I was putting notes together for a response to a post in the The Afterlife thread, which also got tied into my notes on an related matter on a Q&A site I mod for, but I felt I got a little bit too off topic, rambling, and TL;DR.

So, I tidied it up a bit and this came out of it:

I personally have always thought of the soul as essence, not your consciousness but rather your "information."

The thumbprint you leave on the universe... Like a fossil, yeah? The body fades with time, but the impression in the rock remains.

In a sense I don't think it actually exists other than as an abstraction. I see it as a way of simplifying complex and poorly understood ideas, like consciousness and ESP; memories and emotions. Allowing us to conflate legacy with consciousness.

To think that we will live on as something more than just footprints in the sand, in somewhere other than the hearts of our loved ones.

Remember that the idea of the soul predates the understanding of our thoughts, emotions, and senses as arising from bodily processes.

Basically, I believe that much of what we have conceived of (over the ages) as "the soul" can be explained not as one independent thing but rather as a range of related (and not so related) phenomena.

The paranormal is not necessarily supernatural.

The "Soul of the Gaps," as it were, is thus (ultimately) the idea of a consciousness that lingers after death.

Who knows, maybe energy and/or information can have consciousness. Maybe such a being would have some relationship with us, embody our essence.

Would we be remiss to call such a thing a "soul?" I think not. However, would it be the same being as us... or an independent entity?

Such a thing would not necessarily be inherent to our being, it could very well be wholly distinct from our body and mind.

If we can accept that consciousness can arise from purely physical means, much as the "soul" did from the physical, metaphysical, or somewhere in between... then it wouldn't be that much of a leap to say that the "soul" is merely a "spiritual" parasite that patterns itself on us but is not us. No different in concept than a sophisticated robot programmed to be like us.

Is an entity that thinks as we do, remembers what we remember, distinct from us?