# Could you be trusted with the Jedi Mind Trick? How about Vulcan touch-telepathy? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 8, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442 "2013-03-08T23:55:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/41 "2013-03-10T19:31:42Z")
Jedi Mind Trick, and of course I can be trusted not to use the power for selfish ends. No, everything that happens after will be for [The Greater Good](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUpbOliTHJY) ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/42 "2013-03-10T19:59:29Z")
Jedi Mind Trick. While I’d never use it for evil, per say, I definitely would be using it to better my own life. The first thing that comes to mind is “You _will_ hire me…you _will_ give me flex-time…you_ **will** _ install a free soda fountain in the staff room” ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/43 "2013-03-10T20:53:18Z")
I can not be trusted to use the Jedi trick at all. But, I wouldn’t even try. Why? Because if you have the power to make it happen then you’ve probably paid off everyone I’ll ever meet for the next six months to pretend that my Mind Trick was working. Then, just when I’m about to do something big, you pull the rug out from under me then I look like an ass. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/44 "2013-03-10T20:57:53Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > I can not be trusted to use the Jedi trick at all. But, I wouldn’t even try. Why? > > Because if you have the power to make it happen then you’ve probably paid off everyone I’ll ever meet for the next six months to pretend that my Mind Trick was working. Then, just when I’m about to do something big, you pull the rug out from under me then I look like an ass. If I were in it for the yuks, I’d just repeatedly drop you toward the lava, save you at the last second, and repeat until bored. Wait–that won’t work. The convection would kill you ere long. Okay, change lava pit to shark tank. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/45 "2013-03-11T01:50:07Z")
I could be trusted to not be actively malicious with it, but I’m afraid I’d quite soon become the Queen of making Bureaucrats Dance. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/46 "2013-03-11T02:28:52Z")
Jedi mind powers, and of course I’ll use them for my own benefit. I’m not an evil person and I wouldn’t murder anyone or cause mass chaos, but I’m sure as hell gonna get ahead. ETA: As an added bit of discussion, I should point out that my impression of the Jedi mind trick - or “Force Persuasion,” as it’s called in games - is that you can’t really use it as a sort of mind control device. It is more a way to distract people or to convince them to do things they might have at least considered doing anyway, proportional to the person’s degree of interest in the issue and their strength of will. You could not Force Persuade someone to do something they certainly would never ever do. I could not convince a bank manager to simply give me a million dollars in cash of the bank’s money. I could convince a skeptical loan officer to give me a legitimate $1 million loan when he might have been leaning towards not giving it to me. I could not convince an NBC exec I’d never met to give me a $5 million TV series deal; I could convince a talent scout to give me an audition I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten. I could not convince my boss to triple my salary and let me work one day a month; I could convince him that I’m such a valuable employee I should get a 10% raise and another week’s vacation, and that he doesn’t nee fot discipline me over the thing where I wasn’t wearing any pants, 'cause I’m such a good guy. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/47 "2013-03-11T10:59:16Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > ETA: As an added bit of discussion, I should point out that my impression of the Jedi mind trick - or “Force Persuasion,” as it’s called in games - is that you can’t really use it as a sort of mind control device. It is more a way to distract people or to convince them to do things they might have at least considered doing anyway, proportional to the person’s degree of interest in the issue and their strength of will. I’d disagree. Many of the uses we see are making people actively act against their own interests - soldiers searching for a fugitive, a major-domo screening his (psychopathic homicidal) boss’ visitors, a drug salesman. You’re arguing _all_ those have hidden motivations to want to fail at what they’re doing? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/48 "2013-03-11T12:17:27Z")
The main thing I am interested in is the mental powers. And in one episode of Star Trek, Spock was actually able to essentially do the Jedi Mind Trick, albeit silently. Sure, it was with an easily manipulated subject, but the Jedi Mind Trick only works on people with low willpower, so that’s about the same. As for whether I will abuse it, that depends on what abuse means. I will indeed use my powers to change people’s free will, and some consider that evil. I might, in time, think I know so much better than everyone else that I wind up using it for some selfish reasons, rationalizing to myself that it’s for their own good, too. But I will not actively hurt anyone. And you are in fact quite evil, tempting me with the best food in the world when I am no longer allowed to eat gluten. Damn you, Rhymer! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/49 "2013-03-11T13:15:32Z")
I voted for Jedi mind powers, and I voted between “I cannot be trusted with them at all” and “I could probably be trusted”. Because I probably would use it for personal gain…but not entirely, and I could never be truly evil. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/50 "2013-03-11T17:44:24Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I voted for Jedi mind powers, and I voted between “I cannot be trusted with them at all” and “I could probably be trusted”. Because I probably would use it for personal gain…but not entirely, and I could never be truly evil. The belief that one could never be truly evil is exactly the attitude that leads to being truly evil. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/51 "2013-03-11T18:20:58Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I’d disagree. Many of the uses we see are making people actively act against their own interests - soldiers searching for a fugitive, a major-domo screening his (psychopathic homicidal) boss’ visitors, a drug salesman. You’re arguing _all_ those have hidden motivations to want to fail at what they’re doing? Note that in each case, 1. Obi-Wan wasn’t telling the soldiers to stop following orders; he just told a grunt “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” Nope, buddy, not these ones. Must be in another speeder. Nothing to see her, don’t worry about us. He is not making the soldier want to fail; he’s telling him he isn’t failing by looking at these particular, nondescript droids. It’s an act of distraction; that British magician guy can do the same thing _just by talking to people_. Darren Brown? That guy. He doesn’t even need the Jedi mind trick. 2. In the case of the Twi’lek Luke got by, he clearly fooled the guy pretty bad, but note how he finishes his routine… “You serve your master well. You will be rewarded.” It’s clear he needs to reassure the weak-minded fool that it’s okay to let him by or else the spell might be broken. 3. In the case of the “death stick” guy, maybe he legiitmately IS a weak-willed doofus who Obi-Wan sensed was willing to realize he was doing the wrong thing. It’s not wholly consistent (after all, they’re willing to make characters totally immune to it whenever it suits the purpose of the script, like Jabba or Watto) but if it was a magic key to anyone’s mind, you’d see it more. “Stop shooting at me. Shoot your compatriots. Serve the Alliance.” The universe would be divided into people who could be Force-persuaded and people who could not. There’d be no greater power. For a fictional account of a really powerful mind control ability read Stephen King’s “Firestarter,” in which the little girl’s father actually CAN control a person’s mind to a terrifying degree - though it’s slowly killing him, and can have horrible consequences for the victim that cause them to lose their sanity over time. The effect there is instant, irrestitible, and seemingly limitless; he orders a man to think he is blind and he’s struck blind. He tells a man “that gun is much too hot to hold” and the man’s brain is so convinced it is so that his hand blisters. THAT power would be scary, even if it didn’t cause brain tumors. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/52 "2013-03-11T18:39:05Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] [clueless literalist] Trusted not to abuse them for your own profit, merriment, or other selfish designs, of course. [/clueless literalist] [/QUOTE] I totally trust myself to use them as I think best. 😛 BTW, is this all the Jedi powers, or just the mind trick stuff? When I answered the poll I was reading it as all the Jedi powers, which would be a lot better than the Vulcan stuff, but if you only get the mind trick stuff I’m not as sure. Give me all the powers and then feel free to try and drop me in the lava, however. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/53 "2013-03-11T18:47:22Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I totally trust myself to use them as I think best. 😛 > > BTW, is this all the Jedi powers, or just the mind trick stuff? When I answered the poll I was reading it as all the Jedi powers, which would be a lot better than the Vulcan stuff, but if you only get the mind trick stuff I’m not as sure. Give me all the powers and then feel free to try and drop me in the lava, however. 😉 Just the mind trick stuff. Evil!Skald has after all threatened every Doper except for Anaamika, Oakminister, and probably Chronos\* with murder at one time or another, and some of y’all hold grudges. \*I would have to check the records. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/54 "2013-03-11T19:56:50Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > First, it’s harder to use, which means it’s easier to refrain from using it which should reduce the temptation to misuse it on impulse. Having Jedi powers is too much like having a gun in your hand at all times, and hoping you never lose your temper. > > And second, it’s more sophisticated; it can be used for more subtle and generally ethical purposes than dominating people. This, for these reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/55 "2013-03-11T21:01:53Z")
The Jedi Mind Trick only works on slow or low willed individuals. I can’t really see much use for it besides maybe getting a discount, random mischief, or some minor illegal activities. In the films, it only worked against the storm troopers. The other time it was used was against Wado (spelling?) and it didn’t work. I just can’t see much legitimate use for it other than selfish reasons, and since I’m not actively rebelling and needing to hide from authorities, I don’t have much interest in it. I do think the Vulcan Mind Meld would have a lot more legitimate uses. Obviously, Spock and other Vulcans use it to help people multiple times through the various series. If one were to be michievious, it would also serve more purpose than just getting away with it too. It just seems all around more useful. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/56 "2013-03-11T21:42:35Z")
Hey, multiple voting. I win it all! Mwahahahahaha! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/57 "2013-03-11T22:19:39Z")
I checked all of them. It looked like fun. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/58 "2013-03-11T22:24:11Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > I checked all of them. > > It looked like fun. > > 🙂 :: sets naked-image library to “Nancy Grace,” aims naked-image-telepathic-beamer at Bosda, fires :: ---
**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2013, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442/59 "2013-03-12T07:41:27Z")
Whichever one helps me achieve my ultimate fantasy, naked sorority girl pillow fight in the girls’ locker room filled with tapioca pudding\* and also there’s sandwiches\*\*, thats the one I pick. _no offense to bread pudding. After all, I made that exact recipe_\*\* a day before reading this! **The girls make the sandwiches** \*\* right before the pillow fight. \*\*\*And by “exact recipe”, I mean, I looked at it, decided to make bread pudding, but winged it, cause I’m that awesome. \*\*\*\*The girls also make the tapioca pudding. Naked. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-be-trusted-with-the-jedi-mind-trick-how-about-vulcan-touch-telepathy/652442.md?page=2)