Instructor: Rainsong
Date: August 9, 2008 (Saturday)
Rainsong Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the second of your current series of psionics seminars
oyasumi *applause*
Rainsong The usual disclaimer applies: we are discussing real-world psionics. Not an RPG. If you are looking for a game, you may want to go elsewhere, before you get weirded out
Jael (Good evening, Rain)
Aphanas Evening, Rain
Rainsong Tonight’s topic, much like the first one of this series, is “Shielding”
Rainsong We will be expanding on the previous discussion
Rainsong Last time, we spoke of some of the many Shield forms for dealing with noise in the city.
Rainsong There are other uses for Shielding, and we will explore some of them this evening
Sharpflame I like usefulness.
Rainsong Usefulness is good.
Rainsong Last time, we were talking about keeping out the constant barrage of random thoughts from random strangers in crowded areas, such as cities, movie theatres, shopping malls and so on
Rainsong Seeing as we have a slightly different crowd, tonight, perhaps we should backtrack a bit
Rainsong First of all, can anyone tell me what a Psionic Shielding is?
ElBob A construct used to block stuff?
Sharpflame I can guess: To protect oneself from unneeded/unwanted forces with psi
ElBob or to keep stuff in I guess.
oyasumi a psi construct used to repel, absorb or block specific forces?
Rainsong Very good. There are methods other than construct-making, but constructs are the most common approach
oyasumi a security blanket, in a way?
Rainsong Exactly. 🙂
Rainsong I gather that some of you have not made a Shield before.
oyasumi no, or not that i have noticed…..
Sharpflame No, I’ve never made one
Rainsong Therefore, I have a question for you. Should we go ahead with the class as planned, covering other-than-noise applications, or change the focus to “how to make a Shield”?
Aphanas Either is fine with me.
Jael Fine with me either way as well
oyasumi either is fine with me
Sharpflame The latter sounds important
ElBob Same, I’m easy.
Rainsong One person has expressed a preference, so let’s run with that.
Jael sounds great
ElBob You could cut the neutrality with a knife.
Rainsong The topic for this evening, is “how to make a shield”
Rainsong We’ll start with a nice easy one, from the beginning
Sharpflame Sounds good
oyasumi sounds good to me
Rainsong There are several approaches to making gathering a bunch of psi-stuff and making a construct out of it. We’ll start with just one of these
Rainsong This method is not actually any better than a dozen others, but it is easier to understand than most, using only the text format of a chatroom
Rainsong For a chatroom seminar, that is important
Rainsong First of all, the aforementioned “psi-stuff” is often thought of as “energy”. We don’t actually know for sure what it is.
ElBob It’s probably purple dinosaurs.
Sharpflame Invisible microscopic purple dinosaurs*
Rainsong It has a few things in common with plasma, with electromagnetism, and with ions doing ion things, but it doesn’t seem to actually be any of those
Rainsong Sure, why not? We’ve gotten results using “invisible fuzzy pink bunnies” as the model, in the past
Rainsong If you’d like to follow along and try this, I suggest grabbing a snack to eat afterward. Psionics can be surprisingly tiring.
Dravael How could something be invisible and pink at the same time, though?
Rainsong It is possible to produce an impression of pinkness without actually seeing it, and also a pink thing could theoretically disappear into not-visible mode
oyasumi (eating cookie dough)
Rainsong So, whenever you’re ready to start, pretend there is a pool of water in your belly, with lots and lots of tiny purple dinosaurs swimming in it like schools of fish
Dravael (eating butterscotch pancakes with powdered sugar)
Rainsong Then add little rivers or pipes for the dinosaurs to swim to your hands and back
Rainsong Send some of the dinosaurs swimming to one hand, and get them to jump across to the other hand, and then swim back to the belly, in a big circle
Rainsong Questions, so far?
oyasumi no ^_^
Jael None here
ElBob Nope
Dravael None.
Aphanas *shakes head*
Rainsong We’re going to use this visual imagining, to direct the psi-stuff to move around. The model most of this community uses more-or-less presupposes that the subconscious actually controls the psi-stuff.
Rainsong That model may or may not be accurate. However, it does work
Rainsong So, now we add more dinosaurs to the pool of water, just streaming in. And the water itself is also going to move down to the hands, and out through your palms…to form a swirling watery orb of purple dinosaurs.
Rainsong (Feel free to leave out the purple-dinosaur part if you like…..)
Rainsong (If you can’t keep a straight face while doing this, you will probably be distracted enough to make your task more difficult)
Rainsong To finish off the orb, “pretend” the water on the outer part of the orb is freezing into ice or a gel.
Rainsong That would make a basic spherical psi-shape…aka, a psi-ball
Rainsong To make it a shield, you need to put it around something (such as yourself, which probably also involves making it bigger) and instruct it to do something.
Rainsong The “something” can be a simple “keep out all unintentional incoming signals” or it can be complex and difficult
Rainsong You might, for example, instruct it to send out impressions of dancing purple dinosaurs
Rainsong The main thing that trips people up when starting to make constructs of any type (Shields or otherwise) is getting enough psi-stuff into it.
Rainsong Earlier, in the main room, someone mentioned the laser pointer exercise.
Sharpflame Is it pretty effective to put a lot of psi into it?
Rainsong It can be a useful bit at this stage because it demonstrates the movement of the psi-stuff….
Rainsong And yes, it can help you stuff the construct with psi
Rainsong Those of you who have fingers, choose a finger
Rainsong (If you have no fingers, feel free to substitute some other smallish body part)
Sharpflame Index finger: Chosen.
oyasumi index-digit selected, rdy
ElBob I’ll be different and go with the one next to my little finger
Rainsong Tense the finger, and point it at the palm of the opposite hand, or your cheek, or thigh (any relatively flat part will do)
Rainsong Start with the tip of the tensed finger a couple inches from the palm, and move it around to draw little shapes.
Rainsong Do you feel anything on the palm?
Rainsong (“No” is a perfectly acceptable answer, by the way.)
oyasumi no…..(still at it)
ElBob palm feels itchy afterwards.
Dravael My palm feels cold.
oyasumi ….the tinniest of tingles…..i feel
Rainsong If you like, try tensing several fingers and once, and pointing them at the palm, in the same manner
Jael *nods* feels like I’m touching it, though I’m not (the traditional way)
Rainsong So far, so good then…. Tense the fingers (or tensable bodypart of choice) and point it into the psi-shape
Rainsong
oyasumi should we close our eyes? at all?
Rainsong You can, if you like. Some people find it easier to concentrate that way.
ElBob We should all type open mouthed smilies
Rainsong (Sorry; I’m a bit scatter-brained tonight)
Rainsong Are there any questions?
Rainsong We can expand on making such constructs in a third Shield Seminar, if you like
Jael raises her hand
Rainsong Jael?
Jael I am recalling something from a previous class about keeping each shield simple, and layering them if you need something complex. While you have to think through which layer goes where, it keeps things from getting confused (in each individual shield). Still a good idea?
Jael (you’d mentioned something about complexity up a bit, hence the question)
Rainsong Simple is good.
Rainsong Some shield format involve re-directing “energy” elsewhere, such as a Grounding Shield. Or producing illusions on contact.
Rainsong If you want to have several things happening, whether or not they are complex in themselves, it is generally easier (aka better) to make a separate shield layer for each purpose
Jael Thanks, Rain
Rainsong No prob
Rainsong Any other questions? 🙂
ElBob Yeah, what if you had different components of the same shield?
oyasumi raises her hand
ElBob raises hand and is in no rush
oyasumi puts hand down for elbob
Rainsong ElBob: could you please rephrase, so I can be sure I understand what you’re asking?
ElBob I was going to elaborate but I thought since oyasumi took the time to raise her hand, yeah .
oyasumi go ahead ElBob. ^_^
ElBob Okies, thanks. What if you had different components inside a shield doing different things, like a cell with all its juicy organelles.
ElBob Is that the same sort of sub-routining idea as multiple layers?
ElBob Or does it help to actually have the extra layers?
Rainsong It can be done the same way, but most people will find it somewhat more difficult to do.
ElBob mkay
Rainsong You’ve been at this long enough that the difference in difficulty probably would not be noticed
Rainsong Anyone who’s made constructs for less than a year might want to stick with the more straight-forward approach
Rainsong Oyasumi?
ElBob Sorry if I confused anyone then
oyasumi well, i was wondering if you could actually make a shield that you don’t feel, but is still there?
Rainsong ElBob: no worries
Sharpflame I’ve heard of “psi combat”, where one uses a shield to defend themself from attacks. How exactly are you supposed to “combat” with psi
Rainsong Oyasumi: yes. As you get used to it being there, you stop feeling it, unless you consciously poke around for it. For average types of Shields, anyway
Rainsong (In much the same way, you stop noticing the feel of the fabric of your t-shirt…)
oyasumi (because for all that i can remember, i have been imagining a giant sheild, that constantly is spreading out like ripples in my room, protecting me from everything…i am basically afraid of ANYTHING especially at night, and it made me feel safe…)… so i dont know if it is ACTUALLY a shield or not…
oyasumi (never told anyone that before)
Rainsong Oyasumi: sounds like it worked, for your purposes, so I’d guess it was probably there
Rainsong Sharpflame: there is a popular psionic combat sport of chucking constructs at each other, like a snowball fight or a paintball game. Modifying the constructs somewhat can turn that into actual combat which can result in actual, demonstrable damage
Sharpflame I don’t understand how it would be noticeable though
Sharpflame Can one really get that good at psi?
Rainsong Sharpflame: short version: yes, one can. Symptoms can include bleeding, bruising, fever…
(discussion then turned to paintball and other things)