The definition of the word “muse” is: To think.

Add the letter “a”, creating “amuse,” and you get the opposite:  To not think.

So what does it really mean to be “amused“?

We have amusement parks, where you can go “not think” for a day, or two, or three.  Not so bad…unless…

Unless you live in what I like to call a “Constant State of Amusement.”

We live in a world filled with deception, constantly selling lies and misdirecting us from the stuff that really matters.  And we too often buy those lies, simply because we choose to turn off our minds and let the world do our thinking for us.  

Maybe the best goal you can set for 2012 is simply to learn to think for yourself.  If you don’t, there are plenty of media and entertainment executives that will gladly do that for you.

How about you?  What do you do to participate in activities that keep you from living your life only on Facebook, in front of a television, or behind a People magazine?  Do you or your family have any systems in place that encourage engaging activities that actually promote thinking?

I’m sure you have plenty of things you’d love to do this new year.  But what would you like to do less of in 2012? Maybe “being amused” should be on that list.

Because it’s way too easy to be deceived…

What is this Christmas about for you?  If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably the kind of person that has already heard that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” Like a thousand times.  Right?  Sounds cliche…but it’s true.  But you already know that, don’t you?  The problem isn’t that you don’t already know the truth, it’s that for most of us, our actions and lives don’t match up with what we know is true.  Alas…it is EASY to be deceived.  We get mis-directed every day…especially at Christmas time.

So what’s your mission this Christmas?

Will you focus on and celebrate the truth?

Or will you buy the lies?

Chances are, your family has already developed a focus for this season.  Want to know what that focus is?  Just ask yourself these two questions…  

1. How are you spending your time?
2. How do you spending your money?

The answer to those two questions determine not only what you value, but the current mission statement for your life this Christmas season.

Don’t buy the lies. Don’t be deceived. Re-discover the truth. And once you do, allow it to challenge you to a point of discomfort.  We’re probably all a little too comfortable, no matter how things seem.

Video| Advent Conspiracy :: Enter the Story :: 2011

Christmas isn’t Christmas without getting involved in the life of someone less fortunate.  There are hundreds of ways to get involved.  Here’s one of my favorites, that has lasting impact in ways that go far beyond what we can see, smell, taste, touch, or hear:  Sponsor a child through Food for the Hungry. Click here to get involved. It’ll change a child’s life. That’s pretty awesome. But it’ll also change your’s in the process.  Funny how that works, isn’t it?

“We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My first reaction: “Cool quote!”  Then I started to process it on a deeper level and realized that it isn’t 100% true.  

Yes, sometimes the most dangerous form of deception is the way we deceive ourselves.  But as true as that is, it certainly doesn’t mean that we are “never deceived” by anything else.

Unfortunately, we have a deceiver.  He Hates you.  He wants to steal, kill, and destroy you.  And for every single part of God’s plan for your life, he offers a counterfeit.  You’ve bought the counterfeit before.  So have I.  And so has everyone else since the beginning of time.

If we only deceived ourselves, Satan wouldn’t exist.  Eve wouldn’t have talked to a snake.  And the examples go on and on.  But every story has a villain, including yours, and “lying is his native tongue.” (John 8:44)

Satan deceived, and continued to infiltrate entire cultures through self-destructing systems, built on lies and counterfeit illusions.  And yes, after we were deceived, and now that we are deceived, we often deceive ourselves…without any help at all.

How about you?  Do you find that you often deceive yourself?  Or are you more often manipulated by someone or something around you?

In my last post, I told you how much I loved Inception, and how I believe that real “inception” actually happens every day.

Last night, my wife and I enjoyed another incredible film, Book of Eli.  I didn’t get to enjoy it on a massive digitally projected screen or with state of the art surround sound, but I still liked it.  Not only did I like it, I found it convicting.

There’s a scene in the movie where Denzel Washington’s character gets asked about the “old world”, which in case you haven’t seen the film, would be in reference to the current world that you and I live in today.  His response was simple, yet profound:  

“People had more than they needed. We had no idea what was precious and what wasn’t.  We threw away things people kill each other over now.”

Do you have more than you need?  Do you know what is precious, and what isn’t?  Chances are pretty good that you throw away things that people kill each other over in other parts of the world.  How do you feel about that?

If you’re like me, the natural tendency is to think, “Have more than I need?  Ha!  I’m barely getting by!!”  Well, turns out I’m filthy rich.  And…

And so are you.  Want to see how rich YOU are?   Find out now. ——>  Global Rich List

QUESTION: Maybe it’s hard for you to imagine a world in which people fight and kill over things that you throw away.  But what if it were true?  And better yet, what if you could see it coming, and could do something about it before the fighting and killing began?  What would you do about it, and how might you live differently?  Best of all, what would you do RIGHT NOW?

The film Inception? Incredible. Loved it! One of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and one of my favorites of all time. BUT…

What if I told you that “inception” actually happens? To you? Every. Single. Day.  

It’s every where you look, and a steady stream of ideas are being planted in your brain daily. The dangerous part?  You don’t realize it, because you take these ideas in subconsciously.  And when you act on those ideas, you don’t really take the time to stop and think, “Hmmm…I bet I did that because I heard that ad on the radio, or saw that commercial on TV.”

Here’s an obvious example.  There are plenty more where this came from, and they aren’t anywhere near as noticeable…

[Note: Facebook Note readers click here to watch the video. Facebook does not embed videos when automatically importing these posts from my blog.]

Laugh if you want. You may think I’m crazy, but that’s exactly what makes it so easy for you to be cleverly tricked and deceived.  If you let your guard down, it makes planting ideas in your brain that much easier.

And you thought “Inception” was just a fun movie?

Harry Houdini, one of the world’s most famous magicians and escape artists was certainly an expert in the art of deception.  This expertise gave him very valuable perspective, including the following words:  

“What the eye sees, the ear hears, the mind believes.”
-Harry Houdini

I wish it weren’t true, but unfortunately, Houdini was spot on.

Back in 2001, I was part of a tour in Southeast Asia. In Sri Lanka, an illusion was featured in the show where a table levitated. Turns out, the people there had seen that “trick” performed before, just down the street.  But not by a magician or illusionist, but by a Buddhist Extremist “Spiritual Leader.”  He made the exact same looking table levitate, using the exact same method and months of practice we did as “magicians.”  Only he claimed the table was able to levitate because of “spirits manifesting their presence.”

He was lying.

And the people in Sri Lanka believed him.

Why?

They saw it with their own eyes.  They heard about it with their own ears.  They couldn’t explain it.  Therefore, it must be real…RIGHT?

Unfortunately, it’s easy to be deceived. What you see and hear and feel is not always real.  Your senses get tricked, and end up telling your mind what do believe.  If we began to understand this principle, oh the truth we could discover, and more importantly, live out.

If only Houdini had been wrong…

Question: What kind of decisions have you made, just because you saw something, or heard something, and therefore just assumed it to be real or true?

]]> http://www.harrisiii.com/deception/if-only-houdini-had-been-wrong/feed/ 2 http://www.harrisiii.com/deception/the-detox-hoax-why-detoxes-are-deceiving-and-why-theyre-dangerous-for-your-health/ http://www.harrisiii.com/deception/the-detox-hoax-why-detoxes-are-deceiving-and-why-theyre-dangerous-for-your-health/#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:07:40 +0000 Harris III http://www.harrisiii.com/?p=1506 Welcome to my first ever guest post on my blog. My wife, Kate, has been cranking out some pretty incredible blog posts lately over at her blog.  We talk regularly about what what kind of posts we’re working on, and the other day, we were both expressing frustration over how deceived people have become regarding detoxes. I mentioned I was working on a post about it, and she responded, “me too!”

I figured she’d offer the best perspective than I would, so I let her run with it.  And it just so happens that I happen to run a blog about deception, and I’ve probably said “It’s easy to be deceived,” at least 10,000 times in the past 10-15 years.  To date, it’s been my life’s message.  So enjoy this guest post, written by her, conveniently located here.  Here’s Kate…  

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It’s one of the biggest buzzwords of the last 18 months: Detox.

Thousands of programs and regiments that are designed to “rid your body of toxins”.  And you know what?  It’s one of the biggest hoaxes that has hit the public since the Atkins Diet craze. But, as my husband often says, “It’s easy to be deceived.”

The word detox, according to Webster’s Dictionary, means the following:

“To undergo treatment to rid the body of poisonous substances, especially alcohol and drugs”.

It’s origin is 1972. Most people who detox are people in rehab (we’ve all seen Intervention) who are coming down off years of abuse of drugs and alcohol.  They are ridding their body of a literal “poison”.  But somewhere along the way, someone realized that the word “detox”  could be used for an entirely different purpose: marketing.

If you were to get on Google (or Bing or Yahoo or whatever engine you use), and type in the word “detox”, you would find over 12.5 million pages of cleanses, diets, plans, blogs, and other various opinions on the subject. You would find things like the Acai Cleanse, the Master Cleanse (or lemon cleanse), Evercleanse, the Cabbage Soup Diet, the ColoThin, and Colonics.  Each one claims to detoxify your body in the most effective, and fast, way.
I’m pretty sure that even though you may not have participated in one of these programs, you know someone who has, or you’ve heard of them.  But the thing that so many people have failed to realize is that they are just a fad.  Go ahead and hate me for saying it, but they are no better or different then weight loss programs like the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, or my personal favorite, the What Would Jesus Eat? Diet.

We have bought into the fad hook, line, and sinker all over again.  Especially us women.  We want to be thin…and would do just about anything to get to that point quickly.  Everything except give up our Starbucks Frappuccinos with extra whip and the Wendy’s at 11pm.  We want a quick-fix to our poor eating habits and have believed that the only way to a healthy life is through not eating for 10 days and drinking a concoction of maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice.

When I searched for a scientific perspective on these cleanses, I consulted a doctor, Wikipedia, and WebMD among others.  The opinion was repeated across the board:

“…Symptoms may improve with a detox diet, but there is no evidence that this [detox diets/cleanses] is due to clearing toxins from the body…As it turns out, a balanced, proper diet is more helpful than a detox diet.” WebMD also stated that, “Perhaps one of the biggest dangers of detox diets is the fear they instill in the public…The good news is that your body has its own natural detoxifying process that works quite well.  The liver and kidneys do a good job of processing chemicals and eliminating them…”  WebMD goes on to make the statement that, “fasting can be addictive because it causes a kind of ‘high’.”

(I am putting this statement in there based on the fact that the Master Cleanse is one of the most popular cleanses out there, and it requires a 10-day fast.)  There was also a statement in Self magazine that said that women who don’t eat (fast) during a cleanse or diet are, on average, 8 pounds heavier than women who just ate right and exercised!  Is anybody getting this?

ARE WE OUT OF OUR MINDS??

In all honesty, I am just wondering when we stopped paying attention.  We believe just about anything, more specifically when it comes to shedding those pounds and that other buzzword: wellness.  If we really look deeper into it, we aren’t really interested in a lifestyle change, or being healthy for that matter.  Instead, we want to do what we want, when we want, but don’t want the consequences that come along with it.

I have read status update after status update on Facebook and Twitter from friends of mine that have decided to “get clean” by choosing one of these diets.  The irony, however, is that when all is said and done, they “celebrate” their success and their new-found energy by hitting up their favorite drink at Starbucks and noshing on a cupcake or ice cream.  And even more commonly, they just go back to their old food and drink routine, thinking about the next time that they’ll “clean out”.  I’m not kidding!  Just think about how ridiculous that is!  You’ve “rid” the toxins from your body only to put them right back in. the dangers of detox diets and cleanses is right in front of our faces, yet we remain blind.  Especially us as women.  There’s a lie that’s easy to miss, but it’s there nevertheless.  It’s that nasty lie that tells us over and over that we aren’t good enough, and God and his design are not enough. We take products like these because we find ourselves 25 pounds overweight, lazy, and sometimes even subconsciously blame God for making us with a faulty system. No…we are faulty because we live in a broken world. We don’t want to work hard, eat right, or exercise.  We find ourselves caught up in fad diets and quick-fixes because we need to experience that we are enough.  We want to feel like we are doing something…anything. But we are left unhappy and empty, cheeseburger still in hand.

DO NOT BUY THE LIE.  It’s that simple.  (For real…it really is).  Understand that we all are left with a choice to be healthy or just pretend to be healthy.  I would challenge any person, fad-cleanser or non-fad-cleanser, to make a lifestyle change for the better.  Just eat healthy. And then, go get some excercise…

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Be sure to check out Kate’s blog, I AM KATE. You’ll love reading her thoughts!

QUESTION: What do you think? Have you done a detox, and what was your experience? Is Kate crazy, or have a lot of people been cleverly tricked and deceived?

But…

But, the world has a tendency to reprogram our minds, and make women think you have to look a certain way to feel beautiful. The pictures are everywhere, and so many of them are fake. So next time you see a photo on a billboard, or on a magazine cover while waiting in line at the grocery store, remind yourself that even the most beautiful women in the world still just aren’t beautiful enough.

If this photo of Faith Hill wasn’t good enough for the Redbook Magazine cover, and… if the images you see every day impact you on a deeper level than you probably realize… well, you can begin to imagine why my wife doesn’t always feel pretty. (And why you a lot of times don’t feel pretty either.)

Before:

Faith Hill Unedited Redbook Cover Photo

After:

Faith Hill Edited Redbook Cover Photo

Or, in case you couldn’t see just how dramatic the changes actually are, check it out this way:

As if Faith’s arm was just WAY too fat. Ugh.

Remember, you are beautiful, and you are enough, just as you are. Don’t let Photoshop and it’s shallow users tell you otherwise. Do not be deceived.

You could read more of this issue of Redbook Magazine and learn everything from make up tricks to “how to show your sexy side.” But if you can’t even trust the cover, why even open it’s pages??  Look at the photos, then read the headlines printed on the cover. Am I the only one that finds the advertised articles utterly ridiculous, considering the irony of the over-editted photo??

QUESTION: Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculously sad, and incredibly unhealthy for our culture?  As a girl, does it impact your ability to feel beautiful?

First of all, I have admit that I haven’t studied this passage of scripture in it’s original text, nor have I read any commentary on it.  This is very surface level thinking.

Second, I must confess that part of my thoughts regarding this could be that I’m annoyed by all of the misconceptions surrounding the “devil,” and how it is that he supposedly operates in the world.  But I’ll save that for another post.  Instead, let me simply ask: What if Satan operates this way? If it’s a great way to gain influence, which also happens to be Satan’s ultimate goal, why not use the same strategy, and “be all things to all men”?

As you look around the world, you see different cultures with different issues.  People often wonder why some countries have a high amount of “supernatural activity,” while others simply struggle with poverty, while others seem to have an absence of all spirituality and just seem filled with pride.

I wonder if Satan plays into the supernatural superstitions of some cultures, while playing to the pride of others.  It seems to me, it’d be pretty successful.  Or maybe it already is.  Hmmm….

It’s a simple thought, yet I’m not sure we view it this way very often.  Just thinking out loud…what do you think?

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Mike, you aren’t alone!  I do this all the time!  Anyone else out there as guilty of this as I am?  

This is good stuff!  Thanks for tuning in…