Lesson One

Welcome to the first lesson, where we will cover the basics of Occlumency and some of its practitioners. This is necessary to know before we delve into practical work.

Occlumency is, in short, an act where you magically close your mind against any external magical penetration, most commonly Legilimency. That way, a person can prevent anyone from accessing their thoughts, feelings, memories or from influencing them. Sometimes, one can even prevent themselves from being temporarily possessed. If you practice this art, and practice it well, you are known as an Occlumens.

This branch of magic is very difficult to learn, so you will not see it in normal wizarding school's timetables. Part of the reason why it is this difficult to learn, is because for it to work, a person must completely empty themselves of emotion. Humans are emotional beings by nature, so it takes some time for us to learn to let go of emotions. Occlumens needs to make the mind blank and empty, quiet, like the calmest ocean. Those users, who are more advanced, can try and suppress their thoughts, emotions and memories completely or even change them to a degree. The latter is most useful, because it is not as obvious that Occlumency is being used and a Legilimens might take the changed memory as truth.

Occlumency obviously uses a great deal of magical power, and willpower, together with a high degree of mental and emotional discipline. However, if you can master it, you can even resist such things as the Imperius Curse and Veritaserum. 

Now, the question that is often asked in this class is; Can Muggles learn Occlumency? Main reason for this query is that there appears to be no magical spells, or anything magical at all really, that would help Occlumency take place. Only strict control over one's emotions, which falls under mental practice. This has been a point of contention in the wizarding world for quite some time and still remains unanswered, mostly due to the magical world possessing very little information on detailed, genetic, distinction between Muggles, Squibs and Wizards. Especially so in regard to Occlumency, since it is a very obscure branch of magic in general.

However, my personal belief is that yes, Muggles have the capacity to learn Occlumency, but only if they are able to sense the magical intrusion on their person. However, this is rarely the case. Occlumency is more of a meditative and mental practice, where personal mind control and self-awareness is the key to a successful repellence of a Legilimens. Therefore, someone who is highly experienced and skilled in this area, Muggle or Wizard, has a better ability to detect and resist the intrusive consciousness. On another hand, someone who is good at visual imagination and visualizing different scenarios for a longer time might be able to drown out the thoughts that Legilimens wants access to with inconsequential or false memories.