‘Body snatching’ transition to mental only

2-16-17

In the sci-fi novel, the transition from the host body to the original corporal being is problematic. Leon enters Tuane and shrivels up on the roadside, but when Tuane returns to the spot of his metempsychosis at Craters of the Moon, whose body does Leon transition into if his original body is defunct? As it is written now, his ‘ghost’ leaves Tuane’s body and materializes in the seat next to Tuane in the pick-up truck. His mind has aged and so has his body fifteen years after initial transmigration; when he returns to his older brother, he looks and feels like his brother’s father. Perhaps I can adapt the ‘body snatching’ transition to mental only since the original body disintegrates upon exiting it; that way, the character still has time to live limited to his/her mental age, no matter what the age of the body entered may be. For example, if 41 year old Leon enters 34 year-old Hitler in 1923, Hitler’s mental age would become 41. This would create a new problem since the spirit (soul) has been called ageless; how could it age? How could it die? If 21 year-old Peg enter 47 year-old Rosa Luxemburg in 1918 does Rosa’s brain become 21 or remain 47? Of course, it is my fantasy novel to do with what I wish, but I at least must be consistent if not scientifically accurate; in matters of the soul, there is no accuracy, anyway. Only the flesh has an observable outcome. The brain is flesh but it is not the brain transmigrating; only the thoughts, knowledge, and sentiments.

      In any event, I am considering having my team of four time-travelers go back to 1918 once they arrive in Germany and influence the chain of events after WW I that resulted in the holocaust. If the spirit of Luxemburg can guide Hitler, not only will the holocaust be averted but Germany will have its socialist revolution inspiring Europe with Russia, make Stalin obsolete, and with China, defeat the fascist tendency of the United States, perhaps even spreading socialism to the American shores and around the world which will have been spared European Colonialism and annihilation of its indigenous by the next jump back in time to neutralize Christopher Columbus. African and Native American culture would flourish and a respect for nature, organic socialism, would prevail by the time Europeans can reach foreign shores. How far back could my time travelers go to protect the Golden Age of Islamic culture from the Genghis Khan’s Hordes and Pope Urban II’s Crusades? Could idolatry become cultural, not religious and monotheism prevail with no need for a first or second coming of Christ?