B5 Healing

The alien healing device (referred to in some references as the "life giver") was created by an unknown race, and was originally used as a form of capital punishment on the world it was created on. The device had the ability to transfer life force from one living being to another, as capital punishment it would be used to completely drain the life force of a murderer to a mortally wounded victim, thus killing the murderer and using his life force to restore his victim to full health, working under the "an eye for an eye" philosophy.

In the series, the device is first used by a Dr. Laura Rosen, who had determined that she could safely transfer small amounts of her own life force into patients. When attacked by an escaped mass murderer demanding to be healed of plasma burns, she reversed the connections, killing the mass murderer while curing herself of a terminal, degenerative disease. In disgust for what she had done, she turned the machine over to Dr. Stephen Franklin. It is later used by Dr. Franklin and John Sheridan to heal Michael Garibaldi, who is in a coma, during the first couple of episodes of season two. Finally, towards the end of season four, Marcus Cole uses the device to heal the mortally wounded Susan Ivanova, at the expense of his own life. His last words to her are "I love you."

Healers on certain spiritual levels of acuity are able to transfer loving power to others to help their bodies heal themselves. As in physics, the law is 'for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. With this in mind, the healer can reverse the force of energy to damage the percipient, which is also called backlash. Those of high spiritual motivation are often attacked by the unknowing and as a result of frustration, can send the energy back to the assailant and damage them equally. It is said that with all the healing and loving power that Jesus carried in his own being, he was also empowered to stop the crucifixion and damage his assailants, such as in the scourge. He did not consciously because he knew that laying his body down had the greater value for those that followed his teachings. The "life giver" is a machine that acts similarly. It can save life through energy transfusion or take life through energy depletion. In B5, a machine is used to show this ideal. In actuality, individuals are able to master this technique for helping others, suchas Mary Baker Eddy and Phineas Quimby.