[Sl'askia]

What are they to you? To me they are one and the same. To me they are your consciousness, the part of you that thinks and feels, the part of you that enables you to 'live'. The part that (depending on what you believe), when you die, either asends to 'heaven', falls to 'hell', moves to a new fresh 'vessel' (reincarnation), or simply ceases to exists altogether.
Right now I am not sure personally what happens to it when you die, though I am leaning toward reincarnation.