Absolutely, they have souls. They’re alive, aren’t they? Besides, I think I can feel my beloved’s soul and see the light of it in those beautiful eyes.
2. They’re just animals. They do not have souls, only humans contain souls.
3. Maybe animals don’t have souls, and maybe so, anything is possible.
Which belief is yours?
A soul is intangible, there’s no proof of its existence that people have found (to my knowledge), except for things we attribute to proof such as NDEs (near death experiences), and not everyone who claims to have had one is telling the truth, but many are.
Sure, there are explanations for what others claim are hallucinations of an oxygen or blood-starved brain organ, such as tunnel vision with a bright light and our longings for loved ones made manifest in our minds’ eyes, but there is scientific proof of a jump in brain activity at and after clinical death. What’s going on? Those brains of ours live on for a short amount of time even in ‘brain dead’ individuals after the heart and all other life has ceased. Specifically, but not limited to the activation of the medial temporal lobe, like people (or animals) are recalling faces and memories. Processes appear to be taking place. There are electrical impulses and complicated designs throughout our bodies, yet it is only the brain that has a spike in activity.
What about paranormal activity? Has anyone seen animal ghosts? Some say ghosts are lost souls, or that they died a terrible death and are tormented, stuck in this realm from the weight that even their ethereal or spirit bodies cannot shed. Others say they are thought forms. What about poltergeist claims? Somewhere I read that poltergeist is German for a “knocking spirit.” But my translate source stated “poltern” means “rumble” and “geist” means “mind.” German friends, we need your help here. I have had multiple of experiences in my childhood home, one of which may have been a thought form, one angelic, and many poltergeist experiences, when it seems spirit form can indeed interact with the material. If you’d like to know more because you’ve honestly had unexplainable experiences, I’m willing to open a discussion on this due to wondering for years if anyone has experienced exactly what I (and also my parents) had.
Are there poltergeists of animals? I’ve never heard of that. Why not? Maybe they don’t have souls. Maybe they have no spirits either. Maybe they just “are” until they’re not. Perhaps, we as humans, are in the same boat. Maybe animals don’t possess turbulent or malicious minds (for a lack of better descriptions) of such potency that it effects their afterlife. One special animal being visited me in a dream more real than any dream I’ve ever had (13 days after “death”), but I can’t say that was her visiting (which is what I truly believe), or my sorrow and intense longing to hold onto her.
Maybe none of all that, or even any of this perceived reality is real – if anything is possible, of course.
We know animals have a physical body. We can probably all agree they have a mental body as well, because animals who have been abused or stressed in a shelter have emotional issues. It takes them time to decompress, if you will, from the life they had before. I have witnessed things trigger a past memory in animals, for example, a snap when petting their ears because a child use to tug on them.
If animals have memories, they have a mind (another intangible), not just a brain for functioning, right? Raccoons, elephants, birds, octopuses, and more can recall faces, some of whom even remember the workings of puzzles for years. With this and the following, let’s assume all animals think and have reasoning skills. I watched a tiny bird figure out how to get a twig through a hole in some siding to its nest. The twig was at least four times as long as the bird (and the hole) were wide. I’m telling you, I’ve seen insects think, but let’s not get into that. At least most of them can’t fathom that I’m capturing them to release them for their own good. However, I’ve been outsmarted by spiders before, so there’s that.
Let’s declare that animals have physical and mental bodies. Do animals have souls, and what exactly is a soul?
To be honest, it’s a little shady, a gray area, shadowy if you will, here’s a fragment from Wikipedia HERE:
“In philosophy and religion, spirit is the vital principle or animating essence within humans or, in some views, all living things. Although views of spirit vary between different belief systems, when spirit is contrasted with the soul, the former is often seen as a basic natural force, principle or substance, whereas the latter is used to described the organized structure of an individual being’s consciousness, in humans including their personality. Spirit as a substance may also be contrasted with matter, where it is usually seen as more subtle, an idea put forth for example in the Principia Mathematica.[1]
In Latin, spīritus was distinct from Latin anima, whose etymological meaning was also “breathing” (PIE root *h₂enh₁-),[3] yet which had taken a slightly different meaning, namely “soul“.
The distinction between “soul” and “spirit” in English mirrors that between “psykhē” and “pneuma” in Classical Greek, with both words having a connection to breathing:
psykhē (ψυχή), originally “cold air”, hence “breath of life” and “soul”[2] (PIE root *bhes- “to breathe”).[4]
A distinction between soul and spirit also developed in the Abrahamic religions: Arabic nafs (نفس) opposite rūḥ (روح); Hebrew neshama (נְשָׁמָה nəšâmâh) or nephesh (נֶ֫פֶשׁ nép̄eš) (in Hebrew neshama comes from the root NŠM or “breath”) opposite ruach (רוּחַ rúaħ). (Note, however, that in Semitic just as in Indo-European, this dichotomy has not always been as neat historically as it has come to be taken over a long period of development: Both נֶ֫פֶשׁ (root נפשׁ) and רוּחַ (root רוח), as well as cognate words in various Semitic languages, including Arabic, also preserve meanings involving miscellaneous air phenomena: “breath”, “wind”, and even “odour”.[5][6][7])
Similar concepts in other languages include Chinese Ling and hun (靈魂) and Sanskrit akasha / atman[2] (see also prana). Some languages use a word for spirit often closely related (if not synonymous) to mind. Examples include the German Geist (related to the English word ghost) or the French l’esprit.[8] English versions of the Bible most commonly translate the Hebrew word ruach (רוח; wind) as “the spirit.”[9]
Alternatively, Hebrew texts commonly use the word nephesh. Kabbalists regard nephesh as one of the five parts of the Jewish soul, where nephesh (animal) refers to the physical being and its animal instincts. Similarly, Scandinavian, Baltic, and Slavic languages use the words for breath to express concepts similar to “the spirit”.[2]“
Does anyone have an excellent definition of a soul?
Lil’ Murph has personality, opinions, and obviously preferences.
Where’s the proof that animals are not sentient? They absolutely have personalities all their own, each one. Is in fact the energy of our mind and soul the same, keeping our unique, inherent and acquired characters and shedding ego like a dead skin as we transition through realms? If our loved ones are “on the other side,” and we can see and hear without physical bodies, perhaps mind and soul are one. If one is aware of surroundings and self, does it mean that entity possesses a soul? Can there be a self (or a higher self) without the existence of an ego? Do cats have egos? Maybe. If they can hold grudges when we leave, as if they are personally offended. That may be indicative of an ego.
Since we’ve come this far, what of plants? Some ancient peoples (if I recall correctly from a book I read – including the Toltecs) and many people today believe trees have souls. What about the life energy in grass, soul or no? Vines sense when they’re approaching something for support. It’s documented that plants communicate and trees send stress signals to other trees to up their internal protective survival mechanisms. Have you ever heard of “crown shyness?” This is awareness in trees’ leaves and limbs high in the canopy proving there is awareness in their outermost extremities. But, let’s not get into that either.
The Boston University Medical Campus’s (whoever all that involves) description of consciousness: Consciousness is your awareness of yourself and the world around you. This awareness is subjective and unique to you.
“Our soul and spirit are simply awareness.” – Rumi
“The body is an expression of the mind, which in its turn is the expression of the spirit.” – Silver Birch
Murph knows what he wants. Out. He refuses to potty in his enclosure, does not want to do the dirty in the rest of his house, and prefers to potty outside, and he is telling me that this is serious business.
In “The Secret Doctrine” by H.P. Blavatsky: Pg. 13, Stanza I, The Night of the Universe:
7. “The Causes of Existence” mean not only the physical causes known to science, but the metaphysical causes, the chief of which is the desire to exist, an outcome of Nidana and Maya. This desire for a sentient life shows itself everything, from an atom to a sun, and is a reflection of the Divine Thought propelled into objective existence, into a law that the universe should exist.”
There’s a lot to share on this subject in “The Ancient Wisdom” by Annie Besant, but let’s not get into that. If you wish, here’s the book:
📖This tantalizing book called: Thought Forms: A Record of Clairvoyant Investigation – Hardcover – It is now updated with an introduction by Mitch Horowitz.
Description excerpt: First released in 1901, Thought-Forms was an in-depth exploration on the visual manifestations of thoughts and the notion that they exist as objects. Conceived by renowned theosophists Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, the book consists of 58 illustrations based on Besant and Leadbeater’s clairvoyant observations on how music, emotions, experiences, and colors affect thought forms.
📕This book brings up the matter as what can be determined from the biblical sense, it’s called: We Will See Our Pets in Heaven: The Afterlife of Animals from a Biblical Perspective which sure seems wonderful and I certainly hope so! Imagine for a moment a life with no birds for the air, lizards or deer for land or octopuses and fish for the sea. It’s not good. Doesn’t seem right in the afterlife either. Animals make us whole.
Thought forms, plants communicating within their own abilities, deceased people with brain activity… is it possible that animals have souls, and do you think they do? I’d love to know your belief on the matter (or lack of)!! 😉
*Photos not of Lil’ Murph are c/o stockcake.com. Raccoon and waving beardie short videos are c/o my on-screen keyboard gif option. : )
*As Amazon associates, we receive a small commission from the products we promote, as well as many others you may purchase through first clicking our links here, and at no extra cost to you. It’s a wee kick-back, so to speak.
“Give me Lizardry or give me Death!”
❤️Murph & Dawn
Lizards are awesome! Tap a Share button below, we'll try to convince the others!
Agreed. I did not catch that about C.S. Lewis. : ) That’s hilarious about your friend. Thank you for sharing that image and story. “…One time experience.” Haha!
Why does it matter, really? If one is a Platonist or Catholic and belief souls go to heaven or hell, and animals’ souls go the heaven or hell, one must assume that animals can be good or evil. If rats have souls, and they are prey, do their souls go to heaven whenever they are eaten by a predator, or killed for food? Are rats inherently good because they are food for other animals, or evil because they eat our grain and spread diseases? I would prefer they are simply animals that are amoral, have a purpose and try to survive. Humans are different because we believe we have souls and that our souls live on after we die. In the early Christian tradition, souls do not go to Heaven. Early Christians believed in resurrection of the body and most believed Jesus would return in their lifetime. The idea of souls going to heaven or hell were introduced later when early church fathers discovered Plato. To me it’s a weird debate.
It doesn’t matter, really. It is just another ponderance to occupy the mind. Without inquiry, what are we but mindless beings. In a few instances, I’ve awakened to nothing, no alarms to remind me of who I declare myself to be or the jobs I have before me. In rare bliss, I awoke to brain blankness. That is simple awareness (is that likened to an animal or plant state of conaciousness? I’ve no idea, but feels like it could be) – before remembering who I am or what I had to do that day… shuffling off Plato or Christ, I know awareness in its simplist form, if only for a fleeting moment. And it is my belief that is where many animal lives are. Beautiful blank moments of simple awareness do not discredit a soul. They are weighless moments of existence. Ahhh. And I think that among others, mice are blessed with this elongated, simplistic moment with no “Who the hell am I in this place?” episodes.
Intent – I believe to be an issue somewhere in the threads of life. If a rat is hell-bent on sickening a human for past, future, or imaginary ills, then that’s a little bastard. However, regardless of past important people’s thoughts, such as Plato, intent should be weighed. Malice should be considered. Humans have malice. Animals, not as much except those aware of their own mistreatment, and can understandably have it. Do mice intend on sickening people, or do they agree karmically to be of sustenance for birds of prey? Possibly, neither. But I speculate they have no ill-intent, in my eyes, worthy of human/animal friendship (with caution to the well-being of our food because they are hungry too). Can’t mice and men be friends? : ) Little mieces aren’t evil. If no animal is actually evil, just desperate, can’t they go to Heaven even if they ruined the porridge they didn’t intend to?
I believe we *are* souls–all of us: bacteria, fungi, trees, plants, animals (including humans), stromatolites, even slime molds–and that souls are awareness, even if that awareness isn’t discernible to others.
Also, until about 5 years ago I was visited frequently by the spirit of a beloved cat who passed away nearly 20 years ago. He still leapt onto my bed and curled up next to me. I couldn’t see him, but I felt the bed give under his weight, sensed his love as he chose his spot and settled, and heard his soft purring. I imagine he is now in heaven.
The question should be, “Do you believe animals have souls?” That actually matters because it determines how people treat animals. I don’t think it matters to animals whether or not they have souls, they are simply trying to survive. I should matter to humans. I anthropomorphize animals all the time. I name wild owls, I talk to badgers and coyotes, and give them names. I don’t believe souls go to heaven or hell, but who knows in reality. I believe animals have souls because they have feelings, emotions and individual personalities and behavior. BTW, my wife thinks I’m mean for baiting you.
I’m not sure souls are even real. EVERYTHING has been made up, so why not all that as well. If they were real, animals, et al., would definitely have them. Again, don’t think anything like that is real, but made up by those who wanted to control others. And science has just found out that plants feel pain. If you sit next to them, they know it and can tell what color your shirt is. This has caused me to wonder what to eat, being a vegetarian. Murph is adorable but certainly didn’t want any of the nice yummy food you offered. LOL Such a sweetheart. thank you for the all the pictures. 🙂
That is an interesting perspective. I like it. It’s interesting that you mention stromatolites because just last night, I watched something that hinted at what could be cyanobacteria being delivered by certain aliens (who could be our own evolved race) to the waters to evolve and get us to where we are today. If there are fossils of them, this indicates some didn’t survive or evolve. Don’t judge me, I was trying to watch something relaxing. 🙂 If soul is in these life forms as you mention, it causes me to ponder down to another level. If there is truth to the healing properties and negativity absorbing/neutralizing capabilities of minerals, stones, crystals, and gems by means of their unique energy emittance, and energy can not be destroyed or dead, but atoms aren’t considered life, yet the molecules they form make up all living things, how is there not “life” in everything? Where lies the threshold of enough concentrated life or energy to merit the housing of soul?
Thank you for sharing this cat with me (and everyone reading). You were certainly not forgotten. Some part of this beautiful being remained attached. It’s difficult for me to be skeptical about things as these because of past experiences. I had a cat named Toby, who became my parents’ darling because I had to move. I wouldn’t abandon my animal friends today. I felt I abandoned him, but knew he’d be safe and loved. He lived 22 years. The day I took my mom to retrieve his cremains, I left my old neighborhood and saddened parents, and was about to turn onto the the highway on-ramp heading to my house, when a large cloud before me was undoubtedly shaped like the back of cat, including a curled tail. I had to take it as an omen. I wish he had visited me to tell me he forgave me.
However, the last time I saw him, he was loving toward me like he hadn’t been in years. But there is guilt there because I used a syringe to force water with soft food in his mouth to aid in nutrition and prevent dehydration after he decided to let his body shut down. He knew he had to go, but I fought it. I didn’t intend to traumatize him. Your cat experience helps me think that they don’t forget love. Thank you.
I thought this was interesting if you have time after reading all this: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288684444_Electromagnetic_Radiation_a_Living_Cell_and_the_Soul_A_Collated_Hypothesis#:~:text=The%20word%20'soul'%20does%20not,network%20of%20the%20biological%20cell.
I don’t think it matters to animals either, whether or not they have souls. I don’t think they are philosophizing on that. I’ve heard people say one belief or the other regarding animals’ souls, or lack of, for a number of years. I’m not sure how it ever came up, except the last time… I was about to bury a bird when my neighbor said something to me. I walked over and she and I chatted. Seeing that I had the shovel out, she wondered what I was up to now. When I told her, her friend piped in and suggested rather than toil, I can toss the birdy body into the field for the other animals to eat, assuring me it was okay because it didn’t have a soul anyway, and I didn’t need to feel sacrilege in the matter (this isn’t verbatim, but close). I knew she was right in the ‘food for the others’ part – at a minimum. Despite my initial urge to bury it, I did place it in the field across the street. Another bird I buried last year was dug up anyway by something, even though I placed a large paver stone on top of the grave.
I agree with your animals surely being amoral. With that, some are very aware they’ve done something wrong, at least after the fact – when they are confronted. Like a dog who gets in the trash can or eats the sofa acts guilty and has a pitiful demeanor when their deeds are discovered. That still doesn’t discount their being amoral, perhaps they simply remember what displeased people in the past.
I didn’t intend to seem rude in “shuffling off Christ and Plato.” Your points are valid and I have thought on all that you typed. I half-expected not so much a debate, but dialogue to occur with a title such as this. I am simply genuinely curious (for no important reason) what others think and how they would articulate their beliefs. I don’t know that anyone will change their current opinion on the subject, but it’s an interesting way to waste time if someone is so inclined to ponder something for a short spell. I believe they have souls for the same reasons you mentioned.
Have I mentioned how much I like Laurie? I know animals have a large place in her heart, but her concern for Murph showed me some of her character. Yeah… shame on you for engaging (or baiting) me on matters of philosophy and/or spirituality after a Friday night nightcap. : ) I like Laurie even more now.
We gave one of our daughter’s rats a Viking funeral. We were giving another one of her rats a Visigoth burial (rats only live about three years). I had dug the hole and Tristan was reading the funeral rights from a Visigoth book of prayers we brought back from Spain. There were five of us standing around the hole with Tristan reading when my guitar student came roaring up in his pickup truck with music blaring. I told him he could wait on the deck or join us for the funeral. When we were done, and I started the guitar lesson, my student apologized for roaring up on the funeral. He said when he saw five people standing around a hole, one with a shovel, it looked to him like a typical New Mexican job site.
Thank you for your input. Amy would agree with you, and so do I. As for mosquitos, sure they have souls… and when they are reincarnated as humans they keep an aspect of their former selves. We know them as those annoying twits we encounter out in the world whom we’d actually enjoy smacking. 😁 I will say, I actually don’t smack mosquitos. I threaten them, but the threats turn out to be empty ones.
I understand where you’re coming from. What we consider good or terrible may very well be equally possible. And these may live side-by-side, even meshing into and out of one another. Souls may or may not be. And, we could be in a matrix. At least some people are trying to be good or are of good character while they’re hanging out herein. Maybe our daemon already knows, but we’re still in the dark about what’s really up. It’s difficult to not have an opinion based on experiences, and some people hold onto beliefs because they are just warm & fuzzy hopes.
Yep, scare tactics for control exist(ed), just like… well, I won’t get political.
It’s proven plants have awareness and have a response to touch. It’s saddening to think that living things eat other living things. Sometimes I wish I didn’t care. I have issues when a cut open a bell pepper and it has a baby bell up there by the seeds. I can’t eat that!😆I plant the baby bell in a pot containing the intended plant, and a bunch of other unexpected, miscellaneous plant babies that came home from the market or from the garden. I’ve accepted my oddities, I’m just waiting on everyone else to.😅
I’m so glad you watched the video of Murph being finicky and that you enjoyed the photos. Thank you for that. He’s under my chair on the deck right now. This usually happens, I take him out into the sunlight and he seeks shade while I’m left roasting out in the open. He’s more of an air-conditioning desert reptile. I just told him, “Murph, Gigi thinks you’re adorable.” I don’t know if he heard me. Haha
A Viking funeral, as in with a pyre?! I wonder if the Visigoth book of prayers is as ancient as before their relocating (translated, not revised). This is all very interesting. Very neat family. I love the love and/or respect for these tiny beings. At our previous home, we had a very special betta fish, highly intelligent and consumed with joy when he or she saw us. We buried sweet Jeremiah wrapped in burial cloth with pebbles from the tank, and a note of how unique this fish was, as well as a promulgation of our love. Placed in a sealed container, we laid Jeremiah to rest. Bells rang every day at 3p.m. I can’t recall if it was the fake bell sound from downtown, or the church down the road that did this, but oddly, the second my shovel penetrated the earth, the bells tolled, which added a certain something to the experience.
You had a polite and hilarious guitar student… who happens to like his music loud.
Hi. What’s a soul? I tried working this out in a post I made called “Consciousness, Playing Around With” and ended up with PANPSYCHISM. Yepp, there is no such thing as a “soul” unless a group of consciousnesses join together, and some kind of mechanism keeps them joined after the body expires. But what do I know, I’m just an ignorant old recluse living out in the high Mojave Desert.
As far as Lizards go, out here in the desert they run away too fast to communicate with, much.
With all the rains we had in April, there are more of them than in previous years, but they are still relatively kind of infrequently seen compared to, say, Florida where I observed hundreds of em.
I wrote a thing about lizards you might want to check out:
It is interesting that you mention panpsychism. Pan being the perfect prefix for such thought. The interconnectedness of that belief reminds me of string theory on a spiritual-type level. Annie Besant mentions our astral bodies during sleep and the formation of feelings on pg. 31 in “The Ancient Wisdom.” Madame Blavatsky had interesting statements on subject matter as this as well. If lizards dream (findings suggest lizards experience REM sleep), and have moods (I assure you they do), that must mean they have feelings, so I think yeah, considering these, we may all be much more alike than we think on in this panpsychism way. And for a microphonechism thought, consider what happens in the two slit experiments!!
Thank you for sharing the link. the lizard star of the story and giving me more to think on. I believe they truly are master meditators. There’s more going on up in their minds that meets the eye.
Also, I was ridiculous in Florida wanting to pet and hold every species and individual lizard I encountered. My persuasive attempts to convince them they’ll like cuddles if they just let me pick them up were futile.
LizardPlanet.com 
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