Play@YSDC

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Pandora's Box draws heavily on concepts from Delta Green, Delta Green COUNTDOWN, Delta Green Eyes Only Vol. III: Project Rainbow. Although it also draws on a wide variety of other sources from conspiracy theory, science fiction and history, the author recommends that Keepers intending to use Pandora's Box in their games have some familiarity with the Delta Green products listed above.

The field of Parapsychology has many challenges to overcome before it is accepted by the scientific community. Incredulous claims backed up by spurious research, biased statistical manipulation, and a subject matter hostile to repeatable experimentation all push the study of psychic powers to the fringes of science. Although there is not a single generally accepted overall theory to explain psychic phenomena, the Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh lists the major avenues of exploration threading their way through modern Paraphysics.

These theoretical models touch upon the origin of consciousness and hint at an underlying interaction between all things. For example, the Teleological Model of Psi postulates that Psi results from the manipulation of probabilities as the mind swims through infinite parallel universes, and the Quantum Mechanical Theory of Psi describes the human brain as a "complex superposition of waves." They all point towards a hidden order to the universe.

Electromagnetic theories about PSI state that there is a form of radiation involved in the phenomenon, and that it may involve the Earth's magnetic field to a large extent. In paraphysics, everything is inter-related and subjectivity becomes meaningless when the thoughts and emotions of supposedly impartial observers affect experimentation in a dramatic and significant fashion.

Psychic abilities have been a part of the world of Delta Green since the publication of COUNTDOWN. It can also be argued that many of the hypergeometrical formulae (magic spells) contained in the many tomes of the Mythos awaken powers hidden in the depths of the human mind. The Mythos has many suggestions of astonishing mental powers: the surreal abilities of the Kn'Yan, the strange perceptions unlocked by the Tillinghast Resonator, and the mild scratching at the surface of reality by mediums and psychics who are half-charlatan and half-oracle.

Furthermore, there are many organizations devoted to PSI in the conspiracy-laden literature of Delta Green. PISCES has had a long history with the "occulted secret service". The british scour the world for more talents, despite the risk of exposure such individuals present to the Insects from Shaggai. The Greys direct OUTLOOK in bizarre mental experimentation, possibly to force psychic powers to manifest under conditions of incredible psychological stress. New-Age Mi-Go influenced organizations such as the Enolsis Foundation, the Church of Scientology, and other pseudo-religious UFO cults undoubtedly explore hidden powers of the mind. Finally, it is a safe assumption that at some of the many and varied front organizations of the Cult of Transcendence delve into psychic abilities.

So far, the very real psychic research programs carried out by the Soviet Union and the United States have not been examined with an eye towards the Mythos. Other sources, such as Conspiracy-X and Dark Matter have made attempts to focus on the subject from a gaming perpsective. However, as far as Delta Green is concerned, the secrets of the American STARGATE remote viewing program, and the massive scale of the Soviet-era psychic warfare establishment have been well kept.

This is about to change.

In the decade following the official disbanding of Delta Green by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1970, the newly forged outlaw conspiracy faced a tremendous danger to the world. The Soviet Union appeared to be able to produce operatives with startling and revolutionary psychic powers, seemingly at will. Delta Green became convinced that the manufacture of these paranormal "human weapons", whose powers were as dangerous to themselves as they were to their targets, was related to the Mythos they had been fighting for decades.

The cowboy renegades of Delta Green were correct. During the 1950's and 1960's the Soviet Union had been engaged in an aggressive program of psychic research. The Soviet Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medical and Biological Research pursued many minor psychic talents, and found ways to drastically increase their meager abilities. The KGB applied psychic discoveries such as remote viewing to penetrate western secret projects like Majestic-12 and PISCES.For a few brief years during the Cold War, the Soviet Union maintained supremacy in the Astral Theatre of Conflict.

However, the enormous threat the Soviet Academy of Sciences unleashed with their psychic research has never been revealed, even to the current rank and file agents of Delta Green. What the Soviet Union produced was of vast scope, it revealed infinite dimensions of corruption and inflicted a permanent pollution upon reality itself. They had opened a Pandora's Box of suffering, pouring a stream of agony into the world. This industrial-age iteration of otherworldly terror originated within Nazi Germany, in the secret researches of an amoral scientist named Dr. Williem Eisenbien.