[Lyta_Underhill]

Maybe the use of such artificial means of communication caused the innate ability to atrophy, & perhaps this also lead to a weakening of the capacity for 'unwill'?

Resulting in the effect of opening the mind so much that the brains fall out...I think this is a state of mind I've been familiar with for most of my life. I have not read the HoME series with references to Osanwe, but your explanation seems logical, davem. One would have to open one's mind to focus on the "farther and farther away" as Saruman did, until his gaze fell upon Mordor, "and then he was caught."
Perhaps a good example of the difference in how the experienced and inexperienced view the "magic" of Osanwe could be related in the two instances:

Gandalf: "The Ring has now passed beyond my help, or the help of any of the Company that set out from Rivendell. Very nearly it was revealed to the Enemy, but it escaped. I had some part in that: for I sat in a high place, and I strove with the Dark Tower, and the Shadow passed."

Frodo : He heard himself crying out: Never, never! Or was it: Verily I come, I come to you? He could not tell. Then as a flash from some other point of power there came to his mind another thought: Take it off! Take it off! Fool, take it off! Take off the Ring!
The two powers strove in him. For a moment, perfectly balanced between their piercing points, he writhed, tormented. Suddenly he was aware of himself again. Frodo, neither the Voice nor the Eye: free to choose, and with one remaining instant in which to do so. He took the Ring off his finger. He was kneeling in clear sunlight before the high seat. A black shadow seemed to pass like an arm above him; it missed Amon Hen and groped out west, and faded. Then all the sky was clean and blue and birds sang in every tree.

In this same engagement with the Dark Lord, Gandalf relates his struggle and his direct action against Sauron, whereas Frodo seems to lose all awareness of himself and only comes back to it when he heeds the thought "Fool, take it off!"
Certainly without the help of the experienced Gandalf, Frodo might have been lost in this struggle--this art beyond his ken.

I'm thinking specifically of the Elves' use of their Rings - did they weaken their natural 'skills' by using these artificial means to power? At the very least one could say that such 'short cuts' made for 'long delays'.

It is interesting that these "short cuts" are what modern, "civilized" society appears to be all about. Gandalf did well to warn against the dangers of mechanisation, perhaps both in thought and in the material world. I mean, why leave Isengard if you can simply use the palantir and gaze where you will? Why engage in a long and hopeless battle with Mordor, when you can take the Ring and gain instant victory? It is a short cut of thought, a lazy way out of a situation, but only in the imagination. In reality, it would indeed make for more than just a long delay. I'm sure Boromir had no idea of just how he would have used the Ring, only that it was mighty and therefore must be obtained for Gondor. I can't help but wonder what Boromir would have done if the One Ring was a nuclear weapon...*snerk*

It has taken me way too long to post this (I think I've had this screen up for over an hour...), so I'll leave off. Better to leave what thoughts remain to simmer in the stew for awhile! (This is also due to the fact that I got pulled into reading the "Rings of Power and Osanwe-Kenta" thread...if only there were more time in the world!)

Cheers!
Lyta

P.S. Speaking of "innate" as you did at the end of your post, davem, it is interesting to think of this in terms of the Ring's total lack of effect on Tom Bombadil. I tend to think he is the embodiment of "innate," as in "of nature." Thus Sauron's "art" is totally inconsequential when it comes up against the greater force of nature itself...just one of the stewing thoughts...bye now!