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In the One Piece verse, the mind/heart (kokoro) is linked to what is called "spirit" (Kihaku); spirits are the essence of someone's soul, manifesting in one's emotions, consciousness, mental strength, convictions and fighting power; the soul or "life" is what houses all these substances. Each person has a second soul, which is called: "shadow"; for being an soul-like substance, shadows carry people's personality, fighting power and memories, having a personal consciousness (however identical to its original bearer), just like the soul.
With this clarified, we can conclude that the mental effects that a shadow demonstrates should also apply to its original bearer, because both have the same spirit (will, personality, emotions and so on); in other words, the metaphysical connections of the shadow and the body are identical, in fact, reflections. King Tempest clarified in this thread that there is a range of abilities linked to willpower alone, and that this is a scalable thing between characters.
Having explained this in detail, I will proceed to my propositions.
1. Mind Control Resistance via Willpower.
Has been stated that shadows of powerful people are generally difficult to control, and Moriah himself assumes that subjecting Oars to his mind control was not possible before time enough for Luffy's strong persona stops it's influences into it naturally (although the control has worked over time, it usually doesn't, but a shadow immediately submits to the supremacy of Moriah's orders; seen the zombies' reaction as categorically stating: “there has never been a zombie like this before”, implying directly some form of resistance), and we see that thanks to Luffy's vivid will, contained within his shadow, Oars primarily rebelled himself against Moria's pact. Therefore, we deduced that just as Luffy's shadow could resist the effects of Moria's mental control, even in a limited way, Luffy himself could resist Mind Control as well (because of the same spirit in them both).
However, this shouldn't be restricted to Luffy alone, as it is described about powerful people being less susceptible to Moria's absolute obedience and stuff. Giving more scope to this, we see that strong emotions and serious and powerful convictions can also nullify influences on the mind; Sanji's conviction about "not attacking women" carried over to his zombie, and it was so strong inside him that not even Moriah's mental orders could go against it; we also have the example of Cindry; when the memories of her original soul were coming back and influencing her, she was able to fight against Mind Control several times; stepping out of Moriah a little (for people don't think this is a personal weakness), we see that an East Blue Luffy, who was in the process of his convictions and powers was already able to fight against Mind Control in order to help his friends.
2. Body Control via Willpower.
Kumadori explain that the self-control of the own conscience grants humans a mastery over every faculty of the human body.
We see the application of body control over users of haki (a spiritual energy that takes a lot of training and mental strengthening to master) a lot: Zoro (a haki user and skilled fighter with mental strength) was able to change his muscles mass at will; Rob Lucci (a haki user) dominated Seimei Kikan; Eustass Kidd (a haki user) showed ability to control his own body with supernatural digestion; Boa Sandersonia (a haki user) showed ability to change the shape of her hair at will; Lao G (an expert fighter with spiritual strength powerful enough to pull his own soul into his body) showed the ability to vastly alter his body; Vergo (a haki user) could also alter his body greatly; Kaku (a haki user) also controlled his body structure in many ways.
Well, every haki user or characters who possesses great mental power should have the inner ability (even if unknown to the user in question) to alter their body in some way.
3. Resistance to Soul Manipulation via Willpower.
Spiritual energy is contained within one's soul/life; this energy is represented by the fighting power or the Haki itself (In fact, Haki is often mentioned as referring to one's power state). The idea of exist a "power ranking" for souls and metaphysical energy is pretty much constant in the series. Brook is the first to establish that "weak souls" could not withstand the power of his own Soul. Later, Brook himself is overwhelmed by the power of Big Mom's soul, and as a result, the absorption effects of his Soul Manipulation prove ineffective against her soul — Big Mom doesn't attribute Brook's inability to absorb her soul to some characteristics of her Devil Fruit, but to her soul being in “another level”. As souls are homologous to shadows, we can say that souls themselves have no power, but are charged with power, by the spirit of the user being inside of it.
Zoro has also been in a similar situation with his sword Enma, known for absorbing Haki from its users. Not that Haki and Soul are the same thing (although they are intrinsically connected), but because Haki is a metaphysical energy such as the manifestations of the soul. Zoro even says that losing his Haki would be equivalent to losing his life, which is a synonym for soul. But what I mean is that Zoro could resist Enma's spiritual absorption, just like Big Mom could resist Brook's soul absorption due to a over high spirit level (Zoro was releasing more strength than usual to be able to contain Enma's absorption).
Concluding , we see that the characters of One Piece progress not only physically, but also in mental and spiritual proportions, in such a way that the mind, when fully dominated, rules completely over the physical side.
Such applications should be added to those who wield haki (mainly Haoshoku Haki) and the ones who prove to have great willpower.
With this clarified, we can conclude that the mental effects that a shadow demonstrates should also apply to its original bearer, because both have the same spirit (will, personality, emotions and so on); in other words, the metaphysical connections of the shadow and the body are identical, in fact, reflections. King Tempest clarified in this thread that there is a range of abilities linked to willpower alone, and that this is a scalable thing between characters.
Having explained this in detail, I will proceed to my propositions.
1. Mind Control Resistance via Willpower.
Has been stated that shadows of powerful people are generally difficult to control, and Moriah himself assumes that subjecting Oars to his mind control was not possible before time enough for Luffy's strong persona stops it's influences into it naturally (although the control has worked over time, it usually doesn't, but a shadow immediately submits to the supremacy of Moriah's orders; seen the zombies' reaction as categorically stating: “there has never been a zombie like this before”, implying directly some form of resistance), and we see that thanks to Luffy's vivid will, contained within his shadow, Oars primarily rebelled himself against Moria's pact. Therefore, we deduced that just as Luffy's shadow could resist the effects of Moria's mental control, even in a limited way, Luffy himself could resist Mind Control as well (because of the same spirit in them both).
However, this shouldn't be restricted to Luffy alone, as it is described about powerful people being less susceptible to Moria's absolute obedience and stuff. Giving more scope to this, we see that strong emotions and serious and powerful convictions can also nullify influences on the mind; Sanji's conviction about "not attacking women" carried over to his zombie, and it was so strong inside him that not even Moriah's mental orders could go against it; we also have the example of Cindry; when the memories of her original soul were coming back and influencing her, she was able to fight against Mind Control several times; stepping out of Moriah a little (for people don't think this is a personal weakness), we see that an East Blue Luffy, who was in the process of his convictions and powers was already able to fight against Mind Control in order to help his friends.
2. Body Control via Willpower.
Kumadori explain that the self-control of the own conscience grants humans a mastery over every faculty of the human body.
We see the application of body control over users of haki (a spiritual energy that takes a lot of training and mental strengthening to master) a lot: Zoro (a haki user and skilled fighter with mental strength) was able to change his muscles mass at will; Rob Lucci (a haki user) dominated Seimei Kikan; Eustass Kidd (a haki user) showed ability to control his own body with supernatural digestion; Boa Sandersonia (a haki user) showed ability to change the shape of her hair at will; Lao G (an expert fighter with spiritual strength powerful enough to pull his own soul into his body) showed the ability to vastly alter his body; Vergo (a haki user) could also alter his body greatly; Kaku (a haki user) also controlled his body structure in many ways.
Well, every haki user or characters who possesses great mental power should have the inner ability (even if unknown to the user in question) to alter their body in some way.
3. Resistance to Soul Manipulation via Willpower.
Spiritual energy is contained within one's soul/life; this energy is represented by the fighting power or the Haki itself (In fact, Haki is often mentioned as referring to one's power state). The idea of exist a "power ranking" for souls and metaphysical energy is pretty much constant in the series. Brook is the first to establish that "weak souls" could not withstand the power of his own Soul. Later, Brook himself is overwhelmed by the power of Big Mom's soul, and as a result, the absorption effects of his Soul Manipulation prove ineffective against her soul — Big Mom doesn't attribute Brook's inability to absorb her soul to some characteristics of her Devil Fruit, but to her soul being in “another level”. As souls are homologous to shadows, we can say that souls themselves have no power, but are charged with power, by the spirit of the user being inside of it.
Zoro has also been in a similar situation with his sword Enma, known for absorbing Haki from its users. Not that Haki and Soul are the same thing (although they are intrinsically connected), but because Haki is a metaphysical energy such as the manifestations of the soul. Zoro even says that losing his Haki would be equivalent to losing his life, which is a synonym for soul. But what I mean is that Zoro could resist Enma's spiritual absorption, just like Big Mom could resist Brook's soul absorption due to a over high spirit level (Zoro was releasing more strength than usual to be able to contain Enma's absorption).
Concluding , we see that the characters of One Piece progress not only physically, but also in mental and spiritual proportions, in such a way that the mind, when fully dominated, rules completely over the physical side.
Such applications should be added to those who wield haki (mainly Haoshoku Haki) and the ones who prove to have great willpower.
