2 truths and a lie, and 2 lies and a truth
When people lied in both cases they did one of two things. If they took a while to compile their three things, they tended to make more eye contact, or even nod while telling the lie, as if trying to impress upon you their sincerity. (Assuming it wasn’t such a ridiculous lie that they started laughing 
) If they didn’t take as long their eyes tended to dart a little bit particularly to their right, or they would hesitate before they spoke. What surprised me was how bad my people were at lying. Perhaps because I know them pretty well, or perhaps because they are just bad liars, but I could pick out the lie and the truth pretty easily. This was particularly surprising because I know that people do and can lie to me pretty easily. I think perhaps my prior knowledge of these people allows me to pick up on individual ticks or habits during lies, whereas without that previous experience I have more difficulty.
10 Open Questions
For a good friend of mine:
Why did you want to be friends with me in the first place?
Which of the things we did as a kid stand out the most and why? Which that we have done as young adults?
Why did you decide to go to our highschool when you did?
How did you pick your other friends?
What is it you like most about yourself?
Can you describe a time when you denied any of those qualities you value about yourself? Why did you do that?
Did you originally like the things I liked, or did you grow to like them because I was so into them?
What is the moment in life you have been most happy?
Which things in the past would you change if any? Why?
What do you want for your future? Why?
The exercise didn’t say if we had to actually ask these or not, which I would be interested in doing, but my friend is currently swamped with midterms, so I will wait a bit until she’s not so busy. 
What surprised me about this lesson was that, despite how much this friend and I talk and know each other, it took a while to come up with these questions. They require a real interest in the answer because you are requiring more than a few words out of the responder. They are also, naturally, much more interesting questions than yes or no questions. This made me wonder if this was so difficult, do we usually communicate in a closed fashion, asking only for tidbits of information, not really connecting? It made me think of how people will ask how you are and not want the real answer.
I think people often aren’t really engaged in their interactions with people. We can lie easily to each other just because we aren’t aware enough to catch the obvious signs of a falsehood, and are not digging very deep for more information or the real story. Although its hard to evaluate how well I ask these sorts of open questions or pay serious attention or not, I do get the feeling that I haven’t been doing it as much as I would like.
The next step is, naturally, to start practicing these things. A key aspect of a Jedi is self and situational awareness: if I can’t focus on the person I’m speaking to, I am not being very aware. This for me includes practicing my empathic skills. I can sense strong emotions without trying, but unless I am engaged I do not necessarily pick up on all the nuance I am capable of understanding emotionally. I am good at reading emotion and body language, but I’m not sure if I always make that effort. This is ironic, because I do believe that Jedi should be well versed in communication, as good and true communication skills are a huge asset in settling disputes and helping others with their own problems.
This was much more interesting than I had anticipated. Thanks!
Much love,
Kai-An
