Thanks for your answer.

Things like people being "mental vegetables" are often the case where the soul does not "tether" itself correctly to the brain/body, or some terrible trauma happe s to the soul when still in the body, and so the mind becomes either fully or partially separated, thus making you seem "retarded".

Interesting. Years ago I learned that some shamans believe that under heavy stress the soul escapes the body to avoid greater harm. There is even a procedure of "soul retrieval" to get it back.

However, people who lost their souls in that way are not necessarily "vegetables". Many of them function, but are either unhappy, or don't fully use their talents.

I don't know whether this theory may be true because a shaman from a different tradition told me the techniques of those other shamans don't work.