Telepathy

Telepathy is the ability to contact other minds directly.

• In rudimentary forms, it allows the communication of feelings and emotion; in advanced forms it allows the transfer of information.

Description (Specifications)

Telepathy is not a well understood science. What is well understood is that telepathy, while very effective as a communicative medium, has strong limitations and does not appear to work on more than a very basic level with some exotic lifeforms and sophonts.

Telepathic Powers

Telepathy can be manifested in the form of many different powers and these are a selection of some of the better known ones:

Assault

Violence may be dealt by a telepath.

Life Detection

The most elementary form of telepathy is the ability to detect the presence of other minds.

Probe

The application of great Psionic Strength will enable a telepath to delve deep into the mind of a subject and then to read their innermost thoughts.

Read Surface Thoughts

The most commonly known feature of telepathy is the ability to read the thoughts of other individuals.

Send Thoughts

Complementary to the ability to read surface thoughts is the ability to send thoughts to others.

Shield

All telepathically able sophonts learn how to create a mental shield which protects the mind against unwanted telepathic interference. Such a shield is automatically in force at all times and requires no effort to maintain.

• Artificial psionic shields can be purchased; they are clumsy helmetlike devices which function in much the same manner.

Telempathy

The communication of emotions and basic feelings is accomplished by telempathy.

• Telempathy also allows the emotions and feelings of others to be read by a psi.

History & Background (Dossier)

While the Third Imperium has a relatively limited understanding of telepathy and psionics, the civilizations of a number of other sophont species possess far more sophisticated masteries of this fundamental psionic science.

Telepathy and the Third Imperium

At one time, the Imperium held a Psioniphilic stance, but after the Psionics Suppressions, this stance led to a Psioniphobic stance. At one time this might have beena cultural common ground between the Third Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate, but the Psionics Suppressions plunged Imperial society back into the stone ages as far as psionics is concerned. The Imperium once held a vast number of very progressive Psionics Institutes and now all of them have been officially closed.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• MegaTraveller: Player's Manual