Welcome to Gaia! ::

I would personally like to know if you can become immortal?

Only the soul, but that is immortal anyway. I would say that a true Philosopher's Stone could do that, but realistically you could only survive as long as the planet or the required materials, which is not, strictly speaking, eternal.

I strongly believe that anything that is created can also be destroyed.

This goes for souls, gods, humans, animals, in-animate objects, ect.


The only thing that is "immortal" to me, is pure energy. So your spirit(the energy) is "immortal", but your soul(the self) is not.



Of course this also depends on your definition of immortal. Immortal means you -cannot- cease to exist. Everlasting, in my definition, means you live forever and your body never degrades, however if somebody pulled the trigger of a shotgun pointed at your head...well...you're dead.

I'm sure this post wasn't meant to sound as...ignorant (best word I can use for this) as it does, but I'd just like to clarify something. The soul is synonymous with the spirit. They are just different words used to describe the same thing: The basic animating force of life, the energy and consciousness of a being. It is energy, all of it is. The self, the mind, the conscious and unconscious is all energy, and therefor is all immortal if we are to go by that definition. The definition I gave is a simple re-wording of this definition:


If how you explained it was your personal outlook then please state so people aren't confused when the majority consensus (documented definitions, all major and minor religions) document the soul and spirit as the same thing.

Then by the definition you've given, according to the alchemists, the soul is a part of the spirit, thus equating it to the same thing. I've studied Alchemy, along with other paths, including Hermetics, so I know what you're trying to say, but it's all a round about way of deterring it to be all inclusive.

I understand that, but what I'm trying to say is by doing that, you've defeated your own argument.

All I'm saying is that in the alchemical view there is a body, soul, *and* spirit. And they are distinctly separate things. I, for the most part, adhere to this view. I think that it requires a good deal of study into alchemy to really understand what I mean by separation of soul and spirit though.

As I said, when speaking in casual conversation, spirit and soul are pretty much interchangeable. The distinction is important when we're actually discussing those concepts within an alchemical context.

@Delequen: Saying that the Soul is part of the Spirit is the same as saying that the Body is part of the Spirit or the Body is part of the Soul. The mind and the soul are separate in this view, in case there is any confusion with that.


None of this is terribly pertinent to the topic of immortality though. I'll just say that I believe that the incorporeal aspect of ourselves is immortal for all intents and purposes, as energy cannot be created or destroyed. Even when we vacate the physical body, our "spiritual" body, or however we get around when we're dead, could still be considered the Body in the above trinity. I'm not going to comment on concepts like immortality or where we go after we die, as I don't really know what I believe when it comes to these subjects. I just believe that physical death is not the end.