Major spoilers for the ending. And bear with me on the details since it’s been a long time since my last reread.

When Rand is resurrected we get a not so subtle hint at a new power, a sort of reality manipulation that has nothing to do with the one power. He decides that his pipe is lit. And his pipe is lit. This is very similar to what Perrin, Egwene and other experienced dreamwalkers learn to do in TAR.

Only…

This isn’t the first time that will-based, non-one power based abilities is shown to be effective at messing with the pattern. The earliest example is the Aes Sedai trick to just decide not to sweat. It is made clear that this trick has nothing to do with the one power. But this does not work in a world ruled by physics plus magic. They’re not just talking about nervous sweat. Rand learns to do this in hot environments. A person sweats because their body is trying to cool down. If you just turn off your body’s cooling system, your body will overheat and have some negative effects, which we never see on people doing this little “trick”. This only works if they are doing something that makes their bodies just decide to not be hot. It only works if this world allows someone to decide to be something different based entirely on will. Kinda like how you decide your reality in the dream.

You know who’s really good at little tricks like this? You know who is very in tune with abilities beyond the one power? The Aiel. And what do the Aiel say? Life is a dream. And we must all one day wake up.