I think the conscious and the soul are two completely different things...Why, because the conscious and the sub-conscious are two different things. You can be unconscious and comatose but the soul still continues. The soul is part of growth in the womb. The soul is what makes a person alive. No one ever loses their soul until they die. Then the soul is released to nature and becomes a part of nature. That 'energy' is absorbed by the larger energies in nature.
There are people that through their lifetime experiences may lose their soul. They become insane or so warped by outside influences they become souless. Their soul has degraded to nothing but a trace memory and to all purposes useless.
To be honest I don't think there is a short answer to this question. Philosophers have been chewing on this walnut for thousands of years. What is soul? I don't have the mental tools to deal with something this wide and deep. Does anyone?? El