 Before turning to Vasubandhu’s treatment of physics, it is worth stopping to note the crucial importance that Buddhist karma theory plays in Vasubandhu’s argument, overall. First, the proof of shared hallucinations in hell depends upon the particulars of the Buddhist belief in the hells. Of course, we might have believed in shared hallucinations even without believing in karma. But the tormenters in hell play an important, double role in Vasubandhu’s argument. He has the objector raise the question again, and suggest as a last-ditch effort that perhaps, the tormenters are physical entities generated and controlled by the karmic energies of the tormented. At this, Vasubandhu challenges his objector: If you’re willing to admit that karma generates physical entities, and makes them move around (pick up swords and saws, etc.), so that they might create painful results in the mental streams of the tormented, why not just eliminate the physical? Isn’t it simpler to say that the mind generates mental images that torment the  mind?[38]  This a crucial question, because it resonates beyond hell beings, across Buddhist karmic theory.