Introduction. Wikipedia: Soul—in various cultures, religions, and philosophies—is a supernatural, immaterial, immortal SUBSTANCE that gives integrity and continuity to individual existence, expressing the divine nature and essence of man, his personality, which gives rise to and conditions his life, the capacity for sensation, thought, consciousness, feelings, and will; the universal life principle in every living being; the substratum of all conscious and unconscious mental processes. Usually contrasted with the body.
God created all corporeal things in humans and animals from all the components of the earth. The next step was the creation of life for them, which occurred through the creation of a soul for each body of humans and animals through the Spirit of God. However, unlike animals, God determined that humans would receive a soul and a human spirit separately, as expressed in the words of the verse (Genesis 2:7), which apply only to humans. "Then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." This verse says nothing about the spirit, but it does speak of the soul. Only with the presence of the soul does a person begin to live: the soul begins to perceive information from all the organs of the body, including the sensations, experiences, and feelings that arise. All of this is processed by the consciousness and reason of the human SPIRIT, and the result of all this is the decision made by the SPIRIT, after which a particular action is performed.
A person's spirit is inextricably linked with their soul! Only their joint existence determines a person's personality, but the soul is primary to human life. However, the spirit, of course, is the most important. Briefly, one can say this: as a person's spirit is, so is the person themselves! The soul was created by God together with the spirit, by His one breath.
Man received the human spirit, but not the Spirit of God. The Bible does not say that Adam and Eve received the Spirit of God at creation. Man was created in the image and likeness of God, meaning that God has a spiritual, not material, body, spirit, and soul. Not only man, but also God, can experience joy, sorrow, pain, and everything else accessible to the human soul, but also much more. The human spirit, soul, and mind, unlike the body, are inextricably linked.
All of a person's collective activity related to their psyche (soul) is reflected in the spirit, transformed within it, and remains in their memory. The human psyche, like their spirit, is inextricably linked with rational activity. The product of this activity are all our experiences, ideas, and our morality, and all of this can be adjusted by the spirit.
After a person's physical death on earth, their body turns to the dust of the earth. The soul and spirit, renewed with new content during a person's life on earth, return to God for resurrection in a new body for believers, which will have no physical defects, will be immune to disease, and will be destined for eternal life with God. The Bible does not specify what kind of body unbelievers will have. But God can restore their former body for them, the essence of which God has knowledge of.
In the Bible, the words "soul" and "person" are sometimes used interchangeably: Judges 16:30; Ezekiel 18:4, 20; James 5:20, and others. Therefore, all of this should be understood not literally, but meaningfully, connecting it to the surrounding text.
Most Christian denominations share the concept of the soul as an immortal, immaterial essence of man, created by God, the bearer of reason, feelings, and will, of which the spirit is an integral part. The spirit decides everything, while the soul only feels, experiences, and cannot exist without the spirit. The soul connects the spirit with everything existing outside the spirit—senses, sensations, and everything else. The human spirit connects with everything spiritual outside of it, and first and foremost with God, with His Spirit. The Bible makes many references to the spirit and soul after a person's death, sometimes referring to the spirit and sometimes to the soul: "his soul will live," "his spirit will be saved." The Old Testament speaks more about the salvation of the soul, while the New Testament speaks more about the spirit, emphasizing its greater spirituality.
For Christians, the Bible's understanding of this is important: man is "spirit, soul, and body": "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The spirit in man is the part that knows (1 Corinthians 2:11), which connects him with the spiritual world and gives him consciousness of God the Creator.
The body generates signals to the brain, which are processed by the brain and transmitted to the soul. Science cannot explain how the information channel between the soul and spirit is connected. Psychologist I. Shmelev wrote about it this way: "The physical structure of the brain, like neurophysiological impulses, does not form a mental act, does not generate thought processes, but merely reflects the level of development of a mental act occurring in another dimensional realm: the brain does not think, for the mental process is located outside this bodily organ."
The soul accumulates feelings from emerging sensations and perceptions, and therefore, for a person to exist and connect with the external material world, a body is always necessary. Therefore, a person's existence after death, in its entirety, is possible after the resurrection of their body. Before the resurrection, a person, although conscious, will remain in a state of conscious sleep, communicating with all their family and friends who are no longer on earth.
Man is created in the image and likeness of God, and therefore will always be triune, that is, containing spirit, soul, and body. But only at the resurrection will believers receive a new body for a new life with God in His 1,000th Kingdom on Earth. Then, the union of their spirit and soul with a new body will be repeated through the Spirit of God. This body will be free from disease, passions, aging, and death. It will be intended solely for life on earth in the 1,000th Kingdom of God. However, after the end of the 1,000 years, believers will receive a different life, and the Bible does not specify what kind of body they will have. It is entirely possible that they will again receive a new body, and that body will become spiritual (immaterial), and the capabilities of the new body will be different when the human body is able to perceive not only the material but also the spiritual, like that of angels, through sight and sensation.
Adam and Eve's soul, as well as their spirit and body, as actual creations on earth, were already known and predetermined by God before their creation on earth, but their spirits, souls, and bodies were different. However, subsequent people began to inherit these traits from their parents. The soul and body can also bear hereditary characteristics. During life, the body, soul, and spirit change depending on a number of circumstances. The soul can carry not only the hereditary characteristics of parents but also those of grandparents, which can be revealed in subsequent generations, or formed during the process of conception in the mother depending on the various circumstances the mother experiences, including her nervous state, problems and abuse in life, or, conversely, her calm, contented life.
This is reflected not only in the child's physical disabilities but also in their spiritual qualities. Thus, numerous expert recommendations are supported by the effects of listening to good, calm music on a child's psyche, among other things. Numerous conditions that shape the human soul before and after birth, both external and in the womb, shape and can often greatly alter the spiritual qualities a child receives from their parents, so that they may differ from their parents and grandparents. This is the uniqueness of EVERY person.