A rubber band hitting you in the eye is kind of the perfect metaphor.

Being torn from a body hurts, in some near-indefinable way that's like being scraped across mental sandpaper, and Sylar's last physical action is to close his eyes and cry out again. Then he tumbles invisibly, a swimmer dropped into the ocean and with no idea of which way is up.

For a second or two, there's nothing -- just the body's sudden deathly stillness, and Sylar's intangible struggle.

Then he tightens his grip on the hook that caught him, hanging on grimly, and follows it back to its source.