Psionics, Share yours here. Options

First note I have tendency to make long and informed posts on purpose. I figure those who are looking for a quick fix won't take the time to read them and waste my time or theirs and those who are serious about study will take the time and learn. And those who already know will recognize it and move on!

This topic is aimed at making a thread that is a collection of feats one can do with psychic manipulation. I encourage all psi talents to share some of their own practices and what not. I will from time to time add my own. But first lets make sure we're all on the same page about what "psychic" really is.

If one is a novice but is truely interested in understanding the psychic mind I suggest you read these threads located in the astral forums; "The self", "seeking balance", "inner self outer awareness" read them in this order or they might not make sense. They are my ideas alone and not the only ones out there so take what you read as not a dictation of what the psychic mind is but just one theory of the many availible. Their purpose is to articulate the fact one shouldn't just jump onto the band wagon of practicing psychic arts until they are at a cetain point of cognitive understanding of themselves and nature around them. If one does just start manipulating energy I'd be willing to bet that they wouldn't be abe to control the energy and that the energy they manipulate could harm them or others. Probably not permanently but noticably.

First lets diffine what "psychic" means. So look at the meaning for the words "psych" and "psychic". This is from the Merriam-webster online dictionary:

Psych:
1 : PSYCHOANALYZE
2 a : to anticipate correctly the intentions or actions of : OUTGUESS b : to analyze or figure out (as a problem or course of action) <I psyched it all out by myself and decided -- David Hulburd>
3 a : to make psychologically uneasy : INTIMIDATE, SCARE <pressure doesn't psych me -- Jerry Quarry> -- often used with out b : to make (as oneself) psychologically ready especially for performance -- often used with up <psyched herself up for the race>

Psychic:
Etymology: Greek psychikos of the soul, from psychE soul
1 : of or relating to the psyche : PSYCHOGENIC
2 : lying outside the sphere of physical science or knowledge : immaterial, moral, or spiritual in origin or force
3 : sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences : marked by extraordinary or mysterious sensitivity, perception, or understanding

Etymology: Greek psychikos of the soul, from psychE soul
1 : of or relating to the psyche : PSYCHOGENIC
2 : lying outside the sphere of physical science or knowledge : immaterial, moral, or spiritual in origin or force
3 : sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences : marked by extraordinary or mysterious sensitivity, perception, or understanding

In short being psychic is to have the ability to think but also to think outside of the box.

So if one were said to be psychic then they probably can think. If all people can think then all people are psychic. But not everybody thinks outside the box. That being the mainstream and often that is either a part of dogma found in the dominant religion and the concrete principles of science. So I think if one is to study the psychic arts they should do so with an open mind and one that doesn't ignore facts but is also willing to go outside the box. No not with astral projection (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif), just with thought.

I think psychic powers can be diffined in three schools of thought. The first is the inner psych. This is the ability to think and consider all things within the self. This can include dreams and logical/abstract thought. Imagination and personal awareness- ego. The next school of thought is that of outter psych. This is the ability to use thought to perceive the world around us, not just in us. Psychic abilities here are the obvious- being able to use one's hands to make thinings. But this can also be found in astral projection, psychometry, faith healing, psychic vampirism, and psychic defense. The third school of thought is that of what I consider to be the "divine psyche". This in humans is the ability to think about divinity. It seems most people have some form of divinity. Some form of thought that describes the nature of "diety". Diety is higher power personified. Some have many dieties some have one. But this thread had little to do about what is divinity and more about what it can do. I think this third school of thought can be described in ways like a collective consousness. This can be pre-cognition, or general divination, as well as ascention or transendance of thought into a higher power for the purpose of attaining enlightenment. There are probably many more examples to share for each school of thought I just want to articulate what each school pertains to.

Again I am not trying to dictate anything. Just presant ideas to aid others in learning their own perception of psych and pyschic abilities.

So with this thread I hope I have painted a clear picture about what "psychic" really is. To finish this I will start with the basics give an excersice and explaination of its functions. Feel free to jump in at any time, if at all.

Let me use this analogy; When first learning any martial art one does not start with double round house kicks accompanied by an asortment of hand strikes. They must build their ability to the point where they can do the acrobatic manuvers. To do this one must learn to control the muscles of their body to make them move as desired. This requires flexibility. When one first enters a martial arts class, either in a group or with a personal trainer, the first steps to learning is gaining flexibility that will develope and give the student muscular control. One does this through a series of excersices and basic movements. As one practices these their muscles will gain strength and they will be able to move on to to learn the actual fighting technique.

Developing the mind is no different. Learning the psychic arts is analogous to learning martial arts. It requires dicipline, control, the right attitude and a healthy understanding of one's self.

So to start developing one's psychic mind lets first start with stretching these psychic muscles; Meditation.
There are serveral types of meditation each that require a certain degree of practice and each will take one in certain depths of thought. But this is the basics so anybody with any amount of practice can do this. Unless they have ADD. Before I'd consider manipulating energy on any level I think learning the self dicipline to meditate is crittical. Its not just mental control but focus. This control and focus is what is important. Freedom from distractions to stay focus on the objective at hand. As one gains experience they will be able to summon the mind set of meditation almost by will to enable them to preform greater feats.

To meditate do this daily for at least 10-20 minutes:

Find a spot where you know you will not be distracted. It matters little the time of day only that you practice consistantly. Simply sit in this quiet spot, possibly with some light music. Incense of your choice aids in creating a comfortable atmosphere. Dim lighting seems to work best, though its not crittical. Sit in any position that will be comfortable for the time you will meditate. Even lay down if you like. Close your eyes and start breathing deeply. Take about ten deep breathes and start at your toes and work your way up to head relaxing your muscles. Once you have at least ten deep breathes done resume breathing in a comfortable manner. Focus one what you see with your eyes closed. While doing this chances are random streams of thought will pop into your mind. The purpose of this is to train the mind to control these random streams to eventually draw out specific thought and focus intently on them. So gently "push" any random thoughts out of your head with each exhale of your breath and picture on the nonthingness you see with your eyes closed. Picture this blackness without thoughts. Again each time a thought comes to mind exhale and picture the black slate before you without thought.

Practice practice. If you fail to maintain non-thought and focus start from the begining. Don't fret if you run out of time for you have all the time in the world to resume at a latter point. Eventually with enough practice you'll be able to control streams of thought to make a dead silence in your mind with nothing but empy dark space to look at. A starting point for many aspects of psychic arts.

For a long time, I've long noticed what seems to me as the obvious connection of psychic, psyche, and psychology. Most often, when I've pointed out that connection, others tend to dismiss the commonality of those terms as merely some sort of linguistic trivia that has no relevancy with regard to meaning. Especially when it comes to connecting the term psychic with psyche and psychology.

After considering this for a while, I became aware that part of their reluctance for making that last connection seems to be that they have expanded the meaning associated with the word psychic beyond just relating to one's mental ability. Many are willing to accept that psyche is a synonym for mind, and is related to psychology (theories regarding mental function) - yet they are reluctant to consider psychic abilities as simply one's mental abilities, because they want psychic abilities to be more.

They don't want psychic abilities to be "mind games", "mind trips", "only all in their minds", "just in their heads", "flights of their imagination", "daydreams", etc...

Instead, they want psychic abilities to be dramatic powers that can manipulate physical reality according to awe inspiring ways, without using either their bodies or technological devices that make traditional "scientists" (among various others) suffer existential apoplexies.

The first time I encountered the word psion and psionics was way back, almost twenty five years ago, in one of the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game guides. They were such cooler terms than psychic - which back then tended to be associated with images of middle-aged frazzled women sitting at tables in the tent of a travelling carnival, who read palms and stared cross-eyed into "crystal" balls. And the plethora of psionic abilities that Gygax et. al. elaborated for that game sure made the siren song keen for learning how to develop and to demonstrate TSR's explanation of such skills. Combined with the burgeoning New Age Movement, I see how some momentum was initially established by some people (at the very least, amongst the crew I know) to experiment for exactly figuring out how to develop psionic abilities beyond the RPGing, and beyond the dogmas regarding such powers as taught by various religions.

What I haven't personally experienced is anyone demonstrate to me that their methods for applying psionic energy are anything more than just creative techniques for focusing their thinking process, and for intensifying how they manipulate physical reality using their bodies, and hold their own when relating with others face to face.

Sure, I've read numerous stories and heard countless ancedotes from others about either what they claim to have done, or what they have witnessed others do. But I've yet to see anyone perform telekenisis, telephathy, pyrokenisis, teleportation, non-psychosomatic healing, etc...

However, I have witnessed marital artist friends improve the strength of their blocks, their punches, their throws, their jumps, the speed of their movements, etc... by using their mental abilities for exponentially increasing the energy they apply through their bodies.

I've also witnessed friends who are deep into psionics demonstrate capable concentration for dealing with situations of interpersonal adversity: facing challenges in relationships and deftly executing detailed and appropriate action from a formiddable state of calm centeredness - even though they didn't handle those situations by demonstrating "psionic special effects" worthy of either a saturday morning cartoon, or an engaging novel. In fact, over the years I've watched some of those same friends shift from fixating on developing the ability to demonstrate such psionic-psychic special effects for awe-inspiringly manipulating the physical word - to focusing on refining their abilities for cultivating their self-mastery.

So I have seen the merit of developing psionic-psychic abilities, with regard to such growth.

With regard to the ever popularly reported psionic-psychic special effects - which, at this point, seem to me just to be the "hook" that gets people interested in developing their mental abilities - I'm currently skeptical.

This post has been edited by Praxis: Aug 13 2005, 04:57 AM