I'm pretty sure I'm at stage 4 right now; I used to find it easier to debate people, but now I keep thinking of ways that I might be wrong or they might be right.
It's not that I don't have faith in my ideas, but it seems that admitting any kind of reasonable self-doubt automatically makes you lose on the interweb. Self righteous certainty just isn't natural anymore, which sucks because it used to be a lot of fun ...

Bob Dylan sang "Ah but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now." I think that's what he was getting at. It was fun to feel that confident, and most of us still end up feeling it sometimes because it's so irresistibly delicious, it sometimes feels justified, and actually occasionally is. But I suspect that once you've hit stage four, it never comes completely naturally again, never without some internal dissonance about it.

I think Bob Segar also speaks to this in Against the Wind when he sings "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then."

Jeremy, you rock!! I love your blog. And I enjoy your poems :)

Mid-way through my journey for self-actualization or enlightenment or whatever this is, I initially was somewhat depressed when I began seeing my brain as a programmable machine. But after realizing I have the power to rewrite all of that and it doesn't matter what the hell the truth is in the end as long as it's serving me (and my fellow people, of course :), then it (life?) became fun again. And I don't know if well thought-out self-deception is healthy or if it takes one away from enlightenment... I've been studying acting the past year and a half, about the same time I first got into studying psychology (both as hobbies for now), and I can tell you that some degree of self-deception is completely and totally essential to acting. So at what point, I wonder, would believing whatever you want qualify you as insane? Or maybe in the back of your mind you know the parts that are real and that aren't?

No, Claudia you rock for saying so. Really, make my day why don't ya? You probably know this quote from Alice through the looking glass:

"I can't believe that!" said Alice.

"Can't you?" the Queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes."

Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said. "One can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Claudia you wonder whether with practice you can believe anything. I speak to that in that article on Palin and "the Secret." Because reality is whatever persists regardless of what you believe, yes you can believe whatever you want but you'll probable mangle your BS detector in the process and the world will impose on you a cosmic wedgie or two as a result.

But is it good to flex your belief muscles? According to this wonderful psychology radio show/podcast on deception and self-deception, yes it can be extremely useful.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/02/29

Best,

Jeremy

Isn't stage 5 really just a hyped up stage 1? I think that I am at an unfortunate stage 5, but it's mostly because of having a real knack for hind-sight, preparing for disappointment and not getting too pleased with myself. Basically, stage 5 might be the Buddah(sp.) stage or it might be the Devil's advocate stage. I'm still confused.

C

Hi Cindy, as usual great question/comment. What do 5 and 1 have in common? I guess both have a tolerance of self-deception. One difference I see is that at 5 there's a live question as to whether to self-deceive. That may seem counterintuitive. Can you ask yourself whether to self-deceive without deceiving yourself into thinking it's OK when it isn't or alternatively seeing through your own inspiring untruths? I think the next piece I post speaks exactly to that question. But you tell me.

Best,

Jeremy