Psionic Abilities
Psionic Abilities is an umbrella term which refers to the category of abilities which enable a being to be aware of, or influence external objects without interaction from known physical means.
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Realms
Psionic abilities generally fall into two realms:
- Mind-to-mind: in which a being attempts to "read" or influence the thoughts or actions of another being. An example would be telepathy.
- Mind-to-environment: in which a being attempts to influence the environment around them. An example would be telekinesis.
Passivity or Activity
Mind-to-mind abilities are further categorized into passive or active abilities.
Passive abilities are those in which the being with the ability can only sense, and cannot influence. An example would be passive empathy, as displayed by Deanna Troi, the counselor aboard the USS Enterprise-D. Deanna could read the emotions of other individuals and species, but had no control or influence of those emotions.
Active abilities are those in which the being with the ability can both sense and influence. An example would be active telepathy, as displayed by Betazoids with members of their own species.
It is important to keep in mind that a given species or being may have any variety of active or passive abilities. Betazoids, for example, have active telepathic abilities with members of their species as mentioned above, but only passive telepathic abilities with members of other species.
Types of Psionics
The following are a comprehensive list of psionic abilities.
Passive or Active Abilities
- Empathy: The ability to sense the emotions of another being. Generally, empathic abilities are quite non-specific, and any type of reading across species may be difficult depending on how different the two species are.
- Telepathy: The ability to sense the thoughts of another being.
- Mediumistic automatism: The ability to perceive messages, or the expressions of such a message, from entities which do not exist in living forms. (i.e.- ghosts, spirits, dead individuals.) The act of perceiving expressions is sometimes called "channeling."
Passive-only Abilities
- Precognition: The ability to perceive information about future events before they occur. The act of perceiving this information is sometimes called "divination."
- Retrocognition: Sometimes called "psychometry," is the ability to perceive information about past events or conditions of an object or area.
- Clairvoyance: The ability to perceive distant objects, persons, events, or types of energy not normally perceptible. The term does not specifically relate to telepathy or empathy, though a clairvoyant person may have those abilities as well.
- Typically, clairvoyance manifests itself "visually" in the mind's eye of the being exercising this ability. However, auditory or kinesthetic impressions can be a further ability of a clairvoyant.
Active-only Abilities
- Telekinesis: Sometimes called "psychokinesis," is the ability to influence the behavior of matter. This term refers specifically to non-mental influence.
- Psychoprojectivity: A variant of active telepathy, this is the ability to manipulate another being's mental state, including their visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or olfactory senses. An example, as displayed by the Reman Viceroy of Praetor Shinzon in 2379 (immediately preceeding the Battle of the Bassen Rift), would be the psychoprojective telepathic "rape" of Counselor Troi.