[Psionic Powers] If Tesla were a Psionic

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Engurrand

In a modern earth game without the gadgeteer advantage, what psionic powers would a secret society of psionics devoted to developing advanced technology, (and understanding the universe) employ? How effective would that be?

It ought to be pretty effective, as long as they are reasonable self-aware and anti-psi is available to screen out extraneous psi when necessary.

Telepathy allows scientists to communicate their findings and ideas directly mind-to-mind and verify their colleagues truly understand what they've communicated. It would also allow educating students better and faster to swell their ranks as well as screen them for loyalty, aptitude, and motivation to keep the ranks productive and secure.

TK, EK, and ESP are a providence for the necessary testing steps, it's much easier to build a vacuum chamber without view ports or power mains or probes to manipulate the spherical chicken under study.

Julian May's Galactic Millieu covers this in moderate detail, with the secret society part in the early book(s) INTERVENTION, also published as SURVEILLANCE and METACONCERT. Uncle Rogi is no scientist but is able to follow his family's research mentally and contributes to it as his rapport allows them to easily gestalt with him, multiplying their own psychic output at crucial times.

The scientific understanding also helps advance the psionic powers; Rogi's great-nephew Marc invents a cryogenic amplifier that allows him to survive power boosts that would otherwise inspire spontaneous combustion in his nervous tissues.