If souls exist, then why do biological bodies exist why not just live as souls?

The reason souls obtain biological bodies is to gain self-knowledge, that is to be able to
detect and sense their own existence. The body is absolutely essential to the awakening
process, for without it there is nothing to contrast the non-material soul.

For senses to work they depend upon contrast. You are able to see these words on your
screen because they are typed in black and not white like the background, otherwise you
can’t see them. You are able to hear sounds only when they have the contrast of silence,
otherwise you can’t hear them.

How would “silence” know itself? By “incarnating” into sound and experiencing the contrast.
That is what the soul does when it incarnates into a physical body. The problem is, that
when a soul incarnates into a body, it thinks that it IS the body. That’s an easy enough
mistake to make, of course.

It takes many, many incarnations of a soul to explore all the physical desires to see that
happiness is inside none of them. Once the soul has reached this kind of maturity and is
desperate enough to find the peace and happiness that material things simply cannot
provide, only then does it start to seek itself as the contrast of the material body, discovering
itself as the non-material consciousness within the body.

The process begins by realizing, “I am not the body” and then “I am not the mind” and then
“I am not the emotions” until finally the question, “If I am not any of these physical things,
then who/what am I?” When they search for this answer they find no answer. They feel their
existence but they cannot find anything material at their core. This is quite shocking at first
but soon they discover and learn to sense their own presence of consciousness, the still
point around which all things change.

This is the beginning of spiritual awakening. After discovering themselves as a spirit, then a
long healing process begins where one learns how to live as the soul. They heal the mind,
the heart, the body, and then to learn how to live moment to moment as the soul,
expressing unconditional love.

When this has been accomplished, the material body may finally be shed and the soul, with
all its experience and self-knowledge, may continue on to whatever comes next.

How can we distinguish the soul from the body?

The body is material in nature and has parameters through which we know it.

Soul is the cause and content of all matter and non-matter. The soul manifests itself as
everything along with this body.

Soul is neither inside or outside the body because soul is not a place, person or a thing. It is
non-material, non-local infinite. It cannot be described and therefore, cannot be
distinguished

Why does a soul/spirit need a human body?

The way electricity needs a bulb to produce light and thermocoil to produce heat. We can
not see electricity but, there physical tool which make us understand and feel that it is
present or absent.

Same manner, physical body is just a tool to produce effects of seeing, listening, talking,
working physically in physical world. Physical senses are means for others to identify your
various feelings. Now when you are in dream, you perform everything but, without any
physical body. So for in original soul form for your own self, you need not to have a physical
body. It is useful only to communicate physically to physical World.