Occlumency: Relax or resist? (Was: CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 29, Career Advice

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 117268


Carol earlier:
> > The problem with your analogy is that Occlumency, like resisting
an Imperius Curse, requires being on your guard and fighting off the
> > enemy's attempts to penetrate your mind. Relaxing would be 
> disastrous and could even be fatal. Snape is trying to demonstrate
to Harry what he would be up against if LV tried to invade his mind
and the only way to do that is to impersonate Voldemort. Basically
Snape tells Harry what he needs to do--whatever it was that he
instinctively did to fend off the invasion by Crouch!Moody. But Harry
isn't listening.
> > 
Alla responded:
> 
> I believe what Nora was trying to say and she an correct me if I am 
> wrong  is that we DON'T KNOW the true nature of Occlumency yet. It 
> is reasonable to assume that without achieving relaxation first it 
> is impossible to learn how to fight off Voldemort.
> 
> We don't know that relaxation could be fatal, ont he contrary, it 
> seems that it is quite useful and necessary. Since Snape 
> continuously tells Harry to clear his mind. it looks like relaxation 
> to me.
> 
> But how can Harry relax with such deep level of mistrust achieved 
> over the years he feels towards Snape?

 
Carol again:
I think we know a great deal about how Occlumency works, and we can
see when and why Harry fails or gets it right. Before the first
lesson, Snape tells him what he needs to do--*not* relax but to
*resist*--to protect his mind from intrusion as he did with the
Imperius Curse (534). Had Harry relaxed under the Imperius Curse, he
would have jumped over the desk as ordered.

Snape tells Harry to use his wand or any other means he can think of
to defend himself because he's about to break into Harry's mind. He
then advises Harry to "*brace yourself*"--the exact opposite of
relaxation (OoP Am. ed. 534). He strikes with a Legilimens spell
before Harry has had time to "summon any force of resistance" (534).
Then, when the memory of Cho is about to appear, Harry hears a voice
in his head (exactly as he did when resisting the Imperius Curse) and
he fights back. If he had been foolish enough to *relax,* Snape would
have seen him kissing Cho. And Snape, rather than reacting angrily,
coolly asks whether Harry meant to hit him with a stinging hex. He
tells Harry, in essence, that he should have used the hex sooner, and
deliberately: "You let me get in too far. You lost control" (535).

Snape tells him to clear his mind--not the same as relaxing because it
requires effort and "discipline" to "focus" (Snape's words, 535). He
needs to "stop wasting time and energy shouting": "Repel me with your
brain and you will not need to resort to your wand" (535). Harry,
however, continues to allow his anger at Snape to "pound through his
veins like venom" and consequently he sees some of his most powerful
memories--a dragon, his parents in the mirror, Cedric's body. Rather
than resisting Snape, he falls on his knees crying "NOOOOO!" Snape
reacts furiously to this failure: "You are not trying, you are making
no effort, you are allowing me access to memories, you are handing me
weapons!" 536). He wants Harry to forcibly resist him, to fight him
back using any means available rather than give in and allow him
access to such highly emotional moments. Snape knows what Voldemort
could do with that knowledge and that it must be kept from Voldemort
at all costs. And the only way to do that is to resist Voldemort's
intrusion, to block Voldemort's access to his memories and emotions by
forcibly closing his own mind.

Two months later, after a series of lessons that we are not privileged
to witness, Harry manages to "screw. . . up his face in concentration"
as the memory of Dementors swarms about him. As the result of this
effort, he sees Snape's face through the memory of Dementors and
deliberately calls out "Protego!" Even though he's using his wand
rather than his "brain," he's finally doing what Snape wants--fighting
back--and in consequence, he sees Snape's childhood memories instead
of his own (592). And Snape, white-faced after having been knocked
backwards and having his wand fly out of his hand, actually says
rather calmly, "That was certainly an improvement. I don't remember
telling you to use a Shield Charm, but there was no doubt that it was
effective" (593). Snape only grows angry when a memory of the dream
appears and instead of fighting to protect it, Harry allows the dream
to continue, running in the dream through an open door in the
Department of Mysteries, at which point Snape shouts, "Explain
yourself!" And when Harry admits that he's never seen the door open in
his dream before, Snape shouts, "You are not working hard
enough!"(593). He knows that Harry has wants to see what's inside the
door. He hasn't been *working* to clear his mind and prevent the dream
from coming.

Granted, Snape wants Harry to "rid [his] mind of all emotion" before
he sleeps, to "make it blank and calm" (538), but he is not telling
him to relax. He is telling him to "master yourself, control your
anger, discipline your mind!" (536). The state of mind he is looking
for requires *effort.* What he doesn't want is for Harry to relax
because if he does, the dream will come (as it does in several
instances, but it's always interrupted).

But my point is that, especially when Harry is facing Snape, who is
acting the part of Voldemort by forcibly invading Harry's mind,
relaxation is the last thing Harry should be doing. Snape is right to
make him resist the intrusion and fight back. He wants him to progress
to the point where he can do it of his own accord, with his mind
rather than his wand. He wants him to be wary, to be alert, to be
prepared--as Snape himself must be when he confronts Voldemort. He
does not want Harry to give in or submit to his attack, or to yield to
the temptation of finishing his dream.

If Harry were really in Voldemort's presence, eye to eye with him, to
relax would be to allow Voldemort to enter his mind and see private
memories like those that were revealed to Snape. To relax in sleep, to
allow that dream, is also to allow Voldemort to enter his mind.

Snape is teaching Occlumency in the only way it can be taught, as far
as I can see. Just as the only way to learn to resist the Imperius
Curse is to be subjected to it, the only way to learn Occlumency is to
be subjected to Legilimency. And the only way to resist Legilimency is
to be on your guard, focused, disciplined, and determined. Relax and
you are at the mercy of the Legilimens.

Carol, hoping that the canon citations are sufficient to support and
validate her point