Psionic phenomena are powers of the mind that are usually under a person's conscious control such as telepathy, telekinesis, and prescience. Serious research has been done, at Duke University and in the old Soviet Union, but many projected psionic phenomena remain undemonstrated, see anomalous phenomenon.
The reality is that Psychic powers and Psionic practioners exist. Some of which are very much in demand. Some are useful and can give people aid, some deadly and can kill.
The Psionic powers in the books are rare and seem to have no rhyme or reason as to why some people are gifted and some arent. It is known however that there are laws that pretending to have Psychic abilities and misleading people about them is a serious crime.
There are people with the ability to sense magic and read emotions or the past, from objects, people, places or just spontaneously. The ability can be felt as a tingling feeling like an intuition, or full-blown visions, depending on the gift of the person.
Marianne is a Psychic and Vargamor with the Oak Tree Clan. Although a psychic she is also in a coven and knows ritual magic. Marianne spends six months with Anita teaching her to patch the holes in her aura made by the Triumvirate and her tempestuous relationships with Jean-Claude and Richard. The struggle is for Anita to control her marks and protect her personality from the boys, while sharing the Triumvirate's power.
Howard Grant is an unscrupulous Clairvoyant. He is the real deal and is able to see information and emotions just from touching Anita's cross. However, Howard is also a con man. After convincing people of his gifts he promises he knows the locations of objects and that he will lead them to them for a price. He seldom can deliver the object.
One of the most powerful touch clairavoyants in the country is Evans. He suffers from the same problems as most other clairavoyants. With an object he can choose to read the history, with personal skin to skin contact, he has no choice. A touch clairavoyant often wears thick gloves and avoids people all together to keep from accidental readings. Many clairavoyants of that nature eventually go insane.
