Instructor: Rainsong
Date: September 8, 2018 (Saturday)
Seminar: Topic: “Aeon Trinity” Series – Legion Conference – PK (real world psionics, in spite of the game-inspired topic) -Saturday, 8 September 2018 at 6:30pm/1830hr New York Time — text format in the PSC #lecture room (Discord) — Instructor: Rainsong — Search LECTURE39
Rainsong: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Rainsong: Welcome to another psionics seminar here at the social club
Rainsong: The Aeon Trinity theme is a bit of whimsy, as the game is being re-released
Rainsong: In spite of the game-theme, our topic for the evening is real world psychokinesis.
Rainsong: (Hence the Conference of the Legions, in this case… That set of characters in the game used psychokinesis to throw things around, set fires, and freeze stuff)
Rainsong: Therefore, we’re going to talk about throwing things around, setting fires, and freezing stuff
Rainsong: Questions or comments before we get started?
Chirotractor: I didn’t know Aeon trinity was a game 😛
Rainsong: It is. And a bunch of us who were in the original group of admins/moderators of PSC, when the group first started, played it for a few years.
Chirotractor: Is that the ‘you are absolutely encouraged to cheat’ game?
Rainsong: Yes. Players were actively encouraged to cheat on the dice rolls, and anything the player could do psionically was added to the character’s skillset
Scelana: Sounds like it might be fun to one day try playing hehe
Scelana: I’m pretty much a total noob to any tabletop dice type game though
Rainsong: We’d been planning to play ConspiracyX, but that’s really complicated to set up, and we had a “quick start” Trinity game going while people were putting together characters for Conspiracy. A month into setting up characters, we decided to stay with Trinity instead
Rainsong: Trinity’s rules are pretty easy. So no worries there, Scelana
Scelana: Ahh
Scelana: That’s nice
Rainsong: It’s a fun “Sit around and play” thing, rather than the intricate table-top games.
Scelana: Cool
Rainsong: Any further questions about Trinity?
Scelana: I don’t think I got any more for now hehe
Rainsong: We’ll turn to psychokinesis itself then.
Rainsong: The word itself derives from Greek words for “mind/soul” and “movement”.
Rainsong: It refers to the psionic ability to move or alter conventionally “physical” objects and substances: dice, water, footballs, circuitry, lightbulbs, car batteries, lamps, rocks, canoes, sofas….
Rainsong: You get the idea
Rainsong: It is also known as “telekinesis”
Rainsong: Still from the Greek, but “distance” and “movement”
Rainsong: Both of these are routinely shortened, to PK and TK, respectively
Rainsong: In English, both words are perfectly valid. “Psychokinesis” is generally preferred in academic literature, however, if either is to be used at all ( as compared to “anomalous perturbation” or the like), because in Russian academic literature, the Russian equivalent to “telekinesis” refers to what we think of as remote presence and projection.
Rainsong: There are two basic kinds of PK: micro and macro.
Rainsong: If you can figure out if it worked without resorting to statistical analysis, it’s “macro”
Rainsong: If not, it’s “micro”
Rainsong: Sometimes, the two overlap in communities like this because we tend to be more interested in “how to get it to work the way we want it to” than making sure everything lines up for lab work
Rainsong: Questions? Comments?
Scelana: None here so far
Rainsong: I’m sure you’ve heard of psiwheels and radiometers, by now. We don’t usually throw them – unless we’re uncontrollably frustrated, that is — but I’m going to touch on them briefly to share a couple hints that an engineer at White Sands noticed… if I’m recalling correctly. Pretty sure it was G Harry Stine who mentioned these in his “Mind Machines You Can Build”
Rainsong: It’s been a while.
Rainsong: Anyway…
Rainsong: Whoever it was, he noticed that results in small PK experiments he conducted tended to work better if he -or whoever else was trying it- rubbed their hands with light mineral oil first. The kind people put on babies’ hind ends to prevent or treat diaper rash. (Or used to… Do they still do that?)
silton2: ‘ I’m here btw
Nevyn: (I’m sure some still do, but it’s not all that common anymore)
Rainsong: The other hint is to get oomph moving back and forth across the heel of your hand, until it feels like water seiching/sloshing back and forth, before putting hand toward the pinwheel, and aiming at a corner of the pinwheel or the edge of a flag, instead of the whole object
Rainsong: Hi, Silton and Nevyn
Rainsong: You can also do the sloshing thing back and forth from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the index finger, across the webbing and padding at the base of the thumb
Rainsong: Questions? Commentary?
silton2: ‘ none here
Chirotractor: New info to me!
Rainsong: Excellent
Scelana: The mineral oil thing is quite interesting, wonder why it helps?
Rainsong: I have no idea
Rainsong: Just putting it out there in case anyone else wants to try it. We bought some “baby oil” (which is light mineral oil, by the way – not made of babies, as the name suggests) and mucked around with experimenting with it, when I first read about it…getting close to fifteen years ago now. I’d never encountered the idea before that, in the lab or out of it.
Flux: What’s the speculation around baby oil, if there is any?
Rainsong: The only thing I know about it is that it was supposed to have improved the results with small-scale macroPK. No speculation as to how, as far as I know
Flux: I’m still lingering on psi wheels, so I’m willing to try a thing to move past my current stage.
Flux: :thumbsup:
Rainsong: Always nice to have a new bit in here, eh?
Flux: Yes.
Rainsong: Considering the seminar title, I need to include “mucking with the dice” in here…
Rainsong: In Trinity, the dice rolls are simple: you always use the same kind and the number of dice you roll at a time is determined by the difficulty of an attempted action and your characters skill in it.
im literaly dead inside: ok
Rainsong: You’re always trying to simply hit a minimum number on the rolls. For example, in the version that uses d6, you’re trying to get as many 5s and 6s as you can
Rainsong: This makes the process much easier than mucking with the dice in complex games.
Rainsong: If you’re using actual dice on the table, take a moment to calmly bring to mind a vivid picture of a handful of dice all showing 5 or 6 pips on the top face
Rainsong: Take a nice steadying breath, while shaking the dice (or while the player is shaking the dice, if the player isn’t you….)
Rainsong: Very lightly extend some oomph in a gentle stream while calmly concentrating on the mental image of the desired result.
Rainsong: The “gentle stream” always feels like it’s a tendril extending from the edge of my temple directly above my last molar and roughly at the height of the eyebrow. No idea if that’s useful information to you,…
Rainsong: Of course, you could also do the same when your opponent is rolling, but concentrating on a picture of all the uppermost faces showing snake-eyes, in games such as Warhammer40K
Rainsong: Just sayin’….
Rainsong: Questions? Comments?
Chirotractor: I find that my subC likes to try to affect things “So that the most interesting story happens”
Rainsong: Your subC is easily bored? 😉
Chirotractor: No they just like narratives
Rainsong: Roughly the same approach may be used with dicebots, but the “desired result” in this case would be a string of numbers on the screen that correspond with a series of 5s and 6s or whatever.
Rainsong: With real dice, you can also just push them around until they come up with the right numbers, but that’s surprisingly tricky when you’re dealing with a handful of small cubes
Rainsong: Good practice for fine-detail work, however.
Rainsong: If you’re going to take the more direct approach of pushing them around, try the sloshing thing again.
Rainsong: Or a thick, solid, sturdy stream/stick of oomph
Rainsong: Or just send out a tendril, grab each die, and set it down in the desired position.
Rainsong: See what works best for you.
Rainsong: Questions? Comments?
Archaeus: What do you mean by “oomph”? You’ve used it a few times now.
Rainsong: Excellent question. And a good time to review the concept.
Rainsong: PK is real, and it works. Therefore, there’s some kind of mechanism that allows it to function.
Rainsong: Possibly several mechanism. Possibly just one.
Rainsong: We do not know what that mechanism is. Substance? Particle? Wave? Invisible pink bunny rabbits?
Chirotractor: Flying brooms
Rainsong: The variable “psi” stands in for the mechanism in early studies of parapsychology. And as a result, you’ll often see “psi” used to describe whatever-is-used to make stuff work
Rainsong: Perfectly acceptable convention
Rainsong: The problem is that, as the Internet became littered with all manner of “how to do psychic shit” websites, too many instructions sets were incomplete. For many reasons:
Rainsong: – short-hand notes for and by folks who already knew the basics
Rainsong: – notes by folks who knew their stuff but suck at teaching and left out important bits
Rainsong: – notes by folks who knew their stuff but didn’t want anyone to be able to actually do their stuff and left out important bits
Rainsong: – folks who knew sod-all, but thought it looked cool to claim they could teach it
Rainsong: – folks just taking the piss
Rainsong: Learning from these websites, mailing lists, forums, and so on, many noobs came to believe that they just needed to be able to visualize stuff, and it would work with no further effort
Rainsong: The reference to “oomph” is to remind folks to actually do stuff
Rainsong: The model I normally favour is to use the almost-conventionally-physical stuff around the body. Whether you believe it exists or think it’s imaginary.
Rainsong: It’s one of the easier models to explain in text format, and it works reasonably well for many people.
Rainsong: It’s not necessarily correct
Rainsong: And I don’t claim it works for everyone. It doesn’t
Rainsong: There are a few classes about “Oomph” in the logs, toward the bottom of “Basics and Maintenance” http://psc-online.org/class-logs/
Rainsong: Questions? Comments?
Scelana: I have none atm
Chirotractor: Good
Rainsong: Archaeus: Does that more or less answer your question?
Goatmistress: went MIA?
Rainsong: Apparently
Rainsong: We’re past the one-hour point. Do folks wish to stop here or continue?
Chirotractor: have gotten pulled in five different directions
Goatmistress: I’m cool with either.
Rainsong: I know that feeling
Scelana: I’m good either way
Rainsong: If random items are flying around – no matter how short the flight path – or electronics are shorting out and/or exploding, or small fires keep breaking out around you, it can be hella inconvenient
Rainsong: My suggestions in these situations are as follows:
Rainsong: Shield yourself, with the main part of the program to keep pk stuff from leaking out
Rainsong: Put buffer shields around any electronics you care about
Rainsong: Take a few deep breaths and ground – being agitated makes it worse
Rainsong: Most times, resist the urge to punch or stab whatever’s causing the stress. Assault and battery can get the local authorities annoyed at you. Getting the local authorities annoyed at you results in more stress.
Rainsong: This can help, too: https://www.heartmath.org/resources/heartmath-tools/shift-and-shine-technique-for-ages-3-6/
Rainsong: Yea, I know if’s for pre-schoolers. It’s effective and easy
Rainsong: Questions? Comments?
Scelana: Sounds like that all would be useful for helping prevent me from being a small mobile cellphone dead zone at times when I’m in a certain mental/stressed type state
Rainsong: Likely so
Scelana: It’s a small radius but it’s not good in the long run to have happen either
Rainsong: Also, whenever things like that are happening, it’s pretty safe to assume that your blood chemistry is fluffed to hell, too. If you don’t have a contraindication to doing this, have a nice snack of something sugary and high in potassium (and lower in sodium than potassium). Bananas are great, So is orange juice.
Rainsong: Then, wait five or ten minutes, and have another snack with some protein in it. Peanut butter and crackers, for example.
Rainsong: Adjust according to your own body’s limitations. If you’re allergic to oranges and peanuts, don’t have orange juice and peanut butter
Scelana: I do tend to be all sorts of messed up afterwards, usually at least shakey and worn out once the hormones and such wear off
Rainsong: You’d think this would be obvious, but I’m not leaving this to chance, having read discussions in “prepper” mailing lists by people with celiac disease about what to do with all the wheat they bought
Rainsong: Any questions or further commentary about PK?
Scelana: I don’t think I have anymore atm
Rainsong: Thanks for participating, everyone.
Rainsong: Next week’s topic is “teleportation”.
Rainsong: Upeo wa Macho Conference
Scelana: Thxies for the lecture Rainsong!
Rainsong: 😀
Archaeus: @Rainsong Apologies about going MIA. I’ll have to read up on those past lectures you’ve linked to get a better idea of oomph
Rainsong: Hi, Archaeus. Not to worry