Editing Psionics (section)

===The "psi-boom"===
With Campbell's encouragement, or at his direction, "psionic" abilities began to appear frequently in magazine science fiction stories in the mid-1950s, providing characters with supernormal or supernatural abilities.<ref>{{cite book|last=Anderson|first=Poul|title=Fantasy|date=1981|publisher=Tom Doherty Associates|isbn=9780523485157|page=270|edition=1st}}</ref> The first example was [[Murray Leinster]]'s novella ''The Psionic Mousetrap'' published in early 1955.<ref>Leinster, Murray (March 1955), ''The Psionic Mousetrap'', ''[[Amazing Stories]]''.</ref><ref name=Westfahl-167/> Examples of psychic abilities in fiction, whether attributed to supernatural agencies or otherwise, predated the "psionics" vogue. But the editors of ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]''<ref>Nicholls, Peter and Brian Stableford: Entry, "ESP" in Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1995), ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 390–391.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nicholls |first1=Peter |last2=Stableford |first2=Brian |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |title=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Themes : ESP |date=18 November 2019 |publisher=[[Victor Gollancz Ltd|Gollancz]] |url=https://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/ESP |access-date=13 January 2020}}</ref> describe and define a post-war "psi-boom" in genre science fiction—"which he [Campbell] engineered"—dating it from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. They cite [[James Blish]]'s ''Jack of Eagles'' (1952), [[Theodore Sturgeon]]'s ''[[More Than Human]]'' (1953), [[Wilson Tucker (writer)|Wilson Tucker]]'s ''Wild Talent'' (1954) and [[Frank M. Robinson]]'s ''[[The Power (Robinson novel)|The Power]]'' (1956) as examples. [[Alfred Bester]]'s ''[[The Demolished Man]]'' (1953) is a pioneering example of a work depicting a society in which people with "psi" abilities are fully integrated. Since the "psi-boom" years coincided with the darkest and most paranoid period of the [[Cold War]], it is natural that many examples of the utility of telepathy in espionage (for example those of [[Randall Garrett]]) would be produced. In terms of literary continuity, the editors of ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' point out that:

<blockquote>All the psi powers, of course, used to be in the repertoire of powerful magicians, and most are featured in occult romances.<ref>''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', p. 972.</ref></blockquote>

In 1956, Campbell began promoting a psionics device known as the [[Hieronymus machine]]. It faced skepticism from scientists who viewed it as [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] and even as an example of [[quackery]].<ref name="Gardner">{{cite book|last1=Gardner|first1=Martin|author-link=Martin Gardner|title=[[Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science]]|date=1986|publisher=Dover Publications|location=New York|isbn=0486203948|edition=2nd}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Sladek|first1=John|author-link=John Sladek|title=The New Apocrypha: A Guide to Strange Science and Occult Beliefs|date=1974|publisher=Stein and Day|location=New York|isbn=9780812817126|page=[https://archive.org/details/newapocryphagui00slad/page/269 269]|url=https://archive.org/details/newapocryphagui00slad/page/269}}</ref>

Some of the wind was taken out of the sails of psionics in 1957 when [[Martin Gardner]], in the updated edition of his book ''[[Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science]]'', wrote that the study of psionics is "even funnier than [[Dianetics]] or [[Raymond A. Palmer|Ray Palmer's]] Shaver stories", and criticized the beliefs and assertions of Campbell as anti-scientific nonsense.<ref name="Gardner"/>