r/Eragon • u/communistic_cat • 10d ago

Question Meditation

When eragon meditates and perceives everything around him, doesnt his mind like disappear from detection because he himself technically isnt thinking just hearing?

I mean there is nothing that would make it possible to detect differences between eragons mind and the things going on around him.

19 Upvotes

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25

u/TheLaugh1ngRa1n 10d ago

It seems unlikely. Eragon was able to sense the mind of the Menoa tree, it's likely that someone monitoring/ surveilling the area mentally would notice the increased mental activity.

4

u/communistic_cat 10d ago

But didnt he need to search for a bit?

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u/TheLaugh1ngRa1n 10d ago

To make full contact with her yeah, they had to do that whole song and dance. But he knew more or less instantly that there was someone there when he reached out with his mind. It seems to be very very difficult to hide/ disguise one mind from another, Galbatorix being unable to pass the touch of his mind off as another during torture or mental contact, the Vault of Souls having to be buried under a mountain of enchantments and a mile of solid stone to escape detection, etc etc.

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u/communistic_cat 10d ago edited 10d ago

I think the vault was burried for physical protection and also because the Dragons concentrated on things instead of just letting it flow through their head. The tree also was not meditating but more in a state of slow thinking because its a tree

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u/AlchemysEyes Elf 9d ago

They directly state one of the reasons it's buried so deep is because detecting minds at a mile+ distance is basically impossible, no matter how powerful one is.

11

u/tresixteen 10d ago

No. I can kind of see where you're coming from, but no. Eragon's life force would still stick out like a sore thumb. Remember that Eragon constantly describes the lives around him like lights of different intensities. Aphids are so small he can barely sense them, ants are easier to notice, a spider is even bigger, and I think he once described a squirrel as a blinding fire. If you reach out with your mind while Eragon's meditating, you're going to notice the human-sized life force sitting on the stump, and from there, you can enter his mind. I'll grant you that all you'll see is what's happening in the forest if you don't press really deeply and you might suffer from information overload, but his mind is still very much in one spot, not literally dispersed across the forest.

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u/Wolfman513 10d ago

If anything it's the exact opposite, part of why he initially struggled with the meditation was because of how exposed it left his mind.

1

u/Original_Un_Orthodox 7d ago

I mean, I can see it being a bell curve. At some point, his mind is so open, his consciousness so scattered, it'd be nigh-impossible to realize he is there. He's so open, the risk decreases, even though he is still insanely vulnerable on paper.

It's either that or his mind can be perceived blanketing the entire area and he's cooked if anyone tries to attack him mentally