Well perhaps, but this Several Person was me, for the record. (OK, OK, and that was Michael Cule...)
> >> Meself I'd say that it isn't necessarily a matter of theological debate,
> >> given the availability of Soul Sight and similar effects.
> >
> >Thereby only making it a matter of debate between people with different
> >'versions' of the Feat, i.e., potentially the distance of a well-chucked
> >rock...
>
> Well, yes but...
>
> If your culture believes it has a reliable test for the existence of a
> soul it will use it.
Only if the matter were controversial in the first place. (And if the matter were controversial, who would accept any such test as 'reliable'?) Your premise seems to be some great Orlanthi Abortion Debate, which is solved/forestalled by the existence of such a Feat, for example. I agree that the beliefs and the magic are strongly likely to be in concordance, but the implication that the magic is what _causes_ the belief seems highly suspect to me.
> And anyway why do people assume
>
> a) that different cultures tests will give different results?
I've made no such assumption, I merely wished to challenge the contrary assumption. It seems likely to me that Glorantha is as varied and interesting (in the Chinese sense, perhaps) as the RW in such respects, but it's perhaps not impossible that it be Boring and Monolithic. (How's that for an impartial summary?)
> b) that there isn't some actual reality that the various rituals are
> tapping into?
It is foolish to assume the absense of 'actual reality'. Even avowed solipsists trouble to get out of the way of the buses, as someone once observed to me. It remains problematic to determine what it actually is, though. I don't think 'people' need 'assume' anything about that whole morass to suppose that it's very possible that different magical rituals can give a different view of what's Really Going On.
It's already well-documented that different Gloranthan cultures have different beliefs about the nature of the 'soul', in any case. Why is it terribly controversial to imagine that these 'different souls' may come into being, or manifest, or whatever it is they're doing with respect to a foetus or infant, at different times?
Cheers,
Alex.
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #364
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