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telepathy occurred and that it tended to be weak and unreliable. They did not
establish mechanisms, or even establish conditions and limitations of
occurence.
Mid-20th century psychological and psychiatric studies on the well-documented
but unexplained performances of so-called
 idiot savants were not productive. A psychic photographer named Ted Serios
was studied in the seventh decade of the 20th century, primarily by the
Psychiatry Department of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. These
studies established the phenomenon as genuine, and also tentatively
established some operating rules. But the physical theory and instrumentation
were lacking to explore them.
Except for the statistical studies of telepathy, information and evidence
remained very largely anecdotal, however, until the 21st century. Even then,
progress was seriously limited by a lack of adequate physical theory to
accommodate and make scientific sense of observations. And by a lack of
serious interest, at least by funding agencies, during a seventy-year period
of social, economic, and geopolitical instabilities that indeed threatened
civilization itself at times.
Most of the progress in psionics during that time was with telepathy, the
psionic potential seemingly most frequent in the population and most amenable
to cultivation using strictly empirical means and simple biofeedback
equipment. But this hardly qualified as scientific research; the explanations
remained speculative. What it did accomplish was to make limited telepathic
skills sufficiently common and well recognized that psionics became accepted
as a legitimate, if crude, science. A 2072 study at
Oxford University, with cooperation from a number of other universities
planetwide, showed a highly significant correlation (P
demonstrable telepathy and family. It did not, however, clearly establish that
the correlation was based on genetic inheritance and not on other family
influences.
In A.D. 2090, a Chair of Psionics was founded at the University of Damascus,
with Dr. Timur Karim Kazi as chairman. In 2094, Kazi invented the psi tuner,
and during the short period ending with the Great
Death of 2105, interest burgeoned. But even the psi tuner was an intuitive
invention whose principles were only loosely understood.
Beginning with the first reported case of the
 Burning Plague, or  Great Death, on 18 July, 2105, within 15 to 20 days the
human population of planet Earth was reduced from approximately 7.184 billion
to an estimated 10 to 20 million, of which it is further thought that perhaps
fewer than two million, worldwide, were still alive two years later.
The evidence is compelling that mortality was not uniform worldwide. Certain
genetic stocks had substantially, or even much higher survival than others,
though it is arguable that genetics was not the principal cause of that higher
survival. On the other hand, evidence strongly suggests that persons with
appreciable telepathic talent survived with much greater frequency than
average, perhaps due to the linkage of a gene for plague resistance with one
for telepathic sensitivity. More compelling, indeed
almost indisputable, is evidence that functional telepaths -- those who are
routinely and reliably able to discern the thoughts of those around them --
are far more frequent in existing Terran populations than in populations
before the plague. . . .
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EIGHT
The emperor s greed, like his forefathers , was for power and domination, not
grandeur. Thus his palace, including its associated buildings and grounds, was
rather modest by antiquity s standards for emperor s palaces. Still, it was by
far the most beautiful building, amidst the most impressive set of buildings
and grounds, in the empire.
Occupying the top of a broad hill, it overlooked the imperial city, still
growing three generations after its founding.
On three sides were other hills, forested with a variety of broadleafed and
coniferous tree species. And the emperor, Songtsan Gampo, was not insensitive [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]