Spiritual summoning is made possible by the odd quirk of spiritual entities that they exist slightly to the "side" of our reality, as discussed earlier. Some might refer to this as a spiritual or ethereal plane that both overlaps and is separate from our own. Recall that all spiritual beings exist on this plane, although some are very close to our own (e.g., animal spirits that always interact with inanimate objects and require mundane food to live), and others are much father away (e.g., conceptual spirits that cannot be seen or interact with inanimate objects without effort and feed on strange paraphysical energies).
A spirit is tied to the place where it is currently existent by a bond. The existence of this bond can be seen in that incorporeal spirits, while unaffected by gravity, still move with the Earth as it rotates and orbits around the sun. When a spirit moves through normal means, this bond moves with them (indeed, some speculate that incorporeal spirits actually move by relocating the bond), and other than the minor matter of spirits not flying off into the vastness of space, it would have little effect.
In order to understand the actual mechanism by which spirits are summoned we must, as is all to common in paraphysics, resort to metaphor. Think of the bond holding a spirit in its location as a spring. When a spirit is summoned, another spring is attached to the spirit leading to the person or place that is summoning it. A spirit may throw its 'weight' towards this new spring, and accept the summons, or resist the new spring's pull, effectively 'snapping' it. The only exception to this rule is if a spirit's true name is used in the summoning. Then, the spirit cannot resist the force of this new spring's pull and is compelled to appear. Presumably the power of a summoning needed to affect a spirit on Earth is less than that needed for a spirit in Hell (and theoretically Heaven).
Once summoned, a spiritual inertia keeps the spirit at its new, temporary location. Once the summoning's duration has passed, or the spirit is dismissed, the first bond pulls the spirit back to its original location. Where such a spirit will actually reappear is not easy to predict. This location is not the spacial coordinates the spirit once occupied - else the spirit would reappear in outer space, the Earth having moved in its orbit. Spirits have been observed reappearing in the same position and distance relative to the Earth's geography, a person or animal, and an inanimate object. The same spirit may return from three different summonings, all using the same ritual, using a different one of the three methods of orientation each time.
The best explanation, at this time, for this behavior is that where a spirit reappears depends upon how it mentally viewed their location. If it saw itself as on a stone, then it returns to that stone; next to a man, then it returns next to that man; in a cage, then it returns to the inside of that cage. Of course, a spirit may avoid returning to their original location at all by agreeing to the proper duration clause of a spiritual contract.
The mutability of a spirit's location through its thoughts suggests that should a spirit form a strong enough attachment to a person, place, or object, through contract, emotion, or both, the spirit could travel to and from that person at will. No summoner has created this attachment, or at least survived doing so; the dangers of even the most skillfully bound spirit having free access to oneself are quite well known.
From Theoretical Paraphysics
"Fancy meeting you here," Ranma joked.
"Ranma," Nabiki said, flustered.
"I'm sorry if you wanted to be alone," Ranma apologized. She got so little time to herself with Pops always badgering her, so she could understand not wanting to be interrupted. Of course, her time with Nabiki more than filled whatever needs had made Ranma want to get away, and she'd kinda hoped Nabiki would feel the same way.
"No, I was just surprised," Nabiki replied. "I thought that the summoning had run its course already." Ranma shrugged. She didn't understand how all this worked, just that sometimes she automatically got pulled to Nabiki, sometimes there was a 'tug' she could choose to follow, and sometimes she was stuck with her Pops for a while longer.
"Great. This crazy chick's been following us for a while now; she keeps trying to get a chance at Pop again," Ranma explained. Nabiki blushed again. That was nice of her, but she didn't have to be embarrassed for Ranma. She'd known what kind of guy her father was for a while now.
"So your father managed to inspire her to chase after him?" Nabiki asked.
"Yeah, well Pop's 'inspired' lots of people to chase after him," Ranma admitted, thinking of the various shopkeepers and restauranteurs they'd fled from, "but she's been the most determined. Anyway, we split up for a while, and I really wanted to be with you instead of running around back there."
"I'm glad my company is better than nothing," Nabiki said sardonically, a small smile on her lips.
"You know what I mean," Ranma shot back. That was one of the great things about Nabiki; when Ranma said something stupid she'd just tease him about it instead of getting all upset and stuff. "Soon as I got some time, I just wanted to be with you."
"Really?" Nabiki asked.
"Sure," Ranma returned. "You're great to be around. Even sleeping with you is better. I felt great in the morning, and it isn't just not having Pop snoring in my ear."
"I'm glad you, uh, enjoyed it."
"Well, you can't really enjoy anything while sleeping, ya know? 'Cept maybe in a dream or something, but it was pretty nice when I woke up and all. Sorry I had to leave before you got up."
"That's better than dealing with my older sister again," Nabiki replied. "I can just see her reaching over to wake me up and touching you instead."
Ranma laughed. "Yeah, I thought she had me that one time." She had no idea how she would have explained everything.
"You could have just gone through the wall, or the floor, or the ceiling..."
Ranma scratched the back of her head. "I, uh, didn't think about that?" she offered weakly. "I mean, I'm used to trees and grass and living stuff like that."
"Well, keep it in mind in the future."
Nabiki whistled on her way home. Time with Ranma always lifted her mood, and this afternoon had allayed a big fear. From her boost that morning, it was clear that Ranma could feed off Nabiki and not just from boys. She still couldn't quite figure out if Ranma knew what she'd done and was complaining that Nabiki hadn't woken Ranma up or was just talking about sleeping. Hopefully it was the first, but Nabiki found it hard to convince herself it was anything more than wishful thinking.
"I'm home!" Nabiki called out as she paused to exchange her outside shoes for slippers, then hurried upstairs and into her room. Sitting on her bed, she tried to decide what to do with the rest of her blackmail money. The new month's payments would start again soon, so she could splurge...
The sound of her door opening drew Nabiki's attention. A slightly flustered Kasumi stepped inside and moved the desk chair so that she could sit facing Nabiki.
"I realize you've been indulging your desires lately," Kasumi began in a wooden, rehearsed tone, "and that I can't convince you to change your religion. However, I still have a duty as your elder sister." From her apron, she pulled a small box which she handed to her sister. Nabiki realized it contained condoms.
"Kasumi-"
"You're still in highschool," Kasumi plowed onward, "and having demon-spawn before graduating would wreck your chances of getting into college. You're going to spend eternity in the depths of Hell, so you really need to make the most of your life-"
"That's it!" Nabiki growled. "This was just annoying before, but now I've had it with your attitude. I don't need your condoms, and, if I did, I would buy my own. I've been on the pill for years, Kasumi. Remember when I went to the doctor because my cramps were so bad every month? Well, guess what she prescribed? So I wouldn't need your condoms to keep from getting pregnant. Of course, the pill doesn't protect against some demonic STD, but that would just serve me right and not publicly embarrass you like a pregnancy would, right?
"It doesn't matter, anyway. You want to know about the books, the patterns? Fine. I'm not a satanist, I just found girl I want to date. That's right, I said girl. It gets better. She's a nature spirit, a succubus; you can think of her like a kami or a youkai if it makes it easier to understand. I need all the stuff to keep in touch with her, not to summon demons." Well, that was almost a complete lie, but Kasumi wouldn't understand the difference between summoning demons to obey your will and worshiping them. "We might not even end up dating! So stop getting on my case and get out of my room."
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(Posted Tue, 17 May 2005 02:49)
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