Resistance (Term)

Resistance in Gens is the body's refusal to let a Sime extract the energy of life, Selyn.  No amount of excess selyn stored in the Gen body can overcome or eliminate the Gen instinct to retain life. 
Internal barriers, that only a Sime can sense by zlinning, resist Selyn flow during transfer or the Kill. The 'barrier' the Sime senses is not a physical wall, but only feels that way to the Sime.  Actually, it is a quantum gap in levels or layers of energy, very much as we understand the working of transistors.  The barrier is a gap that the Gen can learn to make wider or smaller.  But the Gen does not sense it that way, but as resistance to selyn flow, the preservation of life.  
Gen resistance to selyn flow triggers the Sime reflex to draw selyn across the barrier at a faster speed, ultimately bridging the gap.
During resistance to selyn flow, the high speed flow of Selyn across nerve synapses burns the Gen's system and causes the death of the Gen. If a Gen does not fear the sensation of selyn movement, and can voluntarily give selyn, barriers can be relaxed, the energy-gap narrowed, and selyn can flow smoothly across the nerve synapses without burning tissue.  (SEE PROFICIENCY RATING DIAGRAM)
Some Gens are born with smaller energy-gaps, or lower barriers while some are born with the ability to control their barriers, and these are the Natural Donors like Hugh Valleroy.  Others learn the ability one step at a time and Qualify TN Donor after working their way up through the GN donor ranks.  Most Gens, however, can not learn to lower their barriers even when they do not fear, and remain GN-3 order donors, always vulnerable to the Kill.
Those who have the most potential to become TN-1 order Donors or high order Companions usually have the greatest internal resistance to selyn flow which must be lowered by an act of will.  This is why a Companion can over-control a channel during transfer, at will, and shen the channel mid-transfer. 
From: House of Zeor, Ch 10,  'Valleroy, like most Gens, knew nothing at all about electricity. Fingering the starred-cross, he said, "All right. What's resistance and where do I get it?"
(Klyd replies) "You are a resistance. Your entire nerve system is usually one colossal resistance. That's why a swift transfer damages your cells." '
For Channels resistance to Gen pain is part of their training in dealing with frightened and injured Gens. A channel may also use the ability to resist Gen pain for specific functions where it is necessary to inflict pain on a Gen.  All channels have limits, though.  The Modern Tecton develops mathematics to describe the channel's functionals and to measure each channel's individual limits.
Channels, and some renSimes who work around Gens, train to achieve, or develop through exposure, a higher level of resistance to Gen pain.  This is part of the training of Householding Dar and later the Dar Sentinels.
Category:Terms