Do you agree? (Harry as Horcrux)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 163821

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> Geoff wrote:
> <snip>
> > However, if a person is made into a Horcrux, where does the soul
> piece reside? Indeed, what form does a soul fragment take? Where does
> our own soul reside for that matter? Can we see it, touch it? <snip>
 
> Carol responds:
> First, Geoff, I'm with you that Harry is not a Horcrux and that he
> won't die. So I'm not arguing with your basic position, just
> responding to this fragment of your post.
 
> I think we can safely say that the soul is not in the brain. A
> Dementor sucks it out through the mouth, leaving the brain intact.
> Memories can be safely removed from the brain of a person who has not
> committed murder, so they're not the same as soul bits. A wizard who
> has not committed murder can leave part of himself in an object
> (portrait, Sorting Hat, Marauder's Map) that can subsequently interact
> with other people. Clearly, memory resides in the brain (as we see
> again in the brain room), but apparently the soul does not. The soul
> apparently goes beyond the Veil when a person dies. The brain remains
> behind, where it can be studied by wizards interested in thought and
> memory. Those interested in death study what goes on beyond the Veil.
> 
> I'm not sure, but I think that JKR's concept of a soul (as depicted in
> the HP books, not her own Christian view) is something like the Latin
> word "spiritus," meaning "breath, life, spirit" and related to the
> concept of inspiration, or like the Greek word "pneuma," wind, breath,
> spirit. The soul, in this view, would be the source of life (as
> opposed to mere soulless existence, a la Barty Jr.) and the part of
> the self that lives on after death. 

<Snip>

> I guess I'm saying that the soul in HP seems to be the breath of life
> made tangible and divisible.

<snip>
 
> Carol, sure that the brain and the soul are distinct concepts in the WW

Geoff:
I see the brain and the soul as distinct concepts in the real world as well...

I see your comment using "spiritus" as being compatible with my personal 
view of the Holy Spirit as a Christian - and possibly the view held by JKR. 
The Holy Spirit is God in the form in which he lives within a Christian.

He is often likened to the wind or to breath - in the Bible description 
when he first came to the disciples after Jesus returned to heaven,  
the coming was described as being like a mighty rushing wind and 
there are many references to him as the "breath of God"

Moving on, I have never suggested that the soul is in the brain; I posed 
a number of possibly rhetorical questions about the form the soul takes 
and how tangible it is. This arose out of a comment by another 
contributor that Harry's Horcrux (assuming it exists) might be located 
in his scar and my suggestion was that, if that was so, removal of the
soul fragment might injure or kill Harry because of the scar's position. 
The point arose from the fact that the Horcruxes already dealt with were 
not destroyed but seriously damaged.