Charmed
Register
Advertisement

"So, um, I can move things with my mind?"
Prue after realizing she has a power.[src]

Telekinesis is the ability to move objects as well as individuals with the mind. It can be channeled through the eyes or hands, the latter being the most common way to use the power. This is one of the most common yet most versatile powers possessed by magical beings, be they good, evil or neutral.

Description

Strength and Skill

The strength of Telekinesis varies depending on the strength and skill of users. A lot of practice and concentration will improve the precision and accuracy as well as the distance and weight that objects/beings can be moved. When Prue learned how to channel her power through her hands, she found herself stronger, being able to move objects by just flicking her fingers.

Notable Examples

GramsTelekinesis

Grams moves the sisters out the manor

  • The Book of Shadows states that Brianna was able to send the Crystal Sword from one of the Lords of War hundreds of miles away using her telekinesis, a thought-impossible feat which amazed her descendant, Prue Halliwell.
  • In 1975, when the Charmed Ones visited the past, their grandmother, Penny Halliwell, thought they were warlocks. Using her telekinesis, Penny was able to move the sisters through an intricate path out to the porch, showing both the strength and skill which she possessed.
  • On Piper's wedding day, Grams was able to telekinetically play Pachelbel's Canon on wind-chimes with little to no effort, while performing the wedding ceremony and other telekinetic feats.
  • Prue, whom only received her powers mere months ago, was able to perform telekinetic feats beyond moving objects. Prue was able to use her telekinesis on specific objects aimed to perform a certain task. Once given the telekinetic task, Prue was no longer required to concentrate on said object. This is evident when Prue telekinetically tasked multiply objects to clean the attic, whilst engaging in conversation with her sisters.

Channeling

Phoebe: "You concentrate on an object like that candle right there. And then you just wave your arm at it."
Piper: "Or, uh, you could squint your eyes. She used to squint her eyes."
— Phoebe and Piper explaining how Prue used telekinesis[src]

Eyes

Prue using telekinesis with her eyes

Prue channeling telekinesis through her eyes

Prue initially channeled her power through her eyes, often by narrowing her eyelids and focusing her eyes on her intended target. She also once successfully used her power by completely shutting her eyes when in danger.[1] As her power grew, she found she was able to channel her powers through her hands. When her powers first manifested through her hands, she lifted both a Grimlock and a small boy for a few moments without any sign of concentration. This occurred one year after she regained her powers in 1998. Phoebe Halliwell noted this as a part of Prue's power growth, while also claiming that her continuous squinting of the eyes started to give her facial lines.[2] Even though Prue started to primarily channel her power through her hands after this point, she still used her eyes on several occasions, particularly when her hands were bound.[3][4]

Hands

Prue lifts raster with Piper

Prue channeling telekinesis through her hands.

As she became more comfortable channeling her power through her hands she found herself stronger, able to send a single demon flying by flicking her fingers.[5] She was even able to move objects with a mere crook or twitch of one finger.[6][7] Despite this, Prue preferred to channel her power by swinging her arm widely to hurl enemies in the air for the best result, though thrusting her arm forward was equally as effective.[2][8] When it came to moving lighter objects, Prue tended to simply flick her fingers (either using just her index finger or both her index and middle fingers).

Although she learned to channel her power through her hands later, Prue used her hands before, almost strangling her ex and boss when her powers were unbound.[9] As a little girl, she was seen channeling her power both through the eyes and through her hands but with much more control and power than Prue as an adult at that time.

Other telekinetics like Billie Jenkins and Chris Halliwell preferred to thrust one or both arms to fling enemies[10][11] while Penny tended to gesture her arm forward while pointing her index and middle fingers or with her palms facing outward.[12][13][14]

Abilities developed from Telekinesis

Simulating Levitation

Main article: Levitation
3x12PrueAgility1

Prue lifting herself in combat.

Telekinetics can use their powers to levitate themselves for a short period, though they are unable to achieve sustained hovering. Prue was shown to have mastered the levitation aspect of her telekinetic powers: during her battle with the demonic wrestlers, she levitated into the air through her telekinesis and kicked both of them in their faces.

Telekinetics who have mastered this levitation aspect of their powers can also land safely when falling/jumping from great heights, as demonstrated by Matthew Tate, who jumped out of Prue's office window and landed unharmed after copying her telekinesis.

Super Strength

Main article: Super Strength
Prue superstrength 3x22

Prue uses telekinesis to fend off a SWAT member.

When utilised in the right way, telekinesis could grant the user a degree of superhuman strength. Prue learned how to do this during her second year as a witch, performing physical actions that were enhanced by her telekinetic powers: she made her punches powerful enough to knock out two large men while briefly turned into a man herself, toss an attacking mortal with a mere shove, battle powerful demons like Vinceres and demonic wrestlers, and even send a SWAT team member flying.

Enhanced Agility

Main article: Enhanced Agility
8x06BillieAgility

Billie showing some agility skills.

By applying their power to their own bodies, users can become inhumanly agile, allowing them to perform incredible feats such as superhuman jumps and leaps without much effort. Prue and Billie Jenkins can access agility, through their telekinetic powers and perform even greater athletic maneuvers. They have also use it to amp up their fighting, which make their attacks even more deadly. Both have been shown to use this skill in combat.

Deviation

Main article: Deviation
Deflect1

Prue redirects a fire ball.

When Prue learned how to channel her power through her hands, she gained the ability to deviate several types of attacks; fire- and energy balls, energy beams. Although this ability is often confused with the power of Deflection and even though deviation is a completely separate power, it is an ability that can be achieved through powers such as Telekinesis or Molecular Combustion. Other telekinetics who have used deviation include Billie, Barbas and Zankou.

Strangulation and Crushing

Main articles: Strangulation and Crushing
6x01-Chris-Valkyrie

Chris crushing the heart of a Valkyrie.

Abilities that can be achieved through telekinesis, making users able to strangle their opponent or crush their skulls, heart, or any other organs. The distance limit between the user and the victim is dependent on the strength and skill of the user. Both Wyatt and Chris Halliwell have shown to be using these abilities. Chris once used it to crush the heart of three Valkyries in order to obtain their magical pendants, and Wyatt used it to try and kill Chris, by strangling him telekinetically, in the dark alternate future.

Telekinesis Usage in Combat

Telekinesis is also an extremely helpful power in close-quarters combat. Very much like Levitation, this power can be used to enhance one's strength and to even slightly defy gravity, which makes telekinesis one of the more versatile powers.

Prue Halliwell

Prue wrestling GIF

Prue using her super agility in the wrestling ring.

Prue started to show acrobatic feats particularly in a fight against demon wrestlers.[15] Prue first used her telekinesis to increase the strength of her blows when she became a man. She also used it to grant herself seemingly superhuman physical attributes when she battled Vinceres. These supernaturally enhanced stunts were seen later when training with the Whitelighter Natalie; Prue used her powers to run up a wall. Then when she faced demonic wrestlers, she was able to jump higher than naturally feasible during the fight; a stunt that even surprised her sister Phoebe who was capable of complete Levitation. In the same fight, Prue performed gravity defying flips and kicks. In an alternate timeline, shortly before her death, an enraged Prue used similar telekinetic punches to the ones she used when turned into a man; sending SWAT members flying outside the room with her magically intensified blows.

Billie Jenkins

Billy agility with weapons gif

Billie showing her skills with weaponry.

Billie also demonstrated how telekinesis can be used to enhance one's combat skills and agility.[16] She could perform flips, leaps and jumps that would otherwise be impossible for a normal human being to do so without her telekinetic powers while making them look effortless.

List of beings who use(d) Telekinesis

Original power
Through spell, potion, power stealing, etc.

Powers developed from Telekinesis

Advanced Telekinesis

Main article: Advanced Telekinesis
ATTIC DESTROYED MORALITY BITES UPLOAD GIF

A wave of telekinetic energy going towards various objects in the attic.

Prue: "Piper, just help me look for it."
Piper: "Okay, relax, we'll find it."
Prue: "You don't know that. I mean, what if it's lost, what if we can't find it? Then we're stuck in our future bodies with no way of getting out of them and no way of saving Phoebe. (She flicks her arm by accident and her newly developed power destroys the attic.)"
Piper: "Ooh! Been working out?"
Prue: "I guess that's a little sample of what ten years does to our powers."
Piper: "And to our attic..."
Piper and Prue seeing how her power will grow in 10 years[src]

As its name states, this power is an advanced form of Telekinesis. It can allow its user to move and/or manipulate more than one heavy object at a time. Though it is - in and of itself - not a solely combustive power, it can allow its user to cause explosions of any size by stimulating the heat molecules while moving objects with the mind. It can also allow the user to lift and/or manipulate heavier objects, even more than one at a time.

The very first witch mentioned on screen to possess this power was Brianna, an ancestor of the Charmed Ones. She was noted in the Book of Shadows for separating the Lord of War and his sword by telekinetically moving the latter hundreds of miles away. Prue Halliwell was also shown to have developed this power in the Charmed comics.

Telematerialization

Main article: Telematerialization
1x01-Telematerialization

Prue moving the cream into her coffee.

Just like the power of Telekinetic Orbing, this power allows the user to use telekinesis to teleport objects from one place to another. However, unlike psychokinesis, this power has visual requirements, as the user has to see which object they want to move and where they want to teleport it to.

Prue was shown to have actually developed this power at the same time as her first original power of telekinesis: when Phoebe first told her about their Charmed destiny, a disbelieving and frustrated Prue refuted her, and then proceeded to ask where the cream was - causing the cup of cream to move towards her by itself, and filling her tea with the cream, proving that she was a real witch with genuine supernatural powers. However, she never demonstrated this power on screen again, and only did so in the Charmed comics.

Powers Similar to Telekinesis

Astral Projection

Main article: Astral Projection
Prue Astral Projection 1

Prue in the midst of astral projecting.

Piper: "What the hell just happened?"
Prue: "I don't know. I think it was some sort of astral projection."
Piper: "How did you do it?"
Prue: "I don't know. I just felt this desperate need for there to be two of me and all of a sudden there was."
Piper: "Do you think this is part of your powers growing?"
Prue: "Maybe. I mean, if I can move things with my mind, why not my body."
Piper and Prue after discovering her new power[src]

This power is considered an advancement of telekinesis for certain witches. It allows them to move out of their own body, thus create an astral form of themselves. While in "astral mode", powers are dormant. However, some advanced users have mastered the skill to use their powers when astral projecting, such as Prue did when her powers were boosted by Empathy.

Telekinetic Orbing

Main article: Telekinetic Orbing
Anigiforb30

Paige orbing a crossbow into her hands.

This is a hybrid combination of Orbing and Telekinesis. When the user wants to move an object, they will have to call out its name. The object will then disappear in orbs and reappear in the user's hands or any place the user desires. This is the primary power of Paige Matthews, who possessed this power due to her Whitelighter heritage.

Black Telekinetic Orbing

6x22P15

Parallel Chris "black orbing" a gun into his hand.

This is a hybrid combination of telekinesis and Black Orbing. This ability can be triggered through verbal commands allowing the user to move objects in which it disappear in a flurry of black orbs. The only known users of this ability are Darklighter-Witches.

Psychokinesis

Main article: Psychokinesis
MaxPsychokineticTrance

Max in a trance whilst using his power.

This power allows the user to move things they cannot see with the power of their mind. Psychokinetics are even able to affect complex machinery whose inner workings are foreign to them. A young witch named Max Franklin was a psychokinetic, just like his mother. When Max used his power, he went into a trance-like state.

Gallery

Small triquetra The Telekinesis article has a Photo Gallery.

Notes and Trivia

  • Prue was the only naturally telekinetic being to be seen channeling the power through her eyes until the Source channeled it through his eyes in "Charmed Again, Part 2". All other magical beings who have naturally possessed telekinesis channeled it through hands besides Billie Jenkins when she moved a stream of fire created by Christy Jenkins in The Last Temptation of Christy. The witch Brianna was stated to exclusively channel her telekinesis through her hands, meaning that she could be rendered helpless if her hands were bound.[17]
  • After Prue learns to channel her power through her hands, she channels her power through her eyes five more times; in "Witch Trial", "The Devil's Music", "P3 H2O", "Give Me a Sign", and "Sight Unseen".
  • Although Prue couldn't use her hands in the beginning to channel her power, in the Unaired Pilot she uses her finger to close the front door. In the aired pilot she closes the front door using her eyes. The unaired version of the scene was used in the opening credits for the first three seasons.
    • When her powers were unbound Prue unintentionally/briefly channel her power through her hands (by gesturing her frustration) in the first episode, when she almost choke Roger with his tie.
ZankouShockwave

Even though regular telekinesis is usually not accompanied by any visual effect, small circular waves are visible in this instance.

  • When Zankou used telekinesis to deviate a bunch of potions thrown at him, a small shockwave is seen trailing the potions as they are redirected.[18]
  • All of the Charmed Ones, except for Prue and Paige who were born with them, have possessed telekinetic abilities at least once in their lives; Piper when she became a Valkyrie,[19] and Phoebe when she had switched powers with Prue,[20] when she became a warlock[21] and when she copied Piper's Valkyrie powers through her Empathy power.[22]
  • Some users of Telekinesis have shown to be able to unfreeze those who are frozen by Molecular Immobilization. Prue unfroze Inspector Rodriguez[23] and Grams unfroze Andy.[24]
  • When a witch uses telekinesis (save for Grams, Chris, Wyatt, Richard and Simon), there is always a sound effect usually resembling that of a high-pitched ring or whistle. However, when another being uses telekinesis (such as demons, ValkyriesShiva etc.), you can only hear the sound of an object moving rapidly through the air. Any being that acquired Prue's telekinesis also would have the same sound effect as Prue would.
  • This is the last power seen onscreen used by Prudence, one of Piper's granddaughters.
  • When Phoebe possessed this power after she switched powers with Prue, she didn't like it very much and found it difficult to use, but when she was a warlock, although she used it on only one occasion, she showed master control over it.
  • This ability was used multiple times on the manor door during finale episodes of seasons 1 ,2, 5 and 8.
  • Shannen Doherty strongly disliked having to squint her eyes to use her powers as Prue. She described it as "the bane of her existence" during a convention.
  • In "Valhalley of the Dolls, Part 2", when Piper used telekinesis as a Valkyrie, the sound effect was that of her explosive power.
  • Telekinesis was the last used power in the show and comic.
  • Paige and Chris are the only Whitelighter-Witches shown to display basic telekinesis as a developed aspect of Telekinetic Orbing.

References

Advertisement