How Mind Reading Works
And how to read your own mind first
I love TV shows and films with mediums, psychics, and empaths. Characters like Counsellor Troy in Star Trek, Whoopi in Ghost, Allison DuBois/Patricia Arquette in Medium, or dare I say it, Edward in the Twilight Saga.
They usually convey that mind readers hear the thoughts in other people’s heads like they hear conversations spoken out loud.
But this is not how mind reading works.
That is because our minds don’t actually work in this way. We don’t think in coherent sentences that are well strung together. Nor do we have only one thought at a time which is then followed by another, in an orderly fashion. Our mind is mostly a jumble. There may be fragments of a sentence, or just single words, then images flash up. Mostly there are just feelings.
Our mind actually has many layers. Words are one of the top most layers, we usually hear them in our own voice, but just in short bursts. Feelings tend to be lower down and we’re often unaware of them. They mostly just “drone on” but if we pay attention we can bring them into focus.
So we may have a thought that consists of a few words that “flare up” from an underlying feeling, while at the same time there’s a song playing in our head that we can’t get out of our mind. Many layers. All at once.
In addition, everything in our mind is always in motion, and our attention jumps rapidly from one thing to the next. While you’re reading this your mind may internally be saying some of the words in your own voice or in an imagined one. Then it might jump to memories of similar things you’ve read, or it might check if you can correlate it to what is happening in your own mind right now. These thoughts, memories, and mental actions trigger emotions which will further move your mind this way and that. At some point you’ll remember what you had actually meant to do which is read this.
Our mind is a vast sea that we swim in and most of the time we’re not in control where the waves take us.
All of our minds are like this most of the time. Yours and mine, too.
And there isn’t a thick black line between where my mind sea ends and yours begins.
So when we read another person’s mind we don’t hear one coherent thought — because the person isn’t thinking one coherent thought. When we read minds we simply tune in to the person’s mind sea. We tune in to their feelings, images, and thought fragments.
In essence, this looks, sounds and feels very similar to our own mind sea. We can all do this. It’s not a special gift, we all have this ability. We just don’t make conscious use of it. We’re usually not even aware of what is going on in our own mind.
We’re oblivious to how our own mind works, so if we want to train our gift of empathy and mind reading we have to first “read our own mind”.
Start by observing your mind to see what is going on in there. Become aware of all the layers and how consciousness or awareness moves in the sea that is your mind, like momentarily shining a flashlight onto this and that and then that.
We will then also see that the mind isn’t a physical entity. Where exactly is the mind? If you’re aware of your feet doesn’t the mind extend all the way down to your toes? If you’re aware of the noise your neighbour makes doesn’t your consciousness extend to outside of your body?
There are no thick black lines around the mind. Which is the reason why there is no clear separation between your mind and my mind. And that’s why we can all read each other’s mind. Just not like Edward in the Twilight Saga.
— Kristina Day
Thanks for reading this article! Leave a comment below if you have any questions.
If you liked this article, here are some other articles you may enjoy:
Spiritual Movies for when you’re soul searching
What is Spirituality? A Practical Guide for Beginners
Kristina Day is an empath, spiritual traveler, and blogger at SpiritandTravel.com where she writes about meditation, yoga, and sustainable living. She is currently on an epic travel adventure to the spiritual sites around the world. You can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram or follow her publications on the spiritual travel blog.
