
What we need most in our time: Our truth detector up and running, scanning for truth and deceit, opportunity and danger. Our truth detector lets us know what is good and what is not good for us. It alerts us to advantage and warns us of danger.
It is on all the time, but it is not always consulted. We can access it most easily when we truly want to know the truth about something, when we take time daily to clear the lens of our perception, and when we check in frequently throughout the day to simple be aware and fully present.
We are all born with a fully functional truth detector, but what happens to make it so we can't use it as much as we'd like? Fundamentally, conditioning and acculturation.
We begin acquiring hangups and prejudices from our tribe even before we are born. Everything our mother experiences, we experience. Before, and for years after birth, we are more a part of her than current medical science is able to acknowledge with its confinement to the material. Ingo Swann goes into this in detail in his book Psychic Sexuality. The implications are enormous. The importance of maternal care goes far beyond physical diet and exercise.
Once born into the world, we learn quickly that the fastest way to get our needs met is to please others and agree with them. We find out what makes people like us and respond to us and what doesn't. Or, in the worst case, we learn how to get attention even if it is in a negative way. We know innately that it is dangerous to be ignored.
Next, our parents and relatives and extended groups fill us in on their prejudices and preferences. There is safety and resources in taking on the hangups of our group because otherwise they might shun us. Again, the worst thing is to be an outcast without a people or group.
But when we become sufficiently grown, we need our truth sense in order to navigate the wider world and find those we want to be with by choice. If we really want to know the truth about things, we will look for others who do, too. We will begin the job of divesting ourselves of meaningless prejudices and limited thinking. We will begin clearing our inner eye, our personal lens through which we see the world.
What happens when you are turned on to seeing and knowing with your truth sense? You are more alive, life is far more interesting, and you gain more compassion and insight into yourself and others; you get fooled less easily and have fewer personal crises; you are more prepared for whatever is coming; you become more solution oriented. Your powers of observation increase. You use your intellectual tools and abilities to explore what is really present rather than what you think is present, or fear or want to be present.
Today, in every group---political, ethnic, economic, religious, and educational---there are people who think that they must achieve their goals through deceit. Whether a goal is pro or con regarding an issue, or whether they just want to weaken a people or group by introducing chaos and fighting, they think deceit is the way to go.
The ultimate symbol of evil, Satan, is called the father of lies. Why are lies so bad? Is deceit the ultimate evil? Deceit is a kind of murder, yet good people all over the country are playing with it whenever they believe anything in the news that fits the prejudices of their group. It's time to put this in perspective because the number of deceivers is rising, and technology is making it easier for people to be deceived. But, if we use technology with our truth sense on, we can use it to advantage. I am currently working on a workshop on how to fact check and how to use critical thinking in evaluating news items going around. It's not really that hard and it doesn't take that much time. Even without using one's truth sense, there are many signs when we are being fed disinformation. Stay tuned; it may take me a couple of weeks to get all the process in writing, but when I do, I will publish it here.
It is on all the time, but it is not always consulted. We can access it most easily when we truly want to know the truth about something, when we take time daily to clear the lens of our perception, and when we check in frequently throughout the day to simple be aware and fully present.
We are all born with a fully functional truth detector, but what happens to make it so we can't use it as much as we'd like? Fundamentally, conditioning and acculturation.
We begin acquiring hangups and prejudices from our tribe even before we are born. Everything our mother experiences, we experience. Before, and for years after birth, we are more a part of her than current medical science is able to acknowledge with its confinement to the material. Ingo Swann goes into this in detail in his book Psychic Sexuality. The implications are enormous. The importance of maternal care goes far beyond physical diet and exercise.
Once born into the world, we learn quickly that the fastest way to get our needs met is to please others and agree with them. We find out what makes people like us and respond to us and what doesn't. Or, in the worst case, we learn how to get attention even if it is in a negative way. We know innately that it is dangerous to be ignored.
Next, our parents and relatives and extended groups fill us in on their prejudices and preferences. There is safety and resources in taking on the hangups of our group because otherwise they might shun us. Again, the worst thing is to be an outcast without a people or group.
But when we become sufficiently grown, we need our truth sense in order to navigate the wider world and find those we want to be with by choice. If we really want to know the truth about things, we will look for others who do, too. We will begin the job of divesting ourselves of meaningless prejudices and limited thinking. We will begin clearing our inner eye, our personal lens through which we see the world.
What happens when you are turned on to seeing and knowing with your truth sense? You are more alive, life is far more interesting, and you gain more compassion and insight into yourself and others; you get fooled less easily and have fewer personal crises; you are more prepared for whatever is coming; you become more solution oriented. Your powers of observation increase. You use your intellectual tools and abilities to explore what is really present rather than what you think is present, or fear or want to be present.
Today, in every group---political, ethnic, economic, religious, and educational---there are people who think that they must achieve their goals through deceit. Whether a goal is pro or con regarding an issue, or whether they just want to weaken a people or group by introducing chaos and fighting, they think deceit is the way to go.
The ultimate symbol of evil, Satan, is called the father of lies. Why are lies so bad? Is deceit the ultimate evil? Deceit is a kind of murder, yet good people all over the country are playing with it whenever they believe anything in the news that fits the prejudices of their group. It's time to put this in perspective because the number of deceivers is rising, and technology is making it easier for people to be deceived. But, if we use technology with our truth sense on, we can use it to advantage. I am currently working on a workshop on how to fact check and how to use critical thinking in evaluating news items going around. It's not really that hard and it doesn't take that much time. Even without using one's truth sense, there are many signs when we are being fed disinformation. Stay tuned; it may take me a couple of weeks to get all the process in writing, but when I do, I will publish it here.