[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

I believe consciousness is individual, unique, and separate from the body or the brain. Whether you call this consciousness the Ego, the Mind, or the Soul is irrelevant, that is just terminology, the concept remains the same regardless of its particular name.

This mind/soul I believe also exists for ever, as it is pure energy, the E in E=mc2. If energy is eternal according the Law of Conservation of Energy, then the soul/mind made up of energy is eternal. Actually, everything is eternal, your body exists for ever, not necessarily as it does now, but the elements of your body have always existed since the big bang, and always will exist after the fact. So whether you believe your consciousness lies strictly in the physical brain, or your believe in a soul that is energy, it exists forever. Einstein ain't no joke and physics as much a philosophy as a science, especially when you get into the multi-flavored universe of string theory...

So to go further..
There are three major schools of though on this subject of the soul and consciousness.

The first (1) states that the soul is part of the Divine God, it is not individual, it has no consciousness in and of itself, it simply part of a whole. This is the essence of Hindu mysticism, Jewish mysticism, Zorastorianism, and a variety of cultures. Essentially, there is no individual consciousness according to this philosophy, there is no you at all! Everything is simply ONENESS.

It evolves in the the (2) premise, the the soul is the life force of the body, and it exists forever separate from the body. It is separate from the oneness, a piece of the oneness but distinct, individual, unique. This is soul lives forever but not in this state of consciousness. This is Hindu/Buddhist concept of reincarnation. The soul exists forever, and creates your conscious mind, but this particular conscious state is only temporary to this body, and will disappear. In your next incarnation, as jellyfish or the President of Botswana, you will not retain the consciousness of your previous existence, you will have an entirely new consciousness, it will be a product of your soul, but not the same version as before. Essentially this argues that consciousness is also a part of the body, separate from the mind, but designates a kind of indivual source, where as the first theory says there is no individual consciousness at all, just a universal collective experience.

The final is more akin to the western Judeo-Christian, Greco-Roman version of the world. The soul is individual, it is eternal, it is also the the life force, and it is the seat of consciousness. The soul is the mind. It exists.

Now in my opinion, if you combine this concept with Toltec/Meso-american philosophies regarding consciousness in an immaterial universe, the conscious mind dwells in the soul which actually converts the Einsteinian universe of pure energy into matter, into substance, into the tangible world. But, just as physics and mechanics explain, is only as technicality, the universe does not actually physically exist the way which your conscious mind and senses perceive.

In my opinion, the soul, the origin of the individual, self-reflective and conscious mind, is both the source of thought, as well as the mechanism for Einstein's universe of energy to be converted into a universe of physical objects and tangible, substantial reality. The conscious self exists after this particular "incarnation" is it is also pure energy. This belief basically combines all three, the soul is the life-force, the soul is in oneness yet has distinction, however I do attribute a distinct permanence to you conscious self and identity. You are always you, so I therefore reject the current Hindu/Buddhist version of reincarnation. I accept a more Qabbalistic version of reincarnation where the eternal soul, the conscious self, can reanimate into flesh and blood, but still remain the original consciousness.