Fear Reading

Fear Reading
Power information
Effects	Reading or sensing fears of others to life.
Trigger	Wave hand at target.
Alignment	Evil
Category	Passive Power

Fear Reading is the power to sense and read the fears of other beings. This power is unique to the demon Barbas, and is known as the demon of fear because of it. It is the evil counterpart to read people's hopes.

Overview

The first and most basic application of this power is sensing or reading the fears of other beings. An example of this happened in 2004, when Barbas read Gideon's worst fear and then promised to tell no one.

Brainwashing

Barbas: "The demons are after them. Even as we speak. They have assumed your sisters' identities in order to kill them. But you must kill the impostors first, by midnight."

Prue: " Kill the impostors."

Barbas: "Yes."

— Barbas succeeds in brainwashing Prue.

On Friday the 13th in 2000, Barbas returned and attacked Prue again. However, this time he used his powers to brainwash her based on her fears; which was "losing a sister", since she had already conquered her fear of drowning. Barbas tells Prue that demons are masquerading as her sisters and she must kill them before they kill her real sisters. Fortunately, Phoebe and Piper were able to break the brainwashing by talking to Prue and getting her to believe that they were in fact her sisters.

Subliminal Messaging

"You fear hurting Phoebe for more than your fear remaining forever evil. Protect Phoebe. Strip your powers."

—Barbas using subliminal messaging on Cole.

After learning how to astral project onto the astral plane as an invisible spirit in 2002, Barbas began to use subliminal messaging as a form of attack. First, he reads his victims fears, and then project as an inner voice to them, preying on their fears and doubts, and then reinforce that by creating illusions within their mind.

Barbas could also use this form of attack to manipulate his victims into fulfilling his aims. For example, he used subliminal messaging to trick Paige into stripping Cole of his powers so that he could steal them.

This form of attack allowed Barbas to attack and manipulate his victims without them ever being aware of his presence, as well as attack them from a distance.

Tracking with fear

"Well, then, you track him with his orbs. I'm going to, uh…Track him with his fears."

—Barbas to Gideon.

In 2004, Barbas revealed to Gideon that he could track people with their fears when suggesting ways of how to track down Wyatt.

Notes and Trivia

• As shown in "Sympathy for the Demon", Barbas cannot read the fear of a being's astral projection.

Gallery

Also see

• Sensing
• Telepathy