this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
7 points (100.0% liked)

Daystrom Institute

3454 readers
43 users here now

Welcome to Daystrom Institute!

Serious, in-depth discussion about Star Trek from both in-universe and real world perspectives.

Read more about how to comment at Daystrom.

Rules

1. Explain your reasoning

All threads and comments submitted to the Daystrom Institute must contain an explanation of the reasoning put forth.

2. No whinging, jokes, memes, and other shallow content.

This entire community has a “serious tag” on it. Shitposts are encouraged in Risa.

3. Be diplomatic.

Participate in a courteous, objective, and open-minded fashion. Be nice to other posters and the people who make Star Trek. Disagree respectfully and don’t gatekeep.

4. Assume good faith.

Assume good faith. Give other posters the benefit of the doubt, but report them if you genuinely believe they are trolling. Don’t whine about “politics.”

5. Tag spoilers.

Historically Daystrom has not had a spoiler policy, so you may encounter untagged spoilers here. Ultimately, avoiding online discussion until you are caught up is the only certain way to avoid spoilers.

6. Stay on-topic.

Threads must discuss Star Trek. Comments must discuss the topic raised in the original post.

Episode Guides

The /r/DaystromInstitute wiki held a number of popular Star Trek watch guides. We have rehosted them here:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

When doing some digging about the nature of Bajoran orbs I found an interesting piece of unused dialogue spoken by Bashir in the episode 'Accession' when discussing the neurotransmitter psilosynine:

"It's a neurotransmitter involved in psychic phenomenon [sic]. We all have a little of it, but people who've been exposed to things like... Vulcan mind melds... the Bajoran orbs, are often left with more."

This draws on canon information from TNG stating that psilosynine is chemical used in Betazoid telepathy- which is among the more powerful versions we have been shown. Since the Orb's increase the amount of this chemical in the brain it may convey telepathic ability.

We know that telepathic ability can be granted in this way from T'pol and Tucker's experiences. After melding they experienced a profound psychic link far beyond what a human should be able to experience. But as Bashir notes both mind melds and the orbs increase psilosynine.

Another interesting tid bit is the Bajoran clergy's annoying habit of grabbing ears to read one's 'Pagh'. However some, like Opaka, were able to gain uncanny insight into those they touched. While this might all be a strong example of good research and cold reading Bajoran spirituality touches on enough metaphysical (in a very literal sense) areas that we can keep an open mind.

Given that the clergy keep the closest presence to the orbs and consult them often it is likely they have a far higher psiloslynine count than most. If Bajorans have a psychic potential then then the clerics are the most likely to express it.

Further evidence for this is the Sidau village from 'The Storyteller' Bajorans born and raised in the presence of even an Orb fragment develop powerful psychic abilities together including telekinesis and energy manipulation.

Its possible then that Bajorans are touch telephaths- when their brains are sufficiently stimulated- such as by the orbs. This explains how they are able to form such insights not to mention their prediliction for prophecy. Whatever connection the Prophets, the wormhole and the Bajorans have it is clearly a deep one- influence their culture for tens of thousands of years. Is this enough time for psychic potential to evolve? Hard to say but given that spatial phenomena can unlock telepathic potential in humans- such as with Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner its not outside the scope of possibility that the same could happen to Bajorans.

If the unlocking of Bajoran potential continues then this may form the basis of the link between the Bajorans and the Prophets. If the Bajorans continue to evolve into psychically powerful beings beyond space and time then they may indeed become their own gods.

top 2 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I love this write up! Please do more!

I've always thought that Bajorans would evolve into the prophets eventually, that was why they are so concerned about Bajor and referred to themselves as 'of Bajor'. This offers a really clean explanation of how that happened.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I must confess this is a repost of the topic from old Daystrom. But weirdly even with four new Star Trek series released since then we have had very little added to our knowledge about the Bajorans. It's still all there to expand upon. Could be a fun aside with Shax somewhere down the line on Lower Decks