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

Effects
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.



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.

Ki-Adi-Mundi has used this Force power to heal a broken collar bone almost completely by meditation after the ambush of Jabba Desilijic Tiure's minions, during his mission to find Sharad Hett.

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 Applications


Although it was believed that malevolent Force-users could not employ true Force healing, this is a wrong assumption. The dark side can be used to heal oneself (or others), but, twisted by the Dark Side, the power would come at a terrible price.

The most 'benign' (to the user at least) of these side effects is that the healing would only be temporary, and would require renewed applications or constant concentration to remain active. A good example of this side effect of Dark Side Healing is Darth Bane. By focusing on the pain and anguish of others, he fueled the Dark Side and 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.

Darth Vader also experimented with Force healing fueled by the Dark Side, 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. He too quickly dicovered that the Dark Side could offer only a perversion of true healing, as 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 would eventually break in his concentration, although he was slowly able to expand the duration of functionality of his lungs, starting at a few seconds and gradually managing up to a few minutes. 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 theorized that, with much practice and enormous willpower, he would eventually no longer be constricted by his life support system.

A much more disgusting example of terrible price to pay for keeping one's body functional trough the Dark Side is the case of the ancient Sith Lord Darth Sion, the Lord of Pain. Sion could focus on his own pain and agony, use it to fuel the Dark Side and recover from grievous wounds or death (or close to it as he could get with his power) nearly instantly. Sion's capability with this technique was almost perfect, but over time he received so many otherwise fatal wounds he was in constant agony (which he welcomed, as it 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. It was, however a near-perfect self-fueling process: more pain meant more power, more power meant more damage could be sustained, more damage meant more pain. Medical staff examining his body, even while unconscious, concluded that gravity itself should be pulling it apart, so damaged was his physical shell. Sion died only when the Jedi Exile sowed doubt in Sion's mind, convincing him that his Force-dependent "life" (if it could still be called such) was not worth existing.

It is possible that Exar Kun unknowingly used Dark Side healing 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 Plagueis, the master to Palpatine also experimented with a dark side variant that would grant him the ability to create, maintain, or save life by manipulating midi-chlorians to a certain degree. Plagueis stated that a child born of this power would be the embodiment of the force. Although Sidious stated to Anakin that Plagueis had complete control over this ability, it is unknown whether he really was in actuality successful in developing this power. Nevertheless, according to the Sith Lords, he had employed this power to create Anakin Skywalker, but this, itself, has never truly been proven. If Plagueis did have control over this ability prior to his death, it is also questionable whether Darth Sidious, who the knowledge would've been passed down, had access to the technique as well. His comments to the newly-appointed Darth Vader would seem to suggest otherwise. Whether or not they knew how to save someone from the brink of death, they could not, however, save themselves and gain immortality–or more accurately, the preservation of their personalities afer-death. This power, according to Jedi Masters Qui-Gon Jinn and Yoda could only be attained by a Jedi because the secret to it, is love.



Force Resuscitation
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. It should be noted, however, that Force Resuscitation cannot be directly liked with the same set of abilities as a normal Force Heal, and may or may not be related at all. 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.

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.

In the games, the usage of the power is accompanied with some effects, like glowing swirls and sounds. These are believed to be more visual aids to the player, rather than an "actual" depiction of how the power behaves.

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