The feeling of having your mind probed is like suddenly standing after having your head between your knees, or as if someone has plucked your mind like a dandelion and is blowing off the seeds: a most disturbing helplessness that is over at once, and easily dismissed as a passing blood rush. We all have such moments and as she let go of me I was confoundedly unsure of my memory, although I suddenly had a much greater knowledge of the psionic world.
Once it had been proven that telepathy existed and that some people could enter another’s mind, the issue of security came to the fore and many dubious contraptions were devised. 
Plate 9 shows an example of the kind of productions created to counter anxieties over the psi threat, or more accurately the possibility of a psi threat. All the most important people wore such headgear; politicians, judges, pilots and so forth, people who needed to have a ‘clear head.’ It was claimed that the vitreous helmet shown here would block any attempted breach of the sanctity of one’s mind. How naive it seems our forefathers were. I don’t believe any such contraptions had any effect on psi-ability.
A similar device could also be obtained to help enhance psychic potential. Notably, the Ganzfeld Hood which blocked external interference and sensory information so the wearer could detect, and thus exercise, their latent abilities. Again, I’m not sure it worked to any extent.
Psis now work the black market, giving clientele experiences and memories that cannot be achieved elsewhere or elsehow. It is highly illegal and therefore highly lucrative – but since any practitioners must be able to read minds it is unlikely they would reveal themselves to any who would turn them in. Some may be altering our perceptions so they could never be identified anyway. Who knows? Depending on what degree of subjugation they can inflict they could be controlling the law-makers. Though it could well be futile, the laws will remain in place until we adjust to the new possibilities.
The fear now goes that telepaths reside in recessive personalities and are thus undetectable until they surface, and to increase their numbers, and numbers of sympathizers, they could be posing as maternity nurses and school teachers and so manipulating young minds.
But it is not a war: it is an evolution, and for those of us who missed that evolutionary leap, there are now communicator implants that use neural interception and intervention techniques. It’s not the same blending of minds that comes with true telepathy, but a reasonable substitute.
The second big fear is regarding direct human communication on a mass level. Consider firstly that everything has ranges; of ability, quality, quantity … strength? I don’t know the words for such things, but imagine that each psi has a certain strength. This therefore leads us to consider a dominator archetype, who can remotely overpower the thoughts and thinking of the weak-willed.
The good thing about traditional communication is that you can switch it off if you don’t want to listen – this may not be the case with psis. If such a dominator came into being – a malevolent personality such as Örj* for example – where would it end? Could we become like bees, with a centralized ‘hive’ consciousness?
I shudder at the thought, though our heirs may feel differently. Those new to a changing world always have an advantage, and so experience is outplayed by ignorance.
* An entry wil be forthcoming for those who don’t know their history.
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