Soul Linking

Soul Linking is an advanced technology of The Syndicate created to permit the Syndicate to bring people to Offworld, without having to bring their actual bodies by linking their soul back on Earth to an avatar body on Offworld. The reason the development, and use of this technology was necessary is because God prevented them (The Syndicate) from bringing human beings (soul, body and spirit) to Offworld because, due to the difference in the nature of the planet, significant biological and genetic changes would be required for them to live there.

As such, in order to ensure the genetic purity of mankind, God forbade them from doing direct abductions. So Soul Linking was created as a viable alternative. One odd side effect of this technology is that it uses Temporal Framing to make this possible. Temporal Framing is the theory that all time exists as individual frames, like pictures, or slides, that we, as humans, and creation as a whole, must pass through, one by one, in order to experience time. Since the soul can't be removed from the host body without killing it, thus sending the individual into eternity (ie, Heaven or Hell), a link must be created between the soul, and the target avatar body through soul linking.

This keeps the host body alive by creating what amounts to a remote control link from the individual's soul, within a specific frame of time, and linking it to a special avatar that's been created just for this purpose. The avatar, being genetically stable within the atmosphere of Offworld, now becomes controlled by the linked soul that is attached to it. The only reason this works is because the soul exists outside of time. So if it is attached to, and captured within a specific "Temporal Frame", the link can be maintained indefinitely so long as the avatar remains alive.

An interesting side effect of this technique is that, when the link is broken, the individual, who was linked to a remote body on Offworld, returns to the exact moment in time (in the past) that their soul was captured and linked to their Offworld avatar. This creates a type of temporal "snap back" that causes the individual to pick up in history at the exact moment they were previously captured, no matter how much time they experienced on Offworld in their avatar body. The overall technique of soul linking can be repeated over and over again if desired. But generally it is only done once. Also, most people who are soul linked return to Earth with no memory of their time on Offworld. There are a few who do remember, but the majority do not. The reasons for this are not specified in the story.