Unfortunately, a similar thing happens to the soul. The reason that churches and quasi-religious organizations like AA are so keen to get you to say that you “give over your soul to a higher power” is that this constitutes a verbal contract, which is fully enforceable on the ethereal plane. The soul, as everyone knows, resides in the pineal gland, and may be extracted by a combination of surgery and incantation. The business model of the soul collector is similar to that of tax collectors in ancient times—they keep up to 40% of the souls they extract, and deliver the rest unto the specified higher power.
The souls that the collector retains are negotiable in the ethereal realm as well as the occult underworld. Sometimes they’re sold for books or artifacts, or used to imbue these with power, but mostly they’re used to soften divine justice. Most deities are pragmatic enough to cleanse one damned soul in exchange for a dozen clean souls. As you can imagine, soul collectors do a lot of business with Republican Party donors. The demand for clean souls is so hot, and the market so lucrative right now, that they’re completely unobtainable outside the highest income brackets.
But that’s not so much because of the demand from the plutocracy. In fact, the vast majority of souls never make it to market—they’re hoarded by the soul collectors themselves. Suffice it to say, these are very bad people, and the reason you don’t know them by name is that they can’t be bothered committing crimes against humanity, having learned what it truly means to sin against nature.
I could say more, but I don’t want to drive anyone insane.
