The "cognitosphere" is the name given to the "sphere of thought", a phyical thing (a "living consciousness") created by the actual cognitive processes of all lifeforms on Earth, global in span, able to be measured and potentially even manipulated. A cognitosphere is a highly complex and sophisticated structure which exists within the "psi field", which appears to be extremely weak throughout the universe, only manifesting in any significant capacity wherever there is even rudimentary intelligence.

Each astronomical body hosting intelligent life has its own cognitosphere (varying in strength and complexity based on the sophistication of that planet's intelligence/civilization). This extends some distance into space, becoming gradually weaker. Though (for example) the Earth's and Moon's cognitospheres are able to interact, this is very limited. Two Earth-like planets would be destroyed by gravitational forces before they could approach closely enough for their cognitospheres to merge into one, although extremely advanced civilizations could very theoretically be accompanied by cognitospheres spanning more than one planet.

Intial progress into the field of psionics was made by researching test subjects who claimed to or appeared to posess mild supernatural abilities. Though most were determined to be nothing but statistical noise, the results of several tests did appear to lie just inside the boundary of statistical significance. Eventually, basic instrumentation capable of measurement of the psi field was developed, the theories and technical experience developed during this process allowing progress to finally accelerate.

Bizzarely, the psi field (if acted on by something, such as an esper or a cognitosphere) is capable of displaying outright supernatural and inexplicable properties. This is an area of highly active research.

Due to the nuclear exchange of 2054 and the subsequent nuclear winter (or, more specifically, the loss of so many consciousnesses in such a short period of time), the cognitosphere is recorded to have suffered catastrophic damage and become severely destabilized. The most common kinds of resultant effects include anomalies, many of which seem to defy explanation (though they can of course be well-documented), along with time-distorting and space-distorting anomalies, many different kinds of mutation of both flora and fauna, environmental and/or weather anomalies, etc. These effects were not uniformly distributed, and areas which still maintain higher populations appear to be recovering faster than those with lower populations. Anomalies have the ability to persist for a long time after the cognitosphere has locally recovered.

A unit of measurement exists – the Kazan (Ka) – used to represent the strength of the psi field at a given point, named after Ukrainian scientist A.V. Kazan, who developed it. Measurements of the psi field have been used to image the structure of the cognitosphere in an effort to gain an understanding of it and to monitor its gradual recovery processes.

Although a high psi field value does not necessarily entail the manifestation of supernatural effects, it is a necessary prequisite, and is often correlated.

Espers are able to learn to increase the strength of the psi field they are emitting and to project it in more effective ways in order to produce some desired supernatural effect (extremely weak and localized compared to the what the cognitosphere can potentially do, of course). Espers have to consciously "go active", where the strength of their psi field rises (potentially dramatically); they will not want to stay in this state due to its high energy consumption. Extended usage of psionic powers often leaves users feeling physically and emotionally exhausted, which is a consequence of the fact that the cognitosphere sees their actions as damage to it and 'pushes back'. Espers' psionic sensitivity came about in the same way as all other mutations, although it existed in a much reduced (i.e. barely noticeable) form even before the war.

The strength of the psi field at the earth's surface (assuming that the cognitosphere is sufficiently locally stable there) typically hovers between 5mKa and 50mKa. Weak espers, when active, generate a psi field value of up to 400mKa; at the lower end of the scale, this is sufficient for weak telepathy, and at the higher end, for telekinesis. Around 2,000mKa (2Ka) is required for effective ESP, and at 10,000mKa (10Ka) and above psionic abilities become 'directly' weaponizable.

The psi field strength near some of the more extreme anomalies has been recorded as approaching 2kKa (2,000,000mKa), although this is less potent than it appears, since it is both highly localized (thus easily avoided) and not intelligently directed.