The fourth law states "[t]hou shalt not invade the mind of another," which seems pretty straight forward, but really isn't as far as my group and I are concerned. Our hangup is on the word "invade," which seems to imply a lack of consent on the part of the subject. We're attempting to resolve the question "is it permissible to enter the mind of another with their informed consent? For instance, “why, I think someone has laid a compulsion on me, feel free to take a rummage in there and let me know what you find.” After all, a person on my property can either be an invader or a guest, their state depends on my consent.
Now, there are no explicit examples of something like this happening in the books, but there could be an implicit example. In
Turn Coat, when Molly invades Lucio’s mind and determines that her brain has been tampered with, it is a violation of the fourth law, but her subsequent conversation with Harry does mention Lucio’s consent, though Harry never states outright that Molly’s actions would have been acceptable with the Captain’s agreement. Later in the book, they discuss the other Wardens whose minds have been tampered with, and again it seems like someone has checked them out and determined that they were victims of mental tampering. I suppose it would be possible to ascertain this fact without direct mental contact, so it might not be evidence either way
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One of my players wants to play what amounts to a Neuromancer Psychiatrist. Her concept is that the character bills herself as both a doctor and a Wiccan, who uses her magick (the character’s spelling) to help her patients truly understand their own cognitive processes by enabling them experience their own mind as a third party (the player’s heavy into cognitive behavior therapy), for which we’re working on a spell. (Naturally she’ll be tempted to make a few changes herself, but that’s a compel for another time.)
Personally, I don’t think she’s a lawbreaker, but I’d like some other thoughts on the matter. Also, has this been addressed in the RPG? I’ve looked, but it doesn’t discuss allowable mental magic (which is a point against my interpretation I suppose).