Astral Protection

"Do you have a soul?
Will any part of you survive death?
If you believe you have some kid of soul, that some part of you will survive death, how do you know your belief isn't superstitious non-sense, fearfully clung to by you because you can't fae to the inevitability and finality of death?

Questions about have a soul that would survive death were once vital to people in our society. Most people, educated and uneducated alike, believe some part of themselves would survive death. Today the word 'soul' is seldom mentioned in educated circles, and the whole idea of soul is treated like a remnant from more primitive times, a psychological compensation that might have been needed when life was more uncertain, brutal and ignorant, but which is certainly unnecessary to enlightened people of our day.
It is true that the idea of the soul can be used as a way of avoid realities of life, but then any idea can be used in that way. If we really do have some sort of soul that may survive death, the consequences are enormous for how we view ourselves and others and for how we want to live our lives. Aside from the strange psychological uses people have put the idea of a soul to, what are the facts about the idea of soul?
You can study the history of the 'concept' soul, what people have thought about it, the derivation of the word would, and you can reason about how the concept of soul does or does not make "sense." As Roger Bacon, one of the founders of science, said, though, "There are two modes of knowing: through argument and experience. Argument brings conclusions and compels us to concede them, but does not cause certainty nor remove doubts in order that the mind may remain at rest in truth, unless this is provided by experience." Fundamentally, the basis of the concept of soul is not an 'idea' but an 'experience.' A typical consequence of such an out-of-the-body experience is the order of "I no longer 'believe' that I have a soul, or that some part of me will survive, I know it!" Ideas about souls exist because people have had overwhelming, often life-altering experiences of existing beyond the limits of their physical bodies.  "