SELF OR EXTERNALLY INDUCED DECEPTION - TAKE CARE TO AVOID IT

One of my operational motto is that a person should, as a matter of course, question everything or most things which they are told, and endeavour to to ascertain its authenticity, validity and reliability. This should be so in all things which you are going to make important and major decisions on.

There is a saying, make the buyer beware, and another which says, 'my word is my bond', meaning that 'you can trust me, because I have a good and proven reputation.' What better rouse could a deceive has, than that people would be willing to ignore the proviso of 'let the buyer beware', and act impetuously and recklessly on the stock, but, for the prospective buyer, you, reassurance of the seller's contention that his/her 'word is his/her bond'? Clearly, such gullibility, existing on a mass scale, is what provides the source of the deceivers' wealth. It is also what I often refer to as  the parody of the 'dog with the bone crossing the bridge and, upon seeing what was no more than its reflection itself with the bone in the water, dropped it real bone, albeit smaller than unreal bone, and jumped in at the deep end, only to find that the reflection has disappeared, along with its real bone.'

The dog's misfortune was a result of  its gullibility and failure to interrogate sufficiently the reality or deceptiveness of what was being presented to it. It was also deceived by its own greed.

Deceivers can be brilliant and extremely competent at what they do best; deceiving people. Yes, they spend lots of time studying the ways and motives and motivations of people, and how best to feed their egos and deftly remove their money from them. The good ones are masters at their profession. They operate in the religious markets as well as in the 'get rich quick' markets, such as 'pyramid selling schemes', with, of course, them being the only ones or mostly the only ones who 'get rick' of your and other people's gullibility.

I remember how impressed I was, when, as a young boy, I first saw a magician making a small white ball disappear, and then reappearing from behind a person's ear, or out of his mouth. I still do not know how such magic is performed, but I now know that it is down to expert trickery, and that magicians are now able to do stunning things, such as Dynamo appearing to 'walk on the Thames River', or going through plate glass without breaking it; clearly a master of his profession, but something which is still the result of brilliant deception.

We know much about the deception on which theories about god and religious doctrines are based. Many of us do not believe in god because, we argue, his/their existence has never been proven; at least, beyond the weak argument of some people who seek to use the existence of humans and the physical world and universes as ipso facto proof. Some of us do not believe in life after death, because, again, there is no proof of this, and, being the empiricists that we are, it is so improbably that we simply do not believe it.

The best of the deceivers have to be good psychologist, as they have to be well versed in how the human thought processes operates and how to manipulate our minds.How else, for example, could you get a person who does not believe in a sentient god or life after death, to believe in the 'power of conscious thought being able to effect changes in the universe? The rationalist does not believe that you can actually get to the Moon any other way than by rocket propulsion. Not so,  it seems, for the obscurantist or mystical the mind over matter (mom), who might argue otherwise.

Remember also, that, not all prophets are false prophets, but you can only know this by being very careful and seeking independent varification.