Finally, a use for goatse.

I'm fairly confident that if I knew someone was reading my mind, I could make myself think of things sufficiently unpleasant or shocking to remove their desire to do so

That would work if they're only picking up surface thoughts, like Matt seems to do. I don't know how the mind works, but I would imagine that with skill, Matt could push past the active thoughts and actually read information in the long-term memory, etc. Unless his power is really just hearing active, here-and-now thoughts, and not any sort of stored memory, short or long term.

As a follow-up to Matt and aurelia's (commed) posts, I offer this.

(edited to correct link)

That would work if they're only picking up surface thoughts, like Matt seems to do. I don't know how the mind works, but I would imagine that with skill, Matt could push past the active thoughts and actually read information in the long-term memory, etc. Unless his power is really just hearing active, here-and-now thoughts, and not any sort of stored memory, short or long term.

This is what I was thinking. I'm sure that a normal person could just start thinking about nonsense or Carrot Top or whatever that would not be the most pleasant thing to pick up, but that's not actually stopping someone from being able to do it. I mean, when we saw Matt with the Haitian, he couldn't read him at all ... no nonsense, no nothing. And I kinda felt like they were hinting that was what Ma Petrelli did, too. You know, after she screamed at him with her giant, evil brain. It looked like Matt was trying to concentrate and pick up more thoughts but he couldn't.

Of course, I'm basing this all off of watching two seconds of a scene, so it's most likely total bs (at least as far as Ma Petrelli is concerned). Still I wonder if an average, non-powered person, once made aware that a mind reader was snooping around in their head could just deny access? And this is the longest I've ever thought about something related to Matt Parkman on this show. The schmoopiness of 3M is throwing me all out of whack.

George Takei gets an asteroid named after him.

3M = Molly and her two Daddies?

If Parkman has to wait for a verbalized (or even non-) conscious thought to pick anything up, it might be possible to block him by zoning out and thinking about nothing. Of course, if someone weren't disciplined about that sort of thing I could easily see it leading to a Jeff on Coupling-type situation. "Don't think about the Melty Mandrug deal!"

HRG foiled him by thinking in Japanese. That seems to imply that it's the conscious thought that Matt picks up on. It's possible that he just hadn't developed his ability enough to delve deeper but they haven't indicated that as a possibility.

I think that's an interesting aspect and one I hope we explore this season...discovering and working with the powers' limitations.

I think that Mama P's powers are something mental. I don't think she's a mind reader, necessarily, but there's definitely something brain-ookey going on.

Loved Peter in this ep. Loved Mr. Muggles. Did NOT love Claire cutting off her toe. ACK!

Also, I really loved the reunion between Mr. B. and the Haitian (who really does need a name).