I know, that's why I think Yellows never developped Healing between the "all-heal" weave inherited from the Breaking. They don't even think like medical doctors.



No, I'm saying these women knew how to heal long before they learned their had the ability. It's not surprising the ability to heal with the OP comes more naturally to them than it does for other channelers. Of course for some of them it would not go far, because they don't have the skill to handle the five flows well enough. Still, channelling is a mental skill and these women think like Doctors. It's not surprising they approach the OP abilities from this frame of mind, and have more success than others at it.

It's the whole mentality of "Talent" that's muddling everything. AS call Talent anything someone shows a proclitivity for, without questionning what might explain why a person might be exceptional at handling the OP this way.




That's largely because the WT system discouraged this, I think. Women there developped their scholarly and political knowledge and very little else. The WT is also not very interested in practical use of the OP, beyond documenting evidence of what they once were able to do and now have lost.

We've seen women develop new skills... Elayne learned to handle large flows for the weather with a SF. This is also how the WO teach apprentices, and we also have some of the Kin who over centuries of empirical practice became very good at (the old) Healing.



Why not? Weaving is a mental discipline, why your mind, your interests, your already developped skills wouldn't influence the skills you develop with the OP?

You think it's a coincidence that a woman as curious of everything as Egwene is the one who makes so many varied discoveries?

You think it's a coincidence as woman obsessed with inflicting in all imaginable and refined ways pain to a human body and who as a matter of survival had to hide those proclivities has developped amazing skills as a Healer, or that a woman trained in healing the human mind without the OP, to the point of being the most revered psychiatrist of her time just happened to also develop the most amazing skills at Compulsion?



That smacks of predestinity way too much for me. It also seems to give the OP ability a "mind of its own" and to evacuate way too much from the equation environmental factors, like developped or acquired skills and knowledge, education etc. Few people ever develop all their natural skills.



Egwene was never that interested in Healing. Egwene is interested in way too many things to focus obsessively on something like Nynaeve. And guess what, she doesn't have a very dominant Talent either. She's one of those with a decent balance between the five flows, and very good at doing many things at once. She's got a strength in earth, but she can do many things with it. She's the type to learn something to a level she's happy with and move on to learn something else. Her channelling ability reflects that.





I doubt it too. I get the feeling Jordan would have said there's a bit of both in play. I just happen to believe your OP ability is shaped far more by who you are than the latent ability "magically" guiding you on a life path. That a latent potential for handling the five flows in Healing makes you interested in Healing and the human body years before you even start to channel smacks of magic to me. It just seems so much more plausible that years of experience at Healing without the OP provides a channeler with the right worldview to develop a natural affinity to use the OP for healing once that person learn to channel. In the end, channeling seems to be a lot a matter of will and desire to create/do something. Egwene thinks about stuff like this a lot, and I don't think it's a coincidence solutions to use the OP to do what she wants come intuitively to her.