Psionics (Dungeons & Dragons)
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In American science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s, psionics was a proposed discipline that applied principles of engineering (especially electronics) to the study (and employment) of paranormal or psychic phenomena, such as extrasensory perception,
telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...
and psychokinesis. The term is a portmanteau formed from ''
psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviation ...
'' (in the sense of " psychic phenomena") and the -' from '' electronics''. The word "psionics" began as, and always remained, a term of art within the science fiction community and—despite the promotional efforts of editor
John W. Campbell, Jr John Wood Campbell Jr. (June 8, 1910 – July 11, 1971) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (later called ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'') from late 1937 until his death ...
—it never achieved general currency, even among academic parapsychologists. In the years after the term was coined in 1951, it became increasingly evident that no scientific evidence supports the existence of "psionic" abilities.


Etymology

In 1942, two authors—
biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...
Bertold Wiesner and psychologist
Robert Thouless Robert Henry Thouless (15 July 1894 – 25 September 1984) was an English psychologist and parapsychologist. He is best known as the author of '' Straight and Crooked Thinking'' (1930, 1953), which describes flaws in reasoning and argument. Ca ...
—had introduced the term "psi" (from ψ ''psi,'' 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet) to parapsychology in an article published in the '' British Journal of Psychology''. (This Greek character was chosen as apropos since it is the initial letter of the Greek word ψυχή 'psyche''meaning "mind" or "soul".) The intent was that "psi" would represent the "unknown factor" in extrasensory perception and psychokinesis, experiences believed to be unexplained by any known physical or biological mechanisms. In a 1972 book, Thouless insisted that he and Wiesner had coined this usage of the term "psi" prior to its use in science fiction circles, explaining that their intent was to provide a more neutral term than "ESP" that would not suggest a pre-existing theory of mechanism. The word "psionics" first appeared in print in a novella by science fiction writer Jack Williamson—''The Greatest Invention''—published in ''
Astounding Science Fiction ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...
'' magazine in 1951. Williamson derived it from the "psion", a fictitious "unit of mental energy" described in the same story. (Only later was the term retroactively described in non-fiction articles in ''Astounding'' as a portmanteau of "psychic electronics", by editor
John W. Campbell John Wood Campbell Jr. (June 8, 1910 – July 11, 1971) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (later called ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'') from late 1937 until his death ...
.) The new word was derived by analogy with the earlier term radionics. (“Radionics” combined ''radio'' with ''electronics'' and was itself devised in the 1940s to refer to the work of early 20th century physician and pseudoscientist
Albert Abrams Albert Abrams (December 8, 1863 – January 13, 1924) was a fraudulent American physician, well known during his life for inventing machines, such as the "Oscilloclast" and the "Radioclast", which he falsely claimed could diagnose and cure almost ...
.) The same analogy was subsequently taken up in a number of science fiction-themed neologisms, notably
bionics Bionics or biologically inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. The word ''bionic'', coined by Jack E. Steele in August 1 ...
(''bio-'' + ''electronics''; coined 1960) and cryonics (''cryo-'' + ''electronics''; coined 1967).


Background

In the 1930s, three men were crucial to inciting John W. Campbell's early enthusiasm for a "new science of the mind" construed as "engineering rinciplesapplied to the mind". The first was mathematician and philosopher
Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...
—known as the "father of
cybernetics Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...
"—who had befriended Campbell when he was an undergraduate (1928–31) at MIT. The second was parapsychologist Joseph Banks Rhine whose parapsychology laboratory at Duke University was already famous for its investigations of "ESP" when Campbell was an undergraduate there (1932–34). The third was a non-academic: Charles Fort, the author and paranormal popularizer whose 1932 book ''Wild Talents'' strongly encouraged credence in the testimony of people who had experienced telepathy and other " anomalous phenomena". The idea that ordinary people only utilize a small fraction of the (potentially enormous) capabilities of the human brain had become a particular "pet idea" for Campbell by the time he first published his own science fiction writings as a college student. In a 1932 short story he asserted that "no man in all history ever used even half of the thinking part of his brain". He followed up on this notion in a note to another story published five years later:
The total capacity of the mind, even at present, is to all intents and purposes, infinite. Could the full equipment be hooked into a functioning unit, the resulting intelligence should be able to conquer a world without much difficulty.
In 1939, he wrote in an editorial in the magazine '' Unknown'', which he edited:
Is it so strange a thing that this unknown mass
he human brain He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
should have some unguessed power by which to feel and see beyond, directly, meeting mind to mind in telepathy, sensing direct the truth of things by clairvoyance?
Along with Charles Fort, Campbell believed that there were already many individuals with latent "psi powers" among us unwittingly and he took this belief a step further in considering development of such powers to be the "next step" in human evolution. Throughout his career, Campbell had sought grounds for a new "scientific psychology" and he was instrumental in formulating the brainchild of one of his more imaginative science fiction writers—the "
Dianetics Dianetics (from Greek ''dia'', meaning "through", and ''nous'', meaning "mind") is a set of pseudoscientific ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body created by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubba ...
" of
L. Ron Hubbard Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American author, primarily of science fiction and fantasy stories, who is best known for having founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored '' Dianetic ...
.Westfahl, Gary (2005), ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy'', Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, p. 167. Campbell's enthusiasm for Dianetics—which later morphed into the
Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a scientology as a business, bu ...
—was red hot in 1949 and 1950, but had considerably cooled by 1951 when he saw Hubbard for the last time.


History

With Campbell's encouragement, or at his direction, "psionic" abilities began to appear frequently in magazine science fiction stories in the mid-1950s, providing characters with supernormal or supernatural abilities. The first example was Murray Leinster's novella ''The Psionic Mousetrap'' published in early 1955. Examples of psychic abilities in fiction, whether attributed to supernatural agencies or otherwise, predated the "psionics" vogue. But the editors of '' The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' describe and define a post-war "psi-boom" in genre science fiction—"which he ampbellengineered"—dating it from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. They cite James Blish's ''Jack of Eagles'' (1952), Theodore Sturgeon's '' More Than Human'' (1953), Wilson Tucker's ''Wild Talent'' (1954) and
Frank M. Robinson Frank Malcolm Robinson (August 9, 1926 – June 30, 2014) was an American science fiction and techno-thriller writer. He was a speechwriter for gay politician Harvey Milk and Milk's designated successor in the event of his death but decline ...
's '' The Power'' (1956) as examples. Alfred Bester's '' The Demolished Man'' (1953) is a pioneering example of a work depicting a society in which people with "psi" abilities are fully integrated. Since the "psi-boom" years coincided with the darkest and most paranoid period of the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, it is natural that many examples of the utility of telepathy in espionage (for example those of Randall Garrett) would be produced. In terms of literary continuity, the editors of ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' point out that:
All the psi powers, of course, used to be in the repertoire of powerful magicians, and most are featured in occult romances.
In 1956, Campbell began promoting a psionics device known as the
Hieronymus machine A Hieronymus machine is any of the patented radionics devices invented by electrical engineer Thomas Galen Hieronymus (21 November 1895 – 21 February 1988). Hieronymus received a U.S. Patent for his invention in 1949, which was described in the ...
. It faced skepticism from scientists who viewed it as
pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...
and even as an example of quackery. Some of the wind was taken out of the sails of psionics in 1957 when Martin Gardner, in the updated edition of his book '' Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science'', wrote that the study of psionics is "even funnier than
Dianetics Dianetics (from Greek ''dia'', meaning "through", and ''nous'', meaning "mind") is a set of pseudoscientific ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body created by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubba ...
or Ray Palmer's Shaver stories", and criticized the beliefs and assertions of Campbell as anti-scientific nonsense.


See also

* Extrasensory perception * List of psychic abilities *
Psionics (role-playing games) Psionics, in tabletop role-playing games, is a broad category of fantastic abilities originating from the mind, similar to the psychic abilities that some people claim in reality. Common features Psionics are primarily distinguished, in most pop ...
*
Psychotronic harassment Electronic harassment, electromagnetic torture, or psychotronic torture is a conspiracy theory that malicious actors (often government agents or crime rings) make use of electromagnetic radiation (such as the microwave auditory effect), radar, ...
*
Psychotronics (parapsychology) Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near- ...
* Radionics *
Supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...


References


Further reading

* * * * * Williamson, Jack (1984), ''Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction''; New York: Bluejay Books. {{Pseudoscience Paranormal terminology Parapsychology Pseudoscience Psychic powers Discovery and invention controversies Fringe physics Pathological science Hypothetical technology Fictional technology 1951 introductions American inventions Science fiction themes 1950s neologisms