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on 2/18/01 12:32 PM, Endymion9 at endymion9 at mindspring.com wrote:
I'm assuming the Neighbors could astral travel without any assistance, human or inhumi. My next assumption is that the inhumi have learned to astral travel but only with the assistance of a Neighbor or human.
IIRC, it is Silkhorn specifically who has the power to astral travel, although only in the company of an inhumu/a. Since the Neighbors probably gave him this ability, presumably they can do it too, but I don't recall it being explicitly stated. I don't think the inhumi have the ability apart from Silkhorn. On the other hand, apparently the inhumi do have the power of possession, although I don't recall this being mentioned before RTTW.
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And I'm not sure if I'm confusing astral travel with possession. What exactly is the difference. Is possession just astral traveling into someone else?
In possession, the possessor's mind takes over someone else's body temporarily. In astral travel, the travellers appear in a faraway place in a separate "astral" body. (At least, that's how it is in TBOTSS.)
--Adam
*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.