Freedom: Who Controls You? Who is YOU? Freedom is about who is in control. Who, at any moment, is controlling you?

The answer to this crucial question depends on the deeper, more fundamental question: who is the You being controlled by the Who or What doing the controlling? These two questions must be answered if you are to be genuinely free: !. Who"What is controlling You? #. Who"What is this Y$% being controlled? There are two &inds of control: !. 'hysical #. (ental There are two Who)s or What)s that can control whoe*er"whate*er you claim is You : !. +omeone or something other than You as a unitary organism, an indi*idual. #. You as an indi*idual composed of *arious parts in conflict with themsel*es or wor&ing harmoniously as a non,conflicting whole. -. Who are Y$%? .ow do we go about answering most truly this most important of all questions we can as& oursel*es? The only way possible: by tal&ing to our self. Thin&ing is autologue : tal&ing to one)s self. /otice you ha*e more than one person tal&ing in your head"mind. Thin&ing is more than a monologue0it)s dialogue, often with many different, competing, *oices. +o how do you decide which *oice is Y$% ? Where did these *oices come from? Who do these *oices represent? Which ones should you listen to, which dictates to enact? 1onfused yet? - suggest considering all of the *oices spea&ing as belonging, at least to some degree, to you . That is, that you own them and try to not dissociate who you belie*e is you from any of the *oices. This doesn)t mean you must or should follow what any *oice tells you to do or agree or disagree with it. -t is when we refuse to admit a *oice belongs to us, that a schi2ophrenic split can begin and grow into that monster of a mental illness we label schi2ophrenia and when it goes out of control, the beha*ior we call psychotic . +o from where did these *oices come and who"what do they represent? (ost generally and abstractly, they came from your e*olutionary programmed genes and the social memes 3rules for li*ing4 they engendered5 and uniquely and personally, they represent your parents, relati*es, peers and life e6periences. /ow, how do you decide which *oices to listen to and which ad*ice to act on? Which You will decide?7 8mong the *oices, who or where is the listener, and how is it different than all the spea&ers?

.ere we ha*e peeled the onion to its center to find the *oid and stinging eyes o*erflowing with tears. There is no one here. This is /o Where. This is /ow .ere and it is where you must disco*er, understand, *alue and enact what is called 9:8+$/. This is, to me, the only means you should use to decide your *arious ends or *alues which will include the *oices you listen to and heed or not. 8nd how do - define 9eason? %sing 8ristotle)s three laws of thought, it can be e6pressed as: !4 8ll -dentity or 8 is 80 whate*er entity e6ists, it e6ists as itself entirely and e6clusi*ely and cannot be anything other than what it is5 #4 /o 1ontradiction or 8 cannot be both 8 and not,80whate*er is cannot both be and not be at the same time5 ;4 /o (iddle or 8 is either 8 or not,80whate*er a thing is it must be either itself or something else. 9eason if followed leads to and out of +cience which is the method of 9eason most uni*ersally effecti*e to decide what is 9eality or not. 9eality or what happens to real things including persons independent of their pro<ecti*e wishes, is what 9eason refers and defers to. -t is the only means by which to decide the truth of your *oices.

primary laws of thought are three: the =aw of -dentity 3> ? >, or e*erything is identical with itself45 the =aw of 1ontradiction 3nothing can both be > and non,>45 and the =aw of :6cluded (iddle 3e*erything is either > or non,>4.