Force healing/Legends



"Must relax... reach out with my mind... reach inside... through the pain... to touch the Force! Knit bones... mend flesh... renew!"

- Ki-Adi-Mundi

Force Healing or Health, was a power that used the Force to accelerate the natural healing process rapidly.

Overview
Initial levels required meditation, but greater aptitude usually granted faster regeneration, without need of meditation. Greater levels of attainment were also able to mend far more severe injuries, even complete damage to flesh and bone, even going as far as to mend internal damage, such as damage to the heart, lungs and so forth. This was shown in a more perverse form by Darth Vader, but utilized by the most skilled of Jedi. It was unlikely, however, that this power was able to regenerate lost matter, as neither Luke Skywalker nor Darth Vader utilized the ability to replace their severed limbs.



There is a variant requiring immense knowledge of the dark side of the Force that is known as Force Heal. It is the ability to create, maintain, or save life by the influencing of midi-chlorians to a certain degree. Darth Plagueis stated that a child born of this power would be the embodiment of the force. Plagueis could have used this power to create Anakin Skywalker, but this has never been proven. Darth Plagueis is the only person known to have complete control over this power, although Darth Sidious, the apprentice of Plagueis, and the man to whom the knowledge of this power was passed, may have had access to this technique. It is questionable whether Darth Sidious was either capable of, or had access to, an application of this power maintaining life indefinitely; his comments to the newly-appointed Darth Vader would seem to suggest otherwise.

Jedi Healers used this power to diagnose and treat the ailments of their patients. A notable case of this use of Force Healing was Cilghal using the Force to cure Mon Mothma of a molecular poison that was incurable by conventional means, although strictly speaking the method of healing involved Cilghal's Force-powered detection and removal of the nanomachines afflicting Mon Mothma rather than a direct application of Force energy against the damaged cells themselves.

Obi-Wan Kenobi used a basic form of this ability on Luke Skywalker after his confrontation with the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine in 0 BBY.

The Children of the Green Planet may have all possessed this technique.

The Jedi of the New Jedi Order use this ability in the form of a healing trance.

Alternate Version/Use


Although it was believed that malevolent Force-users could not employ true Force Healing, the Dark Side was a conduit to a diverse number of unnatural variants of this typically benevolent power. Darth Vader experimented with Force Healing in one such alternate form, in which meditation on anger and frustration at his life and circumstances would allow his lungs to function without the aid of his hyperbaric chamber or his life support suit. Having said that, it appears to have been a perversion of true healing in that the damaged alveoli of his lungs did not heal permanently, but rather seemed to remain functional as long as the intensity of his anger focused the power of the Dark Side. He only managed to maintain this power for a brief time; the pleasure he received from the healing process caused a break in his concentration. Vader's perception was that joy and happiness poisoned the Dark Side's power, and as such they sabotaged the temporary healing the technique afforded. However, he perceived that, with practice and willpower, he would eventually no longer be constricted by his life support system.

Vader may well have been correct in this assumption, as evidenced by the ancient Sith Lord Darth Sion. Sion could focus on his pain and recover from grievous wounds or death (or close to it as he could get with his power) nearly instantly, similar to what Vader would do much later. Sion's capability with this technique was almost perfect, but over time he received so many otherwise fatal wounds he was in constant pain (which of course served only to fuel the Dark Side within). To accomplish this gruesome task, he had to channel the Force constantly to literally hold his body together. Medical staff examining his body, even while unconscious, concluded that gravity itself should be pulling it apart. Sion died only when the Jedi Exile sowed doubt in Sion's mind, convincing him that his Force-dependant life was not worth living. It is possible that Exar Kun unknowingly used this same technique to restore his shattered body to wholeness when it was crushed in the tomb of Freedon Nadd; however, it is just as possible that this was the spirit of Freedon Nadd himself working some sort of Sith magic.

Darth Bane used yet another Dark Side variant of the ability, also similar to the technique used by Vader. By focusing on the pain and anguish of others, he could unnaturally sustain or invigorate himself. After being poisoned by the Brotherhood of Darkness, he resorted to using this form of Force Healing to keep himself alive long enough to reach Caleb, a true Force healer. He did so by murdering a farmer's children before the farmer's eyes; the pain of the children's death coupled with the agony felt by their father before his own death was enough to sustain Bane for hours. He would use this power periodically over his career (despite not being needed while he was wearing his Orbalisk armor, which organically repaired him), and it's possible he learned it from the holocron of Darth Revan.

Perhaps most interesting of all, a descendant of Darth Vader himself named Cade Skywalker had the ability to bring others back from the brink of death, healing mortal wounds. Not much is known about this ability, but it seems as if he could only use it during times of intense emotional distress. He believed that he had to call upon the Dark Side in order to use this talent, though his former Jedi Master Wolf Sazen believed that with proper training the Light Side could accomplish such a feat as well. Either way, Cade's wholly unique gift was so physically and emotionally draining that after using it for the first time he forsook the Force entirely for over seven years. He even went as far as using Death Sticks to further deaden his abilities.

Finally, it has been said that certain Sith could actually project a ribbon of reddish energy at a living being that siphoned off the victim's life. This ability may have been an example of Sith Magic and, unlike most other Dark Side variants of Force Healing, it had the effect of mending the Sith's own wounds permanently.

Behind the scenes
In games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the Dark Forces series, the player can give this power to the protagonists, to cure themselves and their party members of injuries or even poison.

Also in these games, the healing power is represented by a cross that strongly resembles the Swiss cross.

Appearances
Machtheilung