[quote=@chukklehed]
so you're saying that they took the entire framework they established in the first half of the series, where they clearly described how Espers gained their powers, and then said "No, we're just fucking with you, it's drugs"

that sounds so incredibly dumb that I can't believe the same person would write it.
[/quote]

No? It's always been drugs.

[quote=Mikoto Misaka, Volume 1, Prologue]“Shut up. If you couldn’t bend a single spoon after having various crazy things done to you like have drugs injected directly into your blood vessels or have electrodes stabbed in through your ears and into the brain, what could it be but lack of talent?”[/quote]

That's from the first light novel. The one that started it all.

It's drugs, New Age hypnotism and brain rewiring.

That's how they get their Personal Reality, and where they go from there depends on their potential.