"Consciousness, like everything in the universe is relative.

The bug is conscious of its environment and interacts with it using the stored experiences and wave forms that are recorded in its tiny field of data. It is driven by stored data that is encoded into its DNA and more importantly - in a quantized field of data that supports this DNA.

That is why the bug doesn't suddenly act like a cat and vice-versa. Each animal and creature has a pre-existing field of data before it is born!"

Or in other words replace the word "soul" with "field of data" and think you have solved something.

"How does this work?

Okay we're going to have to think way out of the box here...so bear with me.

In a nutshell, there is no before or after in the universe!

All the things in the universe that will exist in the future from OUR frame of reference, already DO exist from another! So humanity was already in existence before the Earth was even formed! All this data, all these things that will exist, have existed or that you dream might exist - DO exist already, in, for lack of better terminology, a quantized field of waveform data. And not just one humanity - an infinite number of humanities in parallel universes that from our frame of reference, have existed, exist now or will exist."

So, basically time is an illusion and at some level there is not "free will"- the illusionary "future" is set. Though there could be "some" free will, as in the "Matrix" particularly if you are "The One".

"These light speed and faster oscillating fields are the true "Adam & Eve" and make possible evolution and infinite diversity in an infinite number of parallel universes and our own. The missing link that folks have been looking for is not a physical one - it is invisible and accompanies physical evolution, both here on Earth and throughout our galaxy and the universe."

Again, more about the soul. But it does tend to point toward an obvious aspect- the soul would not need to "obey time"- as is not of this universe- it's "beyond" or not within speed of light constraints that rest of universe exists in.
So, modern science [special relativity] can point to a possible aspect of the soul.