Please, please, PLEASE do not use the "We only use 10% of our brain" in your story, even if it is fiction. We use 100% of our brains. Ask a neurologist. It is just another annoying myth that has lodged itself in the public consciousness with no scientific evidence at all. Ever hear that lemmings will run off cliffs in mass suicides? They don't. Ever hear that the number of people alive today outnumbers the number of people who have ever died? Not true, not even close. The Great Wall of China is the only man made structure visible from orbit with the naked eye? Nope. Other man-made objects such as interstates and football stadiums are easier to view from low orbit. NO man made objects can be seen beyond a few hundred miles into space. Your hair and fingernails continue to grow after you die? Nope. A frog that is placed in a pot of cold water and then slowly brought to a boil will sit there until it boils to death? Heck no, he’ll jump right out when it gets even a little too warm. And on and on and on. Don’t be embarrassed if you have bought any of these myths. I believed them all at one time or another. As for training oneself to be psychic? If you are wanting it to reflect the real world it can’t be done as there isn’t even any hard evidence that ANYONE in the real world has such powers. It can certainly be faked. I was a magician most of my life up until I enlisted in the Army. I was pretty damn good. People would get really freaked out when I would stop the second hand on their wrist watch from moving without even touching it. Or I would have them draw a picture on a piece of paper at the same time I was drawing. When we would turn them around our pictures would be VERY similar. Cold reading* takes the most skill and it was something that I was never able to do all that convincingly. But I had some other magician friends who were REALLY good at it. It is scary how easily people can be fooled. When it is all in fun it is one thing, but some people make life decisions based on this information and THAT disturbs me to no end. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun in a story. A radioactive spider isn’t going to give you super powers in the real world but I love me some Spider-Man. I liked the way Travolta manifested his abilities in Phenomenon (brain tumor). If one could manifest psychic abilities through practice I think it would have to be a long arduous process to be believable. Start off moving very small objects like a piece of string for telekinesis. Oh, and you can throw in a grouchy skeptic like myself for the antagonist.
In a real-world view, a person cannot gain psychic prowess. You can improve your recall and speed at accessing information by exercising your brain - doing questions, etc, with a time limit for answering will push it to a higher potential. However, no one who has ever claimed to be psychic has ever had anything different about their brain, synaptic pathways, or the percentage of use to any significant degree. If there is a chemical or neurological reason for psychic ability, it is not currently trackable. Of course, there are some thories on intelligence. Primarily, the size of a brain does not matter, the number of functioning brain cells in correlation to the size does. Think of it as your processing speed. A smaller amount of RAM (brain cells) with a larger processor will cause lag. Also, through intuition, logic and estimation, people have been able to give the illusion of psychic ability, as well as through subconscious persuasion (using minor body language to make you think something) and deception, which is probably what most cases rely on. I am obviously assuming by psychic that you mean prediction of future and reading of minds. There are other forms of psychic 'ability' such as telekenesis, pyrokenesis and the ability to sense an aura or a spirit. While I am not saying if they do or do not exist, I like to keep an open mind, myself.
"I like to keep an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out." - Judge Harry Stone, Night Court.
Thank you for this. I have another question. If we go beyond a certain level of energy in with psychic powers. Would the body really collapse? Like stop functioning and well ya know your being disappears from the world. [Okay that just sounded like the nerdiest question I have asked]
I think it would depend. Like magic, psychic powers present the problem of how do you keep your character from just being way too powerful. I mean, what's a barrage of bullets when your character can stand in the street and stop them with HIS MIND? I did an idea with psychic powers long ago and the way I got around this was that the more the characters used their powers the more insane they became. Technically they were unstoppable but those hunting them would have the goal of overwhelming their minds till they broke. They'd have a brief psychotic episode and then collapse and thus are captured. I find the concept of "mental backlash" is a good way to balance psychic powers with a character you want in peril. They have to keep running after all or their powers will take them out before the bad guys do XD. That's just one way of solving it though. You could have the powers extremely limited by context or individual, or maybe there are some sort of pseudoreality rules for them you could create.
Well I was thinking none of them had super super psychic abilities. Except Number 1, but he is in a sleep state because he realized how dangerous his powers were. He couldn't control them very well because they became so powerful that he couldn't properly prepare himself. The powers just kinda slipped out of his control, like a glass slips out of a greasy hand. [Nothing freaky like a baby glob is happening in my story...no thank you....Akira has haunted me with that scene haunted]<-----Don't know where this part came from Also I was thinking because I have 3 abilities that affect people. I have someone who's emotions can create burst of psychic energy depending on, which emotion it is. I somehow have to keep him from blowing and destroying everything all the time. I have someone with thoughtform, their emotions are ejected to other people and they somehow are controlled by his emotions. [If he wanted the red ball everyone wants the red balloon, if he wants to color his apple green everyone wants to, if he was affected by deep saddening gloom like depression everyone would be, well everyone in a 50m radius] I have to somehow control thoughtform, and then I have a contact telepath and anyone who touches him reveals bits and pieces of their negative side. I was thinking of setting rules for each branch that I am going to have. But...I don't know.
hi. everyone has psychic abilities. it jsut depends if you believe in them and want to use them and decide to open up your mind to them. it not so much about training your brain to "become psychic", its just about loosening up the mind and going with the flow, believing in your capabilities and using them. some people believe that psychic abilities can be passed down from generation to generation via genes. hope that helps
