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Conference noted::sf

Title:Arcana Caelestia
Notice:Directory listings are in topic 2
Moderator:NETRIX::thomas
Created:Thu Dec 08 1983
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1300
Total number of notes:18728

1176.0. "Books & Films Dealing with Psi/Parapsychology" by ASDG::FOSTER (Like a Phoenix Rising) Sat Oct 09 1993 19:13

	Note 239 starts the topic of "parapsychology" or "psi" powers as
    a subset of science fiction. Unfortunately, it never actually discussed
    what *I* was interested in, i.e. which works of fiction deal with the
    subject. So, I'm opening a more specific topic, for exploring novels
    and films which deal with psi stuff. Have at!
    
    By the way, Steve Kallis put together a list of the imagined types or
    functions. They are:
    
      	
1.  Telepathy (simple) -- mind-to-mind communication in a form analogous
                          to speaking/hearing.

1a. Telepathy (complex) - mind-to-mind communication in which the "sending"
                          mind can evoke all sorts of sensations (e.g., 
                          sight, smell, touch) as well as auditory.

2. Psychokinesis -- using the mind to move an object.

3. Teleportation -- using the mind to relocate an object, instantaneously
                    (not unlike a "hyperspace jump" of the macro-quantum
                    kind.)

4. Pyrokinesis -- Ability to cause fires by power of the mind alone (deciding
                  to strike a match isn't enough).

5. Precognition -- ability to perceive future events (as opposed to deducing
                   them).

6. Dowsing -- [There really ought to be a more elegant-sounding term for this.]
              ability to detect water or other material through the power of
              the mind (the sticks are just clues; the mind supposedly does
              the *real* work).
                        
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1176.1Here's a starter list. Are there any others???ASDG::FOSTERLike a Phoenix RisingSat Oct 09 1993 19:1715
    
    Gleaned from the previous topic, I noticed the following books:
    
    	Pebble in the Sky by I. Asimov
    	Darkover Series by M.Z. Bradley
    	a couple of novels by A. McCafferty
    
    Additionally, I think the topic itself was opened before Ghostbusters.
    While it's main thrust was humor, it IS a film on the paranormal.
    
    Other books I've seen on the subject are Joan Vinge's Psion & Catspaw.
    Spider Robinson's "Telempathy" could also be included.
    
    Are there others that I've missed? I *love* this stuff, and would like
    to read more of it.
1176.2ODIXIE::MOREAUKen Moreau;Sales Support;South FLSat Oct 09 1993 23:0028
RE: .1    

>    	a couple of novels by A. McCafferty

Uh, I think you mean Anne McCaffrey.  She did the Dragonriders series which
had lots of inter-species telepathy, plus she did the Pegasus series of 
short stories (and later novels) dealing with telepathy, teleportation,
telekinesis, etc.

Additional ones that I enjoyed are:

	the Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust (telepathy, psychokinesis)
	Childhood's End by Arthur Clarke (the Massmind was certainly psi)
	the Dorsai series by Gordon Dickson (some psychokinesis, other mental
		abilities above normal)
	Mindbridge by Joe Haldeman (lots of inter-species telepathy)
	Time for the Stars by Robert Heinlein (instantaneous telepathy)
	the Dune series by Frank Herbert (telepathy, precognition, lots more)
	Copyright Violation by Spider Robinson (yes, the method is more
		technological than biological, but so what)
	the Lensmen series, Galaxy Primes, and Subspace Explorers/Encounter
		by E.E. Smith (galaxy spanning telepathy, perception, etc)
	the Warlock series by Christopher Stasheff (every psi ability you
		can think of and then some)

I am sure there are hundreds I have missed, but this is a decent start.

-- Ken Moreau
1176.3Julian MayTLE::TOKLAS::FELDMANSDT Software Engineering Process GroupSun Oct 10 1993 19:185
Julian May seems to favor psi stories.  The Pliocene Exile series
is based on psi, as is a two book series whose name escapes me, but
which is about the emergence of a generation of psi talented individuals.

   Gary
1176.4some moreRUSURE::MELVINTen Zero, Eleven Zero Zero by Zero 2Sun Oct 10 1993 20:0627
>Julian May seems to favor psi stories.  The Pliocene Exile series
>is based on psi, as is a two book series whose name escapes me, but
>which is about the emergence of a generation of psi talented individual

The Surveillance (sp?)
The Metaconcert 

Was this the series?



Also, telepathy was used a lot in early SF writings.  

	A. E. Nourse            PSI HIGH and other stories
	E. Russell		Sentinels From Space
	various Star Trek (old, new) episodes/books
	star wars series
	firestarter    (move)
	any 'ghost' type stories (Ghost, Poltergeist, etc)
	some Niven short stories based on the Thrint
	various Dr Who episodes/books
	Five Million Years to Earth  (movie)
	The Well World series of J. Chalker has some mention of this
	

-Joe

1176.5RUSURE::MELVINTen Zero, Eleven Zero Zero by Zero 2Sun Oct 10 1993 20:1012

also:

	The People: No Different Flesh		Z. Henderson
	Pilgrimage: The Book Of The People	Z. Henderson
	movie called The Legacy
	Scanners movie series
	Trancers movie series (?)
	Blake's 7 (Cali was the resident telepath for some episodes)

-Joe
1176.6GIDDAY::BURTPlot? What plot? Where?Sun Oct 10 1993 21:532
Firestarter (Movie & Book" - Steven King
Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card - "Seventh Son" was the first book
1176.7ARCANA::CONNELLYAack!! Thppft!Sun Oct 10 1993 22:2812
"The Masters of Solitude" and "Wintermind" by Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin
have telepathy (called "lep" in the books) as an ability of the primitive
peoples locked out in the wilderness from the marvelous City into which all
the technological (and non-telepathic) peoples retreat in a future world.

"The Wall at the Edge of the World" by Jim Aiken (i think) is about the
negative consequences (rarely portrayed) of living in an all-telepathic
society.  Here the "mass mind" enables a static culture that stamps out any
nonconformists (including children born without the psi abilities).

								- paul
1176.8Some moreCUPMK::WAJENBERGMon Oct 11 1993 10:2629
    Re .0:
    
    "Dowsing" is also sometimes called "Divination," if you want a more
    elegant name.  However, "Divination" is also used to refer to all forms
    of fortune-telling -- palmistry, horoscopes, tea-leaves, chicken
    entrails, cards, I Ching, You Ching, He/She/It Chings...
    
    "Witches of Karres" by James Schmidt is a psi-centered space opera.
    
    "The Demolished Man" by Alfred Bester is a psi-centered detective
    story.
    
    Larry Niven wrote several stories based on psi, including "World of
    Ptaavs" (a novel), and several short stories about a cop with a third
    "phantom arm," "The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton," and "Patchwork Girl" (a
    Gil Hamilton novel).
    
    Ursula K. LeGuin's novels of the Ekumene feature telepathy and
    (marginally) precognition.  Several deal have "mindspeech," a form of
    telepathy that anyone can learn but no one can lie with -- "Rocannon's
    World," "The Left Hand of Darkness," "Exile Planet," "City of
    Illusions."  "Rocannon's World" also deals with the psychology of a
    fully telepathic race -- identity only exists on the community level.
    
    Roger Zelazny and Fred Saberhagen co-authored a nice novel entitled
    "Coils" about a man with a psionic rapport for computers -- essentially
    an ability to plug into cyberspace without hardware interface.
    
    Earl Wajenberg
1176.9hey, don't forget Gully!!QUARRY::petertrigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertaintyMon Oct 11 1993 11:033
Add "The Stars My Destination" to "The Demolished Man" for Alfred Bester.

PeterT
1176.10TLE::TOKLAS::FELDMANSDT Software Engineering Process GroupMon Oct 11 1993 18:1411
re: .4

Yes, those are the May books I had in mind.  Thanks.

By the way, Asimov uses empathic abilities and the ability to 
influence emotions through almost the entire Foundation series, including
the Robot/Foundation crossover books.  Pebble in the Sky, if I recall
correctly, just happens to fit into this Universe.

   Gary

1176.11Daniel Keys MoranROCK::BELLTue Oct 12 1993 10:335
Daniel Keyes Moran End of Time series includes psi.
Thy are Emerald Eyes, The Long Run and the Last Dancer (Just came out this
month)

Shane
1176.12DSSDEV::RUSTNo squid! Smaller yuppies! - DB 834.0Thu Oct 14 1993 10:1427
    A strong second on "The Witches of Karres," and on McCaffrey's dragon
    books; I liked her "Rowan" characters when they first showed up in
    short stories, but didn't get involved with the novel(s). ["The Ship
    Who Sang" isn't really about psi, as there's supposedly a scientific
    basis to the human/machine hookup; same with Delaney's "Nova". But I'd
    recommend both books anyway. ;-)]
    
    King's "Firestarter" and "The Dead Zone" both deal with some of the
    less appealling aspects of psi powers; "The Shining" touches on the
    subject, but it isn't as much of a plot element as it is in the other
    two books.
    
    There's a wonderful short story (whose author I cannot remember at
    present) called "The Game of Rat and Dragon"; I've got it in a couple
    of anthologies, including, I think, "Magicats!" It's about a
    space-faring civilization in which bizarre, "hyperspace" monsters
    are fought by human-and-cat psi teams, to protect the spaceways. The
    differences between the ways humans see things and the way cats do is
    entertaining. Not an in-depth look at psi, but a fun read. [Another
    story in the "Magicats" collection is Fritz Leiber's "Space-Time for
    Springers," which stars a kitten who might be psionic - although one
    could just as easily read it as magic, I suppose.]
    
    I'm sure I'm forgetting some obvious ones; if they pop to mind at 3
    a.m. I may log in and enter them. ;-)
    
    -b
1176.13CUPMK::WAJENBERGThu Oct 14 1993 10:443
    "The Game of Rat and Dragon" is by Cordwainer Smith.
    
    Earl Wajenberg
1176.14REGENT::POWERSThu Oct 14 1993 10:4614
re: .0

Psi is one of THE most common elements of SF stories, ranking right up there
with space travel (FTL or not) and BEM.  It ranks from a central theme
(the Mule in the Foundation trilogy) to incidental (Niven's rationale 
for needing humans or other sentients to fly FTL in Known Space).
There can be no categorization psi in SF that doesn't try to gauge how 
important psi is to plot.
Do you have some particular aspect of psi application in mind?
(Incidentally, Stephen Kallis's list of psi  categorization
is extremely brief - there are a lot of other aspects of psi that
some writers/researchers categorize.)

- tom]
1176.15another one - The Worthing SagaODIXIE::EGEORGEKlaatu borada niktoFri Oct 15 1993 17:5610
    
    In addition to all previously listed:
    The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card -- involving
    a character with psi abilities and his descendents
    whose psi abilities become more and more powerful.
       
    I like these kinds of stories too.
    
    
    -EG  
1176.16some moreSNO78A::NANCARROWThu Nov 04 1993 02:2810
    
    		A couple more books would be
    
    			Jack Of Eagles by James Blish ( bit technical	
    					but he knows his stuff)
    			Masters Of Space by EE "Doc" Smith
    
    			
    				regards
    				Mike N. 
1176.17Scanners II?GIDDAY::BURTScythe my dandelions down, sportTue Apr 05 1994 23:175
Has anyone seen the film "Scanner Cop"? I saw a video promo for it the other 
day. It looks as though it's a sequel to "Scanners" from umpty years ago 
(loved that dialin to blow up m/c room scene!)

Chele
1176.18BUSY::SLABOUNTYIs this p_n great or what?Wed Apr 06 1994 08:477
    
    	There was already a sequel done.
    
    	This could be Part III.
    
    							GTI
    
1176.19Scanners: The TakeoverNEMAIL::CARROLLJGilligan! Drop those coconuts!!Wed Apr 06 1994 12:092
    
    There's already a III - this would be a IV :-)