Kind of.
What you might call 'the lower soul' I would refer to simply as the soul. It begins with consciousness (born knowing nothing) and gains knowledge for a lifetime. In fact-- you could interchange the terms your 'soul' and your 'life' without diminishing either one. It's kind of like a photo album, or memory book of all your life experiences... a record of everything you've ever done, every thought you've ever had.... like if you were Truman, star of your own show and everything was captured from birth until the day you died.
The lower soul is more like the "feeling" of a person, the moral balance and level of spiritual power and evolutionary progress. Jesus and I both have a connection to God, but I am not equal to Jesus, and I won't be in the next life, or the one after that. But when I die, even though I lose my memories, I won't lose that spiritual growth.
According to NDE's, when a person dies, their mind is vastly expanded, they are able to see and sense and intuit many things, and sometimes even forget who they are but they are still fundamentally themselves, they still look at themselves (from the third person oddly enough) and see a human body, and still think the same way as they did when alive.
The lower soul does persist between lives, and even chooses its own reincarnations. I have heard NDEs where people say that God is all loving and all forgiving, and in the presence of such love we have no choice but to experience unbounded love for everything in return, but with all our emotions and consciousness elevated so greatly, we also have an incredible sense of justice and duty. If we did wrong to others, we require of ourselves that we must suffer equally in return. As one person said, if you aren't willing to give away a million dollars, you won't be able to accept a million dollars.
An interesting thing some people said was, we can actually choose not to incarnate as humans either, and we can just live utopian lives but spiritual progress is at a snail's pace. It is like learning to donate to the poor, when everybody is rich; or like trying to learn to forgive enemies, when you have no enemies. People eventually become dissatisfied with their status and choose to incarnate into Earth with all its suffering in order to evolve.
It's sort of like the nut, in the shell. The outer husk is your physical self... the nut is the life inside. The substance, essence and valuable part.
Beyond that physical existence and the soul experience that lives and matures inside that outer shell, there exists a duality that is apart from the physical man and his life. There is the physical- a vessel (physical body) and the record of his journey through life (human soul) and these two exist as one on the earthly plane.
And then there is the spirit. From the perspective of the spiritual realm- people are thought of, and referred to over and over in all the parables in agrarian terms. You are a tree. You are a plant. You produce fruit. The birds of the air nest and rest in you. You are a container. You are a vessel, a jar, a tent, a house. All of these terms refer to that YOU that is the physical you that consists of your body and soul. Your spirit, is a different animal altogether. And that's how the spirit is described in scripture. Like a lamb, like a lion, like a dove..... always with animal attributes that are descriptive of the particular spirit and it's purpose or personality if you will-- different expressions at different times. So then, the spiritual "man" descends "like a" ---- (fill in the blank) and it expresses certain attributes of spirit that are manifest on earth as it is in heaven. Reality above, likeness below.
Interesting insight into the symbolism.
Regarding the spirit descending, you can also call it the third eye opening, or attaining enlightenment. But it is not really the spirit coming into you, but rather it is you achieving awareness of that spirit. The spirit is what animates you. There is only one being alive, and that is God, you are inside God's mind, all consciousness comes from God. The idea of the spirit coming into you is just another way of describing the sudden epiphany of this fact through whatever cultural lens you see it as. It is the feeling of connection with the universe.
Of course, the spirit is not an animal at all. These are expressive terms. Neither are people merely 'houses' or rooms or temples for the Holy (set apart) spirit that is sent to lead and to guide and to abide in us. I'm just trying to make it make sense. Like a reflection in a mirror-- things get a little reversed. The mirror image is a likeness, but never a wholeness. The reflection looks like you, but it isn't all of you. You can't perceive of your soul by only looking in a mirror. You only see a representation. The spiritual man is like this as well. You can't perceive of the fullness, by only looking at the reflection-- the reflection is just a surface image and not the whole man.
The best example I can offer is that image of a horse. It's used by prophets frequently as the idea of a rider on a horse-- and from the spiritual perspective the rider is not a physical man-- it's a spiritual man, as these things are seen in spirit. It's the rider who is the messenger (angel/spirit) and he rides 'a horse' directing him as with bit and bridle to the degree that the horse will comply to his promptings. Above, it's this man on a horse... below, it's a horse on a man--- that animal attribute being a powerful, swift, carrier of the message, or workhorse or warhorse.... depending on what is being expressed to and impressed upon a physical man.
Excellent insight again
I do agree with the principle of the spirit guiding a man, with the lower soul being like a horse, which either complies or kicks at the pricks. Though without the spirit, there is no reality inside of that being, the spirit is what makes it alive to begin with. The lower soul is what is being trained, to make a vessel for the spirit. The training process is why we are reincarnated to begin with, to make an effective vessel for the spirit. In a more cosmic sense, the goal of the lower soul is that it merges so seamlessly with the spirit, that the spirit is no longer bound by it and returns to unity with God unfettered.
Each soul is like a question in God's mind. "How does this unique being find its way to perfection". Our lives are the answer to that question. That is why destroying it, makes no sense and implies God made a mistake.
Jesus most famously began his ministry acknowledging this very idea. He read from the scroll of Isaiah and declared for all to hear--
The spirit of the Lord, is upon me.
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me,
because the LORD has chosen me.
He has commissioned me to encourage the poor,
to help the brokenhearted,
to decree the release of captives....
There is much more to all of this, but that's a healthy bite at the apple to start.
I agree completely with your thesis, that the captives aren't captives from hell, but captives from that lower soul I described; Earth; reincarnation; the animal nature.
Excellent insight
