Psyche

Exactly what the soul or psyche is, often seems to be beyond definition. After 1000s of years of questioning and research, man is nowhere near a goal. Here are some definitions of the soul from various ideologies.

Scientology

 * The "thetan" is an immortal spiritual being that can possess a body.
 * It is not a thing, but creator of things.
 * A thetan weighs 1.5oz (45 grams)
 * The "clear" determines its next round of rebirth
 * The "pre-clear" has its Thetan brainwashed by aliens before being thrown back to Earth where it must find a pregnant woman to possess her embryo

Hinduism
At its core, the "atman" is the true self of the individual. The atman is one's immaterial essence, and it means "breath". This essence stores karma while it inhabits living beings; when the physical body dies, based on the karma stored in the psyche, the atman is either promoted or demoted. The highest state is full unity with God (aka enlightenment) while the worst state is Naraka, a stage of purgatory where the soul is tormented in proportion to the amount of suffering it caused.

Hindus also teach that the conditions of your birth are determined by past karma as an effort to defend social inequality.

Platonism
Plato taught the soul had 3 parts:


 * Brain : Rational / logical. It seeks truth and participates in learning, debate, application of skill
 * Heart : Spiritual / emotional. Motivation and feeling, it guides your impulses and fears and wishes.
 * Gut : Appetite / bodily. This is where cravings for food, shelter, sex, safety, etc arise from.

Buddhism
The Buddha taught that the soul was fundamentally not real, but that 5 parts of one's being creates something approximate to a soul. These are called the 5 skhandas, or heaps. Each deals with its own kind of processes and behaviors.


 * Form : The physical body. Buddha taught that all 5 of the skhandas are often confused with the soul, and of them all, it is the most forgivable mistake to think that our body is our "true essence"
 * Sensation : The experience of pleasure, pain, or in between, or nothing.
 * Memory : The part of the brain that builds complex ideas from simple experiences; also known as perception. Buddhists also teach that its primary job is labeling things.
 * Volition : Impulses, conditioning, The subconscious mind. This is what makes karma, stores karma, builds "houses" -- as Dhammapada 154 explains, when the housebuilder is exposed, enlightenment is found.
 * Consciousness : awareness of mental objects or physical perceptions. Consciousness is both the reflection and presence of activity, phenomena