So....what does this mental tuneup entail, my mental-guru, Terry?
Imagine that you have been kidnapped by aliens and taken to their planet to participate in a game. You aren't told what the object of the game is, but, your life will depend on how well you master it! There are others with you with varying degrees of experience at playing this game who act as though they have some special insight--but, you cannot be certain. What would you do? How would you proceed?
This is pretty much the same situation we all are in (except for being kidnapped by aliens :)
We are born without a clue! (Sure, you will be told you are born WITH a clue--but--you can believe that at your own risk!)
As an infant our fate is in the hands of our caregivers. How much skill they have at that is anybody's guess!
We start to form impressions of what is going on and how the game (of life) actually works.
Trial and error mostly.
Suffice to say we begin by noticing sameness and difference and cause and effect.
This is bigger than that. When I do this, then, that happens. Little by little we form our game theory. How do we win? How do we get what
we need as well as what we want? What kind of alliances benefit us? What kind of relationships hurt us. On and on we compile our theory of the game.
Along the way, when our thinking becomes more sophisticated we are told stories of how the world works. These stories are designed for children. There are talking animals and moral tales. Moreover, we are introduced to a major character: God. All sorts of claims are made about this invisible superpowerful person.
Usually there are rituals we are indoctrinated with too. These rituals are everywhere. The purpose of these patterned responses appears to be to make others happy with us. In effect the rituals are: Do this and we are pleased; do that and we are displeased.
However, very little attention is paid to one of the most important processes going on inside our own head. We really aren't taught the elements of thinking in any technical way. We aren't told how we form impressions. We aren't told how we form concepts. Concepts are not defined. We certainly aren't given any glimpse of genus and differentia! Learning is ad hoc, on the spot, do or die, trial and error and not much more than that.
In fact, each family, each culture, each economic group in society seems to have its own peculiar way of going about teaching and learning. Startlingly, the particulars are entirely unknown!!
If some behavior, some ritual, some magic word or some prayer appears to produce results it becomes adopted as a successful strategy. This can be a rabbit's foot, a lucky tie, avoiding a black cat, asking a Saint for help or many other strategies.
In other cases, people simply ask friends what they should do (assuming their friends automatically know more than they do.) Some people ask parents or priests or consult their horoscope.
But, the main point is this: UNLESS a person knows how to make important decisions about their own life they are completely at the mercy of NONinformation, ritual, guesswork and superstition. The after-effect of such choice of methodology will be random success and mostly failure.
Astonishing, isn't it? The most essential piece of knowledge a human can pass on to their children is missing. Nobody seems to know or has their own private opinion as to how to make decisions and what to base thinking upon.
This is where religion comes to the rescue! Any plan is better than no plan at all. Confidence is better than indecisive fear. The Group is more secure than the lone wolf. Group approval is a strong magnet and a soothing fallback strategy.
One by one each of us faces indoctrination. The beauty and comfort of indoctrination is that it lets us off the hook. What hook? We don't have to figure out how the world works FOR OURSELVES! The answer is ready-made. One size fits all!
Unless and until we master our own thinking process and make it intelligible to ourselves we are cogs in a machine. The machine either functions to our benefit enough to keep us happy, or, far more likely; it enslaves us to serving __others__and denying ourselves much of a future except as far as promises go.
So, the vedict is in: we simply must define the elements and processes of thinking accurately for ourselves or we are puppets in our own lives. We take the wheel and direct our own life or we sit in the backseat complaining about the trip.
The choice has always been ours.
For myself, I thought making the choice to become a Jehovah's Witness ended my quest for the best knowledge and highest purpose in life. I was confident I was safe and approved by those who mattered. My world came crashing down when it became clear I was wrong, wrong, wrong.
I had to start all over from scratch! Erase! Reboot! Reformat my hardrive!
But, what operating system would I use?
That is the condition most of the people on JWD find themselves in when they arrive here wounded, disillusioned and afraid; angry, suspicious and humbled.
My answer to the quest is to seize control of your own thinking. Take it apart. Examine everything closely.
1.Each day make a list of important vocabulary words; especially concepts. Give as complete definitions as humanly possible under each concept.
Example: JUSTICE: getting what you deserve based on your actions/inaction. It follows from the law of existence and cause and effect.
TRUTH: matching reality to its description leaving no element out and adding nothing contradictory or superfluous.
EVIL: The standard for all things is man's own life; what is required for optimum existence as man. Reason is man's greatest tool of survival.
Anything which opposes, negates or distorts man's reason or survival is EVIL and is anti-survival anti-reason, anti-logic. (Imprtant: put these definitions in your own words to make them understandable.)
Day by day build up your vocabulary with ultra-specific definitions which are pure, exact and rational. Remember, how you define your concepts sets your standard of awareness of reality. It determines how you view reality. It determines how you manipulate the elements of thinking, choosing, acting.
2.Examine your Concepts for false definitions and remove what is false. Ask yourself what is the most essential element of this concept that distinguishes it from all others of the same general group? Look for the Common Denominator. What do all tables share in common that makes them tables rather than something else? This is the tool science uses (genus/differentia) to classify what is what.
Proper classification is simply impossible unless you can perform this simple task. How would you answer this question: "Can art be moral or immoral?"
How would you take the question apart to see its elements? What is the basic definition of "art" or "moral"? What is the premise upon which this question seems to rest? Are there presuppositions?
You have to be able to define and categorize everything you are thinking into the smallest possible elements in order to perform the operation of THINKING. You can't add up a column of numbers if you don't know the rules of addition! (Can you divide by zero? Why not?) The rules of the game determine the outcome; who wins and who loses.
If you look at your life and you are a LOSER it is the result of a chain of choices you made based on false premises with undefined (or wrongly defined) concepts guiding you all along the way.
Learn the rules and play the game of life to win. The more you practice; the better you become at winning.
3.Be skeptical of everything! You are reformatting everything in your brain! You cannot afford to leave a virus in place to hijack your clear thinking.
A virus is a hidden or disguised program designed to perform a different operation than what YOU choose and it is for somebody ELSE'S benefit.
Belief is an invitation to spyware, virus and hardrive crash! Stop BELIEVING things. Examine what you hold to be valid by doing this.
Each day make a list of what:
1.You absolutely are convinced is true.
2.What you are pretty sure (but don't know for certain) is true.
3.Don't know one way or the other is true
4.Are pretty sure isn't true.
5.Absolutely certain is not true.
Start with the Absolute Certainty and beat the hell out of it! This is your most dangerous section of thinking which does you the most harm! Your World View is a map that can get you lost if any of it is wrong. Is anything on this list taken on Faith, Hope or the advice of others? TEST IT!
How do you test what you are convinced is true?
1.Find books by people who think exactly the opposite and who set out to disprove it. Read those books and face their rebuttals. Hear both sides of every issue before you proceed.
2.Read both sides of every important issue and stray outside of your comfort zone.
3.Start debates with people smarter than you and let them beat the crap out of your safe convictions. Lick your wounds and see where you are wrong.
4.Avoid reading comfortable subjects that reinforce your viewpoint. Search out controversy and take apart the reasons for conflict.
5.Listen carefully to interviews. How do people avoid answering tough questions? What makes an answer satisfying or not? What makes a question tough?
6.Take an advertisement in a magazine and cross out all the adjectives. What does the AD really say? What are the hidden presuppositions in advertising that we are supposed to accept without question?
7.Look for linkage. What things are connected to other things in order to make them appear worthy? (Celebrity endorsements, for example, Nine out of ten doctors, beautiful women, sex, Authority, cuteness or innocence.) Ask yourself HOW one thing is connected to another.
8. Understand words by reading the dictionary and memorizing important definitions. Words change over time according to how they are used. Look at words which have changed and ask yourself what pressures caused these changes.
9.Identify BOGUS WORDS used by liars, mystics, and idiots to convince others. Words like: ENERGY, SPIRIT, AURA, SPIRITUALITY, SECRET, POWER, etc. Not one person in ten can actually correctly define these words. They are like counterfeit money circulating in our economy. They seem to have a lot of buying power, but, they are empty and devoid of value.
10. Read difficult books on difficult subjects and ask yourself after each paragraph, "What the hell is this author saying?" "How the hell do they know that?
Look for the source of a positive statement. Does it come from mere opinion, assertion or logic and definition??
Define, define, define! The greater your awareness of specifics the less vulnerable you are to generalities.
GENERALITIES can persuade you of almost anything. The Devil is in the DETAILS. Look for details. Examine details. Define details.
There are no contradictions between reality and truth. The number one red flag is CONTRADICTION. This is your alarm bell. If something contradicts itself or a known truth---you are staring a LIE in the face.
Clear thinking is very hard work. You have to consciously do it every day. It takes practice. It takes determination. It takes a will to success.
But, a good life well-lived is worth all the work.
