Occlumency

Occlumency is the art of self mastery over one’s mind. Occlumency involves knowing your mind on such an intimate level that it can be controlled, protected, and even self manipulated. A person who practises this art is known as an Occlumens.

## Levels of Occlumency:

### Level I:

Understanding your own mind and being able to sense irregularities within it. One uses meditation in order to achieve that.

### Level II:

It represents an extension of the first stage of Occlumency. On the passive side of Occlumency one dives deeper into the process of self-exploration of ones mind. At level two one learns to read ones own thoughts and emotions on a deeper level enabling one to evaluate their own emotions accurately and clinically. This process can be deemed as a subskill of level two, though, it is not technically classified as one as without a very strong grasp on this concept the wielding of other subskills within this field will prove detrimental to ones mental health and possibly their sanity.

The active side of the second level deals with the establishment of 'Occlumency shields' to help defend ones mind. The term of 'Occlumency shields' is actually a misleading one as there is no actual barrier that stops a Legilimency probe.

There is a point during the creation of permanent Occluemncy reflexes where the person's 'shields' are unstable, since they are trying to work more often than when the person calls on them. Under enought stress, possible due to high levels of emotion supression, one's shields can collapse.

In concept one defends against a Legilimency probe by instantly clearing their mind. This denies the attacking Legilimens the ability to latch onto anything in their victims mind.

### Level III:

Solidifying the shields built in Level II. By the end of this level, none but the most skilled legilimens will be able to breach your mind.

### Level IV:

At this stage in ones training they can start building their own Mind Palace.

## Subskills of Occlumency:

### Level I:

#### Subskill I:

Evaluate your own emotions accurately and clinically — not actually a subskill in itself, but fundamental nonetheless when it comes developing other subskills within the same field.

#### Subskill II:

Manipulation or suppression of one's emotions at any given time. The technique poses the danger of one permanently suppressing any given emotion with the most dangerous caveat, expecially for new Occlumens, of not doing it as a conscious decision.

#### Subskill III:

Supplementary Occlumency — it builds on the manipulation of one's emotions. It manipulates the mind to rest at the perfect state for any given spell. This allows ones to keep their minds void of everything expect the intent or the image required for certain spells, or free of any other emotions expect the required ones in the case of esoteric magic. It also allows one to increase their casting speed as their magic will be channeled faster because the mind is already in the necessary state.

#### Subskill IV:

Compartmentalization — organize your mind so that it flows more quickly, making your thoughts more clear and less diluted, thus allowing one to make connections more quickly. It also helps with memory recall.

### Level III:

#### Subskill I:

Utilizing separate thought-streams which can either work independently, or combine with others to increase the rate of efficiency.

## Known Occlumens:

* Bellatrix Black
* Albus Dumbledore
* Astoria Greengrass
* Cyrus Greengrass (a low level V in January 1993)
* Daphne Greengrass
* Gellert Grindelwald
* Gilderoy Lockhart
* Peter Pettigrew
* Harry Potter
* Emily Riddle
* Daniel Selwyn
* Charlotte Weitts
* Grace Weitts
* Blaise Zabini