Psionics Vernacular - repost

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Original post: doh

07-05-2004, 11:30 AM #1
Genostar
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Psionics Vernacular
Alright, a few questions about vocabulary and word usage in the community.

* Does psionics refer to the field itself? Like, would I say, "I am studying psionics"?
* If psionics is indeed a noun, is it used in the singular or plural? In the case of "studying psionics," it would be used in the singular, but do I say (as Kain did in a recent post), "psionics are a conglomeration of skills ..."?
* Is, instead, psionic an adjective? Do I say, "That is a psionic text"?
* Or does it refer to the practitioner him/herself, as in, "I am a psionic"? Or is the practitioner called a psion?


Or are there no conventions?

Just wanted to get this all cleared up before I posted even more.

Namaste,
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Last edited by Genostar : 07-05-2004 at 11:31 AM. Reason: Change subscription

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07-05-2004, 11:48 AM #2
Aodh
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Psionics generally refers to the field but in rare instances it can be used as an adjective in a useful way such as, I made a psionic shield, or, did you use a psionic method to achieve telepathic communication. Practitioners of psionics are generally reffered to as psions or psionicists. Those psions who call themselves psychic are generally confused or not psions as in general a psychic is someone who doesn't achieve paranormal abilities via energy manipulation techniques as a psion generally does. It IS arguable whether or not some psychics are actually psions but as a general fact, a true psychic is not a psion whether or not they share the same abilities as they have different methods of achievment. Or at least in my opinion. I like your use of the 'elven' farewell too *wink*

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07-06-2004, 03:22 AM #3
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I've always thought of a psionic as a kind of psychic.

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07-06-2004, 01:53 PM #4
shintashi
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the first occurance of the word "psionic" I have ever seen was created by Gary Gygax, decades ago. Other books which spoke of it all seem to be offshoots of this principle. I have yet to see an article that predates his statements from Lake Geneva (my friend used to live there).

roughly, from what I recall him saying (the instance of reference, itself was also over a decade ago) "psionics is the application of technology designed to enhance or modify psychic abilities". It is possible he got the term from the Airforce, during their experiments with thought controlled planes decades ago, although it is also possible he himself created the term. I have several old dictionaries, it is not in there. People forget that GG has been around since aproximately the days of spiderman.

Gary Gygax
"I began writing the game in 1972 at the age of 34. Of course I had designed games before that. My first attempts were chess variants way back in the 1950s, then wargames and military miniatures rules and the like in the 1960s. There are still one or two of my DIPLOMACY Game variants from the 1960s somewhere online, BTW."

of course, let me emphasize that this is my best guess for the origin, based upon my current amass of chronological evidence. It is possible that the word predates the grandfather of RPGs, but I doubt it. Concerning the connection to Marvel comics and the like, it is known by the older generation that comic books used to gain advertising dollars by placing RPG adds in their pages, and I do not know how far back this goes, except that they most definitely communicated with each other.
At some point in time, the comics got mixed with with Manga, and the Manga got mixed up with Betty Boop, and Betty Boop turned into Anime. Somewhere in that tumultous time, people like Kevin Siemba got involved in the market with Robo-tech, and movies like "Harmaggedon" evolved into descendants like "Akira" and "Spriggan".

Harmageddon used the term Esper decades ago. Which is kind of funny, the word Espirit is fremch, I believe, for "spirit", and the Term ESP is for extra sensory perception. putting "er" like "farmER" or "minER" would make them a wroker in that field. thus "Esper", oddly, has a double meaning, - that of a spirit, and that of a user of psychic abilities.

Psychic itself, comes from "hylic" "psychic" and "pneumatic" gnostic terminology, which was also mixed with the Greek "Psyche", of which I make mention in page 3 of my book. (counting title page). Without copying myself word for word, psyche ment soul, and the story was abuot how, thorugh trials and tribulation, by finding love, the soul would find immortality and divinity. - A lesson we can still learn from today.

while Americans like to capitalize on their beliefs in a scientific pattern, the real origin of psychic abilities, while universal, is best learned through a good study of history. Thus you might find a heavy amount of useable references from Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Pre Aristotlean Greek Philosophy, Arabic Sufism, Chinese Taoism, and Hindu Yoga, especially Raja and Siddha.

Fun with words...

OBE out of body experience
Astral projection
remote viewing
psychometry

-pathy
empathy
telepathy
psychopathy

-kinesis
psychokinesis
telekinesis
pyrokinesis
cryokinesis
hydrokinesis
aerokinesis
aetherkinesis
biokinesis
hemokinesis (bwahahahahahaa !!!)

-metabolism
psychometabolism

and fun with other stuff, like "chronopathy" and "chronokinesis"

-cognition
postcognition
precognition
retrocognition
telecognition
ohmyfukingodnition
thatsalotofnitionognition

or for even more fun, make up stuff that just sounds wierd

telemetabolic manipulation
Esperifine Inosculation
Crysalys Hypertransmutation

- you get the idea. Until people start flying around, teleporting to work, and exploding heads with an over abundance of Mind control, we won't have a static vocabulary.