Blessed Are The Skeptics
I like to be challenged. If I can’t defend what I’m saying, I shouldn’t be saying it at all. The clients I work with at Hope Rehab come from all walks of life and most of them have a low tolerance for bullshit. I like this a lot. I come alive when people question me. Admittedly, this is less satisfying with the few who are unable to recognize that their beliefs and assumptions are beliefs and assumptions.
My strong mystical tendencies have always been tempered with a ruthless skepticism. This used to bug me because it felt like that part of my thinking was a party-pooper. This is why I found it so hard to fit in with any group that was based around a belief system. I envied the sense of belonging that I imagined came with joining such a community, but I always managed to question my way out of these groups. I once wondered if this might be some kind of curse, but I now see it as a great blessing.
I used to feel anger towards people who saw the world differently than I did. It took me awhile to realize that my anger wasn’t really about them but about my own doubts. This discomfort was the realization that my current beliefs were on shaky ground. These debunkers were doing me a favor. My inner skeptic had been triggered, and it was just about to spoil the party – what an asshole? Not at all. My inner bullshit detector was a powerful ally that repeatedly saved me from a life that would have been so far less satisfying than what I have now.
As I’ve already said, my inner skeptic was ruthless, and this meant that it was eventually able to undermine even its own assumptions. I lost all interest in what is True (for me this is all one unanswerable mystery that could never be captured in a set of beliefs) and moved my attention to finding peace. It turned out that it was my inner skeptic that led me to a life full of endless magic and wonder.
Blessed be the skeptic. As a child, my dad sometimes referred to me jokingly as a bit of a space cadet. I could be a bit too mystical for his more practical tastes. The writer Joseph Campbell said “the psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight.” It was my inner skeptic that saved me from drowning. Now, instead be being ‘away with the faeries‘, the faeries come visit me on terra firma.
The real magic with skepticisms begins when we turn it towards our own beliefs and assumptions about reality. There is a strong tendency to stop questioning where our personality begins. This means we are looking for evidence to support our intuitions about life and dismissing anything that threatens this as evil or woo-woo. I suggest we need to go much further than this if we are serious about finding peace.
