From: James Jordan <jbjordan4@home.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) The Secret: a new theory
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 10:17:50 

At 11:50 AM 4/20/2001 +0100, Nick G. wrote:

>The resolution to the problem, I now argue, is another
>much-questioned feature of TBSS's plot: astral travel.
>Why can Horn travel astrally when in the company of an
>inhumu? Surely because the Neighbors bestowed a
>strictly passive astral travel capability on the
>inhumi ...

         If this attractive theory be correct, it seems to me that it 
should connect to the question of how the inhumi travel from Green to Blue. 
Since they can't tolerate cold, we know that the inhumi don't fly from 
Green to Blue. But perhaps they employ this astral travel ability to do so. 
Of course, it would be a different kind of use of the ability, since they 
don't leave their bodies behind. At the same time, astral travellers seem 
to have some kind of physical body with them, even though their ur-body is 
asleep back home. Astral travel with inhumi lies between full teleportation 
on the one hand and mere spirit-travel on the other. I think that's a clew. 
I think the inhumi are capable of teleportation.
         "We get our intelligence from you." Hmmm. Try this out: 
Animal-inhumi are just tools for astral travel. But when an inhumi gets 
Neighbor or human blood, then both of the necessary factors are present 
INSIDE him/her: inhumi astral ability + human intelligence. In that case, 
Smart-inhumi do not need another human to travel astrally, and perhaps the 
super-close connection of human blood and inhumi genes enables the 
Smart-inhumi to teleport, not just travel astrally. (That is, a mixture of 
human blood and inhumi genes is stronger then a human holding hands with an 
inhumu/a.)
         It seems you cannot go anywhere that nobody in the group has ever 
been to. But if only one smart-inhumu/a makes the trip, then others can 
make the trip with him/her, and that will expand until millions are making 
the trip.
         Since this hypothetical ability is linked to conjunction, it would 
seem that they can teleport between Green and Blue when the two are close 
to each other. It appears that distance plays a part in the ability of 
Smart-inhumi to teleport -- an SF aspect of this seemingly fantasy element.
         Travelling greater distances would not be possible by 
teleportation, but only by astral travel. Also, travelling with a human 
must be astral and not teleportation, since the human lacks the inhumi 
ability. That is, when you add a teleporting inhumi with a wholly 
non-teleporting human, you get something in between.
         If I'm right, then the precise ability of the inhumi is not astral 
travel but teleportation. The Neighbors gave Animal-inhumi the ability to 
teleport, but no ability to use it. Standing with a Neighbor, who cannot 
teleport, the inhumi can enable astral travel but not full teleportation. 
It enables the Neighbor to "phone home" or phone anywhere else he has ever 
been. Aha! But inhumi are vampires and when one generation of Animal-inhumi 
get some Neighbor blood, the next generation turns out to be Smart-inhumi. 
Smart-inhumi can use their ability to teleport. One S-I can get with 
another S-I and go wherever that second S-I has ever been, and not just by 
astral travel: the two can teleport there.
         Well, one speculation calls for another. So, Gevers, does this 
advance your theory, or it is poppycock?

JBJordan


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