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What do the following human aspects belong to: soul or spirit:

  1. Emotions, instincts

  2. Longing for God and eternity

  3. Prayer

  4. Mental processes

  5. Feeling

  6. Initiator of life
I know that the brain signals to the heart to beat but the brain cannot live without the blood distributed by the heart? What starts this whole process? What is responsible for it; the soul or spirit? If it's the spirit; then how do animals (who do not have a spirit) live?

Since it is the spirit which differentiates humans from any other creations, b) and c) above belong to the spirit realm. Therefore, the human soul must cease to exist after death because animals' souls cease to exist after death. OR is the spirit continually attached to the soul so that the soul never ceases to exist after death. On the other hand, if the spirit is the only eternal aspect of a human, then does that spirit feel and think (remembering that these aspects are attributed to the soul). Also what did people like St. Paul who saw a vision of the third heaven i.e. paradise, view it with? Did they ascend with the spirit only or spirit and soul and if spirit and soul, doesn't the body cease to function if the soul has left the body?

The following human aspects belong to:
  1. Emotions, instincts:  Soul

  2. Longing for God and eternity: Spirit

  3. Prayer: Spirit

  4. Mental processes: Spirit

  5. Feeling:  Soul

  6. Initiator of life: Spirit
Actually mental processes are not found in animals. To know what happens to the human soul after death and the difference between the human soul and the animal soul, please read this article "The Nature of Man".  Please note that what happened to St. Paul was a miracle. He himself admitted that he does not know as we read in 2 Corinthians 12:1-3.
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