[quote=Mammalia]
Yes... The collective mind is like a huge library with wide paths and many clearings. In fact, most of it is path. Our magic has to search through all of that. It's considerably faster than traversing through the paths ourselves, though.
[/quote]

I have an idea. If it's that physically oriented, why not push everything to one side, filling in all holes, and essentially "pushing" the "emptiness" toward the front. Like pushing books in a line back, causing a gap in the front.