7

We see in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock that Spock was able to perform a mind meld with McCoy to transfer his Katra to McCoy for later rejoining with Spock's body. This had an impact on McCoy's mind (which turned out to be quite humorous). My question is can a mind meld impact a person's psychology without transferring the Katra over e.g. could Spock perform a mind meld with McCoy and make him not like medicine and prefer astrology or something?

Improve this question
1
  • It seems that it always changes the psychology of both parties, but I doubt that a well-balanced Vulcan could impose a lie on the other's mind.
    – Beta
    Jul 29, 2018 at 0:33

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
9

Yes, although not necessarily to the same extent

If you mean change their actual personality as Spock did to Bones, I can't think of an example. It's hard to say if Spock could make Bones love transporters and hate medice ... but if you mean impact their psychology to point of changing their behavor, Memory Alpha has several such examples:

In 2151, the v'tosh ka'tur Tolaris initiated a mind meld with Subcommander T'Pol against her will. Since Tolaris had not been properly trained in the use of his mental abilities, this meld caused T'Pol to develop Pa'nar Syndrome.

(ENT: "Fusion", "Stigma")

In 2268, on stardate 4385.3, Spock melded with Kirk, McCoy and Scott to ensure they believed the bullets fired at them from Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holliday (at the OK Corral) were unreal and, therefore, unable to harm them.

(TOS: "Spectre of the Gun")

In 2269, Spock melded with a sleeping Kirk, whispering a single word, "forget", to help Kirk forget his love for the female android Rayna Kapec.

(TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah")

The Spectre of the Gun example seems to suggest Spock could fool Bones into hating medicine.

Improve this answer
3
  • 4
    Please note I am intentionally leaving out Sybok from the Final Frontier, as I'm not sure his "gift" is technically a mind meld and also because it means I would have to admit that movie actually happened.
    – joshbirk
    Mar 14, 2014 at 0:29
  • 1
    Hmm, your comment looks funny to me, I'm seeing "leaving out � � � � � from � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �", must be some sort of font problem.
    – mu is too short
    Mar 14, 2014 at 3:47
  • I expected to see Star Trek III in your list. While Spock didn't try to change McCoy, he definitely had an impact on his mind/thinking. Although the question is, whether you'd consider that mind melding.
    – Mario
    Jun 3, 2014 at 10:23
7

Also, both Sarek and Captain Picard in the TNG episode Sarek, Sarek's deteriorating mental condition, Bendii syndrome, results in losing the control of his emotions, and he inadvertently broadcasts his emotions telepathically until the whole ship almost goes insane, either by arguing, insubordination, harassment, and brawls across the ship.

In a desperate measure to deal with the situation of Sarek negotiating peace talks, Sarek mind melds with Picard to let Picard lend his emotional control to Sarek temporarily. Due to this mind meld, Picard succumbs to some of Sarek's most primal emotions for a short time, until Sarek completed the negotiations, when he boards another starship to return to Vulcan.

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    And Picard does end up carrying a little of Sarek with him afterwards so there could have been a (small) long term change. Funny, I just watched Babel from TOS last night, Lenard was a great Vulcan.
    – mu is too short
    Mar 14, 2014 at 3:43
  • And, in a way, this means that Picard could have carried a little bit of Kirk in his mind, if you feel that Sarek's mindmeld with Kirk transferred a piece of Kirk into Sarek. Which means that when Picard met Kirk in the Nexus........ ;)
    – L0j1k
    Jul 12, 2015 at 0:15
6

You could say that Tuvok's meld with the Betazoid Lon Suder affected both their personalities:

An experimental Vulcan mind meld by Tuvok was carried out with the aim of helping Suder to control his impulses. While to some extent it was effective, the resulting trauma to the Vulcan's emotional systems resulted in him losing some of his own control, becoming dangerous and violent.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a fundamental change in personality or just an alteration of the balance of components that were already present.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    This is probably the best positive example. Suder was a violent sociopath, and after his mind meld, both Tuvok and Suder exhibited altered personality traits at least temporarily. Suder did seem to understand and find a new way to control his violent impulses post-mind-meld, though if it would have lasted is up for debate since he died at the start of season 3.
    – Derek
    Jul 28, 2018 at 22:14
0

With regard to the scene in Act 4 of "Spectre of the Gun", what Spock did with the other members of the landing party was more than just a mind-meld. I had seen this done before, in "Dagger of the Mind", where he combined the meld---actually a quiet form of the Vulcan mind-fusion---with hypnotic suggestions of well-being, relaxation and weightless suspension, resulting in a calming effect on Van Gelder's mind. In "Spectre" he did the same thing---mind-meld combined with telepathic hypnosis, with spoken suggestions, each one worded differently for each member of the landing party but all with the same result: "The bullets are non-existent. Ignore them." And the only damage done in the shootout was to the wooden fence! Watching this electrifying procedure I got a whole new appreciation of what the Vulcans call "wuh tepul t'wuh kashek"---the power of the mind and what it could be capable of.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.