I have been researching this for a while now and Katie's question about whether kin-ness is in the soul reminded me that I had always wondered where our bodies/brains kept our souls.
This is the info I found, sorry it's so long.

The subject of the soul has been a hotly debated topic for centuries.
Theories have abounded since the times of the Egyptians who believed that the soul could only survive if the body was also perfectly preserved. They researched and refined the art of mummification for just this reason.
The ancient Greeks believed that the soul was condemned to a hellish afterlife to be tormented and tortured for all eternity. Though Plato philosophised that the soul is a seperate entity and that death is a blessed release.
Descartes was the first to speak the immortal words "I think therefore I am", and the first to publicly declare that he believed there were differences between mind and matter.
Other philosophers have argued the truthfulness of such a claim, but have not been able to come up with anything more than theories and guess work.
Scientists were no help, as they could not believe in anything so intangible as a 'soul'!!! It didn't conform to the laws of physics and could not be -*test*-('")ed or studied. The soul was a religious concept and to science, religion is a ridiculous nonsense.
However in recent years this attitude has changed, as research into this kind of religious/psychic phenomena becomes fashionable. The mind has gone from being a collection of brain cells that work together like a computer to analyze and process data, to being considered capable of many things outside the normal ranges of time and space. Things like telekenesis, telepathy and psychokenesis mean that it can no longer be dismissed as a mere organ controlling basic body functions.
Another problem the scientists face is that although everyone agrees that we are concious beings, no-one has been able to say where that conciousness might be located. The brains physical form and functions have been mapped extensively and charted in great detail, but no sign of it has ever been found.
We know from various research that the left side of the brain is logical and controls our functions of speech and movement, and the right side controls our emotions and feelings. Does this mean that there are two seperate kinds of conciousness? Or perhaps even more than two? Is conciousness located in one place or is it everywhere in your body at once?
One theory is that mind and body are two seperate entities and that although they can and do normally live together they don't have to. The mind can leave the body for a time, or even survive after the body dies.
Another is that although they are distinctly seperate entities, the mind does not have a will of it's own, that it is in fact merely a part of a greater whole, a 'Great Oneness'. A huge collective conciousness with a cosmic connection. And it is this cosmic connection that enables it to act outside the normal limits placed by the measures of space and time.
This ties in with a theory that is gaining popularity among today's scientists. The Gaia principle states that the Earth is a living organism and that all animals, plants, rocks and so forth are merely part of that greater whole.
Jung believed that each person was in posession of two kinds of unconciousness mind. One personal one which directs the personal drives and desires of the individual and one collective unconciousness that was shared with every other person on the planet. Thus explaining the often spooky similarity of myths and legends of human tribes and clans living on different continents, with no possible contact by which to share the stories and no rational explanation as yet.
Some scientists now believe that the soul is more than just a function of the brain, that the mind and brain are seperate. Some believe that within our existence there are three worlds. One has all the physical things in it, objects which include the brain. The second holds the self-concious mind, the soul/spirit or whatever you wish to call it and the third contains all of man's achievements, from the wheel and the discovery of fire to space travel, scientific research and the splitting of the atom!
Others have yet more ideas including one scientist who firmly believes that the soul, mind and memory are like a hologram, where the image is recorded onto the whole of the film, and even if you cut that film into a thousand pieces you could reconstruct the entire picture from any one of the bits! Perhaps another theory for collective conciousness? One holographic picture recorded and cut into thousands of pieces, each race given one cut piece and still able to reconstruct the whole. That is quite a theory.
In truth there are as many theories as there are people, as a soul is different and holds a different meaning for everyone. But religious or scientific, and vastly different or only slightly off, there is one thing that is certain. There is definitely something to these theories about souls/spirits, and their connection to the brain/mind/conciousness.
Perhaps one day some kind of agreement will be reached, but I wouldn't be too eager, as it doesn't look like it will happen any time soon.
For me, even after they have all agreed on what they think is most likely the truth, my opinion will still be just as valid, after all they will only be declaring what they think.
No-one will ever be able to prove anything, and that makes your opinion and mine just as valid as any of theirs.

Moon.

I loved this post. I, too, have wondered about the soul in relation to the body, though i never researched as deeply as you. This was very informative. And i guess my theory is the brain merely links our consciousness, whatever the level, to our physical form and without it we are free to roam and are free from the physical restrictions of our brain. Like limited emotions, senses and abilities.
You never said what you think about it. so, what do you think about it?

kat