I Believe in Spirit
By spirit, I mean something as natural as our body and mind and everything else in the world. By the word “spirit”, I mean “that which animates.” Every living being is spirited; alive. And spirit is that which makes living beings alive.
I do not use the word "spirit" to refer to a goddess, god, or any other kind of non-physical being. I do not mean anything religious, spiritual or metaphysical.
My understanding of spirit is rooted in the perspective of the Ancient Greeks. The Ancient Greek word for spirit was thumos. To the Ancient Greeks, thumos was a quasi-physical aspect of living beings. In humans, it was located physically in the chest, and lends its name to the thymus gland and the herb thyme.
Thumos was also closely associated with the heart, lungs and breath. Fainting was understood as a temporary loss of thumos. When thumos returned, the one who fainted returned to life. Death was understood as the permanent loss of thumos. Death occurred when the thumos left and did not return to the body.
Part 3 will say more about thumos.
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