Occlumency and wargames

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 123030


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "eggplant9998"
<eggplant9998 at y...> wrote:
> 
> "Casey" Wrote:
> 
> > (most) people don't look at it as Harry \
> > defeating Snape, but instead failing to
> > learn the very thing he needed to, occlumency. 

> Eggplant:
>
> I think in the entire sorry Occlumency affair Harry only learned 2
things:
> 
> 1) The stuff from Snape's Pensive.
> 2) That Snape did not know how or just would not teach Occlumency
> properly.
> 
> Eggplant


bboyminn:

I wouldn't say it was limited to that. Harry did learn, as did we,
that he does have the ability of Occlumency. I admit, there were so
many distractions, that I don't think that realization has sank into
Harry's brain yet, but none the less, he clearly demonstrated the
ability to 'cut off' thoughts and memories that he doesn't want others
to see.

The other night I was thinking about this, and the analogy dawned on
me of comparing the Occlumency lessons to being put in a room with a
TV that was ON, being told not to look at it, then being left alone
with no other distractions. That would be next to impossible for most
people. If you are in a room with a TV that is ON, even if the sound
is Off, it's difficult to not look. It's even more difficult when
someone tells you specifically, directly, and forcefully not to look;
it plants a near uncontrollable urge to do just the opposite.

How could anyone not be drawn to the curious cascade of memories that
came floating by, and as long as those memories are general and
unoffensive, they are the equivalent of someone flipping through the
channels on a telly. 

However, it's clear when 'it' flips to the channel containing Harry's
personal private intimate memories, he is very quick to hit the 'OFF'
button.

But again, I think there were so many distraction and tangental
experience associate with Occlumency lessons that Harry has never
reach the point where he consciously told himself, 'Hey, I can do
this' as he clearly can. 


Also, I think the exchange of memories, the less painful and less
personal ones, between Snape and Harry will have a pay off in the
future. I think they gained some insight into each other that will
soften (however slighlty) their attitudes towards each other. Of
course, that won't happen until Snape gets over Harry grossly invading
his privacy by looking in the Pensieve, and Harry getting over blaming
Snape for Sirius's death. 

I think Snape will get over it, and I think Harry will realize that
blaming Snape was just a grief fuel effort to try and make some sense
out of what happened, and keep him from facing his own guilt.

So, I see this 'softening' happening about page 400 in the next book,
or about page 200 of the book after that.


One final note, this reguards the Occlumency requirement to 'clear
your mind'. I think that is in the 'Zen' or martial arts sense of the
expression. In a sense, it means calm and unclutter your mind, because
an aggitated cluttered mind is a weak mind, a distracted mind, and all
those things make for a vulnerable person. That true in Zen-life and
in martial arts, a cluttered emotional mind makes you weak, slow, and
vulnerable. So during the lessons, Harry does need a clarity of focus
in order to marshal the will to cut off the thoughts he doesn't want
seen. 

When general thoughts are cascading by, he is distracted. Like I said
would would be curious about these flashes of memories, who wouldn't
likely stand there and watch them float by. Certainly, none of them
are are harmful. They are afterall Harry's own memories and he has
access to them all the time, the only difference is that this is a
forced recall.

So, Harry is mesmerized by these curious visions as we all would be.
But when a vision occurs that Harry feels very strongly about, that he
feels is very personal and private, his mind snaps out of the
mesmerization very quick, he gathers his focus, and cuts off those
visions. 

That snapping out of the mesmerized and gathering focus sounds very
close to the way Harry resisted the Imperius Curse.


But what Harry needs to do at night before he sleeps, while similar,
is different. Here a cluttered and aggitated mind make for fitful and
shallow sleep, and that makes him vulnerable to invasion. The shallow
and fitful sleep leave him conscious enough to be invaded, but don't
leave him conscious enough to resist the invasion. A deep comfortable
sleep, on the other hand, would shut his mind down to the point where
he couldn't be invaded. 

This is the one area where I am most critical of everyone supporting
Harry's Occlumency efforts. You can all say that Harry didn't clear
his mind before bed, but truthfully now, how many of you can do it? To
lay down in bed angry, aggitated, worried, and scared, and to simply
shut it down is next to impossible. Trying to will a mind not to think
and feel is like trying to will the wind not to blow; it just can't be
done. Most of us in that same state of mind would toss and turn all
night, assuming we could get to sleep at all, and would, with out a
doubt, wake completely unrefreshed.

But there are common simple techniques that everyone should have known
about, that could have been suggested to help Harry here. I've listed
them before, and amoung them are, deep breathing excersizes,
meditation, creative visualization, or something as simple are reading
a light engaging distracting book before bed.

Of course, ultimately the authored need it to go all wrong because,
she needed specific event to happen. It's simple to justify in the
external world. In the internal world, I think a lot of people fell
short, not just Harry and Snape.

One last thought, without a doubt Snape was caught between a rock and
a hard place. Given our assumed roll of Snape as a spy against
Voldemort, and our assumed continued contact (direct or indirect)
between Snape and Voldemort/Death_Eaters, the absolute last thing he
and Harry should have been doing was swapping memories. Seems like it
could be extremely dangerous for everyone, if any of those unlikely
memories should leak out at some point in the future. It would be
clear that both Harry and Snape had knowledge of things they couldn't
and shouldn't have knowledge off. I'm confident that that particular
story line will appear in the future. 

While this could all be extremely dangerous for Snape, I think
Dumbledore made his best guess decision with the limited information
he had available, and decided that, even with the risks, it was best
to have Snape do it. Snape is afteral a master at keeping his memories
and thoughts hidden. Unfortunately, while Harry does have some
Occlumency ability, he is far far from a master at keeping his
thoughts hidden.

I guess I'm just trying to acknowledge that I can see what an
incredibly awkard and dangerous position the Occulmency lesson put
Snape in. 

Just a few random thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn