For those who believe that consciousness can be divorced from the physical body...?

Consciousness is (for lack of a better definition) the ability to put together a qualiated experience. This simply means consciousness is consciousness. It serves no meaningful definition except to indicate that consciousness is that. That it is not necessarily anything like we experience.

Even as we experience consciousness, it comes in different varieties for different people, and in different levels throughout our own experience. Sometimes you feel quite aware and other times you don't notice things. Somethings which exist never become part of your conscious experience because you don't have the faculties at the time to experience them. Exactly like how a person born blind will not have a qualied experience involving vision. These are examples of different conscious states.

Conscious states appear to be dictated by the physical form. A dolphin will never know what it is like to climb a tree. A human will not know what it is like to have roots in the ground like a tree. (I have just implied that dolphins and trees both possess some level of consciousness. They experience there environment through their physical form, and respond accordingly.)

This shows that a substance is required to exhibit consciousness. I repeat - exhibit consciousness. That is to mean, we can observe traits which let us know something else possesses consciousness. It does not mean that things we do not observe with these traits are not conscious on some level.

We do accept that to exhibit consciousness a body of some form is required, but not that a brain is required. However, for the body to function and exhibit signs of consciousness, the body must have some sort neurological substrate which allows it to respond to its environment. Again, this is required to let us see an exhibited consciousness. No such test could be performed on a rock - at least from our current perspective.

But the situation is as follows...
We could conclude that consciousness is a product of the neurological substrate, or we could conclude that a neurological substrate allows for the exhibition of consciousness. The former actually does not follow without more evidence. The latter explains that our exhibited consciousness comes from our brain, but does not rule out that consciousness persists on some level panpsychically....Show more

Consciousness can´t be divorced from the physical body. I assume you´re talking about human beings.

While there are physical bodies, visible and palpable, there are also spiritual bodies, invisible to human eyes and entirely beyond human senses. (1Co 15:44) The bodies of spirit persons (God, Christ, the angels) are spiritual bodies.

Ecclesiastes 9:5
For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.

Psalm 146:3-4
Do not put YOUR trust in nobles,

Nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs.

4 His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground;

In that day his thoughts do perish.


The Bible makes clear that “spirit” and “soul” refer to two different things. How do they differ?

Bible writers used the Hebrew word ru′ach or the Greek word pneu′ma when writing about the “spirit.” The Scriptures themselves indicate the meaning of those words. For instance, Psalm 104:29 states: “If you [Jehovah] take away their spirit [ru′ach], they expire, and back to their dust they go.” And James 2:26 notes that “the body without spirit [pneu′ma] is dead.” In these verses, then, “spirit” refers to that which gives life to a body. Without spirit, the body is dead. Therefore, in the Bible the word ru′ach is translated not only as “spirit” but also as “force,” or life-force. For example, concerning the Flood in Noah’s day, God said: “I am bringing the deluge of waters upon the earth to bring to ruin all flesh in which the force [ru′ach] of life is active from under the heavens.” (Genesis 6:17; 7:15, 22) “Spirit” thus refers to an invisible force (the spark of life) that animates all living creatures.


The soul and the spirit are not the same. The body needs the spirit in much the same way as a radio needs electricity—in order to function. To illustrate this further, think of a portable radio. When you put batteries in a portable radio and turn it on, the electricity stored in the batteries brings the radio to life, so to speak. Without batteries, however, the radio is dead. So is another kind of radio when it is unplugged from an electric outlet. Similarly, the spirit is the force that brings our body to life. Also, like electricity, the spirit has no feeling and cannot think. It is an impersonal force. But without that spirit, or life-force, our bodies “expire, and back to their dust they go,” as the psalmist stated.

Speaking about man’s death, Ecclesiastes 12:7 states: “The dust [of his body] returns to the earth just as it happened to be and the spirit itself returns to the true God who gave it.” When the spirit, or life-force, leaves the body, the body dies and returns to where it came from—the earth. Comparably, the life-force returns to where it came from—God. (Job 34:14, 15; Psalm 36:9) This does not mean that the life-force actually travels to heaven. Rather, it means that for someone who dies, any hope of future life rests with Jehovah God. His life is in God’s hands, so to speak. Only by God’s power can the spirit, or life-force, be given back so that a person may live again....Show more

Lack of consciousness doesn't indicate a total lack of function. If that were the case, you would die when you went to sleep....Show more

No, consciousness is a meta function of the brain....Show more

Our physical body responds to physical interactions. If my body is tired, then it sleeps but that does not mean that my Spirit is tired.

When my physical body is done, my Spirit will be free...Show more