I noticed that most everyone like to think that "everyone" has some psi ability, and it's just that some know how to use it, and others don't.
MOST people are accessible: they broadcast like a screaming banshees to real telepaths and empaths. MOST people have as much mental self-control as a child in what they think about (note: they don't have to ACT to think about it...).
However, most are completely unable to use psi abilities at all. This is only partially due to a lack of training or natural skill, and mostly due to genetics: the few really good ones come from strong matriarchal psi lines. For those with some of the potential, genetic drift prevents them from harnessing their abilities, as it is very weak and easily ignored/misunderstood.
Most people would then say you've got two groups, the psi and the norms. I prefer "norm" to "mundane." Doesn't sound patronizing or insulting. They're just "normal." Can't find fault in that.
But wait! There's one more: Negapaths. Negapaths is the name given to those who have NO ability, don't broadcast, and just aren't there... People have called them different names: mind-blinds, soulless, black holes. It's hard to describe it well, but there are people who have the trait of being able to block all psi phenomenon in their immediate area. When they walk though a crowd, you can feel them, not through direct observation, but from what there isn't. They move like a hole through the crowd, a place where you can't detect anything... gives me the chills when I think about it...
I've met two people like this: none knew their "condition." One I met as part of my job, and we spoke over lunch... Very unnerving to be around a person like that for a while... The other was just moving in a crowd at the mall... didn't see him or her, but know they were there.
So, there are three groups:
Norms - John and Betty Q. Public, with 2.3 kids and 1.7 pets. They live a nice normal life, and never even think seriously about psi. They don't believe in in, but they'd love to get their hands on it. After all, predicting the stock market and reading the boss's mind would get them great advantages... as long as no one else had them.
Psi - Those with latent or open psi ability, including telepaths, empaths, telekineticists, prescients, and others. Ranging in ability from crisis-indiced psi to full consious control, and everything in between. Tired of the usual stupid norm questions like, "if you're for real, why don't you win the lotto or buy stocks and get rich?" Most psis understand that while important, money is not the end-all, be-all of existance. Also, why attract attention to yourself? Better the "psychics" attract the attention, and let the media and population think of it as a amusement or joke.
Negapaths - Mind-blind, and most don't know it. The one I met was very depressed, and coudl not understand why his life was in the pits. He was never married, women were not attracted to him (average looking, but not bad), he advanced slowly at his job, and had few friends. I've heard of others who live fairly normal lives.
Which group are you in? Well... almost everyone is a norm, with very few psis and even fewer negapaths. I don't know if there is a "balance" to it (there probably should be), but there shouldn't be too many psis without a cooresonding number of negapaths...
Anyone else encounter them? A hairdresser friend once had one come it for a haircut: she started to vomit, and asked another to do it instead... She only got better after he left.
Oh, well... better them than me...
