~ Denial ~

One of the most common methods your shadow has to hide itself is called “Denial”. Denial is the act of choosing to ignore the reality of your situation. These other attempts at repression and secrecy have all been lies of omission. It’s been about your shadow telling you partial truths in order to hide the bigger picture from you. It’s been about distraction and misdirection, rather than direct and blatant lies. At the very least, the flaws seen were real flaws, even if you imagined them in the wrong places. This was so that, if you catch yourself later on, it wasn’t a direct lie, and would be far easier to claim as a simple misunderstanding between you and your shadow. Of course, this means the shadow can still remain hidden and unseen, without you even trying to intervene. Thinking of it as a misunderstanding means that you don’t need to look for a culprit to your lies; to you, those lies don’t even exist. One reason magicians are loved for their tricks, while con men are despised, is that a magician misdirects, and con man simply lies. Misdirection is very different from lying. In fact, a well-placed test to see how good of a magician you really are is to see if you can perform your tricks entirely WITHOUT lying. Some even go so far as to see if they can fool you without even saying a word. That’s part of the art of being a true conjurer.

A con man is different, it’s not just misdirection, it’s plain-out deceitfulness and lies. This is why in fiction people still love the idea of “gentleman thieves” - thieves that go out of their way to get what they want WITHOUT hurting others as much as possible -  but denial… denial is different. You’re not only distracting yourself. You are plain, straightforward, and to the point. Lying. Luckily, if you’ve worked through all the others, and continue to use this website, denial will tend to fade away naturally with your progression in all these other lessons. After all, now you know that the lies are there, and there are no more "misunderstands" for the shadow to escape it's accountability through. It's much easier to spot a liar when you know that they tend to lie. Treat yourself with the same precautions every time you feel a bit off or negative, and you'll be fine.

… and so there’s not really that much to say here.

Next Chapter!