Mind probe was a powerful ability of the Force that allowed the user to sense or even sift through the thoughts, emotions, and memories of the victim, seeking useful information.
Maul uses a mind probe on a captured Jesse.
Most Force-sensitives were capable of detecting and interpreting the immediate, surface level thoughts, memories, and emotions of most individuals around them by way of the Force, though this would often apply best to those who were emotionally or mentally overwrought and unbalanced. As such, more composed individuals that possessed were more difficult to read. This particular technique, stated to be a variation of the mind trick by Snoke, allowed the individual to perceive and reach even further into the minds of others. In this manner, a practitioner of this skill was able to scan and navigate through a subject's mind through concentration and focus.
When used against unwilling minds, this ability could seen as a form of telepathic intrusion, with the user forcibly gaining access to their subject's memories and subconscious. Rather than simply evaluating the subject, the user would instead be penetrating and prying into them mentally. When used in this manner, the probe could potentially cause those being to experience great discomfort, to the point of extreme pain, making it useful in torturing subjects that attempted to resist. Similar to the mind trick technique, if prolonged or misused, the subject's mind could be overwhelmed and damaged, which would only serve to allow the user to better coerce their victim into revealing information, as well as to incentivize the victim into compliance so as to avoid any permanent further harm or suffering. As a variant of the mind trick, it was also possible to attempt to compel the subject into compliance, though this process was not exempt from the aforementioned risks posed to the victim.
In most cases, attempting to resist the would be unsuccessful, depending on the subject's own strength of mind and will as well as the level of power and skill of the practitioner. Nonetheless, individuals with the power to use the Force tended to be the most resistant, with some not only possessing sufficient power to render themselves immune to the probe.
Maul uses a mind-probe on Hera Syndulla.
During the Invasion of Mon Cala, the Ninth Sister extracted the location of Ferren Barr from the mind of King Lee-Char. After capturing Kanan Jarrus, a Jedi survivor of Order 66 and a rebel, the Grand Inquisitor questioned Jarrus aboard Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's Star Destroyer, the Sovereign, used the mind probe ability in an attempt to discover the location of the other rebels, however Jarrus managed to resist the Inquisitor's probing. After capturing Ezra Bridger on abandoned Republic medical station, the Seventh Sister tried to psychologically break him and to get him to reveal the location of Ahsoka Tano through taunts, threats, and even an attempted mind probe, which only caused Ezra discomfort, while he was able to resist her.
Maul demonstrated skill with the ability when discovering the location of Kanan Jarrus' Jedi holocron and his true name, Caleb Dume, by probing Hera Syndulla's mind. He also managed to sense that Obi-Wan Kenobi was protecting someone when he confronted his adversary on Tatooine. In addition, he probed through the mind of clone trooper Jesse in the undercity of Sundari during the Siege of Mandalore for information about Ahsoka.
Anakin Skywalker himself would later be capable of using the ability as the Sith Lord Darth Vader. He once used the ability to sense conflict within his son, Luke Skywalker, aboard the second Death Star. In the process of sensing his son's emotions, Vader was able to discover the existence of Luke's twin sister, born to himself and Padmé Amidala.
The powerful dark side-wielder Kylo Ren was adept at the mind probe and used it to great effect, with his use of the ability being strong enough to exert physical force on a target with enough effort, either to pinning them down or to hold them up. When seeking the map that would lead to the location of Luke Skywalker, he traveled to the planet Pillio where he probed the mind of Del Meeko and learned that Lor San Tekka had taken the map to Bayora.
Kylo Ren probes Rey's mind in search of the map to Skywalker.
Sometime later he captured the Resistance pilot Poe Dameron on Jakku after Dameron traveled there to retrieve the portion of the map that Tekka had. While Dameron was resistant to traditional interrogation techniques, he had no ability to resist Ren's power, which inflicted great pain on Poe, until it was revealed that Dameron had stored the information he sought in the astromech droid BB-8, who was on Jakku. Later, Ren captured the scavenger Rey after learning that she had seen the map and subjected her to a mind probe as well. As he sought the information, he discovered other memories, such as her encounters with Han Solo, and taunted her. Rey, however, discovered something new within herself, an ability in the Force. To her surprise, she turned the mind probe's effect back upon Ren, learning something of him: that he feared he would never be as powerful as the legendary Darth Vader. Ren, rattled, left her in order to regroup. When Rey was alone with but a single guard, she considered what she had done with Ren's mind. Her dawning realization led her to perform a mind trick on the guard.
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