Telepathy Vs Telekinesis: The Power Is Yours!

Wouldn't it be great to have some sort of superpower? Abso-freaking-lutely it would! If you had anything other than that response, I would start to question our relationship. But which one would you choose? Between flying and fire breathing, and invisibility and immortality, they're not my personal choice of power. Let's start by breaking down two of the most popular. 

Telepathy

How great it would be to be able to read someone's mind. Anyone's mind. EVERYONE'S mind. Despite the invasion of privacy and the occasional mean thought that could hurt your own feelings, it would give you a better understanding into who people are and how they think. Telepathy is the psychic phenomena by which communication occurs between minds, or mind-to-mind communication. Such mental communication includes thoughts, ideas, feelings, sensations and mental images. Telepathic descriptions are universally found in writings and oral lore. In tribal societies such as the Aborigines of Australia telepathy is accepted as a human faculty, while in more advanced societies it is thought a special ability belonging to mystics and psychics. Although not scientifically proven, telepathy is being increasingly studied in psychical research.

Telepathy is about communicating mind-to-mind, getting someone to feel or think or 'hear' something from far away, without the use of sounds or symbols or anything else but bare thought. There are several types of telepathic activity

telepathic impression (planting a message, image, or word into someone else's mind),

mind reading (copying or sensing, but not interfering with, what's going on in someone else's mind),

mental communication (a smartphone of the mind, but without the bills),

mind control (actually commanding or compelling the thoughts, and thus the actions, of another person through telepathy). Mind control is a separate subject for another page.

Similar to "Telekinesis", "Telepathy" is an umbrella term for any ability that involves projecting, reading and manipulating thoughts. The umbrella falls in these categories:

Basic Level

Mind Reading: The ability to read/sense the thoughts of others.

Visual Mind Reading: The ability to see the thoughts of others.

Psychic Communication: The ability to open up secret conversations and relay covert information.

Empathy: The ability to interpret the emotions of others.

Telempathy: The ability to communicate through emotions.

Telepathic Speaking: The ability to speak aloud using only the mind.

Advanced Level

Binding: The ability to restrict the movements of others via the mind.

Download: The ability to quickly process, store, or download information through another's mind.

Emotion Manipulation: The ability to make one feel pleased, happy, pained, or any other emotion.

Knowledge Projection: The ability to project knowledge into another mind.

Telepathic Language Instruction: The ability to teach languages telepathically.

Knowledge Replication: The ability to replicate the learned knowledge and skills of others.

Memory Reading: The ability to read the target's memories.

Mental Hallucination: The ability to cause mental hallucinations.

Mental Inducement: The ability to temporarily push the targets mind into the wanted state.

Mind Control: The ability to manipulate the minds of other via thought process.

Mind Image: The ability to project one's image to the mind of another.

Mind Link: The ability to develop a permanent mental bond with any person, also called imprinting.

Mind Melding: The ability to fuse one's consciousness with another.

Mind Walking: The ability to enter the mind of another.

Omnilingualism: The ability to intuitively understand all languages.

Telepathic Translation: The ability to translate all languages.

Psionic Inundation: The ability to launch psi-bolts to cause mental damage.

Neurocognitive Deficit: The ability to shut down an opponent's higher brain function.

Telepathic Static: The ability to project telepathic static.

Psychic Inhibitors: The ability to place inhibitors in the mind to limit the target's capabilities.

Psychic Navigation: The ability to create a mental map of the area.

Psychic Shadow: The ability to mask psychic presence, hiding from other psychics.

Psychic Shield: The ability to erect a psychic shield to protect the minds of oneself and/or others.

Psychic Torture: The ability to torture victims mentally and spiritually.

Pushing: The ability to implant memories, thoughts, and emotions into others.

Sensory Scrying: The ability to perceive through the senses of other beings.

Speaking Inducement: The ability to make others say whatever one wants.

Telepathic Combat: The ability to use telepathy in physical combat

Telepathic Hijacking: The ability to hijack telepathic communication.

Telepathic Language Instruction: The ability to project language information to others to communicate.

Telepathic Prediction: The ability to know an opponent's moves and attacks by reading their brain waves.

Telepathic Relay: The ability to act as a mental relay station for a group of minds, allowing said minds to "speak" to one another through the user.

Thought Manifestation: The ability to make one's thoughts visible to all.

Thought Manipulation: The ability to control the thoughts of others.

Master Level

Consciousness Transferal: The ability to transfer one's mind to a new body.

Darkside View: The ability to communicate with and bring out the dark side of a person's personality.

Lightside View: The ability to communicate with and bring out the good side of a person's personality.

Memory Manipulation: The ability to erase, restore and alter the target's memories.

Mental Manipulation: The ability to manipulate functions of the mind.

Mind Exchange: The ability to transfer one's mind into another's body, taking control of that body.

Projective Omnilingualism: The ability to emit a field that translates every spoken language.

Psychic Constructs: The ability to generate constructs out of mental energy.

Psychic Energy Manipulation: The ability to produce and manipulate mental energy.

Psychic Wave Manipulation: The ability to generate and manipulate thought waves.

Psychosomatic Illusion: The ability to create powerful illusions that may cause severe physical damage.

Remote Telepathy: The ability to use telepathy from a long range.

Subconscious Manipulation: The ability to manipulate the subconscious.

Ultimate Level

Cosmic Telepathy: The ability to read the thoughts of billions or more subjects at once.

Mental Projection: The ability to project thoughts into reality.

Mindscape Transportation: The ability to transport physical matter into one's conscious or subconscious thoughts.

Panempathy: The ability to interpret the emotions of billions or more subjects at once.

Absolute Level

Mindscape Materialization: The ability to will ones thoughts and their inner world into reality.

Omnipathy: The ability to read, sense, communicate with, and control an infinite number of minds across all universes, planes and dimensions.

Unimind: The ability be connected with all things and their essences.

I know, its a little overwhelming. But someone out there somewhere at some time put some real thought into the specifics of this individual superpower. I wish I could actually name a name, but at this time, its just been documented in lab studies. 

Superheroes That Have Telepathy

Its the most obvious thing that super heroes have superpowers. Out of the thousands of heroes out there in anime, marvel comics, and cartoons, here are some of the most popular that have this amazing unattainable superpower. 

Martian Manhunter
X-Man
Phantom Stranger. 

Spectre
Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson)
Doctor Strange 

Alan Scott
Sentry

Telekinesis

There are several claimed types of psychic powers, including precognition (knowing future events before they happen); pyrokinesis (creating fire with the mind, popularized in Stephen King's novel and film "Firestarter"); and telepathy (describing things at a remote location). Among the most dramatic of these is telekinesis (also called psychokinesis, or PK), the ability to move objects through mind power. Though many Americans believe in psychic ability (about 15 percent of us, according to a 2005 Baylor Religion Survey), scientific evidence for its existence remains elusive.

The idea of people being able to move objects through mind power alone has intrigued people for centuries, though only in the late 1800s was it seen as an ability that might be scientifically demonstrated. This occurred during the heyday of the early religion Spiritualism, when psychic mediums claimed to contact the dead during séances, and objects would suddenly and mysteriously move, float, or fly by themselves across the darkened room, seemingly untouched by human hands. Sometimes small tables would tip or levitate, disturbed either by unseen spirits or the psychic's mind. 

Though many people were convinced — including, ironically, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes — it was all a hoax. Fraudulent psychics resorted to trickery, using everything from hidden wires to black-clad accomplices to make objects appear to move untouched. Magician Harry Houdini investigated and exposed many fake mediums, and even wrote a book about it titled "Miracle Mongers and Their Methods."

As the public slowly grew wise to the faked telekinesis, the phenomenon faded from view. It was revived again in the 1930s and 1940s, when a researcher at Duke University named J.B. Rhine became interested in the idea that people could affect the outcome of random events using their minds. Rhine began with tests of dice rolls, asking subjects to influence the outcome through the power of their minds. Though his results were mixed and the effects were small, they were enough to convince him that there was something mysterious going on. Unfortunately for Rhine, other researchers failed to duplicate his findings, and many errors were found in his methods.

"Telekinesis" is an umbrella term for any ability that involves using the mind to influence/manipulate/move matter/objects. Wonder how many things can be broken down into this said umbrella?  Here you go!

Basic level

Binding: To keep object/being from moving.

Levitation: To lift an object, e.g. raising a pitcher several inches into the air.

Orbital Field: To make objects and possibly energy orbit around the user.

Psionic Speed: To augment the user's physical speed, e.g. outrunning a speeding vehicle.

Psionic Strength: To augment the user's physical strength, e.g. punching through a steel wall.

Telekinetic Bullet Projection: To project telekinetic energy or objects as bullets.

Telekinetic Choking: To strangle others.

Telekinetic Grip: To grasp an object firmly in place, e.g. keeping the tides from washing a friend away.

Telekinetic Maneuver: To alter an object's directional course, e.g. changing what number a dice lands on or deflect an opponent attack.

Telekinetic Pull & Push: To pull objects towards the user or to push objects away from the user, e.g. yanking a book off a shelf or sliding a cup across a table.

Advanced level

Elemental Manipulation: Alternate the natural elements of existence at a sub-molecular level.

Homing Effect: To make any object automatically follow, home in and lock onto its target or targets until it hits them.

Molecular Manipulation: To manipulate matter and energy at molecular level.

Motion Manipulation: Guide or shift directional vectors through direct molecular motion manipulation.

Property Manipulation: Change the physical and chemical properties.

Self-Molecular Manipulation: To manipulate self at molecular level.

Transmutation: Ability of changing molecules turning anything into most anything else.

Motor-Skill Manipulation: To manipulate the movement of others.

Object Manipulation: To alter an object's inner workings, e.g. unlocking a door.

Animation: Give motion to motionless items by focusing your mind power through it.

Intuitive Aptitude: To learn how an object works by taking it apart and putting back together.

Psionic Healing: To heal others with one's own telekinetic powers.

Spatial Sense: To "see" one's surroundings using telekinesis, e.g. sensing a target from a distance.

Telekinetic Aura: Possess powerful telekinetic extensions field from oneself.

Telekinetic Blast: Emit telekinetic energy to make blast that destroys anything in the user's path.

Telekinetic Combat: to use telekinesis in physical combat

Telekinetic Compression: To crush an object, e.g. squeezing a chair into a ball.

Telekinetic Constructs: To create objects, weapons and creatures out of telekinetic energy.

Telekinetic Destruction: To make an object explode, e.g. blowing up a table.

Telekinetic Flight: To use telekinesis to fly.

Telekinetic Pressure: To use telekinesis to damage area.

Telekinetic Surgery: To conduct complex surgery through telekinetic means.

Telekinetic Teleportation: Use telekinesis to teleport themselves or others.

Telekinetically Enhanced Condition: To use telekinesis to enhance the user's condition.

Unarmed Weapon Wielding: Use weapons without touching them.

Wound Inducement: to use telekinesis to cause physical wounds on others.

Master level

Atomic Manipulation/Energy Manipulation: To control matter and energy at the atomic levels. e.g. rearranging atoms and controlling energy.

Chemistry Manipulation: By directly applying change to the sub-molecular bonds.

Cosmological Force Manipulation: Bend the very energies of the universe via thought alone.

Energy Absorption/Conversion: To absorb and convert energy.

Matter Manipulation: Change the very nature of physical nature of substance.

Self-Atomic Manipulation: To manipulate self at atomic level.

Dimensional Travel: To bend the very fabric of dimensional barriers, allowing travel through wormholes or teleportation-like movement.

Neural Impulse Manipulation: To redirect the electrical signals between the brain and nerves, achieving control over thoughts, feelings, and movement of a body.

Mental Manipulation: By controlling the electrical signals in the brain.

Reanimation: To reanimate corpses.

Organic Manipulation: To manipulate organic matter.

Age Shifting: By manipulating the cells through telekinesis, could potentially achieve Immortality.

Telekinetic Regeneration: To regenerate one's own cells via telekinetic manipulation or gathering telekinetic energy to do so, e.g. using telekinesis to induce molecular/biological manipulation.

Psionic Explosion: To create and discharge a destructive psychic energy across a wide range.

Psychic Bomb Generation: To generate and release a destructive explosive composed of psychic energy.

Remote Telekinesis: To manipulate matter that is not within the user's location, e.g. controlling a rock 2000 miles away.

Technology Manipulation: To manipulate the functions and properties of technology and all forms of high-tech machinery.

Vibration Emission: To emit a powerful vibration strong enough to make objects shatter, i.e. sonic boom.

Weather Manipulation: To manipulate the weather, e.g. create lightning storms.

Ultimate level

Fundamental Forces Manipulation: To manipulate the fundamental forces of the universe.

Omnikinesis: To manipulate anything and everything.

Particle Manipulation: To manipulate matter at the basest of levels.

Particle Energy Manipulation: To manipulate particle energy.

Reality Warping: To manipulate reality by bending quantum strings in a localized area.

Space-Time Manipulation: To manipulate and distort the space-time continuum.

Subatomic Manipulation/Energy Manipulation: To control matter and energy at subatomic levels.

Self-Subatomic Manipulation: To manipulate self at sub-atomic level.

Universal Force Manipulation: To manipulate both the physical and esoteric forces of the universe.

Super Heroes With Telekinesis

Superheroes these days are getting more and more interesting superpowers. I'm sure that for the creators of these said superheroes is getting more and more difficult. But how can you beat Telekinesis with what you've read so far?  Here is a small list of the most popular ones across a few genres:

Apocalypse (En Sabah Nur)

Mister Sinister (Nathaniel Essex)
White Phoenix of the Crown (Jean Grey)
Franklin Richards.
Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange)
Emperor Vulcan (Gabe Summers)
Galactus.
Cable (Nathan Summers)

Conclusion

When broken down, the benefits of both powers can be astronomical! Though, I think it is nearly impossible to only choose one if given the choice.   Think you can choose? Give me your choice and your reasons behind it!  I trust that it'll be more difficult than you anticipate!