From my multiple spiritual experiences of Reality (MER) I would define Soul as being the Reality experienced in MERs. What souls we have are part of that Reality.
Reality is the total of all things anywhere, It is absolute consciousness so knows everything in existence beyond mere present human mental, ‘spiritual’ or physical experience even though we are a part of Reality. That Reality is our real soul, or consciousness. Reality, Soul, Real Consciousness is our only existence. We are not merely ‘human’.
Most humans are not conscious enough to know we are manifestations of Reality. We are created and nurtured in Reality whether we know it or not. Only some humans (mystics) are made conscious (of some?) of this for some reason as yet unknown.
Science and academia are more aware of the phenomena in our time. In fact, there has been an outburst of intensive research and study on the subject in universities around the world for nearly 30 years. So far, no evidence of the kind traditional science has been using has emerged to satisfy science and academia’s increasingly challenged traditional disciplines.
So if MER is not yet a conscious part of some humans then presumably what such people are left with for now is a basic, undeveloped shadow of Reality some call, ‘the human spirit’?
The amount of Reality absorbed or even understood or exhibited by those who really experience It varies, though most basic definitions of Reality are the same throughout history in every culture from long before the cultures of today.
Some scientists say MER is created by the brain. This is wrong. The brain does not create Reality, Reality creates the brain. Reality transmits Itself through the brain. The brain merely receives Reality which then asserts Itself into individual human consciousness not only as direct experience of Itself but to the language of Reality: intuition and instinct. These transmissions enlarge the mystic’s consciousness of existence throughout life. Thus is real Soul, true personal consciousness, developed in humans.
Today, MER is not as rare as history suggests it has been.
Whether these experiences, intuitions and instincts also exist in animals or matter I was not given to experience. (Reality consciousness might be different in and beyond the two trillion galaxies that contain billions of planets like ours).
Mystical Experiences of Reality 
Wonderful post and thank you. i feel the rightness of what you say daily and with increasing conviction.
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