Mind of My Mind

Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler, published in 1977 by Doubleday & Company Inc., is the second novel in the Patternist series. The novel is a work of science fiction and Afrofuturism, following Mary, a telepath, as she establishes the Pattern, which connects telepaths together. Mind of My Mind also follows Doro, the immortal who uses a selective breeding process to cultivate telepaths. Doro leads the prequel, Wild Seed, as he fights for control of the Pattern with Mary. Butler is considered a powerful influence in American science fiction and Afrofuturism and is widely known for her other novels, like Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, Imago and Kindred. These works, including Mind of My Mind, explore how race and gender can influence the construction of society and resistance to oppressive forces. The novel contains themes such as The Ethical Complications of Oppressive Power, The Development of Identity Within Community, and The Struggle for Domination Over Others.

This guide references the 2020 paperback edition published by Grand Central Publishing.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature child abuse, child death, suicidal ideation, suicide, domestic violence, violence, sexual violence, racism, and use of racist slurs.

Plot Summary

Doro, an immortal being who can transport his consciousness into others’ bodies, visits his daughter Mary in Forsyth, California. She is three years old and part of his selective breeding program. For thousands of years, Doro works to breed a race of telepaths. The telepaths are his own children, conceived either by the many bodies he inhabits or his descendants. When the telepaths reach maturity, they often go through a process called transition. This means that they go from being latent telepaths with little control over their powers to active telepaths with complete control. Doro believes that Mary will have the ability to unite telepaths, as their mental sensitivity often makes them incompatible for each other.

At Mary’s house, Doro finds her in horrible circumstances, as her mother, Rina, struggles to take care of her. Doro offers to move them in with a distant relative, Emma, who can care for them. Emma is also an immortal who achieves longevity because of her healing and shapeshifting powers. She is like a wife to Doro, and though they’re not often together, they depend on each other. Emma agrees to help raise Mary.

When Mary is 19, she exhibits telepathic abilities, but without undergoing transition, she struggles to control them. When a man comes looking for her mother and tries to assault her, Mary beats him and leaves the house. She suffers from the mental static of others while she is in public. The next day, Doro chastises her for her violence, saying she must be better to succeed as his experiment. He takes her to a hotel and informs Mary that she will be marrying another of Doro’s experiments, Karl, an active telepath who will guide her through transition. Mary is in love with Doro and refuses, but Doro exerts total control over her life.

Karl lives in a mansion he gained through his abilities, mentally conditioning someone to sign it over to him. His partner, Vivian, is also under his mental control, and though he wants to marry her, he agrees to marry Mary. When they first meet, Karl explains that he is meant to help her through transition by blocking out the worst of the mental noise and teaching her how to create a mental block. They marry, and when they share a bed, Mary realizes that she wants to be with Karl on some level.

While Karl and Doro visit one of their businesses, Karl senses through a mental link that Mary is beginning transition. They rush home, and Doro threatens Karl, saying that if Mary dies, Karl will die. Karl helps Mary block out the worst of the pain as she lives through the minds of those around her. He realizes that he must let her learn on her own if she is to successfully transition into an active telepath. Her transition takes longer than usual, and as she begins to come out of it, Karl is pulled into her mind against his will, unable to break the link. Mary unconsciously establishes links with five other telepaths, creating a pattern among them through which they are all connected. She feels ownership over them but cannot determine how to break the connection.

Across the country, the other five telepaths are victim to a mental attack that leaves them connected to Mary. When it happens, Seth Dana is helping his latent brother, Clay, set up a new home, isolated in the desert. Rachel Davidson is preaching to her followers, using their energy to fuel her healing abilities. Jesse Bernarr, who controls his hometown with his mind, loses a fight because of Mary’s interference. Meanwhile, Ada Dragan, who hopes for a community of telepaths, is relieved to sense Mary’s presence. Jan Sholto, discovering the death of one of Doro’s children, fears for her life when Mary calls her to Forsyth, believing Doro will be there. The telepaths cannot evade Mary’s call to Forsyth.

Rachel is the first to arrive in Forsyth and resents Mary’s control. Doro advises Mary to be firm and control the other telepaths, not allowing them any space to disobey her. Jesse threatens her, and Karl is irate that he is now under Mary’s power like Vivian is under his power. Once all the telepaths arrive, Mary calls a meeting. In the meeting, Jesse campaigns for the telepaths to kill Mary and gain their freedom. When Doro doesn’t stop him, wanting to see the extent of Mary’s abilities, Jesse attacks her. Mary quickly overpowers him, feeding off his energy, but stops herself from killing him. Rachel also attacks Mary but is quickly overpowered.

After these attacks, both Rachel and Jesse recover, and Mary officially establishes control over the other telepaths. When Seth brings his brother Clay to her, complaining of mental noise, Mary sees a connection between herself and Clay, like the strands of the Pattern that connect her to the others. She realizes that by mentally interacting with latents, she can force them into transition. Doro does not believe her initially, but Mary convinces him when Clay successfully transitions. Mary now wants to expand the Pattern, bringing in latents not only to feed her energy but to help them escape their lack of control over their telepathy. Doro is wary, not wanting to relinquish control and power over his telepaths, but he agrees to give Mary two years to grow what she will call the Patternists.

In two years, the original telepaths of the Pattern—the First Family—grow to trust Mary and find places in their new society. Seth finds seconds, those who help latents through transition, while Rachel finds destitute, struggling latents to bring in. Jesse, using mind control, helps condition ordinary people, or “mutes,” to serve the Patternists. As their numbers grow, they take up more neighborhoods around Forsyth and condition people to obey them, essentially creating an enslaved class. Jan uses her telepathic abilities to instill objects with images, experiences, and knowledge, creating learning blocks for new Patternists. Ada excels at working with children, a job few telepaths can handle. Children’s minds are unpredictable and volatile, with no control over their telepathic abilities. Ada runs the private school. Karl, despite his early resistance, becomes a close ally and confidant to Mary and largely forgets Vivian, though he still controls her mind. Mary and Karl have a son.

Doro returns to Forsyth with the intent of stopping Mary from expanding the Patternists. He meets with Emma, who says that Mary is accumulating too much power and may challenge Doro. Doro admits that her growing Patternist society is the goal of his breeding program. He wants a race of telepaths but is resentful of Mary because he cannot join her Patternists or control them. Doro tells Emma that he will convince Mary to stop, or he will kill her.

When Doro visits Mary, she takes him to see her son. Afterwards, Doro tells Mary she must give up the expansion of the Patternists until her son is old enough to take over for her. She tries to refuse but knows Doro will kill her. She goes home and reaches out through the Pattern to call for all Patternists currently searching for latents to come back to Forsyth. She tells Karl about Doro’s demands, and they realize that because Mary cannot stop converting latents to actives, as she draws too much energy from this, she will have to fight Doro. When Doro meets with them, Mary taunts him, saying he is jealous that he cannot join them.

Mary tries to stop expanding the Pattern, but when she cannot, she and the First Family prepare to fight Doro. Mary tries to send them away, but they are committed to her. One night, she reaches out into the Pattern and tells the Patternists to flee Forsyth, worried about what her death could do to them. They are confused, and when Doro walks in, Mary reaches back out and tells them to be ready for her to draw their energy. She and Doro begin a mental battle. Doro tries to consume Mary’s mind, taking her body, but she fights back. Drawing energy from the Pattern and the Patternists, she overwhelms him, consuming Doro.

Mary kills Doro, and Emma decides to die, using her healing abilities to relinquish her immortality when she hears of Doro’s death. Many Patternists die giving their energy to Mary, and it takes days for Mary to recover. She is relieved that they are now free to grow as they please.