There's a miracle healer that can heal anything. From lost limbs, to muscular dystrophy, to cerebral palsy, to Anencephaly. She heals hundreds of thousands, on one day a week, in a giant stadium. People go in with cancer, diabetes, genetic diseases, shattered bodies, and walk out in perfect health. The blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame walk. The... healer doesn't ask for payment. She just set up a gofund me and a donation box and asked them to put any amount they think is worth it inside. So the question is... how much would each person donate, and how much would she get in total per weekly mass healing session? Note: Its in america, and its very public
I think more context is needed. It sounds like this is legitimate healing, so to me the question is: is she the only one who can do this? If so, then ignoring the question of why she isn't protected by/working for the government, I'd say she'd make a veritable fortune. While I doubt people would donate as much as it would cost to get normal treatment, I would expect that affected families would pay at least a few hundred each. Certainly, there would be many who wouldn't pay anything, especially after her services have become somewhat normalized, so let's take a conservative estimate and say only half of those who go give her an average of $500. If what you say is true and she heals (again, low-balling) ~100k people a week, then that's 50,000*$500 = $25 million a week. Now add in the likely possibility that wealthy benefactors would also donate for the sake of looking good to the public via donating for such a noble cause, and she's probably getting an extra few million a year, though honestly those extra donations are likely peanuts compared to the rest. I would expect these numbers to go down significantly over time unless she is able to make a public show of using that money to further help people (i.e. pay for travel to her healing sessions), but she'd still be loaded with cash rather quickly regardless.
Considering that faith healing is one of the oldest scams in the book, and people who can't actually heal become wealthy from just pretending to do it... I'd say your MC is probably at least a multi-millionaire. Maybe getting some flack from the FDA tho.
If she's legit, then it could be all over the place. People giving as much as they can afford at the time, or stingy people not donating at all. I think it could be entirely fair to say she's a millionaire because of some high-profile healings and donations. In all honesty, this seems like a detail that can be easily glossed over in the story. The IRS isn't gonna audit this fictional character, lol. You could probably even just pick an income you want her to have and say that's what she gets.
I wrote a throwaway story where my faith healer was a part of a travelling circus, and where the circus itself made a little money everywhere it went, the majority of their income (and the only thing that kept them going) was the money that came from the healing, which would happen every month or so and only "treat" three or four people. The difference with that is that it was an arranged fee, and it wasn't arranged by the healer but by the circus who were essentially arranging everything for her and organising the meetings. I never specified how much, and I don't think you need to either - she takes donations, and on the scale you're talking about I'd have to agree she'd be a millionaire because there seem to be no limits to her gift at all. In fact, I'd also agree with whoever said it's a wonder she's not being protected/used by the government or someone shady at least. But in general, no, I don't think you need to worry about mentioning any sort of amount.
How much would someone donate to a REAL healer? In America? Dip shits give their life savings to fake healers, false prophets, and whackadoo cultists all the time!
I hate to be cynical here, but I expect her own lifespan would be VERY short. Think about the vested interests she'd be bypassing. The entire healthcare industry. Who is going to pay thousands a year for health insurance when they can just go to this person, make a donation of any size (including zero) and get fully healed? Folks would no longer need consultants, GPs, nurses, hospitals.... The IRS and her income would be the least of her worries. Unless she can also heal herself of any injury or illness, ad infinitum. You could maybe tweak your vision a bit. What if a patient could only be healed once? Any subsequent illness would need to go the established route. Another question: So, does this make everybody immortal then? If not of illness or injury, what would a person die of?
Well, to keep it realistic, there's a certain amount of time before she can heal before she gets exhausted. And also, even if she heals every day, every hour, there's still a limit on how many she can heal (it's by touch).
Ah, that makes it a bit more sensible. Okay, would the people who own the venues where she operates have some sort of say over how much it would cost to rent them out? They COULD get quite greedy, couldn't they?
Of course. I was hoping you would say that. But of course they have to be careful. Raise the price... but not too much, because 1. Threatening to kick out healer girl is a fucker of a PR. And 2. They need her more than she needs them. She doesn't need a stadium, its just a nice place to gather. She can do it on the streets, or in a football field, if she needs to.
I do think it's an issue your story will need to deal with, though. All the questions that have been raised are questions your readers are likely to be wondering about. Your solution here is a good one ..they need her more than she needs them. However, they DO have costs to cover, running the place, etc. They can't just offer the venue for free all the time, can they? Unless, of course, venues were wanting to take turns ...which would make sense, as she wants to travel around the country. You're right. 'Lending' her the stadium would make that stadium look good (if that's necessary, depending on what other events they host.) They would still need to cover their gigantic costs, however, as well as provide tons of security to limit the number of people who could attend any one session. You can imagine, the pressure to include as many as possible would be immense. And even if she gets 'tired' and can only treat so many at one time, there will still be intense competition to 'be' one of the healed. So security will be a massive issue. I also think you should decide who might be wanting to stop her. I'm sure there will be some. And figure out what her defenses would be, should she be attacked—either physically or in the press. My guesses would be: 1) The healthcare industry 2) Religions that won't accept somebody can do this, as it undermines their view of the world. Either that, or religions wanting to exploit her power, and explain it via their existing doctrines Both these entities have a lot of power, financial and otherwise. There would also be: 3) Scientists who want to unlock the secret of her power Actually, lots of stories could develop here. I think it's a really intriguing idea, as long as you don't just handwave the consequences away. This event, if it happened, would be a massive change to life as we know it. Like anything else, the changes wouldn't necessarily all be good ones—at least not initially.
Hehehe.... Well @jannert , there's so much context here, that I'm not quite sure how to explain it to you. Basically, she's from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exalted But anyway, yeah, there would be a massive change in life as we know it. That's why I'm starting to write this story. And I say 4) Other people seeking to kidnap her for their own organisations or countries I'm still not quite sure how to write down all the sudden shifts in human viewpoints that would come out as a miracle healer starts walking around.
It's a very intriguing idea. And it sounds as if you're willing to explore all the repercussions of the situation. I look forward to seeing some of it in the Workshop at some point.
*snorts* It would be nice if I was intelligent enough to actually explore all the repurcussions. There are so many, that come from mixing a fantasy universe with our own mundane world that its kinda hard to know when to start. Nevertheless, part of it is here: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/healing-light-exalted-modern-world-au.163487/ And more here: https://www.frozenincarbonite.org/threads/healing-light-exalted-modern-world-au.1478/#post-63275
That was actually a serious point. It would be in the interests of a lot of powerful people to get control of a genuine miracle healer.
I'm not laughing because it's not serious. I'm laughing because this is always a problem with this kind of questions. I leave out too much context, because putting in the context would take too much time and only confuse people. For your information, in the story I'm writing, Putin kidnapping her would result in these things, all of them possible: 1. She escapes 2. Everyone in the place where she's kept in dies 3. Putin dies. 4. The head honcho in charge dies 5. Russia, as a country, ceases to exist. 6. A fusion nuke explodes in Moscow.
She could run the risk of the family/friends of those she wasn't able to save trying to kill her. Ex: she just healed a badly injured man and has absolutely no energy reserves left when a family shows up, having driven all night, cross country to see her as a last ditch effort with a child who is on Death's door. Before she can recover enough energy, the child passes away. Telling them 'I am sorry I had no energy' well true, would not assuage their grief. Grief affects people in different ways and I could see someone deciding she could have saved their loved one but didn't and try to kill her. There is also the religious angle. With those powers it would be very easy for her to be viewed as a Messiah. Anything she says or does will be analyzed and widely broadcast. People trying to gain power will flock to her. She will have to be very careful with who she trusts.
I think that's a thing. Maybe she can get someone to, like, donate to a hospital to just stabilize them before she shows up. Alternatively, this is a plot point. When a single touch from you can cure someone from deadly illness..... is it really ethical to take a break for yourself, other than the minimum required? Is it really allowed? Should you have time for yourself? No no no. You got the order wrong. Remember? Before the Messiah, there is the false Messiah? They won't think she's jesus. They'll think of her as the anti-christ.
Come back to this thread because I can't get around something: if people decide how much they pay, and nobody enforces a certain minimum or standard, while logistically and realistically your healer should be the richest person on earth, she won't get very much at all. The issue is, people are selfish. On the one hand yes it absolutely depends how desperate people are, or how grateful they are, but on the other - if people can get away with being miraculously healed for free, they will. People are fundamentally prone to getting what they can for as little as they can - if they could pay a pound (or a dollar) or even walk right past the donation box and slip a fake note or not bother at all, I'm sure there'd be a massive percentage that would.
That would be where faith comes in. Faith healers make a mint, even though they never actually heal anything, and never actually ask people for specific amounts. there's just the vague insinuation that the more you give, the more likely you are to be healed. Something about laying up treasures in heaven and whatnot.
If the character is powerful enough to cause countries to cease to exist, why does she need money at all?
Makes a lot of sense - I guess the issue in this situation would be that people know they're going to be healed, no matter what they give, therefore there's no reason to give a huge amount. In a sense, there's no need for faith when the proof is there in front of you. But perhaps I'm being a little too cynical.
