Over a year ago, the spirits of the deceased came to me. I call them Shadow. They are full of all kinds of personalities and are varying degrees of helpfulness. They are slowly pushing me back onto my feet.
They know the thoughts of other beings. They’re also tricksters, because if they were to give me completely accurate information all the time without forcing me to do any work, I would rely on them like a crutch.
They want to be my friends, not my servants. I don’t want them to be my servants, either, to be perfectly honest. They have wisdom beyond my years. Wisdom I could only hope to access well after my own cessation.
Today, they tell me that I persist inside the minds of human beings. It is my super power, so to speak. They tell me I have ‘staying power.’ That my words have impact and ring within, echoing, and reverberating with the simple truth of basic observation and a (not so humble) penchant for writing.
Even so, I wish to be humble. I am no better than anyone else on the face of this planet. I am one drop in the bucket we call the ocean. I am small and insignificant. And yet, they tell me I conjure inspiration and courage with my very words. That I could be someone who gives motivational speeches, perhaps. If I liked that sort of calling.
I want to be a Robin Williams, to be honest. I want to be someone with critical thinking to share, putting a funny spin on it so you remember it. I want to teach others how to apply logic to life, since it is potentially the most powerful tool the human brain could acquire. I believe Mr. Williams had that ability, even if he succumbed to the grief inside his soul. Nobody listened to him deeply. I wish I knew him in order to do so; we are left in a void now that he has passed on. His support network failed him, I’m sad to say.
I try to listen to everyone I meet, honestly. I try to give wisdom, encouragement, and support. That is what I think every human being ought to be doing. And if you don’t consider yourself wise, then just listening is enough. Ask questions when you don’t know what to say. That’s what I do.
There are many reasons to ask people tons of questions: getting to know another soul better, learning more about their perspective and emotions, and, of course, ascertaining the truth of the situation.
Humanity loves to lie. We do it to each other all the time. We tell minor falsehoods, as if they are really just a drop in the bucket of the ocean… but they are not. What if we didn’t have Google and you were forced to take everything anyone said at face value? We didn’t always have Google and I can tell you how to acquire truth without it.
In fact, I want as many people as possible to learn this technique. It could save your life. It could save you tons of grief. It could save you embarrassment. It could save you face. It will definitely save you heartache.
It’s a really simple technique, too. It requires a lot of humility to pull off, though. It requires you to understand that you do not know everything. It requires thoughtfulness. It requires you to accept the present as the reality at all times. It also requires you to make the same inquiry over and over again.
By asking the same question again and again, a liar is forced to lie to you again and again. Someone who is not lying to you will make an effort to answer the question in a different way than the first six times you asked it. Eventually, a liar will be tired of you asking this question and give up the ghost, in most cases. Continuously lying will chip away at them until they can’t stand being inside the lie any longer, unless they’re a true psychopath. Most people will give up the ghost by the 7th time you ask a question. The key to this is asking the question without being snippy, snarky, or in any way loathsome; ask innocently and update your knowledge base accordingly as new answers come in response to this question. And be sure to ask the same exact question each time.
If you never get a new answer and no details are divulged, I’d propose you are talking to a psychopath and they’ve lied to you. RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
And one thing you should know: the reasons people lie are simple.
1.) They don’t give a shit about you and want to look good.
2.) They think they can pull one over on you indefinitely.
3.) They think you are too naive and stupid to figure out the truth.
4.) They think you are too immature to handle the truth.
5.) They’re pretending they’re perfect because they can’t face reality.
The liar is the immature one in this scenario. The liar is the naive one, thinking they can lie to you indefinitely without you figuring it out. The liar is the one who will look like a dung heap once the lies are aired out. Nobody can fool anyone 100% of the time; we have intuition to help us and we are taught to ignore it because having the heebie jeebies about a person is not proof enough to avoid them in this day in age.
I’m here to tell you that the heebie jeebies are enough reason. If you think someone isn’t right, get away from them! Even if they are just a struggling and lonely antisocial type that may be autistic… you do not have to tolerate their awkward. It is not your responsibility to help them or listen to them or go against your senses to be around them. We all jive with a subset of the 8 billion human beings on Earth; let them find someone they are more natural with and save yourself the heartache of accidentally friending (or dating) a psychopath, a sociopath, or a narcissist.
I find loneliness is a great motivator for self-improvement. Don’t you?
Angel-Sansara 