Essence Explained

This article is a plain-language companion to “Essence, Embodiment, and Relational Reality: Toward a Coherent Account of Personhood, Consciousness, and Being.”

Why Simple Explanations Keep Falling Short

Most modern explanations of what a human being is tend to fall into one of two extremes. One side says we are essentially biological machines, that who we are comes entirely from our brains, chemistry, and physical processes. The other side talks about spirit or consciousness but often does so in a way that feels vague, disconnected from logic, or detached from real life. Both approaches leave something important out.

The first ignores the lived reality of identity, meaning, and moral responsibility. The second often avoids clear thinking and accountability. What is needed is not choosing one side or the other, but stepping back and seeing a bigger picture that makes room for science, reason, and the deeper parts of human experience at the same time. A good explanation should fit what we observe, what we live, and what we know to be true about ourselves.

Essence as Wholeness Within Wholeness

At the center of this view is the idea of essence. Essence simply means what something truly is at its core. Essence is not a piece of a person, and it is not something you build by stacking parts together. It is whole in itself, even when it exists as part of something larger.

A helpful way to think about this is that something can be complete on its own and still belong to a greater whole without losing its identity. A cell is fully a cell, but it also belongs to a body. A person is fully a person, but also part of families, communities, and humanity as a whole. Each person fully reflects the image of God, but God is not divided or reduced because of that. Being connected does not mean being broken into pieces. Wholeness can exist within wholeness.

The Human Person as a Layered Being

When we apply this idea to ourselves, it becomes clear that we are not just bodies, and we are not just spirits floating around either. We are layered beings. The body is how we interact with the physical world. It lets us move, speak, work, and relate to others in concrete ways. The body matters, but it is not the source of who we are. It is more like an interface or a vessel.

The mind sits in between. It processes what the body experiences, but it also reaches toward meaning, values, choices, and reflection. This is why we often feel tension between impulse and conviction, desire and restraint. The spirit is the deepest part of who we are. It is the seat of identity, the part that makes you you. The spirit is not created by the body, and it is not destroyed when the body fails.

Why You Are Still You Even When Consciousness Is Interrupted

This layered understanding explains something we all already know intuitively. We remain ourselves even when our awareness shuts down or is disrupted. When we sleep, go under anesthesia, experience trauma, or fall into a coma, we do not stop existing. Our ability to express ourselves or interact with the world may pause or change, but our identity does not disappear.

This strongly suggests that who we are is not the same thing as constant brain activity. The body and brain affect how the self is expressed, not whether the self exists. A broken or offline interface does not erase the person behind it. This distinction helps explain why identity feels continuous even when consciousness is not.

Information Helps the Body, But It Is Not Who You Are

Science actually supports this view more than it challenges it. Modern physics shows that matter is not as solid or simple as it appears. Biology shows that the body runs on instructions and signals. DNA works like code, telling cells how to grow, repair, and function. Over time, most of the atoms in your body are replaced, yet you remain the same person.

This shows that physical continuity is not what holds identity together. At the same time, information alone cannot explain who you are. A blueprint can describe how to build something, but it cannot explain purpose, intention, or personal identity. Information serves the body and helps express life, but it does not create personhood. You are more than data.

Disconnection Does Not Mean Destruction

Once this is understood, it becomes easier to think clearly about death and what comes after. Temporary disconnections from the body happen all the time, and permanent disconnection happens at death. In neither case does it logically follow that the self stops existing. What ends is one form of embodiment, not the person.

This makes sense of the idea of restoration. It is not about becoming a different person or starting over as someone else. It is about the same essence continuing while embodiment is renewed. Identity does not depend on keeping the same physical material, but on the continuity of who you are at your core.

The Image of God Is About Who We Are, Not What We Look Like

Being made in the image of God does not mean God has a human body or face. God is spirit. The image of God shows up in qualities like moral responsibility, the ability to love, the ability to choose, creativity, relationship, longing, self-control, and awareness of good and evil.

These are not physical traits. They are qualities of personhood. Every person has them fully, not partially. God is not diminished by sharing His image with many people. Again, wholeness exists within wholeness.

Reality Is Relational at Its Core

At the deepest level, this way of understanding reality is grounded in relationship. The Trinity shows that ultimate reality is not lonely or mechanical. God is one, yet exists as Father, Son, and Spirit, each fully God, without division.

This shows that unity does not erase distinction and distinction does not break unity. Love and relationship are not add-ons to reality. They are foundational. Humans reflect this structure in a limited way. We are meant for relationship, and our identities make full sense only in connection with others and with God.

Science Describes How Things Work, Not Why We Exist

Nothing in this view rejects science. Science is incredibly good at describing how physical systems behave. What it cannot do is explain why personhood exists, why meaning matters, or why moral responsibility feels real.

Problems arise only when scientific description is treated as if it were a complete explanation of reality. This framework respects science while recognizing its limits and addressing the questions it cannot answer.

Old Ideas, Integrated in a New Way

Many parts of this understanding have appeared before in theology and philosophy. What is unusual today is holding them together without collapsing into materialism or drifting into vague spirituality. The strength of this view is not novelty. It is coherence.

Truth should fit together across all areas of life. When it does, familiar experiences suddenly make sense instead of feeling contradictory.

Why Words Can Only Take Us So Far

Language is limited. It unfolds step by step, while reality is layered and relational. Words can point toward truth, but they cannot fully contain it. Still, careful language can help us recognize patterns we already sense but struggle to articulate.

Understanding often comes not from hearing something entirely new, but from finally seeing how familiar things fit together.

Conclusion: The Big Picture

Put simply, a human being is more than a body, but not separate from it. You are an essence made for embodiment. Your body expresses you but does not define you. Your mind connects the physical and the spiritual. Your spirit is who you are at the deepest level.

Losing connection with the body changes how you interact with the world, not who you are. Restoration is not replacement. Wholeness can exist within wholeness. Reality itself is built on relationship.

That is not poetry. It is a clear and reasonable way to understand what it means to be human.