User blog comment:Mohrpheus/Spiritual Imbalance in Bleach - The End of the World?!/@comment-2175469-20100901204444

@Mohrpheus - I think you are looking too much into details my friend. As I understand it, when hollows consume souls and other hollow, they essentially absorb them. Many references are made to the fact that one soul predominates because it is stronger, thus subduing the others. This leads me to belief that they are simply an oppressed part of a stronger consciousness. The idea that they can never reach the afterlife lies in the fact that they become part of the hollow. However, if the hollow dies, then all the accumulated souls within that Hollow proceed to the afterlife by the hand of a Zanpakuto, the soul sealer. Quincies use arrows to kill the hollows, which erase them from existance. Only death by a Zanpakuto wielding Shinigami allows the souls to continue in the cycle, maintaining the balance. The ratio of souls exterminated by the Quincy are small relative to the entire "population" of souls, so the balance has not been disturbed too much to put it in danger.

Hope you understand how I feel!

PS- This comes from someone who has not seen the anime Bounty Arc. I have only read the manga and watched the canon anime episodes.

-Nathan