of special relation from the part of the Creator. It is also possible to sustain life in the organs that are separated from the body by feeding them and expelling toxins, which does not even require the presence of the body.

Most likely, humanity will actually reveal and research all the laws that govern vital functions of biological species. No special connection with the Creator is needed for this. The soul's body and the soul's light are not related to the biological body and its animated vital force. They are attained via equivalence of form, by going beyond human nature.

 

3. Theory of Negation

Researchers, who deny the existence of any spiritual reality and only believe in corporeality of the body, share this theory. Followers of this theory completely negate the presence of any abstract spiritual entity in the structure of the human body. With an indisputable certainty they believe that the human mind is nothing but a derivative of the body. They imagine the body as a kind of an electrical machine with cables that connect the limbs and organs with the brain. The entire mechanism is activated by external irritants and is transmitted as pain or pleasure to the brain, which commands a certain organ to act. Everything is controlled through nerves (cables) and tendons attached to the organs programmed to avoid sources of pain and aspire to sources of pleasure. This is how supporters of this theory see the process of human comprehension and reactions to every life situation. Our perception of intelligence and logic, inside the brain is much like a photographic imprint of what is going on inside the body. This sensation is the human being’s undisputable advantage, stemming from the level of development of the human, in comparison to representatives of the animal world.

Similarly, some of the followers of the theory of dualism completely agree with the theory of negation. However, they add to it the eternal spiritual essence called “soul”, which in their opinion dresses in the body. They assert that the soul is the person’s essence, while the body serves as its shell.

By and large this is how the humanities have described the notions of “soul and body” until now.

 

Body and Soul as Scientific Notions in Kabbalah

The science of Kabbalah is intended for revelation of the Upper World to the same extent of clarity and reliability as the earthly sciences reveal our world to us. All that we know about the Upper World was received by the Kabbalistic researchers as a result of their experiments on themselves. Therefore, there is not a single word in Kabbalah based on a theory; everything is described as a result of a practical attainment.

It is an obvious fact that, by his nature, the person is liable to doubts and any conclusion defined as obvious, by the human mind, is called into question. Hence, the power of theorizing grows and the previous facts receive a different explanation, which is in turn considered as obvious. If the person is really able to think abstractly, he keeps moving in this circle all his life. The obviousness of a previous day turns into the doubts of today, and the clarity of today will turn into doubts of tomorrow. So the absolute certainty can only be possible “today”.

This way, in terms of absolute obviousness it is impossible to arrive at a definite conclusion for longer than "today". That is why it is impossible to characterize the body and the soul on the basis of scientific discoveries. No matter how much mankind advances in conventional sciences, there will always be new discoveries. Tomorrow will always challenge what was yesterday and today, each time pointing us towards a new direction.

Only on-going research of bodies and phenomena and surrounding nature at the still, vegetative, animated, and human levels of this world can give the person occasion to ponder about the deeper part that he does not sense. The person simply assumes that it exists or does not exist, arguing about the circumstances under which it exists inside the body, and in which cases it leaves the body for instance. This is the spiritual part that science is not able to reveal. However, a person nevertheless assumes that this part exists as a result of the discovery of certain actions at the material level itself. Obviously, any scientific research does not deal with the soul. It simply discusses the soul based on research on the matter. For this reason the three theories discussed above cannot be considered to be objective.

Kabbalists, attaining perception of the spiritual part, receive an opportunity to research the soul itself. They perceive it the same way as scientists perceive the matter in all of their senses, discovering and researching the laws of its existence in all, and even most complex forms. Attaining the spiritual and its forms, the lights that dress into this material, Kabbalists research the spiritual in the same way scientists research physical matter. That is why we can rely on their conclusions.

 

The Revealed and the Concealed

Modern science has already come to an understanding that absolutely nothing is obvious in reality. Theorizing and hypothesizing have always been forbidden in Kabbalah.

The Kabbalists divide the science into two parts: The revealed and the concealed one.

The revealed part of the science includes all that we understand by simple realization, when the study is based on the practical basis, without any theorizing.

The concealed part of the science includes the knowledge that we have attained by ourselves, or from reliable sources, but is insufficient for analysis from the point of commonsense and simple realization. Therefore, this part of information we are temporarily obliged to accept as “simple faith” and never try to research it, because it will be based on theorizing and not on practical experience.

However, the names “revealed” and “concealed” point not at certain kinds of knowledge, but at the person’s realization. That is, the knowledge the person gained from his practical experience may be called “revealed”. The knowledge that has not yet reached such a degree of realization may be defined as “concealed”.

From the aforesaid, it follows that there has never been a person in any generation, who would not possess these two parts of knowledge, the revealed and the concealed. He is only allowed to study and research the revealed part because he has a real basis for it. It was always forbidden to even try researching the concealed part of the knowledge, because a person has no real basis for veritable research in relation to it. Thus, when we talk about our nature and the spiritual we should remember that, in the end, it is the same nature. Put simply, the accessible part of the material and spiritual nature is called the revealed. Whatever a person is not able to reveal is called the concealed part.

That is why there is no direct correlation between the attainment of the spiritual and material nature. A person can be a Kabbalist who has attained the spiritual nature, but it does not mean that he would thoroughly know all the laws and phenomena of the material nature. It all depends on the ratio of the open (revealed in the vessel of his soul) and the concealed (still not attained in the vessel of his soul) parts in a person. Whatever is attained stays and serves as a basis for the deeper revelations. Even when the subsequent revelations negate the earlier ones, still the latter serve as the factual basis for the former, and this is how advancement takes place. Today never cancels out yesterday; we are always dealing with a more genuine, and more in-depth attainment. Each time, through summarizing research results in natural sciences and also in the science of Kabbalah, we go from one milestone to another. In this way we obtain an even more internal picture of the reality. By researching the nature, each time we remove another layer and penetrate inside of it more and more.

There nature is such that each new level seemingly destroys the one before. However, this is not destruction, this is creation. New life is impossible until the old one concludes and disappears. Without the support of everything that goes from generation to generation, from state to state, this will not happen. Meanwhile, there is no separation between the essence of the researcher and the object of the research, because this is the same. We never reveal the world as it is, observing it from a side like researchers. A researcher reveals the world within his organs of perception (Kabbalists call them the "body" of the soul), based on his qualities. When a scientist discovers a new theory, he has an appropriate apprehension for that level in terms of emotional (feelings) and the rational (mind) aspects of perception. Thus, the world is a picture revealed by the person, and not an objective reality.

Accordingly, Kabbalah maintains that we can use only reliable knowledge that was proved in practice, that is, we should not have any doubt that it is real and truthful. It is impossible to accept any scientific knowledge about the notions of "the soul and the body" from the above mentioned theories because all their conclusions come from religious considerations. Truly scientific knowledge about the soul and the body can be obtained only by researching the method presented by the science of Kabbalah. It is obtained in an experimental way and tested in practice in such a way that a person does not doubt its authenticity. It is impossible to obtain this kind of proof by any other "spiritual" way. Considering the above, it might be acceptable to use the third theory to a certain degree. This theory deals exclusively with the body and uses findings that have been obtained in an experimental way and raises no contention. General logical explanations of any theories are forbidden in Kabbalah.

The science of Kabbalah affirms that there is only matter and form which is dressed in matter. Based on these results Kabbalah draws conclusions about the human being and the surrounding reality he exists in. A repetition of results led to the creation of the theory, which states that our entire world is nothing else but a special perception peculiar to our sensory organs that also determines how a human being perceives him or herself. Attainment of the objective reality that does not depend on a human being, meaning, that which is free from the influence of the "Self", is an unrealizable task. Kabbalists say that only at the end of all the investigations, when a person will change himself in accordance to the Upper Force and will become equivalent to it, then, possibly, the person will be able to perceive the reality without any personal interference, without any constrains – the way it is beyond organs of perception. This kind of state is called The World of Infinity.

In the World of Infinity a person's participation in the reality has no limits. He changes it by interfering with it. Then he discovers that, at the end of the day, only the Upper Light exists and it fills the entire reality. And, nevertheless, always, even in the state of the World of Infinity, everything is perceived inside a human being, inside his vessel of reception. Vessel of reception catches whatever exists inside it. Besides it, a human being does not have any other means for attaining the surrounding reality. This way of receiving information is called the revealed part of the science. A concealed part is whatever is not yet grasped by a vessel, that is, that which does not exist inside it. Information, received in the revealed and concealed parts, is classified according to the level. There are many kinds of surrounding and inner lights: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechida, - five levels of perception, each of which, in turn, is divided according to such elements as its depth, intensity, and clarity of perception.

The Ban Imposed on the Humanities

Kabbalah considers it impermissible to use the humanities. It only relies on empirically proven knowledge.

Therefore, we cannot receive any scientific knowledge about the notions of “soul and body” from the three aforementioned theories, because the conclusions are based on religious arguments. We can only accept the information about soul and body as scientific knowledge based on the wisdom of Kabbalah.

In accordance with this, we have the right to use only the third theory, which deals with the body, in all the empirically proven conclusions that raise no doubts. Kabbalah forbids the general, logical explanations of any theories.

 

Criticism of the Third Theory

However, the third theory is alien to the educated person’s spirit, because it does away with personality and presents it as a machine that is activated by external forces. From this, it follows that the person is not free in his desires and is totally controlled by nature’s powers. All his actions are forced, and he is neither rewarded nor punished for his own actions, since the law of reward and punishment only applies to the person with a free will. This theory is equally rejected by the religious masses, which believe in the Creator’s reward and punishment and by secular people. It turns out that each of us is like a toy in the hands of a blind nature that leads us to an unknown destination!

Hence the third theory was not accepted in this world. It was therefore decided that the body that is called a machine, in accordance with the third theory, does not constitute a human being. The person’s essence, his “I” is an invisible and imperceptible spiritual essence concealed within the body. Yet how can this essence activate the body, if according to philosophy, the spiritual has no contact with the material and in no way influences it? This is why there is no answer to the question of the soul in philosophy and metaphysics.

Today science can explain the presence of various anomalous phenomena. It seems that contemporary research leaves no space for the soul. However, by looking closer into life, a person still assumes that in addition to the biological electro-machine called "a human", there is something else, a certain spiritual element that goes beyond the framework of nature which we observe. What gives a person grounds to suppose that an internal element exists in us and that it remains after we die? Arguments of the proponents of this claim have no back-up and that is why, obviously, it is impossible to rely on them. Kabbalists maintain that until a human being senses his or her soul, it is impossible to explain to the person what it is and how he or she will feel the spiritual world in this case.

No method existing in the world can claim that it can show a person his or her soul. All of them are based on "discoveries" that do not stand any scientific criticism and are nothing more than a consequence of psychological reactions.
So do we really have a soul? Or are we like animals that live and die without endowing themselves at least with a thought of having some eternal element?

 

Conclusion

We feel everything in our five senses. The combined picture of all that we perceive in our senses is processed and analyzed in our brain, compared with the already known and is forwarded to our consciousness as an image of ourselves and of the surrounding world. Thus, the person perceives both his own body and the world as a result of sensations in his senses. Neither the body nor the world exists by itself; they are but the consequences of our sensations.

If we had no senses at all, we would not feel ourselves. If our senses were different, we would perceive the world and ourselves differently, according to the sensations presented to us by our organs of perception. Everything we feel in our five senses is called the “revealed.” Naturally, every individual reveals his own measure of information depending on his sensitivity and intelligence. The revealed is:

• Particular, individual,

• Generally revealed to the entire humankind at each stage of its development.

The “concealed” is the information that still waits to be revealed in the future. The concealed is of two kinds:

• That which we will reveal in our senses in the future, and

• That which we will never be able to reveal in our five senses.

The information that is impossible to reveal in our five senses can be received in the sixth one. Each person carries in himself a root of the sixth sense and can develop it. The method of developing the sixth sense is called Kabbalah. The sensation, experienced in the sixth sense, can also be divided into two elements in similarity to the sensation of the body and the surrounding reality in our five senses:

• The body, referred to as the “soul”, and

• The surrounding reality called the “Upper World.”

The sensation of the Upper World is perceived as eternity, perfection and omniscience. Then a person will realize that the three theories mentioned above – the Theory of Faith, Dualism, and Negation – is just the fruit of the imagination of a human mind that has not come to the true spiritual revelation.