Q) Isn't this just magick, using different terms?
A) Not really--there are substantial differences. The type of energy used, the way it is used, and the way a person approaches a task are usually quite different.
Q) Does practice of psionics mean a person can no longer be Wiccan, or pagan?
A) No, it doesn't. Psionics doesn't involve religion at all, so the religious aspects of the practice of Wicca or paganism would be unaffected. All that would be affected would be working with energy and magick.
Q) But all energy is the same...how can there be a difference between psi and magick?
A) While in some respects all things in the Universe are made of the same stuff, it's also true that on the level we humans usually operate, things can be quite different from one another. Water and hydrogen peroxide both look alike. Both can be used to clean things--but of course, one you can drink, while the other is better at disinfecting wounds. Both are useful. However, they smell differently--to a person surrounded by both, it could be hard to tell them apart, because the smells would mix. For a person used to working only with one, the smell of the other would be obvious and inescapable. It is the same way with psi energy and other energy types such as earth energy. To a person who works with earth energy, they seem the same. To a person who does not, they seem very different.
They also operate differently, and need to be handled a bit differently. Some types of energy are more alike than others--psi and earth energy are actually fairly similar, but even so, if a person is not careful, mixing them can result in unexpected effects. This is why the Guild recommends that this not be done.
The most noticeable problem with using more than one type of energy is desensitization--losing the ability to tell one type of energy from another. It's difficult to prevent the aforementioned unexpected effects if you aren't sure what you are dealing with. Secondly, it takes twice as long to learn to manipulate two different types of energy as it would take to learn the use of one. Since no one is likely to master the use of a single type of energy within their lifetime, it seems counterproductive to try to deal with multiple types. The same effects can be accomplished with any given type, by using it in a different way. Thus, psi can be used to do anything that could be done with earth energy--but sometimes a person may have to use it very differently to accomplish the same effect.
This is why students are asked to forgo the use of earth energy. Circles, shields, etc--all can be created using psi. If earth energy is absolutely necessary for something, then at more advanced levels, it is possible for a person to manipulate the energy externally, without taking it into their body and nervous system. This is how many of the Wiccan psis I am aware of choose to operate.
Magick and psi mentality:
The easiest way to explain this is by example. For most practitioners of folk magick, such as is used in Wicca and most types of paganism, the approach is to visualize your goal, and send energy out to affect the change. For most psis, the approach is to decide exactly how you are going to affect the change, and then make the attempt to do so.
The example:
Say a magick practitioner wishes to change a traffic light from red to green. The procedure is likely to go something like this--first, the person visualizes the light as being green. They project energy toward the light strongly, picturing it being green. The goal is to make reality conform with their will--altering probability, or letting the energy take the easiest path to accomplish the goal.
Now, a psi in the same situation, wishing to change the traffic light. First, the psi will locate the control box--that's where the equipment is located that causes the light to change. Then s/he decides how to change the light--by mechanically flipping the switch, or electrically triggering it, or by causing the sensor to function better to detect his car, or so on. Then s/he will send energy to the box, attempting to do exactly that.
Ideally, the result is the same--the light changes, and the person drives on their way. But the way that each person went about changing it involved a different psychological and energetic procedure.
All of this means that a psion learns to think about the world around them differently than a practitioner of magick does--it's a difference that is not related to religion, but it is a very noticeable difference in mentality. The mentality which works best for dealing with magick is not the one that works best for psi, and vice versa. Thus, trying to switch between the two ways of thinking could cause confusion, and inefficiency--in a stress situation, it would be easy to use one type of practice with the wrong type of energy to effectively accomplish the task that way. Those are the primary reasons why students are asked to forgo use of outside energies and deal only with psi, which is internally generated--and why they are asked to forgo the use of magick.
In conclusion, psi practice can be made to fit into a Wiccan or pagan lifestyle, but a few things involve some compromises--the styles of magick and energy working that Wiccan and paganism involve are incompatible with psi practice. But these things are not central to the religion itself, therefore psi is not inherently incompatible with Wicca or pagan religion.
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