Psynesis

Psychokinesis. A word originally created when someone moved an object with their mind. They realized that they had made a breakthrough in the land of science. What they did not know was that moving an object with their mind was nothing but the tip of the iceberg, and that an incomprehensibly large amount of almost magical abilities, which pushed the height of human evolution. Until eventually, the world as they knew it was destroyed by a being with titanic power using this "Psychokinesis."

As time passed, the word was twisted, perverted into a much more vague, but somewhat more fitting word. "Psynesis." After all, Psynesis allowed for much, much more than just moving around some rocks.

When neurons are moving around in your brain, and throughout your body, something strange happens. Energy is generated by your brain, and sent... somewhere else. The names for this place are inconsistent. Many call it either the Mental Realm, or the Soul Realm. This energy is what truly makes up our consciousness, or as one might describe it, our soul. That's not to take away any credit from our brain though, since our brain acts as an anchor, being able to move our consciousness around in an identical pattern as our body is in the real world. Due to this, the Mental Realm is a sort of parallel dimension, holding only our consciousnesses, and whatever energy it naturally generates.

Psynesis is the technique of harnessing this excess energy and manipulating it, whether it's to interact with other minds, or to manifest it into the real world. Psynesis energy (or mental energy) could be used for basically anything! Although, people had very little control over what they were able to manifest in the real world. Despite that, it led to an incredibly prosperous time for everyone! But, when humans are able to harness a type of energy, it's not long until they try to weaponize it.

The end of the world, as well as this wasteland was due to this power we know as Psynesis.