Hello newusername,

It depends on what level of their mind you want to get information about. Most of people's more superficial thoughts and even a lot of their unconscious ones can be gleaned by subtle cues in context, inflection, body language and by using your intuition (and you probably read these cues quite well already without thinking about it, the trick is just to pay more conscious attention). John is quite right that to understand someone on a deep level both requires and incites compassion and a feeling of connectedness. Just my two cents here.

--Kelsey