Mental Reset, Rafiki, and Paul are back. The forgiveness conversation opens with a distinction that changes everything — forgiveness is not for the person who hurt you, it is for you. Holding onto unforgiveness is drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. The difference between forgiving and forgetting — you can forgive without forgetting, and forgetting without forgiving is just suppression waiting to resurface. Emotional intelligence defined and broken down — self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills as the five components. Why your emotional intelligence determines the ceiling of your relationships, your career, and your ability to lead. The difference between knowledge and wisdom — knowledge is information acquired, wisdom is knowledge applied through lived experience. You can be the smartest person in the room and have zero wisdom. The book smart versus street smart conversation. Why emotional immaturity in adults is the root cause of most relationship failures not incompatibility. Rafiki on carrying other people's emotional baggage without realizing it. Mental Reset on the difference between reacting and responding. The nervous system as the instrument that needs tuning before anything else can work. Know thyself. Balance your energy.

Takeaways

1. Forgiveness is a self-directed act not a gift to the person who caused harm — holding onto unforgiveness keeps the wound active and the injured party in a state of chronic stress, while the person who caused the harm goes about their life unaffected, making the refusal to forgive a form of ongoing self-punishment rather than justified accountability.
2. Emotional intelligence operates across five domains — self-awareness of your own emotional state, self-regulation of how you respond to it, internal motivation that is not dependent on external reward, empathy for the emotional reality of others, and social skills that allow you to navigate relationships without leaving wreckage — and the lowest scoring domain sets the ceiling for everything else.
3. The distinction between knowledge and wisdom is the difference between information and application — knowledge can be acquired through reading and study while wisdom only develops through lived experience, which is why the most educated person in the room is not automatically the wisest and why elders who never finished school can see things PhDs cannot.
4. Emotional immaturity in adults is the primary driver of relationship failure — not incompatibility, not timing, not circumstance — because two emotionally mature people can navigate incompatibility while two emotionally immature people will destroy compatibility through reactivity, projection, and the inability to regulate their own nervous systems under stress.
5. The difference between reacting and responding is the pause — a reaction is the nervous system's automatic output from unprocessed emotion, while a response is the same stimulus filtered through self-awareness and self-regulation before it becomes action, and the ability to consistently choose the response over the reaction is what emotional maturity actually looks like in practice.

Links referenced in this episode:

• iamastrologyreadings.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Iamastrologyreadings
• PayPal
• Venmo
• Cash App

Support the mythic classroom: https://i-am-astrology-readings.captivate.fm/support

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Tell me the rules of the game.

What you say?

Let me play.

Thank you for joining us for episode seven, Skepticism.

What's up, Mental?

What's up, Rafiki?

What's up?

How y' all doing?

How is everybody this evening?

Oh, I'm great over here.

How about y'?

All?

I'm doing lovely.

Awesome.

Some of you may heard me say you need to figure out what glasses you're looking at the world out of.

Is it fear?

Is it enthusiasm?

Is it adventure?

Is it doubt?

You need to be honest with yourself because believe it or not, you look at everything that way.

What do you think?

Do you think you switch glasses on and off depending on the topic?

I have done this type of examination on myself and determined that I'm a skeptic.

I look at the world through skeptical glasses, at what I see and what I hear.

Is that a good thing or bad thing?

I don't know.

Maybe it just is what it is.

Are you a skeptic?

Let's dive in and see.

To begin with, what is a skeptic?

A questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge.

Claims that are seen as belief or dogma.

Mr. Rafiki, what do you always say about belief?

Belief is a doubt word because you got B and you got lie in it.

You got got to know.

Skepticism is a suspension of belief maintaining a neutral attitude that neither affirms or denies.

Skepticism can also be applied to any topic out there, not just, you know, religion or whatever.

You could.

People are skeptical of a lot of things.

There's levels to skepticism as well.

You could be a little bit skeptical or you could be a radical skeptical.

A radical skeptical would be.

A lot.

Of conspiracy theorists or radical skepticals.

Skeptics.

Could y' all see that?

Yeah.

And then a moderate skeptic, they suspend belief until they find more stronger evidence.

I didn't ask you two guys.

What glasses do you think your.

You two are looking at the world out of?

Well, I know I'm looking through the glasses of skepticism.

How about you, Rafiki?

It's definitely skepticism, but it's also doubt.

Did you always know you was a skeptic?

No, no, I believe I. I've always been one.

And again, I'm saying the word believe because is a doubt.

I've always doubted.

But if you think about it, doubting is given a negative tone of speaking.

But it's part of skeptic.

And the reason why I say that, and the reason why I say that is because a lot of skeptics, they want to see.

They want to see the evidence yes,.

But if we think about the Bible doubting Thomas.

Yep.

Wasn't he given a negative connotation for doubting?

I mean, if you actually go through throughout scripture, you'll see all kinds of doubting.

Moses doubted.

Now, when it comes to skepticism, there's many forms.

You, you got any forms down there?

Mental.

Yeah, man.

A philosophical skepticism.

And that is one who rejects knowledge claims that seem certain from the perspective of common sense.

Did you say common sense?

Common sense.

But y' all know what I always say, you know, that common sense ain't communist.

They should change the name to rare sin, change the phrase from common to rare.

So, so someone who is philosophically skeptic, they hear philosophies and they base their skepticism on if this stuff makes sense or not.

Pretty much.

All right, what else you got down there?

I think I'm that one a little bit.

Not as much as I am this next one, and it is religious skepticism relating to religion question religious authority and are not necessarily anti religious, but skeptical, critical of specific or all religious beliefs and or practices.

Before I move into that is knowing that it's a lie and going against that is that skepticism.

I can see where one would, would, would say you're a skeptic because you're going against it.

But if you know it's a lie, is it really you being a skeptic?

No, because like I said a minute ago, you got to know that's the reason why, you know, the question is always.

Well, I asked it.

Do you believe that your parents are your parents or do you know that your parents are your parents?

Well, it's easier when.

It's easier to doubt when you are not steeped or born within a certain thought.

Religious thought.

Right.

But when you are born into it and you are knee deep in the middle of it, doubting actually or questioning more like is actually looked down upon.

It is.

Because.

Because they're programmed.

They're programmed.

That's why.

Now, now you gotta think about it.

If you are in these systems, the system of thought, this religion, one of the things they say is you have to have faith.

If you go back to, to what you said in the beginning for the definition of skepticism, the.

I think one of the last words you said was dogma.

Yep, the last word which means people to be in this belief system and, and all of that, a person needs to be dogmatic.

And you can't be a skeptic or you can't question and be dogmatic at the same time.

Something got to get in most settings not take it out of religious settings.

In most settings, the person who questions is usually the one who is the outcast.

So true.

So true.

Now, Rafiki, I know I tease you about.

And you get teased before about being a library and being on the fence, but in all actuality, is having a.

Taking a neutral approach, Is that actually a bad thing?

No, it's not.

It's actually a good thing.

Why?

Why do you think?

Because for me, myself, I see how I. I see all sides of it.

And if I stay neutral with it, I'm given not a wrong answer nor a right answer.

I'm giving you the answer that is at hand at that particular moment.

It's not straddling the fence like people say it is.

It's just that I'm giving you the answer at that particular time.

All right, well, what do you think about a neutral approach?

Mental or a neutral attitude?

I think you can.

Okay, for instance, if you got a.

Your bestest friend for the longest friend you ever had, and y' all still together, y' all don't grew up, you're cool with that person.

If you have a family member, y' all been family your whole lives.

And for whatever reason, your best friend and that family member get into it, get in the fight, who you gonna help?

You gonna help your cousin?

You gonna help your best friend?

Then you gonna.

You.

You gonna feel funny taking sides.

So you.

You stay neutral, be the mediator.

That's what I think of.

But it can hurt you in the long run, though, because with the scenario.

Scenario that you just gave, I've.

I've been in them scenarios, and I've heard it from both sides.

Well, why didn't you choose my side?

Well, no, but they.

But see, no, here's the thing about it is family will make you choose, and a friend won't make you choose.

Okay?

So if the family will make you choose and the friend won't make you choose, nobody can make you do anything.

Whatever you choose to do, that was your conscious decision.

Right?

But the family will make you feel guilty about it.

Well, there's no guilt.

That's.

That's.

That's that.

And that probably would be another reason.

So there is no guilt.

Because if you.

If you jump in on your cousin's side, you're gonna feel bad that you didn't beat up your best friend if you didn't jump on your best friend's side.

Now, now, now, you.

You.

You.

You get in the speech.

Don't go against family.

But you're making me choose no, if you gotta make me choose, I don't want to with neither one of y'.

All.

That's just me.

So, so true.

Y' all good.

Y' all kind of down the line on something that I wanted to talk about, because what y' all talking about is a subject we're gonna.

We gonna get to.

We talking about skeptic and skepticism.

And I did bring up a word.

Do you know what the opposite of skepticism is?

You know the answer, Rafiki.

I'll let you answer.

Go ahead.

Dogmatism.

Correct.

And what is dogmatism?

Dogmatism implies an attitude of certainty in the form of unquestioning belief.

You know what came to mind when I heard that definition?

Mental.

Having blind faith, which gets to the words you brought up a little bit earlier, Rafiki.

Programming.

Think about it.

Every.

A lot of things that people are programmed with, they're going on blind faith, unquestioning belief.

You did bring up philosophical skepticism.

There's.

There's also.

And.

And you brought up religious skepticism.

There's also scientific skepticism.

Yeah.

When thinking about scientific skepticism, I think that's what I am, man.

Thank you.

A scientific skepticism.

Yeah.

When it came to astrology, okay, because the scientific skeptics.

Skeptic, they will have question, and then they will set out and go through the stages trying to prove if this is right or wrong.

And so me, as a Christian, being introduced to astrology, I was a skeptic to astrology.

This stuff is not supposed to work and all of that stuff.

So me testing.

Testing these techniques that I was learning about, that's me being a scientific skeptic.

Hey, they say this, this, and this will get.

Get you this answer.

Let me go out here and see.

And I come out here and I went out and talked to people to see.

How did that work for you?

Well, I got a podcast.

It's called I am Astrology Readings.

There is that scientific skepticism is the need to scrutinize knowledge claims by testing them through experimentation and a precise measurement.

Philosophical.

Philosophical skepticism challenges theories of thought.

But you know what, though?

We hit early, right?

Like most people, when most people look at skepticism or being a skeptic, as.

As negative.

Right.

But, you know, like you said, increases discussion, you know?

You know, between people raising views about knowledge and information, whatever the field is.

Right?

So, I mean, there's a benefit from it, you know, like, and.

And also, if we.

If we look at skepticism, it.

It probably in some cases can be mistaken as critical thinking.

Hey, well, remember I said, hey, I wanted to bring You.

Thumbnail.

You.

Well, you just beat me to the punch.

Critical thinking.

And we.

We said common sense earlier, which goes back to.

Back to.

Back to this.

Because.

But I really didn't want to address that just yet, because I did want to say, let people know there are skepticism for.

For ideology.

Motive, like ideology motivations, like replacing inferior beliefs with better ones.

I got.

Do y' all have an example for that?

Yes, I do.

So this one lady, she was asked.

Matter of fact, Paul, this was you.

We were live.

I am not going to say her name, but you asked her about.

We was talking about religion, and she was saying that, you know, she loves her Jesus, her God, and all that other stuff.

You asked her if she came across some better information that trumps what she believed, would she still believe what she believed?

And her answer was yes.

You don't think that's.

That would be radical?

That's what.

What.

Them the ones a person like that is.

Is the ones that you leave you.

You leave on the plantation.

Them the ones you leave to.

To.

For whatever that.

Because that person will get you hurt and.

Or.

Rafik, you.

You got an example?

You think?

Can you think an example?

I got one.

Not off the top of my head, but religious is the biggest one.

I got one for y'.

All.

Replacing same sex marriage with gay marriage.

There are some as old, old people in the society, but think, hey, it's supposed to be same sex, but as the society evolves and you look at these younger people and all of that, it's all about the LGBTQ community, you know, and same sex.

I mean, same sex still getting married, but it's like, hey, we need to evolve the idea or the theory of marriage.

Yeah.

You know, they ain't.

Think I was gonna go there.

Huh?

Threw you off with that one.

Then you have skepticism for particular goals, like bringing down a certain institution.

That is definitely me when it comes to these schools and this religion.

All right, well, I got a question asked real quick.

Since we're on the radical side,.

Wouldn't.

Politics fall into this category as well?

Yes, there's a lot of political.

Radical political things.

I mean, as far as your.

You got your left wing, your right wing, then you got your far left, and then the far right, then you got your extreme far far right and your extreme far left.

Yeah, things are the same.

Rafiki.

Who was the dude that blew up the Oklahoma bomb.

Bomb thing?

He was radical.

What was.

What was his name?

I forgot his name.

I don't know his name.

Yeah.

Timmy Tim.

Tim McVeigh.

Timothy McVeigh.

Yeah, yeah, that's a political radical.

Hey,.

That 17 year old whose mom took him to the next state to kill people.

Happened like last year.

17 Year old.

I mean, all the school shoes would be the radicals as well.

All the school shoe shooting that's happening.

Well, not political.

Well, you said political.

I'll give you some more political radicals, depending on who you ask.

Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Frederick Douglass.

That's just some, you know, right off, right off the top of the head, depending on who was, you know, man,.

Sitting Bull, you got Mento, they're shaking his head.

What is it, man?

No, I'mma keep it to myself.

This ain't, this ain't the episode for that.

I'mma keep it to myself.

Hey, Donald Trump, he's a political radical in some mind.

But hey, that ain't the only thing.

Occupy Wall Street.

Do you remember that movement, they were trying to bring down Wall street, you know, remember when everybody was camped out and all that around Wall street and you know what I'm saying?

So, by the way, it's hot out of any of them.

It's hard to refute philosophical skep ideas because when it comes to philosophy and God and all that stuff, nobody ever knows they really Right, true.

But I'll just say this.

Skepticism and skeptics actually help society people don't like.

And, and, and I'll just tell you this, it helps you.

People don't like to be questioned, right?

But.

Being questioned helps.

Being questioned by somebody who's finding holes in your theory makes you go fill the gaps.

So people don't want that responsibility.

Now here's a question for y' all too.

Why do you think ancient philosophers and leading thinkers at that time believe or thought will maintain the idea that skepticism is the way to inner peace?

Because if you actually believe in every word that's ever been said and you don't have some type of suspicious about it, you're not going to go nowhere.

You gotta have suspicious on whatever said theory is or whatever said subject is.

If you don't, if you don't have some type of doubt within it, you're not going to push your limits in order to surpass it.

You got to have some type of doubt because you can't have, you know, like, like we was talking about the other day with the ying and the yang, you know, if you look at it, you got the light and dark in both sides of those.

So you can't really have one without the other.

And I think you gotta have Some type of doubt along with some type of knowing that you have what say you mental.

He pretty much said it.

The, the having that doubt right to whatever you skeptical.

It's, it's very peaceful when you actually know something.

You know, nobody could, could tell you differently.

No matter what it is that they think, if you know it, they can say what they want to say.

You're not going to be moved by, you're not going to be emotionally attached.

The disconnect of the emotions to said subject.

I know it's, it's this.

If it don't come up to this, it ain't true.

Well, Paul, you live by a certain quote that sums it all up.

And that quote is that you live by is trust it but verify it.

Yeah, but, and, and I think I'm starting to grab a hold of what that concept really is.

You're gonna believe it, but at the same time you're gonna doubt the individual until you go back and you verify your own self by doing your own research to see if they are telling you the truth.

Because if you just go by what I'm saying and you never run and check it, you become the dogmatic side.

Well, you now you touching on something else.

I wanna, I'm gonna get on in a minute.

But yeah, you corrected what you're saying.

But yeah, my thought on why is.

Why would skepticism.

Well, you gotta think about this first.

What's the opposite of skepticism?

Dogmatic.

Right.

When you're dogmatic, what would you be forced to do?

You will be forced to defend yourself, to defend your position, which will lead to arguments, a lot of them.

Hey, being a skeptic, you're more open.

Being more open and not having to defend anything.

Yeah, I could see how it could lead to more happiness and peace of mind.

By the way, back to what you just said, Rafiki.

Trust but verify.

Hey, I'm gonna listen to what you say, but I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna have an emotional connection to what you say.

I' ma just listen to it for what it is.

Then go back and see if you're telling the truth, if it resonates.

You see what I'm saying?

Now what you were saying for freaky.

Let's see.

Also, without being dogmatic, you can also become into a stale state as well.

What do I mean by that?

If you continuously keep going down that same path and you never work on yourself and you still hold on to that faith, that belief or whatever, eventually that energies has become stale because it's the same Thing over and over and over and over again and then it becomes stale and then it no longer becomes that effect effective or efficient.

So in a way, being skeptic will balance it out, even if you are the one that's speaking it out.

So sounding smart and being smart is two different things.

Doubtful, disbelief, distrust, mistrust, suspicion, misbelief, pessimistic, non belief.

What do you, what do you think though?

All of those words are being a skeptic and skepticism.

Now one, one of the things, oh, by the way, just to throw in, throw in here, agnostic means religious skepticism.

Now one of the things that.

Being doubtful or being skeptic.

Being a skeptic, one of the things it makes you do is ask questions.

And to ask questions you need to be what?

Mental.

Brought up earlier, a critical thinker.

What is critical thinking?

The ability to judge whether an information, whether it is an opinion or citing fact is acceptable or not.

Do you think a large majority of the popular show, they have critical thinking skills?

It's funny though.

Yes, yes they do.

Yes, they do.

Because that's what it was in school.

It was in school.

They just took critical thinking out of school like the last 15, maybe 20 years.

No longer than that.

About 25, almost 30 years.

So the ones that's in that cast, they know how to critical think.

They have the skill to.

They just choose not to do it because for whatever reason they have, critical thinking doesn't pay.

Majority of it being acting.

Who's on the TV show does?

Rafiki.

You think people ask enough questions?

No.

Why not?

Why you, why do you, why do you think that?

Because some people don't want to know the truth.

They don't, they don't like asking questions because they think that they're dumb questions.

When there's no dumb question out there, they don't want to act.

Well, you know, you know, I've said rafiki.

The truth is an acquired taste.

Not everybody can handle it.

Oh, or like the taste of truth.

What's this?

This tastes kind of bad.

What's this?

This truth.

This truth need a little, little seasoning.

It's kind of understand.

And season.

Wow.

Wait, wait.

What?

Or would truth actually be too spicy?

Yeah, I think that's a better, a better phrase, a better analogy.

Truth is too spicy.

Yeah.

Because think about it.

When you get to talking on whatever field and you, you get into your little zone to where you just dropping this gym and dropping that Jew, it gonna get too hot in the kitchen.

So what you, what they tell you to do?

When they get too hot in the kitchen, can you get out?

You gotta get out.

That person gonna leave it, leave it.

Or try to change the subject.

But I'm also reminded too that it's not that they.

Some are afraid of the truth.

Yes.

But when you get.

I think if you take a different route, people don't ask questions because they.

What's the word I'm wanting to use?

They don't want to know, period.

They just don't want to know.

They don't, they don't want to question someone who may be just sounding smart instead of being smart.

Go ahead.

Mental.

I don't, I don't.

I agree with you.

I agree with you.

But through, through what I see, it's, it's, it's, it's more that.

What is it?

Pastor told them not to question.

You know, they've been taught that questioning is a bad thing.

They've been taught you question anything about God's powers.

God's is his will or whatever.

You, you, you.

That's, he's.

That's frowned upon.

So pastor put that into their head early and they just took that and, and blended in with every other aspect of life, whether it comes to, oh, information or, or whatever.

Go ahead.

Let me ask you this.

You brought up pastor, but if you think about us as parents, do we tell our kids, hey, you don't question me.

So in all actuality, we, we getting programmed to not question authority figures.

Whatever we see as authority, we're not supposed to question it.

We're not supposed to question.

Right parents.

We're not supposed to question teachers.

We're not supposed to question the police officers.

We're not supposed to question, question the doctors.

We're not supposed to question, you know, any, like Paul was saying, any authority figure.

We're not supposed to question them because they are supposed to know everything.

And that's where the programming comes into effect.

But yet here's the thing about it is if we don't question.

Because people like us.

I know I question all the time.

Even when I was in school and I got, although I got in trouble, I used to question.

When I was in the, in, in the church, I used to question.

They didn't like my questions, but I asked them anyways.

But they could never answer them because I was, I feel like I was coming into the knowing of the truth.

And the questions I, I was asking, they was like, no, no, no, no, you can't do that.

You're not allowed doing that.

But here's the thing about it is.

We are supposed to ask because if we.

Because the suspicious side of it is the actual cinnamon, you know, similar to the skeptic.

So it's actually a good thing to be skeptic and not a bad thing.

Hey, have you two ever heard of Socrates?

Have you ever heard of Socrates Mental.

Yeah, I heard.

Yeah, he's one of the greatest.

But reason I wanted to say this at this moment because right after what Fiki.

And then you take it away.

Socrates said you maintain that an individual to have a good life or to have one that is worth living, he must be a critical questioner and possess interrogative soul.

He established the importance of asking deep questions that probe profoundly into thinking before we accept ideas as worthy of belief.

Seeking evidence, closely examining reasoning and assumptions, analyzing basic concepts.

That is right where I was going.

We, we don't question or we were taught not to question because they start surface level.

Then as you were saying, Paul, they get deeper and deeper and people don't want to, they don't want you to answer ask these questions because one, they might not have the answer and two, it'll, it'll start to crumble their paradigm.

Especially when you, if you was to get into like, well, like, like Paul, y' all heard you asked this a couple of times if Adam and Eve had two children, where they wives come from?

Well, nobody got the answer to that right?

Because nobody was told that.

Why?

Because we all know that story was made up.

But they don't tell you that story is made up because then that will break into their pockets.

So that's another reason we don't question.

But that is the very exact reason why we should question.

Because we, we, they will tell us just anything.

And then we would go with the blind faith, as Paul said, and then you'll, you'll, you'll be walking off the cliff with the rest of the blind people.

The blind leading the blind.

By the way, when you say blind leading the blind, when it comes to conspiracy theories, if you really listen to them and break them down and all that, wherever they, they will tell the story.

But then wherever they can't find an answer for that's where insert the conspiracy at that point and then the.

Which leaps frog helps the bleed frog to the next thought because there's gaps in the story.

And the critical thinkers are the one that sees those gaps.

Oh, they saying this to try to segue away us from that.

Oh, but you know, the critical thinkers, we, we're the ones that, that are labeled troublemakers.

The critical questioners you know why?

Because whatever your ends, like a child, they start off with one question and then you give them whatever answer.

Everything they, every question they ask after that is going to be why.

Then after a while you, depending on how long your patience is, you might get tired of that, you're going to get frustrated and then you're going to lash that out the child.

Stop asking all these damn questions.

And.

And now that child is now associated asking questions with getting fussed at.

Yes.

Hey, and if you think about it in school, you know, we were, it was kind of looked down upon or we were made fun of of the, the person asking questions in class.

Hey, why you keep asking all them questions, man?

Stop asking all them questions, man.

I'm trying to get out of here.

But what about trying to understand.

Now peer pressure.

Now you don't want to ask any more questions.

Now your parents and everybody else, your grades start to decline because you don't ask any more questions and you're not understanding.

Have you ever heard of the three C's?

Would you know?

Yeah, you have?

I'll just break it down.

Three C's.

Thinking stand stands for critical, creativity and collaboration.

Thank you.

Three C's.

You said critical.

I said critical.

Creative, collaborative,.

Collaborative.

Thank you.

In other words, you become a critical thinker as far as you all the time asking questions.

And when you're asking your questions, you're being creative and you're trying to find solutions on how to get it resolved.

And then what you doing when you're actually asking answer the questions you are collaborating with the next person or persons to get because you're, because you're still gathering all your information.

You got to gather all your information when you're thinking outside the box as being a critical thinker.

So you're asking all your, all your different questions and then you're putting it all together at the tail end to give your final answer.

By the way, you know what type of person doesn't like questions?

Someone who's dogmatic because, because you can ask questions in a way that makes people expose their knowledge or lack thereof.

And asking questions highlights or points out people's inconsistency in their logic.

Yes, indeed, by the way.

So with that being said, Rafiki, you use the word solve and you know, we've been talking about this being skeptical, skepticism, critical thinking and all that.

I like to help the people out though.

How could someone improve their critical thinking skills?

I have a list.

I have a list.

Four.

I got four.

Can I say the four real quick?

Or no, let me, let me tell my list.

You never know, four of yours might be on my list.

Number one, always vet new information.

Vetting means you know, hey, when you hear something new.

Basically rafiki, trust but verify.

Number two, look where the information has come from.

Is the source trustworthy?

Number three, consider more than one point of view.

When looking at a situation, it's good to consider the another more than one point of view.

Number four, practice active listening carefully.

Listen to what others is telling you.

Putting yourself in the other person's shoes.

Number five, gather information.

Gather additional information where needed gaps in the data.

Number six, ask lots of open ended questions.

Who, what, why?

How?

Find your.

Number seven, find your own source of information.

A place where you trust the topics and you know, hey, I heard this here, but let me go look it up over here.

Try not.

Number eight, try not to get your information from Instagram or TikTok.

Don't get me wrong, don't get me wrong.

Some of that, some of that information will spark your interest.

But please people, go look that up.

Go look it up as in follow up and do some homework on the topic.

Number nine, learn to fight.

Spot fake news and stories that people are telling you.

Be able to listen to someone start listening to somebody tell you a story and start hearing the inconsistencies and the stuff that's not lining up.

Number 10, learn.

Learn to spot biased information.

People say things because they have agenda.

For instance, someone may be talking about against solar power and they be.

They might be making points, good points.

But look that person up.

You may find out that that person has a lot of stock in the oil and gas.

Now that person's information is biased.

What they're saying about solar is biased because they have a dog in a fight.

And number 11, question your own biases.

Yeah, you, we got them too.

That's why therapists need therapists, doctors need doctors.

They don't go and diagnose themselves because this.

Their diagnosis might be biased.

Probably will.

Hey, you heard about this dude.

He was, it was.

He did some.

He was one of the first surgeons like back in the 20s to the 30s or something like that.

He was the first doctor to, to do some type of surgery.

I forgot where it is, but here's the crazy part.

He did it on himself.

When you say doctors have doctors.

Yeah.

You know that just brought that to mind.

Yeah, I got you, rafiki.

You had, you had something.

So the four that I was gonna say which probably would have summed all yours up together, which is these four Words analyze, interpret, present and evaluate.

Yeah, that's pretty much analyze your information.

Evaluate what you.

The information that you gather.

What was the other word?

Interpret it.

Yeah, what am I looking at?

And you know, what.

What is this I'm looking at?

And then here, after further analysis, this is my conclusion, you know, but people don't do that.

Nope.

Well, and, but Virgos do.

But.

But by the way, here's the word that I wanted to bring up.

Asking those questions and critically thinking actually helps you to do something that is looked at as a negative.

Make better judgment.

Paul, Paul, you ain't supposed to judge.

No, you.

We ain't supposed to judge.

Man over there judging folks for only God can judge me.

Who are you?

All right, Tupac, Rafiki, you got any.

You got any final thoughts on skepticism, questioning, doubt, anything?

It's okay to ask questions.

Ask questions.

It's just going to help you in the long run.

That's questions about what, Rafiki?

Anything that you have suspicion on.

Anything.

If.

If you don't think it's resonating with you or you're not understanding it, ask questions.

Not only that, instead of asking the questions, you could ask the questions.

If you're not satisfied with the question, go and look it up yourself.

Run research yourself to see if the person actually told you the truth or not.

And Rafiki, what if that person didn't?

That's on them.

If they.

If, if they don't want to.

If people.

Okay, pal, people don't like doing the work they don't like.

I get you.

I get you.

But here's what I'm asking.

Should you not listen to that person anymore or should you go back and confront that person with the new said information?

I mean, if you actually go and you run the research and you find something else.

Yeah.

Go back to the individual and have a conversation with the individual.

How do you think that might go, though?

I mean, hey,.

Hey.

I mean, you know, be that person.

Be that person that's gonna, you know, if you got to stand your ground, stand your ground.

Be that person.

Be that one that, like Mental said earlier, be that person that is.

Is.

I forgot the exact word wording that he used.

But be that one that questions the authority.

Be the one to, you know, go against.

Because sometimes we are programmed.

We got to come up out of that program.

We got.

All right, Mr.

Mental, how you want to get up out of here?

Don't be the person to not question anything.

Not questioning anything.

You might as well be gullible.

You know, being a skeptic is better than being gullible, in my opinion.

Don't, don't.

Don't just take anybody's word for it, you know, Question it.

If it don't sit right with you, like Rafiki say, go do your own research.

If you don't, that's on you, like he said.

But at the same time, you don't have.

You don't do the research yourself.

You have no ground to tell anybody contrary to the statement that they're making.

So, you know, just have your good judgment skills up the park.

Make sure you able to discern fake news from truth.

Speak your truth, question everything, no matter.

Even if you do know the situation, question it anyway.

And that's how we gonna do that.

Till next time, you.

All the stars shine like one.

And I. I would like to just say, hey, when you just hear that word dogmatic, It makes me think,.

Yuck.

Dogmatic sounds like having the cooties.

You got the cooties.

Y' all remember the cooties.

You got the cooties.

I mean, you know, dogmatic sounds like you got the gooties, you know, you don't want to get this stuff up off of you.

I mean, if you think about it, you got.

You know that saying, you got the blind leading the blind.

But why would you follow somebody if you don't even know if they can see?

Do you?

What the.

Hey, can you read a map?

Do you know how to read a compass?

But I'm.

I'm gonna just follow you just because you just want me to have blind faith.

Just because you know what came to my mind just now.

You ever.

You ever.

You ever notice when somebody is eating something and they taste something and it's bad, they'd be like this nasty.

Here, tasted.

You taste it?

Hey, I just saw it on your face.

You said it was nasty.

Why you want me to taste the nastiness?

Why?

Why?

I just can't.

Why?

I just can't have blind faith on that.

But you want me, you know, to have the evidence, too.

But you don't take that same approach when it comes to knowledge.

You just going, hey, I'm a.

Hey, how do you know I ain't lying to you?

How you know?

Hey, I. I tasted something and I said it tastes good, but I might be lying.

It really tastes bad.

I just want you to taste it, but you don't taste it.

You just walk around telling everybody this thing tastes good and everybody tasting it but you.

And you don't know.

You telling everybody to eat something that tastes Like a brick, You know,.

Hey,.

This show goes out to all them teachers that made me feel bad about asking yourself a question because you was feeling comfortable, uncomfortable because you ain't have an answer and you was just saying, hey, you just believe this goes out to all y'.

All.

I ask questions and, and.

And y' all ain't had no answer, and y' all made me feel bad for asking y' all questions.

Guess what?

Haha, joke's on you.

I found inner peace by asking questions.

I ain't tied to programming because I asked enough questions.

I'm out here feeling free, talking about what I want just by asking questions.

And matter of fact, speaking of that, I've been a skeptic longer than I thought I was a skeptic way back in my 20s because I used to rap and I wrote two songs.

Both of them was called Questions.

I wrote more than two songs, but I wrote two songs.

Questions number one.

Questions number two.

I was having questions in my 20s and I'm 50 and I'm still questioning, asking questions, why this?

Why that?

Who are you?

Why should I think that?

I found two words found to word be that troublemaker.

Ask the question.

It is what it is.

With that being said, I want to thank y' all for joining us for episode seven.

I forgot the name Skepticism.

I got you, man.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

With that being said, I want to thank y' all for joining us for episode seven, Skepticism.

You know you can get in contact with me.

I am astrology readings gmail.com, follow me on social media, Facebook, IG, tick tock same name you know I end this.

Know thyself and balance your energy.

What's up?

It's question number two.

Still missed the double and I'm rolling with the same crew now I'm strolling on the taller level grave still standing with a shovel because the devil a rebel and my own mind doing my thing and you playing with your own time I told you once and I'm telling you again Handle your bids if they hold back all they truly your friends to make ends is like common goal so eager to be the big man on a grease pole let's kick back and analyze you say you got your eyes on the process time to realize that you're more valuable without an education it's easier to fuck you in any situation Hotels comes in the new books go to school but we killing over fellas and hoods but who's the fool?

Knowledge is guarded like they call the Fort Knox So many brothers on the corner with Them fat rock and everyday struggle Dealing with the crooked cop hold your shot, sweep the dirt with the mop Every knot and lock the country, the world, the universe all we have to do is ridiculous and start to search Stop pulling ops boys to men does it actually make you whore?

Give me your leg over Tell me the rules of the game what you say let me play what you say.

Let me play Fortune and fame, that's all I ever wanted I kick back and slow blunts and bottom how to get started Jump into the game not dope but survival I ask myself who truly is my rival?

Scheming on the way to make meals, slam doors, the mailman steady bringing bills I'm spinning wheels, cutting konas I'm on a list of digits species don't wanna be no dona but I wanna stack chips longer than a punch of train bridge where them waves got me off balance at the ridge smelling the aroma of the cesspool Knowledge is a tool, think about it, acting a fool, I'm in a class all by myself the more I learn a step closer to truth well I be I can see all the rest of oppression, the limitations what leads to all my frustrations on top of that some haters got me down in the dumps.

But watch out man cause I here comes my chop chop.

Ain't no sunshine I'm still having hard time surrounding the hard quads but still I try to get mine.

I'm not blind to the true colors of the system.

You see a baller, the first thing you say is get him.

Man, that shit sound like MCM gear.

Brainwashed brothers got they home locked down in fear, it's sheer madness I'll be glad when a quest of the truth puts her into the blasting.

Till then I'll be grabbing anything that comes in my way.

A wise man told me once crime didn't pay.

So what you say when these keys reach in Compensation harassment, an important feed an everyday struggle I have to hustle to live a little comfort and sanity.

I jabble Shashira containers in 96 that's a job trying to stay alive from the quirky cops and the stick up kids Judges giving no bids for the shit I so called dead no evidence it's evident the situation I'm in is better dealt with when I'm fit But that's easy, there's many stores on the Corner rocked up 40 offices got us in a coma just pump the tweed cause it's indeed it's the bomb that I need As I spit nip the actual factuals Take sabbaticals Take a break about it M Tactical and practical Read about it.

Give me a life over Tell me the rules of the game what you say, let me play what you say, let me play Give me a left over Tell me the rules of the game what you say, let me play.

Sam.

Sa.