Mind touch

**Mind touch** was a Force technique used to reach the mind of a sentient being. The technique could be used for various reasons such as influencing the mind, reading their thoughts or communication. To use the ability, Force-user would figuratively touch the mind of the other person through the Force and access it, enabling them to perform further Force abilities. There were two abilities employed after reaching the mind: perceive mind and affect mind, first one used to simply take information while the latter input information. Sometimes the two were used in conjunction, leading to more Force powers.

However the user could resist or reject the use of the technique on themselves, depending on their strenght in the Force and the strenght of their mind. Basic abilities worked on the weak-minded however a fellow Force-user or even a trained non sensitive could resist them easily. The reach of the effect depended on the users mastery and the subjects resistance. Extended and harder use of certain applications could potentially inflict pain and even permanently injure if used without care. The resistance level of the subject could increase this pain and was usually the result of such pain in the first place, as it forced certain individuals to force harder to break the telepathic shield.

## Perceive mind

More commonly referred to as **telepathy** or **mind reading**, **perceive mind** allowed the user to dive into the mind of another and collect information. From simple feelings to complete past memory, depending on the users skill they could gather anything present within the subjects mind.

## Affect mind

**Affect mind** allowed the user to influence the thoughts and feelings or even dominate another. While figuratively seeing the mind, the user could input whatever they wished.

Usage of the mind trick was a moral issue for the Jedi, as it did violate the individual's free will and conscience. Thus, the Jedi were strictly prohibited from using it for personal gain (such as in betting or bargaining), reserving its use for when it would serve the greater good (greater good could also be sometimes a reason to overlook this restriction); the Sith and other Dark Jedi, however, had no qualms about the usage of the ability.

This power required the complete concentration of the user. Worries such as whether or not it would work or allowing one to be distracted by the insight gained into the mind of the subject would cause the trick to fail.

Some species with highly organized mental facilities were known to be inherently resistant to its effects, requiring more skill, among them Hutts, Toydarians, Yinchorri, Kloodavians, Dashade, Falleen, Geonosians, and possibly Snivvians.

## Perceive mind applications

### **Force empathy**

**Force empathy** was the most basic application of perceive mind to simply understand and share feelings with a subject. Though very similar to an application of Force sense, which also allowed to sense through feelings, this power allowed the user to exactly pinpoint and understand how the subject felt as if they were them, however the user would have to already know of and be aware of the subject, it wouldn't allow them to locate like Force sense would.

### **Mind read**

**Read mind** or **mind read** allowed the user to see in and read someones mind without them even knowing about it. The user would peak into someones thoughts and hear them. The ability was very useful as it avoided direct action and subtly extracted information. It was also one of the harder tricks to master, possibly the hardest in the perceive mind spectrum, so most Jedi simply ended up resorting to the easier mind trick.

### **Drain knowledge**

**Drain knowledge** or a **mind probe** was a more active mind read though it allowed the user to not simply read recent thoughts and events but practically learn everything from someones mind, their memories, their thoughts, their feelings and so on. Because of its more extended reach, mind probes required the user to weaken their victim and make them submit and actively force themselves inside their mind, rather than a subtle attempt. As such it was more affiliated with the dark side of the Force, as it was seen too violating and often resulted in the victim feeling immense pain trying to resist its effects, though there were few Jedi that still used the ability.

## Affect mind applications

### **Force persuasion**

Famously known as a **Jedi Mind Trick** though used by non-Jedi as well, mind trick temporarily shut down the subjects thought process and input new thoughts into their mind. The user often waved his or her hand to aid in the persuasion. The Jedi adopted a peculiar tone of voice along with a casual facial expression. The sentient being that was the object of the mind trick tended to adopt a casual tone of voice but a peculiar facial expression. Should the trick succeed, he or she then agreed to whatever was being said to them without being able to think for themselves. Moments later, they would feel puzzled about their new opinion, but usually didn't feel like changing it back. More experinced usage of the ability could be more subtle, making the subject not even realize that they have said something they normally wouldn't agree on.

### **Instil emotion**

**Instil emotion** was a variation of mind trick that made subjects feel emotions that the user wanted them to. This could be used in a multitude of ways ranging from uplifting an ally to bringing down an opponents will. A dark side specific variant was called **Force fear**, which caused victims to be afraid from the source of the mind trick, sometimes to the point of insanity.

### **Mind control**

Also known as **dominate mind** or **control mind**, **mind control** was the dark side equivalent of the Jedi mind trick, though mind control was much more invasive. It took complete control of the mind(s) of the victim(s) affected by the power. Higher levels of mastery allowed more people to be controlled.

### **Force illusion**

**Force illusion** was a very powerful Force ability, a subset of the various mind trick powers. The user projected an image into the minds of beings within range, of anything from a pillar of fire to a horde of snarling monsters to a fleet of warships, depending on the range. The user could "see" the illusion as well, though it would be only partially there, semi-transparent like a hologram.

The key differences between a Force illusion and a hologram is that unlike a hologram, the illusion could be controlled mentally and was limited only by the imagination of the user. Even more importantly, a Force illusion did not merely affect the sight of a creature. Since it was projected directly into the brain of the creature, it appeared on all of the creature's senses, from hearing to smell to senses such as echolocation. Even viewing it through an electronic system such as a cybernetic eye or camera was of no use if the creature was within range of the illusion during its duration; the creature would "see" it with the system as if the illusion were actually there, though any playback after the illusion had ended would reveal nothing at all.

A variant of illusion was the projection of the user themselves. Another known variant of Force illusion was **masquerade**. Masquerade enabled the user to project an image into a person's mind over the user, essentially masking the user's appearance.

## Combined applications

The following applications used both perceive and affect:

### **Telepathic communication**

Simply known as **telepathy**, all Force-sensitives shared the most basic ability of telepathic communication. Force-users could communicate without actually visibly or audibly doing so, simply transferring information through the Force into the each others minds. Those with stronger connections and bonds had stronger tendencies to communicate this way even easier.

### **Alter memory**

**Memory rub**, **memory walk** or **alter memory** was a set of enhanced telepathic powers that allowed the user to peak into the very memories of a sentient being and change them, erase them or even insert fake memories. The user would first perceive the memories through forcing their way inside the mind and unpacking it figuratively. From then on the user was free to edit the contents as they wished. **Mind wipe** was a quick application that simply erased the victims memories completely. The ability could also be used to erase skills or quickly teach skills to the subject.

An infamous example of this was Revan, whose memories were erased and altered by Bastila Shan to think he was fighting for the Republic and forget his past about being the Dark Lord of the Sith. This also costed him his skills and Force powers, though in his later journey he was able to quickly regain most of them.