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From: rickc@iddic.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: psychics in Heinlein
Message-ID: <1652@iddic.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Apr-84 11:32:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: iddic.1652
Posted: Mon Apr 30 11:32:29 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 2-May-84 04:49:58 EDT
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 37

o

Wait a minute!  What are 'psychic powers' except abilities to perform

powerful or otherwise useful tasks without using technology?  W. F. Jones'

ability to tap magical powers in Waldo certainly seems 'psychic' to me.

Perhaps the confusion stems from the 'psychic researchers' attempts to be

credible and classify their phenomonae.  Since none of their classified

effects have been clearly reproducible, I feel free to include any strange,

non-technological powers that an individual has as 'psychic'.

I Will Fear No Evil: The Joan-Johann connection might have been physical,
		     but what about the connection with Jake?  

Stranger in a Strange Land: What precludes a 'psychic' power from being
			    learned?  Seems to me the whole psychic field
			    is based on the idea that current science is
			    incomplete about its knowledge of the nature
			    of reality.

Methuselah's Children: Electromagnetic radiation is not an explanation for
		       the group mind.  Any such radiation would be immediately
		       detected by the ship's instruments. (An aside: for a
		       description of radio based telepathy see Olaf Stapledon's
		       First and Last Men.)

My personal opinion is that Heinlein makes the statement in The Number of the
Beast and I Will Fear No Evil that the noted effects are real, not imaginary.

						Rick Coates
						tektronix!iddic!rickc