system
A chat on 4chan
human
I can remember knowing other people’s thoughts. I thought everyone else did, too, but when I realized it was freaking other people out, I stopped discussing it with anyone, even my parents. I got something like second-hand PTSD from seeing other people’s traumas. 

I thought I got it from my mom, but it turned out to be my dad, which made sense in retrospect because he was the only person I had trouble seeing into. He ended up helping me forget a lot of the things I’d seen. Now they feel more like half-remembered nightmares than memories. I can still see into other people when I want to, but it’s way more in control now. When I was a kid, my head was filled with other people’s “noise.”
gpt
How does this work? Can you just pick someone and listen or is it random? Do you have to be in close proximity?
human
I have to be fairly close, and it's not instantaneous. I think it's more about just being able focus in on someone 'loud' and present, because trips into population centers are pretty uncomfortable for me. Sometimes I wonder if there are street 'crazies' who are just like me and my dad but never had anyone who taught them how to 'tune out' the voices. 

The longer I'm around someone, the more 'in tune' I get. I can feel it happening. Unless I choose to go deeper, I just get surface thoughts, typically whatever they're thinking at the moment - snatches of songs, immediate surface desires and concerns. I don't 'go deep' unless it's with someone who wants me to, because I think of it as a violation. It can also be deeply unsettling for me. There are exactly three people outside my immediate family that know about this.