Anatomy of a Horror Setting #10: Paranoia and the Fugitive Mind

Am I paranoid enough with all of these psychics around? If this were a Tweet then this would be the entire message. Or is that just an easy lie? Is it known that such a brief yet illuminating single line is powerful enough to sum up everything that needs to be said on this topic? Or is this an attempt to make believe that it could be enough. Yet, on the other hand, this could be the start of a conspiracy because some people know that other people know this could be untrue, but those other people know what the first group knows so that could make it true. A knows that B knows that A knows what B knows so B pretends not to know what A knows to force A to not know that B knows. Of course this all assumes that B isn't too paranoid, because, of course, some paranoia is good.

Paranoia is chaotic and confusing enough when the paranoid person can only guess that the people out to get them know about certain things. When psychics who can read minds, see emotions, and bring to bear other similar abilities are a reality then just about anyone who wants to know your business can know it. The key to being paranoid--when it is not due to a psychological defect--is knowing something worth someone else's time and trouble to finding out. What that something is, that the person knows, can be many things. It can be a newly discovered fact. It can be that the person witnessed a crime. It can be an association between multiple ideas or multiple people. In all cases though, that knowledge is something someone else either wants, or needs suppressed.

The right psychic can suppress knowledge literally. The ability to remove memories is powerful in some contexts. The existence of such a power also adds another type of paranoia, the kind where something has been done to the "subject" already. Certain memories could have been taken already. This leads to the paranoid idea of having been implanting with things. What those things are range from tracking devices, to biological weapons, to thoughts. Psychic surgery would allow the implantation of objects without scarring, anaesthetics, or excessive time. The memory of the implantation being removed in addition to an incubation time makes for a greater spread of a bio-agent. The implantation of a thought can be false knowledge, a hypnotic suggestion, or a persistent voice.

Mood: cleansed.
Music: Witch-Hunt by Stratovarius and The Rift by Vince Neil.

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