History Main / LifeEnergy

** In the [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAurel 5th part]], Giorno Giovanna has the Stand "Gold Experience", whose abilities primarily revolve around giving life energy. With it, he can [[CreatingLife turn inanimate objects into living creatures]], and if used on other people, it supercharges them with life energy, causing their senses to be overwhelmed, making pain last longer.

*** The Tree of Might from the Dragon Ball Z movie of the same name absorbed the life energy of everything on the planet. However, unlike Goku's Spirit Bomb, which generally requires a voluntary contribution of small amounts, the Tree of Might siphoned just about everything it needed for itself.

** The series takes a new angle on this with Sendo, a {{Supernatural Martial Art|s}} that involves a special breathing technique which allows its user to amplify his or her own life energy. This "Hamon energy" can be moved throughout the body to cure ailments or heal wounds, or it can be directed out of the body to manipulate one's surroundings and hurt undead creatures. This power serves as the main weapon of the protagonists during the first two story arcs, but is phased out during the third to be replaced with a new power called a Stand.
** In the 5th part, Giorno Giovanna has the Stand "Gold Experience", whose abilities primarily revolve around giving life energy. With it, he can [[CreatingLife turn inanimate objects into living creatures]], and if used on other people, it supercharges them with life energy, causing their senses to be overwhelmed, making pain last longer.

* Goes by the name ''Power of Existence'' in ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana''. Losing any amount of it turns a human into a Torch at best, doomed to eventually [[RetGone have never existed]].

The victim of Life Energy theft may recover if only a little of it is taken, or else may end up in a [[ConvenientComa coma]] that is unexplainable to mundane doctors. Other results include becoming a walking EmptyShell, or outright dying as the body becomes a skeleton or even [[NoBodyLeftBehind crumbles to ash]].

In the west, stealing Life Energy tends to be less common than giving Life Energy. Infusing someone with Life Energy (or sometimes [[PureEnergy Generic Energy]]) can be used to revive those who are critically injured, or to grant temporary superpowers. Watch out for PhlebotinumOverload, however.

It's connected to [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]], HermeticMagic, KiManipulation, PsychicPowers and other superpowers; see also {{Mana}}. In RolePlayingGame terms, it's the combination of Hit Points, Magic Points, and Experience. Transferring it may cause physical changes that are LiquidAssets. Occasionally, part of an EquivalentExchange to power an ArtifactOfDoom or EvilWeapon.

See also AuraVision and AnatomyOfTheSoul. If LifeEnergy is used to power a device, the thing powering it is a LivingBattery.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' takes a new angle on this with Sendo, a {{Supernatural Martial Art|s}} that involves a special breathing technique which allows its user to amplify his or her own life energy. This "Hamon energy" can be moved throughout the body to cure ailments or heal wounds, or it can be directed out of the body to manipulate one's surroundings and hurt undead creatures. This power serves as the main weapon of the protagonists during the first two story arcs, but is phased out during the third to be replaced with a new power called a Stand.

* Creator/MarvelComics villain Selene is a mutant who can psychically drain life energy from people to sustain and empower herself. Her lifespan can be measured in millenia thanks to this power. If she ever stopped feeding for too long, [[NoImmortalInertia those millenia would catch up to her in an instant]].

* Gets mentioned in Literature/Discworld occasionally. In ''Discworld/ReaperMan'', DeathTakesAHoliday, meaning the excess life energy is piling up and things don't die properly. Cue compost piles coming to life and the dead rising up and being very cranky. One or two characters muse that the passing of the seasons is sort of the planet's "heartbeat", causing life energy to flow in and out of the ecosystem.

* Gets mentioned in Literature/Discworld occasionally. In ''Literature/ReaperMan'', DeathTakesAHoliday, meaning the excess life energy is piling up and things don't die properly. Cue compost piles coming to life and the dead rising up and being very cranky. One or two characters muse that the passing of the seasons is sort of the planet's "heartbeat", causing life energy to flow in and out of the ecosystem.

-->-- '''Yoda''', ''Film/StarWarsTheEmpireStrikesBack''

!!Examples

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* In the KoreanDrama ''Series/MyGirlfriendIsANineTailedFox'' the titular multi-tailed fox (who has taken form as a beautiful human woman) gives a mortally injured man an "energy bead" to keep him alive.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho,'' the Fendahl consumed the full spectrum of Life Energy, causing rapid decay of the corpses it left.
** Also, "Forest of the Dead" subverts the usual rule about the EverythingSensor in regards to life forms: once the Doctor specifies that he's not interested only in ''humanoid'' life signs, the Library sensors report on ''[[OhCrap every one of the billions of Vashda Narada spores]]''.
** When the Master [[CameBackWrong comes back wrong]] in "The End Of Time", the Doctor tries to warn him that his [[SuperpowerLottery awesome new powers]] are consuming his Life Energy.
* Emotions get drained in ''Series/RedDwarf'', too. A polymorph snacks on the most powerful emotion from four distinct characters. Never explored what would happen if multiple emotions got drained from the same character, but when you strip away the hero's sense of fear, you get suggestions like: "Why don't we take a nuke and strap it to my head -- I'll head-butt the monster into oblivion!"
* The Wraith in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' are essentially [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Life Energy Vampires]]. There are, however, some {{Technobabble}} attempts to explain it as hard science, essentially implying the exact process is badly understood, and that speaking of "Life Force" is a handy though incorrect shortcut. The overall effect of Wraith "feeding", which is done through a special organ in their palm, is similar to RapidAging. They can also give back some of the stolen Life Energy, rejuvenating the subject or even bringing him back to life.
* The Lifeforce Megazord from ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'', which uses the rangers' energy.

* In ''Series/TinMan'' [[spoiler:the Witch possessing]] Azkedellia kills at least two people with this ability and [[spoiler:murders DG as a child]] While she got better, [[spoiler:their mother had to give up most of her magic to do it, leaving her powerless later to defeat the Witch.]]
* The Dark Kingdom in ''Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon'' stole energy from people in various ways, just as their animated counterparts did.
* ''Tracker'' used this heavily. Each fugitive was in the form of a life force that took over a human body and killed the original occupant. Cole sucked out the life force into his collector when he caught up with them. Apparently, they were drained of life force when they were put in prison, and the life force was slowly returned as the sentence was served.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Life Energy was first offhandedly mentioned in the ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' series in ''Genealogy of the Holy War'' under the name Aegir, but had a much bigger role as the BigBad's main power source in the seventh game, where its name was localized as "Quintessence".

[[folder: Fan Works]]

Spiritual [[PowerSource fuel]] that runs the body and mind, generally invisible to ordinary folks (but not those with AuraVision). Life Energy may be the same thing as the spirit, or rather just some sort of spiritual LifeMeter. Even the [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hardest]] of television ScienceFiction can't seem to help but use this trope at one point or another, even though modern science doesn't give it a leg to stand on.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalism Vitalism]] was the belief that living creatures were fundamentally different from normal matter because they were imbued with "life energy". The fatal blow to this theory came with the chemical synthesis of urea from non-living components, demonstrating that there is no difference between a chemical created in a test tube, and one from a living organism, and that no "life energy" is necessary to create biological substances, or even life. We can now synthesize most parts of cells, and synthetic biologists are working towards (and, depending on how strict your definitions are, have succeeded in) creating a living cell purely from synthesized components.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' features Aura (described by Mei Ling as "life force") which is normaly used by Lucario's and, to a lesser extent, Riolu's (oh, and there's the occasional human with Aura abilities). Needless to say, an awful lot of cool powers come with it. How about unlimited vision when you've got your eyes closed, so you'll technically never go blind? Or a cool ball of energy that you can summon out of nowhere?

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'' takes a new angle on this with Sendo, a {{Supernatural Martial Art|s}} that involves a special breathing technique which allows its user to amplify his or her own life energy. This "Hamon energy" can be moved throughout the body to cure ailments or heal wounds, or it can be directed out of the body to manipulate one's surroundings and hurt undead creatures. This power serves as the main weapon of the protagonists during the first two story arcs, but is phased out during the third to be replaced with a new power called a Stand.

* ''Manga / JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'' takes a new angle on this with Sendo, a {{Supernatural Martial Art|s}} that involves a special breathing technique which allows its user to amplify his or her own life energy. This "Hamon energy" can be moved throughout the body to cure ailments or heal wounds, or it can be directed out of the body to manipulate one's surroundings and hurt undead creatures. This power serves as the main weapon of the protagonists during the first two story arcs, but is phased out during the third to be replaced with a new power called a Stand.

* Franchise/DragonBall:

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1716 SCP-1716 ("Imperfect Life Extender")]] is a device that transfers life force from one person to another.

* ''TransformersGeneration1'': Elita-1 can stop time with in a fifty foot radius of her position. Unfortunately this drains all her life energy and is, in most circumstances, fatal.

* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'''s second season had the antagonists stealing magical power from mages (magical beasts when they could, though) in order to complete "the Book of Darkness." Fortunately, people can recover from that, and depending how young they are, their powers can also completely replenish.

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'''s second season had the antagonists stealing magical power from mages (magical beasts when they could, though) in order to complete "the Book of Darkness." Fortunately, people can recover from that, and depending how young they are, their powers can also completely replenish.

It should be noted that somehow many spacecrafts' [[EverythingSensor Everything Detectors]] can scan for it, and yet somehow only pick up humans or things like humans. Bugs, rats and the vast trees of [[StargateCity Canada-in-the-Pegasus-Galaxy]] do not make the grade, so obviously life signs automatically imply sentience (or at least really-bigness).

In The Pantheon/TropePantheon, this trope is represented by [[Comicbook/BrightestDay The Life Entity]] from the comic book ''Brightest Day''.