The purpose of this e-guide is to help arm with knowledge those who choose to live consciously.

On the path of your own conscious evolution, you will no doubt come across various mental and emotional traps. These traps will not only test your self-discipline, but also your ability to discern their presence and false-hood amongst other truths. Bringing these traps into your conscious awareness is the only way you'll be able to avoid them. As you progress, you will become more and more adept at identifying the traps of logic and reason which hold unconscious people back. At the same time, I wish to put forth the following disclaimer:

It is not my intent to purposely aggravate and stir the pot in regards to ideologies. I respect and admire everyone's opinions and beliefs, as they are reflective of individual choice. This eguide was created for the sake of completeness in illustrating the effects of emotional bias on a world-wide scale, beyond the individual. With that said, an un-biased look at the flaws and short-comings of reasoning allow those to extract the power to proceed via conscious understanding. For those who wish to stop reading here, head on over to ThinkNowLiveNow for more invaluable information.

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This e-guide was originally the final chapter of The Beginners Guide to Living Consciously, But I decided to make it its own e-guide. This allowed me a little more wiggle room to expand on these concepts so that YOU, the reader, can get the most out of them. I honestly thought about leaving this final chapter out, as I figured it would probably rub a few too many people the wrong way. But for all intents and purposes, this site and guide are about informing you on things other people miss or disregard. With that said, I found it informative to include a quick breakdown so you can see how lack of emotional discipline can cause severe issues not only on the individual level, but insome of our biggest institutions as well. This e-guide is a very dense, abstract look at the faculties which we use to deduce truth and reason, exposing their flaws to help better understand ourselves and how we relate to one another. This is perhaps the deepest level of development, for this knowledge gives you further courage and determination to begin living consciously. The below might seem a bit technical and brash, but it serves the purpose of informing those who would otherwise fall prey to these traps. All that I ask is that the reader keep an open mind while wading through this information for the first time. Those who do will benefit from a bigger picture view of their relationship and understanding of knowledge as a whole.

Before we can fully discuss how logic and reasoning play a large role in how each of us interacts with reality (as well as extracts knowledge through experience), I find it necessary to analyze the faculty of the intellect of the human mind. The mind is a wondrous machine, capable of analyzing, storing and accessing information far beyond the greatest computers we've ever known. But without conscious awareness of the use of the intellect, you can actually end up blocking yourself from deeper understanding of any given issue. This will make more sense as you read on.

The intellect is overrated and underrated because few understand its true purpose. In truth, the intellect is a passive tool that evolves a given input towards an output according to certain rules and takes a premise toward its logical conclusion. But like a computer, it passively carries out its programmed function without true creativity of its own. What the intellect produces depends on two things: its input and programming, both of which originate from outside itself and are therefore unguarded sources of corruption. As the saying goes, garbage in garbage out: with a corrupted input comes corrupted output. And even with perfect input, if the rules are

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incomplete or sloppily applied then the output is likewise garbled. So for all its virtues, the intellect alone is insufficient for effective truth seeking.-Thomas Cox
You see, it's not so much that people are ignorant as they are simply not using their mental equipment correctly. A lack of critical analyzation of input of data leads to an automatic (unconscious) choice based on assumption. Reread that sentence until it makes sense to you. You are quite literally choosing to simply assume that whatever information you are receiving is 100% accurate and true. The above assertion reveals the fundamental flaw in the majority of people's reasoning on any given subject or topic of discussion. At this point you might be saying Well, that's not necessarily true. I can tell when someone is lying to me, therefore I don't always believe what I hear. And you'd be correct in stating that. But what about an area as complex as the arena of politics? How to do you personally relate to that information? What is influencing your decision making in regards to whom you vote for? Are you aware of the true veracity of your choices in life? What follows is a brief and to-the-point analysis of the mental traps you will encounter on the path of conscious personal progress. Their use and validity is left up to you as a conscious individual to decide for yourself. Upon completing this e-guide, I hope to inspire and motivate you into taking control of your situation, as well as understand why choice is so integral to personal growth.

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It is not a matter of choosing from a smorgasbord of ideologies and rejecting the flawed, the self-contradictory, and the over-simple, in favor of the unflawed, the complex enough. Where is it writ in adamantine that semi-carnivorous monkeys can or should be capable of understanding reality? That seems to me one of the first illusions and one of the more prideful illusions of human culture: that a final understanding is possible in the first place. Better, I think, to try and frame questions which can do it questions which can do it and leave off searching for answers, because answers are like operating systems: theyre being upgraded faster than you can keep up with it.-Terence McKenna
ideology |dlj; id-| noun 1 ( pl. -gies) a system of ideas and ideals, esp. one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy : the ideology of republicanism. the ideas and manner of thinking characteristic of a group, social class, or individual Quite simply, ideologies are the belief systems that people choose to adopt. This can range from anything from political parties, to religion, science, medicine and even sports teams. People tend to have an emotional bias towards certain ideas, concepts or beliefs which are then congruent with external systems mutually shared with others. The important thing to take away from this is that belief is attached to emotion. Emotional response is strong enough to overpower your ability to think and study topics from an unbiased perspective. Relative to an individual with low self-discipline for personal progress, anything and everything that challenges the norm is viewed as erroneous, delusional or conspiracy because they cannot replicate or substantiate your level of understanding. They cannot reach conclusions that you have because you took the time to find and connect more pieces of the puzzle.

Why people choose fear, greed and ignorance over truth, understanding and love will become more and more apparent to you as you see how all these pieces relate to one another. This is what I meant earlier by holistic understanding.

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The problem with overrating the intellect comes from thinking that through accurate application of the rules, one can produce an accurate output, which ignores the possibility of incomplete or false input. In practical terms this implies that intellectuals (or lets say stubborn skeptics who pride themselves on scientific objectivity) refuse to question the root assumption from which they are logically reasoning. These root assumptions originate with statements made by potentially fallible sources of external authority like group consensus, prolific academics, university curriculums, and irrational biases rooted in financial and social survival that embed themselves into institutional policies. When confronted with truths that contradict these, rather than revise incomplete or false assumptions, intellectuals use them to rationalize away counter-examples and counter-reasoning, thereby misappropriating the intellect into fortifying the walls of their mental prison.-Thomas Cox
At best, ideologies function as ways to describe a persons thought process and perceptions about the world around them. The problem is, at present, we tend to become emotionally biased in our perception of people of a different political party or sports team. Subconsciously, we tend judge others. It is precisely this ego attachment that is ultimately responsible. The problem with ideologies is not only do they limit the individual (by behaving as though they are mutually exclusive/exhaustive), but they also subconsciously attach via the ego. The person feels emotionally connected to their particular ideology, and an attack on said ideology is then perceived as an attack on the person themselves. Without conscious awareness of the intelligent use of emotion, irrational logic, reasoning and actions result. Lack of conscious awareness to emotional bias and impulse leads to lack of conscious awareness of logic and reasoning. This is precisely the same phenomena that people use to rationalize their way out of exercising, eating healthy and fulfilling their dreams. Emotion becomes the guiding hand of logic instead of conscious choice. Ideology, by function, are closed sets of logic which rationalize away counter reasoning and truth by deducing conclusions via methods of investigation rooted in emotionalism. These closed sets remain incapable of expansion and growth because their purpose is in the business of refining rather than expanding. Their very existence is to interpret raw data by use of their particular brand of logical reasoning which is rooted heavily in emotional (aka selective reasoning) bias. While the intelligent person deals with the raw data of experience from an unbiased emotional perspective, ideologies reverse the process and blind their follows to absolute truth via runaway emotion or intellectual arrogance. In layman's terms, this implies that people adopt belief systems out of emotional biases that

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they may not even be consciously aware of. Thus, their entire worldview and perception is biased by emotion of an unconscious nature.
In this next section, we are going to take a look at the most common intellectual traps involving ideology. We will see the benefits as well as the limitations of each, and how to effectively utilize them in one's own personal progress. The benefit of this information is invaluable. To limit your potential to what you currently understand is to shoot yourself in the foot in regards to personal growth. In this case, knowledge truly is power. Below, plain as day, are the traps which limit people in regards to reaching their full potential. How you choose to interpret and relate to this information is up to you, but know that proceeding with an open and un-biased mind will change the way in which you relate to the types of information you encounter.

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I find it very interesting that even the Wikipedia entry about logical fallacies references emotional exploitation:

In logic and rhetoric, a fallacy is usually an improper argumentation in reasoning resulting in a misconception or presumption. By accident or design, fallacies may exploit emotional triggers in the listener or interlocutor (appeal to emotion), or take advantage of social relationships between people (e.g. argument from authority). Fallacious arguments are often structured using rhetorical patterns that obscure any logical argument.-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy
You can see many examples of fallacies on that Wikipedia entry alone, but for the sake of practicality we will be focusing on the most common. Insight into the realm of logical manipulation and persuasion reveals much about how we relate to the information around us.

Whether you were currently aware of it or not, logical fallacies are the name of the game in institutions such as politics, news and media. Here's an example in the form of a statistic you are probably well aware of:

Assertion: College graduates earn $1,000,000 more than those with only a high school diploma over the course of their lifetime. Therefore, the only way to truly be successful is to graduate college.

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The problem with that statement:

Anybody who has gotten a passing grade in statistics knows what's wrong with this line of argument. A correlation between B.A.s and incomes is not proof of cause and effect. It may reflect nothing more than the fact that the economy rewards smart people and smart people are likely to go to college. To cite the extreme and obvious example: Bill Gates is rich because he knows how to run a business, not because he matriculated at Harvard. Finishing his degree wouldn't have increased his income. Forbes.comhttp://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0202/060.html
I would also encourage you to read the article in the link above. It won't take more than five minutes, and it will give you a really good idea of how freewill choice can easily become biased by emotional manipulation.

The above section should make this one obvious. With emotion encouraged to fuel decision making, people can be coerced into accepting false reasoning for the benefit of others. At present, our society has embedded within it multiple institutions who's best interest is to keep you ignorant. Your ignorance guarantees you'll make the choices which benefit them at your expense. For if you had the knowledge that you were being manipulated in the first place (like this guide is offering you), you'd understand you have a choice in the matter. Recognizing your ability to exercise freewill choice is the first step in breaking out of this trap. By leveraging emotions such as fear, worry and doubt, it then becomes possible to manipulate large populations of people into making choices which cause effects of your choosing. Think this sounds too fantastical and far fetched to be real? Consider the fact that the advertising industry invests billions of dollars annually into the study of subconscious mind control. This allows them to optimize their advertising to appeal to the most vulnerable emotions that will persuade (bias) their target audience into purchasing their product or service. It is no coincidence that sex, violence and death are leveraged so much in the media; they invoke deepest and most primal urges and desires. Because of this reason alone, you should not respect nor tolerate people, institutions and or policies who can only operate by directly manipulating and exploiting the ignorance of their target audience. It is then up to the audience to educate themselves on that which controls them. This is the purpose of conscious personal development; to take back control and your rightful sovereignty as a human being. The next section will expand on what happens when fallacies go ignored, and un-intelligent action pursues.

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Group consensus occurs when several individuals set out to reach/deduce a conclusion. Instead of one individual making a decision, multiple perspectives offers a more effective way of approaching problems in need of solutions. However, it is quite common for a group of people to fall prey to the symptoms of groupthink in this setting.

Groupthink, a term coined by social psychologist Irving Janis (1972), occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment (p. 9). Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups. A group is especially vulnerable to groupthink when its members are similar in background, when the group is insulated from outside opinions, and when there are no clear rules for decision making.http://www.psysr.org/about/pubs_resources/groupthink%20overview.htm
Because of this, otherwise infallible sources of authority (such as the news and media) can assert false claims and logic due to faulty reasoning via emotional impulse. If you've read The Beginners Guide to Living Consciously, you're probably starting to notice how the Three Principles of Growth permeate all aspects of our lives. Perhaps now you are starting to understand just how important it truly is to remain consciously aware of thought, emotion and action at all times regardless of the setting.

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You've encountered the effects of groupthink in areas such as politics (especially democracy), school boards, business management and marketing and statistics. Group think is not limited to these examples, however. You can experience groupthink on a smaller scale in your own life with your family, co-workers and even your own business. It is not limited solely to the institutions of the world, but active (much like most fallacies and traps of logic) in our daily lives in ways you may be presently unaware.

Examples of groupthink fiascoes studied by Janis include US failures to anticipate the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the escalation of Vietnam war, and the ill-fated hostage rescue in Iran. Current examples of groupthink can be found in the decisions of the Bush administration and Congress to pursue an invasion of Iraq based on a policy of preemptive use of military force against terrorists and rogue nations. The decision to rush to war in Iraq before a broad-based coalition of allies could be built has placed the US in an unenviable military situation in Iraq that is costly in terms of military deaths and casualties, diplomatic standing in the world, and economically.http://www.psysr.org/about/pubs_resources/groupthink%20overview.htm

The benefits of group consensus only occur if the logical reasoning behind it is sound and unbiased. Since that is almost always not the case, it's important to understand some of the common ways in which group consensus can actually do more harm than help. As far as limitations go, you can simply end up with irrational choices. Like a house built upon a foundation of toothpicks, if the base of the argument itself is flawed, everything built upon it will crumble. It shouldn't take long for an any intelligent individuals to realize that the convenience of culture is not an adequate substitute to thinking for yourself.

Group Polarization is a phenomena that occurs in which groups of people end up agreeing on terms that are much more extreme and over-driving than their original intentions. For example:

Similar effects of group polarization are evident in the U.S. legal system. In jury deliberations, an essentially random group of people must come to a mutual consensus over whether or not the accused individual is guilty or innocent. Throughout a trial, after discussing with each other,

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the group may decided on a punishment that was either harsher or more lenient than what any individual juror in the group would have decided individually prior to the group discussion.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_polarization#Government.2C_public_policy.2C_and_the_law
Bandwagon Effect is a phenomena that occurs in which an individual decides to join a group simply because it is perceived as being the right way to go or the right thing to do. For example:

In the 1994 study of Robert K. Goidel and Todd G. Shields in The Journal of Politics, 180 students at the University of Kentucky were randomly assigned to nine groups and were asked questions about the same set of election scenarios. About 70% of subjects received information about the expected winner (Goidel and Shields 807). Independents, which are those who do not vote based on the endorsement of any party and are ultimately neutral, were influenced strongly in favor of the person expected to win (Goidel and Shields 807-808). Expectations played a significant role throughout the study. It was found that independents are twice as likely to vote for the Republican candidate when the Republican is expected to win. From the results, it was also found that when the Democrat was expected to win, independent Republicans and weak Republicans were more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate (Goidel and Shields 808).-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwagon_effect#Use_in_politics
Information Cascade is very similar to the Bandwagon Effect, in that people observe the actions and choices of others, and then make those same choices and actions for themselves. This is based heavily on emotional bias of the decision making process, as the individual chooses as others have chosen, rather than consciously choosing for themselves. For example:

Information cascades occur in situations where seeing many people make the same choice provides evidence that outweighs one's own judgment. That is, one thinks: "It's more likely that I'm wrong than that all those other people are wrong. Therefore, I will do as they do." In what has been termed a "reputational cascade", late responders sometimes go along with the decisions of early responders, not just because the late responders think the early responders are right, but also because they perceive their reputation will be damaged if they dissent from the early responders.[9] An example of social proof in that people will see the actions of the group and will feel compelled to act with the larger group of people. People in large groups will tend to act with a herd mentality. Large groups of people can be controlled with little information passed down from a small few to a large group.-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informational_cascade
Social Proof is the phenomena where people assume that actions and choices made by others reflect accurate or correct behavior in regards to a particular situation or circumstance. You can see this plain as day with things like cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and anything else with negative effects on health. Despite the overwhelming evidence of the dangers of these things, people continue to use and consume then based solely on cultural traditions and values that they themselves may not even truly agree with.

The most famous study of social proof is Muzafer Sherif's 1935 experiment.[7] In this experiment subjects were placed in a dark room and asked to look at a dot of light about 15 feet away. They were then asked how much, in inches, the dot of light was moving. In reality it was not moving at all, but due to the auto-kinetic effect it appeared to move. How much the light appears to move varies from person to person but is generally consistent over time for each individual. A few days later a second part of the experiment was conducted. Each subject was paired with two other subjects and asked to give their estimate of how much the light was moving out loud. Even though the subjects had previously given different estimates, the groups would come to a common estimate. To rule out the possibility that the subjects were simply

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giving the group answer to avoid looking foolish while still believing their original estimate was correct, Sherif had the subjects judge the lights again by themselves after doing so in the group. They maintained the group's judgment. Because the movement of the light is ambiguous the participants were relying on each other to define reality.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof#Early_research
You can add Normative Social Influence, or being influenced to conform with the hopes of being looked upon positively by peers, to this group as well. Scapegoating is the act of singling out a particular party or individual in which to place blame.

In management: Scapegoating is a known practice in management where a lower staff employee is blamed for the mistakes of senior executives. This is often due to lack of accountability in upper management.[23] For example, a teacher who constantly gets blamed or accused of wrongdoing could be a scapegoat if said teacher is only guilty of doing her job so well that she makes her coworkers and supervisory administration look bad. This could result in letters being placed in permanent files, condescending remarks from co-workers and constant blame finding from administration.-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoating#At_the_group_level
Sheeple (sheep + people = sheeple) is a popular term used to reference how certain populations behave like herds of sheep in relation to the information they acquire. These people tend to accept and take at face value that which they are told via their government, news, media, politics and religion. In laymen's terms, sheeple implies blind conformity.

The term is also used for those who are deemed inordinately tolerant, or welcoming, of government intrusion and regulation. In a column entitled "A Nation of Sheeple," columnist Walter E. Williams writes, "Americans sheepishly accepted all sorts of Transportation Security Administration nonsense. In the name of security, we've allowed fingernail clippers, eyeglass screwdrivers and toy soldiers to be taken from us prior to boarding a plane."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheeple#Usage
These are some of the most common traps and loopholes of logic that you'll come across. There are many variations of the above, but I feel that this group does a good job of illustrating the point. What all of these traps have in common is that the observer (YOU) either reaches their conclusion through emotional bias or allows the external circumstance to bias their choice. This type of behavior is ultimately antagonistic to not only living consciously, but progressing beyond the boundaries of logical limitation that the majority of people subscribe to. Limiting yourself to the same choices that others make and assume is beyond dangerous. Assuming limits and understanding is not the same as exploration via freewill choice. Manipulation at the level of choice is what keeps most people from fulfilling their dreams. If the manipulation can stimulate fear of consequence, it is even more effective. Consider the scare tactic of college education on young people. It is in the institutions best interest that kids keep taking out loans in excessive amounts, despite overwhelming evidence that post-college graduate jobs are getting more and more slim. Instead of recognizing and adapting, we just hear the same mantra. What results are millions of kids who listened to the media instead of themselves, ending up in debt with no real job to help pay it off. An entire future is sacrificed so a campus can update their computer lab. The banks win because they make a profit off of the interest owed, and the college wins because they get new computer equipment with the tuition money. Redundancy runs the course yet again.

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I hope you are beginning to see that when you are not in direct conscious control of your reasoning and choices, you are pretty much guaranteed to become the effect of someone else's cause. This is harmless when enjoying the company of family and friends, but not so much when the largest aspects of your life such as health, finances, politics and beliefs become biased via external sources. This is precisely why it's in your best interest to understand these traps so you can not only identify them in the future, but also begin assembling the puzzle of the bigger picture in regards to the human potential. Please do not become confused and romanticize this phenomena. It is very real and occurs everyday. You can argue and speculate about the reasoning behind such slight-of-hand reasoning in our culture and society, but the truth is that we all have the ability to recognize and prevent this. Each of us has the ability to be one less person who's entire life image is based around the illusionary reasoning of their culture and society. In this next section, we'll explore another level that strengthens and re-enforces the various groupthink outlets. That level is the assumption of authority.

Authority worship is the phenomena whereby individuals simply assume that someone or something is correct, knowledgeable or trustworthy based on their/its status alone. For example, this reasoning asserts that if cures for the most violent diseases were known, then doctors, the government and scientists would inform the media and we'd know about it immediately. The entire train of logic and reasoning behind this method is that someone in a position of power or authority (such as a teacher, doctor, police officer or even an elected official) knows what's best, truthful or morally right solely because of their position. What this reasoning fails to address is the possibility that authority figures themselves can become biased, and push for agendas that ultimately benefit themselves and those involved. Lack of knowledge and intellectual reasoning between king and surf makes it so. Under the assumption of authority, people irrationally assume that institutions such as government

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and politics have their best interests in mind. Because these institutions are very large and powerful, people erroneously assume they are immune to corruption. They reason that corruption cannot occur in something such as governments and politics, especially in America, because of constitutional protection and checks and balances. This reasoning ignores the potential for intentional deception and self-serving motivations, as well as skillful manipulation of intellectual (thought) and emotional blind spots to coerce cooperation. It is truly amazing that the average person will identify an info-mercial as a money scheme, yet refuses to acknowledge the same principles are present in their political and economic systems. Lack of knowledge places one directly into the path of manipulation, and convincing someone they aren't being manipulated (or worse yet, that their choices matter in the big scheme of things) makes this even easier.

I feel that the following clip sums it up rather nicely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=4zyo10lusCY&sns=fb (Note: I am neither for or against Ron Paul, his name just happens to be involved in the title of the video. Also, keep in mind that this is now way implies dissent or negativity towards the government (another flawed train of logic), it's merely a reflection of valid observations. Trust me, you'll want to see this!) We encounter the authority bias just about everywhere we look. It could be something so simple as believing that your teacher or school faculty knows what's best for you, to allowing political parties to have an influence on your beliefs and behavior. It is very natural to initially feel intimidated by those in power, but much like the emotion of fear, it is usually unwarranted in the types of situations we find ourselves in. There is a big difference between a life or death situation and absorbing the opinion of an authority figure, though most people will feel the same negative emotional attachment regardless.

It is not my purpose to dispute the value of the various authority figures that make up ones town, country, region, and/or country. The point is to identify how people immediately bias their thoughts, emotions and actions simply because of the initial perception of authority. Because of this, freewill choice is abdicated in favor of emotional subjectivity. What this implies that in your moment of choice (the present moment), you become biased by a perceived threat or consequence should you choose otherwise. In this way, that which coerced your choice has chosen for you. If your best friend and a police officer both told you to pick up trash off the ground, which one are you most likely to listen to? Why? Both are human beings, the only difference is their perceived role. Though unlikely, the officer could write you up for refusing to cooperate. Your friend will most likely just continue talking and walking if you refuse. Now, what if that same friend told you that

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standing on your head and saying the alphabet backwards cures all diseases? What if the President of The United States of America came on TV and announced the same thing? Which one would pull more weight with you? The truth is, you have a conditioned emotional response to authority figures, and while the protection and service they provide is invaluable to society at large, it creates massive problems on the individual level. The real danger comes when people simply assume that sources of authority have their best interests in mind. More often than not, this is not the case. One simply need analyze the institution of politics to understand that it can't exist without funding, and getting people to fund certain political parties is heavily based on mental (thought) and emotional biasing. Instead of confronting the issues that would actually improve people's quality of life, politics becomes a con-game of appealing to the lowest common denominator in regards to achieving social and political clout. Politics then becomes a self-perpetuating game of mere surface solutions to the symptoms of problems, rather than going for the obvious core or root cause of the problem. It becomes blatantly obvious that if all the worlds problems were solved, no more money could be made off of offering the solutions to those problems. For Example: Consider the recent argument for gun control. In this argument, we have two groups of people (two poles if you will) with opposing views. Group one believes we should make it more difficult to acquire firearms, thus reducing crime and unnecessary deaths in the process. Group two views this as a violation of the second amendment, despite its adverse cultural effects. Extremists from both points of view will only analyze data that is in line with their personal beliefs regarding the topic (selective reasoning), and thus block themselves off from seeing the holistic value of the information. Can you spot it? Here's the fault in the above logic: Regardless if one supports gun laws or guns in general is besides the point. It should be clear that the first group is using incomplete reasoning to reach their conclusion. What they fail to account for is that creating laws to limit gun acquisition will do nothing to lower crime, because criminals do not obey laws anyway. This is why they are criminals. Their emotionally driven (reaction, unintelligent) decision to stop crime actually makes it easier for criminals to bypass resistance in future crimes. Said criminal can now confidently break into houses with minimal resistance because it is harder for people who actually follow the law to protect themselves against invasion. All this law would do is limit the honest, law-abiding citizen's ability to protect himself against criminals. Crime would actually increase as a result. Once again, a decision made via emotional reaction instead of intelligent analyzation makes it so. As you can see, the problem of crime remains completely unaltered in the above debate. Guns are not the core issue, but political campaigns refuse to knowledge this obvious point. They are more concerned with acquiring allegiance via emotional response over intellectual integrity. In this way, endless amounts of money can be siphoned from an unknowing and heavily biased public.

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The pharmacological industry follows the exact same behavior. Large corporations with heavy influence have the ability to push the market in the direction of their choosing via public perception. This is what's known as a power monopoly, and this industry is a prime example. Not only does the pharmacological industry profit by limiting and controlling the types of drugs and medicine readily available to the public, but they also profit from the diseases and death created via the glamorization of alcohol and tobacco in the media. Two of the most destructive drugs (outside of narcotics) are legalized for profit, while something such as cannabis (which occurs naturally, has been used by people for thousands of years, and has been known to cure countless ailments), is illegal. Healthy people don't generate profit; sick and diseased people do. Therefore, it is in this industries best interest to suppress and control the availability and knowledge of things which expose their con. You can see this in the form of scapegoating Cannabis as a gateway drug (which is another logical fallacy, because keeping the drug illegal forces otherwise law-abiding citizens to deal and interact with people who sell other illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroine), as well as various forms of media portraying the use of Cannabis as a path to slothful and unproductive behavior. At the same time, these same people promote and endorse chemicals such as nicotine and alcohol, two of the most addicting (an in alcohols case, fatal) substances the public consumes. Relative to Cannabis, these two drugs may as well be heroine. The amount of destruction these drugs have on the body is conveniently balanced by the solutions offered by the same industry. Are you starting to see the big picture here? The purpose isn't to argue for the legalization of Cannabis, but to show you how one-sided the largest institutions on the planet really are. In this case, they argue that Cannabis is illegal because they are unsure of it's properties and effects, yet they are well aware of the countless studies proving the deadly nature of alcohol, and that remains heavily subsidized by the government. None of this could have occurred if the majority of people used their intellectual reasoning correctly instead of against themselves, and this is precisely the reason for the level of corruption and injustice plaguing this planet at this time.

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In reading the above, I hope you are starting to see the importance and power of consciously thinking for yourself. In a world riddled with mental and emotional traps, it can become increasingly difficult for one who seeks progress. Knowledge then becomes the shield with which one is protected from ignorance, and choice to pursue truth becomes the sword with which one cuts through the false and incomplete. Relative to this analogy, the majority of people on this planet are unarmed and roaming in plain site for any number of hungry and capable predators. The point of this e-guide is to demonstrate the importance of choosing your own path in life. YOU are in direct control of your choices, not your governmental policies, political party or sports team preference. Until you gain the clarity and understanding that YOU are responsible for the types of choices you make (even the unconscious ones), your goals will forever remain out of reach. You can very easily spend your entire go-around here on Earth being a pawn of various institutions seeking to profit from an increasingly ignorant population. Everything begins and ends with choice. So which will you choose? Just like goal setting and achieving, it is self-discipline to initial emotional impulse that makes all the difference in the world. Do you choose to allow others to make your choices (by submitting to emotional response instead of intelligent thought), or will you stand up and assert your freewill choice in the face of inaccurately represented assumption? The only way to learn and move forward is to become consciously aware of the nature of your choices in the present moment.

Let's Connect!
I hope this e-guide not only helped you identify the various mental and emotional traps, but inspired you to begin living consciously in regards to the types of information and material you encounter. And even though this is the end of the guide, I'd love to hear what you have to say! Here are several ways in which we can connect:

1. Become a fan of ThinkNowLiveNow on Facebook, and follow ThinkNowLiveNow on Twitter 2. Add me as a friend on Facebook 3. Comment on the any number of articles and podcasts found at ThinkNowLiveNow
Most importantly, thank you for taking the time to check out this e-guide. I love to hear feedback and discuss concepts of consciousness with people just like you! drop me a line, and together we will make the present moment count!

This e-guide was written/created by Jason Demakis, owner and creator of ThinkNowLiveNow Page 17