If you don’t actively manage your mind then professional propagandists will happily manage your mind for you — and they know exactly what they are doing.

There are many techniques you can use to fight propaganda. Some of them are direct and public, but this one is subtle and private. No one needs to know you’re doing it. It’s meditation. And the more you practice the better because your mind is at stake. There are many types of meditation, but I use a very simple technique. It’s based on Theravada Buddhism, which is my personal favorite, but you can insert any religion into this technique that you want. And if you aren’t especially religious I’ve offered a simple alteration that works just as well.

First, go to this site. You’ll find 25 years of short meditation talks there. Pick one. Put on your headphones and listen to the talk while sitting in a chair in the dark. Close your eyes and listen to the speaker as your single object of focus. Don’t waste time thinking about work or the Internet or anything else. Think only about the talk you are listening to. Try to understand it. That will help train your mind to focus on one thing only without wandering off to the next thing, such as a random or unrelated thought. That little bit right there is critical. Your mind will fight this, by the way. Fight back. Focus. Now, in this part of the exercise you are actually thinking, but you’re thinking in a way that narrowly focuses your mind. It may sound odd but you actually have to use some thinking to eventually transcend thought. Over time, though, that thinking narrows to the point of pretty much nothing. Once you are there, you know you are making real progress. It just takes some time.

Anyway, when the talk ends keep your eyes closed for another 20 minutes and replace the talk as your single object of focus with another single object of focus — maybe a word or a mantra from your religion, or just follow your breath moving in and out. When a random thought comes, recognize it as a thought and gently push it away or just ignore it. You will have to think to do this, but that’s ok. Move back to your tool of focus. Another way to think about random thoughts is to see them as teases. That’s your mind trying to stop the mediation process. But that incoming thought can only live by capturing your attention. It feeds off your attention. Ignore it. It’s a trap. When another one comes, recognize it, ignore it. Repeat. That’s it. That’s the entire process. The skill you are developing using this insanely simply process is the development of sustained concentration. And don’t be fooled by the simplicity here. By actively pushing away thoughts, or just ignoring them until they give up and go away, you are exercising your ability to control your mind and focus your attention. Think of it asa work out at the gym. You get stronger with practice. As a result, over time you will grow less susceptible to getting captured by random thoughts flying by. And that that skill will come in handy when dealing with propagandists, who are also trying to capture your attention. The process is similar.

The purpose of starting with a little audio lecture is to get you motivated to sit and meditate. It also starts the focusing process, which absolutely takes a few minutes and that’s the time when most people quit. Remember that most people can’t meditate even for a few seconds before quitting so cut yourself some slack and just move slowly. Do a few minutes. Then maybe ten. Then more. And keep going. If you’re not that religious and think all this is dumb try it with a physics lecture or whatever you like. Audio only, though. No visuals. Same process. Maybe use the word Einstein as your mantra, I don’t care. I use Hindu and Buddhist words. If you’re not into Buddhism then just use whatever religion you like. Christians may repeat Amen or the Rosary. All religions have short prayers and words you can use as mantras. If you don’t like religion, maybe just use the word Love, I don’t know. Pick one and do it. The words themselves become meaningless after a few hundred iterations so it doesn’t matter much. The point is to use a single point of focus to narrow your attention and then eventually thwart thought itself. Very few people can do this, by the way. That’s why they laugh or roll their eyes when you describe this process and your experience doing this practice.

Meditation will train your mind to focus so that you and your conscious mind are more in control of your life. Do this every day and you may notice after a few months that you are less susceptible to all the noise in life. You may start to question things more as well. The news may start to look ridiculous. You may be able to spot some of our favorite so-called leaders for what they really are — propagandists. All those people shouting at you to do this or to do that may simply seem too shrill to be credible because you have developed a quite state internally. All the madness they create in their wake may seem to move slower so you can process the information better. Some of their messages just won’t make sense any longer. Hopefully you won’t feel so overwhelmed or afraid or terrorized. That’s because meditation is an excellent exercise to thwart propaganda because it teaches you to NOT just accept the next thought that comes along — no matter who it comes from, either yourself or someone outside in the world.

The thing you are looking for here is to get used to experiencing longer and longer periods of silence between thoughts. Really very few people know what this feels like because it doesn’t come naturally. It takes training. That’s why the Buddhists say that meditation is a “practice” because you have to be taught and you have to work at it every day. And by “every day” these guys mean pretty much all day, every day, for as many days as you have. They understand their minds in ways that would surprise most people. That’s beyond most of us who have to work for a living, but take their advice at any level you can and just start. Real progress is possible and noticeable in relatively short periods of time.

Remember, if you don’t control your mind, others will happily do it for you and they are highly skilled at the process. Recognizing these people is important because their propaganda is absolutely everywhere. It’s designed to influence your thoughts in specific ways, which leads to you acting in specific ways. And it will distract you and eventually wreck your life — just like random thoughts darting around your head will distract you and keep you from progressing in mental practices like meditation. Don’t take the bait. Also, remember that you can’t solve this problem of deflecting propaganda by using intellectual processes such as research, discussion, and debate. That just leads to more noise, more stress, and more arguments. Instead, it’s the eventual absence of the intellect that you’re looking to cultivate with exercises like meditation. Some people call this transcendence. Others call it concentration. And the concept is anti-intuitive. It has to be experienced directly to be understood.

Now, your brain is wired to think from birth and that’s a useful tool in this physical world. But it has some dangerous side effects that are easily exploited by our friends on power. The problem is that your brain is ALWAYS thinking and most of those thoughts are just crap repeat teases from yesterday, the day before, and the day before that. Propagandists know this. They know all humans are mostly mindless and easily influenced via language — especially language delivered by powerful authorities intentionally causing conflict to induce fear. It’s also how propagandists hide. They hide under all the distractions and contradictions. This is why you can’t argue with them or their supporters. Those arguments are themselves a distraction and provide cover for the propagandists pulling the strings. Learn to manage your thoughts and over time those invisible actors can gradually be seen as clear as day. It’s a shocking realization, too. Sometimes these people are actually hiding and you cant see them, but other times they are pushing their dark craft right out in the open with the support of millions. It’s all insane.

So, meditation is just a handy and private technique that you can use to help train yourself to thwart the influence of propaganda. It works. It’s one critical step you can use to take ownership of your mind. It’s not enough, though. There are other things you can do to defend yourself from propaganda, such as (1) disconnecting from the propagandists and their disinformation streams in the media and instead finding alternative sources of information, (2) connecting directly with other like-minded people who can see through the madness, and (3) creating parallel systems of support for all resources needed for life. That last one may take some time. I’m doing all three simultaneously. But I’m only choosing to talk about meditation for now because you can implement the technique immediately and privately and it starts at the level of the thought — which is the source of everything that leads to actions.

More on this issue in subsequent posts because this problem isn’t going away. In fact, it’s getting worse. Just look around. See how crazy the world is lately? And how many of your friends and neighbors have gone crazy in recent years? I mean, you have noticed this, right?