OoP clues? Open and Closed Mind

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 158100

See response Below.

---  "Clifford Vander Yacht" <CliffVDY at ...> wrote:
>
> > ... Harry needed to be calm, and how could he be calm
> > after spending an hour being abused by his worst 
> > enemy? By having his deepest secrets revealed to 
> > someone  he so thoroughly despised?
> >
> > ...
> > <snip>
> 
> Cliff:
> You missed the point in that making the mind blank (or 
> calm) is quite different than making the mind closed. 
> Yes, for Harry to make his mind blank or empty made 
> Voldemort get nothing of value. 
>
> As you point out, if Harry had read a joyful book before
> bedtime it could have put pleasant thoughts in his mind 
> to share. A person who has a closed mind does not get 
> involved with any of this, be the mind agitated or calm.
> 
> Snape said, "Time and space matter in magic, Potter. Eye
> contact is often essential to Legilimency."(OoP24 PB531)
> The first sentence is true, the next is false IMO.
> 
> Also, what is normal psychic perception?
>

bboyminn/steve:

I did get your point, though I missed the /emphasis/ on 
the closed mind part. Futher I agree with what you are 
saying now, with one teeny tiny minor acception. 

One /makes/ one's mind calm, but one /has/ a closed mind.
That is, any one can learn how to calm their mind, but 
how does one learn to close their mind in the muggle 
sense of 'closed minded'? 

There in lies Harry's problem, how does he close his 
mind in the magical sense? 

I actually think two separate things are going on. One
is Harry learning the art of Occlumency, and how to block
unwanted thoughts. The other is preventing Voldemort from
reaching Harry and influencing him. I know...those sound 
like the same thing, but there is a subtle difference. 

In one case, Harry is learning to selectively restrict 
his own thoughts. By selectively restricting access to 
them, he can control what Voldemort's sees. But that is 
a long term skill that will come in time. 

In the meantime Harry is vulnerable at the moment, and 
that is where the calming of the mind before bedtime 
comes in. It prevents Voldemort from accessing Harry 
during his time of restless vulnerable sleep because
Harry will be in a calm deep sleep. And by reducing 
restless dreams, it makes it less likely for Harry to 
unintentionally reach out and access Voldemort. A calm 
mind means sound sleep, and sound sleep means no access. 

Though I confess that I agree that calming the mind means 
that Voldemort will find nothing when he looks, and that
a pleasant book, would limit Voldemort's access to 
pleasant thoughts. But we need to remember that the thing
that Dumbledore was actually worried about was that
Voldemort would try and influence Harry. Not just access 
his thoughts, but try and compell Harry to act, which
as it turns out, is exactly what happened.

Harry need to be protected in both the long term and the
short term. He needs to be protected while he is learning 
Occlumency. And the calming and clearing of his mind is 
that intermediate protection. 


Keep in mind that I agree with everything you have said, 
I'm just pointing out that Harry case is a little unusual
and doesn't directly parallel muggle psychic phenomenon,
and that Dumbledore has more than one objective. 

Cliff- "Also, what is normal psychic perception?"

Well, I'm sure I meant 'psychic preception' as we normally 
understand if from a muggle perspective.

Just a thought.
Steve/bboyminn