I think lightwhips are the worst idea ever for lightsaber type weapons along with the Force Unleashed tonfas. Lightwhips you'd be harming yourself badly.
I imagine there must be some sort of chain reaction involved. While I don't think they're particularly practical, I've long since given up saying anything's impossible in science.
I believe it is mentioned in some of the novels involving Lumiya that supposedly lightwhips are extremely difficult to wield except by real experts, even for Force users, thus the reason they are so uncommon. AFAIK, she's the only person I recall ever using one in the EU.
There were other notable lightwhip users, the bounty hunter Ona Nobis from the Jedi Apprentice series and the Nightsister Silri from Empire at War: Forces of Corruption are also known to use a lightwhip.
Githany, as well. Lightwhips work the same way lightsabers do, via our imagination. TS, they do seem quite dangerous to wield, but aren't there real life "whip masters" who are able to wield whips without hitting themselves? Seems like it would be the same thing, except with lightwhips exacting a much more deadly toll for mistakes. You could always use a "training lightwhip", which would only cause burns on contact, to master the weapon.
There appear to be two types of lightwhip: the kind Ona Nobis uses is a physical filament with energy around it; reasonably straightforward. I think it's possible that Lumiya's is of the same general type, given that she's got other physical tendrils alongside the energy ones. The other kinds, with a lightsaber-style beam emerging from a hilt on activation, probably work through the same mechanism as lightsabers, but whatever field is used to contain the lightsaber beam energy would here be rendered flexible. Because . . . magnets?
Suppossedly lightwhips require multiple small crystals instead of one large one. Presumably this imparts some kind of inherent instability to the 'frozen blaster' form of the blade allowing it to move flexibly. The physical tendrils embedded into the lightwhip suppossedly make it easier to control, which makes sense because they would add mass to the 'whip' structure causing it to move in a manner dictated by the laws of motion, rather than a purely energy which probably wouldn't really respond to anything but direct Force prodding.
Part of me wants to like this post, part of me wants to banish you to eternal hellfire for even thinking a thought related to those infernal clowns. Y'know, those underground visionaries that are so unpopular and indie that they had a commercial on MTV about how unpopular they were. As a compromise, I'll go beat up a clown or something.
Right, and that is why Luke built the "light dagger" (later rechristened as a shoto), to combat both elements of the lightwhip.