The Nature of a Dementor

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 128411

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_svirn" <a_svirn at y...> wrote:
> I have some difficulty believing your "Dementor as a Spiritual 
> being" statement. If they are spiritual beings why do they look (and 
> smell) like decayed corpses? And what do you mean by "It is 
> especially tuned into Human Beings"? Whatever they are they are 
> certainly not HUMAN beings – that much we can be sure of. Besides, 
> they can't be both human and spiritual. 
> 
> ...edited...
> 
> a_svirn

bboyminn:

First, whether true or not, I think Tonks explanation of the Dementors
was brilliant. In addition, I think you missed one of Tonks' key
points where she(?) compared Ghosts to Dementors. 

Ghosts are moving from the physical world to the spiritual world, but
they are stuck half way. While they have become spirits, intangible,
their soul has not crossed over to what Tonks refers to as 'The
Light', and despite being spirits, they still cling to their earthly
Self, maintaining their earthly shape and personality.

Dementors in Tonks' theory are moving in the opposite direction, they
are moving from the realm of pure spiritual essense, The Light, into
the physical realm, and much like ghosts, they are stuck half way.
However because they are moving toward the physical, they do take on
some physical essense, just as ghost have taken on some essense of the
 spiritual.

It is because the Dementors have not full entered into the realm of
the physical that they take on the appearance that they do. They have
enough physical essense about them to gore and decay, but not enough
to actually die, and further not enough to actually live or become
fully physically realized. Again, they are like ghost, trapped between
life and death, just moving in the opposite direction of ghosts. 

Lending weight to Tonks' theory is the concept of the Angel of Death,
the gatherer of souls, which is most often depicted in physical form
that is VERY close to that of the Dementors.

Hope I got that right Tonks. In any event, we may never know for sure
if it is true, but it still stands as an excellent speculation.

Steve/bboyminn