What Is A Person's Essence?

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charmaine saunders Profile
To me, the essence of a person is the soul, the spirit. Just as we speak of the essence of a flower, a story or event, when we mean its essential meaning, the heart of the matter, so a person's essence is the core of his/her being. It's the bit we can't see and could never see - it's hidden, secretive, like the centre of a blossom, opening out its secrets only when it feels ready and safe.

It's the part of being alive not covered by physicality, separate from our human packages which we require to do what we need to do whilst on Earth. Our physical beings are far from perfect and that is in fact the point. What would there be to learn if we weren't here, fumbling and faltering, making mistakes and causing pain, loving and leaving? That's the stuff of humanness, the reason we came to the planet. But our essence is something else. It is continuity, perfection, spirituality, eternity. This is the gift of existence.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Drchar wrote something quite beautiful up there.
However, my view is a little different.
In the dictionary, the word essence is defined as:
"the most significant element, quality, or aspect of a thing or person".
To find the most significant element, you cut.
First you cut away his legs, and you see if he is still him. And yes he is.
Then you cut away his arms, his eyes, his heart and so on.
Basically, Einstein will still be Einstein even if he is just a head in a jar.
So the essence is in the head, or more specifically, the brain.
This is proven rather easily, if you had cut away his brain first, he would still look like himself,
but you can't really say it is still him.
I do not want to get into the whole Terri Schiavo debate.
But the brain being the most significant element is quite clear.
Are there still more we can cut? Sure there is.
There is the part of the brain that moves the body, the part that help him see or hear or taste, the part that regulate his heart beat, his body temperature.
We can cut those and he will still be him.
How about the part that controls his emotions? Is he still himself if we cut that?
How about the part that contains his memories? Is he still himself if we cut that?
How about...... You get the picture.
At the end, its a matter of opinion, and there is no easy answer.

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