Lifesense Works via Connection

[Trusk'our he/him]

We've seen that Lifesense allows one to "sense" when others are nearby, and even tell when the practitioner is being looked at- with the exception of Drab individuals.

We also see that Feruchemical duralumin can be used to reduce others' awareness of the practitioner by storing the ability to form Connections between peoples... almost like a Drab.

And we see in RoW that as Kaladin's and Syl's Connection to each other grows, their innate "sense" of each other's location and mental state increases.

 

My theory then is that Lifesense works by allowing one's spiritual and cognitive aspects are brought closer together, so the practitioner's cognitive aspect is more conscious of their Connection to others nearby, and perhaps that they Connect more easily and strongly.

If one were to dampen or remove those Connections though (or prevent them from forming in the first place), the practitioner (the one with the Lifesense) would not be able to detect even non-Drab individuals.

Conversely, an individual with a lower level of Lifesense were to increase their Connection to others nearby through Feruchemy or some other means, their awareness of those individuals would also increase as if they were of a greater Heightening.

[Sky Breaker]

I think that it would be bringing their spiritual aspect closer to their physical aspect which seems to be proven because the spiritual aspect is often also referred to as to as one’s perfect self and as they gain heightenings they colors get more perfect when they come near and they stop aging and they see the world as it compares to perfection 

[alder24]

I've never seen that connection (pun intended) between Lifesense and F-duralumin, but they do look very similar to each other. Because Lifesense can also detect other investiture (like spren) it would make sense that the more investiture you have (Breaths) the closer you are to Spiritual Realm, and in consequence to other objects containing investiture, as they are also closer to Spiritual Realm. I like it. Nice one.

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

I've never seen that connection (pun intended) between Lifesense and F-duralumin, but they do look very similar to each other. Because Lifesense can also detect other investiture (like spren) it would make sense that the more investiture you have (Breaths) the closer you are to Spiritual Realm, and in consequence to other objects containing investiture, as they are also closer to Spiritual Realm. I like it. Nice one.

Thank you!

[Stick The Savant]

2 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

 

We also see that Feruchemical duralumin can be used to reduce others' awareness of the practitioner by storing the ability to form Connections between peoples... almost like a Drab.

Would someone who had an attribute stolen through hemalurgy be harder to sense like a Drab?

[Trusk'our he/him]

41 minutes ago, Stick The Savant said:

Would someone who had an attribute stolen through hemalurgy be harder to sense like a Drab?

We know that someone who is Hemalurgically spiked would end up like a Drab, but in worse condition, so yes, that should work.

Quote

#SandersonChat Twitter Q&A with Audible.com - Arcanum (coppermind.net)

Volratho

If someone was tapping gold, would spiking a separate ability out of them kill them? Or would it work at all?

Brandon Sanderson

It is possible to spike someone without killing them. But they'd never be the same. It would be worse than being a drab.

It is also possible to hide from Lifesense by storing Investiture via Feruchemical nicrosil, so there probably are some interesting things to decipher between, Connection, Investiture, and such from that.

Okay, as I found this quote to prove my additional point, I see that it suggests that Connection is part of what allows Lifesense, but it's not the only part. There's more.

Quote

Kraków signing - Arcanum (coppermind.net)

Oversleep

Could a Feruchemist hide from Lifesense by storing and which metals?

Brandon Sanderson

So Lifesense on Nalthis, someone storing, what now, Investiture? Could they hide from Lifesense? Um, yeah that would work.

Oversleep

And which metals would they need to store, Investiture, Connection…

Brandon Sanderson

That would probably be Investiture, that’s theoretically plausible, hiding your entire sense, a little bit easier with a copper cloud, which is how you would normally go about it, but you could make your Investiture vanish to the point that… yeah I think that’s theoretically possible.

Oversleep

So Lifesense works on Connection?

Brandon Sanderson

Lifesense works by sensing… life, so it’s not necessarily just Connection because you can go off-world from Nalthis and still sense the life to which you are not Connected.

 

[cometaryorbit]

Storing Connection makes you less "memorable" to other people but not actually invisible. I think it's the same thing - people with lifesense would detect the Feruchemist storing Connection but not attach any importance to them. Whereas storing Investiture would make the Feruchemist actually undetectable, I think.

Lifesense is weird because Drabs are totally invisible to it - even 4th Heightening Perfect Life Sense that can detect grass growing. Yet surely even a Drab (who's still sapient and has a soul) has more Investiture than grass.

So I wonder if what lifesense is really detecting is some kind of "excess" or "available" Investiture beyond the minimum to be whatever kind of being - so Drabs are at the minimum to be humans at all, so there's zero "available", while a plant would be a little above the minimum to be a plant.

Lifesense is also weird because it seems to work on Innate Investiture - thats what Breaths are and what Drabs lack, and what Nicrosil Feruchemy stores - whereas other Investiture detection methods we've seen (Bronze Allomancy, white sand, Odium's screaming spren) seem to be Kinetic based.

The mind-sense beings on Patji have seems to be similar to lifesense (but not identical).

[IlstrawberrySeed]

On 3/10/2023 at 8:22 AM, cometaryorbit said:

The mind-sense beings on Patji have seems to be similar to lifesense (but not identical).

I believe they look directly into the cognitive as described in the SA.