soul

The soul is one of the weirdest notions that we have come up with. Millions are sure that there are souls, but what they may be, who knows? In the beginning, the soul was known: it was what one could see in cold weather, being breathed in and out. It was the breath, the *pneuma*. It could be felt against the hand. It was the thing that we feared we might lose when we sneezed: would it find its way back into us? That was before we had any notion of AIR, of GASSES. We knew only breezes, winds, gusts, things we could feel and sometimes see in vapor and whirlwinds. When once we knew of air and gasses and atmosphere, the notions of souls, spirits, & ghosts were fixed in our minds, and many of us continued to believe they were all about us.