Telepathy

Telepathy
Matt can hear the thoughts of others.
Originally held by:	Matt Parkman, Maury Parkman
Absorbed by:	Peter Petrelli
Ability to:	Mentally control functions of the brain
Examples of telepathy

Telepathy is the ability to mentally control any function the brain controls, hearing other people's thoughts, scanning the memory of other people and sending thoughts directly to other people's minds.

Characters

Confirmed

• Matt Parkman is the first person shown to innately have this ability.
• Peter Petrelli has absorbed this ability. (Fallout)
• Maury Parkman also has this ability.

Unconfirmed

• Future Sylar uses telepathy to block Peter's mind reading attempts.
• According to Chandra's journal, a woman in Botswana potentially has this ability. (Seven Minutes to Midnight)
• According to Chandra's journal, a woman in California potentially has this ability. (Seven Minutes to Midnight)
• According to Chandra's journal, a man in Sweden potentially has this ability. (Seven Minutes to Midnight)

Limits

Matt Parkman

Matt's power first manifested as mind-reading, but he has recently discovered that he can also send thoughts to other people. His control over his ability continues to improve with practice. He can actively focus on the thoughts of a particular person, but he still sometimes picks up thoughts at random from people in his vicinity, and he can have difficulty "blocking" the thoughts of agitated individuals or crowds. He was once overwhelmed by the intense thoughts of a crowd of frightened customers at a convenience store (Hiros), but he has not had any "overload" problems recently.

Matt once told his wife that he is only able to hear the thoughts of others. He was unable to receive mental images, complex thoughts, or delve into the memories or emotions of others (The Fix). While he is now able to send thoughts and even influence the behavior of others, he has yet to send or receive a mental image.

Matt is unable to read the Haitian's mind, and he has great difficulty reading the minds of other people when the Haitian is "screening" against mental intrusion. With extreme effort, however, Matt can occasionally pick up a word or two through the Haitian's interference.

If a person is thinking in a language other than English, Matt can still hear them, but he does not automatically understand the thoughts.

Matt's telepathic abilities seem to have a limited range; he has not been seen to pick up thoughts from anyone more than a few hundred feet away. He does not require a line of sight to pick up thoughts, but it seems to help.

To escape from his father's nightmare, Matt was able, for the first time, to telepathically send a message to Nathan (Fight or Flight). Later, Matt was able to break himself and Molly out of the "nightmare" trap into which Maury had placed them. Matt was even able to turn the tables on his father, trapping Maury in the nightmare (Out of Time).

Matt has also discovered that he can coerce people with his power. Not only can he hear thoughts, but he can also implant them, as he did with Molly Walker and Detective Fuller, in a non-verbal version of persuasion. However, Angela Petrelli, due to her experience with Maury, was able to resist him, and in doing so caused herself a nosebleed, similar to the ones Matt gets around the Haitian. She did not prove entirely successful, as Matt was able to get a name from her (Cautionary Tales). The persuasive effect of thought projection did not seem to affect Peter (Powerless).

Matt experienced painful feedback when he tried to read Future Peter's mind. However, Peter did not appear to suffer any ill effects, perhaps because he was more experienced than Matt. (The Second Coming)

Maury Parkman

Matt's father stated that his powers only started with mind-reading. Maury Parkman is far more adept than his son at using this ability. He is able to trap people in nightmarish visions that can fool the senses, such as he did with Molly, Matt, and Nathan (Fight or Flight). In order to put an individual into a nightmare, Maury first has to find a nightmare from the individual (Out of Time).

He is also able to sense and block mentally intrusive abilities and damage the minds of people who attempt to do this--such as when he incapacitated Molly when she used her ability to find him (The Kindness of Strangers), and caused Matt pain when blocking his telepathy (Fight or Flight).

Since escaping level 5, Maury has been using his ability to cause Nathan and on Daphne to see and speak with Linderman.

Peter Petrelli

Initially, Peter could only read the minds of others. Originally, he was unable to do so with focus or intent, seemingly hearing thoughts accidentally and scanning the memory of his mother while in the future (Out of Time). He first used the power on purpose to listen to the thoughts of Victoria Pratt (Truth and Consequences). He was able to project thoughts after Matt projected thoughts into his own mind. The persuasive effect of thought projection did not seem to affect either of them. (Powerless)

During a visit to see Gabriel Grey in the exposed future, Gabriel was able to resist Peter's use of telepathy, although the reason is unknown.

Selected Examples

• 
  Matt hears Molly Walker's thoughts at the scene of her parents' murders.
  (Don't Look Back)
• 
  Matt's intense telepathic concentration results in a single word—and a nosebleed.
  (Fallout)
• 
  Though Matt can hear Mr. Bennet's thoughts, he can't understand them--they're in Japanese.
  (Company Man)
• 
  While in a cell, Matt receives instructions from Mr. Bennet, who is in another cell.
  (.07%)
• 
  Peter tells Caitlin he can hear what she is thinking.
  (Petrified Lightning)
• 
  Maury Parkman induces nightmarish visions in Matt and Nathan, causing them to unknowingly brawl with each other.
  (Fight or Flight)
• 
  Matt projects his thoughts for the first time, helping Nathan break out of the nightmare.
  (Fight or Flight)
• 
  Angela's efforts to resist Matt's telepathic commands result in a nosebleed.
  (Cautionary Tales)

Memorable Quotes

"It's like -- it was like someone was talking to me. Except it was in my head."

"Did the voices tell you anything else? They want you to do things? Rob a store, kill the president?"

"No. It's more like I can ... hear people's thoughts."

- Matt, Audrey (One Giant Leap)

"You have the same abilities as Maury has, anything the brain controls, you control. Senses, actions, thoughts."

- Bob (to Matt) (Out of Time)

"Those marks that you have all over you. My father made you do that to yourself, didn't he? Did you know him when his mind reading became something more? When pull became push, and then he realized he could put a thought into anyone's head?"

- Matt (to Angela) (Cautionary Tales)

Notes

• According to Chandra's journal, an African woman "potentially" had this power. (Seven Minutes to Midnight)
• According to Chandra's journal, a a man from Sweden "potentially" had this power too. (Seven Minutes to Midnight)
• The Mozaic file reads Parapsychology / Telepathy.
• In a post on 9thwonders.com, evsdropr calls Maury's power "dream telepathy".

Trivia

• Audrey calls Matt "Carnac," referring to his ability (One Giant Leap). Carnac is the comic psychic played by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. Carnac the Magnificent could "read" questions on a card inside a sealed envelope and give a humorous answer to the question prior to opening the envelope.
• Telepathy is the first power shown to have passed directly from parent to child.

Fan Theories

Please refer to Theory:Telepathy for fan-created theories and other speculation.

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See Also: Extension:DynamicPageList3 (DPL3), version 3.6.1: Error: MediaWiki\Extension\DynamicPageList3\Query::buildAndSelect: The DynamicPageList3 extension (version 3.6.1) produced a SQL statement which led to a Database error.<br/>The reason may be an internal error of DynamicPageList3 or an error that you made; especially when using parameters like 'categoryregexp' or 'titleregexp'. Usage of non-greedy <code>*?</code> matching patterns are not supported.<br/>The error message was:<br/><code></code> • Examples of telepathy