Legilimency
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Legilimency is, in the fictional realm of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, a branch of magic involving the practice of extracting emotions and memories from another person's mind, in a manner akin to "mind reading" (a term eschewed by Severus Snape, a principal practitioner). This blend was created by joining forms of the Latin words legens (reading) and mens (mind) with -mancy (which means divination).
Someone who practises Legilimency is known as a Legilimens. A skilled Legilimens would be easily able to detect truth or deception and would also be able to tell what a person was thinking or remembering based on the concept of withdrawing images from the person's mind. The art of closing one's mind off from magical intrusion is known as Occlumency.
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, former Death Eater and Hogwarts Potions Master Severus Snape uses his talent in Legilimency to attempt to teach student Harry Potter to ward off mental intrusion by Lord Voldemort. Snape could be observed practising Legilimency since book 1, as seen when Harry has the "peculiar feeling that Snape could read minds". Moreover, Snape says in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Voldemort is "the most accomplished Legilimens the world has ever seen". The Dark Lord has on several occasions been able to determine with unerring accuracy whether people are lying, and has exercised this ability even from the time he was a young child. Albus Dumbledore also has put Legilimency to use several times, in his attempts to interrogate people working for Voldemort and track down information. It has been suggested that we are going to meet another Legilimens in future books, and Remus Lupin seems to have engaged in quite a lot of "mind reading" moments in Prisoner of Azkaban, where he is described as "seem[ing] to be reading Harry's mind".
It is important to note that Legilimency is not the same as reading someone's mind. Harry compares it to mind reading but Snape clearly states that only Muggles speak of mind reading. He says that "the mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader." Wizards and witches who are accomplished Legilimens are able to delve into other people's minds and understand and interpret what they see correctly under certain circumstances. For example, eye contact is often essential to Legilimency. People who are skilled Occlumens can shut down their feelings and emotions and tell lies without them being detected.
In the books Legilimency appears to occur two different ways. In the first way the victim does not feel the spell taking effect. In the second, less subtle manner shown in the Occlumency lessons, hallucinations often occur, as thoughts are literally ripped from the mind. The spell can be cast verbally and nonverbally and powerful practitioners can even perform it without a wand.
