Channeling represents a psychic’s capacity to paranormally gain abilities that he does not normally possess. Cayce Channeling, allow the psychic accesses the Universal Unconscious to gain the knowledge he seeks.

The psychic must successfully enter a trance before he can channel effectively to gain new Traits. Skills gained last until the psychic next sleeps or until he attempts to channel again.

With this technique (named for Edgar Cayce), the psychic enters a trance state in which he can access the Universal Unconscious, the sum total of accumulated human knowledge. Theoretically, anything that has ever been known can be rediscovered through this power. Few modern practitioners have psychic powers on par with Edgar Cayce’s and are thus unable to utilize his techniques to their full extent. Cayce Channeling alone cannot be used to learn personal or secret details about people and places outside the psychic’s vicinity. Clairvoyance and precognition are more useful for that purpose; Cayce was also skilled in both of those powers. Finally, while Cayce Channeling can give a psychic access to potentially any empirical knowledge, Cayce Channeling cannot convey talents that require kinesthetic training (i.e., Physical Skills). A psychic might be able to use this power to identify a particular sword as a 15th-century Japanese katana, but he could not use the power to gain any proficiency in swordsmanship. The Skill dots acquired through this power take the place of any dots a character already possesses. Thus, if a player wishes to raise his character’s Skill above what it currently is, he must roll more successes than the character’s current Skill dots.

Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult
Action: Instant; although the psychic must first enter a trance

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic is trapped in his trance state for hours as he contemplates the infinite mysteries of the Universal Unconscious. Waking requires a number of successes on an extended Intelligence + Resolve roll equal to the psychic’s combined Stamina + Composure, with each roll taking one hour. Alternatively, the psychic is unable to access this Merit again until 24 hours pass.

Failure:
The effort is unsuccessful.

Success:
Each success is converted into one dot of a single Mental or Social Skill selected by the player. The number of successes must exceed the character’s current Skill dots, if any, in order for him to gain any benefit from the power. The new rating lasts until the psychic next sleeps or until he next uses this power.

Exceptional Success:
In addition to the normal benefit of extra successes, the psychic receives one bit of useful knowledge that he randomly comes across in the infinite Universal Unconscious, although the true significance of this nugget might not be immediately clear. If the successes exceed five, any more can be assigned to another single Mental or Social Skill of the character’s choosing.