What is a soul?
There are many definitions to describe a soul but the most fitting, to me, at least, is that it's the core of existence, the spark that has been granted to us by the gods and the one thing we cannot replicate. No matter how advance, it seemed to be simply out of our reach.
We may be able to replicate muscles, bones, flesh, skin and even a consciousness but the soul is simply out of human's understanding.
That was until today, 11th of April 2326.
My team alongside I, Neil O'Brain, have a way to interact directly with the soul. That link can be maintained for only five minutes every hour but it is only the first step.
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#1 Soul Theory Experiment
Although we have found a way to access the soul, human experimentation is still prohibited. The experiment then was conducted on a dog. There had always been a question on whether animals possessed a soul or not.
It is still such a strange sight to see, the emptiness that is the 'Soul Dimension'. That is its official name but it is the best way to describe it. Not only did the dog possess it—which swiftly ended debates—but it also looked utterly different from that of the human being we've seen before.
The first thing to note is its size. Although it is hard to measure how big the Soul Dimension actually is, it seems smaller. We require more experiment to be absolutely certain.
The second thing was the soul itself. It looks like a ball of fire, floating inside a sphere of white liquid. The human one is blue but the dog's was rich brown. It was interesting to see.
Another important thing to note is, even though we can enter the 'Soul Dimension', we cannot do anything else inside. At the current moment, it is just an empty space only accessible via a special pathway in the brain.
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#37 Soul Theory Experiment
Today, 19th of June 2436, we have made significant progress. The 'Soul Dimension' as it was previously known, is none other than the consciousness or more specifically, its Freoud's Iceberg Analogy. The outermost layer is the consciousness, the following layer is the preconscious and the final layer, the unconscious.
Understanding this allowed us to peer into a person's thoughts, memories and even their deepest instincts. Out of decency, we decided not to prone too much, unless we are required to, of course.
Another significant discovery is the link that exists between the three components; the body, the mind or consciousness, and the soul. If alterations are made to the latter, the mind and the body will also be affected. If the body sustains severe damage in a localised area, the mind unable to operate said area but the soul remains intact, except in a few exponentially rare cases. And if the mind is damaged, the soul will remain more or less the same, but the body can be affected.
Using this newfound knowledge, we have deducted that if we could alter the soul, maybe we could also alter the body and the mind. For that to be possible, however, we need a way to interact with the soul.
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# 97 Soul Theory Experiment
Another theory came about that may push out of the dead end we found ourselves in. The soul is an entity that is beyond the confine of the physical world. Our only way to find it was to follow a very specific pathway inside the brain, one that is different from individual to individual.
If we want to be able to interact with something that is not on the plane as us, we may require something that is also on said plane, but finding a matter or substance in the physical world that could affect this other plane is easier said than done I fear... Once again, we found ourselves in a dead end.
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#98 Soul Theory Experiment
What if we didn't need something from the plane in particular? What if we used the connection between the body, consciousness and soul instead?
Doctor Rena Sance proposed.
Everyone looked at her, some were intrigued, others were skeptical. Reverse engineering had been tried before but it yielded little to no result.
Granted that it was earlier in the experiments, I suppose we have nothing to lose.
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#298 Soul Theory Experiment
... I have to admit that I was losing hope. Doctor Rena's idea was, at first, uncertain to bear the wanted results. Experiment after experiment, we tried to follow that connection uniting body, mind and soul. Subject after subject, we kept hitting walls.
We didn't give up. Each failure led us to new discoveries, new ideas on how to tackle the problem. Technology improved to help us in our task and today, after more failures than all the staff in the facility had fingers, we finally have a tool that is able to interact with our target.
These may have been the most tiring hours of my entire existence, so many I thought I would mess up at the most important step but I succeeded, I laid my hand upon the subject's soul. It was unlike anything I felt before. We proceeded to test our first theory.
The subject in question had nerve damage, preventing it from using its right hind leg. We soon found out that, while our theory was true, to heal an injury, we would need map out of shells that form conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. Then, find out how much we have to alter the soul to affect the body and mind in the desired way.
# 301 Soul Theory Experiment
A military organization approached us, claiming that they were interested in our research. We declined them, too many times has humanity seen experiments meant to be used peace and good transformed into war machines.
After that, we resumed our experiments. It took decades to roughly map the subject's MindShell but we think it should be necessary to perform the needed surgery.
Grueling hours later, we have some results. The subject's leg began to move. Although, it couldn't quite walk normally, the surgery succeeded!
We presented the results to the higher ups and they were more than pleased. We would require a bit more time before advancing to humans, it was a victory.