PSIItä

PSIItä is a fictional research institute featured in speculative fiction and role-playing games. The name combines the concept of psi phenomena with Itä, the Finnish word for East, implying an eastern orientation or origin in many stories.

The concept originated in tabletop campaigns and later appeared in novels and other media. In these works, PSIItä is typically portrayed as being founded in a post-national European space by a consortium of universities and think tanks to study psychic phenomena, cognition, and secure information exchange across borders. The founding narrative is often used to frame debates about scientific legitimacy, ethics, and governance of sensitive research.

In common portrayals, PSIItä operates a central campus in a border region, with divisions for parapsychology, cognitive science, data security, and policy analysis. Governance is usually depicted as a rotating international board, supplemented by an ethics panel that scrutinizes experiments, data handling, and cross-border collaborations. The institute is sometimes shown as having a network of field stations and partner laboratories in various countries.

Research activities attributed to PSIItä include psi-mediated communication, remote perception, mind-computer interfaces, and cross-cultural studies of trust in information networks. Projects are depicted as combining laboratory work with simulations and field trials, often involving collaborations with government agencies or private industry while navigating political sensitivities and public skepticism.

In popular culture, PSIItä serves as a narrative device to explore themes of credibility, surveillance, and power in information-driven societies. It appears across novels, role-playing games, and fan works, with portrayals ranging from benevolent research hub to controversial actor in geopolitics.