Are the Bajorans touch telepaths?

[Jono]

I'm referring specifically to their believe and traditions involving reading a persons pagh. We've seen Bajorans, mostly members of religious orders, clasp onto the ear of people to feel their pagh and then make statements about a person's nature.

Kai Opaka seemed to actually read something from Sisko when she did it. However, Vedek Bareil believed it was an outdated tradition, which suggests he didn't believe that you could feel/read anything. I guess it would similar to "aura" readings today, but could there be something more to it?

In a way it reminds me of the way the Vulcan's touch telepathy works. Neither seem to be able to read anything from normal contact and require a hold of the head and focus. The Vulcan's mind meld seems to be far more intrusive, as they can read surface thought but also force themselves on the mind of the person they are melding with. The Bajoran pagh reading seems more of a skimming of the surface thoughts, they don't seem to be able to rip knowledge from the other person's mind.

This could be that they are weaker touch telepaths than Vulcans so they can't get as much. Maybe its to do with training as well. If they were touch telepaths you would think someone would mention it. Given the Cardassians experimented on the Bajorans you would expect them to know, maybe the did and just kept it a secret. We do know the Creel Moset experimented on Bajorans by blinding them to see what would happen, maybe he was killing senses to try and stimulate their telepathy? Though it much more likely Moset was just a unstable and sick individual and he just did that because he's a unadulterated bastard.

Did the showrunners ever saying anything about the practice, whether they thought of it as anything more than just a bit of ear pulling fun?

 

[Admiral Shran]

It's never stated on screen whether they're telepathic in any fashion or not. However, what you say seems reasonable. It might have been something the showrunners were toying with at the beginning of the series but, like many little odds and ends, dropped as time went on.

As for Creel Moset, I think he was just an unadulterated bastard.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Bah, I call it quackery and superstitious practices. Nothing that a good "sensitive" can do with some personal skill and cold readings.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I doubt it was touch telepathy, personally. I suspect the gesture acted in two ways: to see what the person's reaction was to the prospect of their personality/inclinations being "read," and as a focus to prayer/meditation.

 

[PSGarak]

I've often wondered about this, too. I wondered if perhaps Opaka got such a strong reading from Sisko because he was indeed of the Prophets and therefore had something about him that as a Bajoran trained to sense such things, she could sense in some way. We never learn a lot about the Prophets or their connection to Bajor. Did they develop or awaken something in the Bajorans that would help them relate? Is the pagh actually something of the Prophets, or is it something that all sentient beings possess? It wouldn't have to be telepathy. It could be the ability to read the bio-electric energy field or something else. If Bareil viewed it as an outdated tradition, perhaps he never bothered developing the sensitivity, or perhaps he simply didn't have it, which led him to view it the way he did. All sorts of possibilities there. I thought it was a shame they didn't develop that further.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

I've often suspected that the pagh reading was a form of limited touch telepathy, much weaker than that of Vulcans or other telepathic Trek species.

 

[Lt.Cmdr.LaForge]

I never got the impression that they were touch telepaths, its certainly never said on screen.

Just another cooky religious practice that they fooled themselves into thinking actually worked. Kinda like praying...

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Oh, MAN, PSGarak, I am lovin' your avatar! What's hilarious is that with mine, we've got the good "Santa" and bad "Santa"...

BTW, LaForge, that's rather gratuitous. We aren't even discussing a real-life religion here anyway.

 

[PSGarak]

Oh, MAN, PSGarak, I am lovin' your avatar! What's hilarious is that with mine, we've got the good "Santa" and bad "Santa"...

BTW, LaForge, that's rather gratuitous. We aren't even discussing a real-life religion here anyway.

I chortled and snickered the entire time I was making it, and you're right. We do have bad and good Santa going, Cardassian style. That's actually my favorite Cardassian sketch I've seen of yours. The hat and scarf plus the facial expression say it all.

As to the religion point a few posts above, the Prophets DO exist in the context of the show, so the Bajorans aren't praying to something that hasn't been proven or can't be quantified. There also seem to be documented incidents when Prophets have stepped in to directly affect the course of Bajor. I wouldn't call that make believe or ineffective superstition, and I see no reason to use beliefs in a tv show as a dig on religion real life, regardless of what an individual believes or doesn't.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Well said, PSG, on the religion point. I should've said it but I was trying to dash out an answer really quick before running off to work.

As for the drawing, if you ever get a chance to read "Captives' Ransom," you'll see where that drawing comes from. I had a lot of fun drawing it. I even had to stand in front of the mirror with my own winter coat and scarf...though it took a little work with the scarf to get it to fall right!

 

[Timo]

As to the religion point a few posts above, the Prophets DO exist in the context of the show, so the Bajorans aren't praying to something that hasn't been proven or can't be quantified.

And to tackle the other side of the issue, touch telepathy is a confirmed feature of the Star Trek universe already - so it wouldn't be so extraordinary for the Bajorans to have some of it.

Although to be sure, praying on the Prophets isn't known to produce effects. Not unless you do it in the Celestial Temple, or in the presence of Orbs, that is. But then again, I don't think we have seen any Bajoran praying going on elsewhere? People do meditate in the DS9 chapel, but they don't ask the Prophets for favors or explanations there.

Timo Saloniemi