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eye2i2hear · 03-23-2012, 06:59 PM

Seeing as how the "Philosophy And Psychology" category still yields:

Marc Stevens Adventures in Legal Land Wrote:
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"General Discussion" Alex, for 800.

Regarding examining one's own (owned?) beliefs (especially as they may be inclined towards religious)

user pjeby, on LessWrong.com in a thread entitled Raising The Sanity Waterline Wrote:Since we don't have any kind of built-in function for listing ALL the beliefs involved in a given decision, we are often unaware of the key beliefs that are keeping us stuck in a particular area. We sit there listing all the "beliefs" we can think of, while the single most critical belief in that area isn't registering as a "belief" at all; it just fades in as part of our background assumptions. To us, it's something like "water is wet" -- sure it's a belief, but how could it possibly be relevant to our problem?

Usually, an irrational fear associated with something like, "but how will I pay the bills?" masquerades as simple, factual logic. But the underlying emotional belief is usually something more like, "If I don't pay the bills, then I'm an irresponsible person and no-one will love me." The underlying belief is invisible because we don't look underneath the "logic" to find the emotion hiding underneath.

Unfortunately, all reasoning is motivated reasoning, which means that to find your irrational beliefs in a given area, you have to first dig up a nontrivial number of rationalizations... knowing that the rationalization you're looking for is probably something you specifically created to prevent you from thinking about the motivation involved in the first place! (After all, revealing to others that you think you're irresponsible isn't good genetic fitness... and if you know, that makes it more likely you'll unintentionally reveal it.)

A simple tool, by the way, for digging up the motivation behind seemingly "factual" statements and beliefs is to ask, "And what's bad about that?" or "And what's good about that?".... usually followed by, "And what does that say/mean about YOU?" You pretty quickly discover that nearly everything in the universe revolves around you. ;-)

http://lesswrong.com/lw/1e/raising_the_sanity_waterline/

NonEntity · 03-23-2012, 08:05 PM

(03-23-2012 06:59 PM)eye2i2hear Wrote: Seeing as how the "Philosophy And Psychology" category still yields:

Marc Stevens Adventures in Legal Land Wrote:
Sorry but the forum you are currently viewing does not contain any child forums.

"General Discussion" Alex, for 800.

Regarding examining one's own (owned?) beliefs (especially as they may be inclined towards religious)

user pjeby, on LessWrong.com in a thread entitled Raising The Sanity Waterline Wrote:Since we don't have any kind of built-in function for listing ALL the beliefs involved in a given decision, we are often unaware of the key beliefs that are keeping us stuck in a particular area. We sit there listing all the "beliefs" we can think of, while the single most critical belief in that area isn't registering as a "belief" at all; it just fades in as part of our background assumptions. To us, it's something like "water is wet" -- sure it's a belief, but how could it possibly be relevant to our problem?

Usually, an irrational fear associated with something like, "but how will I pay the bills?" masquerades as simple, factual logic. But the underlying emotional belief is usually something more like, "If I don't pay the bills, then I'm an irresponsible person and no-one will love me." The underlying belief is invisible because we don't look underneath the "logic" to find the emotion hiding underneath.

Unfortunately, all reasoning is motivated reasoning, which means that to find your irrational beliefs in a given area, you have to first dig up a nontrivial number of rationalizations... knowing that the rationalization you're looking for is probably something you specifically created to prevent you from thinking about the motivation involved in the first place! (After all, revealing to others that you think you're irresponsible isn't good genetic fitness... and if you know, that makes it more likely you'll unintentionally reveal it.)

A simple tool, by the way, for digging up the motivation behind seemingly "factual" statements and beliefs is to ask, "And what's bad about that?" or "And what's good about that?".... usually followed by, "And what does that say/mean about YOU?" You pretty quickly discover that nearly everything in the universe revolves around you. ;-)

http://lesswrong.com/lw/1e/raising_the_sanity_waterline/

Eye2,

A LONG time ago, in a far distant galaxy, I made one or several posts about "The Work," by Byron Katie. Thework.org. She developed a simple set of four questions which lead you through the issues you've pointed to above. It's an amazingly simple, deceptively so, method which has PROFOUND results. I can attest personally to this, as well as there are various audio and video examples of random people she has taken from the audience in her seminars. You can listen for yourself to the questioning process and how it cuts through to people's core issues and releases their fears in MINUTES. I know I'm sounding like a carnival barker, but it is FREE and very effective. Go and listen.

- NonE

P.S. The questions are simple, the process, because it is challenging your very core beliefs, is difficult. But it is very quick if you simply do "the work." And then YOU ARE PAST all of the crap, you're free! It really is amazing stuff.