Can Soul and Spirit be used interchangeably?

Mattie. thank you for your extensive contribution. The more viewpoints, the better. I always look for similarities in the ideas expressed but store the rest in the back of my mind for future reference.

If I read you correctly, then soul and spirit can be used interchangeably. I do not think this is correct. The words soul and spirit were not invented because someone wanted to distinguish his/her belief from the traditional Biblical one.
Words appear in a language because something described by the word has been encountered.

I once heard tell that a movie was shown to an African tribe as part of a 'learning by demonstration'. At one point in the movie a chicken crossed the screen but remained 'invisible' to the members of the tribe because they had never seen a chicken before. I am sure that there was no word for chicken in the tribe's language and that a new word was added once they became aware that there was such a thing as a chicken.

Two days ago I finished reading The Afterlife of Billy Fingers by Annie Kagan. The book is about conversations the author had with her brother after he died in a car crash.

In the chapter "White Light Brothers" she records what her brother said:

"Just as our bodies are the carriers of our souls, our souls are the carriers of our Spirit... I am about to shed my soul."

Are the White Light Brothers what Greenslade calls the Shining Ones?

"...I'm propelled into the Void. I am going beyond creation--before the manifest--outside of time.
[...]
I am becoming the Allness in Nothing...as I am nothingness, I am also everything: I am the Universe, I am light...I am soul, I am a king, a drug addict, a saint, a beggar."

The last paragraph reminds me of this:

"The Lord of the Roses [the Galilean]

I no longer have knowledge: because I have seen wisdom whose fruit is knowledge.
I am no longer one of the trees in the avenue: because I am the avenue.
I am no longer man or woman: because I am man and woman."
From Speaking from the Heart, Ch. 7 'High level recordings', by Joan Grant.

[Miss Hepburn]

Hi Bluegreen, I never saw this thread.
May I say I have completely given up on understanding the explanations of soul and spirit.
I've heard 3 diff ones. The last one just last week said the soul was who we really were and
would always be us with all our interests and passions. It is who Miss H "is".
Ok.
Whatever, I give up.
Christians say a whole other logical explanation.

Body, mind and soul....where's the spirit?

I don't get it and admit it...so I will use them however they come outta my mouth.
And let others figure out what I could possibly be meaning...

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Hi Bluegreen, I never saw this thread.
May I say I have completely given up on understanding the explanations of soul and spirit.
I've heard 3 diff ones. The last one just last week said the soul was who we really were and
would always be us with all our interests and passions. It is who Miss H "is".
Ok.
Whatever, I give up.
Christians say a whole other logical explanation.

Body, mind and soul....where's the spirit?

I don't get it and admit it...so I will use them however they come outta my mouth.
And let others figure out what I could possibly be meaning...

Whether you use soul and spirit interchangeably does not really matter, does it?

When I come across contradictory statements they make me want to discover what's what. The first time that I read that the soul was temporary and the spirit eternal was in one of Joan Grant's books.

All That Is is Spirit. Within All That Is is Universal Soul.

In the Hindu Kathopanishad, Purusha, the Divine Spirit, stands before the original Matter; from their union springs the great Soul of the World, "Mahâ-Âtmâ, Brahm, the Spirit of Life;" these latter appellations are identical with the Universal Soul, or Anima Mundi, and the Astral Light of the Theurgists and Kabalists.

I think this sentence clarifies it better:

"Just as our bodies are the carriers of our souls, our souls are the carriers of our Spirit... I am about to shed my soul."

Originally Posted by Bluegreen

Are the White Light Brothers what Greenslade calls the Shining Ones?

"...I'm propelled into the Void. I am going beyond creation--before the manifest--outside of time.
[...]
I am becoming the Allness in Nothing...as I am nothingness, I am also everything: I am the Universe, I am light...I am soul, I am a king, a drug addict, a saint, a beggar."

The last paragraph reminds me of this:

"The Lord of the Roses [the Galilean]

I no longer have knowledge: because I have seen wisdom whose fruit is knowledge.
I am no longer one of the trees in the avenue: because I am the avenue.
I am no longer man or woman: because I am man and woman."
From Speaking from the Heart, Ch. 7 'High level recordings', by Joan Grant.

Not having read the book it's difficult to say if your 'White Light Brothers' and the 'Shining Ones' are one and the same, but from what you've quoted it's fairly likely though because that has 'their resonance'. Often different terms are used for the same thing, often the same term is used for different things. Language is limited, unfortunately. Sometimes they are referred to as the 'Shining Ones' and sometimes the 'Golden Ones', it depends on the frame of reference of the person using the term. The rest of it I can resonate very well with - and I am listening.

I once shared my beliefs with someone, told her the story of my perceptions and she said it was coming across to her as energy gestalt. I've also had the discussion of beliefs in terms of hierarchies with a devout Christian and a devout Muslim, other than semantics we were talking about the same things. Are the arguments little more than what clothes we think they wear?

Originally Posted by Greenslade

Not having read the book it's difficult to say if your 'White Light Brothers' and the 'Shining Ones' are one and the same, but from what you've quoted it's fairly likely though because that has 'their resonance'. Often different terms are used for the same thing, often the same term is used for different things. Language is limited, unfortunately. Sometimes they are referred to as the 'Shining Ones' and sometimes the 'Golden Ones', it depends on the frame of reference of the person using the term. The rest of it I can resonate very well with - and I am listening.

I once shared my beliefs with someone, told her the story of my perceptions and she said it was coming across to her as energy gestalt. I've also had the discussion of beliefs in terms of hierarchies with a devout Christian and a devout Muslim, other than semantics we were talking about the same things. Are the arguments little more than what clothes we think they wear?

The White Light Brothers :

"These snowy shadowy figures are Supreme High Spirits, who I will call the White Light Brothers. I call them brothers but there are females among them. [...] Most of the White Light Brothers never go to earth, but their absolute light intermingles with and protects your world.

There's an impersonal quality to these Supreme Beings, but that's not a negative--it's a big plus....You see, the Brothers are not souls. They are pure Spirit. "

Joan Grant, Winged Pharao:

"These great ones are beyond form as we know it, yet did I see them in the semblance of man. And in their faces is the wisdom of age and the glory of youth; they are neither man nor woman, yet they have the knowledge, they have the beauty, they have the strength, they have the understanding of these two in one.
Here all is light, which is a living substance."

Originally Posted by Greenslade

Not having read the book it's difficult to say if your 'White Light Brothers' and the 'Shining Ones' are one and the same, but from what you've quoted it's fairly likely though because that has 'their resonance'. Often different terms are used for the same thing, often the same term is used for different things. Language is limited, unfortunately. Sometimes they are referred to as the 'Shining Ones' and sometimes the 'Golden Ones', it depends on the frame of reference of the person using the term. The rest of it I can resonate very well with - and I am listening.
It is the descriptions which I find more important than the words/titles. It was the description (and in this case the chronology) which made me think that the White Light Brothers might be your Shining Ones.

I once shared my beliefs with someone, told her the story of my perceptions and she said it was coming across to her as energy gestalt. I've also had the discussion of beliefs in terms of hierarchies with a devout Christian and a devout Muslim, other than semantics we were talking about the same things. Are the arguments little more than what clothes we think they wear? I think the concepts are the same but their perceptions or explanations differ with each individual.

..........

Originally Posted by Bluegreen

The White Light Brothers :

"These snowy shadowy figures are Supreme High Spirits, who I will call the White Light Brothers. I call them brothers but there are females among them. [...] Most of the White Light Brothers never go to earth, but their absolute light intermingles with and protects your world.

There's an impersonal quality to these Supreme Beings, but that's not a negative--it's a big plus....You see, the Brothers are not souls. They are pure Spirit. "

Joan Grant, Winged Pharao:

"These great ones are beyond form as we know it, yet did I see them in the semblance of man. And in their faces is the wisdom of age and the glory of youth; they are neither man nor woman, yet they have the knowledge, they have the beauty, they have the strength, they have the understanding of these two in one.
Here all is light, which is a living substance."

That's certainly them.

It is the descriptions which I find more important than the words/titles. It was the description (and in this case the chronology) which made me think that the White Light Brothers might be your Shining Ones.
The term "Shining Ones" or at least a very close variation is used across many cultures in their mythology. I think what's happening here is an 'adaptation' to fut in with local cultures, hence the slight variation in names.

I think the concepts are the same but their perceptions or explanations differ with each individual.
You're probably going the same way with Spirit and Soul, it seems they are used interchangeably across cultures and belief systems as well. Sometimes they use Spirit for both describing the Spirit Realms and the Soul. I think what we need to do as you say is look at the description to avoid confusion.

Originally Posted by Greenslade

That's certainly them.

It is the descriptions which I find more important than the words/titles. It was the description (and in this case the chronology) which made me think that the White Light Brothers might be your Shining Ones.
The term "Shining Ones" or at least a very close variation is used across many cultures in their mythology. I think what's happening here is an 'adaptation' to fut in with local cultures, hence the slight variation in names. An unavoidable adaptation unless a person knows the other terms.

..........

God, All That Is, the Absolute etc. is always described as Spirit. Since we are One we are therefore spirits having a soul, at least that's how I see it.

[CrystalSong]

Like Ms Hepburn I must admit to being utterly lost and confused on the subject. Of personal experience I can only say I've discovered what amount to 3 nearly separate beings inside myself, separate yet One. Each having it's unique experience but the experiences also experienced by the other two through their own filter.
They are what I call:
Body (confined to the 3D realm, holds 5 of the senses)
Mind (personality/me, has additional senses and is the operator of the body and can direct the intuitions of the Spirit to the Body))
Spirit (etheric/Eternal aspect which guides quietly and is not confined to the 3D realms/currently resides in this body)

There are a few times in heightened moments of awareness when I have sensed something else, far away, remote, in a much higher realm/vibration/dimension, and it is aware of this trinity experiencing the 3D construct ona planet called Earth and recording/noting particular experiences which it somehow places relevance upon. I call it Over-Soul for lack of a better word and there's this feeling I'm just one of several 'nerve endings' of it currently incarnation in various places.

If I put it in the language of Gamers I would say I am an avatar and it is the Being behind the computer screen at the keyboard and it has several other characters it plays on the same account.

Beyond Over-Self is something else, it is omnipresent, I feel it's energy everywhere, sense it everywhere...I think of it as All That Is/Source/Creator/God/Father/Master of the Infinite.

What Mystery life is!