Psychic Powers: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
[[File:JeanUXM1p9frm6 3447.jpg|link=X-Men (Comic Book)|rightframe]]
 
{{quote|''"Also? I can kill you with my brain."''|'''River Tam''', |''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]''}}
 
[[Telepathy]], clairvoyance, [[Playing with Fire|pyrokinesis]]—the powers are supernatural, but the names are scientific, which is good enough for [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|soft]] [[Sci Fi]]. [[Pointy Ears|Pointy-eared]] [[Our Elves Are Better|elves]] mumbling ancient spells on shiny spaceships [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|would be incongruous]]; [[Star Trek|pointy-eared]] [[Telepathic Spacemen|aliens reading minds]] on shiny spaceships doesn't raise any eyebrows.
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** [[Shock and Awe|Fulgurkinesis]]/Astrakinesis - the ability to create electrical discharges and lightning bolts, and/or to control the flow of electrons inside machines. Sometimes encompasses the control of magnetic fields, too, if the author had a passing grade in high school science. (Note that the word "[[wikipedia:Electrohydrodynamics#Electrokinesis|electrokinesis]]" actually has a real-world scientific meaning that has nothing to do with '''Psychic Powers''', but most writers/fanboys who use the term [[Did Not Do the Research|don't seem to know that]].)
*** A variant of this is [[Technopath|Machine Empathy or Technopathy]]—the ability to mentally link to and control computer systems.
** Biopsychokinesis, or Bio-PK—the ability to influence living tissue on the cellular or molecular level. Used for [[Healing Hands|psychic healing]], [[Healing Factor|regeneration]], [[Psychic Surgery]] or as a darker power the ability to [[Touch of Death|kill people with]] [[Firefly (TV series)|your brain]], traditionally by stopping their heart, but can also cause a massive stroke, simply shut the brain down, prevent the lungs from working...
** Basically, [[Fan Boy|Fanboys]] love to stick -kinesis as a suffix on anything and describe it as a psychic power. Thus you get bastardized terms like Chlorokinensis ([[Green Thumb|controlling plants]]), Chronokinesis ([[Time Stands Still|controlling time]]), Umbrakinesis ([[Casting a Shadow|controlling shadows]]), Hydrokinesis ([[Making a Splash|controlling water]]), [[Hurricane of Puns|Terrakinesis]] ([[Dishing Out Dirt|controlling stone and soil]]), [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|Curvacionubiliterriclothokinesis]] (The ability to [[Fan Service|whip the towel off a co-ed]] in a locker room without being physically present) etc., etc., Ad Infinitum.
*** Which is especially funny given that -kinesis is "movement" or "motion", and [[You Keep Using That Word|has nothing to do with psychic powers]]. The word pyrokinesis originated with Stephen King [[Did Not Do the Research|not knowing which of tele- and -kinesis meant "remote"]] in "telekinesis" (lit. "remote movement") and [[Blind Idiot Translation|picking the wrong one]]...
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* A few people from ''[[Pokémon Special]]''. [[Kill All Humans|Lance]] and [[The Medic|Yellow]] both can read Pokémon's minds and Yellow has the added bonus of limited telekinetic powers. Sabrina can 'see' even if her physical eyes are blinded and can track things and people by putting her energy into her Alakazam's spoons. Morty has the ability to see with his mind pretty much whatever he's looking for.
* Dynamis users in ''[[Gilgamesh]]'' are essentially psychics with a different name.
* Possibly Serena in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]''. She's a [[Miko]], but it's not explicitly stated whether she's a ''real'' one or not, so it's ambiguous whether her powers are psychic or mystical.
* This is apparently Aki Izayoi's [[Blessed with Suck]] in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's|Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds]]''.
* The Kasuga clan of ''[[Kimagure Orange Road]]'' (Kyousuke's mother's family) all have psychic powers of one sort or another.
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* Lily Strosek the Fourth from ''[[Lyrical Nanoha|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Force]]'' has a limited kind of Psychic ability. She can send psychic thoughts, sometimes to the point of sending others reeling, but unlike telepaths, she can't read minds. It's also noted to be different from the telepathic ability that mages in the setting have. As a [[Cute Mute]], she mostly uses this to talk to others, which can lead to some problems when the being she's trying to communicate with is immune to psychics.
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' goes a bit easier on the Psychic Powers thing. Every Gundam Meister in Season 2 can communicate through means of Quantum Brainwaves, except for Lyle Dylandy (AKA Lockon Stratos). This actually turns out to be an advantage for Lockon in the movie, because the ELS constantly try to communicate with anyone using Quantum Brainwaves, rendering them unable to fight due to the accidental mind rape. Lockon's inability to use Quantum Brainwaves is actually what also saves Setsuna.
* ''[[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index]]'' has an entire city devoted to artificially inducing esper powers. The process has a success rate of about 60% and no side effects at all, and it's mentioned that magic was invented specifically to grant supernatural abilities to non-espers. One deadly side effect to the combination of esper and magic powers is that they counteract with one another, causing severe damage toor the bodydeath when one person usesattempts to use both abilities.
* Rei Hino/Sailor Mars of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' possesses psychic abilities.
* ''[[Deadman Wonderland]]'', a manga and short anime series, is based around Ganta Igarashi who's accused of massacring his classmates. Eventually Ganta finds out that the Red Man (Wretched Egg) gave him a red stone that makes him a "Deadman", a human with the power to manipulate their own blood for offensive/defensive purposes called "Branches of Sin".
* The eponymous character of ''[[Helen ESP]]'' possesses a variety of psychic powers, at the start mainly telepathy and being able to sense things that are [[Invisible to Normals]], though she later gains the ability of flight. She's not the only one with such powers, but {{spoiler|they get preyed upon by such things as a giant cloud spider...thing.}}
* [[Akira]] includes psychic characters such as the infamous Tetsuo, as well as the titular Akira, who {{spoiler|levels all of Tokyo in a massive psychic explosion.}}
 
 
== Comic Books ==
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** Even the original "Superman" Siegel and Shuster created for their short story "Reign of the Superman" had psychic powers instead of physical ones (specifically [[Mind Control]].)
** The actual [[Superman]] could have this at times during the [[Silver Age]] (at one point using "telepathic will-control", for example) as part of his whole [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]] deal.
* [[Mermaid]]s in the DC Universe (such as Lori Lemaris, an old girlfriend of [[Superman]]) can both read minds and communicate telepathically; Lori figured out his identity in about two minutes. As she claims, this is a [[Required Secondary Power]] for mermaids, as actual speech is impossible underwater.
* The Judges of ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' have a Psi-Division just for people with "special talents".
* The elven "magic" in ''[[Elf Quest]]'' is this. Telepathy is almost universal among them, and other powers crop up. It's implied early on that humans have the potential, too, and stories later in the timeline confirm this.
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* A full list of comics characters with Psychic Powers would probably crash this server, so let's just conclude with "lots" and leave it at that.
 
== Fan Works ==
 
== Fanfiction ==
* In ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', the key to [[Haruhi Suzumiya|Koizumi]]'s use of his powers are stated to be linking to Haruhi's mind and acknowledging the differences between his own emotions and hers. Eventually he manages to form mind links with anybody else, possibly getting to read their surface thoughts. Through his limited experimentation, he learns that most of the SOS Brigade have some kind of [[Psychic Block Defense]] with varying strengths, ranging from feeling like a strong wind, to being completely undetectable.
* In ''[[Oh God, Not Again]]'', Harry claims that his scar is psychic to explain how he knows so much (in actuality, he [[Time Travel|time traveled]]). Note that he doesn't say ''he'' is psychic- just his scar is. Professor Trelawney calls him a Seer by proxy.
* Ringo in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' is ''exceptionally'' psychic, with [[My Significance Sense Is Tingling|mindsight]] that lets him see everything from atoms to the surface of the sun, [[Mind Over Matter|telekinesis]] with which he can feel stuff at least 100 miles away and move it around, a latent [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleport escape clause]], and the ability to sense (and, unfortunately, be affected by) other things operating on the psychic plane. Luckily, as an [[Actual Pacifist]], he's a very peaceable soul; all he wants to do is lie around all day looking at things.
** John can link “water-strings” with people and communicate [[Psychic Link|telepathically]] with them, usually by touch. He can also tap into and share Ringo's [[My Significance Sense Is Tingling|mindsight]], though he does not experience it as fully as Ringo does. It is not known whether he can delve deeper into anyone's thoughts.
* ''[[Astral Journey: It's Complicated]]'', [[Spice Girls|Emma, Melanie]], [[Brandy Norwood| Brandy]], and [[Jewel]] have discuss about developing strange psychic powers following the pitch accident had left the area electrified. Melanie started obtains hers after getting shocked by the fence. On the other hand, Emma is subjected to many examinations thanks to her developing ability.
 
 
== Film ==
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* In ''[[Serenity]]'', River Tam's psychic powers are finally confirmed.
* The telepath Kuato and various other mutants in ''[[Total Recall]]''.
* The lame superhero film ''Zoom'' has a [[Heroes Want Redheads|hot red-headed]] telekinetic teen (hmm, [[X-Men (Comic Book)|where did they get that idea?]]) and the [[Invisible]] Man also develops "mindsight".
* Samara Morgan and her Japanese counterpart Sadako Yamamura, from ''[[The Ring]]'' films wield all these abilities, and then some, to tremendous effect. However, in contrast to [[Person of Mass Destruction|the novel version]] (see below) their powers are more sedate.
* ''[[Push]]''. The premise that people are born with different powers, and each are given a shorthand term for whatever power they are born with:
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* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': Telepathy, telekinesis, and in the case of the Centauri, a form of precognition.
** The Centauri took this [[Up to Eleven]]: Specially trained-from-birth teams of telepaths could communicate with each other across interstellar distances.
* ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'': River Tam demonstrates uncontrolled telepathy and empathy. It's [[Fanon|theorized by some]] that her combat prowess may be partly attributable to low-level precognition—seeing seconds into the future to determine an enemy's next move. She also has other abilities, such as an ability to discern health problems and locate dead bodies, find her way through strange environments with no guidance, and locate electronic devices or discern problems with machinery. Interestingly, the bonus feature on the ''Serenity'' DVD title "The R.Tam Sessions" implies that River already ''had'' some form of latent psychic ability before the Academy started working on her.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has several characters with Psychic Powers, among them a mind-reader, a precognitive painter, and a man who can delete memories and "damper" other characters' powers by creating a psychic static. In fact, it's implied all the characters' powers are technically Psychic Powers, as the "seat of power" is universally in the brain.
* ''[[Medium]]'': precognition, postcognition, psychometry, communicating with ghosts, empathy/telepathy, and the ability to be possessed by ghosts. The show is inspired by the real-life Allison Dubois, who [[Phony Psychic|claims to be]] a medium.
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* A running joke on ''[[The Mentalist]]'' is someone asking Patrick Jane if he has these, [[Subverted Trope|only for him to state that psychics don't exist.]] He "reads" people by [[Sherlock Scan|observing details about their wardrobe, surroundings, and/or nonverbal tics.]] Of course, this doesn't stop anyone on either side of the fourth wall from asking questions.
** Shawn Spencer does pretty much the same thing on ''[[Psych]],'' except he doesn't mind grabbing the [[Phony Psychic]] trope with both hands and giving it a big, warm, wet kiss in every episode. Even if doing so freaks everyone else out. Which only makes it even more hilarious.
* In ''[[Wednesday]]'', the title character has retrocognitive abilities that trigger whenever she is close to a person or object with significance to her ancestor Goody Adams, plus seems to be a medium for Goody herself. She has no control of these powers, they happen automatically whether she knows she is close to one of the triggers or not.
 
 
== Tabletop Games ==
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* ''[[OtherSpace]]'' features over seventy psionic powers, including telepathy, telekinesis, biokinesis, pre- and postcognition, ESP, and teleportation.
* ''[[Advent Rising]]'', oh so much. The humans here are pretty much ''the'' psionic race, and as such are worshiped as gods by some of the alien races. By the end of the game, it is easy to see why: the protagonist, Gideon Wyeth, gets augmented strength and speed, healing factor, telekinesis, force fields, electromagnetic bolts (and tied to that devastating energy explosions), ice bolts, gravity control ([[Techno Babble|and through it time control and what is essentially a teleport]]), and, oh yeah, that nifty ability to create microscopic black holes which you use against the epilogue boss.
* ''[[Battle Golfer Yui]]''
 
** Psycho Hold lets Yui stop her golf ball's momentum when it lands.
** D. Marionette lets Yui control the path of the golf ball.
 
== Web Comics ==
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** Some of the [[All Trolls Are Different|trolls]] have psychic powers of some sort. Aradia can hear the voices of the dead and summon ghosts, Tavros can commune with animals, Sollux has powerful telekinetic abilities and [[Eye Beams]] in [[Superpower Meltdown|certain unfortunate instances]] (and has "vision twofold", whatever that means), Kanaya can predict the future just like Jade, and Vriska can [[Mind Control]] people and used to have "vision eightfold" which seemed to involve [[X-Ray Vision]]. It's also been stated that the "lower" castes of Trolls happen to be more susceptible to psychic disturbances as well.
* The people with supernatural powers in ''[[Shadownova]]'' are described as Espers. While this implies psychic powers, only a few of them really fit the description of a psychic.
* ''[[Memoria (2010 webcomic)|Memoria]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20111105032045/http://memoria.valice.net/?p=251 These powers, they're known as psi.]{{broken link}}
* Brian in ''[[Think Before You Think]]'' can read minds.
* In ''[[Impure Blood]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20130609030455/http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Issue3/ib068.html Dara can concentrate and get clairvoyance.]
* The eponymous gang in ''[[Freak Angels]]'' are all psychic, with each having a different specialty but all being capable of basic telepathy with each other. It's later revealed that they can all teleport if they get an "upgrade", {{spoiler|which involves dying.}}
* ''[[Last Res0rt]]'' has the thought-reading Jigsaw Forte. Qin Xu's {{spoiler|[[Save Scumming]] power}} probably counts too.
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* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', all unicorns have [[Mind Over Matter|telekinesis]], and Twilight Sparkle has some limited [[Telepathy|telepathic]] abilities such as altering the minds of Parasprites to not eat food and forcing her good memories onto her friends. She also demonstrated limited pyrokinetic powers on occasion and also has the ability to teleport.
** Pinkie Pie, an earth pony, has Pinkie Sense, which is effectively a form of precognition by reading various twitches and aches along her body.
* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]''; in the episode "Where There's Smoke", Superman (in his Clark Kent identity) investigates an institution where children developing such powers are tutored; one student seems to be telekinetic, while another is precognitive, although both are clearly novices. The president of the institution is telekinetic. [[Shout-Out|("You know what they say, I'm also a client.")]] Volcana, the student Clark was investigating, is pyrokinetic, and according to the president, had ''incredible'' potential until the government intervened.
 
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Gothic Horror Tropes]]