Psychic Magic

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Penny meditating in a cove.

Psychic is the Discipline of magic relating to, affecting, and influenced by the mind. Magicians of this Discipline are capable of extraordinary mental processes, such as extrasensory perception and telepathy.

Characteristics

The Psychic discipline is the area of magic that encompasses the mind as a whole, and possibly the spirit as well.

Brakebills House

Their house is an unspecified building on campus where they have rooms called coves that are designed for meditation, while the enclosed "Consciousness Areas" are reserved as a place to cry and process their experiences. The Amplifier is a room in which a Psychic's powers are 'dialed to 11', allowing them to experience more than normal by focusing the Psychic's abilities.

Their students are called Psychics at Brakebills, and they are seen as both alternative goths, obsessed with death and always around the Fountains, and hippy-like, dressed in shawls and using drugs to further their psychic experiences.

Disciplines

Mental Disciplines

• Telepathy: Telepathy is the magical ability to navigate through the many layers of a mind to discern thoughts and emotions. It's possible to use this ability to communicate as well, like The Beast did with Penny. Quentin Coldwater took advantage of his knowledge of this ability, as well as Penny's lack of self-control with it, to send a distress call out to the latter while under the effects of the Scarlotti's Web hex. Victoria also used the same method to call for help while trapped in a Fillorian dungeon by The Beast. One of the girls in The League, Holly, was gifted at mind-reading, and although not being able to be specific, she could pick the emotional tone of people in the streets.
• Mind Control: Controlling the behavior of others through mental command. It is a common trait among deities and their demigods. Mind control might be limited by psychic wards used by skilled magicians, though more powerful beings have been known to bypass them. The Beast was able to control Eliot's boyfriend, Mike from another world, doing so in an attempt to kill Quentin with a magical dagger, as well as to kill Eliza. Reynard taught his son to consciously use this ability, explaining to him that he has done it all his whole life without realizing it. While absent from the bulk of Brakebills' curriculum, this field of magic is taught by Professor Mayakovsky to First-year students.
• Memory Magic: A specific strain of psychic magic that deals with accessing memories and manipulating them. Marina altered Julia's memory of her assault by Reynard, implanting incredibly realistic memories that did not happen. At Brakebills, there's a group of employees that use this kind of magic to replace memories of people who fail the exam. Deities are capable of detecting traces of memory alterations, probing the mind of others to discern between genuine and false memories, as well as remove them. Gummidgy was skilled at this type of magic, successfully reverting the memory-wiping spells Brakebills had done to most Murs Magicians.
• Dream Manipulation: The ability to enter and change the dreams of others and communicate with them. It's a common hazing prank between Psychics, and something Penny used multiple times to communicate with Quentin and Margo.

Planar Disciplines

• Traveling : The rare skill to move throughout the Multiverse. This is the discipline of Penny and Victoria, but others can also be studied extensively with years of study, notably done in practice by Martin Chatwin, and in theory by Professor Sunderland. It was a principal field of magic studied by Christopher Plover in his pursuit to reach Fillory alongside the Chatwins.
  • Astral Projection: A method of Travelling that works through letting your mind wander the universe instead of your body. This also exists as a discipline itself, as Chelsea, a member of The League, possessed and utilized this ability to pull an elaborate prank on a student at Brakebills.

Spiritual Disciplines

• Precognition: This is the ability to see minor flashes of future events, and is Pushkar's discipline.
• Premonition: This discipline was mentioned by Professor Sunderland while testing Quentin.

Note: Classically, the difference between Premonitions and Precognition lie in the fact that Premonitions occur while conscious, offering brief glimpses of the future while the Psychic is awake, while Precognition occurs while the Psychic is asleep, usually manifesting as a dream-like vision. The decision to differentiate between these two may suggest that they're treated akin to their classic manifestations.

Travelling

Travelers are a rare group of Psychic magicians whose discipline consists of the ability to move freely between locations, including different and distant worlds. This area of magic is regarded as the most powerful, most knowledgeable, and the most dangerous of them all, meaning that the ones possessing it need to have a lot of training to achieve full control. More skilled disciples are able to not only transport themselves, but others as well.

Astral Projection is commonly used as a safer method of Traveling, letting their spirit wonder instead of actually moving, body and mind, to different locations due to the potential risks involved with it. A Traveler with enough experience can separate their mind from their physical form in order to Astral Project at will.

Quotes

"You hear voices, and no, you're not insane (at least not for that reason). Fair warning, older Psychics sometimes "inception" first years as a hazing prank."

―BrakebillsU

Members

The Magicians (TV)

• Penny
• Victoria
• Stanley

References

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