[1989: pp. 134–135]
[2003: pp. 138–139]
[Side Tab:]
Essay on MOTHER's Psychic Abilities
MOTHER'S PSI POWER AS SEEN BY PSYCHIC ABILITY R & D
Nearly All of MOTHER's PSI Power is an Actual Thing
Kouji Imura
井村宏次 Head of Seitai Energy Research Institute. After graduating from Ritsumeikan University's law department, he studied Oriental medicine and acupuncture/moxibustion at Meiji School of Oriental Medicine, and since founding his research institute in '72, has been Japan's foremost figure implementing proof-based parapsychology research and PSI power development.
PSI Power Can be Classified as Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Premonition and PK.
In MOTHER you use quite a wide variety of psychic abilities, which are called "PSI power". What do you think about this from a scholarly perspective?
IMURA: "PSI power" originated as a technical term. It can be broadly divided into two categories: the thought-based and the energy-based. When it comes to the thought-based, there's telepathy and clairvoyance. Telepathy indicates person-to-person, spirit-to-spirit communication. Naturally, you can also have an alien as your communication partner. If the alien has a spirit, that is. Clairvoyance, known as the second sight, is knowing of things happening far away or the hidden contents of an object. That's not limited simply to physical things, but there's also cases of seeing through to hidden circumstances such as a scandal.
There's another one called precognition. This is foresight. It's the ability to know the future from the present point, that is, Earth time. Knowledge of the distant past from this point in Earth time is what we call hindsight, or retrocognition. Psychokinetic abilities other than these fall roughly under a category we call "PK". The spirit is born of the mind through person-to-person connections, so it's thought to be impossible that a spirit could influence the outside world; and yet, it's PK that regards it as possible. For example, in MOTHER, that's healing.
Is "healing" the actual term for it?
IMURA: It is. Healing is curing another's malady with the power of mental imagery or psychokinesis. You picture them as cured, or rather, there's a way to emit a kind of power and, with psychokinetic energy, forcibly mold your sick friend into their normal state. Put all of this together and you get ESP, or extrasensory perception. That means it's outside the five senses, but it's still a sense. Now, PK is the abbreviation for psychokinesis, right? Kinesis is Greek for moving an object without touching it, psycho means of the mind.
And, falling under the category of peripheral phenomena, you have teleportation, you have the movement of objects or articles or even people... just a ton of PK variants.
What kind of phenomenon is teleportation?
IMURA: Even though time is consistently moving forward by Earth measures if you look at it from the present point, you have articles and people moving faster, and in the blink of an eye at that. This is teleportation in its exact sense. In addition, there's what we call astral travel or out-of-body (OBE) abilities. That means a separate essence containing your spirit leaps out of your body. You now travel across planes, but unlike teleportation, your physical body doesn't go anywhere. Your conscious state of both spirit and self, this is what travels. In this case, there are times it can be visible from the outside.
Is it like an aura?
IMURA: Yes. Sometimes it's a shimmering mass, other times it takes the form of a person. We call it the astral body. These things fall under PSI.
The Origin of PSI Power Research is 1970s America.
MOTHER takes place in present-day America. Is there a connection between America and PSI power?
IMURA: The "PSI" itself in PSI power was christened by American Professor Rhine. He and another man, a British psychologist named Thouless, came up with the word. They referred to the stirring or emission of energies unknown to man, or sixth-sense activity, under the blanket term PSI. This was when we were entering the '70s. Before then, this was spirit research, that is, the world of Tetsurou Tamba¹, in an era of psychical research. There was the argument over whether or not spirits exist, which settled on yes, they do, and the new religion turned into what's known as spiritualism. That was a proposal by Mr. Tamba. Research doesn't move forward when everything from people's psychic powers to spirit phenomena is attributed to spirits, so when they said, let's break off a piece and try it again scientifically, the word PSI was born and perceived anew as human phenomena rather than spirit phenomena.
Love is a Factor that Strengthens the Protagonist and Ana's PSI Power.
In this story, the boy protagonist and a girl hope to protect their families, and this gradually strengthens their PSI. Does that sort of thing actually happen?
IMURA: It can. Of course, the boy has his power from the start, doesn't he? Those without the talent can't go this far, but for those with it, it's a real thing where maybe love, or fighting to protect the Earth, will act as a trigger and bring it out.
On the other hand, the boy genius who has, if anything, an excellent grasp on the Theory of Relativity doesn't have any PSI power.
IMURA: Well, the power may not appear in children with unexpected fervor, and may appear in an uninterested child. PSI power will often weaken when energy goes to intellect. In a child's case, he starts off with a very inadequate psychological perception of time and space. He looks at a clock and all he sees is a simple ruler. There's something about time that doesn't quite click with him. So something like a child's vague sense of time and space can be a factor that draws out psychic ability.
Could the protagonist's state of mind where he's protecting the Earth from a space invasion cause a development of PSI power?
IMURA: Cases will happen now and then where it will show up in a child who likes astronomy, peers through telescopes... It's easier for it to emerge if he turns outward and expands the peak of his consciousness. It seems to me if he carries the peak of his consciousness a far enough distance, it makes that much more of a difference toward how much psychic ability shows itself. It simply can't show up in an adult if he feels like he's measuring the distance with a ruler.
Even psychic powers can, theoretically, be broken down into two groups: the so-called reverted and evolved forms. In a child's case, he has animalistic parts to him from the start, so he's close to the reversion. Contrast this against the recent New Age crowd, who I'm inclined to perceive as evolved. They master the fifth and sixth senses, and try to expand themselves. I consider psychic powers a latent ability humans naturally have, and I continue my research in developing it.
¹ Tetsurou Tamba: A famous actor who also wrote numerous books on spiritualism.
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