"...I discovered the existence of an underground in the United States. The only factor missing is that no laws exist against its function nor is there official persecution and prosecution involved. This underground only occasionally intermingles in part with the world of business, science, politics, academia, and the so-called arts. Furthermore, it definitely is not limited to the United States, but infiltrates all of Western civilization.

Many people may have heard of it vaguely or casually have come in contact with it, and passed it off as just people with queer ideas. For one thing is usually certain: members of this underground who are respected in their communities don't talk about the interest or beliefs that qualify them for membership unless they know you too are in the club. They have learned from experience that to be outspoken brings censure - from their ministers, customers, employers, or even friends.

I suspect the membership may run into the millions - if all would admit to their qualification. They are found in all walks of life: scientists, psychiatrists, physicians, housewives, college students, businessmen, teen-agers, and at least a few ministers in formal religions.

...

Who, then, makes up the mass of this underground? Contrary to what one might expect, they are not merely a conglomerate of silly, uneducated, superstitous, unreasoning misfits. True, some of the like are included, but no greater percentage than is found in the general population. As a matter of fact, if it could be surveyed, it is quite probable that their average IQ would be far above that of a general cross section of Western humanity.

The common bond or cause that draws them together is simple. All have a belief that (1) man's Inner Self is neither understood nor fully expressed in our contemporary society, and (2) this Inner Self has capabilities to act and perform mentally and materially to a degree unknown and unrecognized by modern science. These people whose prime avocation is to read, talk, think, discuss, and participate in anything "psychic" or "spiritual." This is all that is needed for membership. Perhaps you are in the club and didn't realize it."

http://tribes.tribe.net/psionics