History Main / PsychicRadar

A sub-trope of PsychicPowers in which they're used by a psychic character, usually but not always a telepath, to detect the presence of other people. The scope and range of this detection can be varied; from sensing the mind of a guard around the corner to Professor X being able to detect the presence of every mutant on the planet. Sometimes the power is tied to the detection of a mind; machines can't be detected by the psychic (crewed vehicles can), and PsychicStatic and the PsychicBlockDefense can be employed against it. This may or may not lead to being detected because of the defense.

Sub-trope of PsychicPowers, closely related to {{Telepathy}}. Commonly used by a SensorCharacter. May also invoke a touch of SensorSuspense. Compare SupernaturalSensitivity (for when a PsychicPower is used to detect the use of other powers) and TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne, and contrast SpiderSense, for a much less focused and instinctual version that detects imminent danger. See KillingIntent for a version that anyone can do.

* In the ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' manga, one of Tetsuo's elite psychic soldiers is "Birdman", a BlindSeer that announces the movements and thoughts of all intruders in the Great Tokyo Empire.

* In an issue of Creator/ChuckDixon's ''Team 7'', a Russian telepath tries to use this to track them through the Cambodian jungle. It doesn't work, due to a ''"greater power."'' She gets a PsychicNosebleed for her trouble.
* All of the telepaths on the ComicBook/XMen (Professor X, Jean Grey/Phoenix, Cable, Psylocke, etc.) have displayed this from time to time, though usually only when the plot calls for it. Other times, they seem oblivious to people hiding right behind a door. Professor X and Jean Grey can be seen doing this together in ''ComicBook/XMenForever'' #7 while trying to track Fabian Cortez.
* ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'' can pinpoint individuals from miles away, though he often needs to dramatically fly into space in order to do so (presumably so he doesn't hear [[HearingVoices everyone else's thoughts]]).
* [[ComicBook/NickFury SHIELD]] employs a "Psi-Ops" division dedicated to this, whose instruments can allow even normal humans to pinpoint locations of their memories. This has backfired before when the target in question is [[TheWorfEffect too powerful]] and the whole division has been wrecked before.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Diana's telepathy allows her to "see" the Saturnians even when they're using invisibility tech.

* In the ''Videogame/{{Undertale}}'' FanFic [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/Visiontale Visiontale]], [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/8779618/chapters/20125687 posted on Archive of Our Own]], monsters and humans can do this if they have sufficient knowledge of a place.
* Psychics such as Jean, Xavier, and Harry are able to do this in ''FanFic/ChildOfTheStorm'' - though as Harry's reminded early in the sequel, it's not always entirely reliable. [[spoiler: Maddie]], however, is the master of the trope.
* Fanfic/MyHeroPlaythrough: Izuku has the Ki version of this as part of the package when he starts unlocking the Ki powers tree.

* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'': River's psychic powers let her detect the incoming Reaver ship as it's descending through the atmosphere.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': As per the above quote, Jedi and Sith can sense the presence of other Force users; picking up a single other practitioner even amidst the myriad of minds on the Death Star. They can cloud their presence enough that Vader doesn't know just where Obi-Wan is, but he knows he is there.
** The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse expands on this ability, with trained Force-users able to locate specific minds, tell whether the individual is Sensitive or not, sometimes implant thoughts in their minds, etc. A lot depends on distance, training, power, familiarity with the mind(s) in question, and so on.
* Professor Charles Xavier from the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'' can detect people around himself, amplified greatly with Cerebro to find almost anyone in the world. In ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', he can mentally track a mutant who frequently teleports to a different place. Concentrating hard enough will give everyone on the planet a really serious PsychicNosebleed... followed by death.

* ''{{Literature/Dracula}}'': This goes both ways with the [[PsychicLink link]] between Mina and the Count. He can use it to spy on and know the movements of the heroes, but they can do likewise if they place Mina into a hypnotic trance; so she can sense the Count and his surroundings and roughly how far away he is.

* In ''Literature/TheSharingKnife'', a lot. Groundsense can detect any life.
* ''Literature/SholanAlliance'': Most of the main cast, who're almost all telepaths or some stripe, have used their telepathy to detect the presence of others at some point during the series.
* ''Command Performance'', a 1952 short story by Walter M. Miller, Jnr., featured a young woman discovering she was a telepath and also that there was at least one other telepath out there; when she psychically sensed him in the street near her back garden. He'd already sensed ''her'' and had come to investigate.
* In the ''Literature/{{Necroscope}}'' novels people who have this "Talent" are called spotters and are rarer even than regular Talents.
* Seekers in ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' can hear "pulses" given off by people using Allomancy. The pulses can tell you what metal is being used, who's using it, and even more details if you're good.
* Saleem of ''Literature/MidnightsChildren'' can intuitively sense the other midnight children with his {{Telepathy}}.
* In the ''Literature/FoundationSeries'', the Second Foundationers and Gaians, having mental powers, can detect the presence of intelligent beings from interplanetary distances. In ''Literature/FoundationAndEarth'', Bliss can tell the difference between humans, other life such as animals, and even robots.
* Snow White in ''Literature/MagicalGirlRaisingProject'' hears the thoughts of anyone under distress, and part of that ability is being able to pinpoint the location of the distressed person, even if they are hidden or invisible.

* In ''Literature/ChakonaSpace'', Chakats are capable of this and have used it several times.
* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': Sorcerers can project their senses to detect nearby minds. Polgara is particularly well-known for this ability, so one character in the ''Malloreon'' posts hidden sentries who are so incredibly stupid that Polgara doesn't notice their thoughts at all.
* In ''Literature/SuperPowereds'', telepaths can detect others with the range of their abilities, unless there is something blocking them, such as [[PowerNullifier Dean Blaine]], or if a person's brain is functioning on a different "frequency", such as [[MasterOfYourDomain Chad]]. Even someone like Alex, who is more of an empath (unless you believe him, in which case he's a [[Franchise/StarWars Jedi]]). In fact, Alex has managed to use his power to detect training robots, something no other telepath is capable of doing (because robots don't have thoughts).

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In early seasons the [[OccultLawFirm evil law firm Wolfram & Hart]] uses psychics specifically to scan if a vampire has entered their building.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Cally, the Auron telepath in the ''Liberator'' crew can detect the presence of other minds. It's how she sneaks up on Blake in an early episode.
* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'': River's psychic powers let her detect the presence of Reavers aboard a hulk drifting past ''Serenity'' and also pick up on the proximity of the blue-handed Alliance agents. It also allowed her to blind-fire a pistol with deadly accuracy.
* ''{{Series/Heroes}}'': Matt Parkman can detect people he can't see by hearing their thoughts. In the first episode we meet him, he uses this to find a little girl who's hiding from a murderer.

* ''Series/{{Highlander}}'': Immortals can sense when another Immortal is around.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Time Lords are capable of sensing each other as said in "Utopia/Last of the Time Lords". [[FridgeBrilliance Since Time Lords periodically change their appearance, then it would make sense for them to evolve a way to recognize each other]]. However, it only seems to work when the Time Lord is actively paying attention.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.
** Early editions had the ''detect life'' cleric spell, which could detect living creatures at a distance, and even through solid non-metal barriers.
** 2nd Edition introduced the psionic ability ''life detection'', which allowed the user to detect the presence of living, thinking creatures within a limited area.
** Edition 3.5 had the Mindsight feat, which allowed telepathic characters to passively detect any intelligent creature in range of their telepathy. The ''detect thoughts'' spell can be used both for this purpose and for mind-reading.
* ''TabletopGame/SpaceHulk'': 1st Edition had a power, ''Scan'' in the game's Temporal deck, which allowed Librarians to identify Genestealer blips. This was later adapted into spin-off ''Space Crusade'' and its successor Advanced Space Crusade via articles in ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf''.
* West End Games ''TabletopGame/StarWarsD6'' gave Force users two powers to use for this trope ''Life Sense'' and ''Life Web.'' The former allowed them to sense the presence of a specific person and the latter allowed them to search for the presence of specific species. An issue of ''Planet Hoppers'' had Luke Skywalker visiting a desert world that has had more rain since his last visit, and noticing that it 'feels' different.
--> "There are many signs of increase in small animal life: birds, reptilians, and a multitude of insects that sing anxiously through the Force at the lumbering invader from offworld."
* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}''. The Telepathy psionic ability allowed the user to perform Life Detection. This involved detecting the minds of creatures in the area, including the number and type of minds present (animal, human, alien). It could be set to ignore unimportant animals and bacteria.
* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'': High-level Auspex powers Omniscience (level 8) and Master Of The Dom (level 9) allowed a vampire to, respectively, detect the personalities and identities of individuals within an immediate radius (larger area based on more successes when rolling) and to detect the presence and activity of most people and animals in a regional area.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has this as a common power of [[PsychicPowers psykers]]. This is particularly useful for battlefield psykers, where this ability is ideal for detecting enemy troop movements or spotting ambushes that are otherwise perfectly camouflaged to conventional perception. This is used on space craft as well, where "[[StealthInSpace going cold]]" is no proof against psychic detection. The measured advice of a few psykers can have a drastic effect on the deployment and success of an entire military campaign.
** This is also used in a broader sense when the Imperium is planning for the long term for a particular region of space, more or less officially called "strategic prognostication". Occasionally, divination tells of a major or ongoing threat that will come to the area, and the Imperium will set up a permanent military presence to watch over the region. Knowing the luck of the Imperium in such matters, it's likely that this has been met with mixed results.

* In ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' Ego Sense is used to detect other sentient biomorphs, while Omni Awareness points out any living creature that is observing the async. The Scramble sleight and Psi Chameleon general trait are designed to defeat those sleights.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' has the Psychic Sensor which allows the detection of enemy units outside of Line of Sight and the prediction of their movements (it reads the other player's movement commands and gives you a big flashing arrow drawn from unit to location). Also the Psychic Radar which psychically revealed sections of the battlefield.

* In many ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' ExpandedUniverse novels, psychics can sometimes detect other psychics. Weak psychic detective Malcolm Kelerchian's only psychic power is detecting other psychics. Nova can detect psychics at great range, even when cloaked, but [[spoiler: frequently fails to detect spectres. Head spectre Gabriel Tosh is very difficult to detect using this method]].
* The Slugs in ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' have telepathic powers with which they can detect lifeforms even without functioning sensors. They evolved these powers being native to ocean planets drifting through [[SpaceClouds nebulae]], where they proved more useful than sight.

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* ''Website/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-280 SCP-280 ("Eyes in the Dark")]]. SCP-280 can detect the direction of the nearest human being without any apparent range limitation.

* ''Literature/InCryptid'': Johrlac like Sarah are all naturally telepathic, so naturally they're able to sense one another (and stay far away, since as a rule they hate being near others of their own species. Johrlac also naturally emit a particular psychic hum, and people who have spent significant time around one are able to sense that, even to the point of being able to tell apart different Johrlac (who are all virtually identical).

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Ragdoll's Quirk is this and it has such long-range and analytical capabilities that the BigBad of the story, [[spoiler:aka All for One, cannot resist stealing it.]]

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' series, the Second Foundationers and Gaians, having mental powers, can detect the presence of intelligent beings from interplanetary distances. In ''Literature/FoundationAndEarth'' Bliss can tell the difference between humans, other life such as animals, and even robots.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': telepaths, especially powerful ones, can detect people by their surface thoughts. The Psi Corps typically trains their telepaths to block out those thoughts to protect people's privacy (and the telepath's sanity). When Lyta Alexander's powers are upgraded by the Vorlons, she is shown to be able to detect which security camera is currently being used to watch her. Serves as a sort of PokeInTheThirdEye, when Sheridan and Garibaldi are watching her from the security office in an interrogation room. She's staring right at the camera. As soon as they switch to another camera in the same room, she turns to look at it, freaking them out.

* ''{{Series/Legion|2017}}'': In "[[Recap/LegionS3E3Chapter22 Chapter 22]]", Charles Xavier constructs Cerebro in his basement, which vastly enhances his telepathic range so that he can detect any mutant on the planet. After he turns on the device, the first mutant he psychically perceives is Amahl Farouk, who resides in Morocco.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'': During the episode "Quarantine," both Lanstrom and Rimmer, under the effects of the Holovirus, are able to home in on the location of the rest of the crew by sensing their thoughts.
--> ''"Unfortunately she has already found you! [[EyeBeams Twinkle, twinkle, little eye]], now it's time for you to die!"''
-->-- '''Dr. Hildegard Lanstrom''', ''Series/RedDwarf'' "Quarantine."

* Snow White in ''LightNovel/MagicalGirlRaisingProject'' hears the thoughts of anyone under distress, and part of that ability is being able to pinpoint the location of the distressed person, even if they are hidden or invisible.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': It’s noted by Alpha and Shizuka that some people are born with super-human instincts able to detect someone looking at them from a long distance away. This kind of DifferentlyPoweredIndividual like the other types in the setting is the result of the {{Transhuman}} experimentation of the Old World {{Precursors}}. It’s noted that the ability is disabled by wearing a helmet. The NinjaMaid Kanae seems to be one.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-280 SCP-280 ("Eyes in the Dark")]]. SCP-280 can detect the direction of the nearest human being without any apparent range limitation.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Ragdoll's Quirk is this and it has such long-range and analytical capabilities that the [[BigBad Big Bad]] of the story, [[spoiler:aka All for One, cannot resist stealing it.]]

* Fanfic/MyHeroPlaythrough: Izuku has the Ki version this as part of the package when he starts unlocking the Ki powers tree.

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' series the Second Foundationers and Gaians, having mental powers, can detect the presence of intelligent beings from interplanetary distances. In ''Literature/FoundationAndEarth'' Bliss can tell the difference between humans, other life such as animals, and even robots.

* ''{{Series/Heroes}}'': Matt Parkman can detect people he can't see by hearing their thoughts. In the first episode we meet him in, he uses this to find a little girl who's hiding from a murderer.

* ''VideoGame/ScarletNexus'': Tsugumi's Clairvoyance power is frequently used in the story for her to be a SensorCharacter. In her backstory, Tsugumi overheard many things better off not knowing and telling others about them made people hate her, resulting in her becoming a ShrinkingViolet. In one conversation, she brings up that she regularly sees inside of people’s organs, pointing out when Yuito has a stomach sickness. Her power is shared with the protagonists via PsychicLink to detect invisible enemies and which enemy is the real one in a DoppelgangerAttack. Her link with Luka also serves as RequiredSecondaryPowers to get the most out of his PsychicTeleportation, as he can’t go somewhere he hasn't seen safely.