"I trust people. It is the devil inside them I cannot trust."

Soul. What is it?

Generally we think of a soul as a whole. Who a person is, what he is like, what drives him, how he thinks etc. It is like a non-localized phenomenon, aether in the air, somehow linked to a physical manifestation - a body. It is further fueled by tales of out-of-body experiences and possessions. Another important factor is without doubt fantasy/sci-fi. Trading bodies for a Friday, absorbing other people's souls, extraordinary abilities, knowledge-downloading, even wiping a soul from a body and creating a new one in its place, the concept of a 'soul' is almost always abstract.

And there is a really good reason for it. It is magic, a miracle, it is something we do not yet fully comprehend. We know it is somehow the result of neural pathways organized into a neat neural network. We know messing with that network can cause permanent or temporary personality changes, we know damaging it can effectively turn a healthy human into a vegetable. We know that the network is somewhat similar in every single one of us, yet undoubtedly different. We know it is the result of our growth, our experiences, our parents' teachings. Everything that happens to us changes us, creates us. But how?

The brain itself is an amazing piece of Jello. It is soft as cheese and even has holes (relatively empty connected chambers) in it. Yet it contains enough computing power to allow the invention of phones you can have conversations with. Not to mention making a call. It also has a characteristic called 'neuroplasticity', meaning if a part of it is damaged or missing, the rest of it tries to compensate, reallocate resources to manage the tasks run by the omitted or ineffective part of the brain. It is the reason there are people alive without ever having a cerebellum, a part of the brain with an impressive concentration of effective neurons (as opposed to glial cells that make up a large part of the rest of the brain while basically filling the position of 'support crew' to the effective neurons). It is why people with half a brain can use both hands. So if the brain can somewhat fix itself or reallocate entire areas of itself to new purposes that require more attention, can the soul also be intrinsically mended?

The brain can also be fooled. Virtual reality goggles are a reality that have cause plenty of scares by now, making people think they are riding on a rollercoaster while sitting calmly in an office. The phantom hand/penis/whatnot problem is widely documented and interrupted neural pathways have been blamed. Then again, the brain can quickly be taught to think a rubber hand is part of the body. Hypnosis is a relatively popular technique of rewriting the brain. Déjà vu is a very popular event, caused by the brain misinterpreting present events as past events. These are but a few examples of where the brain makes mistakes, either accidentally or because someone wants it to. If we cannot always trust our brains, how can be trust our souls?

We know what causes a 'soul' to exist, but we have yet to understand why or how. We know what a soul is made of, but we have but an inkling of how it functions. Then again, sometimes we are better of not knowing. Other times knowing just adds to the magic. So, how does that make you feel?