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<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'>Hurm. Okay, for a very long time I have been aware that when <br>I start a thread the post I send gets posted almost immediatley, <br>but when I respond it takes maybe half a day for it to turn up. <br>That said, it has been several days now, and I will regrettfully <br>conclude that the post below has been eaten by Shub-Internet.<br> <br>Fortunately copy'n'paste from the 'sent' file is the internet <br>equivalent of necromantic revivication...<br> <br>On sat 5th July 2014 Andrew Perron got to the nub of the issue and asked the <br>pointed question:<br>>> To obliterate your soul is neither easy nor painless, and requires a<br>>> single-mindedness that is quite rare these days.<br>> <br>> Hrm. Okay, question - what are we treating the soul *as*, in this case? <br>> There's a lot of different takes on it both in religion and in fiction. Is it <br>> an integral part of the self (apparently not, in this story)? Is it a "get <br>> into the afterlife free" ticket? Is it some immaterial source of ethics and <br>> nice feelings? Is it an agglomeration of "life force"? I'm good with any of <br>> these takes, I'm just curious as to which you're following.<br> <br>Oo, er. You know, thinking about it, I have to admit <br>I haven't given much conscious thought to that angle. <br>I find that for the most part I'm reflexively working <br>on a model derived from a Harry Potter fanfic that I <br>read years ago - combined with bits and pieces from <br>other fiction and real world occultism (To explicate <br>the Harry Potter connection: there's a subtle (very <br>subtle) distinction between soul and life force (and <br>even magical power, for those who have that ability) <br>but they're entwined together and unless you know what <br>to look for or have meticulous observation skills most <br>people don't notice. Nevertheless that soul is the <br>basis of the persistence of identity when in a <br>disembodied state, including after death.)<br> <br>[And, yes, part of the reason I've taken so long to <br>answer has been because I went back and looked up the <br>reference to make sure I wasn't misremembering too much...]<br> <br>In the context of this story I'm not sure how well <br>that working model will do. This is a superhero setting, <br>and the existence of the soul is a lot less nebulous when <br>you have supermages releasing that astral forms. It <br>already has a certain amount of conflict with other <br>background info that I have for this story: for instance, <br>I don't think I'm giving away too much to say that the <br>reason that Marcus' wife died on cancer is because it <br>wasn't based a purely material malady: she caught an <br>infection of her astral double/soul which then had ported <br>over to her physical body, and the medicine available at <br>the time was only able to treat the physical symptoms, <br>but not the metaphysical disease. (I'm pretty sure this <br>idea is based on something I once read from the Victorian <br>era British occultst Dion Fortune.)<br> <br>Uhm, I'm babbling, aren't I? Perhaps if I make up a <br>metaphor on the spur of the moment: just as the phsyical <br>body has lots of parts, some of which can be compromised <br>and have greater or lesser effects (compare have an appendix <br>out versus the need for insulin injection or an iron lung, <br>or how some types of brain injury can be recovered from) <br>the metaphysical existence of a person is also made up of <br>bits (life force, soul, possibly other stuff) which can <br>also be compromised by injury, disease or loss. Having <br>all the bits is usually a good idea, but losing some of <br>them can survival depending on the exact circumstances.<br> <br> <br>---<br>Saxon Brenton 'wibbly-wobbly souly-wouly'<br> <br> <br> </div></body>
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