Gygax on "Psionics"

It's pretty well known among old school gamers that Gary Gygax long regretted the inclusion of psionics in AD&D. As I recall, he was considering dropping it entirely from his never-realized Second Edition of the game. Consequently, when he created his Dangerous Journeys multi-genre RPG, Gygax opposed "magickal casting," which were powered by Heka and "psychogenic powers," which were fueled by Vril and noted that users of one who traveled to a universe where the other held sway would find their native abilities translated to the appropriate type. There's some food for thought there.

More amusingly, though, is this passage in Mythus Magick, where Gygax discusses psionics:

The term "Psionics" should be followed by "(sic)" in most works dealing with roleplaying game rules, for it is typically misused. (A good indicator of how well the authors have researched their work, and how little the publisher knows about it, too!). Psionics means "electronically enhanced psychic, or psychogenic, ability." It is as simple as that.

As it turns out, Gary was correct on the term "psionics," the coinage often being attributed to the famed science fiction pioneer John W. Campbell and meaning just what Gygax says it does. However, this passage makes me laugh because, of course, D&D probably played as big a role in spreading this misuse as anything else (first appearing in a book Gygax co-write and being adopted in another for which he has the sole byline). It's also funny because Mythus Magick was published by GDW, a company whose own signature game line, Traveller, though based on classic sci-fi, nevertheless uses "psionics" to mean psychic powers.