Psionics involve the use of the mind to alter or command reality, typically through some understanding of a deeper truth about the universe or command over a fundamental law of reality.
It’s pretty cool, but I have trouble thinking of media where it takes a prominent role. The few examples that come to mind are:
Star Wars - The Force Mass Effect - Biotics/Element Zero technology Stellaris - Spiritualist Ethos Warhammer 40k - Psykers/Orks
What are some other examples of psionics in Sci-Fi?
Check out Babylon 5, telepaths are a major part of the story for so many reasons.
The creator of Babylon 5 has recently begun uploading every episode of the show to YouTube to watch for free, they release a new ep every 3 days
For anyone who wants to give it a try, here’s the season 1 playlist: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGTv90eS-e4I
Looks region locked :(. All are hidden.
Unfortunately it is :/
If you have a VPN and use a US server you may be able to get around it (maybe Mozilla’s free VPN in Firefox would do the trick?)
Otherwise, there’s always yarr 🏴☠️ :)
Dune has lucid “prophets” (the guild navigators, Paul and Leto II, for example), and Paul can even see/feel his way around the world through his prophetic visions when he loses his sight in Messiah. “The voice” is described almost as an advanced technique that is purely physical and psychological and not magical so idk if it fits.
The Voice maybe not but being able to see the future like Paul and Leto II do definitely fits
You can find the Kronenburg movie Scanners on Archive.org
Akira is another big one.
Names of some of the stuff are Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis (and Cryokinesis), Psychokinesis, Precognition, Astral Projection, and that one word for finding lost objects or dead bodies I forget.
Damn how did i forget Akira
And shiners from The Shining / Dr Sleep
Also Stephen King’s twin novels Desperation and The Regulators. And Rose Red. And IT. And Dreamcatcher, actually the film had a few psychics who were all actually really cool, imo.
Yeah King loves psychic powers
How about something like the movie Dark City ?
WandaVision: She creates a new reality around herself.
Fringe: One of the main plot points are psychics controlling reality.
Push: A movie about a psychic people that can push thoughts into other people’s heads.
Legion: Mind bendy reality show where the main character can control reality.
Push is a great movie! This is the first time I’ve seen it mentioned and it deserves more recognition. It combines suspense, action, character development, and cultural impact, backed by a good script and excellent acting.
I haven’t watched it in a really long time, but it stuck with me when it came out. I’m a sucker for creative names for existing concepts. It was the first time I had head of “pushing” a psychic term.
Overall it was a surprisingly original take on psionics. I particularly liked the way they handled Watchers. They didn’t so much predict the future as see the detailed consequences of their actions. The one woman breaking out of the secure facility by rolling a ball bearing along the floor was both neat and kind of terrifying.
I have also come to the conclusion that Chris Evans is worth watching in anything. He was an incredible Captain America, but I have now seen enough of his other movies to appreciate just how much he brings to every role. Not all of his movies are good, but he is always good in them. And he has mostly picked good movies.
Yeah, Push was his first one I saw him after Johnny Storm, then he had Scott Pilgrim and Snow Piercer. So he had a good few cult classics.
Not entirely sure how close this hits, it’s been awhile since I played through the games, but I think System Shock 1 & 2 as well as Prey lean into the psionics quite a bit. I think that’s how the powers are derived, one of the enemies in System Shock 2 are experimental monkeys with psionic powers that shoot fireballs at you. Hate those little guys, every time I hear their chatter I get a bit on edge.
I don’t know about popular, but one of my favorite examples is Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. It’s an old game (1999) but I’ll put the psionic stuff in a spoiler tag because, If you like Civilization type games and want a good story, I think it’s worth going in blind and experiencing the story as it was intended.
SMAC plot spoilers
The game takes place on a planet around Alpha Centauri, generally referred to in-game as Planet. Just before the colony ship gets to Planet, disaster strikes, communications with Earth are lost, and the crew breaks into seven factions, one for each drop pod on the ship. The planet is dominated by a fungus that hosts a number of hostile native species, and these species use psionic attacks to paralyze their victims with horror before killing them.
As the player develops their civilization and discovers new techs, they learn that the alien animals are psionically linked to the fungus, which itself forms a Planet-spanning neural network. Over the course of the game, Planet begins to develop conscious thought and communicate with the humans, first through psionic dreams, later through specially constructed interfaces between the fungus and human tech.
I distinctly remember having my mind blown as the story unfolded. It’s been many years since I’ve thought about it; gonna have to dig it up and see if it’s as good as I remember it :)
Psionics was more popular in older sci fi, a few that come to mind are:
- The Lensman series - one of the classics in sci fi, mental powers are very prominent.
- The Tower and Hive series (also Dragonriders of Pern by the same author to a lesser extent as it’s largely just telepathy in that series).
- The Saga of Pliocene Exile series.
Read stuff written before the turn of the millennium if you’re into this, I feel like it’s become less and less common in sci fi as time progresses. I guess it’s because mental powers - being effectively magic rather than technology - slot better into fantasy than sci fi in modern readers expectations.
Also because people in the 50s, 60s and 70s were absolutely convinced we were in the verge of unlocking uncanny mental powers because of this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-percent-of-the-brain_myth
Like we were around for 300,000 years mostly without technology with no sign of ESP but if we just concentrate really hard now we might be able to bend a spoon or see into a locked room. Even the CIA had a go with MK Ultra.
The Protoss from StarCraft.
Uh, also the Terrans to a limited degree.
i just finished a 3 book series by Adrian Tchaikovsky called The Final Atchitecture. it features several characters with this ability. i highly recommend it!
Akira is an all time classic
dune, foundation, starship troopers, stranger in a strange land, martian chronicles, its fairly common in a lot of classic scifi as some sort of evolution things that happens. even 2001. Sometimes its hard to identify if there are psychic abilities or technology that is allowing for the abilities.
IMHO the funniest one was Ghostbusters: they think about an arbitrary monster and it appears in the next second, but super sized.
Other nice movies: X-Men, Lucy, Sphere, Solaris, Matrix
The Scanners movies. Just watch the first one though.
oh forgot babylon5. its a major part of the world.
