Whether your ability to know what others around you are thinking should be seen as a blessing or something to be feared depends very much on what types of thoughts you are picking up on, and therefore how knowing what others are thinking makes you feel.
If you are receiving intuitive information (that inner knowingness you described without any logical reason for knowing these things) which is mainly positive and could be of assistance to you in helping the other person, then in my opinion your empathy and sensitivity is a blessing.
However if you feel on the other hand that nobody's thoughts including your own are private, and especially that they are constantly plotting against you in order to cause you bodily harm, then I would say that you are probably on the borderline for being schizophrenic, and developing a victim or persecution complex. I would see this as more of a curse, and a valid reason for seeking urgent treatment from a qualified medical practitioner.
If you had said instead that you were picking up on people's feelings rather than on their actual thoughts, as many of us who help other members on these boards do on a fairly regular basis (and you have learned to temporarily turn off this ability when necessary), then this is a wonderful spiritual gift and it is without doubt something to be encouraged and developed further, in the loving service of others.
eye_of_tiger
