Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-4772791-20131121232124/@comment-2157876-20131123090233

Well i dont know how the heart trick works, but it seems that those who use it take out something like the magical equivalent of the human heart, because we have seen that characters like Aurora and The huntsman losing their hearts but they are still alive, also those hearts seem to be the will of the owner because Regina and Cora used hearts as a way to control other people's will.

When the huntsman died in Storybrooke, we know that Regina crushed it, but when doctors did the autopsy they said he died of a heart failure, which means the person still have the heart in his or her body, at least the organ heart.

so the magically extracted heart gotta be something like a Token of the owner's will or spirit or soul that is linked to a body. Henry gave his heart to Pan, physiologically Henry is still alive, but maybe Pan is extracting henry's life with the stolen heart.