Chapter 3: Parapsychology

We spent the second half of that afternoon on Parapsychology. Our lecturer in this subject was Demoiselle Cheryl Cuthbertson who introduced herself before saying,

"Very loosely defined, Parapsychology is a branch of sorcery for which there is no prior construction of a spell. Not that you don't have to think about it. For example; in Telepathy, you have to know and be able to visualize the person you wish to contact. However it is unlike normal sorcery, in that you do not have to prepare a spell; at least the first time you attempt to use it. For the purposes of this course we will split Parapsychology into the following branches: the manipulation of light, sound and time; Telekinesis, Teleportation and Auto-kinesis; Projection; Empathy; Precognition; Psychometrics and Telepathy. Are there any questions so far?"

"Yes Ma'am," came from the back of the classroom. "What is the difference between telekinesis and auto-kinesis?"

"They, together with Teleportation, are all to do with movement. That is why these three branches are normally grouped together. Telekinesis is the movement of objects other than you, while auto-kinesis is moving yourself. Teleportation, on the other hand, is the seemingly instantaneous transference of yourself or an object through space. Let me demonstrate."

She turned to her desk. A wooden backed chalk eraser floated up so that all the class could see it. It then started floating around in a figure of eight.

"That's Telekinesis." She said, "And this is auto-kinesis."

She floated into the air and performed a slow motion entrechat.

"And this," she said from the back of the classroom, "is Teleportation."

She walked back to her desk.

"There you are. Are there any other questions?"

"Yes!" another arm shot up. "What is manipulation of time and why should you want to do it?"

"To answer your second question first: suppose you were running out of time to revise for an examination. You could slow down time so that you could finish your revision. On the other hand; suppose you were a police detective investigating a crime. You could use time manipulation in order to identify the perpetrator. Of course, you couldn't use that information in court, but just the fact of knowing what had happened would help you pursue your investigation."

She then passed out notes on Telepathy and told us to study them. She told the two untalented students that she would be using them in later practical exercises and proceeded to brief them.

Meanwhile, I was going through the handout. Telepathy is a somewhat passive process. It is very much like listening to someone. The confusing thing is that it's rather like listening in a crowded room where everybody is talking at once. You have to concentrate on tuning out all the thoughts but the ones you want to hear.

What can be confusing is that a person's thoughts are not always the same as their words; and their thought voice does not always reflect their speaking voice. It sometimes makes it difficult to pick out one set of thoughts from the general background. The handout included some suggestions as to how to do this. Projecting a thought at someone could make them respond in a way that you could recognize. Alternatively, if it was important not to let them know that you could tune into them, you could force a thought onto them rather like a conjurer could force a card onto a member of his audience.

I was waiting when the lecturer looked up and spoke to one of his two untalented students, "Hoxley, I want you to pick one of the topics on the card I gave you."

"Yes, Ma'am."