The Dutch word for body; "lichaam" stems from "lic hamo", which literally means "meat shirt". To the spiritual body, also known as the soul, the material body functions as a shirt, that wears off and is put down after serving its purpose . Or a barrel, a cask which is the etymological explanation of the word "body". Stula Sarira is the Hindu term for the body; material shelter for the Linga Sarira, the soul.

Peter uses the word Tabernacle, (2 Pe 1;21) which means a tent or hut to live in.

Sometimes the impression is given that there are several souls housing in our body. 

The Platonic soul comprises three parts:

             the logos (mind, nous, superego, or reason)

the thymos (emotion, ego, or spiritedness)

                            the pathos (appetitive, id, or carnal)

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According to the Midrash there are five different souls;     

                        blood,

                    wind,

                 breath,

            the principle of life and

       the individual soul.  ego

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The blood is where the (principle of) life and / or the soul is anchored, it belongs to the physical body. The principle of life (Chawah, Chayah, Eve) is the life-force, which in combination with a body produces a living being. The wind (which may also be called breath; ruach) is just an other name for this life-force (Prana).  The breath stands for the spirit, Neshama or Atman and, although often seen as the immortal part of the soul, is not necessarily part of the soul. It is the spirit that is "breathed in" by the soul; the force that keeps the soul alive and intact after death.  It is added to it by prayer and will

  return to God who gave it. Ec 12:7,

after the death of the body (Ec 12:6), taking with him the soul that was taken captive, as it were, from the lower realm of matter and animal soul.

  For this reason Scripture says: "He re-ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives. Eph 4:8 WEY

Like a fisherman throws out a line into the water, catches a fish and goes Home with it.

The Ego is the I consciousness of a soul, it is the personality of the living being, which in combination with the above makes a soul; even without the physical body.  The body is a soul of its own; also called nephesh (Hebr.); the living vessel in which the `human soul was staying while on Earth.

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The Chinese also know of five different souls;   

The physical body,

       the ethereal body, (from the Ether, the fifth element; soul)

             the astral body, (starlike, from L.L. astralis; lightbody)

                  the mental body  (the mind)

                        and  the causal body, which is pure spirit. 

There is no clear distinction between these bodies. They are thought of as different levels of energy, which in itself is true because everything is energy.  Here also goes that the spirit is not necessarily part of the soul.  The mental body simply represents the way the soul thinks, and is not a separate body.  The ethereal body is the soul as an entity and the astral body would be the body in which it moves about in the Ether but in the end, it is the same thing as the ethereal body.  Then there is the physical body which in fact has a separate soul.

The Egyptians knew of the body, with its

                        Akh; the lower self,

                            the Ka; the soul, with its

                                Sahu, the higher Self,

                                    the Ba; the shape it takes on (due to merging with the body) and

                                        the Name; the ego (who are you, what have you done).

In several Theosophical, Rosicrucian and Freemason circles, the Ego, (the Self), the mind (Manas) and the intelligence (Buddhi) are seen as separate spiritual bodies moving about and living in separate spiritual worlds.  

Self, mind and intelligence, however largely depend on the physical state of the body and the brain in particular, as well as the environment, education and occurring events that have taken place in ones life.  For this reason they should be seen as the consequences of interactions between body and (enlightened) soul, rather than separate spiritual bodies.  These factors represent the state of consciousness the soul is in at that particular moment, bound to that particular body. 

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Evolution has to start somewhere. The birth of a higher soul happens when an animal body, through evolution, is capable of developing enough intelligence and reasoning consciousness to recognize God and opens up to him, like a flower opens up under the sun. This happens by prayer or trust. God when asked, may provide spirit to this soul that will keep it alive and together, even after the body has worn off and died.

 An animal body is sown, a spiritual body is raised.

As surely as there is an animal body, so there is also a spiritual body. 1Co 15:44 

(Weymouth NT 1912)

At death, the animal body is left behind and the newborn soul is (eventually) placed in an other body to experience life and learn from it. 

The soul; the spiritual body, is the double that at birth, inhabits or merges with a physical, animal body.

This physical body is alive, which means that it has an animal soul of its own; the lower self.

This is why this double (your soul) can travel outside this body without causing it to die. 

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That is two souls;

one lower soul; the animal body with its own animal life-force, that vaporizes after death, because it lacks spirit as a life force to keep it alive and decays together with the body; its energy will merge with the whole of available life-force in the Earth (Gaia; Chaya or Chawa; Eve).  

But man dies, and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?
As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up,
so man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake, or be roused out of his sleep. Job 14;10 RSV

This body decays after death, and is of no further importance.  

The spirit is the life giver; the flesh is of no value.   John 6:63

The higher soul; the spiritual double (you, your self) being reincarnated (returned into the flesh) into this present body. That is the soul that counts, sent back to the physical plain to experience life and learn from it. 

  for thou wilt not leave my soul in hades, nor wilt thou give thy gracious one to see corruption. Ac 2:27 DBY

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