The Mind Arts

For lack of a better word, I am going to call Occlumency and Legilimency "the Mind Arts," and not "the Mental Arts" because these are magics dealing with the mind, whereas "mental arts" could be almost anything using your mind. I am trying to distinguish, however imperfectly, the mind as an object versus the mind as a means.

I dislike Occlumency. I am resigned to accepting a definition of it that I am fairly confident is intended to be canonical to this universe; the problem is that definition is an unacceptable practice. You can read my rant on it for details.

Given that Occlumency is a flawed Art, one that will work for only some people, and can be used safely only for short durations, can we accept that the magical world has no other way to protect the privacy of one's thoughts or the integrity of one's mind? This seems unacceptable. Look at the number of threats that people face in that society.

• I cannot prove it from cannon sources, but I am fairly confident that Professor Dumbledore uses Legilimency on students regularly. I started thinking that as soon as I re-read The Chamber of Secrets after finding out about Legilimency.

• Love potions can be made by young people. This is considered acceptable. "Mrs. Weasley was telling Hermione and Ginny about a love potion she’d made as a young girl. All three of them were rather giggly."¹

• The false Mad-eye says of the Imperius Curse that it can be fought, but that not everyone has the strength of character to do it successfully, and that it was difficult for the Ministry to know who was under it and not.²

• Memories get modified. This happens so frequently across the series it hardly requires documentation.

• This is almost a special case of the above, but you can be made to forget (Obliviate).

• Hermione uses a "Confundus Charm" to confuse McLaggen in sixth year.³

So you are going to walk around in a society where everyone is capable of at least some of the above list, aware of all of it, and probably knows at least some details of how to use most of it, without any defence except quick reflexes for your generic shield charm, and an ability to detect and avoid potions?

It is all well and good for a man with an eye effectively in the back of his head to spout "Constant Vigilance" all the time, but most of us have blind spots behind us. Students start learning silent casting in sixth year, and it seems no one fails to make it into at least one NEWT level course at Hogwarts. Silent casting is part of Defence, Charms, and Transfiguration. Any one of the three classes and you have been exposed to the concept. Assume you can remain in Hogwarts with as few as two or three NEWT level classes. We know that Potions has a very low acceptance rate. I believe we are told that Arithmancy and Ancient Runes are considered hard courses. However, while the course work for Divination can be made up, note that Harry failed the OWL, the standardised exams seem to require that you actually succeed at using magic; that makes this a hard course. Astronomy requires a lot of memorisation, but apparently nothing else, I imagine a Goyle might be coached through to an E there. History of Magic requires studying outside of class, Slytherin house may consider it unacceptably disgraceful to fail that class, he might have an E there as well; that's two. I do not know that we have ever seen a wand in Herbology, but as the plants get more dangerous, I expect that you use your wand in one way or another, and I expect that in sixth year you are expected to do so silently. So if even three classes are required to stay in sixth year, then everyone is exposed to the idea of silent casting.

Worse, while I need to look up the citations, for some of these spells, failing to cast them is worse for the victim than doing so successfully. Bertha Jorkins is damaged by a memory charm cast incorrectly. Barty Crouch is damaged by resisting an Imperius curse. Gilderoy is damaged by an correctly cast, but overly strong, charm. So an inexperienced or self-taught attacker might be more dangerous than an official government agent out to practice governmental mind control. Everyone knows the incantations and and movements, everyone knows how not to get caught, and messing up has worse consequences than succeeding.

And no one has developed any defence at all except "Constant Vigilance?" Bogus.

So what might those defences look like? Well, the best source of ideas is the way different fanfictions attempt to explain Occlumency. These would not really be Occlumency, but they might be other magical arts that replace, supplement, or complement it. Perhaps even ones that do not cause damage with long term use.

• Instant Death
• Meditation and focus
• Mental Shields
• Mind Palace
• Obfuscomency