A Beginners guide to Tangible Illusions

Written by Amadi Lesyana
Before I begin this book I would like to add several caveats, this way my words aren’t misconstrued and so this text reaches its intended audiences.
Firstly when I discuss the term “tangible illusions” I do not mean illusions that actually exist in the real world. Any Psychomancer or Academic worth their salt knows that all illusions brought from a psychomancer are intangible, regardless of how authentic it may seem to the recipient. When I discuss the concept of “tangible” illusions, I refer to illusions that a recipient can feel, whether that be blaring/harsh noises, touch, taste, strong smells, pain, and illusions that disrupt cognitive focus. These are all, as what I categorize, tangible illusions. Illusions that engage with multiple senses beyond basic sight and sound, additionally, when I refer to basic sight and sound I refer to just being able to plainly see or hear an illusion. Illusions such as blinding light that hurts or disrupt the eyes, or loud ear-ringing sounds fall under the umbrella of “tangible illusions” as they either disrupt or engage with the senses on a more complex level.
Let me also preface that this book is intended for those who are below expert level, and honestly shouldn’t be treated as serious learning material for anyone intermediate or above, though a fledgling intermediate may find some useful information here. Rather this book is intended for those who have recently begun to study in the wonderful field of psychomancy and its related sub-mancies. However I’m open to the possibility that even Expert psychomancers can glean tidbits of knowledge here and there. But that however is inconsequential, so let us proceed.
This Book is all about a category of illusions I have dubbed as “Tangible Illusions' ', basically illusions that are easily perceived to have tangible effects on the real world. While all illusions should be seen as real, “tangible illusions” are illusions that aren’t otherworldly or small tricks, but rather things that are seen as living breathing forces/effects on our world.
When it comes to illusions, hearing is often a deeply undervalued aspect of illusions, and is often glossed over by many battle-mancers, rogues, and even teachers themselves. That is why our first paragraph will focus on hearing. Illusions that tamper with hearing often come in many forms, to start you have simple isolated noises that don’t pair with any other illusions, like a lone melody or loud snap. These illusions are commonly sorely under-valued in means of subterfuge and battle, as pairing sounds such as footsteps, cracks, or clanging in battle can provide enough of a distraction to gain an advantage, and at certain levels can disrupt an opponent's coordination. To Start we need to take a page out of Sonomancies book, using sound frequencies to disrupt a target. Conjuring an illusion of large ear-ringing noises or cracks can disrupt your opponent, however this isn’t a simple wave of decibels. Remember you aren’t creating sound, you’re simulating a sound. Its vibrations, and its effects, meaning you need to create an illusion of pain, feeling, and engaging with the senses. This requires focus, training, and good fundamentals as you’re simultaneously creating an illusion of sound, pain, and touch (Kind of) which leads into our next subject. Touch.
Touch is something I also like to refer to as “feeling” as at its core it’s not just your recipient touching your illusion, it’s how your illusion engages with perceptual experience, or the senses beyond pure sight and hearing. When it comes to “tangible illusions” they should always tamper with a targets perceptual experience, being able to disrupt things thermoception, proprioception(the ability to tell where your body arts are or how they feel), nociception(pain), or their sense of balance, equilibrium, or cognitive focus. While people say psychomany can do “anything” to an opponent, it’s often limited by the subtle perceptions we can influence, your focus, and your vitor pool, which is why I advocate for more subtle illusions rather than grandiose displays of pain or darkness. To get back to the point, “tangible illusions” that work in tandem with other illusionary components can greatly disrupt your opponent's senses. For starters you could theoretically (with enough practice and study) create an illusion of your opponent's leg breaking in front of them. This is especially potent when combined with trickery and other illusions. Such as using a dopple to make them think that your dopple injured them, or creating a blinding flash akin to a luxomancer to disrupt them. When all you really did was simulate a flash and its after effects.
This brings me to “tangible illusions” best attributes. It’s subtlety, especially in combat. As I always say to my students, it's better for your opponent to not know that you’re a psychomancer than to know you are one. For example using tangible illusions with a dopple as you hide yourself can divert your opponents focus and set new options for attack, and at certain levels you can even fake being other mancies and simulate their effects. It’s a great tool to keep your opponents guessing, however exaggerated use of these tactics will lead anyone seasoned enough to conclude that you’re a psychomancer. “Tangible illusions” are amazing tools to safely incapacitate an opponent, for example creating an illusion that messes your opponents balance, equilibrium, or coordination is extremely useful for anyone trying to incapacitate a target that’s either fleeing or attacking. Whatever buys you enough time to successfully incapacitate an opponent is great, and from what I've seen, a sorely underutilized application of psychomancy. However I will stress the importance of getting every detail right, even a small inaccuracy can alert a target and disrupt your illusion. Now I will add if you’re an expert or maybe even intermediate you’ll most likely already know everything stated, however this book wasn’t intended for you poor saps either way.
Now I will proceed to the real meat of this book, and the most important part for my intended audience. Practice and its methods. As I say in my classes, Psychomancy leaves no room for error, and those who do not perfect every small step are doomed to failure.
To practice the hearing component of illusions I often suggest taking a step out of my friend and colleague Hans’ book, which is to practice mancy blindfolded. Doing this can help increase your focus to your mind, body, and illusion, as well as focus purely on your illusions sound and not let the visual world clutter it. In an added note, the lack of visual clutter also helps attunement. I also stress the importance of warming up and exercising the mind before training psychomancy. I often prefer riddles or puzzles to help warm myself up as they connect synapses between the brain and improve mental speed which is important for mancers. Later on try getting a non psychomancer partner and conjure different sounds with them and listening to their feedback. As long as you don’t harm or distress them it’s a perfectly reasonable practice.
To Practice Touch is roughly the same as hearing albeit with a few differences. For example you want to start with objects you are intimately familiar with first, and before every cast make sure to place yourself in contact with said object you are conjuring. I will add at intermediate you will most likely not need to as you will at that point have enough good fundamentals that can simulate the feel of most objects without extended practice. Another thing to add is temperature, warm-cold and everything in between. In my opinion this should only truly be practiced after the later stages of touch and feeling and should be practiced with a partner. After the first two-three weeks of isolated temperature illusions you should start mixing these intandem with other illusions that, in the real world, would cause a change in temperature.
Next I will bring up the all-important topic of partners. Since many of you younger psychomancers tend to be the introverted and antisocial type, I will answer an important question. YES! YOU WILL NEED A PARTNER. Are you crazy? Or stupid?? Don't forget that you’re not practicing some element of common nature, you're improving upon your ability to tamper with others' minds. If you never truly tamper with others minds regularly how would you expect to improve?? I will add that if you have no friends or companions you should drop this book immediately to go outside and meet new people. Social Interaction and friendships provides such a wellspring of opportunity and information that no book or class can give. This is why I recommend you study and practice with people who aren't even in your respective school or mancy sometimes. Remember to practice illusions with non-psychomancers especially as they are more susceptible to your illusions. And, RESPECT THEIR BOUNDARIES. I cannot believe how many times I’ve had to say this to students. RESPECT THEIR BOUNDARIES. They are not here because you’re some kind of venerable messiah who they begged to be your guinea pig. You both agreed to partner with each other, so unless you’ve gotten their expressed consent, don't go out your way to simulate pain or negative situations. Make sure to build trust with your partner and to get honest feedback, that’s what builds improvement. Your partners aren’t your slaves for you to expirement on, they’re normal people like you and I who agreed to help to help you with your studies. This does not apply if they’re your sibling however. As we all know siblings can ruthlessly and legally torture/experiment on each other to their heart's content.
Now that we’ve discussed the components of tangible illusions, training methods, and partners I will elaborate on my summary of tangible illusions before I end this book. “Tangible Illusions” is a term I’ve recently come up with. It describes a category of illusions that work with 3 or more of the senses, can be easily passed off as real, have a perceived effect on the outside world, and should be able to have a clear effect on a target if need be. To elaborate further, what separates tangible illusions from intangible illusions? Intangible illusions are what I categorize as illusions that either hold no perceived effect on the real world, only engage with one to two senses, are so otherworldly and one-noted that they aren’t even close to being perceived as components of our world, or are short “one-note” illusions that aren’t made with any greater elaboration or structure. While this book may make it seem like I’m a proponent for only using “tangible illusions” , intangible illusions can be great tools as well. For example conjuring an illusion of thick fog around an opponent that only obscures their vision can be a great tool, as well as a loud bang to distract or even get someone's attention. However I still place a clear importance on separating these two and using tangible illusions subtly. I will say however, that Psychomancy is such a unique and versatile art that you don’t need to follow the rantings of an eccentric magistar to be able to use it effectively. But I digress, as I’ve ranted on long enough…so now begins the conclusion.
To conclude this guide I want to add that no matter what, as a psychomancer you should always be practicing and studying. You may find that none of the esoteric concepts I brought up were useful, but I will promise that you will find added success using the training tips I prescribed. As I’ve gone over all the different components to illusions and its uses such as, touch/feeling, effect in the real world, sound, sight, and subtly, I will stress that none of this matters if you can’t “sell” your illusion. Psychomancy is perhaps closest to the colloquial definition of magic, as stripped down, its illusions are nothing more than a “slight of hand” or trick of the mind. Therefore you must perfect each illusion and cast through rigorous study, for even one small error, one small inaccuracy can lead to your entire tapestry of illusions being unraveled right before you. So if you have taken nothing else from this book know this:
Psychomancy leaves no room for error.