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 functions of the brain.

Characters

• Matt Parkman is the first person shown to innately have this ability.
• Peter Petrelli has copied this ability (Fallout), and was later able to access it outside Matt's presence. (Distractions, Landslide, Kindred)
• Maury Parkman also has this ability.

Limits

Matt Parkman

Matt's powers first manifested as mind-reading, which recently has turned out, to be only one aspect of his power. He has limited control over his ability. He can actively focus on the thoughts of a particular person, but he 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 can be overwhelmed by intense thoughts, as happened in the convenience store. (Hiros)

Matt notes to his wife that he is only able to hear the thoughts of others. He seems unable to receive mental images, complex thoughts, or delve into the memories or emotions of others. His telepathic ability, as of yet, remains limited to only hearing a person's current thoughts as they're thinking them. (The Fix)

He is unable to read the Haitian's mind, or the minds of others 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 break out of his father's nightmare, Matt was able, for the first time, to telepathically send a message to Nathan. (Fight or Flight). Later, Matt's power grew as he is able to trap Maury into the "nightmare" that Maury placed Molly into. Matt then overcomes his father's advanced use of telepathy to trap Maury the same way he trapped Molly. (Out of Time)

Matt has also discovered that his power is both a "push and pull". Not only can he hear thoughts, but he can also implant them, as he did with Molly Walker and Detective Fuller, a nonverbal version of persuasion. However, Angela Petrelli, due to her experience with Maury, was able to fight him off, 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 out of her. (Cautionary Tales)

Maury Parkman

Matt's father stated that his powers only started at 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 perceptive senses, such as he has with Molly, and did to 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).

Peter Petrelli

Peter has so far only been able to read the minds of others. He has yet to do so without focus or intent, but seemingly hears them accidentally.

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)
• 
  At Ridgway Jewelry, Matt overhears a conversation between Niki and Jessica.
  (Run!)
• 
  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.
  (Fight or Flight)
• 
  Matt projects his thoughts for the first time, helping Nathan break out of the nightmare.
  (Fight or Flight)

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)

Notes

• According to Chandra's journal, an African woman "potentially" had this power. (Seven Minutes to Midnight)
• The Mozaic file reads Parapsychology / 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 to be shown to be passed from one generation to the next within the same family unit.

Evolved Human Abilities edit
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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