Places

All five of the methods involved in Otherworldly travel have their own risks. As I mentioned earlier, this sort of thing is best left to the experts. And even the experts fear Disembodiment: the state in which a living traveler goes too far or is gone too long. After three phases of the moon, or roughly three months by Earthly reckoning, a traveler’s living body might begin to break down into raw spirit essence. The consciousness still drives this spirit, but the body fades away. Later, I’ll mention Ghost Realms: places where the living inhabitants became spirits after their homes were cut off from the Earthly plane. Such uncanny regions remind us of the risks we take when we step away from the fields we know and journey off to unearthly realms.

The Technocracy has its own name for this phenomenon: Void Adaptation. According to that theory, the physical and mental components of an Earthly being start separating once they cross over into another dimension. Eventually, the consciousness and physical body enter a quantum state of

complete disassociation. In plain English, the probability that binds them together has been dissolved, so the complete person can never return to the physical state she had occupied before. That person essentially becomes an EDE: an Extra-Dimensional Entity whose existence threatens the world as we know it.

Despite such risks, adventures beyond the barriers are traditional elements of the magickal Path. Even the Technocracy, whose ideals minimize contact with such unpredictable realms, sends certain members off to explore these alternate dimensions, if only to seal them off from the fragile human world.

So take a deep breath and hold my hand. That tingling stomach-flip will last a moment or two. An unlucky or inexperienced traveler can get stuck in the Gauntlet, but I’ve got decades of experience with this sort of thing, so you’re safe with me. Although the Gauntlet and other hazards make this a challenging trip (and yes, in case you were wondering, drug-trippers do occasionally wind up crossing over – that’s a common travel focus for Ecstatics, shamans, and the Virtual Adepts), the potential insights and adventures are worth the risk.

Passing through the Gauntlet’s reality wall, we step out… or perhaps in… to what you might call the skin of the world: the Penumbra, an imperfect shadow of a deeper truth.