I'm working on a bit and started thinking specifically of how powers work. It's a given that, in most cases, a person that has abilities can use those abilities without harming themselves.
As I go further into this, a person, say in this instance a telepath, "knows" how to read a person's thoughts. They may not do it well, the ability will need to be honed, but they can do it without causing damage to the target, unless that is also part of their power. The ability, for lack of a better way of putting it, has a built in safeguard.
Now, say a non-telepathic person, is given the ability to read someone's mind. I'm not talking like G'Kar and Londo where the Dust did as much damage to G'Kar as the reading did to Londo, but instead a situation where G'Kar had no side-effects, was able to see what it was he was after.
What I'm thinking would be akin to the difference of: you go home, you have an innate sense that someone has been in and searched the place, though you can't find anything really out of place, as opposed to: you go home and find all the drawers and cabinets dumped on the floor and some one kicked over the trash.
Thoughts?