Can't vote since my answer is: "I don't know".

I believe we think sometimes that the soul is our "heart". We say "I feel it in my soul", or I feel it in my heart". We say "I believe it with all my heart and soul". We talk like our consciousness and our souls are two different things. I think some scientists classify infants as being "conscious" when they can look in a mirror and recognize something on their face that doesn't belong, like a smug of chocolate.
Richard Dawkins says that an embryo (up to a certain point) is just a mass of cells, so there is no reason why the stem cells couldn't be harvested for worthwhile purposes.
Does an embryo become a living "soul" as soon as it develops a beating heart. or after it has brain function, or after it exists the womb? At what point is an embryo "living"? Up to what point should a fetus be allowed to be aborted?

Need more choices, or B. Without any science to back up consciousness beyond sparking synapses there is nothing going to be left. Of course one can try the argument of what happens to the energy (remember Newton), it gets eaten by microorganisms if not larger creatures -

Definately not.Consciousness is a function of a live brain. When the brain dies and decays there is nothing left.

D. I don't know

In order to discuss this you have to differentiate between bodily sentience and deep conscious awareness. Obviously bodily sentience or bodily consciousness are bodily traits that disappear at death. Deep conscious awareness is something totally different IMO. I lean toward thinking that it is not individual organisms that “have” that kind of awareness—the universe itself is consciously aware.

As an analogy think of a fleet of self-driving cars. Individual cars, sophisticated as they are, have no self-awareness or free will. But the fleet can be controlled by consciousness from a central headquarters.

This is different than the soul concept. A junked car is nothing but junk and there is certainly no car soul that survives in car heaven. At most some of the records of the car might be retained for awhile. The car was never anything but an assemblage of parts that we designate “car”, but that designation is purely artificial and contrived.

I checked the first option, but have to qualify. Our personal identity as an individual is illusion. Our true Self (singular) is consciousness itself, immortal by default because it belongs to ultimate reality beyond our illusory sense-world.

I see no evidence that consciousness can exist without a mind.

We can’t know this. We can only guess and/or hope.

However, one thought that won’t leave my head lately is: Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it merely changes form. If this is the case, does that mean there’s some aspect of beings that doesn’t end? Could there be a consciousness attached to it? Again, I don’t know, and there’s no way of knowing. Only guessing and/or hoping.

I see this line of thinking as pure anthropocentric arrogance. We are not something special but only a slightly (and for some I use the term lightly) advanced life form. When you cut us we bleed and need food/water to survive. Death is a way of all life and we are not separate from this fact.

yes, it exists apart from the mind.

D) It is possible & even probable but has yet to be proven or observed & has likely yet to have occurred.

What we call "consciousness" is the result of neural activity in the brain. Once blood flow ends, there is no activity and no "consciousness" - can't see how anyone can get beyond that.

D. I don’t know.

How would anyone know this? It would not be something anyone would/could know, it is something someone believes. Believing is not knowing.

I voted no because I'm not aware of any evidence that supports the continuation of consciousness after the body is completely dead. I take the word "soul" to refer to the collective mental capacities of a living human being. Two thousand years before science was invented people could see that humans have those collective capacities, and they had to call it something... so they chose "soul". We still do indeed have those capacities, but since the last two hundred years or so we've become superstitious about using older terminology. We've decided we prefer to think of ourselves as soulless creatures now. I'm not sure that's an improvement.

consciousness is a function of the electrical activity of the brain. that is the closest thing we have to a soul and when the brain dies and its electrical activity ceases, which might not be at the same exact moment (there may be twitches; you can electrocute yourself on an unplugged tv if you don't wait long enough to touch the wires!) then consciousness is GONE.

g

This is an old thought experiment that is often used in philosophy courses.

Before you start though
You should define what consciousness is, if it exists, and if it does exist where does it exist.

I would argue consciousness is the electrical signal that makes us function. For some people the electricity signal is reabsorbed at death and for others it lingers around for awhile.

Most people will point to their brain if you ask where it exists, some the entire body, and others the heart. Many will use the term soul as their definition. This of course brings in heaven and hell into the discussion.

It’s a fun conversation but your choices need some work and the set up needs some more explanation.

When I die and if my consciousness or energy is transformed and or survives, if I can come back and give you an answer then I will.

It's amazing that consciousness arises out of a material brain. Sam Harris talks a lot about this. When a person dies, he seems unconscious, and we see no evidence of a soul. Also, I guess a person has to be born in order to get a soul. His/ her/other may not have a soul before they are born. However, many people believe Jesus existed in Heaven before he came to Earth. Some believe Jesus became God's son when he was born to Mary. Others believe he did not become God's son until he ascended into Heaven. If we are born with a soul, can the soul change as it matures? Can we be born with the soul of a criminal?