TheNightling
@TheNightling
0
Potential Psychic terminology:
One thing that always bugged me about the later books of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles is the terminology she tried to invent for their psychic capabilities. I often feel that her ego got the better of her in this regard because of people latching on to terms like “Dark Trick” (to transform someone into a vampire), “Dark Gift” (The gift of being made into a vampire. Often confused with the idea of a unique vampiric power because of a poorly placed use of the term in the Interview with the vampire movie), “Fledgling” (A new vampire or the vampire made by the vampire speaking), And “Savage Garden” (Lestat’s term for the nature of the world).
In the later books Anne Rice started to call every psychic power “gift.” Cloud Gift, Fire Gift, Mind Gift, etc, and later, in a separate book series, “Wolf Gift.”
So for anyone interested here is a list of some (not all) actual terms for possible psychic powers that aren’t just X-Gift.
Telepathy – The ability to communicate from mind to mind or even just reading minds.
Telekinesis (also called Psychokinesis) – The power to move objects with the mind or will alone. Telekinesis indicate done from the mind of a corporeal being, from out of the brain while psychokinetic suggests a non-corporeal entity like a ghost. Psychokinetic Energy (PKE) is used a great deal in the Ghostbsuters franchise as the energy they detect and measure when investigating ghostly activity.
Pyrokinesis – The power to cause fire or control fire (or both) with your mind.
Hydrokinesis (Some people say “aquakinesis” but it just doesn’t sound right to me) – The power to conjure water or control water (or both) with your mind.
Photokinesis – The power to conjure or control light that is not specifically fire.
Psychometry – The power to sense things about an object or person through touch alone.
Empathy – Similar to the psychology term, the use in parapsychology has to do with being able to feel for others but in this case it’s about sensing the actual emotional state of other people. A sort of version of telepathy that is more focused on emotional instead of the complexity of full thought. Though one could argue that sometimes emotions are more complicated than conscious thought.
Transvection – A version of telekinesis specific to self-levitation.
Oneiromancy – The ability to predict things based on dreams or dream interpretation. The term literally means “Dream wizard.” This term is sort of a blanket term for most dream related abilities including the useful application of Lucid Dreaming.
Astral projection – The ability to travel outside of one’s own body and through the astral plane.
Dream Walk – A variation on astral projection or Oneiromancy in that this is specifically the ability to enter the dreams of others.
Precognition – The power to predict the future or aspects of the future.
Clairvoyance and Extra-Sensory Percetion (ESP) are some classic blanket terms for psychic powers. Clairvoyance or Mediumship are often used to mean “Able to see or hear (or both) spirits.”
There are many other terms but these are just a few for anyone interested in actual theoretical psychic potential terminology.
One thing that always bugged me about the later books of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles is the terminology she tried to invent for their psychic capabilities. I often feel that her ego got the better of her in this regard because of people latching on to terms like “Dark Trick” (to transform someone into a vampire), “Dark Gift” (The gift of being made into a vampire. Often confused with the idea of a unique vampiric power because of a poorly placed use of the term in the Interview with the vampire movie), “Fledgling” (A new vampire or the vampire made by the vampire speaking), And “Savage Garden” (Lestat’s term for the nature of the world).
In the later books Anne Rice started to call every psychic power “gift.” Cloud Gift, Fire Gift, Mind Gift, etc, and later, in a separate book series, “Wolf Gift.”
So for anyone interested here is a list of some (not all) actual terms for possible psychic powers that aren’t just X-Gift.
Telepathy – The ability to communicate from mind to mind or even just reading minds.
Telekinesis (also called Psychokinesis) – The power to move objects with the mind or will alone. Telekinesis indicate done from the mind of a corporeal being, from out of the brain while psychokinetic suggests a non-corporeal entity like a ghost. Psychokinetic Energy (PKE) is used a great deal in the Ghostbsuters franchise as the energy they detect and measure when investigating ghostly activity.
Pyrokinesis – The power to cause fire or control fire (or both) with your mind.
Hydrokinesis (Some people say “aquakinesis” but it just doesn’t sound right to me) – The power to conjure water or control water (or both) with your mind.
Photokinesis – The power to conjure or control light that is not specifically fire.
Psychometry – The power to sense things about an object or person through touch alone.
Empathy – Similar to the psychology term, the use in parapsychology has to do with being able to feel for others but in this case it’s about sensing the actual emotional state of other people. A sort of version of telepathy that is more focused on emotional instead of the complexity of full thought. Though one could argue that sometimes emotions are more complicated than conscious thought.
Transvection – A version of telekinesis specific to self-levitation.
Oneiromancy – The ability to predict things based on dreams or dream interpretation. The term literally means “Dream wizard.” This term is sort of a blanket term for most dream related abilities including the useful application of Lucid Dreaming.
Astral projection – The ability to travel outside of one’s own body and through the astral plane.
Dream Walk – A variation on astral projection or Oneiromancy in that this is specifically the ability to enter the dreams of others.
Precognition – The power to predict the future or aspects of the future.
Clairvoyance and Extra-Sensory Percetion (ESP) are some classic blanket terms for psychic powers. Clairvoyance or Mediumship are often used to mean “Able to see or hear (or both) spirits.”
There are many other terms but these are just a few for anyone interested in actual theoretical psychic potential terminology.
