The Soul Transfer Ritual

 

This ritual is referred to as “The Soul Transfer” ritual. According to the few people I've talked to that have practiced the ritual, they claim that performing the ritual will send one's consciousness into the “Nexus of Possibility”. This Nexus is said to neither bend to time nor space. While here, a person can view their life as if every possible decision they ever made turned out for the better. That one lottery ticket was the winning one. That girl you asked out became your wife. One would be able to gaze into their own personal Heaven and, for 24 hours, or roughly 30 minutes when it is translated into the real world's time, the ritual performer will live in this paradise.

However, while this ritual isn't incredibly complicated, the chance that it can go horribly wrong is significant. Only one of the people I've talked to regarding it, a half-mad cultist recovering from a botched ritual attempt, seems to remember the process in its entirety. He allowed me to transcribe the process under the one condition that I explain to the reader what would happen should the ritual be botched.

Should the ritual be botched, the particular alternative world the performer might experience could be one where every decision they made went wrong. However, this is if the performer is lucky. The Nexus of Possibility can show one ANY possibility. The performer will live the 24 hours in this alternative world, regardless of how nonsensical or traumatic this world is. For the poor cultist whom informed me of this ritual, well, let's just say I'm tempted to go to church again.

To perform the ritual, one will need a particular set of items that shouldn't hard to come by. I'm sure a lot of you will have these items in your home.

You will need:

A pair of scissors.
At least three close friends or family members that you would trust with your life.
A hand-held mirror.
A very small source of light.
Calming music of your choice (Not essential, but this will help muffle the noise outside of the room you will be performing this in.)
A bottle of water (For emergency purposes).
A comfortable chair in a secluded room.
A piece of thread (At least 12 inches in length).

There is no set time to perform this ritual, meaning it can be performed at any time during the day or night. While one person claimed that the ritual would only work at midnight, the cultist claimed that any time would do so long as the room was dark.

Once you have three people whom are willing help you, you must assign one of them the role of 'anchor' and the other two as 'guards'. You can have more than two guards, but two is the only requirement. These guards are to guard the door to your room by standing on either side of it. They cannot move from their post. Their job is simple: Do NOT let anyone enter the ritual room and do not let you exit the room. They must make sure the door remains shut for at least 45 minutes, allowing you 15 minutes to transfer to the Nexus and 30 minutes for living in the alternative world. The anchor is the one that will retrieve you after your half hour in this alternative world, so make sure that your anchor is the one who you trust the most.

Hand the anchor the scissors and allow them to leave the room and close the door. While there can be windows, I cannot stress enough how important that there be NO noise or any sort of distraction in the room aside from very soothing, calming music if you choose to include that in your ritual. Any outside distraction or noise will keep your consciousness in your current form and not allow you to transfer to the Nexus. Once you are certain no outside noise will distract you, turn on the music, place the water bottle in your lap, and sit on the chair. Tie one end of the thread to your middle finger and one end to the chair. That way, when you return, you know you are no longer in the Nexus and back to reality.

In regards to the small light source, make sure it is somewhere where you can look at it with relative ease, however, it does not have to be in the direct line of sight. The mirror must be held in the hand that is tied to the chair. Make sure the reflective part of the mirror is facing directly at you. Keep eye contact on the mirror for as long as you can. The mirror acts as the "gateway" to the Nexus. If your eyes start to droop or you find yourself becoming fatigued, it is normal. You must remain relaxed. During your transition, strange images may flow into your mind's eye or the mirror you are looking into. Do not panic if this happens; simply let the images flow while keeping a positive mental image of your life. It is incredibly important to reflect on every decision you've made and how these decisions could have impacted your life for the better. This will aid you in finding the best possible reality for your consciousness to travel to. Keep those memories alive as much as you can and do not deviate from that train of thought. Otherwise, it is uncertain which reality you will travel to.

Eventually, you'll begin to have the sensation of floating and the world around you will seem to fade away. This is your consciousness leaving to go to the Nexus. Eventually, once the world around you begins to fade completely, you'll find yourself in an alternative world and you'll be free of the confines of your chair. While you may have no direct control over yourself at the beginning, this is simply you observing the world as the Nexus directs your consciousness. It will not take long before you find yourself being able to sense the world around you as you would normally. At this point, the transition is complete.

Should everything have happened according to plan, you will find yourself back in your body, or an improved version of it, and you will have 24 hours to explore this personal paradise of yours. Since this is not your native reality, it is incredibly important that your physical body is not disturbed during the duration of your stay. If it is, your consciousness might be ripped from your new host body and could be lost in one of the countless possible realities it could exist in.

Now, although your consciousness is somewhere else, your body can still move and vocalize in the normal world. While normally this is only minor shifting and grunts, some performers have been known to scream, get up from the chair, drop the mirror in their hand, and actually talk to the guards outside of the door. However, the string tied to the chair will ensure that you remain in the room and, should the string fail to remain in place, the guards will make sure that the door remains shut and you do not exit the room. However, so long as the string is secure, it is unlikely the performer will be able to remove his or herself too far from their chair.

After 24 hours, or roughly 30 minutes, as stated above, you should find yourself slowly returning back to your actual body. At this point, the anchor must enter the room. Should the performer be alert, the anchor should ask the performer to recite their name; first, middle, and last. If the performer is correct, the anchor can use the scissors to cut the string and the ritual is over. If the performer is wrong, or they still do not seem to be alert, they are to take the bottle of water and splash some of the water onto the performer and ask again. If the performer is still incorrect, the anchor must continue to splash water on the performer until they are correct, as the consciousness of the performer is lost in transition. The water will help the consciousness of the performer to figure out which reality is their native one and allow it to travel back to the performer's mind. If the anchor is still not convinced that the performer has returned from the Nexus, even after getting their name correct, they may ask other questions that only the performer would know about them. Consider it 'bonus security'.

The performer may do this ritual as many times as they wish. However, once is usually enough, from what I've come to understand. Again, I cannot say this enough, do NOT perform this ritual. You never know what world you'll end up at.