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1. Reflect upon all the sorts of things you believe to be true then make a list.
2. Ask yourself how you know that these things are true. Or, you might ask how you
came to believe the things you believe.
3. You believe so many things that it would be virtually impossible to
individually examine each one of your beliefs. But notice that there are only a
few methods by which you acquired your beliefs. Perhaps most of your beliefs
come about through conditioning by various people in a position of authority:
parents, teachers, religious leaders, politicians, celebrities, and so on. Now
ask yourself: have you ever been deceived by any of these methods? If so, then
throw out all beliefs derived by that method.
4. The idea, then, is instead of considering each belief individually, find the
principles on the basis of which the beliefs were acquired, test the general
principles rather than the particular beliefs, and throw out any and all
principles that led to any erroneous beliefs. If there is some method by which
you acquired a false belief, that method is unreliable.
5. After performing steps 1 - 4, list down the methods you think are reliable, and
the beliefs that you think are certainly true.