What if...?

[Spinward Scout]

What if the Psionics Suppressions was a cover up of Imperial wrongdoings and the Zhodani were never involved but only blamed as a scapegoat? What if the Psionics Institutes were doing illegal experiments on Imperial citizens? Under the direction of a centuries-old Imperial Warrant?

I've been reading about the CIA's Project MKUltra, which was shut down in the 70's.

In the summer of 1975, congressional Church Committee reports and the presidential Rockefeller Commission report revealed to the public for the first time that the CIA and the Department of Defense had conducted experiments on both unwitting and cognizant human subjects as part of an extensive program to influence and control human behavior through the use of psychoactive drugs such as LSD and mescaline and other chemical, biological, and psychological means.

Not to delve into a discussion of those real-world events, but what if the Imperium did something similar to it's citizens with Psionics? The techniques of the Psionics Institutes for training seem rather tame in comparison to some real-world tactics used to try to get a psychic response. Of course the implications of manipulation BY Psionicists on the average citizen is directly apparent in the Suppressions.

On the Senate floor in 1977, Senator Ted Kennedy said:
The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions were involved in an "extensive testing and experimentation" program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens "at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign." Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to "unwitting subjects in social situations." At least one death, that of Dr. Olson, resulted from these activities. The Agency itself acknowledged that these tests made little scientific sense. The agents doing the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers.

Wouldn't the Imperium have tried to use the trained Psionicists in some way? Wouldn't the Imperium have seen them as a resource? Turned them into SuperSoldiers? Or Spies? Was there something else the Imperium was afraid of? Telepathic Assault? Telekinetically stopping someone's heart? Psionic Assassination?

The Zhodani were easy to blame. But the fallout from financial and ethical scandals doesn't last 300 years. A generation, or maybe two or three...

Something interesting to think about for YTU.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

The techniques of the Psionics Institutes for training seem rather tame in comparison to some real-world tactics used to try to get a psychic response.

You mean like this?

 

[Easterner9504]

The Psi-prejudice has never died out because the Zho's show the end result of unfettered psi use. The ultimate totalitarian nightmare in which dissidents are fixed and thank the fixers for curing them. Also remember the suppressions were said to be a psycho-history manipulation that went wrong.

The Hivers have been rumored to be behind the manipulation it as they are psionic deadheads and didn't want the Impies...later Impie/Sollies having widespread psi use on the Hiver doorstep.

Makes sense because the Sollies still have the prejudice despite being among furthest from Zho Space and likely to believe: if Imperium against it, we're for it!

As to your basic thesis, would psi be used in experimentation on unwitting ala LDS use? Of course, some amoral clown will always do such things in the name of government. It's as sure as death and taxes.

 

[ravells]

I like the idea that far from being 'out of the way' little corners where psionics are learned, the institutes are actually all owned and run by the Imperium...which would actually make sense..keep an eye on the people with psionic ability out there.

 

[Spinward Scout]

You mean like this?

Yes, I've probably seen more fiction about it than read about it really happening. But I seem to remember reading the Russians used pain based 'training' at some point. Then again that may have been fiction, too. Cold War hype and propaganda.

As to your basic thesis, would psi be used in experimentation on unwitting ala LDS use? Of course, some amoral clown will always do such things in the name of government. It's as sure as death and taxes.

Yeah, how do you train Telepathic Assault? You need a target, right? This could be used as the 'ethical and moral scandals' that were the reason for the Suppressions.

 

[DonM]

The Stargate Project might be more interesting to parallel...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project

And there are some fun sites on the web related to remote viewing...

 

[Spinward Scout]

It's all very interesting. And the 1st Earth Battalion which is what 'The Men Who Stare At Goats' movie was lightly based on. Project Stargate didn't seem as scandalous as the MKUltra stuff, tho. It was more geared for spying on other countries.

Except what if it was then used to spy on Imperial citizens...



This has all got me itching to see a Psionic Suppressions campaign now.