You know,t he concept that our souls are constantly struggling against one another and are being fought over by this that and the other angel demon and spirit unusual? Yeah, I think we all share the same singular soul and that the concept that our souls can be individually saved or damned is a lie.

What do you think? Whose fighting your battles?

My belief is that there exists somewhere in the universe a source where what we consider souls come from. Those souls are sent outward to various parts by beings in control of them, but not able to directly influence them. For example, they could send a particular soul to a world, but not exert any influence on how that soul acts when it arrives. Sort of a grand cosmic game of strategy, though for what end I cannot explain. The soul itself is independent in the sense that is has full control of what it can do within the limitation of the world it is consigned to, but when the souls physical host is terminated, it is up to the aforementioned beings whether the soul can continue on in it's, for lack of a better term, incorporeal form and attempt to influence that world, or whether it is to be recalled and reassigned to another place or laid to rest.

In short, the soul itself is not truly free, it is only free within the limits given to it. As to reincarnation, it does not happen. As to the purpose of it being toyed with and treated like so much dirt in the greater scheme of things, that is something I cannot adequately explain as any attempt leads to an endless loop of questions.

I believe the two main ones are thus. If souls are not free, and there are beings above them, why were the beings created? And if the souls are free, and are meant to go about their own path and learn from life, why were they created to do this? Ultimately you can follow the logic backwards to a single ultimate creator, but then you end up asking who and why created the one, and there can never be an answer to satisfy everyone.

I heard a theory a long time ago about a collective memory bank. If you could tap into that bank, you would be able to gain the knowledge of every present and past being...incidentally, your brain would most likely overload from the massive surge of information, but if you managed to control it, and only take the parts that you wanted, it would be a tremendous resource.

Fascinating theory there, Shadow...and instantly remindede me of the memory bank...

Anyway...digressing here...

Personally, I don't think angels or demons are activelty fighting for your soul, unless you open yourself up and more or less invite them to, conciously or not. By making yourself available, searching for some divine guide, you can be easily spotted by whoever is out there looking.

But I don't think we get saved, or damned, depending on who eventually wins the battle. They might be able to control your current life to some degree, and in some cases influence your next life, but it stops there.

I don't think we share souls, but that our souls are linked to each other at a higher level, more like siblings or relatives that one being.

Well, Plato said we never actually learn anything new, we just remember stuff we all ready knew.

I think the soul is an emrgent property of the activities of the brain... Nothing more, nothing less... That is why if you give someone a knock on the back of the head, or they have a stroke, they are diminished...

That is not to say that I'm not a spiritual person, but I think spirits are archetypes of human potential...

I reckon when you die, it will just be more of what it was like before you were born... A lot more, actually...

What was it like before you were born, in your opinion?

I think mankind prefers the notion that something beyond his means of control is deciding the fate of his soul. We are a race of escapism, whether it's from conscience or making the effort in discerning that which we would hold to be right or wrong given our parameters of morality, we prefer to know there is something that is deciding this for us. The responsibility of actually deciding our own "fate" as it were is not something entered into gladly, and that is why so many religions thrive in this world. The notion that we are co-creators of our own reality is far too much to contemplate because then we cannot put blame on anything else.

I have a strong sense of energy belief, you can think of this as scientific and spiritual, but the human is both prone to seek the scientific and the divine, the two are very related to me. My belief's are always flexing, always changing with new things that I read, recognize, and absorb. By recognizing I mean I relate too or realize I already know said information possibly through hearing it once in this life, perhaps through knowing it in the past life.
I have seen unexplainable spiritual phenomena and it usually involves strange energy fluxuations that occur frequently but sporadically. By unexplainable I mean by purely scientific cause and effect type means. Everything has energy, everything has an aura that you can detect on certain levels. A leaf may be torn but the phantom energy lingers where the leaf was once whole. I don't think I could fathom a higher control but I do believe all these energy souls are linked. I believe that our link is the whole of earth because it is in truth one big massive revolving object of matter and energy. Perhaps this ties into my nature worship. I love the "heavens" I love to gaze upon the stars and realize that the darkness between the spots of light is endless nothingness, but I love the day, I love being drawn back down to my spiritual center, I love feeling energy fluxuate beneath me and around me. I digress.

I guess I can't sufficiantly answer your question as I do not necessarily believe in angels or demons to be anything more than myth but I believe that just like our species made the idea of religion to present a reason why things happen and why we are here, we also made up the entire process of control. Why ask if the angels and demons are fighting for control or if we are actually in control? Control of what?

We made up the word, and the meaning of that word. What if there is no control persay. Destiny means eventual destination. We don't know our Destiny until we come to it. We have control over what we do to get there, but you can't control other people around you who inevitably help or hinder you. I don't necessarily believe there is anything above or below that is controlling your action and those above I think that we are all just linked somehow. I am rambling now.. More on this later possibly

I don't believe there is good or evil fighting for your soul.

I believe your souls itself struggles within to determine it's path.

I believe that humanity is the factor that "allows" the temptation to do the things you do, and your soul has nothing to do with it.

If your soul learned only good things, it would be a pretty lopsided experience, and I don't think that would be enough for anyone. (My personal thoughts here) I wouldn't want to only know good things. That would be boring. I want to know it all, good, bad, indifferent. Perhaps the soul is the same way?

It's humanity that thought up the concept of god and the devil fighting over our eternal soul. My soul had nothing to do with it.

The body follows the mind, the mind has a mind of it's own, and our soul is weak and needs to gain strength or else the body and mind will win.
--Anonymoys Taoist

The way I think is pretty simple. I believe that those spirits we contact could somehow be the people who have once lived here. Once we become the spirt, we are no longer confused with whats around us, and use all of the psychic/mental ability to the greatest lengths possible.