A Lecture on Psionics, Part 1 - SCP Foundation

Hello? Hello!? Can I have your attention please!

Well then, good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the basic lecture on psionics. My name is Doctor Reuht, I am a senior scientist in the Psionics Department here at Site-DE4. As you should know from the title of this talk, today will give you a general overview of the parascience of psionics.

But first, what is psionics anyway? How is it defined?

It's actually pretty well defined. Psionics is the study, and also the application, of supernatural phenomena generated solely from the power of one's mind. Psionics is its own field, separate from reality bending or similar practices.

Before we can move on, we must first define what a thought is. Of course, there are neural processes in the brain that process information and store it in connections between nerve cells. But that's not the full story.

Thoughts exist as entities in their own right. Every image, every word, every memory, everything that goes through your mind… literally goes through your mind. You see, information always exists in two forms: the physical and the psionic. The physical is what I just described: neural processes, for example. The psionic… Well, it's made up of an anomalous form of energy that we call psionic energy. Imaginitive, I know.

Psionic energy creates fields. Psionic fields. Similar to how an electric current generates a magnetic field, or how mass produces gravitation. The field also contains the information of the associated thought. The strength of this energy, and therefore the strength of the field as well, depends on two factors: How much information a thought contains, and how much the brain processes it. So, if you think about something a lot or you have a thought that is important to you, it also has more energy. Your wedding is more relevant than what you had for lunch two weeks ago, for example.

In your mind, naturally, these fields overlap. Such complex combinations of different fields are referred to as psionic matrix, and to put it in simple terms, they can also be regarded as one large field. And yes, every one of you has a matrix like this. Everyone!

Anyway, this is where psions come into the picture. A psionicaly gifted person is able to sense and manipulate psionic fields, and therefore also psionic energy. The amount of energy a person can mobilise and generate from his own matrix depends on his psionic potential. And training. Lots of training. Some psions train as much as competitive athletes, just to reach their full potential.

Telepathy is the prime example of psionic activity. A psion manipulates fields so that they can intersect their own field with another individual's matrix, granting the telepath access to another person's mind. However, a distinction must here be made between communicative telepathy and controlling telepathy. With the former, only information is exchanged, while with the latter, the psion can rewrite thoughts, that is, exercise mind control. Please note that communicative psions and controlling psions are two different types of psion. While both access psionic matrices, they do fundamentally different things there; communicatives read data and bring in new information, while controllers rewrite data. Although there can be overlap, both phenomena occur independently of each other.

Incidentally, fields that connect a matrix to something else are called psionic currents. Please note this term - I will use it more often later.

However, as you are no doubt aware, mind readers and controllers are not the only psions; clairvoyants, precognitives and telekinetics are too. Of course, that seems a bit odd, since none of you really work with thoughts.

So let me explain these phenomena. Precognitives, that is, psions who can see into the future, are the simplest here: we have no idea. Other parasciences, such as thaumatology or theology can explain their predictions of the future, but not psionics. Unfortunate, but true. But if you happen to find out how precognitive psionics works, let me know. The prize money is nothing to turn your nose up at.

Clairvoyance, on the other hand, is somewhat better understood; but we must first talk about attention. You see, when you perceive something, you radiate it out. Yes, your mere perception leaves behind psionic energy! So cut out your eyes and stop anomalously contaminating your environment!

Only joking, please don't do that. But the "radiation" thing is still true: As soon as you perceive something, you leave psionic residue behind. A precise explanation is too complex to put into layman's terms for you, but let's just say that by perceiving something, you leave behind faint amounts of psionic energy associated with the perceived object. The energy, which logically also has an equally weak field, contains the relevant information regarding what was perceived. However, if this information is already present, it will only be amplified.

As you might be guessing by now, clairvoyants can easily access and read these residues. Just like telepaths read minds.

That leaves us with telekinetics: anomalies that can move objects through their minds. Well, they work similarly to attention-deficit psychics. Except that they don't read the residues on an object, but generate a telekinetic effect. Without boring you with a complex conversation about calculations and the necessary energy expenditure, at the interface with its target the field is converted into kinetic energy. To explain this with an example: let's say a psion wants to levitate a chair. To do this, he forms a psionic current that connects to the underside of the chair. A telekinetic effect occurs, and the chair is lifted.

You may have heard of pyrokinetics, psychic individuals who can generate heat. They're telekinetics too. Telekinetics, who don't work kinetic energy, but thermal energy; a pyrokinetic effect. While these are rare, each type of energy has at least one telekinetic who can generate it.

So these were the different types of psionics. Of course there are also mixed forms; Telepaths who can both communicate and control mentally, or precognitive clairvoyants. By the way, the most common combination is communicative telepathy and clairvoyance.

However, I would like to inform you at this point that there will be a short break. Go to the bathroom and get something to drink. After that, I'll talk about units of measure, engineering, history, and how to deal with little psychic shitheads.

Part 2 →