tl;dr time!

My main problem with psionics and psychic magic has always been flavor and lore
wise. Before the announcement of Occult Adventures I had already read Exapanded
Psionics Handbook 3.5 and Ultimate Psionics, and had assigned these characters t
o be part of the Baklunish monks and Scarlet Brotherhood lore of my home Greyhaw
k campaign. Problem is I loved the OA classes when I read them, but how to conci
liate them with the pre-existant psionics in my game in order for the two work t
ogether side by side? The two felt very different in flavor, where psionics seem
ed very alien, reminding me of Martian Manhunter and Grodd, while psychic magic
felt occult like Penny Dreadful. But that isn't enough, that's just the feeling,
I needed solid lore explanations as to where these powers come from and how dif
ferent they are. I could say that "psychic" magic is just another branch of arca
ne magic, and that's probably what I'll do. The Occultist for example, in my gam
es, is someone who can channel the magic that naturally imbues everything in the
world and which isn't perceived by the all mighty traditional spellcasters like
Sorcerers and Wizards whom can only see the bigger picture of magic while worki
ng in manipulating and creating titanic forces. But they forget the magic that f
orms espontaneously from an object that represents deep regret to someone, or th
e magic that arises from foul words best left unsaid, the magic of emotions felt
by big and small folk that don't necessarily know the most basic of cantrips, e
ven the magic of a first kiss or the first cry of a new born baby. Great and pow
erful Archmages and Hierophants are preoccupied by the bigger cosmic picture of
the spells they weave and are often completely blind and ignorant to these subtl
e forms of magic.
That said, this kind of psychic magic lore (or just arcane magic lore, i
n my campaigns) differs completely from the kind of alien psionics I imagine for
Dreamscarred Press' system. But the problem still persisted that the Psychic oc
cult class is the one which most closely approaches DP's psionics. How to solve
that? Well, I'm thinking about implying that different Psychics through various
manners (their Disciplines) find a way to convert the power of their brains, the
energy stored in the mind, into spells. It occurs in a similar way in which wiz
ards and sorcerers manipulate the cosmic forces of arcane magic around them in t
he multiverse and shape them into very especific formulaic effects commonly call
ed spells, the differance is that sorcerers do such instinctively, like the insp
irational notes of a symphony coming back to their minds again and again, while
wizards study how to do achieve the same. So in that way the source of a psychic
's power is different, it comes from inside while the sorcerer/wizard draws powe
r from outside, but their methods of shaping that power and the result of creati
ng spells is very similar.
It's been some time since I've read Ultimate Psionics, I intend on readi
ng it again to see if I can then fit psionics into the following niche: while ar
cane/psychic magic's general goal is to produce spell effects, whatever their so
urce is, psionics produce raw power from their minds that is not elegantly focus
ed into spells, which require some sort of knowledge of reality's "language" (ev
en if that is acquired instinctively or through the influence of a Great Old One
). In that sense psionics would be more "brute" or raw and straightfoward kind o
f power, not altering reality to produce magical spells but simply outpouring th
e power of the mind. I just have to read Ultimate Psionics again to see if I'm a
ble to put them in that role and therefore use both psychic magic and psionics s
ide by side in my games.
Also, I do not think that Occult Adventures is unbalanced, but then I ha
ve a bias, because I'm the guy who usually puts story, cool roles and powers, an
d things that may make more sense above strict balance