In respect to physical life and living, a body certainly helps. In relation to our conscious side of our existence, does having a body really matter?
We are born as babies with two arms and two legs. These limbs are very useful for us to get by in our busy lives. Now as you are reading this, think about your legs for instance. They are your legs. They are part of you. You control them with your thoughts.
Now imagine having both your legs removed from your body (not a happy thought I know, but you’ll see where this is going very soon). With your legs gone you are still alive. Your consciousness carries on. Now we are going to remove your arms. Same thing again, your still fully aware and alive.
This very unpleasant example (I appologise), is a way of proving that we are much more than our physical bodies. To take it that bit further we can also live without other parts and of our bodies too. Pretty much all of our organs can be removed and replaced with another persons organs.
Machines can also act as organs to keep us alive physically. Looking to the future now, how long will it be before science has created a machine capable of performing all the functions of the main organs simultaneously? If this came to be true, then a human head could be kept alive by this mechanical body. It all sounds a bit science fiction, but we are slowly heading in that direction. How many people are walking around today with artificial body parts or heart pacemakers for example?
So we have come to the conclusion that it could be possible with future technology to recreate the human body. Now what would happen if we could push the boundaries of science and recreate the human brain? With our experiment we had a man made machine and a human head. The head was fully conscious. Our consciousness resides inside this last remaining part of our body. Lets say we now remove the brain but still have it hooked up to the machine. We are now just a brain, but we are still conscious? So does our soul reside deep inside our brain?
The gray matter of the brain is made up of 100 billion neurons and is the fattiest organ in the body. It weighs about 3 pounds and is made of 75% water. It is pure substance so it is not who we are. We are deeper than that. Our consciousness may feel like it resides in our brain, but our consciousness is definitely not our brain.
So taking all this into consideration, we can safely say that our body is only needed to keep our presence visible on this physical plane. When we die, it is only the physical part of us that dies. Our true self is free to move on to our next great adventure. Your soul and consciousness carries on past your physical demise.