The most recommended books on psychokinesis

Within the lands of the True Game, humans possess specific 'talents', such as shape-shifting or telekinesis. Much like a planet-sized game of chess each player is utilised in great 'games' of war that ravage the planet. Enter Peter, a young necromancer, who must uncover the truth behind the disappearance of prominent gamesmen from the board.

Wildly clever and surprisingly touching, it's a novel I've read and re-read many times over the past 35 years.

Perhaps more of a “portal” story than strictly time travel, May’s Saga of the Exiles spurred my imagination from the very start, and was at least partly responsible for inspiring my own work. The scale is vast, and I found the mental (“metapsychic”) powers the Exiles develop cleverly categorized and utilized in the stories, both here and in the following Galactic Milieu trilogy. I was so wrapped up in these stories that, perhaps more than any other series I’ve read, I was sorry to leave them behind and have returned to reread them many times.

The time-travel aspect of the story – the Pliocene Gateway – is given an interesting set of temporal and geographical limitations which I found refreshingly realistic when compared with other tales of time travel.

Imagine being so allergic to human touch that it is impossible to have romantic love in your life.

Jubilee Jenkins is a character you will root for, cry over, and sometimes wish you could kick in the butt. She’s forced to face her fears after her mother dies, and she even gets a job - one that deals with the public.

Will she die? Will she be motivated to find a cure? Or will she spend her life longing–especially after she develops feelings for a man?

This book is full of hope, despair, and yearning, but those words alone don’t do it justice. It is also satisfyingly uplifting.  

I admit this one is a stretch, but the writing and premise are superb and worthy of recommendation. Many experiments have been done trying to prove or disprove telepathy and telekinesis, which are the magic in Rossano’s Talented. Quantum physics is moving in this direction. All our speculations may predict the future!

I am impressed with the family system in these books. The seventh son is special. The seventh son of a seventh son (Sept Son) is a ruler. Suddenly a daughter is born and blows everyone’s expectations and ambitions to smithereens. She has powers like a seventh son. Her love for the Sept Son threatens the kingdom.

Peter Reidinger is confined to his bed because of a life-altering accident that renders him unable to walk.

While recuperating in the hospital, he uncovers a remarkable ability to harness generators to awaken his dormant telekinesis skills. As someone who shares a connection with a wheelchair-bound individual, I found myself closely relating to Peter's struggles.

With his new abilities and an unrelenting determination, he defies all odds to venture into space and exceed everyone's expectations. This mesmerizing tale, blends elements of science-fiction, fantasy, and gripping adventure to deliver a truly unforgettable read.

Some dystopian books show futures that aren’t relatable or believable at all. The whole story is a great mix of genres – not just dystopian but also sci-fi, thriller, and it reads like a crime novel with mobsters.  The reachers themselves are telepathic/telekinetic and add a unique dimension to a story that otherwise could fit in with a non-fantasy setting. The world-building in this book is so effective exactly because it feels real. I was sucked in and sympathetic toward the reachers because you can easily put many different peoples in their place today, and the political and social aspects of the story feel frighteningly possible.

I often enjoy writing about characters with various special powers and so I admire how Jackson Ford imbues his superheroes with such depth of characterization. This is the second book in the Frost Files series, which follows the adventures of a telekinetic heroine Teagan Frost. She is a compelling protagonist and written with such verisimilitude - if telekinesis existed, what would it really be like to have such a power? how would the government react to someone who could move objects with their mind? Jackson Ford’s answers to these questions, and his fast pacing with multiple cliffhangers, all made this book a delightful read!

Almost Infamous was the precursor to Pinnacle City. It’s by my partner, Matt Carter, and I’m so, so happy to have gotten to play in this universe, because this book is a gloriously nerdy yet pretty cutting take on a whole lot of corners of superhero comics. It’s about this disgruntled upper middle-class high school boy who decides to become a supervillain, and ends up drafted into Project Kayfabe, a forced league of supervillains controlled by the so-called superheroes to push the public narrative in whatever direction the “heroes” want. Thankfully, Project Kayfabe is made up of all sorts of villains who ended up there for all sorts of reasons, so they’re able to learn from each other, become better people, and come together to foil the heroes’ plot.

This is Stephen's most straightforward, science-fictiony novel. (Assuming “psionic” powers to be science-fiction—let's not get into why that's so, yet muttering an incantation and waving a wand makes it fantasy. Just 'tis.)

Here, Stephen's at his most gripping, page-turning best. He even has the chutzpah to start with the climax of the novel, fergodsakes! Then, he winds back to how it all began and what led to that. I read it more than 30 years ago, I still remember thinking "Wow, he's really going to do that?! OMG, he's pulling it off!”

Plus, I frikkin’ loved the coda! (Which properly appears at the very end.)

Wondrous Events is one the best books on the “experiential source hypothesis” – a term coined by David Hufford that describes how apparently “paranormal” experiences lead to the formation of new “supernatural,” religious, or folk beliefs.

McClenon, a sociologist, saw the importance of looking at the evidence for this hypothesis across cultures, taking in historical and modern cases in China, Japan, and elsewhere.

Rather than focusing on one particular type of experience, he hones in on the dynamics of how extraordinary experiences are interpreted in cultural terms and integrated into beliefs systems. Along the way he discusses NDEs and out-of-body experiences, apparitions, ESP, sleep paralysis, psychokinesis, poltergeists, spiritual healing, and more.

Written within a concise, clear, and authoritative style, the book is a model of how scholarly wring can appeal to mainstream readers.