"Peter's ability is to mimic other people's abilities by getting to know that person and make empathic connections to them."

I'm not quoting that from anywhere but if we all assume that this is true, I propose that Peter does not have to be in close proximity with other evolved humans to absorb their abilities. For example, IA. I've always thought that, like Gibby said in another recent thread, Peter has had IA since Homecoming when he first met Gabriel but it has been dormant because he did not understand it.

However, I now think that he did not have it at all. Yes, he did make an empathic connection to Gabriel as we can see from his use of telekinesis but he didn't know anything about IA until Future Peter told him about it. If Claude, maybe, told him about Gabriel's IA, then Peter would have been able to use it because he already made an empathic connection with Gabriel.

So, I reckon that if someone told Peter about someone who he had never met before, their experiences, their nature, their problems and their ability, he would gain their ability by making another connection. Similarly, if he found all this out on the phone to that person, he would, too. His ability is Empathic Mimicry, not Proximic Mimicry.

Of course, this doesn't really fit in with how he absorbed Ted's power. Peter had already drawn the future of Ted and Claire saw this and explained that she had met him and that he could explode. Maybe it's because she didn't tell Peter anything, real, about him. Also, when he came into contact with Ted, he started letting out radiation right away. I'm thinking this wasn't because of how close they were but the impression Peter got of Ted. It would have been harder to get a good impression from what Claire said but even seeing him, the way he walked, the way he spoke (did he speak?), the way he looked at him, the realisation that Ted was actually real would have been enough to make an empathic connection.

I'm not saying it's definitely what I think but it's a possibility. TheoryFic.

Well Peter replicates powers by altering his genes to mimic other people's genes to allow him to mimic their power. He does this by forming an empathic connection (basically thinking about the person), but just knowing about the person wouldn't be enough on its own. Peter needs to be within a reasonable proximity of said person so that his body can make a copy of their genes and store them in his body

That's just what I think, but it seems ridiculous that he replicate someone else's genes just by hearing about what they're like, wwhat their favourite film is etc.

Wow D.C.

(AGREE)
Love this theory, and it totally works in almost EVERY situation Peters been in, it allows for total explanation and justification, but I do think he'd eventually have to see them... how'd you stumble across this idea?

He associates IA with Gabriel and TK with Sylar. This ain't my theory, I seen it on wiki. But it is plausible.

But with a show like this I think we are suppose to be left with our theories as our beliefs. I don't think there ever gonna tell us flat out... let our imaginations flex for fun.

I dunno, I've always found Peter's ability quite interesting. Same as Gabriel's especially with the (fake) hunger and Angela telling Gabriel he doesn't know what he's capable of. Arthur's is pretty much a no-brainer. Gibby wrote a couple of posts about IA being dormant in Peter and it got me thinking that maybe he didn't have it at all in the first place. I often find it helps to go back to stuff you thought was a given.

It's also the way Future Peter and Pete were talking about getting Gabriel's ability. They kept saying stuff like gain his ability instead of understand his ability.

P.S. DC, I like it! XD

Sorry to burst ya bubble but... Peter used phasing though he had no empathic connection with D.L, and accessed it willingly on more than one account.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this has been cleared up many times.

Every single ability Peter has ever used, he has seen being used. The only exception being DLs phasing. Now you have to remember hes lost his memory and hes tied to chair getting the cr*p beat out of him. So all sorts of emotions are running through his head, and this triggers the ability. Emotions are the connections to an ability, not the person. All abilities in Heroes manifest from heightened emotions. Tracey Strauss, Ted Sprague, and even Elle most recently. This is quite simple actually.

i think that he has to see the ability or at least now what that persons power is and hes near them..........
the thing with DL.. maybe he didnt know he was phasing at first ? maybe he was trying to do something else?

I think he discovered it by accident (not shown on-screen IMO) out of desperation, while trying to escape from the Company in "Four Months Ago". He would have discovered this power in a fit of frustration or something, and later been able to use it properly to let him and Adam of the Company.

As I said about the absorption of Ted's ability, Peter could have made an empathic connection with D.L even if it was based on something really small like seeing what he looks like or something. Not to mention Peter was desperate to escape at that point, not to mention he had been trapped being manipulated by and forming an escape plan with Adam for Jebus knows how long, not to mention the amount of time that has passed off-screen since the start of HEROES. There's dozens of ways Peter could have discovered phasing.

Also not to mention that it was Season 2. Everything in Season 2 should be taken with a pinch of salt.

See I don't believe that Peter absorbs abilities by feeling for others. Like Mohinder said his DNA alters it's self and "mimics" basically new power codes it finds and adds it to it's own "filing cabinet". I've always thought the term "Empathic Mimic" describes Peter more than his ability. Peter is an empath, he feels for others - his ability is power mimicry, so add them together and that's how they created the name Empathic Mimicry.

Think of it like this, Peter doesn't have his ability anymore - is he any less "empathic"? Arthur has Peter's ability, yet does he use all the abilities he took from Peter emphatically? No. So the empathic part is not part of the ability, just was more of a way to recall abilities for Peter. And you could say that Peter got this ability because he can "connect" with people.

I do believe that Peter assigned abilities to people and emotions, so when he thinks of Sylar or gets angry - he uses Telekinesis. And the other abilities that he doesn't know where he got them from is manifested from adrenaline.

Yep. Also why Peter has problems with the abilities 'popping up' in certain situations, like phasing to get out of ropes and IA when he wanted to know how F_Nathan was thinking. His own ability is controlling him right now; it appears to recall patterns for him.

Claude, who claims to have dealt with this before, kept telling Peter to disconnect. Control over himself would help. Emotion is triggering it, but he's got no solid control over what pops up at this time, as he's not consciously aware of what he picks up or how they work.

Mohinder's explanation makes sense: he'd only pick up what he used with Sylar, given how Sylar works. Sylar permanently incorporates the DNA into his genome (extended universe canon), but he's able to hide his abilities/patterns from others (The Company can only find TK in S1 despite extensive testing).

So what did Peter think of when he was in Montreal with Caitlyn and accidentally used Hiro's power? And when he met Hiro the first time in that train, when he was told to save the cheerleader... He didn't even saw anybody, but absorbed Hiro's power anyway.

It cannot only be by knowing the person. His DNA does it by itself.
Another question... How big is Peter's absorption range? Can it increase if he learns more about his power? And what about Sylar? Maybe there is another solution than killing a person... But the emotions block all those options because he thinks he have to kill a person in order to get its ability. Because that was how he discovered it.

Many of the heroes find a way to "master" their power, and stick to that technique. Like Isaac, did drugs. Hiro... I bet he doesn't need to close his eyes like he does to stop time. But that was how he found out he could.
So for Peter it's easier to control his power by thinking of those who possess them.

He was holding Caitlyn in his arms asking, "-just show me what my future holds... just tell me what I'm suppose to do?"

Hiro, season 1 to Peter: "This is what you've been waiting for."

Strong Emotional connection there to Hiro. He feels those feelings again, DNA mimics Hiro's ability, Bam! Future, showing him what he needs to do.

Yeah, when people lose their memory, it's still stored in their subconcious. Peter, theoretically, could still feel the emotions he associated with Hiro and, for that matter, Gabriel when he pinned that bloke against the wall, but still couldn't actually remember his own name, let alone other people.

I was always under the impression that because Peter is such a touchy-feely emotional guy that the main way he can recall mimicked powers is through emotion, but there are other ways (Claude thinks the only way is through concentration and control). It's like Sylar wavings his hands to use his telekinesis, or Hiro blinking (probably visualising where he wants to go) to use Space-Time manipulation.

Peter connects to the feeling that person had when the ability manifested. This has been proven already as when he connected to Gabriel's IA, he already had the hunger,.... Gabriel's hunger.

Also I would be interested to find out what conditions DLs ability manifested. As it was probably the trapped feeing that made DLs ability manifest in Peter. Peter can use abilities in two ways, using a person as a starting point to connect to an emotion and also connecting to an ability solely on emotion. The latter is harder to do, and generally only happens under heightened emotion.

I don't think the thinking of person thing would work unless Peter has been near them, as Peter has to attain the ability before he can connect. How would Peter be able to replicate specific DNA from a person over a phone call? That idea would only work if Peter was already preprogrammed with every ability.

I think Peter's power works just like Syler's, they just use it differently. If you remember when Syler was faced with Knox, he told Knox how his power worked. After Syler's son was hurt, he then procceded to beat Knox to death. With Knox already strong from Noah's fear, he could have easily tossed Syler and it would have been a more epic battle of strength. I think that Syler can actually just absorb the power, it was just before he had to cut open the head to know how to use it as opposed to Peter having to think about that person.

If he copies DNA as Mohinder suggests, he'd get abilities where they're at with the person, which we've consistently seen. Since the hunger is, technically, a part of Sylar's ability, Peter'd get it where it was at too, connection or not; it's an actual part of IA. I'm aware Sylar refers to it as a side effect, but really, what is the point of having Sylar's ability if you don't have a lust for knowledge?

As for DL, as far as we know, he never met DL or saw phasing being used before he used it; their storylines and physical locations do not cross until the finale, and even then, he doesn't meet DL. Peter's ability just handed it to him in a relevant situation. It's unlikely he even knows where he picked phasing up from, since he didn't know everyone on the roof.

If this is the case--Peter's own ability is what hands him the others he's acquired--then that would also be how the Haitian allowed for F_Peter's death. If he died without his own ability 'on', he'd be screwed. Also, it means copying from Sylar depends on what ability (DNA) Sylar is 'showing'. And, of course, how he survived that fall in Homecoming. I could see him associate healing with Claire later with Claude, but this is before all that.

Basically, while he can use associated emotions for control, it isn't 100%. It's a pretty heightened form of empathy: his body literally copies a part of the people he's around. In the beginning, it was more unstable than it is now.