From: Yngvar Følling Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.elfquest Subject: The mechanics of healing (was Re: RPG fans...) Message-ID: References: <050220041236223289%rpini@elfquest.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: MicroPlanet Gravity v2.60 Lines: 48 Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 23:11:37 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 193.217.192.39 X-Complaints-To: abuse@tele2.no X-Trace: juliett.dax.net 1077837097 193.217.192.39 (Fri, 27 Feb 2004 00:11:37 MET) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 00:11:37 MET Organization: Tele2 Norway AS Public Access Path: redlance.franklin.ch!pfaff2.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!switch.ch!news.mailgate.org!newsfeed.icl.net!feed.news.tiscali.de!uninett.no!dax.net!juliett.dax.net!not-for-mail Xref: redlance.franklin.ch rec.arts.comics.elfquest:1013 In article <050220041236223289%rpini@elfquest.com>, rpini@elfquest.com says... > The reason that Winnowill said that was that all affective Elfquest elf > "powers" are some variation or other on telekinesis. When a healer > heals, she is moving flesh and bone around, making or breaking > connections between tissues, and so on. When a rockshaper creates a > figure from stone, he is moving molecules of the raw material here and > there. When a plantshaper causes plant tissue to change shape or to > sprout faster than it would normally, it's the same principle - moving > bits of cell or nutrient around in different (faster) ways than nature > would. It still seems to me like there must be a difference. The rockshaper's prime concern is how his stone figure *looks*. The inside is mostly irrelevant, as it's just solid rock all the way through. He can work on one eye, nose, digit or whatever at the time, without having the entire picture in his mind at all times, and it doesn't matter exactly which molecule goes where to begin with. All in all, everything he does seems like a deliberate, conscious effort. For the healer, on the other hand, the inside is even more important than the appearance. The body (elfin as much as human, I suppose) is an *extremely* complicated bit of machinery. You can't view any single part in isolation, because it's all interconnected. So my question is: Is the healer really consciously aware of everything she does? Does she understand all the intricacies of the body? If so, has she learned it from someone else, or does the knowledge somehow come with the power of being a healer? One scene that comes to mind is the story of Rayek and Leetah's childhood. In one scene, little Leetah heals Rayek's paralyzed arm with a hug. There's more than a broken bone there. Does she even understand the neurological damage that must be involved? And when a half-conscious Leetah got the arrowhead out of Cutter's body at the end of "Kings", she healed Zhantee too, who just happened to be lying nearby. Still, I see that it can't be just the healer thinking "Heal!" and everything fixes itself either, because there's also things like fleshshaping. When Winnowill changed Tyldak, she made organs move about, giving them functions they never had to begin with. Clearly very deliberate. But Tyldak must have had vital parts of his body working at all times, or else the process would have killed him. Yngvar ###### From: hoc@nvg.ntnu.no (=?iso-8859-1?Q?H=E5vard?= Faanes) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.elfquest Subject: Re: The mechanics of healing (was Re: RPG fans...) Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 21:42:07 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Nettverksgruppa, NTNU Lines: 20 Message-ID: References: <050220041236223289%rpini@elfquest.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: tyrell.nvg.ntnu.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: tyfon.itea.ntnu.no 1078090927 10467 129.241.210.70 (29 Feb 2004 21:42:07 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@itea.ntnu.no NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 21:42:07 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: slrn/0.9.6.2 (Linux) Path: redlance.franklin.ch!pfaff2.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!irazu.switch.ch!switch.ch!news.belwue.de!feed.news.tiscali.de!uio.no!ntnu.no!hoc Xref: redlance.franklin.ch rec.arts.comics.elfquest:1017 Yngvar Følling wrote: >So my question is: Is the healer really consciously aware of everything >she does? Does she understand all the intricacies of the body? If so, >has she learned it from someone else, or does the knowledge somehow >come with the power of being a healer? Although I am ofcourse, only speculating here, I'd guess that an elf's magic is based more on intution than actual healing. Leetah doesnt "understand" much about physiology. Rather, she can "feel" if something isnt right and can direct her energy to that area and things will fix themselves. So I agree with you that it must be more than mere telekinesis, as magic sense is clearly involved. Rock shaping may not be as different from healing though. The aestetic sense of the elves may reach deeper than the surface of the rock, and strive to reach deeper within the rock and preserve the harmony of the various layers of the rock etc.... Havard