Thread by @aaolomi

psychic phenomena in medieval Islamic writing is under more broadly spiritual powers. The things we call “psychic” are linked to either mystics or the practice of magic.

Ibn Khaldun mentions the purified heart of a mystic lifts the veil which grants them hidden knowledge

https://twitter.com/goldengirlah/status/1398416313492586496

they are able to read the hearts of humans, to enter dreams, and are granted a hint of what is to come by the grace of God.

Many of these karamat are what we’d call psychic acts

We also see it in his description of magic and sorcerers

He provides several classifications of “magic” one of which is influencing the world without any tool or ritual but purely with the power of the mind

The mystic achieves spiritual and psychic power as a side effect of their purity while the magician from occult knowledge

While Ibn Khaldun takes a harsh view on the magician, the line between them is a bit foggy

The actual descriptions line up with psychic phenomena: the reading of thoughts, transmission of thoughts, subtle perceptions, dreams, physical manipulation via the mind, prognostication

The era of Ibn Khaldun and other authors on supernatural matters was a period in which natural philosophy, rationalism, messianism were all major intellectual movements

We can see in their writings an attempt to order the world by explaining and bringing to light the unknown.