The Professor’s Unexpected Question

It was a rainy Monday morning, and the lecture hall buzzed with sleepy murmurs as students waited for Professor Alden’s notorious Philosophy of Thought class to begin. Known for his eccentric teaching style and cryptic assignments, the professor was both feared and admired. Nobody ever quite knew what to expect from him.

When he finally entered, his soaked trench coat dripping onto the floor, the room fell silent. Without saying a word, he walked to the board, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote a single question in large, deliberate letters:

What would you do if you discovered your thoughts weren’t your own?

The students stared. No one dared to speak. Then, with a faint smile, the professor sat on his desk and said, “You have ten minutes. Begin.”

Sophie, sitting in the second row, felt a chill crawl up her spine. She had always admired the professor’s intellect, but something in his voice sounded different—urgent, almost frightened. She began to write, her pen trembling slightly: If my thoughts aren’t mine, then who is thinking them for me?

One by one, students filled their papers with philosophical ramblings, existential panic, and wild theories. Ten minutes later, the professor collected the essays, glanced at them briefly, and asked, “How many of you felt something unusual while writing?”

More than half the class raised their hands. Sophie’s heart pounded.

“Good,” he said quietly. “Now listen carefully. What you experienced wasn’t imagination—it was real. For the past semester, I’ve been running a small experiment with a thought-suggestion algorithm. Every student here has been receiving subtle mental prompts through the university’s neuro-learning headsets.”

A stunned silence swept through the hall.

He paused, looking at their pale faces. “The experiment’s goal was simple: to test how easily human free will could be influenced.”

Then, his tone softened. “But here’s the twist—there was no algorithm. I lied. Everything you felt came from your own mind. You chose to believe in control.”

As the class erupted in whispers, Sophie realized the true lesson: the most dangerous manipulation isn’t external—it’s the one we allow ourselves to imagine.

And from that day, no one in Professor Alden’s class ever trusted their own thoughts quite the same way again.