Facts for Kids

Nefesh, ruach, and neshamah are Hebrew words people use when they talk about the soul in Jewish ideas. Early Jewish writings sometimes saw life and breath as one piece, not a separate, forever-living soul. Over time, many Jews began to think the soul could live on after the body.

Different Jewish groups disagree about the details. The mystical tradition called Kabbalah describes five levels of the soul (including chayah and yechidah) and even ideas about return after death. Rabbis often say the exact nature of the soul is less important than living a good life.

The soul is an idea people have used for a very long time to name the part of a living being that feels, thinks, or is the true self. It is often described as invisible or not made of matter. Many people believe the soul keeps living in some way after the body stops working.

Philosophers have offered different ways to think about how soul and body fit together. One idea says they interact, like two friends talking. Another says they run in step without touching, like two clocks set to the same time. A third says the body can make thoughts, but thoughts don’t change the body.

The English word soul comes from Old English sāwl, recorded about the 8th century in a book called the Vespasian Psalter. In Old English it meant “self,” “life,” or “living being.”

Words that mean the same thing appear in other old Germanic languages. For example, Dutch has ziel and German has Seele. These related words show how long people in northern Europe have used a special word for the inner life of a person.

In Hindu thought the inner self is called Ātman, which means the true self inside every being. Many Hindu teachers say Ātman is the deepest and most real part of us, not the changing feelings or body.

Some Hindu schools, like Vedanta, teach that learning who you really are (called ātma jñāna) can free you from repeated lifetimes. In one important view, Advaita Vedanta, people are encouraged to realize that Ātman is the same as Brahman, the single ultimate reality. Most of the main Hindu schools accept that Ātman exists in every living being.

In Christianity, many believers think the soul lives on after death and goes near God. Christians also look forward to a future time when the body is raised and joined again with the soul. This hope is written about in the last book of the Bible, which pictures a renewed world where people live with God.

Early Christian writers used Greek words like psychē (often translated “soul”) and pneuma (“spirit”) and discussed whether humans are made of two parts (body and soul) or three (body, soul, spirit). Christians have also explained how souls begin in different ways: God may make each soul, souls might pass from parents to children, or some have thought souls exist before birth.

Many other traditions have their own ideas. In Jainism, the jīva is a living, eternal being that changes form until it finds freedom. In Sikh teaching the Ātman is pure and connected to the divine; a soul may be reborn until it finds union with God through devotion and good living.

In many cultures and shamanic beliefs people speak of a body soul that keeps you alive and a free soul that can travel in dreams or trances. Healing can mean bringing a lost or troubled soul back and helping a person feel whole again.

Plato divided the soul into three parts to explain why people do different things. He called the thinking part logos (in the head), the brave or angry part thymos (near the chest), and the wanting part eros (near the stomach). Each part has a job: thinking, protecting, and wanting.

Plato compared these parts to people in a city: leaders (reason), soldiers (spirit), and workers (desires). When reason rules kindly, the whole person and the whole city work well.

Socrates and his student Plato helped shape how people in the West think about the soul. Socrates liked asking questions to help people think about right and wrong. Plato went further and said the soul is the deepest part of a person that makes choices and learns.

Plato thought the soul was not a part of the body and could keep thinking after death. He also taught that souls can be born into new bodies again. Later thinkers, like Aristotle, disagreed about which parts of the soul might be eternal.