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Capstone Completion

Aaaaaand we're done! Wooooo! 🎉

This has been a long journey. I've worked on this project for a good part of a year. And man, what a year it was. This year has had its ups and downs, but hey. I made it. The whole lot of us have made it and we should be proud. I know I am.

Hopefully, I won't keep you here for long with my rambling. So I'll keep this as short as can be when summarizing my process.

It all started with three ideas, the Soul being one of them. Ultimately, through extensive research, I had chosen to create a concept utilizing the Soul.

The beginning process was the most difficult part. I struggled in coming up with a concept that could link to the subject, unsure how I would express such a concept that was so broad. In the end, I had decided to express it via a game.

The first ever prototype was through Twine. A simple narrative with choices. I had wanted to get a sense of how I'd be writing the narrative with each choice. As well as figure out which objects would be used to convey each instance of the Soul.

During this time, I was pondering how I would express this concept in a game setting without the use of Twine, as I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. While pondering this, I had been watching a lets play of Corpse Party and other RPG-like maker games similar to it. Thus sparked an idea of creating a game in a similar style.

At first I wanted to use RPGmaker to create the game. Unfortunately, it would not run on my computer. So I had moved onto using Godot 4. Either way, using this was a learning curve as I'm not exactly a coding expert. Nor have I ever fully coded a game like this. So...off I went searching the internet for YouTube tutorials.

YouTube tutorial after YouTube tutorial, sometimes interrupted by drawing out the sprites for the game as well as writing out the dialogue and searching through FreeSound.com to find sounds, and voila! Soul Seeker was born.

With the game finished, set up was needed. The set up was pretty simple actually. A table for the computer to rest on, a chair for the person to sit, a TV for the game to be projected onto it so people that weren't playing the game didn't have to look over the person's (who was playing) shoulder, a banner to lure people in and tell them what to do, and some extra stuff like headphones, a computer fan, and a mouse.

Of course, there were problems that occurred here and there. Problems that still persist even now. But The game was still created nonetheless! (If you'd like to see the whole pain of my process then look through my Tumblr *wink wink*).

But yeah, that's the basic run down of my project. It was a wild ride, stressful at times too, but fun in the end. I'm happy that people seemed to like it :)

I'm not sure what the future brings. Or if the future will have this game be updated even more or used in another concept. But that's okay. I'm happy with what I've accomplished now, even if the process was and still could be a little rocky.

Until next time! Bye bye! ✌️

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I've given up on being able to upload on specific weeks :')

Hello again. It seems as if my bad luck with technology strikes again! But let's not dwell on the negatives right now. I'll save that for after this post.

Starting with positives, I am done with the game! Wooooo! 🎉

I have inputed all the dialogue and sounds that I have needed. I had also managed to have it somewhat set up. Unfortunately for showing off the game, I still can't screenshare sound on macbook. But I plan on showing the "full" game through a recording via my phone as seen below:

As you can see, the sounds are there! Every sound I took was from Freesounds.com. The dialogue is also there but you have seen the dialogue in action before so I will not show it again, at least for this video. I also share with you what the set up is going to roughly look like as well as what the banner looks like. The only thing missing from the set up is a computer fan and a mouse pad as well as wipes. I did add wipes and a mouse pad from my last visit (which I had forgotten to take a picture of :') ) But it's all almost done!

Now on to the sad part. I wanted to export my game as a stand alone exe and dmg for windows and macbook. It exports "everything" okay. The game runs when you open the exe and dmg. However, for some reason it only seems to export the first room and not the others. So it stops the player from being able to enter those separate rooms via the doors.

I am not sure why or if I will be able to fix this by the time the full exhibit will be in action. But I shall try.

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Week 6, 7, and 8: March 5th, 12th, 19th/26th

Sooooo....only now did I realize that Tumblr had decided not to post my updates for week 6 and 7. And now I don't have those updates/posts written down anymore. So that is super fun! The technological issues just keep on coming, don't they. Anyways, for a basic recap for weeks 6 and 7, I had worked on audio and sprites. I didn't have much on it before, but for this week and over spring break I had not only had another technical difficulty with having to remake the map but I had made some great progress!

Above are the sprites I've made to be incorporated in the game. There may be touch ups here and there. But these are the sprites. I have for the time being.

These are the assets put together, as well as the collision. I haven't been able to add the dialogue options yet, save for the two small dialogues and choices I have for at least two items. Though those are just place holders. Speaking of place holders, unfortunately screen recording doesn't also record sound. But I do have at least two place holder audio samples for background noise. The two audio samples are listed below:

For next week, I plan on working on the dialogue options for each intractable item as well as fixing up the sprites that I find a bit funky.

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Week 5 Capstone 2: Feb 26th 2025

Instead of working on the game itself, I had focused more on what the layout of each room could be. As well as figure out which items I should add and where they could go. Below are some rough sketches of what the layouts could be.

While the sketches are pretty rough, it helps me visualize what I'd like each place to be. As well as realize that I need to add the basement as a location to look around in and possibly focus on if I'd like to add anything more to the outside.

I had also thought about the layout of how I'd like to present my piece. Below is a rough list of what I need and how I'd like my project to be viewed.

Computer/laptop: anything I can get my hands on that won't be too expensive but will still work well enough to run the game

Table: 4ft length, 2ft width, around 2.5 height, will be where the computer/laptop rests

Chair: of course for a person to sit down

Panasonic TV: 50 width, 31 height, perfect size for viewing the screenshare of the game for people to still view the project if it is being occupied by a person

Headphones (maybe): unsure if my game will have sound since I don't know if it'd be weird to only have the person playing hearing the sound while the others that watch cannot (If there will be headphones, I will leave wipes in case people want to clean it before use)

Extension cord: To plug into the outlet that's in the corner and to power/keep the battery up on the computer

The person playing will be at least seated 5ft away from the TV while the desk and game sit in between 4 ft. Other people may gather around the 6ft or however far they'd like to be from the screen or table (I don't really mind so long as they're not disrupting anyone lol)

For next week, I will be sketching out more of the layouts and create more tiles to make the basement.

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Week 4 Capstone 2: Feb 19th 2025

Big update (at least for me) with my project! I had managed to bypass the lag issues with incorporating my own textures. I had also fixed the downwards walking animation for the character, they can now move their arms! Yippee! I had also added another room as well as touched up not only the livingroom/kitchen and outside. Also for some more minor changes, I had increased the size of the player as to not make them so small against the surrounding environment. I had also put in mini-players as placeholders for the two dialogues I had before. There will be a change that will happen to the game, however. I will not be adding mini-games anymore. Instead, the game will now act as a little "museum" of sorts in regards of different aspects of what a soul could mean for people. Now the player will walk around and interact with objects and read about how it could be interpreted as a piece of a soul. Of course, choices will still be added, but all they will do is add more fluff. As for my next steps, I plan on sketching out the floor plan as well as where each of the most important objects will be laid out. Afterwards, I will make each of those objects sprites and incorporate them into the game before I work on the dialogue. Here's to hoping nothing else breaks!

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Week 3 Capstone 2: Feb 12th 2025

This week's task was to create some sprites and sketch out room layouts to replace the ones I've used for the time being. While the amount of sprites aren't exactly as many as I wished I made, but I believe I have gotten a bit further in my progress for the actual incorporation of at least one sprite.

The video above shows that I had replaced the player sprite with one of my own. While I'm still learning how to implement simple animation with this style, I believe I've done a decent job. However, I have realized that I had forgotten to animate the arms for when the player walks downwards. I plan to fix that for next week.

The images above are the sprite sheets and layouts that I have made and plan to implement into the game in some way. However, unlike how easy it was to implement my player sprite, the other sprites seem to have issues. Everytime I try to incorporate one of the drawings into the tileset for the tilemap, it would make the program either completely freeze or get stuck loading for a while. Either way, it would render the program next to impossible to work with. I believe the problem arrives from the pixel size of each png. I plan on messing around with the sizes and see if it'll allow me to add it. As for an extra bit of context, the tile sets I've used as reference to create my own sprites can be downloaded under one of the links to the Godot 4 tutorial video I've linked in a previous post. For next week, I plan on trying to smooth out some of the issues I've been having as well as touch up on the downwards walk animation for the player. I also may need to alter my game plan, as figuring out how to incorporate different mini-games may be too much to accomplish before the deadline. But that shall be more focused on once I solve the issues regarding the tilesets and fix the animations.

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Week 2 Capstone 2: Feb 5th 2025

My previous mishap of integrating the concept of allowing the player to travel from different maps was less than pleasing on my end. However, I have some good news in regards to that mishap.

Not only have I played around some more with the dialogue, I had finally figured out how to make the player teleport to another map as well as be positioned in front of the door after the player interacts with the door! I won't lie, I not only did a little victory dance in game but in real life as well.

I also learned from my previous mistake and made sure to create a backup, as I do not want to lose everything and start over from scratch completely. Sadly this good news also comes with a little bit of bad news. While I had managed to make the transition between worlds work, I could not figure out how to incorporate it with the dialogue choices. I do plan on trying to figure that out as that is an important feature, but I will have to put it on the back burner for now as I do want to focus on what I have planned for next week. Which is to incorporate my own sprites and tile sets.

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Week 1 Capstone 2: Jan 29th 2025

It is only the first week of continuing this project once more and things are already not working out as intended. Sadly, this isn't the first time things haven't worked out but it still sucks. Of course, it's technology issues but what are ya gonna do? Small rant aside, I had finally made a small prototype in Godot. As I sadly could not use RPG maker as it was not compatible with my computer. However, Godot 4 has been alright in what I want to accomplish for this project. To recap, my project focuses on the Soul. How I want to approach the subject is to make a short rpg maker style game about a person who had transferred their mind into a robot. Now they search for the other half of their soul through various objects that they used to feel connected to. In the game, I want the player to interact with different objects in the house. Through that interaction, they're given a choice to connect with the object more or not, thus taking them to a (hopefully) easy mini-game to fully connect to their missing soul. In order for me to do this, I had looked through a lot of tutorial videos. It honestly took longer than it should have to find good videos. But I had finally found some decent videos on Youtube. The tutorial I had "first" found that somewhat helped out is called "How to Make an ACTION RPG in Godot 2022 (Step by Step)" by DevWorm. Another tutorial that truly helped (and one I followed to recreate my prototype) is by the same person (DevWorm) is called "How to Create an RPG in Godot 4". Unfortunately, both of these are playlists so I can't exactly link the videos. However, one video I can link is this one:

All of these videos really helped me to be able to make this small prototype. Of course, I still have a long way to go with implementing what I want. As well as touching up what I already have, and hopefully avoid losing my progress again.

I also have made a quick rough sketch of what I might want the layout to look like. Or at least messing around with the artstyle to make it more unique instead of sticking to pixel art. But again, it is a rough sketch. It's not my biggest concern at the moment as I'm focused more on fixing and learning how to code what I want to make the game a reality.

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Week 15 December 11th 2024: Research and Final Semester Post

Throughout this semester, I have been diving deep into researching the Soul. As well as researching different aspects of it and figuring out how I'd like to represent everything I've learned. I decided that I would represent it through an RPG Maker style game, as I always wanted to create a game like that after being inspired by other RPG Maker games. Much like Corpse Party and Misao, as well as Hanged Man and anything from that series.

So I have been working on this project. I've researched a lot of Youtube tutorials in order to figure out how to work RPG maker and Gimp.

Gimp was fun to use despite not being entirely used to creating pixel art. But it was fun and pretty easy to use, so I might see myself using it for this project. Or I may use another recommended app called Aseprite. I believe I'll have a final answer after winter break.

As for RPG Maker, it did not work on my computer. So sadly I may have to use something else. Maybe Godot. Or I might need to get another computer that supports RPG Maker. Once again, I will see after winter break.

Above is my plan that I may go through. Until then, I'm gonna be fucking around and finding out. Wish me luck!

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Week 11 November 20th 2024: Design Values and Plan

Design Values

Exploration of Identity and the Soul

Encourage participants to reflect on what makes them them.

Prompt questions about the soul’s nature: Is it tied to emotions, memories, or something else entirely?

Emotional Resonance

Evoke a sense of wonder, empathy, and introspection.

Create moments of connection where viewers recognize their own humanity (or lack thereof) in the story.

Choice and Consequence

Highlight how personal decisions shape one's path and identity.

Show that choices don’t always lead to neat conclusions but offer insight into who we are.

Playful Engagement

Offer a sense of discovery through interaction, where each decision unravels a layer of the narrative or self-awareness.

Make interactions intuitive but meaningful, encouraging participants to experiment.

Ambiguity and Interpretation

Leave room for multiple interpretations of the soul and identity.

Avoid didactic explanations; instead, inspire questions and conversations.

Project Goals

Foster Self-Reflection

Participants should walk away questioning their own beliefs about identity, memory, and what makes us human.

Create a Cohesive Experience

Ensure that the visuals, text, and mechanics work seamlessly to reinforce the themes of the project.

Inspire Curiosity

Encourage viewers to explore related ideas in philosophy, technology, and spirituality.

Craft a Narrative

The story should be interesting enough to capture the viewer’s attention, whether it is a straightforward/short story or not. 

Engage a Diverse Audience

Present a multitude of options in regards to what a soul could be, as well as different branches of that idea of a soul.

Measure of Success

Engagement: Are participants eager to explore multiple endings? Do they interact with the content thoughtfully?

Emotional Impact: Are viewers feeling something during the experience? Do they express curiosity, sadness, hope, or awe?

Conversations: Does the project spark some kind of discussion about identity, technology, and the soul?

Reflection: Do participants leave with lingering thoughts or questions about themselves?

Project Proposal

Form: It shall be a game. 

Content: The game will contain choices. It will also focus more on the narrative instead of intense gameplay elements, basically an interactive story. It will also have a visual component, that being art showing the characters and environment (most likely with a pixelated style).

Concept: The Soul, different iterations and concepts of it, will be the main focus of the narrative. Each choice will lead you closer to an ending of one of the concepts of the Soul, allowing you to choose what you interpret a Soul could be.

Types of Souls

Sun

Blue flame

Ghost/Spirit/Poltergeist

Music

Movies

Food

Neuroscience/Consciousness/Scientific

Game Plan The future plan for this prototype is to add the rest of the branched paths, as shown in the list before, as well as fix up the writing from the prototype. Once that is complete, I shall make fake screenshots or a complete drawing of one of the ending screens the viewer would receive, as well as some little sketches. 

The sketches will be done digitally and the fake screenshots will be possibly made in RPG Maker.

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Week 10 November 13th 2024: Soul Prototype Review 2

I'm delving into deciding how this game's choices will play out and have come to the conclusion that simple is better, at least for the beginning. This prototype is merely focusing on very simplified choices that lead to multiple endings. If you'd like to look through it, then the link is down below. The password is Soul-Prototype.

The prototype implements elements of what I've learned about the soul in the most in your face form. Whether it will be less in your face or not will depend as the prototypes keep on changing. The future prototypes may also include certain elements of a movie I had recently watched called Transcendence.

This was a great movie to watch. Not only because it was just a good movie, but because it gave me more insight on where I can take this idea. As the game I'd like to make almost touches up on the plot of this movie.

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Week 9 November 6th 2024: Soul Prototype Review

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Week 8 October 30th 2024: Soul Prototype 2

It’s been a three months

You tend to overlook the things you had before

Things that could be so simple

Things that were just there

There ever since you were a kid

Feelings

Sensations

All overlooked until it was gone

Or replaced with a facade

Or even replaced by a feeling of disconnection

Disconnection to what used to bring ambition

Disconnection to passions that made something within jitter like a kid going to the most magical place on Earth

I’m not stupid

I know what I was signing up for

I know our technology is still ever evolving

Attempting to replicate things that can be lost

I knew I would lose certain qualities

I knew there would be risks

Things that could feel weird or even wrong

But it’s better than being dead, right?

Sensations and feelings do not matter

I’m better now

I can’t get hungry

I can’t get thirsty

I can’t get tired

I can’t get hurt easily

I can’t get sick

I can’t age

Death cannot touch me

I’m safe now

I don’t need such fickle things

I don’t need to feel the wind through my hair, my face

I don’t need the savory taste of my mom’s cooking

I don’t need the feeling of grass peaking through my toes or fingers

I don’t need the feeling of warmth in my chest when I see something endearing

I don’t need to catch my breath when I see something breathtaking

I don’t need the feeling of a strong connection to concepts I used to find meaning in

I don’t need the satisfaction of completing something that holds no meaning now

I don’t need it

Even if I did, I couldn’t grasp it now

The flower I once cared for, wilting despite being so meticulous giving it the sustenance it needs

The book I was writing, now left unfinished as I cannot grasp the flow or personal passion I once had

My art piece I was creating for my mother, unfinished for the same reason

Vivid creations I once had in my head, destined to become something now form rhythmically, needing to be understood through data compositions for me to grasp even a fraction of my imagination

It doesn’t matter though

I do not need it

I just need to continue on

Do my tasks assigned

Continue functioning

And yet…

Why is it so difficult to break such cycles of thinking?

I do not need such things anymore

So why must I continue to ponder?

I’ve done run my diagnostics  

Run through these thoughts and concluded that it is wasteful to have this cloud my headspace

Why is it so difficult?

Why can I not move on?

Why do I feel lost?

Why do I feel empty?

…..

I knew the risks

I knew them wholeheartedly

I know I can’t let this overshadow the decisions I have made

But I can’t get rid of this feeling

I need to figure out my error

I need to fix it

I need to fill the empty hole residing in me

I need…

I need……

I need to find me

Example style:

(Artist's note: I'm beginning to lean more into the game idea, as I always wanted to make an RPG game. I'll be learning Gamemaker to possibly create the game.)

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Week 7 October 23rd 2024: Soul Prototype

The year is 2560

Technology and neuroscience has been said to have advanced far greater than anyone has expected. While some questions are still unanswered, the brain still being far too complex to understand completely, we have found a way through sheer will to transfer our being into a new mechanical body. Digitizing our souls, as some would say, to evade death itself. 

D. O. S

Digitize Our Soul, the name of a program allowing individuals to sign up to avoid a complete death in their near future. Alas, it comes with a multitude of costs. 

Firstly, are you willing to be put to constant work? For the new body you are in is still owned by the company. You cannot say no to whatever they ask of you. Are you willing to be in their beck and call? 

Secondly, subjects have said to be experience a sense of loss. Memories, feelings, emptiness. Subjects seem like they’re missing something. The company doesn’t know what to make of it, having stated that the D. O. S program is fool proof. Whether it’s a lie, you may not know. But are you still willing to (save) digitize your soul? Does death scare you so much, that you’ll being another statistic in what other subjects experience? 

You follow —- 

—- was terrified of death. Did not want to face it. So —- had decided that they would sign up for D. O. S, the fear having been enough to convince them to overlook the issues that may arise. 

Alas, it seemed like —- would eat those words. Now lost and confused trying to navigate a world in their new body, completing jobs that could not say no to, they feel empty. As if something is missing from within. Constantly seeing a wisp like frame blip across their digital vision, gone like the wind just as fast as it showed up. 

—- wants it. They want to feel whole again. They need it. They need to feel complete.

(Artist’s note: I haven’t been able to focus too much on making a prototype. Not even completely sure if I’ll make this a comic or a game. However, I’d like to expand on this concept, which is somewhat inspired by the concept of what Johnny Silverhand is in Cyberpunk. Not so much the Government aspect, however. But the aspect of the main character chasing after their organic soul, to feel complete again. As, me personally, I believe that the concept of putting a consciousness in a digital interface isn’t exactly possible. Can AI/technology copy a person? Yes. It can copy how they act, how they think, even feel and whatnot. But for it to actually be them? No. I don’t think something complex and still not understood can be taken out of an also complex body into a digital space. Maybe someday we’ll somehow do it. But I kind of doubt it.)

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Week 5 Oct 9th 2024: Prototype Ideas

I was only able to create two of the prototypes out of the three up here as I didn't really know how to express the second idea in a physical prototype without it possibly being messy. But before I go into that idea, I'll be going in order.

The first idea I had was to create posters/ads to express the different ideas of the Soul concept. The first poster/ad mentions the interesting concept that I had seen during my research, which is how neuroscience is taking over the concept of the Soul. I've touched up on this topic before in another post of mine so I won't go over it again. But what I'm basically representing in the three posters/ads are an expanded view of different concepts. First, being the possibility of neuroscience taking over the concept of the Soul entirely. The second, taking a turn of inclusivity to have souls be created as one. The last, being more of an ad on the concept of people wanting to keep their body in stasis in order for technology to be advanced enough to keep them alive, but instead it's the focus on the transfer of one's soul into that technology.

This next idea was the one I could not figure out how to prototype. The basis of the idea is to have a table full of objects of all kinds of media to create with, such as: paper, clay, cardboard, etc etc. They would all be laid out on a table around a pedestal of sorts for where the final art piece would go. The art piece would be the representation of the Soul in regards to what a group of people would think. As there is no correct answer of what a Soul is, I would like to see if everyone will add their own ideas and create something coherent or if the final product would be an amalgamation of everything to the point it's almost unrecognizable.

The last prototype I made is basically a parody of The Steal Like An Artist Journal from Austin Kleon. I remember having some fun with some of the prompts in the book itself and began wondering if I could create something similar but in regards of the Soul. And what I had created were about 16 pages of prompts, all Soul related. Below are the pages:

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Week 4 Oct 2nd 2024: POV Soul

I recently had a pretty deep conversation with my mom about the nature of ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, and souls. The debate came up about whether these entities are all essentially the same thing or if they’re distinct from one another. My mom, with a mix of excitement and confusion, admitted she never fully understood the difference and wondered if there even *was* one. We both started thinking about the technical differences that people often make between these concepts, but the more we talked, the less sure we were about whether those distinctions really matter. 

From my perspective, I think there’s a strong case to be made that all of these things — ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, and souls — are variations of the same underlying essence. The soul, in many spiritual and cultural traditions, is the non-physical, immortal part of a person. If we think about that in the context of these supernatural beings, it’s possible that ghosts, spirits, and even poltergeists are simply *different manifestations* of a human soul, or any living soul for that matter. It seems reasonable to think that, if every living being has a soul, that soul might transform or behave differently depending on its circumstances after death. 

Take ghosts, for example. In our discussion, my mom and I talked about the possibility that a ghost might just be a lost or wandering soul — one that hasn’t quite crossed over, so to speak. Maybe it’s stuck in our physical plane for some reason, whether due to unfinished business or emotional attachment. Then there’s the poltergeist, which could be thought of as a more chaotic or even corrupted version of a soul. Instead of being a passive observer or a quiet presence, a poltergeist might be a soul that has become disturbed or malevolent, causing mischief and creating disturbances in the physical world.

Then we got into the whole thing about spirits and how people often use the term interchangeably with ghosts. It’s interesting because, from our conversation, it seemed like “ghost” and “spirit” are practically the same thing in the way most people use them. Maybe the difference is in how they interact with the living — ghosts are often associated with hauntings, while spirits might be more neutral or even protective. But even with that distinction, it still feels like they’re all just different expressions of a soul’s existence beyond death. After all, if we’re comfortable saying that ghosts come from souls, why shouldn’t the same be true for spirits?

The more I think about it, the more it feels like these technical differences between ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, and souls are just that — technicalities. When we get down to it, all of these beings could theoretically be tied to the same source: the soul. Whether a soul becomes a ghost, a spirit, or even a poltergeist might just depend on its circumstances after death. My mom and I both feel that they are essentially the same thing, just experienced in different ways. Maybe the way these entities manifest reflects the state of the soul after death, whether peaceful, lost, or chaotic.

Of course, this is all based on personal opinion and interpretation. We didn’t come to a final conclusion, and I’d love to explore what other people think about this topic when I have more time. But for now, my mom and I are content with the idea that ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, and souls are probably more alike than they are different — just different forms of the same essence.

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Week 4 Oct 2nd 2024: POV Soul

Scientific reasoning for a soul(?): The pursuit of understanding the soul through science, particularly neuroscience, challenges both traditional spiritual beliefs and the limits of scientific inquiry. Traditionally, the soul is seen as an immaterial, spiritual essence — something beyond the reach of empirical investigation. However, neuroscience attempts to redefine or even replace this concept by focusing on how consciousness, personality, and identity emerge from the brain.

One perspective argues that neuroscience may be rediscovering the soul in a new form. Rather than being a mystical, ethereal entity, the soul could be understood as the "neurocognitive essence" of an individual, the unique pattern of neurons and synapses in the brain. This viewpoint, shared by some in the field of neuroscience, suggests that what we call the soul might simply be the sum of brain activity, shaped by our memories and experiences. Marcelo Gleiser, in an NPR piece, posits that the soul could be reinterpreted as a unique "brain signature," essentially a map of the connections that make each person who they are​.

However, others argue that neuroscience may be erasing the soul. As neuroscience digs deeper into the workings of the brain, some scientists claim that consciousness and personality can be fully explained by biological processes. In the article “Has Neuroscience Destroyed the Soul?” it’s suggested that many religious explanations of the soul have been undermined, with neuroscience presenting a purely materialist account of human consciousness. The reduction of human experience to neural activity challenges the notion of a soul that exists beyond the physical body​.

Finally, in the Independent's article "Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died", it is argued that this trend toward reducing the soul to mere brain function has the potential to strip away a vital part of human existence. This materialist view — that the soul, if it ever existed, is nothing more than information stored in our brains — reflects a broader scientific movement that has historically displaced many religious explanations​.

In summary, neuroscience may be contributing to a redefinition of the soul, one rooted in the material workings of the brain. However, this redefinition raises philosophical questions about whether the soul is being reduced to just another biological process — and whether something deeper is being lost in the process. This debate continues to fuel discussions about the limitations of science in understanding the full scope of human existence.

Links used: