Because there is no direct mind-to-mind contact between people, you cannot access the thoughts and feelings of other human beings; you can only infer what they are experiencing. You make these inference from a single word, from silence, from long speeches, from simple head nods, and from glances in your direction or away from you.
This characteristic of communication has always frustrated human beings, for in a very real sense everyone is isolated from one another by the enclosure of their skin. What you know and feel remains inside of you, unless you communicate. It is as if you lived in a house with doors and windows that never opened. Perhaps the day will come when one of the futuristic devices from Star Trek becomes a reality and another human being can have direct access to what you are experiencing, but for now you must live in a kind of solitary confinement.
Although the inability to have direct mind-to-mind contact is universal, the methods used to adjust to this limitation are culturally based. Some cultures believe that because they shared a common pool of history and many similar experiences, they do indeed know what their partners are feeling and thinking. Yet in many Western cultures, the lack of direct access to another’s mind places great demands on such communication behaviors as asking questions, engaging in self-disclosure, and oververbalizing.
We can only infer what another is experiencing, and we do this by using the symbols that we and other people have produced.