Build Your Mind Reading Skills.

Mind-reading could save us a lot of drama. We wouldn’t want to read everything; our minds can go into places that should stay in the imagination, for entertainment purposes only. Then there are our mundane thoughts; nobody else cares whether or not you left your car unlocked or you should get up and eat or wait for the ads.

We’re all familiar with times our gut instincts have been right: knew someone was turning up or phoning, felt tension from a person before they told you about their stressful day or had a bad feeling about someone, and they soon proved you right. However, our history and experiences can cause us to misinterpret vibes and situations.

“Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it’s enough.” — Robert Heller.

The mind is a complex myriad of thoughts and emotions, decisions and indecision, memories and imaginations. Thoughts and feelings are more predictable when we understand the psychology and biology behind the patterns in ourselves and others.

1. Learn Psychology.

Developing strong instincts requires an understanding of human behaviour. Mirror neurons give us the power of intuition, where mental algorithms recognise patterns and sense other people's intentions or anticipate their actions.

We can broaden our knowledge of people through learning what influences our behaviour, including body language, personality, neurobiology, environment, culture, society, and history.

It’s easier to dig deeper and understand what a person is really trying to say when we have a clear picture of personality, defence mechanisms, and biases. Personality tells us a lot about a person, and learning about personality tells us even more.

Identifying defence mechanisms and cognitive biases can prevent taking negative thoughts and emotions personally and help manage more appropriate responses.

“Tact is after all a kind of mind-reading.” — Sarah Orne Jewett.

Mind reading is most beneficial when recognising lying, blaming, twisting information and other forms of manipulation and control. Psychology also investigates head injuries, mood, personality, and neurological disorders, which builds on our understanding of people and human behaviour.

2. Learn Biology.

Our enteric nervous system, where nerve cells run along the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), is part of the autonomic nervous system, coordinating our flight or fight responses. Hence, it has a direct influence on our emotions and decisions.

The enteric nervous system explains gut instincts and other gut responses to our thoughts and emotions.

Meditation and mindfulness can help stimulate and steady your autonomic system, strengthening the connection with your mind and body; therefore, your instincts.

Maintaining a healthy gut influences the transmission of neurotransmitters and hormones throughout the nervous system. Our gut’s microbiota, for example, affects the body’s level of serotonin or the happiness neurotransmitter.

Reading body language and recognising the physical signs of stress, lying, confusion, and other emotional states can become second nature once you’ve studied people, anatomy and physiology.

3. Learn You.

A lot of learning about you involves unlearning some of what makes you. Unlearning adverse traits, coping strategies, and biases that prevent self-awareness also prevent us from developing a stronger awareness of others.

For example, you might have a habit of transference where you predict another person’s behaviour based on past experiences. While this can be a helpful protection mechanism, it could be stifling your intuition if you do it regularly.

When we recognise our defence mechanisms and biases, we can watch that they’re not interfering with our interpretation of people and events.

Self-awareness gives you confidence and a good sense of other people. However, too much personal and public self-awareness can lead to self-consciousness.

Having an awareness of self means understanding your psychology and biology. Knowing how your mind and body reacts to people, situations, and events helps you monitor yourself in relation to others.

Mentalism is a form of mind-reading that takes mathematics and psychology into the realm of magic. Human behaviour can be predictable because people are easily influenced and tend to have a set of probable information sets, made even more likely using math and subtle suggestion.

Then there are the expressions that indicate what people are saying when they’re not capable of expressing themselves with words: eye-brow raising, scowling, scoffing, frowning, and other signs of communication immaturity. However, keep in mind that some nerve damage and disorders affect facial expression.

Possessing strong intuition takes time and practice. Take note of any psychological and physiological signs that occur within yourself when your instincts have been correct and learn to watch out for those signs in future.