Psi Corps

In the fictional universe of Babylon 5, the Psi Corps is an agency of the Earth Alliance responsible for all humans with telepathic or other para-psychological abilities anywhere within Earth-controlled space. All persons with Psi abilities are required to either join the Corps, face lifetime imprisonment, or submit to a lifetime of drug treatments to suppress their abilities. Prolonged treatment with these drugs has a depressing effect. Susan Ivanova's mother committed suicide after ten years under treatment.

Purpose and operation

The origin and early history of the Psi Corps are revealed in a series of books written by Gregory Keyes. Following panic and persecution when telepathic abilities in certain individuals were confirmed (the episode "Z'ha'dum" hints that the Vorlons may have played a key role in the event), the Psi Corps was created as part of EarthForce by Earth Alliance to protect telepaths, but also to identify and control them.

The Psi Corps' headquarters has hospitals, offices and a boarding school where young people possessing telepathic and telekinetic power (known colloquially in the series as teeps and teeks) can develop without the fear and persecution they would face among the normal population (referred to by psychics in the series as mundanes). This school is overseen by the monitors (nicknamed grins), which appear in Susan Ivanova's nightmare about the Corps and her mother. (Family names are matrilineal: the mother's maiden-name is passed down to the children, which is why female telepaths such as Lyta Alexander and Talia Winters carry their surname down the generations.)