Do we really have a handle on who we are and what we believe? About ourselves. About the world. About our level of consciousness. How can we know for sure? How do we know that our grasp on reality and ourselves is not just some clever, subtle, yet diabolically elaborate scheme of our own ego-mind? This past week we had several encounters with individuals which were at once troubling yet profoundly revealing about just how deeply asleep we can be...even those of us who think ourselves awake (or at the very least on the path to awakening). The Truth of the matter may shock us. And when it does, we may be stunned by what lengths our own mind will go to deny, avoid, deflect, and/or reject the facts. The mental gymnastics our mind will engage in to avoid the pain of having its illusions, deceptions, and delusions shattered cannot and must not be underestimated. Easily dismissed as mere cognitive dissonance, Truth be told, to free ourselves from mind's enslavement, we must SEEK beyond such euphemisms and dive into the deepest levels of our psyche. Only then can we escape the labyrinth of self-deception.