If you could splice two hemispheres of two peoples brains together what would happen to their "souls"?

[Helm]

As you can see the brain comes in two halves called hemispheres.

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Supposing it was medically possible to remove a brain and keep it alive outside of the human body in a Frankeinsteins monster fashion. Now say you had one person who suffered traumatic injury to their left hemisphere in a road traffic accident, while someone else has a massive tuma effecting their right hemisphere. What if you were to remove the cancerous hemisphere then replace it with the road traffic accidents victims undamaged hemisphere? The result would be a new individual with 50% of the personality and memories of two different individuals combined together. So the question is what would happen to the two individuals souls (supposing they existed) if their brains were fused together in such a way?

[Bovril]

The soul stands for the relationship of the ultimate with the corporeal bod. This relatioship is called the spirit when predicated on the agency of the divine. Thus the soul in in constant flux, whilst always comuning with the unchanging. A radical change in the corporeal never destory the sirit of the soul that symbolises it. We may as well ask whether the soul is destroyed by love as by physical unity.

Does this answer your question?

[Helm]

The soul stands for the relationship of the ultimate with the corporeal bod. This relatioship is called the spirit when predicated on the agency of the divine. Thus the soul in in constant flux, whilst always comuning with the unchanging. A radical change in the corporeal never destory the sirit of the soul that symbolises it. We may as well ask whether the soul is destroyed by love as by physical unity.

But then we started out with two separate souls, would those two separate souls fuse together into the one body?

[Bovril]

But then we started out with two separate souls, would those two separate souls fuse together into the one body?

First, I should state that your scenario is bilogically unlikely. The two hemispheres are by no means as distinct as they are often portrayed, and the clash of memories, language, etc. would have unimaginable consequences.

None the less, I will try to answer. The soul is a symbolic union (between the alienated individual and the ultimate). This union is in a constant state of flux. A radical reapraisle of the union represents a radical flux, and yes, could bring seperate states of union together, although we should always remember no relationship is a unitary phenomenon, so the bringing together of two 'souls' is not so much a unification as an association. Like I said, love between two individuals represents much the same process. This idea should not be underestimated. In fact, I very much like your question here because it brings out this very important aspect of love and one's relationship with one's neighbour, the horifically imminent 'other', which can only be reconciled through love.

[Yosemite]

But then we started out with two separate souls, would those two separate souls fuse together into the one body?

this is assuming that the soul resides in the brain

what if you cut a whole body in two and weld it to another half?

[Helm]

this is assuming that the soul resides in the brain

what if you cut a whole body in two and weld it to another half?

I was thinking the soul is linked more with your mind than a big hunk of meat. And seeing as your brain creates your mind.

[empr guy]

Intresting topic

would it just create a new 'soul'? Im pretty sure that by fusing two different things, you will always create something new

[Perkele]

Is soul tied to flesh? If so, then is it soul at all?

[Justinian]

This assumes the soul is located in the brain rather than in some unquantifiable location. I don't see why something which is already impossible (a corporeal entity which somehow represents your spirituality) has to be in the brain.

I mean it's logical but they certainly haven't found a part of the brain which controls the soul.

Now, if you discard such notions as 'soul' and use consciousness instead, the answer is that two hemispheres of seperate brains would be completely incompatible with eachother and probably couldn't communicate. You would have a completely insane person if they could.

[Helm]

You would have a completely insane person if they could.

If you could induce amnesia it would probably work out better, otherwise they would have the problem of thinking they're two different people. Perhaps you could just wipe the memory from the transplanted brain half and leave the person who recieved the transplant to control it with their remaining brain. I guess they would just lose half all their memories and have their IQ and other mental abilities radically altered from what it was before. Though in this case the person who provided the donor brain would be effectively dead unless their memories were to somehow resurface. This kind of thing tends to steer me away from believing in souls, it just seems to make things much more complicated then they really need to be.

[Amorphos]

There is the example of conjoined twins, where two bodies utilise the same brain ~ the example I saw was a two women who’s heads had fused together and they shared the same brain. In this case they had distinct personalities.

I would think it could go either way, you could end up with two ‘individuals’ sharing the same body. However I would think that as the soul leaves the body under excess trauma and death, then you would simply be giving a second half to the existing soul.

Another question would be if you replaced parts of the brain one by one with artificial versions, at what point would it be a robot an android or a human. Equally once you done that, maybe the artificial brain could be in parts like a pc, then you could remove one area and replace it with another, or even swap parts of brains between people.

In that case who would be what and where is anyone’s guess, my general feelings are that you either get two or more people in one body/brain, or one would become recessive. I don’t think you would create new souls, however there may be ways to do even that e.g. by replicating whatever it is that joins souls with bodies in the womb. Essentially you gotta pin down what does all that, with genetic engineering you could have all manner of forms, somewhere along the line they become distinct, god knows how, when and why.

[Helm]

Another question would be if you replaced parts of the brain one by one with artificial versions, at what point would it be a robot an android or a human.

I'm guessing it would make no difference if the structure of the artificial brain was identical and you had the same bio-electric energy that forms the mind flowing through the neurons.

[Amorphos]

I'm guessing it would make no difference if the structure of the artificial brain was identical and you had the same bio-electric energy that forms the mind flowing through the neurons.

Yes but if you could change parts like you can say a GFX card in a pc, then which bit would be you or another person. My guess is that if you done anything dramatic like that, it wouldn’t be compatible with the soul which would leave, and you would be left with a robot that acted like a human in puppet fashion.

...a sleepwalker perhaps.

[Emperor Charlemagne XII]

fisrt of all it depends what religion you are

[Monarchist]

I think this topic is very silly indeed. The soul isn't apparently tied to the brain, though the brain is the vessel through which the soul communicates with the "outside world". Even if what you are proposing didn't lead to total brain damage, the separation of a brain into two halves would have already killed both individuals. You simply can't remove two halves of a brain and expect anything to remain in the dead grey matter. There is nothing to it once the electricity has ceased to pulse. I do believe that souls are tied more intimately to the body as a whole, and not to the brain centrally.

[Helm]

Even if what you are proposing didn't lead to total brain damage, the separation of a brain into two halves would have already killed both individuals. You simply can't remove two halves of a brain and expect anything to remain in the dead grey matter.

Not something we can do now but in a few thousand years there could be a way of doing it. It's hypothetical anyway.

There is nothing to it once the electricity has ceased to pulse. I do believe that souls are tied more intimately to the body as a whole, and not to the brain centrally.

Providing there's no severe physical damage they could just be resuscitated conventionally. And supposing you could remove someones brain entirely and transplant it into a new body, would they be a different person with the same soul?

[Arch-hereticK]

Of course the "soul" is attatched to the brain to a greater than the rest of the body, we know this from the multiple occurences of head injury causing radical shifts in personality, cognative ability and most especially a total lack of self awareness but still capable of movement and being technically alive but lacking all the attributes of a "soul."

But in reality the concept of a soul (or anything else magical) is just plain silly. Idle speculation on magical concepts is only entertaining due to the responses of its proponents.

[Augment]

I think this topic is very silly indeed. The soul isn't apparently tied to the brain, though the brain is the vessel through which the soul communicates with the "outside world". Even if what you are proposing didn't lead to total brain damage, the separation of a brain into two halves would have already killed both individuals. You simply can't remove two halves of a brain and expect anything to remain in the dead grey matter. There is nothing to it once the electricity has ceased to pulse. I do believe that souls are tied more intimately to the body as a whole, and not to the brain centrally.

Silly? because it tries to prove/disprove the concept that Christians have a soul?
You can't prove anything, monarchist.... its all dumb speculation.
Religious people are all bound by Faith which is actually a euphemism for ignorance.

"Ignorance is bliss"

[removeduser_487563287433]

Helm.

Not everything has to be a thread.

[Helm]

One interesting thing you can do is remove one hemisphere of someones brain from birth and the remaining hemisphere will just adapt to take over all the tasks the other hemisphere would otherwise have had it still been there.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4824