For other uses of the term spirit, see Spirit (disambiguation)

In the fields of religion and spirituality, the term spirit may mean:

• An ultimate, unified, non-dual awareness or force of life combining or transcending all individual souls or individual units of consciousness; the term spirit has been used in this sense by at least Anthroposophy, Aurobindo, A Course In Miracles, Hegel, Jehovah's Witnesses and Ken Wilber. In this use, the term is conceptually identical to Plotinus's "One" and Friedrich Schelling's "Absolute." Similar to Greek pneuma and Sanskrit akasha.
• (Singular) The individual soul of an individual human being or other living being
• A spiritual being, such as a ghost

Etymology

In the Bible, the word "ruach" (רוֹאח "wind") is most commonly translated as the spirit, whose essence is divine (see Holy Spirit. Alternately the word nephesh is commonly used. Nephesh, in the Kabbalah religion, is one of the three parts of the human soul, where "nephesh" (animal) refers to the physical being and its animal instincts. Similarly, the Chinese language uses the term "breath" to refer to the spirit.