#soul construct

You’re not a bother at all, anon,  Simply, one involves a soul and one does not. Metaphysically, the two are nothing alike.  One functions on only EMF, while the other functions on damaged EMF plus a soul.  In both cases the soul is “blocked” (or in the case of soullessness, absent) so they are similar in this regard.  For both, the ability to give a fuck is essentially gone, so the narrative can treat them as equals in many ways (which is why we got the foreshadowing mirrors in 9x17 IMO). Additionally, there’s degrees of “humanity” involved in being a demon, shades that are achieved by injecting “fixes” to the damaged EMF.  There is no equivalent to this for soullessness since there’s no damage to EMF and the soul can not be broken into pieces for a humanity “infusion”.  It’s black or white, no shades of grey.

I don’t *think* I’ve talked about soullessness before…? Maybe only in passing in my “Grace in the Machine” series? Or in discussions?Here’s my explanation for it tho:

Soullessness is basically a meatsuit animated on EMF alone (which doesn’t need to recharge, as in sleep, or interact with the meatsuit on an emotional level, although it can to a very limited extent). The disconnected “ghost of you” is basically possessing you when you are in a state of soulessness. EMF, the shield that functions as “translator and container” between your meatsuit and soul, is instead left in charge when your soul (consciousness) is removed. You “feel” to an extent (because EMF is used to those thoughts/sensations passing through), but you don’t “care” or otherwise can not remember the “choice” the consciousness/soul made when confronted with the experience last time. 

For example (and I’ll use the 9x17 opening for this one): Imagine someone you loved made you constantly feel unappreciated and angry. The love your soul feels overrides the “instinct” (or rather, fleeting thought) to smash the person’s face in instead. Without the soul (the source of love), all that’s left is the original thought process without consciousness to decide action. So instead of “deciding” to go another way (not smash someone’s face in because you love them), the initial reaction replaces it (to beat the crap out of them). We see this as the unappreciated wife then beats her husband to death.

When ghosts become vengeful it is because the EMF goes too long without housing the soul (which remains trapped within the Veil). Trapped within a meatsuit, EMF and soul cannot “disconnect” as they can outside the flesh.  Upon death and “staying behind”, as a substitute for flesh, the soul (within the Veil) will instead attach onto something else as a substituted meatsuit (either bones or an important object).  The EMF is then “tethered” to the soul (like a dog on a leash), but understandably disconnected in its ability to feel .  This tether provides the EMF with LIMITED emotional memories/consciousness from the soul, much like the meatsuit’s muscle “rememory/memory” substitutes this (instead of consciousness) when in a state of soullessness.  

They say the opposite of love is indifference, not hatred.  This is why ghosts can go “vengeful”, filled with hatred (as they are still tethered to their soul), and soulless people essentially feel nothing and are running on muscle rememory autopilot as it were.

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Consider this meta defilerwyrm’s fault… I sure do. Until now this is a topic I’ve left in my head for obvious reasons as I’m clearly not a physics major by any stretch of the imagination, nor do I pretend to be. A read of his angel construct meta here is also recommended as my own meta and understanding of the matter is so closely tied to his own. In this meta I’d like to discuss how souls and grace function as energy sources for their respective species, what “feeds” each body’s conversion process and how the two processes work together in the “vessel construct”.

Energy and mass can be neither created nor destroyed, only converted…

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The first question we must ask ourselves is this: “When God designed “The System” did he create the maximum total number of souls over the course of the existence of the universe at its conception (in an energy/matter balance) or did he instead create the equation to their creation?”

Basically, is a soul “given” to a human by the “system” at their conception or is the soul “converted from matter” as a component of the universe’s construct?

For Supernatural, I believe it is the latter. When a human is created from DNA programming from two humans part of the conception creation process involves some of the mass from the genetic code of both participants being converted into energy, creating a new soul. The soul then functions as a self-charging rechargeable battery, able to maintain itself over time via our body’s energy conversion mechanics (eating food). This type of fusion-like power source allows the soul to power both itself and its encasing, until the energy conversion system (our “meatsuit”) breaks down through natural process of organic decay and cell decomposition over time (aging). It would seem that the opposite is true for angels. An angel’s battery “decays” (like fission) while their body does not and can not while it houses grace as it is (as defilerwyrm says) a photon-bearing conglomeration of EM wavelengths that is designed to house a fission reactor and is therefore unaffected by such a reaction.

In my meta series “Grace in the Machine” I concluded that angels had a “locked soul” within their construct to account for the shadow of emotion they feel. For all intents and purposes (in the world of Supernatural) the soul is the “true key” (as it were) to free will. The design of the universe (which I call “The Tapestry of the System” in all my meta) dictates free will must exist or the universe can not, as a result of this God created free will for angels then “locked it” (or wrapped it if you prefer) within grace as an “override” to create obedience to his will. In my meta series I discussed how it was God’s ultimate design that angels develop (or rather unveiled) free will over the course of their existence by way of grace/soul “barrier” decay over time. I theorized that the longer grace is “infused” into human flesh the more the “barrier” between grace and soul decays. I think angelic possession absolutely works to further this process.

Since human bodies decay, once an angel “syncs” with a vessel their “power source” is then subject to human body mechanics. The grace “decay process” can best be described using Quantum Theory, where it can be compared to how radioactive material decays seemingly randomly, though constantly over time, (a process that ultimately traces to the long ago effects of supernova, further illustrating the dichotomy of the fission/fusion angel/human construct). Since grace itself is somehow nonparticulate energy infused with “the will of God” basic physics laws themselves will only take us so far…

Just as the neutrons and protons that constitute nuclei, as well as other particles that approach close enough to them, are governed by several interactions, so then is the decay of grace once it is channeled into a vessel (which I imagine happened early in human history, as God must have made the first humans compatible for wearing angels, as his later “designs in human genetic code” did not receive the same “angelic fitting elements”, hence the angels need to use cupids to ensure certain human genetic code lines cross and reproduce to keep their respective vessel lines going). While I’m not even going to try and theorize why decay was not an issue before humans were “ready” for possession (perhaps their nonparticulate energy form left their grace in a sort of “stasis” as they had not yet a need to “tap” into it for anything), it can be concluded that from the first moment angels were channeled into vessels the decay process began and has not be stopped. The continuous erosion of grace and further exposure of their soul has generated a need to try and rectify this effect (their sense of free will) by “hacking” their vessel-infused construct “code” in an effort to reverse this process. Season 8 shows us this is done by the angel Naomi under the previous direction of the archangels. It is important to note that since the archangels were designed with larger grace supplies, the “free will effect” has been minimal on them (with the exception of Gabriel which I will talk about later) thus their lack of understanding towards the process (the true will of God in the design of his system).

Comparatively, the decay process must somehow replicate radioactive decay results via a reduction of summed rest mass, once the released energy (the disintegration energy of grace) has escaped in some way (for example, an angel smites something or they use the energy to heal someone). Although decay energy is sometimes defined as associated with the difference between the mass of the parent nuclide products and the mass of the decay products, this is true only of rest mass measurements, where some energy has been removed from the product system . This is true because the decay energy must always carry mass with it, wherever it appears according to the formula E = mc2. The decay energy is initially released as the energy of emitted photons plus the kinetic energy of massive emitted particles (which is why grace appears visually as a bright light).

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Basically… the grace’s decay is the light we see when angels smite or heal. The “pure creation” Anna speaks of in 4.10 is in reality the decaying process at work, since energy conversion is essentially the most key aspect of “creation”. This also further enforces the idea that since an angel lacks mass and is instead photon-bearing conglomeration of EM wavelengths animated by grace, this process can only occur when the angel’s complete construct takes on “mass” (as in when they are in vessels).

Humans and angels: two distinctly different species, each governed by two different body constructs, power systems and energy conversion processes. For humans this power system exists as a singular system (the soul), but with angels the system exists as a binary one (one for their grace, one for their soul).

As I have theorized grace will eventually decay leaving behind a single soul power source, we can assume the angel’s body is already equipped to handle this conversion, this is why they can use a soul to “power themselves” upon depletion of their grace power reserves before they are left with only their own soul (like how Cas used Bobby’s soul in “Frontierland” to time travel the Winchesters home). This is similar to how an alarm clock has a back up 9V battery input, but uses AC/DC power from an outlet for its basic operation (a construct that can be fitted to use batteries itself). This would explain how angels lose “power” when “disconnected from the Heavenly Host”. It would seem that when angels are “plugged into the Heavenly Host” they are able to use human souls as power sources without having to use their grace as it were (in a practical application of Nikola Tesla’s infamous Colorado Springs experiments). What then provides the connection to the Heavenly “plug of power”? From what I can tell it’s their wings, which are governed under some special law of “grace wavelength” physics.

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It is here I’ll discuss how the falls and/or exiles of Cas, Anna, Gabriel, Lucifer and the angels of season 8 differ…

Cas in season 5 (and the angels in season 8):

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The following is how Cas’ fall worked in season 5 (and it is how the fall of all angels in 8.23 will work in Season 9 if I had to guess). While Cas could still “teleport” in season 5, it is likely he didn’t have proper use of his wings (which never harmonize into a vessel during the possession process). This would also explain why the angel’s wings burned off in the season 8 finale. The Angel Tablet spell forced the wings to take on mass from the space around them, then expelled that mass as energy in some sort of change to their wavelength spectrum, effectively severing their connection to the Host. While I suspect the wavelength frequency of their wings allows for their secondary power connection to the Host, to lose this connection, however, does not hinder their ability to travel in their nonparticulate energy form (at least for Cas it didn't). Just like with Cas S5, the longer they stay “severed from the host” the more they must use their grace power source and the closer to human they will become. At the end of season 5 (approximately 8-9 months) Cas’ grace reserve was on empty, meaning the our season 8 angels have 1 season before the same thing happens to them (give or take). Once their grace is gone and their “power system” is forced into “soul power only” mode. They are effectively human. This is what happened to Cas in season 5. It is likely the body’s original soul and secondary angel soul would then be trapped together, each trying to pull on the body’s single power conversion system, resulting in a shorter life span for the meatsuit. This is the opposite effect of normal angelic possession since we know an angel’s grace suspends all aging processes in favor of grace decay. During possession, angels shift the cell decay process over to their power source, allowing them to maintain possession (in theory) for “thousands of years” (or as long as it takes for their grace to deplete itself) so long as they stay “connected” to the Heavenly Host.

Gabriel:

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Here we have an instance of an angel “hiding” but not being “severed” per se from the Heavenly Host (same thing with Balthazar here). It is unlikely the other archangels felt the desire to “cut him off” due to their wish for him to eventually return (though this isn’t explicitly stated anywhere). Regardless of this, grace decay would continue in his vessel… It is, however, worth noting that Gabriel (being an archangel and all) has an exponentially greater amount of grace in his “tank” compared to a lower ranking angel (like Anna or Cas), and therefore it would take longer to decay fully. He arguably demonstrates free will far better than his other archangel counterparts, making it a fair assumption that this is a direct result of his being “envesseled” for so long and experiencing the decaying process in a far more advanced capacity than the others.

Lucifer:

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We are basically looking at the same kind of “forced fall” as Cas season 5 in this case, with one notable difference: Lucifer’s fall was without a vessel. Now, I don’t know who cut off Cas (probably an archangel), but we all know it was Michael for Lucifer. I would argue that Lucifer probably never took a human vessel given his dispise of humans, by proxy this means that Lucifer’s fall probably happened somewhere around the time of “fitting”. Because of this he would not have experienced the same grace decay effect as Cas, or the other angels. The process would have only began once he took Nick as a vessel. Now, since Nick was not a “proper fit” we see Lucifer has problems harmonizing on a molecular level with him and accessing his grace in season 5 (though this isn’t really commented on by anyone it is evident by seeing him dig manually for Death, travel without “teleporting”, using it only once his vessel begins to “wears thin” and so on…). Over time we also see the physical resemblance of radiation poisoning on the vessel, also reinforcing a fission-like radiation decay effect for grace when a “proper container” does not exist. It isn’t until he possesses the proper container (Sam) that he has “proper” access to his grace as evident when he smites Castiel. When Cas pulls Sam’s body out of the cage and unknowingly leaves behind his soul, it is likely Lucifer kept Sam’s soul in his secondary “soul power slot” until Death removed it.

Anna:

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Anna’s fall is the only example we have of a fall made by choice while existing in photon-bearing conglomeration of EM wavelength form (celestial intent) since it happened in 1985 before angels took vessels again. Since Anna comments that her mother was incapable of conception, meaning “faulty” DNA incapable of carrying out the code to create a soul, and I believe angels already have souls, this fits. Anna force depleted her grace (think a forced-nuclear meltdown), forcing a collapse that exposed (or converted if you will) her soul, sending it to an available host, her mother. Under this type of fall, Anna also remembered her angel time vaguely. Since (as Cas puts it) human perception is limited, these “memories” were also. Only through therapy was she able to suppress those memories completely until Cas declaring “Dean Winchester is saved” on Angel Radio began her mental journey back to reclaiming those memories. Later when Anna reclaimed her grace, the resulting power infusion “incinerated” her human form as it was incompatible for possession, not being part of a vessel line. It is also likely her soul was unable to be re-absorbed into her grace which is why she could “call in a favor” and request her old body (obviously with the addition of vessel DNA coding) when we see her next. Under my “all angels have souls” theorizing she doesn’t need an additional soul’s permission in this construct because she is using her own as it were to satisfy the “permission” problem. She otherwise occupies an “empty vessel”. Given what happened to Castiel in season 5, I’d say he’s doing the same thing effective God putting him “back together”.

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Well, I think that’s it…?