PsiOnline.org

by Stony1205
Original Idea by Charles J. Sykes

Unfortunately, there are some things that psychics should already know, but don't. Not all of them have to do with psionics. As a modest wake up call, here are some basic rules that may not have found their way into standard curriculum.

-Rule No. 1- Life is not fair. Get used to it.
The average teenager (which is also the average age for members at PsiOnline) uses the phrase "It's not fair." 8.6 times a day. You got it from other members or your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic person ever. When they started hearing it from others, they realized rule No. 1.
-Rule No. 2- PsiOnline doesn't care about your self-esteem as much as your school does.
We expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated self-esteem meets reality, members complain that it's not fair. (See Rule No. 1.)
-Rule No. 3.- Sorry, you won't get it the first time through.
And you won't be able to lift that knife or be able to flare either. You may even have to do this strange phenomenon called "practice"!
-Rule No. 4.- If you think the mods are tough, wait until you get a boss.
He doesn't have a tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he's not going to ask you how you feel about it. So quit your complaining, you've got it good here at PsiOnline.
-Rule No. 5.- Listing to a newbie's ideas or difficulties is not below your dignity.
The senior members have a different phrase for a newbie's difficulties. It's called "Help and Respect". They weren't embarrassed to listen to someone who may not be as good as them. They would be embarrassed to make an ass of themselves and PsiOnline by making rude remarks to those who are smart enough to ask for help.
-Rule No. 6.- It's not the Moderator's fault.
If you screw up, you are responsible. We aren't here to clean your messes. This is the flip side of "It's my life," and "You're not the boss of me," and other proclamations of your generation. When you do something not advised, it's on your dime. Don't whine or you'll eventually get a `ban line.
-Rule No. 7.- We weren't as irritable before the idiots came to enlighten us.
We got this way by dealing with morons, deleting our countless amounts of spam, banning radicals and DBZ'ers, and having an overall hard time... Oh, and by the way, before you proclaim yourself "God's gift to psychics" take the time to read the articles. Let me give you a quote, "I am better than all of you put together!" *Later* "How do u make a psyball?"
-Rule No. 8.- Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life and PsiOnline have not.
In some schools, they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and class valedictorians have been scrapped, lest anyone's feelings get hurt. Effort is as important as results I suppose. This of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life. Here at PsiOnline you can only make an ass of yourself so many times... (See rules 1,2, and 4)
-Rule No. 9.- Life is not divided into semesters, and you don't get summers off.
Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up everyday. For eight hours. And you don't get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on. While we're at it, I'd like to stress this: Very few psionics sites (Including PsiOnline) are interested in fostering your self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to self-realization. Do that on your time, and don't waste ours. Truth is, we don't give a damn about your welfare. (See rules 1 and 2)
-Rule No. 10- Television is not real life.
Nobody here can stress this enough I suppose. If it isn't DBZ it's X-Men. Your life is not a sitcom or anime. Your problems will not be solved in 30 minutes, and you don't master a skill in 60. In real life --Now this is a shocker!-- people actually have to get off their buts and do something! OMG!! Nobody is as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston. Also on a side note you cannot blow anything up with psiballs, so please drop the subject whilst you still have some pride.
-Rule No. 11- Be nice to newbies.
They may be new today, but they may just show you up tomorrow.
-Rule No. 12- Bragging about your psychic powers does not make you cool.
Next time your out cruising, watch a pack of 5 year olds acting like they're goku. Well, that's what you look like to skeptics and non-psychics when you claim that you have amazing psychic abilities. Ditto for "expressing your inner power" when you join a cult.
-Rule No. 13- You are not immortal, nor are you god's gift to psychics.
If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young, and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic or glory full, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately. Going around thinking that you are "somebody" and using TK all day will end up with you having a liver thermometer. (For those of you who are lost, you'll end up dead thinking you can preform psionics all day.)
-Rule No. 14- Enjoy this time while you can.
Sure, practicing is a pain, school's a bore, and life is depressing. But someday, when you've accomplished much, and are well known at PsiOnline, you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a newbie. Maybe you should start now.
You're Welcome

by Peebrain

At the time of writing this article, I've been practicing psionics for four years. Granted, compared to naturals who have 20+ years experience on me, I'm just a toddler, but I'm starting to get a feel for how a "normal" psion would use their skills on a day-to-day basis. The following isn't really a "how-to" article, but rather an overview of how I've changed mentally over the past couple years to incorporate psionics into my life.

I've been asked countless times questions concerning my practice habits. How often I practice, how long are my practice sessions, what I practice, etc. When one first starts practicing psionics, these are important things to define. Here is a new skill that a newbie has to put time and effort into to learn. Whether it's constructs, shields, empathy, whatever - the skill is foreign to the body and has to be practiced regularly to be successful. Lately though, I have been practicing less, but still improving. Maybe that's poor wording - rather, I've had less scheduled practice sessions, but my skills are still increasing. When you finally accept the fact that psionics is just a part of life, you start to integrate it in everything without being aware of it. For example, if someone wants to know if their friend is feeling ok, they might ask how things are. While I still have that option, I also have the option of feeling the emotions of the target empathetically.

The thing is, to a newbie the option is conscious. To a psionic "toddler" as myself, it's more of a subconscious decision. I ask myself "I wonder how they are feeling?", and the information might be delivered to me in the form of an emotion (via empathy), or I might get an impulse to ask them "how are you?". Why is that useful? I find myself asking questions that I couldn't know without some form of ESP. Other times, information is presented to me without even asking the question. My friend walks by and my subconscious tells me, "he's fighting with his girlfriend." Or I wake up in the morning and hear "your father wants you to call him." My body performs psionic activities and learns without me telling it to, and alerts me of the results. This isn't exactly practicing, but explains why I would get better without really doing anything. Unfortunatley, for my body to perform psionics without my direct permission requires me to forfeit control. This doesn't mean I'm out of control, just that I trust my subconscious to act appropriately to gather information. But it does mean that I get unwanted side effects. Headaches are most common. I've gotten used to the constant slight pressure in my "third eye" area. Mood swings can be quite drastic at times. Excessive sleep from overworking. And while sleeping, I also tend to hit very strange states of consciousness, which can cause a lot of confusion. Nothing I can't deal with, but they're more than minor annoyances. While the "cons" get on my nerves every once in a while, the "pros" make it all worth it. I have the freedom to gather information on about anything I want. I have very good control over my body functions.

I can also manipulate my environment to achieve a certain goal. I'm having a hard time coming up with examples because, like I said, a lot of the decisions are made on a subconscious level. Let's say my friend is having a bad day. Why is he upset? Did something happen? Is the depression based off of an external variable? Let's say I want him to do something. What action should I perform to cheer him up and accomplish my goal at the same time? Should I say anything at all? Should I offer advice? Will he feel better tomorrow? When can I expect my goal to be accomplished? Can I get someone else to cheer him up? How? What do I need to do to most effectively accomplish my goal and make him feel better? These are very useful questions to know the answer to. It will dictate exactly how I should act around my friend. What's important is I never told my subconscious how to accomplish my goals. I list my goals to my subconscious and it will find the most efficient way to accomplish them, and report back to me what to do. I never say "empathetically link with my friend, and let me feel how he's doing". The psionic skills are on a lower level. While I still have access to them if I need something specific, my subconscious understands that it can use them as needed.

I don't know - I've been practicing for four years but I still have a little "inner-skeptic" that just finds a lot of this stuff unbelievable. Not in a sense that "you can't do that!" but in a sense that "wow, I would have never thought this would have happened". If you plan on practicing psionics for longer than a year or so, be prepared for permanent changes in your personality and lifestyle.

by Stony1205

This article needs to be updated. Things have changed since I wrote it, but many things still apply. ~ Stony 02/07/2007

When I first started psionics about six years ago, everything was really quite simple. I would go onto PsiPog and read the articles there, hoping to find something I hadn’t before. It was all about learning and just having fun with it. But once the innocence of being a newbie at a new site started to wear, my understanding of “The Politics” began to change. No longer was this just a website with cool articles and cool people, it was an organization that was in limbo with many others just like it. I soon learned that things weren’t as simple as they appeared.

I’m not going to try and tell a life story of any individual site. By mentioning PsiPog, I’m not putting them down or giving them props in anyway, this is just where I spent my time as a newbie. However, I am going to describe the situation in the online psionic community as I see it. This doesn’t mean that’s how everything actually is to everyone, this is just my opinion. It wouldn’t be a rant otherwise.

No longer is the online psionic community made up of a few tiny sites on crappy servers, run by webmasters just because they could. No longer are sites made up of only 50 or so members, who all give in equally every day, just to try and find something new and fun. Today, the online psionic community is a huge place of interaction and information exchange. Places like PsiPog and Veritas have grown from small sites to mammoth “monopolies” on the information market. At the time of writing (6/28/2005) PsiPog had around 5000 people signed up in its databases. I’m sure the webmasters of these sites never dreamed that their little spare time project would turn out into the great hub of learning that it is.

Despite the huge sites, there are many medium and small organizations that are just as valid as a site with 5000 members. PsiOnline is nice small-medium site that has great articles and a good strong member base of 301. Our smaller numbers allow us to operate a forum, which ties the community closer together, and allows everyone to get to know each other. You can actually have “regulars” with a small community, as you don’t have to know as many people. Everything is easier to organize and afford, as it is on a smaller scale. But there is something that all organizations share if they have any “influence” in the online psionic community. They are share a part in “The Politics”.

As with any large group of people, there are goings on that seem to create that weird gut feeling you get whenever there is scandal, or secretive stuff going on. The same thing happens in this community, except that 90% of that group doesn’t even realize it. After a few years in an organization the moderators and owners should begin to know who you are and make you “in” (If you aren’t an asshole). When I say “in” I mean more in the ranks of a respected and valued member, rather than the regular Joe. It is this at this point that you begin to understand the ins and outs of what goes on behind all the articles and seminars. You begin to learn about the nitty-gritty of running a community. You begin to lean about grudges and past events that have shaped how the community is today.

The politics of a psionic community can run very deep. Small trivial events may end up in the whole website disbanding, if given enough time. But the politics of a website aren’t always with one person. There can be large scale conflicts with other sites that cause members to leave one site for another. There is one case in my mind in which this has gone to an extreme, but I will not name specifics for the sake of those involved. People have left the organizations that they volunteer at, to start their own sites. In many cases, they try to drag other members, usually their friends, with them. This has caused some people to stop visiting all communities, which is a real shame. Why all this turmoil? When you have this much contact, sometimes the stress is too much, or in some cases, you do not like the ideas that the webmaster has.

Part of the problem with many of the management systems in psionic communities is the establishment of totalitarian control of the site. This system, although instantly effective against rule breakers and bad behavior, eventually causes a rift in the community. The hierarchy usually runs Admin -> Moderators -> Respected Members/Oldies -> Everyone else, with there being a terrible large social gap between Respected Members and up, and the rest of the community. Some people are could care less about the “higher ups”, but some feel left out, and when they ask questions, they are usually kicked or banned. That said person now has a personal problem with the moderators of that website, so they go elsewhere with their hatred, and create a sense of tension in another community. If enough of this happens, banned members form groups in other communities, which forces the two sites to clash. The unfortunate problem, is that the most effective way of managing a website is the totalitarian approach.

A democracy in a website usually doesn’t turn out well, especially with a large member base. If members want something the webmaster doesn’t, chances are, the webmaster will just ignore the members, or water down what they voted for. This can cause members to distrust their webmaster, and leave the site. A way around this is a website council, which mediates between staff and the rest of the members, to try to find middle. This works in keeping order, but slows down the progress of the site to a crawl.

With such different systems of organization, no wonder it is so difficult to try to make communities share information with one another. Add this with internal problems such as staff disputes, and conflicts (which sometimes include attacks, stalking, and other assorted nasties), and nobody has time to work out issues. So the political issues fester until they explode, and people usually end up getting hurt in the process. So what are the solutions? What can we do to stop this political bickering and just get back to studying psionics? There are two solutions, and only one is viable.

Solution one would be for everyone to grow up and just drop all the complicated relationships and political aspects of running a community. This is not human nature, and is an impossible idea.

The only other step I see is for a creation of some kind of unified community. Not for everyone to be involved in, but just so staff and respected members can get together and solve the disputes that they have learned so much about. My attempts at UOPC (United Online Psionics Community) have been nearly stopped. Besides creating a website, there are logistical problems that need to be dealt with. You need to invite all the communities, or people are going to feel left out, which is exactly what you’re trying to eliminate. On the other hand, some communities do not like each other particularly well. If website A sees website B on the list, neither will join, causing another rift in the community. Catch 22. It is almost too late to create this kind of organization, because it would have to have been implemented years ago to prevent problems. But it is currently our best option as a community.

So after all this, what am I trying to say? I would like to step back and say “Hey, why can’t everything just be simple again? Stop all the crazy politics and old grudges. Stop worrying about if psychic X is going to come back and cause trouble. Why can’t we just go back to the way things used to be 2, 3, 4 years ago, when all we really wanted was to just practice and have a good time? Why does there have to be a system of such strict order in all the communities?”

When I used to go to PsiPog back in my earlier days, I could count on walking in and getting a greeting from my buddies, and just chilling out. I knew everyone, and everyone knew me, and when there was a newbie, we tried to assimilate them into our group, not keep them out of the “click”. I refer to PsiPog as if it’s the only place, it isn’t. This is the same in every community. I’m just using it as a good, large scale example. Its hard to see a group of “regulars”, they all leave so much. I would just like it to be easier, so we can actually get down to the real business.

It would be nice if we could drop all the hassle of community ranks and website relationship problems, and just get back to practicing and having fun. Can we do that?