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There has yet to be a valid definition of 'soul'. Just one of the failing definitions of anything 'supernatural' which isn't measurable or in any way tangible. In general the assumption is that the 'soul' is a sort of ghostlike thing which drives the living physical body and continues to walk, float, chat, and for the most part retains certain traits or characters of the any now deceased individual.
It is, at least in the reports of confirming spiritualists, connected to the body by a silver cord which when broken allows the 'soul' to be free and so move into other planes, dimensions or other states of existence until the time is ripe for the 'soul' to be returned to Earth by being reborn in a fitting and suitable 'environment' the quality of which is dependent upon another thing called karma which reflects the moral or ethical behaviour of past lives. The idea being that every new earthly life offers opportunities to compensate for past sins or failures.
Apparently this new environment reflects the harvest gained from the seeds sown in previous lives. We may assume, and here I'm saying this very carefully, that those children we see lying in their mothers' arms starving and with bones like matchsticks, or those people we see on TV living as pygmies in the jungles of Borneo, or those people living in ghettos - and all the other unmentionables we read about every day, deserve what they are getting.
Well, I for one don't think it can be like that. Lots of people no longer think that it can be so. In India, where this sort of thought train existed for centuries great efforts are being made to get rid of the Caste system a direct result of such beliefs.
Not for the first time I suggest the word 'karma' be replaced by the word 'evolution', the word 'spirit' by 'information' and the word 'soul' by 'consciousness'.
This would give us the chance to appreciate our mind/body existence and would cause evolution to be a moral and ethical challenge.
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