psychic powers
There are several psychic or mental powers which appear in fantasy, especially in comics and in movies:
1. Extrasensory perception: Extrasensory perception (ESP) is the purported ability to acquire information by paranormal means independent of any known physical senses or deduction from previous experience. This includes psychic abilities such as:
1.1 Telepathy: Telepathy is derived from the Greek terms tele ("distant"😉 and patheia ("feeling" or "to be affected by"😉. The term was coined in 1882 by the French psychical researcher Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Telepathy is a form of extra-sensory perception. Normal people can communicate by speaking (which uses the sense of hearing) and writing (which uses the sense of sight). Telepathy is communication not by the above means but directly from one person's mind to another. Telepathy is the sensing of thoughts or feelings without help from the 5 known senses. This also includes the communication of information and emotions from one person's mind to another.
1.2 The ability to gain information about any event or about events which occured to any person without the person having to tell you that. This also includes the ability to gain information about an object, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses. It's a form of extrasensory perception.
Star McAdams from Lois & Clark could do it. She knew or could sense that Lois was abducted by alliens without Lois having to tell her. She could also know who a phone call is for without having to pick up the phone. Baron Sunday could know the Taxi driver's birthday without that the driver told him.
2. Telekinesis: Telekinesis is mind over matter. The term psychokinesis (from the Greek ψυχή, "psyche", meaning mind, soul, heart, or breath; and κίνησις, "kinesis", meaning motion; literally "movement from the mind"😉, also known as telekinesis (Greek τῆλε + κίνησις, literally "distant-movement"😉, sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, denotes the purported ability of the mind to influence matter, time, space, or energy by means outside the currently known laws of physics. It is the most powerful of psychic powers, essentially the power of a god. Jean Gray from X-Men is very famous for this ability. Meteor Man also has this ability along with many others. Meteor Man could also absorb a book content by touch.
3. Mind control and hypnosis: Mind control (not to be confused with "brainwashing"😉 refers to a broad range of psychological tactics able to subvert an individual's control of his own thinking, behavior, emotions, or decisions. The concept is closely related to hypnosis, but differs in practical approach.
4. Super-memory or photographic vision: The ability to memorize entire books and even a full library. This could also be related to super-vision or super-speed.
5. Illusions projection: The ability to project illusions into people's minds, alter their perceptions of reality and make their illusions a reality. Baron Sunday from Lois & Clark could do this. He used magic to create voodoo dolls which resembled a particular person. The doll represented the spirit of this particular person. Then he stuck a metal pin into the doll to project an illusion into that person's mind. If the illusion was based on death, that person was eventually killed.
Candice Willmer from Heroes and Dr. Hudson from Smallville could also do this.
6. Omni-linguism: Ability to understand any form of language, a natural polyglot. This can be accomplished in various ways.
There are several other abilities which are not mental but are physical like:
1. Superstrength and invulnerability: Superman and Doomsday are invulnerable or resistant to almost any form of attack (be it bullets, artillery shells, explosions or any other force).
2. Phasing or intangibility: The ability to pass through solid matter unharmed. Phasing is a term I hear alot among new agers and authors like David Icke. It can range anywhere from like in moving through solid material or it could be like changing yourself to enter different dimensions at will. I don't know the true definition, but it relates to how you can change your body at will, appearing and disappearing. Kitty Pryde, Martian Manhunter, the Flash in the silver age and Emily Dinsmore from Smallville all had this ability.
3. Teleportation: Teleportation is the movement of objects from one place to another, more or less instantaneously, without traveling through space. The concept has been widely used in science fiction. It should not be confused with quantum teleportation.
Similar is apport, an earlier word used to describe what today might be called teleportation; and bilocation, when something or someone described as being a magician is said to be able to occupy two places simultaneously.