ShareThisParents of difficult children have been known to invoke the Creator to get their kids to behave. "God sees you," they warn their offspring. "He can read your mind."
Soon, mind reading will no longer be God's exclusive prerogative. Instead, the privacy of our own thoughts and feelings will be invaded by mere mortals.
In a University of Wisconsin laboratory, tiny scanners already allow scientists to "read" brain waves of human volunteers to know what they are thinking and feeling. To be sure, the purpose of the experiments is therapeutic, enabling people silenced by brain damage to communicate with others again.
In March, another set of researchers used a different technique to "read" the emotions, decisions and intellectual abilities of their volunteer subjects.
Again, the intent of the research is praiseworthy -- to recognize mental disorder and to spot the advance signs of diseases such as Alzheimer's.
In every case, those who offer their minds to be read do so willingly, trusting they have nothing to hide. But the time will come when prying techniques will be used to probe unwilling subjects -- men and women interviewing for jobs or seeking a spouse.
In a film a few years ago, Mel Gibson played the part of a man who could read women's minds. The ability gave him great power over the opposite sex. In another comedy, Jim Carey played a lawyer who lost the ability to speak anything but the truth. It put him at a distinct disadvantage in the courtroom and with his young son.
Already, security agencies are researching the use of mind scanners for interrogating prisoners. Corporations have already used the machines to discover how to make consumers buy their products.
The greater commercial interest in brain scanning is to devise a reliable lie detector. No Lie MRI of Tarzana, Calif., offers "honesty" screening for everything from dating to business deals. Brain scanning also may be used to identify criminals who are likely to offend again on release from prison. At the University of Pennsylvania, a neurocriminologist has detected brain dysfunctions that identify violent criminals and sex offenders.
At King's College in London, scientists have found that the brains of antisocial boys often have too much gray matter. Here again, the researchers' intention is benign -- to treat such boys rather than punish them.
Advances in brain scanning have tempted some scientists to deny free will altogether and to substitute the brain for the human mind and soul. Still, God will continue to read the hearts and minds of his creatures for their own good.
The Creator remains vastly more qualified to interpret the minds of men than human technicians with personal agendas.
(David Yount's latest book is "Celebrating the Single Life: Making a Success of Life on Your Own" (Praeger). E-mail him at dyount31(at)verizon.net.)
AMAZING GRACE
