History Main / MindOverMatter

* ''Film/{{Matilda}}'', the movie based on the book, features her with telekinetic powers. Unlike the book, [[spoiler:where she lost her powers at the end, she kept them, but only used them for trivial purposes.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** For all its spiritual bent, the vast majority of what we see the Force do is just lift, shove, [[PsychicStrangle choke]], or crush things. But then it ''is'' called the ''Force''.
*** The most likely reasons being limits in terms of special effects and that in [[Film/ANewHope the first movie]] telekinesis is basically non-existent, the Jedi only seen using their JediMindTrick and [[BlindfoldedVision ESP]] (to the point of sensing a planet's population's collective fear many lightyears away).

* A natural ability of Vardians in ''Series/{{Tracker}}''. Often accompanied by a flick of the head in the direction the item was being thrown.

* The Strangers in ''Film/DarkCity'' possess Telekinesis, as does the hero Murdoch. However, individual Strangers seem limited to levitation and opening apparently nonexistent doors; only by combining their powers and interfacing with special machinery can they perform more [[RealityWarper impressive feats.]] Only Murdoch and the Stranger Leader Mr. Book have more developed "throw objects and people around with your mind" abilities -- though by the end of the film [[spoiler:Murdoch's powerful enough to [[RealityWarper warp The City's layout at will]].]]

* People involved in meditation and other spiritual practices sometimes report a downplayed version of this. While these claims haven't been verified by science, there are various online communities where people practice this on very light objects with interesting results. This doesn't generally get to the point of actually levitating anything[[note]]Practitioners are divided on whether or not this is possible.[[/note]], but there are videos out there of smaller feats like causing things to spin or start rolling. A far cry from what you see in fiction, but hey, it's something.

** However, this power is only given to him because he is within a A.I programmed world of which he has limited, but powerful enough, mental control of.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': Erza Scarlet's first manifestation of magic involved lifting all the scattered weapons and tools on the battleground of her SlaveLiberation and hurling them at the slavers. In the present, she usually uses this in combination with her Heaven's Wheel Armor to launch a StormOfBlades that she can control in-flight. [[spoiler:As shown in ''100 Years Quest'', she can also telekinetically control her armors themselves, allowing her to move her otherwise-paralyzed body by controlling the armor covering her with her magic.]]

* ''Literature/{{Tempest}}'': By the beginning of ''Tempest Revealed'', Tempest has developed telekinesis. She uses it first to hold things in place and later to actually move things.

* All of the telepaths in ''Series/{{Believe}}'', with varying levels of strength. Bo, the most powerful of them, even manages to redirect a lightning strike during a storm.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E57ThePrimeMover The Prime Mover]]", Jimbo Cobb has possessed the power of telekinesis all of his life. When he was young, he assumed that [[IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat everyone had this ability]]. He stopped using his ability as it frequently got him into trouble in school and gave him headaches. He is forced to reveal it when a car turns over outside of the Happy Daze Café, which he owns with his friend Ace Larson, and there is no other way to save the people inside. Ace sees the possibilities of Jimbo's power and the two of them take a trip to UsefulNotes/LasVegas, where Jimbo uses his ability to move the dice as Ace pleases.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E138BlackLeatherJackets Black Leather Jackets]]", Scott, Steve and Fred have telekinetic powers.

* In an unusual inversion of PubertySuperpower, everyone on the world of Creator/TimothyZahn's ''A Coming of Age'' has telekinesis ''[[GrowingUpSucks until]]'' [[GrowingUpSucks they hit puberty]].

* Many Adepts in Jean Lorrah's Savage Empire are telekinetic.

* Magnets can pull, push, and even levitate other objects with a magnetic field without the two objects touching each other via an invisible magnetic field than transmits their energy.

* The WebOriginal/AcademyOfSuperheroes has several. Breaker is notable in that she was a very weak teke who used her powers to emulate wuxia-style martial arts i.e. high leaps, slow falls etc.

* ''Fanfic/{{Presets}}'': [[spoiler:Matthias's wife]] is a Reader who happens to be telekinetic. But in order for [[spoiler: her]] to do anything, [[spoiler: she]] must expend the same amount of mental energy it would take to do the task physically. So anything more than a windstorm is generally impossible.

[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/XMen https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jean_shows_off_her_power.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Jean doesn't have to lift a finger to lift Hank.]]

[[quoteright:315:[[ComicBook/XMen https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jean_shows_off_her_power.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:315:Jean doesn't have to lift a finger to lift Hank.]]

** Of her descendants it is the [[CloningBlues various Nate]] [[TangledFamilyTree Summers']] who top out the scale. Nate "ComicBook/{{Cable}}" Summers once had a fight with the Silver Surfer destroying his base, Providence, which was the size of an island; And wrecking much of Sydney, Australia, but telekinetically rebuilt it mere moments after they plowed through them. He was also stated by Rachel Summers as a kid to have the power to extinguish a star without any conscious effort. Cable's powers, though, are usually mostly devoted to stopping the techno-organic virus that would otherwise overtake his body, hence his reliance on {{BFG}}s for most of his history. Unencumbered, his powers at their height are easily Phoenix class.

* Patrick Swayze's ''Film/Ghost1990'' is an example of the "mind over matter only" convention.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FireAndIce'', this is how Nekron's magic works. In the opening of the film, he uses this on an entire ''glacier'' to destroy Larn's village, allowing him to achieve military conquest without even leaving his throne room. Moving something that big clearly takes a lot of effort, given his concern about moving the glacier all the way to Fire Keep. Controlling the movements of ''people'' on the other hand is a trifling matter [[spoiler:as Teegra's brother learns the hard way when Nekron forces him to impale himself on his own sword. It is however less than effective against Darkwolf, who is strong enough to fight through it (possibly because he's a god incarnate).]]