FYI :

Never seen anything about this or tried it since I've been playing.

Hirelings CAN pick up your soul stone , then you can run towards the shrine while clicking their "feet" icon , the hireling will stay with you and you won't get the "out of range of your soulstone message"

This of course is benefitial when you are too far from shrine to run to it before timer expires. Also with low level healers who can't raise you yet.

So if you happen to die and your hireling is standing around laughing at you...... then put him to work and get yourself back to the shrine.