This is the first article I wrote for my first web-site, back in 2005, and still one of my favorites. In my late teens and early twenties, I spent a few years idealistically exploring New Age methods and communities. I met some very nice, smart and responsible people, but also many who were ready to believe just about everything that sounded nice, or were simply full of… manure. Now that I have quite a bit more experience and a much broader perspective, sending this message out seems even more important on a global level. I’m privately kinda proud that since first publishing this article, I only needed to change a few words in it.
自分自身の人生を生きる
人間が生きていく上で最も貴重な教訓のひとつは、自分自身を信頼することを学ぶことだと私は思う。 listen to your inner voice, rather than anybody else’s. By uncritically accepting the beliefs and opinions of other people, we renounce our own responsibility and power, to the extent that we cannot even call our successes our own. You can probably remember an example from your own life, when you put a lot of trust in the ideas and opinions of certain other people, only to realize one day, whether in an easier or more difficult way, that they didn’t have all the answers and that their truth doesn’t necessarily have to be yours. This is a very important lesson and I believe that everybody needs such an experience, often more than once.
あなたが最も尊敬する権威者であっても、常に正しい答えを持っているとは限らない。たとえ彼らが悟りを開いたと見なしたとしても、すべてを知ることのできる人などこの世にはいない。たとえそうであったとしても、次のような疑問が常につきまとう。 絶対的な真理というものが存在するのかどうか applicable to any situation. If such truths exist, then I believe them to be small in number. Maybe you have experienced a situation when you felt an inner urge to do something that wasn’t quite attuned to your beliefs, only to realize after some time that this action created much more benefit for both you and other people than if you had stuck firmly to your ideas. Life is endlessly diverse; people, relationships and circumstances are unique and our inner voice can access a much more powerful source of information than our rational mind.
残念ながら、ほとんどの場合 宗教と精神的アプローチ require the observance of many arbitrary rules, sometimes very detailed ones, in every aspect of human life; this doesn’t allow much space for listening to your inner voice and personal truth. I believe that while seeking security and trying to build self-esteem, through following such rules, we emotionally try to 親を喜ばせようとした（失敗した）ように、霊的権威を喜ばせようとする 子供時代に。そのために健全な衝動や感情を抑える必要があるとすれば、遅かれ早かれ失敗するだろう。
人はなぜ権力者を喜ばせようとするのか？
Not even the most caring parents are always able to fulfill their child’s needs. Some parents do not have enough love and respect for their child as an independent human being, while others are too overwhelmed by work and other duties to be able to provide for the child’s emotional needs. Hence, the child soon learns that love is given “part-time” and conditionally and starts trying to earn it by パーフェクトを目指す or, if possible, better than others. In adulthood, blind following of other people’s rules is a subtle result of this need.
さらに、親が落胆させるようなやり方で矯正し続けると、多くの子どもは自分の内なる声や自分の決断を信じられなくなる。大人になると、自分の決断を受け入れるのではなく、他人からのアドバイスや指示を求め続けるようになる。 ミスのリスク. This creates a more or less subtle dependency on external authority. For this to occur, another aspect of the problem must exist – that of the person who places himself in a position of authority to be able to wield power over others.
多くの人は、子供の頃に教えられたとおりに権威を信頼する傾向がある。どうやら私たちは、感情的なものだけでなく 進化は親に従うもの何百万年もの進化の中で、生存を保証してきた必要性である。感情的な面でも、子供にとって親を信頼できないことはあまりにも恐ろしいことだ。親との経験から、多くの人は次のことを学ぶ。 自分の意見をしっかり持っている人を信頼する. If something is written in a book or a newspaper, many people will automatically accept it without question. While some people who have a great need for power try to present their ideas as absolute truths, others can easily be swayed just by somebody’s self-confident approach.
操作を認識する
最大の被害は、多くの場合、次のような人々によってもたらされる。 微妙なマニピュレーター. You can often find yourself in a situation where everything you are told sounds reasonable and correct and it’s difficult to find a counter-argument, yet you still feel that something is wrong or missing. My suggestion in such situations is to take a moment to really listen to that subtle feeling in your body, to try to put it into words. Information acquired this way usually will ‘disarm’ the person who is trying to manipulate you better than any argument that you come up with rationally.
われわれはそうすべきだ 疑念は有用で友好的な感情として受け入れる. Without it, it would be easy to get carried away by any idea and we would be much more vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation. Doubt motivates us to question and differentiate between what are sometimes very similar ideas and information. It’s quite normal for scientists, who by definition should have firm proof for their theories, to have very different and conflicting ideas; old theories are thrown away and new ones are ‘proven’… and how much easier it is to create theories if we substantiate them only with proof created within our own minds.
Listen to that “gut feeling” whenever you read a book or talk to someone. Still, be aware that a feeling of resistance can be healthy or unhealthy. 健康的な抵抗力 不健全なものは一般的に非合理的で、しばしばより抑制されており、たとえ読んだり聞いたりするものすべてが受け入れられ、操作されていないと自覚していても、それを感じることができる。
不健康な抵抗 抑制された 幼児反抗 権威や権威の要求に対する抵抗：たとえば、利己的な態度をとるよう強制された子どもは、その資質が自然に育つ準備がまだできていないため、利己的であることを奨励されることに抵抗感を抱きやすい。抵抗の感情に気づいたら、どのような言葉や慣用句がその引き金になるかを探ってみよう。健全な抵抗と不健全な抵抗の違いは非常に微妙なもので、時には以下のような場合もある。 両方が同時に現れることもある. Still, it’s possible to learn to recognize them through practice and familiarizing yourself with your emotional reactions.
頭を使う
Don’t take anything for granted. Check the information you are given, notice the words and idioms the other person is using. Try to ある主張が不完全であったり、誤解を招きかねない理由を考える. For example, if someone shows you the result of a research study, ask yourself what could have influenced that research to make it insufficiently objective and reliable (don’t forget the possibility of the research being paid for by interested parties, as this appears to be a very common practice lately).
It is possible to sound very intelligent even if what we say doesn’t really make sense. Some people who are skillful with words, are able to easily create different combinations of words and make them sound meaningful, even wise. I have met some such people, and so did probably you, too. Just for practice, try reading some ‘highly intellectual’ books, and then explore within your body which words sound to you as carrying a certain depth and which sound like hollow intellectualizing.
人々を操る方法のひとつは、証明されていない、信頼性のない記述から結論を導き出すことである。多くの人は、結論の見かけの論理に目を奪われ、その論理に注意を払わなくなる。 事実の信頼性 from which they were deduced. Even if the person is not lying consciously – how are we to know that the facts they have are correct? Many people will give you 善意の怪情報.
あなた自身も完璧ではないのだから、同じように重要なのは次のことだ。 自分の行動をチェックするしかし、自己検査は他の記事でも取り上げているので、ここでは取り上げない。
マニピュレーター 多くの場合、あなたは、あなたの 積極的な理想と願望, using big abstract words such as love, light, truth, spirituality, God… This often covers up a lack of sincere, sensible arguments.
(A true quote: ‘You must let your Higher Self show you I’m right!’ This is an example of quite an obvious, non-subtle manipulation – really skilful manipulators would be much less direct.)
私がかつて受けた良いアドバイスがある： もし誰かが抽象的で大きな言葉で話してきたら、彼らがあなたに何を求めているのかを確認しよう！ あなたの承認や賞賛が欲しいだけの人もいれば、もっと具体的な方法であなたを利用しようとする人もいるかもしれない。あなた自身の個人的な選択や信念を尊重しないという単純な理由でも、たとえその人に一理あると感じたとしても、用心する十分な理由になる。
In an average human communication, actually, it’s very rare to hear something that we can accept as a truth without any reservation. Talking from one’s own limitations and beliefs, creating conclusions on the basis of a small number of examples, selectively adjusting ideas or facts to one’s own beliefs, or to the needs of the situation, embellishing a story for one’s own benefit (or just for effect), accepting ideas only because they sound nice or help build one’s ego… たとえ無意識のうちに、意図せずとも、現実をねじ曲げる方法は無限にある。
Keep this in mind while talking to people you trust and who you know do not wish to manipulate you. And regardless of how much you appreciate somebody’s intelligence, experience, wisdom, or even spiritual authority, always keep in mind that even that person could make a mistake at any moment. Not for the purpose of criticizing that person – it’s completely unrealistic to expect anybody to be perfect – but rather in order to stay with your own truth and live your own life, rather than somebody else’s.
関連記事
日本語 
English 
Deutsch (Sie) 
العربية 
Español 
Français 
हिन्दी 
Italiano 
简体中文 
Українська 
Русский 
Polski