What is the difference between "consciousness" and "soul"?

In terms of the Bible, the soul is the living entity. All the creatures mentioned in the 1st chapter of Genesis are called souls.

The soul then is YOU, the living being.

Consciousness is the mental activity that is a result of the functions of your brain and nervous system.

So, if you drink 6 6-packs of your favorite adult beverage, your system will respond by turning off your consciousness. You find yourself a day or two later wondering what happened.

We see this too with severe brain trauma, and someone goes into a coma. They are alive, still a soul, but have no higher mental functions that we would call consciousness.

Some recover, others their system's lower mental functions fail, and the whole body is shut down, and will die without intervention with breathing support, and other steps that we are familiar with.

Unfortunately, most people do not understand that, functionally, there is no difference. The common term, emotion, often is seen as something distinct from the technical term, affect. Even experts, such as Ekman and Tompkins have made unnecessary distinctions, complicating the picture. Emotion, or affect, is a person's energetic (non-verbal) response ( or "reading") of the interaction with their environment. Emotion gives us information about, and the energy to carry out physical tasks, appropriate to the circumstances (such as survival). Because it is non-verbal, it is considered to be below the threshold of conscious awareness, thus the word "subconscious" used for this experience/feeling. Tompkins did have one thing correct: affect is primary. Because it develops before conscious, verbal-based cognition, it has a greater influence over behavior than thinking. Most politicians and advertising execs can attest to this. However, this energetic input is not a command, it is merely an influence. Because body influences mind and mind influences body, we can re-ignite memories that can recall emotional responses. The origin is from environmental interactions, not from thinking. But we can call up specific feelings without interaction in the moment. We simply draw on experience. Although oversimplified, W.B. Cannon was right.

Great question, dear one.

As I see it, they are the same to a certain extent. Our soul is who we are, it is an indication of the kind of person that we are, baring any physiological problems, like mental illness. Was Ted Bundy a dark soul or a mentally ill man? Or Hitler?

Our consciousness, to me, implies the involvement of our brain. Since our brain is, of course, physiological, so is our consciousness, for the most part.

I believe our souls hold all the memories of our past lives. Our souls are a reflection of the amount of knowledge and enlightenment, spiritually, that our souls have acquired specifically through the living of lives or our experiences at Home. We have met people who were wise beyond their years, and others who were just a little immature for their entire lives.

I believe it takes an old soul to be an atheist because it is a human need to invent a crutch to aid us in our physical lives here. It takes an old soul to choose to live a life without that crutch of god. It takes a spiritually mature soul to choose to face life head on with only your own common sense, inner strength, and perseverance.

I love to think of a Down's Syndrome person as a soul who chose to live that lifetime in an effort to obtain the special knowledge that would be acquired.

I believe that each of us made a plan before we came here. We chose a 'theme', or a specific lesson that we wanted to explore. Most of the people and even many of the circumstances that have impact on our lives were placed their before we came here. They were a part of the plan.

You chose to experience the life of a member of a Christian faith and you may have also chosen to one day receive the realization that religion just made no sense to you. Or, by your own search for knowledge, your soul came to that realization based on the life you have led. Either way, your soul seeks enlightenment.

*Some people believe that the people with brain injuries and dementia are just the physical body. They think the soul has already crossed over and gone home, especially if the body is kept alive artificially. I see some merit in that line of thought.*

Consciousness and Soul have nothing to do with each other. Your soul is your very essense while consciousness is nothing more then being coherant and responsive to the outside world. if you had to draw a diffrence I would probably go with consciousness is external while soul is internal but again do not belive that they are two very good points to compare

one is real, the other has been made up.

consciousness is a function that occurs at many different levels for many different species. Humans have a high level of consciousness, a series of highly intelligent thought process likely developed from a lack of physical ability.

Consciousness is the mental part of body that take us in the various realm(preference,tastes and other likings) of this world.It is like a driver of car where car is a body and driver is consciousness.

While soul is the representative of that omni-present god in us.It is not indulged in any activity of this world and it's is merely an observer.Soul is the person who is sitting on the backseat of the car but control of the car is in the hands of the driver and if he drives according to the person who is sitting on the back seat, they will get their destination and it he doesn't surely they will be seeking for a mechanic.

consciousness is what we come to "know" and are aware of in life. It usually involves what we learn through programming at school, church and home. Our perceptions and observations etc.

Soul encompasses much more, not just our wake state, but also our dream state...there is also unexplained cases of musical genius, or cases of the idiot savant that lie outside the mind. The soul seems to have come already with 'installed programs'.

Essentially speaking about the same thing though. When you are conscious your soul is considered a "living" soul"

Most people attempt to give evidence that we have a soul, but the Bible states that we "ARE" a living soul... Not that we "have" a soul...

Notice Genesis when God creates Adam and then he "becomes" a soul "after" the breath of life is breathed into Him.

HERE IS THE FORMULA FOR LIFE

Dust+ Breath of life(spirit)=Living Soul

HERE IS THE FORMULA FOR DEATH

Living soul - Spirit (breath of life)=Dust

Notice that the spirit and the Breath of life are the same thing... The bible teaches that BOTH come from God nd are "His" not "ours"..

After we die God has our souls... And we still have "souls" but they are not "living souls"

The Bible states that the dead are sleeping in the graves until the second coming of Jesus, in which the dead in Christ shall rise, and those who are alive shall be caught up together in the air. When dead, we have a soul, just not a "living soul."

The Bible states that the dead know not anything. (psalm. 115:17 psalm 6:5, 88:10-12)

"His breath goeth forth, he returneth to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." (Psalm 146:4)

"For the living know that they will die, but the dead know not anything." (Ecclesiastes 9:5, first part)

"The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence." (Psalm 115:17)

"Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:28,29)

"Let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day..... For David is NOT YET ascended into the Heavens." (Acts 2:29, 34 first part, emphasis added.

Death and sleep are used interchangeably; read John 11:11-14.

The Bible also states that death is a sleep.. I.e. Lazarus, and the little girl.. If we have the seed of Jesus inside of us then we sleep in the grave until he comes to take us home..

Look Up the word asleep, sleep, dead in the Greek language.

The "Consciousness" is the symptoms of the physical creation of the human person. Directly connected to the physical.

The "Soul" is the sign and symptoms of the Spiritual creation of the human person. Connected to the physical and spiritual.

I believe our consciousness is our awareness to think and comprehend, to discern and make choices in ones life.

Our soul is that which lies deep within the heart, where we can communicate and have a relationship with God, or not.