Hi all. Just a question that falls outside of the normal Nova thoughts and ideas.

I am not sure what I am doing these days. Twice (I think JNN has video of it) now I seem to have been forced to manifest the past. But I am not sure if it is the past anymore. I hear people who are long gone. See animals as well. Are these spirits of the dead or just echoes of the past? Is there really any difference?

I have to acknowledge this might be all in my head and I am making all this up. I just don't feel like I am. What am I doing?

Retrocognition. Beyond the name, and the fact that it means looking into the past, I don't know much about it. Ask Preston, he's the resident expert.

You're almost certainly not 'making it up', though. Even if you're not directly perceiving past events, there are many things you could be doing.

You could be channelling the collective unconscious of your people. Given your strong ties to your tribe, this isn't outside the realm of possibility.

You could be communing with the dead. I wouldn't put that outside of a nova's possible powers, even if it hasn't been done yet.

You could be perceiving alternate realities. I have heard theoretical evidence of an unlimited number of other universes.

There are doubtless many other possibilities I haven't thought of. Keep these ideas in mind the next time this happens. Hopefully, one of them will feel right for you.

Well you can write out my people this time unless of course you make the link from Native American to Asian.

Maybe it's not the connection to your people. Maybe it's a connection to all people. Have you always been spritual or had a deep connection with your people and their beliefs? Being raised in that environment may have had an impact on your eruption. You are a Griffin after all. And now that you have the power, you can finally reach beyond what your baseline heritage can.

Thank you Alchemist, but I'm afraid I'm no expert on the Precognative Arts. I think I use mine more often than others, but that's one of the facets of my job.

There are no experts in the field. I'm learning new things about my Art every day. I have been in contact with a handful of people with gifts similar to mine and we all "see" things a bit differently.

For me, seeing things when- and were-ever I want is so easy now. Finding my way back home to were I belong {ie what time frame I started the day at} is the hard part. Essentially, the Event I am looking to find calls to me and I'm "there". There is no similar "attraction" pulling me back, though. I have to ... the term I use is "to think my way back".

Totem, in my opinion, Events can leak through time, much in the same manner that starlight takes years to reach us. If the Event is powerful enough, and if the person's particular power makes them succeptable, then it is possible you are picking up on things not in-synch with the current time-thread.
As a cautionary note, I would add that you keep others informed of this phenomena, incase this is a manifestation of an aberration that causes you to confuse 'real-time' events with these echoes.

I never thought about it but you could be right. I could get lost in it someday. That isn't pleasant to think about.

Totem, I suggest you find something to hang on to here. It might help.

I heard of what happened at the Yasukuni shrine.

I was at first thinking it was some sort of electromagnetic record of the past, but then how would you explain the spirits summoned by Totem's ability. Ones he had no clue about. Ones that didn't actually die there, and had no physical presence there untill after their death.

This is when I discarded my scientific viewpoint. And opened myself to other possibilities.

Anyone consider that those may have been the souls of Japan's war fallen?

For a moment, Totem pierced the veil between the mortal world and the spiritual. Thing is, right now it's more of a window. Hopefully he won't start opening doors.

In any case, this should bring up some interesting conversations.

There are worse ways to end up, Totem. Lost in the past, as a spirit amongst your ancestors. Perhaps, you might even inspire the creation of your namesake, if you go back far enough.

Do not focus too much on your bestial side. That usually ends messily.

Just find yourself an anchor to this time and let yourself go into the flashback, perhaps if you go far enough you'll learn the source.