The toll of magical thinking

Lies damage everything and everyone eventually

Several years ago, Sam Harris, the neuroscientist turned public figure, wrote a book entitled Lying.1

It begins:

Among the many paradoxes of human life, this is perhaps the most peculiar and consequential: We often behave in ways that are guaranteed to make us unhappy. Many of us spend our lives marching with open eyes toward remorse, regret, guilt, and disappointment. And nowhere do our injuries seem more casually self-inflicted, or the suffering we create more disproportionate to the needs of the moment, than in the lies we tell to other human beings. Lying is the royal road to chaos.

I grew up lying, in a household that made lying to itself and others a center piece of existence. The toxicity and danger of lying to yourself and others cannot be understated. Accepting lies into your life can lead to wasting that life. Accepting lies as a lifestyle that you promote means that you are not only damaging your reality but also the reality of everyone you interact with.

What if nothing you di…