In religion, ensoulment is the moment at which a human being gains a soul, some religions say that a soul is newly
created within a developing child and others, especially in religions that believe in reincarnation, that the soul is
pre-existing and added at a particular stage of development.
In the time of Aristotle, it is widely believed that the human soul entered the forming body at 40 days(male embryos)
or 90 days(female embryos), and quickening was an indication of the presence of a soul. Other religions views are
that ensoulment happens at the moment of conception, or when a child takes the first breath after being born, at the
formation of the nervous system and brain, at the first brain activity, or when the fetus is able to survive independently of the uterus.
Among Greek scholars, Hippocrates (c.460-c.370 BC) believed that the embryo was the product of male sperm and a
female factor, but Aristotle(384-322BC) held that only make semen gave rise to an embryo, while female only
provided a place for the embryo to develop. Aristotle believed a fetus in early gestation has the soul of a vegetable,
then of animal, and only later became 'animated' with a human soul by 'ensoulment', For him, ensoulment occurred
40 days after conception for male fetus ex and again 90 days for a female foetuses, the stage at which it was held,
movement is first felt within the womb and pregnancy was certain. This is called 'epigenesis' which is the theory that
the germ is brought into existence,by successive accretions, and not merely developed, in the process of reproduction, in contrast to the theory of preformation which asserts the "supposed existence of all the parts an
organism in rudimentary form in the egg or the seed".
On 27 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI stated;
""From the moment of it's life must be guarded with the greatest care,With regard to the embryo in the mother's womb,
science itself highlights its autonomy, its capacity for interaction with the mother, the coordination of biological
process, the continuity of development, the growing complexity of the organism""
Ensoulment
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Redbeck
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Re: Ensoulment
American Indians have evolved a spread of ideas about the soul that vary among different tribes .
For example, to the Tlingit, Ojibwe and Cheyenne, a soul is the shadow of a man (the Cheyenne believed that seeing one’s shadow was a forewarning of death); the Tarahumara and some Californian tribes interpret it as the breath, whereas the Hopi believe it to be liquid essence.

Indeed, because the dead no longer move, it is believed that their shadow freezes too, i.e. practically speaking it disappears. Therefore a person is seen as alive for however long his or her soul resides in the body, when they stop breathing, they die. These two views seem to be logical and are well explained by primitive ideaology:
‘For the majority of lower societies death comes at the moment when the ‘tenant’ residing in the body and possessing similar features to what we would call the soul departs the body completely, even if physiological life has not completely faded away. Certainly this is one of the prime explanatory reasons behind the hasty burial practices common among a large swathe of primitive peoples’.
Also the Hopi doctrine where the soul is seen as a liquid essence is itself logically explicable: water for the Hopi who live in the arid region of Arizona is the source of life, in an environment where everything depends on rainfall. The Hopi religion is riddled with a reverence of water. Probably dictating why, while the souls of the dead transmute into Kachinas ( the Hopi word kachi means ‘life’ or ‘spirit’), their souls subsequently return to the earth as a downpour of blessed rain navala). In all honesty as it stands today all paths to a decent life on this planet involve water as a constant theme. It is the soul of the matter.
Curiously, the question of the origin of soul in American Indian mythology is virtually never defined or discussed as a concept. Perhaps one of the very few references where the topic is acknowledged reside in the Omaha Creation myth, although even that does not delve deeply into the initial process of creation the soul: ‘In the beginning all things existed in the mind of Wakonda. All creatures including people were spirits. They were flying in interstellar space (in heaven), in search of a place where they could be embodied in matter’.
Nevertheless, the concept of the souls (or spirits) of the dead is well developed throughout the whole North American continent, so in terms of mythology, at the moment when death of a member of tribal society has been established they have effectively already been spiritualised, yet even those relatively cogent myths do not expand on the subject.
It could be that such censorious avoidance of mentioning the soul is linked to certain taboos, as well as with the sheer difficulty in understanding the soul as a phenomenon.

For example, to the Tlingit, Ojibwe and Cheyenne, a soul is the shadow of a man (the Cheyenne believed that seeing one’s shadow was a forewarning of death); the Tarahumara and some Californian tribes interpret it as the breath, whereas the Hopi believe it to be liquid essence.

Indeed, because the dead no longer move, it is believed that their shadow freezes too, i.e. practically speaking it disappears. Therefore a person is seen as alive for however long his or her soul resides in the body, when they stop breathing, they die. These two views seem to be logical and are well explained by primitive ideaology:
‘For the majority of lower societies death comes at the moment when the ‘tenant’ residing in the body and possessing similar features to what we would call the soul departs the body completely, even if physiological life has not completely faded away. Certainly this is one of the prime explanatory reasons behind the hasty burial practices common among a large swathe of primitive peoples’.
Also the Hopi doctrine where the soul is seen as a liquid essence is itself logically explicable: water for the Hopi who live in the arid region of Arizona is the source of life, in an environment where everything depends on rainfall. The Hopi religion is riddled with a reverence of water. Probably dictating why, while the souls of the dead transmute into Kachinas ( the Hopi word kachi means ‘life’ or ‘spirit’), their souls subsequently return to the earth as a downpour of blessed rain navala). In all honesty as it stands today all paths to a decent life on this planet involve water as a constant theme. It is the soul of the matter.
Curiously, the question of the origin of soul in American Indian mythology is virtually never defined or discussed as a concept. Perhaps one of the very few references where the topic is acknowledged reside in the Omaha Creation myth, although even that does not delve deeply into the initial process of creation the soul: ‘In the beginning all things existed in the mind of Wakonda. All creatures including people were spirits. They were flying in interstellar space (in heaven), in search of a place where they could be embodied in matter’.
Nevertheless, the concept of the souls (or spirits) of the dead is well developed throughout the whole North American continent, so in terms of mythology, at the moment when death of a member of tribal society has been established they have effectively already been spiritualised, yet even those relatively cogent myths do not expand on the subject.
It could be that such censorious avoidance of mentioning the soul is linked to certain taboos, as well as with the sheer difficulty in understanding the soul as a phenomenon.

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Redbeck
- Site Admin
- Posts: 2147
- Joined: 19 Dec 2010 15:42
- Location: The Rookery, 3rd Horse Chestnut along, St Johns, Britain. Teacher leave our nuts alone!
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Re: Ensoulment
NINE
FACES OF THE SOUL
Sandra Maitri 2000
SOUL SO U LIVE
SOUL SO U LEARN
SOUL SO U LOVE
FOLLOW THE LINK BENEATH TO TRAVEL THE RED-AND-GOLD BRICK ROAD TO FURTHER SOUL REVELATIONS
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchem ... 202049.htm
FACES OF THE SOUL
Sandra Maitri 2000
SOUL SO U LIVE
SOUL SO U LEARN
SOUL SO U LOVE
FOLLOW THE LINK BENEATH TO TRAVEL THE RED-AND-GOLD BRICK ROAD TO FURTHER SOUL REVELATIONS
http://www.973-eht-namuh-973.com/Alchem ... 202049.htm
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