Advanced healing

by **WaterBending_Monk** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:09 am

I know we've talked about healing in the other small healing thread and I have even mentioned these theories before so I think it's interesting to take healing to another level and discuss it.

As far as we know, when a waterbender heals someones injury, it gets healed. Sometimes not fully healed but at least healed to the point where it wont cause the body harm. It really depends on how skilled the healer is. Healing pretty much heals "imperfections". Not only a new injury but more than that.

Theory 1: Using healing to improve someones eyesight. Why not? Maybe we haven't seen it used directly in the show but we don't exactly see a lot of people wearing glasses do we? And remember when jet was brainwashed by the dai li and the gang was trying to make him remember his past? Katara went behind him and started to heal the sides of his head so he could remember better. When katara started to heal, jets eyesight went from very blurry to very clear!! I didn't even think of that until I saw the episode the other day.

Theory 2: Using healing to make someones teeth whiter. Really think about this. Everyone was born with white teeth and over the years after eating bad food and losing enamel on your teeth, they get discolored over time. In a way, it's a long term imperfection. (remember what I said about healers being able to heal imperfections.) Healing heals your imperfection to as perfect as it can get. Not only are everyones teeth white on the show, but they dont exactly have dentists to go to. Why not use very skilled healers as replacements for doctors and dentists?

Theory 3: Using healing to make skin clearer. Again, I can say how this can be true since everyones skin is flawless on the show, but thats only because its easier for the animators to make the characters as perfect as can be on the outside instead of giving them pimples and all that. But think about this. When you are born, you don't have acne or blemishes on your face or body. Maybe a beauty mark or birthmark here or there but thats it for the most part. A pimple or blemish happens over time. It happens over years of not washing your face right or eating bad foods. It's a long term imperfection that isn't supposed to be there and can be healed.

Bad eye sight, discolored teeth and any red marks on your face are all imperfections that have happened over time. You weren't born with these and I believe they can be healed. I believe basic healing can heal injuries but advanced healing can heal imperfections. In a way, since imperfections happen over a period of time, they may be considered "long term injuries". Not a full blown injury but im sure you get the jist of what im saying.

by **Renori Fa** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:44 am

Those are great points tom, but I have to once again disagree. After thinking a little bit, I have come to the conclusion that healing related more to physical injuries, and I am not so sure how much it can help even an illness. I feel that healing would not work for the above, sadly.

by **WaterBending_Monk** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:52 am

*sighs* k poi. I'm suprised you're not open to these ideas since you're a healer in the foggy swamp tribe here.

Well you guys cant deny when katara healed jets head, his vision went from blurry to clear. And think about how imperfections happen over time. Someone who has completely mastered healing in their lifetime might be able to heal these. Really think about it and it makes sense.

by **Renori Fa** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:56 am

I heal injuries ;)

But Katara did not heal him at all, because there was nothing to heal for her. She just tried to make him relaxed, and that's when Jet saw the whole flashback again. She did not heal him, though.

by **WaterBending_Monk** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:59 am

lol yes, yes but I said his vision. Because of healing in general, jets vision was temporarily better.

by **Renori Fa** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:02 am

Vision? There wasn't anything wrong with it, was there?

The point is is that Katara or anyone else has never been seen using these, attempting them, or even speaking about them. We can guess about millions of different things that we might believe could happen, but we will never know because they have not been mentioned in the series.

by **WaterBending_Monk** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:25 am

. There was something wrong with his vision silly. That's why I mentioned it in the first place lol. You have to actually see the part in the episode to know what I'm talking about. His vision was very blurry because when the dai li hypnotized him it messed with his senses. Kataras healing did calm him yes, but it also cleared his vision.

by **novpar27** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:54 pm

[quote author=slayerfan board=watertalk thread=4720 post=283500 time=1230851368]I know we've talked about healing in the other small healing thread and I have even mentioned these theories before so I think it's interesting to take healing to another level and discuss it.

As far as we know, when a waterbender heals someones injury, it gets healed. Sometimes not fully healed but at least healed to the point where it wont cause the body harm. It really depends on how skilled the healer is. Healing pretty much heals "imperfections". Not only a new injury but more than that.

Theory 1: Using healing to improve someones eyesight. Why not? Maybe we haven't seen it used directly in the show but we don't exactly see a lot of people wearing glasses do we? And remember when jet was brainwashed by the dai Li and the gang was trying to make him remember his past? Katara went behind him and started to heal the sides of his head so he could remember better. When katara started to heal, jets eyesight went from very blurry to very clear!! I didn't even think of that until I saw the episode the other day.

Theory 2: Using healing to make someones teeth whiter. Really think about this. Everyone was born with white teeth and over the years after eating bad food and losing enamel on your teeth, they get discolored over time. In a way, it's a long term imperfection. (remember what I said about healers being able to heal imperfections.) Healing heals your imperfection to as perfect as it can get. Not only are everyones teeth white on the show, but they dint exactly have dentists to go to. Why not use very skilled healers as replacements for doctors and dentists?

Theory 3: Using healing to make skin clearer. Again, I can say how this can be true since everyones skin is flawless on the show, but thats only because its easier for the animators to make the characters as perfect as can be on the outside instead of giving them pimples and all that. But think about this. When you are born, you don't have acne or blemishes on your face or body. Maybe a beauty mark or birthmark here or there but thats it for the most part. A pimple or blemish happens over time. It happens over years of not washing your face right or eating bad foods. It's a long term imperfection that isn't supposed to be there and can be healed.

Bad eye sight, discolored teeth and any red marks on your face are all imperfections that have happened over time. You weren't born with these and I believe they can be healed. I believe basic healing can heal injuries but advanced healing can heal imperfections. In a way, since imperfections happen over a period of time, they may be considered "long term injuries". Not a full blown injury but I'm sure you get the jist of what I'm saying. [/quote ]_______________________________________________ This is a really cool idea/theory(-ies) 8-). I have thought of another one, how about hair loss? You know all the stuff guys talk about, that they aren't going bald, they just have "thinning" hair and "receding hairlines" Most people are born with hair at birth, or else it usually comes in soon thereafter.

Another Theory: Heart attacks;Since a person normally isn't born with all the factors needed to be at risk for a heart attack, wouldn't that be just like an internal injury, like bruises? c

by **WaterBending_Monk** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 12:29 am

Those are really good ones to kyoshi! Like healing the pores on a guys head or restoring someones hair follicles by using healing.

and yes, I mentioned that a few months ago. healing internal organs so some things like heart attacks are less likely. Good one. That reminds me of another one that most people refuse to believe.

Using healing to delay old age Maybe not healing yourself, but getting a very advanced healer to heal everything on you from head to toe. Healing your skin and organs and making everything on you youthful again. Maybe getting something like a "healing bath". Like get into a bath full of water and as you are submerged a bunch of powerful, advanced healers surounding you heal the water in your bath while you're in it. I say these advanced healing possibilities could be very possible. After all guys, hama took waterbending to another level (bloodbending). Why can't healers take healing to another level?

by **Pleh** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:14 am

I believe it was the episode "The Drill" in which we first see Ty Lee cut off her enemies' chi and render them helpless.
When Katara attempts to heal them, she notes the lack of chi flow and goes further to explain that waterbending healing a very similar technique, manipulating a person's chi to heal them rather than incapacitate them.
I can't remember if it was the same scene or later on, but I thought I remembered Katara saying that waterbending healing was only the acceleration of the body's natural ability to heal.
Only the special water from the North Pole had a chance to do more healing than that which the body could do by itself.

As for your glasses comment, I'm sure that glass is easy enough to make in Avatarverse, but to make it so precisely as to aid an individual's poor vision specifically for them would be a highly difficult and highly valued art that couldn't be found in most places and would likely not be cheap.
Even today, with our modern technology, a good pair of glasses can cost $200 a piece.
Just imagine how much more expensive they must be in Avatarverse.

However, much of the healing you're talking about would likely be possible in some cases.
My eyes are nearsighted because the tissue near my retina are slightly torn, causing the light to hit my nerves out of focus because my eyeballs aren't positioned properly in their sockets.
I suspect waterbending could heal this since my body could have the potential to heal this naturally.
As for Jet, I suspect the blurriness was in his mind rather than his eyeballs, which raises the question of if waterbending can heal mental illness....

Teeth whitening is possible if the body naturally replaces enamel, I suppose. Otherwise, I think all waterbending can do for teeth is give a thorough cleaning.

I definitely believe that waterbending healing could eradicate acne, since acne is basically a skin infection which your body handles naturally.

Healing balding is probably possible with powerful healing as well. If you can bring life back to dead hair cells, they'll start producing hair again.
However, if the person is too old to keep their hair alive in the first place, it may not last very long. I don't know.

Heart attacks I believe would most certainly be curable with bending. Especially if you had the opportunity to use it in conjunction with careful bloodbending.

I'm really skeptical of delaying old age. The body naturally ages, it doesn't naturally delay old age. I don't think that would be very spiritually balanced or natural to try to prolong your life in such a way and wouldn't work quite the way you're thinking.
Then again, perhaps it would work.

What about cancers and infections? Do you think healing could be used for these illnesses as well?

by **WaterBending_Monk** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:51 am

Yeah delaying old age is the only sketchy one, even for me but still maybe possible with a powerful healer using spirit oasis water.

Hmm types of cancers seem kind of permanent. Most are not curable and a lot of doctors in our world can't even fully explain every type of cancer let alone understand it. Although like I just said:: A very powerful healer using spirit oasis water can lead to unthinkable possibilities. And as for infections, a lot of them can be cleared up with a simple antibiotic in a lot of cases, so I'm sure very advanced healing will have powerful effects.

And then of course there is a person's fate or destiny. If it is someones destiny to die by cancer, then it is their time. So my theories about healing eyesight, teeth and skin seems more doable than delaying old age or stopping cancer. But this is a world where people can manipulate the elements and do miraculous things, so maybe spiritual intervention can prolong death.

by **Pleh** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 2:18 am

Well, considering that waterbending healing is mostly just an acceleration of the body's own natural ability to heal, I suppose my question would be more accurate to be asked as:
Will the body naturally heal from cancers or infections?
Cancers are cells in your body which begin to reproduce more than they should... in a very simplistic explanation.
In order for water bending to heal a cancerous cell, it would either have to help the body to kill/remove the cell or it would have to heal the cancerous cell itself, making it no longer cancerous.
I don't know if it can do either of those things, but I think that's what it would have to do.
Infections involve bacteria, which your body fights naturally with white-blood cells, so I would think that waterbending would be ideal for dealing with them.

Now my mind diverges to viruses. Your body deals with them naturally, but usually by throwing everything at them until the body either adapts to the virus or dies trying.
The thing about viruses is, they never leave you. You only get immune to their constant presence.
In case anyone doesn't know the difference between a virus and an infection (I don't mean to patronize, I didn't know the difference until I got to college), viruses are not bacteria.
Viruses aren't even really a living organism. Bacteria is alive and tries to eat you. A virus is a piece of DNA which tries to turn your cells into more viruses by altering their genetic code to turn them into viruses.

by **Avatar Thor** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 1:20 am

Use water bending to heal is the fastest way to heal.

by **Avatar Thor** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 1:50 am

Good idea but if you had more water from the spirit place you would be the best heaLER EVER

by **Renori Fa** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:24 pm

Do not double post.

Like I said before though, I doubt that these are techniqually possible, although I am not sure.

by **Pleh** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:50 pm

Come join the long-posters and elaborate on your thoughts, Poi.
... We have cookies .................._{*cough* Virtual cookies *cough*}

No, really. What do you mean by that? Is there a reason you doubt the theories or is it just your opinion?

by **falon** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:40 am

I dont think healing old age would be such a great idea. Wouldn't that make people become immortal? In that case it would disrupt the natural cycle of the universe. Furthermore, if healing by bending is only present in the water tribe that would make tin my opinionhat tribe elitest in tmy opinion

by **Renori Fa** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:27 pm

pleh wrote:Come join the long-posters and elaborate on your thoughts, Poi.
... We have cookies .................._{*cough* Virtual cookies *cough*}

No, really. What do you mean by that? Is there a reason you doubt the theories or is it just your opinion?

L-long p-p-post? O_O

*runs away*

Lol, but I just say that we can never really be sure what waterbending can heal, since the show only presented a few of the options. We can estimate endlessly on what bending can and cannot do, although I am saying that we will never be sure. That is why my posts are shorter here, because that's all I have to say.

by **Pleh** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:29 pm

That's fine. I was just giving you a hard time. >:(

There are lots of things we'll never know about Avaverse, but that's no reason to stop talking about it.
It's fun to guess and speculate. This forum would have died or become totally RPG if all the loose ends had been tied together.
Rather boring I think. =/

by **Tiny** » Sat May 02, 2009 1:52 am

Although the idea was great, I do have to disagree. From what I've seen, healing is used as a way to fix what happened unnaturally. Meaning, if your arm gets cut off, waterbending healing could fix that (kindof). However, acne and bad eyesight are things that naturally happen to your body (unless you get stabbed in the eye or something).

I suppose that it COULD work, but I highly doubt it.

by **Pleh** » Mon May 04, 2009 4:22 am

Katara explains that waterbending healing is mostly just an acceleration and empowering of your body's natural healing abilities.
So anything you could heal from naturally or with a little increase in strength, can be healed with waterbending.

Then special oasis water apparently can go even farther.

Who is online