Top 100 Self-Deceptions Exercise

[r0ckyreed]

I invented an exercise today which I call the Top 100 Self-Deceptions Exercise.

I will share you my list, after I explain the exercise.

The Exercise: Write down your top 100 self-deceptions from scratch.  Think of all the ways in which you fool yourself.  Force your brain to come up with at least 100. 

Here is my list:

Top 100 Self-Deceptions 

1.     Comparison

2.     thinking I know more than I actually do

3.     thinking things apply to others but not to me (i.e., aging, sickness, rules, death, etc.)

4.     All beliefs, assumptions, and biases

5.     Selfishness

6.     Closedmindedness

7.     emotions – anger, depression, fear, envy, etc.

8.     my own mind

9.     entertainment, leisure, and fun

10.  giving authority to others

11.  arguing and trying to persuade, convert, and convince others

12.  addictions

13.  distractions

14.  believing I have discovered or answered something

15.  peer pressure, conformity, demonization, and groupthink

16.  pleasure and pain – what typically feels good is typically unhealthy (i.e., junk food tasting good and videogames being fun).

17.  Laziness, resistance, and procrastination

18.  Subscribing to or defending any worldview

19.  Outsourcing self-inquiry, contemplation, and critical thinking

20.  Following a teacher/guru or teaching

21.  Needing others, love, approval, and socialization

22.  Making up excuses or justifications for anything

23.  Blaming or judging others or self

24.  Keeping myself busy

25.  Neglecting myself and my own personal growth

26.  Engaging in petty activities (i.e., gossip, critiquing, debunking, videogames, etc.)

27.  Watching television or playing any kind of game

28.  Reading too many books as a way to neglect and distract myself from contemplation and introspection

29.  Only caring and prioritizing when it is too late (i.e., caring about health only when you get the diagnosis).

30.  Pursuing pleasure, success, and comfort

31.  Avoiding the emotional work

32.  Believing in moderation

33.  Self-doubt and imposter syndrome

34.  Over-confidence & delusions of grandeur

35.  Ownership

36.  Expertise or credibility

37.  Politics

38.  Science

39.  Academia and education systems

40.  Media/news

41.  Religion

42.  Plagiarism

43.  Conspiracy theories

44.  Crime

45.  Judicial system

46.  Royalty/status

47.  Social media

48.  Hatred, racism, sexism, bigotry, etc.

49.  Healthcare industries

50.  Insurance

51.  War and military

52.  The belief that I am invincible in my youth

53.  Internet

54.  Entitlement

55.  Parroting others and failing to be original

56.  Spiritual bypassing

57.  Spiritual superiority

58.  Lying, manipulating, and controlling others

59.  Thinking I have a later or tomorrow

60.  Time

61.  Ruminating the past

62.  Getting lost in thought

63.  Denial of death – not being aware of mortality

64.  Denial of anything

65.  Being too afraid to question something

66.  Dishonesty of any kind

67.  Confusing familiarity with knowledge

68.  “doing it for others.”

69.  Gossiping

70.  Being too selfless and using that as an excuse to not be responsible

71.  Preaching

72.  Attachment to opinions, ideas, people, teachings, teachers, and things

73.  Materialism

74.  Believing in duality, separation, or ego

75.  Assuming that other people are conscious

76.  Family, friends, enemies, and other people

77.  Using truth as a weapon to justify being selfish

78.  “ignorance is bliss.”

79.  Dreams

80.  Backsliding

81.  Overestimation and underestimation

82.  Dismissing any idea

83.  Being too skeptical or too logical

84.  Being too gullible or too emotional

85.  Thinking that something is superior or inferior

86.  Thinking objectivism is true

87.  Thinking

88.  Taking the easy path – the path of least resistance

89.  Assuming that thinking is dangerous

90.  Assuming there is only one right way

91.  Admiration to the extreme

92.  Narcissism and mental illness

93.  The idea to live off the grid

94.  Hating anything

95.  Not actively seeking challenges and trying new things

96.  “not having enough time.”

97.  Making the same mistake

98.  Assuming that philosophy is a waste of time

99.  Generalization

100.                 Caring too much about thing that aren’t real of don’t matter such as money

101.                 Sex/attraction

102.                 Loneliness

103.                 Being a loner

104.                 Sharing an awakening with others

 

Feel free to share your own lists.  There is so much more.  I haven't even scratched the surface!

[Kshantivadin]

Who is deceiving whom? 

[Kshantivadin]

1. belittling myself and severely underestimating what I can achieve in a lifetime

2. distraction. lots of distraction

3. deliberate ignorance

4. believing thoughts to be real

5. believing thoughts to be mine

6. believing emotions to be more than a state

7. not thinking much, not contemplating, not introspecting deeply

 

[r0ckyreed]

3 hours ago, Kshantivadin said:

Who is deceiving whom? 

Consciousness.  That is what an ego and self is after all.  Just a big self-deception or magic trick.

 

3 hours ago, Kshantivadin said:

1. belittling myself and severely underestimating what I can achieve in a lifetime

2. distraction. lots of distraction

3. deliberate ignorance

4. believing thoughts to be real

5. believing thoughts to be mine

6. believing emotions to be more than a state

7. not thinking much, not contemplating, not introspecting deeply

 

Great list! Great start so far!

[Thought Art]

Great list

or is it? 

[Leo Gura]

@r0ckyreed Nice!

Studying the devil, eh?

[Eyowey]

I would say that language is the ultimate deception. Without language you're left with raw sensory data. AKA reality.

[Osaid]

100? I'm too lazy to do all that. Well there's self-deception number 1 I guess.

[r0ckyreed]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@r0ckyreed Nice!

Studying the devil, eh?

Yup! I’m trying to figure out what the matrix really is. I’m trying to break/escape the real matrix! Or am I? ?

Edited January 23, 2023 by r0ckyreed

[r0ckyreed]

13 minutes ago, Osaid said:

100? I'm too lazy to do all that. Well there's self-deception number 1 I guess.

Yup lol! That’s my main one. Making excuses and distracting myself from the work, which is what I’m doing now lol. But this is my best escape/distraction.

Edited January 23, 2023 by r0ckyreed

[Sincerity]

Cool initiative! I'm on board.

Here's my personal list. I've experienced these at some point in my life. Some of them might be already behind me, I don't know.

1. Not taking action on my career work unless I'm sure this is 100% the right thing for me
2. Waiting for something to happen, to break me out of my lethargy
3. Distraction (!!!!!)
4. Romanticizing being attached, loving in a limited way
5. Nihilism-induced passivity
6. Attributing universal meaning to events, calling it fate or something
7. Claiming possession of awakenings
8. Feeling like I'm special in this specific form because "I am God"
9. Rationalizing my questionable actions
10. Romanticizing the past
11. Comparing myself to others, especially Leo
12. Endless contemplation with little action
13. Claiming possession of intuitions and insights which weren't actually created by "me"
14. Oh yeah, "me"
15. Waiting for the next psychedelic trip
16. Lack of execution and inaction in general
17. Thinking that my insights and models actually represent reality
18. Belief that no one could truly love me romantically, for who I am
19. Trying to be right in an argument
20. Trying to maintain the image of being impartial, rational and correct in my analyses
21. The belief that anything I do has any true meaning or purpose
22. The belief that anything matters here
23. Fear in general (!!!!), fear of death, fighting for survival even though everything would be okay nevertheless
24. Shame in general (!!!!), being averse towards accepting things as me, cringing
25. Being cold towards those in need sometimes, fear of being exploited, not seeing myself in them
26. Obsession with the forum, addiction
27. Judging others
28. Lying in arguments (even subtly)
29. Dishonest, close-minded shaming in arguments --> "You can't really believe in X. Seriously?"
30. Closemindedness towards perspectives
31. Thinking I'm so advanced and wiser than others
32. No matter how productive I am during the day, it will never be enough
33. Thinking that by contemplating I'm raising my consciousness, but actually I'm just lost in thought and concepts
34. Wrongly interpreting experience, especially on psychedelics
35. Actually, interpretation in general - it's just me building my conceptual castle
36. The assumption that I can't really fuck up my life permanently - dangerous naivety
37. The assumption that everything will turn out okay even if I don't take action and build anything stable
38. Being too passive and not fixing stuff that bites me in the ass, learned helplessness
39. Hating and cursing my father in my mind, hating anyone in general 
40. The belief that I am entitled to awakening and I am somehow held back by God (haha)
41. The belief that I am entitled to anything in life, even respect, safety, food and water, health
42. Thinking that I have some relation to Leo, unhealthy obsession
43. Addiction to social media, watching all the dumb shit there and believing it's normal, it has any value, it's wise in any way
44. Compulsive need to do something instead of not doing anything, perceiving not-doing as bad
45. Forgetting that I will die
46. Believing that I will die (haha)
47. Desire for affection from certain people, especially women, which really distorts my vision and floods my thoughts
48. Creating fantasy scenarios and getting stuck in them for a long time, living in fantasy
49. Thinking that my solutions in life will work for others as well
50. Giving answers and solutions even when no one asks for them, being the fixer and the wise guy

I'm tired so I'm going to stop here. ?‍♂️ Might edit in the rest later.

Edited January 23, 2023 by Sincerity

[A_v_E]

1) thinking you could make a top 100

[r0ckyreed]

6 hours ago, Eyowey said:

I would say that language is the ultimate deception. Without language you're left with raw sensory data. AKA reality.

That’s a good one. Language comes down to thinking to me. I wonder if raw sensory data can also be self-deceptive?

20 minutes ago, A_v_E said:

1) thinking you could make a top 100

The Devil is in the details.

 

[r0ckyreed]

@Sincerity @Lila9 Nice lists!

@Sincerity I liked how specific and clear you were with your list.

2 hours ago, Sincerity said:

Giving answers and solutions even when no one asks for them, being the fixer and the wise guy

That is a big one.  We all wanna feel like we are being altruistic, but deep down, we do it because of a gain we hope to get, so it isn't true altruism.

2 hours ago, Sincerity said:

Thinking that by contemplating I'm raising my consciousness, but actually I'm just lost in thought and concepts

I would say that that isn't really a self-deception generally, unless the way you are contemplating isn't actually raising your consciousness.  

Contemplation done right is the opposite of being lost in thought.  Contemplation done correctly raises your awareness.  That is what this list and exercise is - a contemplation.

[Sincerity]

12 minutes ago, r0ckyreed said:

@Sincerity I liked how specific and clear you were with your list.

Thanks! 

14 minutes ago, r0ckyreed said:

I would say that that isn't really a self-deception generally, unless the way you are contemplating isn't actually raising your consciousness.  

Contemplation done right is the opposite of being lost in thought.  Contemplation done correctly raises your awareness.  That is what this list and exercise is - a contemplation.

Hmm. You're right with this point, I kind of forgot about this. 

My idea was that sometimes shutting off contemplation and sitting in silence is necessary. By which I mean that contemplation is not a substitute for meditation. Self-deception would be thinking that it is. The truth is I like deep contemplation a lot and it comes very easily to me, but rigorous meditation not so much, and so I caught myself deceiving myself that contemplation is enough.  Still don't have this God damn meditation habit, but contemplating for 2-4 hours is a piece of cake. How am I gonna realize my Nature and integrate it into my life like this?

I didn't phrase it in the best way. 

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, r0ckyreed said:

Yup! I’m trying to figure out what the matrix really is. I’m trying to break/escape the real matrix! Or am I? ?

Good!

The real matrix is you

[Jodistrict]

Judging others is a big one.  In a recent mushroom journey, it was pointed out to me that my ego tricked me into judging Andrew Tate, and to the extent that I judge him, I enmesh myself with his Karma.

[ZenSwift]

I realize that I do not have an explicit enough definition of self Deception to identify my own self Deceptions.

 

This has been a problem for me. As I would like to learn how to derive my own list of discovered self deceptions. 

 

Any pointers guys? 

[ucan99]

On 23.01.2023 at 2:29 AM, r0ckyreed said:

79.  Dreams

 

In what way do you think dreams are a kind of self deception? Don't they give us all the opportunities to analyze oneself and maybe even discover our deceptions?:)

[ucan99]

Lets not say all, but "many" would also be enough.