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Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci used his experience in the field of anatomy to hypothesize that the soul was located in the optic chiasm, near the 3rd ventricle of the brain. His views were supported by observations of change in perception following disturbances to that particular area of the brain.

Da Vinci's search for the soul fell into three phases: Early Concepts, Personal Quest, and Synthesis.

Phase 1: Early Concepts
From his 1487 experiment of pithing frogs, Da Vinci honed in on the medulla as the location of the soul: "the frog instantly dies when its spinal medulla is perforated. And previously it lived without heart or any interior organs, or intestines or skin. Here therefore, it appears, lies the foundation of movement and life."

Phase 2: Personal Quest
In this second phase, Da Vinci began examining the nervous system and how they connected with the skull. This phase is when he stated that the soul was located slightly above the optic chiasm, in the anterior portion of the 3rd ventricle.

This phase also establishes the role of the soul in the body according to Da Vinci. Da Vinci saw the soul as ruling over all of the senses, he states, "The Soul appears to reside in the seat of judgement, and the judicial part appears to be in that place where all the senses come together, which is called the 'senso comune '."

Phase 3: Synthesis
This final stage involved further study into the anatomy of the brain. Da Vinci used wax to fill the ventricles of an ox brain in order to have a physical model of the location of the "senso comune" as well as two other landmarks, the imprensiva and memoria.

Plotinus additions
Plotinus saw the soul as a tool of universal structure and one of two parts of the human form: body and soul. He saw the soul as what was responsible for life and for there to be existence after death, the soul could not be in the body. However, the body was necessary for the soul to exist. Therefore, there was a duality to the roles of the soul among Plotinus' philosophy. The soul played an important role in merging with the One, the "ultimate object of desire".

Plotinus created three stages to reaching his goal of "attaining union with the One".

Stage 1: Return to one's true self as soul
This stage involves gaining control of your own body through Plato's civic virtues and detachment from material goods. Here you recognize yourself as soul, "a divine reality independent of body and prior to it".

Stage 2: Attaining the life of divine intellect
This second stage involves embracing the higher processes of the soul and abandoning the current way of thinking. Since the soul is a bridge between the human form and reaching the One, the thinking processes of the soul and its divinity will lift you closer to the One.

Stage 3: Union with the One
The final step is an abandonment of all things one has learned before. Since the One is above all knowledge, language, and reasoning; it must be a personal journey to unite.

As Plotinus himself put it: "Therefore ‘it cannot be said’ or ‘written’, he says [Plato, Letter 7, 341c], but we speak and write, sending on to it and wakening from words [or explanations] towards contemplation, as if showing the way to him who wishes to see something. For teaching extends to the road and the passage, but the vision is the work of him who has decided to see."