Tratyn Runewind
First Post
Hello,
As far as I know, the illustrious science-fiction editor John W. Campbell coined the term "psi" to refer to various stereotypical psychic powers, and the term "psionics" to refer to scientific study of those powers, in the mid 20th-century. An alleged "psionic" device known as the "Hieronymus Machine" was patented in 1952, and it was one of the items that intrigued Campbell before he wrote his editorials "The Science of Psionics" and "The Problem of Psionics" in two 1956 issues of Astounding Science Fiction.
Persons actually studying such phenomena often avoid the term "psionics", fraught with pulp-magazine/comic book/gaming baggage as it is, and use terms like "parapsychology", "paraphysics", "bioenergetics", and so forth. The bizarre claims, unconventional practices, suspicious results, and unseemly self-promotion of some workers in those areas don't seem to have done much good for the credibility of those terms either, though - the field on the whole seems to be taken far less seriously than even, say, cold fusion research.
Hope this helps!
As far as I know, the illustrious science-fiction editor John W. Campbell coined the term "psi" to refer to various stereotypical psychic powers, and the term "psionics" to refer to scientific study of those powers, in the mid 20th-century. An alleged "psionic" device known as the "Hieronymus Machine" was patented in 1952, and it was one of the items that intrigued Campbell before he wrote his editorials "The Science of Psionics" and "The Problem of Psionics" in two 1956 issues of Astounding Science Fiction.
Persons actually studying such phenomena often avoid the term "psionics", fraught with pulp-magazine/comic book/gaming baggage as it is, and use terms like "parapsychology", "paraphysics", "bioenergetics", and so forth. The bizarre claims, unconventional practices, suspicious results, and unseemly self-promotion of some workers in those areas don't seem to have done much good for the credibility of those terms either, though - the field on the whole seems to be taken far less seriously than even, say, cold fusion research.
Hope this helps!