You don’t have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body.
CS Lewis
Who is our internal monologue?
There are three voices as I understand it. Movements of the spirit, which are how we perceive our spiritual being. Movements of the mind, which are our thoughts and feelings. Movements of the Body, which are our needs and impulses.
I tend to think of movements of the mind as “me”. But perhaps that is not the case? Perhaps the mind is just closest to my ear and so speaks the loudest. Between mind and body there is a detachment which allows us to wrest control over our needs and impulses. My body can say “Feed me, I am hungry”, but the mind can instruct the body to keep the fast.
Spiritual movements have been the most challenging for me, personally. My mind is very loud; when I pray, I pray from my mind (which is me) to God. Sensing spiritual movements is like navigating a park while blind, mute, and deaf, by sensing only the motion of the wind. Naturally, such a person would stumble often, and the same is true for myself and my spiritual life. Spiritual movements are something my mind must sense, but cannot control.
What if there was a like detachment between Mind and Spirit? To the body, the movements of the mind must seem capricious and bewildering. The natural inclination for food is stymied by an arbitrary desire to fast–and why? This is beyond the understanding of the body. Likewise, the spiritual movements seem strange and foreign to the mind. But it is the spiritual movements which govern both mind and body. When I think, “I want to eat a snack”, and I deprive myself of that snack, it only grows me, spiritually, because it is a flexion of the spirit, as mediated through the mind. The spirit knows, absolutely, the difference between right and wrong; the mind knows it’s own experience and it’s own will, it’s own intellect, and can choose against the spirit–this is why we are capable of sin.
So if my internal monologue is my mind, I am my soul. I just keep the closest counsel with my mind.
AMDG
Post Script:
I discussed this post with Hambone before publication. He suggests a useful clarification:
Hambone: I think you’re right but the term “inner monologue” breeds confusion. It’s kind of like the angel and demon on the shoulders. Your internal monologue can be an advocate for any of the three, I think.
Scoot: That’s a good point. Internal Monologue is me, but each of the three movements competes for attention.
Times-Dispatch of Vichy Earth 