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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 9636106" data-attributes="member: 6779310">No, Traveller does NOT present them as having a scientific explanation. It doesn't explain them much; it just presents them as rules.Psionics has been solidly part of Science Fiction since the 1950's.Oxford Languages attributes the term to 1950's, as do several other etymological references.The oldest reference I can find is a novellette by Murray Leinster (Will Fitzgerald Jenkins), titled The Psionic Mousetrap.Doc Smith's Lensmen (1966) is one of the most well known of the Psionics as Sci-Fi... and is obliquely referenced in the Traveller psionics rules, and less so in the supplements... but also McCaffrey's Pern (1967), Star Trek (Spock is shown to be psionic. Hell, the second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before is all about a psionic boosting event... but  the term used is ESPer in Mitchell's service record. Psionic comes into use later in Trek - 1973 in TAS).Psychic abilities in Sci-Fi also predate 1950... just not the term "Psionic"...here's a nice summary: <a href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/psi_powers" target="_blank">SFE: Psi Powers</a></blockquote>