Topic: Self Image

Achieving an optimal life requires absolute, private clarity about one's true desires, stripped of cultural and societal peer pressure. Most people repeat a very limited menu of rote thoughts to themselves, which William James argued becomes their destiny. Recognizing that "familiarity is not truth" allows an individual to break away from conceptual notions of reality crafted by others.

Duncan Trussell recounts a "bad trip" on marijuana in North Carolina during high school, where he saw a naked, unflattering version of himself on an obsidian cliff. He explains that such experiences occur when one resists the self that psychedelics reveal. He concludes that the irritation we feel toward others is often a projection of the parts of ourselves we cannot accept.