The Question of Psionics

[Muphinz]

So, I've been delving around in the Star Wars lore thanks to our lovely Wookieepedia and I've found a few places here and there that mention races with psychic abilities. Now, this got me rather confused because I wasn't aware in the first place this was possible in Star Wars lore.

So, a few questions about this to all those lovely lore experts out there


Is Psionics, or Psychic abilities, different than the force? And how? in what ways?

What kind of things can these abilities accomplish?

Can any race have them? Maybe with special training, drugs, equipment, etc?

And last but not least: How exactly does psionics work? Is it like based around the brain, or a soul, or what else?




Also also, for anyone else out there, are psionic abilities allowed on this site and for player characters?

 

[Soundwave]

When you say psychic abilities, are you referring to powers like telepathy and telekinesis? Psionics and Psychic are fairly broad terms in what they encompass. If you are talking about medically induced psychic abilities, I don't believe there is a canon instance of that. To my knowledge it's just a matter of whether you are Force Sensitive or not. Some species are innately Force Sensitive, like Miralukans.

[member="Punultimate"]

 

[Muphinz]

[member="Solidor Slane"]

Telepathy, Telekenetics, Pyrokenetics, basically anything that is using your mind and your mind alone to influence the world around you.

As for them being connected to the force I can't really see that, as the Shreeyam'tiz was Vong and it had psychic ability (That it used to disrupt other psychic abilities)

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

[member="Punultimate"] Telepathy & telekinetics are both considered "common" force abilities in Legends & current canon! It's usually considered something you can learn to either hear or learn to do or both.

There's also mentalism which covers a broad range of "psychic" abilities - mind-reading, emotional manipulation, mental manipulation, creation of things that aren't there, altering memories. Of course these are all more "bad guy" applications but I've been playing Matsu as a Sith mentalist for the last four years so those come to mind first LOL. You can apply these concepts to any force philosophy tho!

These are abilities provided through the Force. It's learning to apply the Force in a specific way, just like learning to lift objects. Any race can do it, though some have innate psychic abilities!

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Punultimate"]

This isn't the cleanest answer, but I'm fairly sure it's the right one: it's not an either-or. There's a lot of overlap. For example, the Iktotchi have natural telepathic/precognitive abilities that dovetail well with Force instruction, and can be increased through Jedi training. Same goes for the Anzati and some other telepathic species, maybe most.

Bottom line, canon's final word on it appears to be 'shrug'. Canon's silent on whether, for example, species-based telepathy works in a ysalamir bubble, but most people tend to assume the answer's no. Species-based telepathy/empathy can see through taozin amulet protection in the Coruscant Nights books. There's any number of little cases that imply one way or another, but nothing concrete and all-encompassing.

So, as canon would say, 'shrug.'

 

[Tal Vizsla]

I think Porg has the best answer so far. I've always assumed that most innate psychic abilities, like those of the Umbaran people or the Shi'ido, are generally less potent than their force-based equivalents. On the flip side though, they're also not vulnerable to things like Ysalamiri or the force-based equivalent of a silence spell.

That's just my personal take though.


[member="Punultimate"]

 

[Jsc]

So, as canon would say, 'shrug.'

^ Yep.

Therefore. Q: How do you apply to a character? A: Anyway you want. Because 'shrug'.

 

[Muphinz]

Thank you all so much for your answers

 

[Audren Sykes]

I'm late, but pure glitterstim was said to grant telepathy as well for a limited time. The power, not necessarily the skill to use it.