Minds in the moment

How to get into their heads. If you know a person so well, sometimes you feel as though you’re in their head. That is, not exactly, you know their thought processes, you know your thought processes, you know when and where in their habitual thinking an alternative decision or course could be chosen, rather than the familiar, habitual way. You know that we all probably share similar thought processes in a culture, environment, social group, gender, age group, professional setting. If you are sensitive to a person’s mental state of mind, and you know what dictates their decision making, you can be aware of how and when to nudge them to follow their good sense rather than a sentimental obligation. Something like this can most likely be used for good or ill, but I envision multi-level protection against unethical efforts.  dsd

Even if you thought you could influence the decision making process of someone else, and their behavior changed, how could you be sure you had any thing to do with it. Maybe you were aware of the process, and it’s something you wanted to see happen, you had been thinking about mental manipulation, but these are coincidental features of the situation, that may happen independent of your effort but in concert.