Community Center Class: Psionics for the Headblind Herd [Monday Evening]

[icecoldfrost]

"I mentioned before you can't keep a trained and determined telepath - or magic - out of your brain, you can make them work at it," Emma said, once everyone had arrived. "So today you're going to learn how to shore-up your own automatic mental shields, and hopefully a few other tricks."

"Now the first thing to remember is this: Your mind is your reality. I'm not going to get in a psionic catfight with someone in their own brain, as that gives them the home field advantage. I'm going to bring it into my space, where I get to write the laws of reality."

"So I want you all to come up with a 'safe spot' in your brain. A happy memory, an imaginary place, something you can visualize easily and will never forget. If you can't think of something, pair up with someone else and brainstorm an idea. If you find yourself under attack, retreat there. Make them come to you, and know each and every corner of your visualization."

"The way you maintain that safe spot, that core of self, is through mental discipline. Some people meditate," she continued, making a face. "For the record, I tend to be terrible at traditional meditation. Mine is a bit more physical..."

Emma smirked, then reached over to take a long, gray duffel off the floor and pulled out her favoritesword. "I fence," she said simply. "When I first had problems with my secondary mutation manifesting, it was doing my footwork drills that helped me gain the focus I needed in order to regain control of my body," she said, turning the blade over in her hands. "I kept slipping back, of course, but gradually I went from needing to do three hours of drills to just mentally running them in my head."

"Maybe you go running, or do sit-ups, or go fishing, but these can all be meditative activities, so long as you do them regularly and with absolute commitment."

Comments

Sign-In

[icecoldfrost]

Focused!

Re: Sign-In

[suitably_heroic]

Atton Rand

During the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Take notes, pass notes, be afraid that Emma owns a sword...

Re: During the Lecture

[suitably_heroic]

Atton was in a slightly less terrible mood this week, courtesy of Toronto of all places. But he let his attention wane through the lecturing half of this class, because this was what he did best; he didn't need to practice it.

His attention came back once the activities started.

You could learn a lot about people through this one.

Re: During the Lecture

[vdistinctive]

Eliot was relieved to note that the technique for resisting psionic intrusion was not terribly different from the one to resist breaking under torture. He already had plenty of practice with that.

He was also enjoying the mental image of Emma fencing. That was a gorgeous sword. It suited her perfectly.

Activity: Your Mind

[icecoldfrost]

"So I want you all to come up with a 'safe spot' in your brain. A happy memory, an imaginary place, something you can visualize easily and will never forget. If you can't think of something, pair up with someone else and brainstorm an idea."

[Describe your mindscape/safe place/idea, or pair up with a partner to find one that works for you. ]

Re: Activity: Your Mind

[suitably_heroic]

Yeah, Atton wasn't going to say anything - not that he figured that was the point of this. He already had a safe spot, though it had been nothing like a happy memory for a very long time.

His maze and his safe spot had been the same thing for a long time: an endless spiral of pointless detail, some imagined, some real, confusing both for their multitude and the fact they hardly seemed important.

(But then one of his greatest feats was convincing people he noticed little when he noticed almost everything.)

These days, though, there was something else at the heart of it: the pazaak game that served as his mind's centerpiece was not one he played alone, old eyes peering at him across the board, framed by brown hair. Because you'll be right here with me, playing pazaak, where they can't reach you, he'd said to her. Funny how that worked both ways.

He was quiet, though, as he ignored the little twinge in his gut.

Re: Activity: Your Mind

[vdistinctive]

Robber's Cave State Park in Oklahoma had had a soft spot in Eliot's heart well before he'd ever had an inkling he'd become an outlaw, himself. He hadn't been back in years -- decades, even -- but he still had a firm image of the cave in his head, and it had made for a good focus when he got in trouble, over the years. He hadn't needed it a lot, lately, not since he joined up with Nate and started working with a team again. Funny how much less he tended to get captured and tortured when he wasn't throwing himself into warzones all the time.

So it was a little rusty in his head, needed some upkeep. Sweeping out of the dead leaves, shoring up the stone stairs that led up to the cave itself.

"Is it true the cave was used as a hideout by thieves?" the Parker in his head asked. She and Hardison had shown up the last time he'd retreated here, when he went undercover into that corrupt college experiment.

"That's the legend. Jesse James and Belle Star, to name a few." Parker squealed excitedly and bounded up the rock face like a goat, rushing ahead.

"Yo man." Hardison jumped up a the stairs behind them, taking two at a time to catch up. "I saw a perfectly good cabin back there, had hook-ups and everything, but noooo, you gotta go hide out in a cave. A damn cave, man. Ain't even got air conditioning. And it has to be fall, too, don't it. You know I'm allergic to leaf mold, right? And -- rocks. I'm definitely allergic to rocks. . . ."

Eliot smiled faintly. Yeah. That'd do.

Re: Activity: Your Mind

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal had a wealth of safe spots; the difficulty was in choosing one. He sifted through the various rooms in his mind palace, then eventually settled on the study of his current home. It was the most currently relevant, so easiest to update. And it held his memories of Jono, which were both innocuous if discovered and potentially fierce.

Re: Activity: Your Mind

[nuclear_snide]

Bob had a safe place - his skull. Anyone stupid enough and lucky enough might walk off with it, but they still couldn't get into his mind.

Re: Activity: Your Mind

[furnaceface]

The thing about Jono's mind being what it was... was that his safe place... really wasn't.

But it was very easy to envision the halls of the Weapon X facility, all things considered. It had been burned into his head years ago, and was more fresh in his mind's eye now than it had been in a long while.

He knew how to survive within the Program. This felt all the more safe in his head because of how horrifyingly dangerous it was.

Discussion: Meditation

[icecoldfrost]

"How do you meditate? What is your focus, or your way of relaxing?" Emma asked. "How do you think you can incorporate that into building your safe space?"

Re: Discussion: Meditation

[suitably_heroic]

"The thing about being a Jedi is that you can pour your mind into the life around you, so to speak," Atton said lightly, rubbing at his shoulder. "The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the lowlives in the cantina next door. That usually works."

Detail.

Re: Discussion: Meditation

[vdistinctive]

"The traditional style works alright for stakeouts or when you've otherwise gotta sit and wait quietly," Eliot said. "Never had much use for it other than that. Exercise is a good alternative, though. I prefer shadowboxing, myself, or tai chi when I don't want to get my heart rate up too high."

Re: Discussion: Meditation

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal shrugged. "It depends upon the situation. Cooking or playing music or drawing can serve as meditation for me, or if I'm feeling more introspective and guarded, I may retreat to my memory palace."

He smiled. "I think the method of using the latter as part of a safe space goes without saying. For the others...Any one of them could serve as a distraction, I suppose. Drawing would lend itself to creating a maze; music make visible could cloud the situation; cooking would give me a number of sharp and hot objects with which to defend myself. Is that what you had in mind?"

Re: Discussion: Meditation

[nuclear_snide]

"I work on magical equations," Bob answered. "Or I annoy people." He was very good at both. "I don't really need a safe space, though. I can simply...what's the current phrase? 'Nope out'?"

Re: Discussion: Meditation

[furnaceface]

//Cable used to run me through meditation exercises of the traditional sort,// Jono noted, shrugging his shoulders. //And sometimes I even still use them. But training and music have always been my go-to relaxation exercises, depending on the direction my mind has wandered. One takes the edge off. The other... puts some of the edge back in.//

Sometimes he needed that.

Activity: Shielding

[icecoldfrost]

"Now, the second step to this is to find a way that's easy for you to visualize as a means of keeping other people out. Walls, layered like an onion. A maze. Nonsense lyrics to a song to act as a smoke screen. Regular meditation to enhance your mental discipline."

"Work in pairs to come up with ideas, try visualizing on your own, or wave me down. But remember - the end result only includes two factors: Raw power and will power. But as long as you practice mental discipline seriously, you may at least give yourself a chance to get away."

Re: Activity: Shielding

[suitably_heroic]

Atton didn't move to find a partner or anything - he didn't need one.

But he kept an eye on everyone else, just in case he actually felt motivated to dart in and play teacher, himself.

Re: Activity: Shielding

[vdistinctive]

Now this part, this was new to Eliot. He'd spent plenty of time making his mental refuge comfortable for himself, and easy to get to, but he'd never had to keep anyone else out of it.

He should probably try to pick something other than bear traps.

Re: Activity: Shielding

[sharp_as_knives]

"What are the advantages and disadvantages to using a conception of someone else as your defense?" Hannibal asked. "If I were to use, say, an image you or Jono in my mind to attack any interlopers?" He gave her a mischievous smile. "Assuming that the one attacking is not the image being used."

Re: Activity: Shielding

[nuclear_snide]

Bob was nothing but power. He couldn't do much with it, but he didn't really need the practice these days.

Talk to Miss Frost

[icecoldfrost]

She is, indeed, there.

OOC

[icecoldfrost]

If I ended the world pre-BDE you'd all be vexed.

Re: OOC

[sharp_as_knives]

Can I just say, this is an absolutely awesome class?