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Heightenings Work by Pulling You Towards the Spiritual Realm [Discuss]


Cocoa

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I was giving some thought to the mechanics of Breaths, and I've got an idea as to both why (or maybe, 'how') it gives you perfect pitch/color vision/life sense/etc. and why it makes colors more vibrant in a bubble around you. In the past, we've seen the way the realms are set up be compared to the platonic theory of forms, especially when it comes to things like spiritual ideals of things that exist in the cognitive and physical realms. So rather than making colors or tones stronger, I believe bio-chromatic breath pushes both the perception of colors and sounds as well as the nearby physical colors themselves much closer to the ideal forms of those sounds and colors. I believe this is also why people with a lot of breaths hear everything in 'musical' ways and why colors looking stronger to them doesn't come off as garish, the way that it would if the saturation was just being cranked up. They're no longer just seeing the physical colors next to each other, which could clash, but they're seeing ideal colors that are going to look beautiful no matter how you pair them.

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On 12/5/2021 at 7:54 PM, Cocoa said:

I was giving some thought to the mechanics of Breaths, and I've got an idea as to both why (or maybe, 'how') it gives you perfect pitch/color vision/life sense/etc. and why it makes colors more vibrant in a bubble around you. In the past, we've seen the way the realms are set up be compared to the platonic theory of forms, especially when it comes to things like spiritual ideals of things that exist in the cognitive and physical realms. So rather than making colors or tones stronger, I believe bio-chromatic breath pushes both the perception of colors and sounds as well as the nearby physical colors themselves much closer to the ideal forms of those sounds and colors. I believe this is also why people with a lot of breaths hear everything in 'musical' ways and why colors looking stronger to them doesn't come off as garish, the way that it would if the saturation was just being cranked up. They're no longer just seeing the physical colors next to each other, which could clash, but they're seeing ideal colors that are going to look beautiful no matter how you pair them.

I think that this theory has a sound reasoning to it. It also would make sense in that bio-chromatic breaths help you heal faster, and if they do work by pulling you towards your spiritual ideal, things would make a lot more sense.

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It certainly could be spiritual, but it could just as easily be tied to the cognitive (i.e., heightenings show the colors an object perceives as its own). Either way, we know something is stripped away to fuel Nalthian magic -- whether it's cognitive, spiritual, or both (probably both, imo).

Edited by Olmund
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I think this WOB suggests that's how it works, yes...

 

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Kurkistan

Are flamespren, are they all doing their own thing, or is there some Ideal of "Fire" sitting in the Spiritual Realm that they're all based on?

Brandon Sanderson

Each spren is based on the Ideal of Fire.

Kurkistan

And is that sitting in the Spiritual Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, we're using sort of a Platonic Ideal, and that concept is in force, so *sounds hesitant* "yes", but [spren] are manifestations of it.

Kurkistan

So these Ideals in the Spiritual Realm: Divine Breath, does that heal by accessing some Ideal of Human Health: so a guy who had never had a tongue and doesn't know how to speak all the sudden has a tongue and can speak?

Brandon Sanderson

You are... *LONG pause* You are, um, on the right track.

Kurkistan

Okay.

Brandon Sanderson

Because the Breath is... eh. How can I explain this? You are, yeah... So... So each Breath is a shade of deity, right?

Kurkistan

Yeah.

Brandon Sanderson

And each Breath incorporates into it this sort of idea of being endowed by the deity Endowment, correct?

Kurkistan

Yes.

Brandon Sanderson

And so each Breath you hold brings you one step closer to becoming like that, and so what you're saying is... is "yes", kind of true, yes.

Kurkistan

But it's like within the Breath, not sitting off by itself-

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, yes yes exactly.

Words of Radiance Philadelphia signing (March 21, 2014)

 

 

... at least for the "physical perfection" effects of Breath/Heightenings, like agelessness and disease immunity (moving the Breath holder closer to their ideal form). I am not sure if the color perception/sound perception effects are because they are seeing the Spiritual forms of the color/sound or if their vision/hearing is itself moved closer to its ideal.

Edited by cometaryorbit
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