Certain things are just -- always there. I can sense the presences around me, even without reaching out to their minds, the same way I can just hear footsteps without having to be listening for them. I can consciously filter it, just like I can consciously try to filter out background noise, but... [the analogy still holds. it's a little like voluntarily deafening yourself. he's rather adrift without it, he loses so many of his social cues]