It can't be measured or quantified, and it isn't tangible, but a UNM organization will bring students and professors together to discuss the nature of it - the soul.
Matt Kelley, director of Campus Crusade for Christ, an organization that serves as a student resource to life's toughest questions, said the discussion will help to bring a soul consciousness to campus.
"We don't want it to be about what the Bible says or what the New Testament says," Kelley said. "We want to keep it more at an academic level."
Members of Soul Existence, a student organization that seeks to initiate dialogue on campus over the nature of the soul, has organized a panel discussion on the myths surrounding its existence.
Kelley said many professors at UNM were contacted to try and plan the series of discussions that will group disciplines together so professors can speak from a similar perspective.
He said although it was not planned, most professors who are participating come from a Judeo-Christian standpoint.
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Three UNM psychology professors will share their views today in a three- to five-minute speech on the nature of the soul and then open the floor for discussion.
"We wanted for those professors to come in and present because I think there are unique views within those disciplines of what the soul is," Kelley said.
Students from any viewpoint are invited to attend the discussion in the SUB, Lobo Rooms A and B from noon to 1 p.m.
William Miller, a UNM psychology professor, said he is looking forward to the discussion more than the speech. He said the discussion will be narrowed because each of the professors are from similar disciplines and will likely have similar views. He also said the topic may be controversial.
"As a professor, I am used to dealing with a variety of topics that are sometimes controversial," Miller said. "That's what a university is about."
He said his own work as a psychologist is based on spiritual thought, and it has been an enduring interest of his.
"I don't think there is a detachable thing called the soul," Miller said. "I see the soul as part of the person - in a way, the entire being."
To provide the history of the soul, Harold Delaney, a UNM psychology professor, will present different models of human nature, including important thinkers in psychology who see human nature as being more than matter in motion.
He said the word psychology means 'study of the soul,' and lately the discipline has distanced itself from the spiritual side of humanity. He said, though, there are signs that may be changing.
Along with Delaney and Miller, Tim Goldsmith, a cognitive psychologist, will also present.
So far, four discussions have been scheduled throughout this week and next, which will include views from UNM's religious studies program and the Biology Department.
