Emily Dickinson Meets The Soul

More Than Meets the Eye- The Soul When you die, it’s lights out. Or is it? With atheism on the rise- roughly doubling every seven years (Pew Research Center)- the belief in humans possessing a soul is dwindling, as the majority of atheists believe souls are simply anti-intellectual creations supplementing what we now know as the mind (Debate.org). However, there is substantial evidence based on classical views that prove humans do, in fact, have souls. In 1892 author George MacDonald published a periodical against excessive mourning at funerals by giving the mourners a piece of mind by informing them “[they don’t] have a soul…[they] are a soul;[they] have a body.” This idea has stuck with many
Being raised strictly Christian, Dickinson was thoroughly exposed to Biblical teachings, which became a basis for her thoughts on the soul (Woodlief). Her views on the soul are expressed in a massive amount of her poems, of which her famous “Because I could not stop for Death” most plainly expresses her ideology. In this poem, the narrator has died, and her soul is visiting earthly places, perhaps her home, as she is being guided by a personified Death. Like Whitman, Dickinson expresses the soul as an ethereal connection between earth and the afterlife, and is able to do things that the human body is unable to do. This expression is likely an embodiment of Dickinson’s desire to be mentally and creatively free, and “dwell in Possibility”. Dickinson’s descriptions of freely roaming souls corresponds with the ancient belief of the soul being able to disconnect from the body. In modern times, this has become known as astral projection. Astral projection is recognized as legitimate by science, but there is no actual form of measurement to observe out-of-body experiences. It is acknowledged that if the human soul was supported by science, astral projection would be described as an experience of the soul leaving the body