Psychic power

The term psychic phenomena can be applied to a wide range of abilities and occurences, all of them caused by the conscious or unconscious manipulation of psychic energy. Many races manifested psychic abilities of many kinds. In less-developed cultures the open use of psychic powers was often believed to be witchcraft or another form of magic.

Natural Racial Abilities
Some species were innately psychically active - in some cases it was very unusual for an individual of a given species not to manifest psi-powers. These powers could be of any type - for instance, the Butterfly People appeared to be innately telepathic, while it has been strongly implied that all Daleks possess some degree of psychokinesis.

In some cases it is difficult to tell whether the powers displayed by an individual were unusual for a member of their race or not. The Doctor and Susan both displayed telepathic abilities, but most Time Lords did not.

Many races had highly unusual innate abilities, but it is often difficult to tell whether these powers were truly psychic (involved the manipulation of psychic energy) or not.

Mutation Due To External Factors
In species that were not normally psi-active, powers could nevertheless still appear given the right stimuli. On more than one occasion, Humans growing up in the vicinity of a Time rift developed psychic abilities, apparently as a result of exposure to the temporal energy. It is not known whether the psychic ability of the Daleks was a direct result of Davros's genetic manipulation, a natural result of the process of mutation, or a freak consequence of the combination of both (the original Kaleds did not appear psychically active).

Types of Psychic Ability
See individual articles for full descriptions.

Sensory Abilities

 * Telepathy
 * Clairvoyance (also known as Extra-Sensory Perception)
 * Precognition
 * Psychometry

Manipulative Abilities

 * Psychokinesis
 * Mind control

Artificial Psychic Phenomena
Psychic energy was normally only produced by living minds, which made it (and the powers utilising it) difficult to study or replicate using conventional technological means.

However, a number of devices were constructed to facilitate or mimic natural psychic powers.


 * TARDISes generated a psychic field and incorporated telepathic circuits, to facilitate both short- and long-range communications.
 * The IRIS Machine artificially boosted the telepathic potential of Human test subjects.
 * The Butterfly People used telepathy pendants for long-range communication.
 * The Coronet of Rassilon gave the wearer the power of mind control, even over multiple subjects simultaneously.
 * In his later incarnations the Doctor routinely carried psychic paper to save time in establishing his credentials. This ploy was also used by the adventurer known as Captain Jack Harkness.