The Fifth Agreement

“Be skeptical, but learn to listen”

Being skeptical is quite different from being cynical. It requires you to listen carefully to what is being said and then to not just accept what you are being told at face value.

Always keep an open and questioning mind through asking yourself:

• does this sound right?
• should I check the veracity of what is being said further?
• who can I double check this with?
• what is my “gut” feeling about this?

It can sometimes be difficult to keep a “doubting mind” especially as we are taught to believe what we are told from a very young age.

Consequently there can be a tendency just to accept what the media, our bosses, our politicians and our clergy etc tell us without ever questioning the truth or not of what is being said and held out to be truth.

We have already seen with the other four agreements that our idea of truth can be quite different to others ideas about the same thing. It is therefore prudent that we take time to consider what is being communicated and to sit with that for a period of time before responding to it or taking it on board as truth.

It would be naive indeed if we were to expect that there are no personal or organisational agendas that drive interpersonal, national and international global communications.

The advent of the internet has ensured that what is published over the net can reach an unlimited audience. Imagine what Hitler could have achieved had he had the internet at his disposal!

The distribution of propaganda is an essential tool of  modern day commercial enterprises. The winning over of people’s minds is paramount to achieving power and financial success. More often than not when we investigate inflated claims about this or that we eventually discover the puffery or biased slant of it all.

The secret to brainwashing is the simple recognition of and play upon the desires of individuals and their attraction to freebies! If you believe the informercials – “yes you too can have finely chiselled abs and small buttocks if you buy the gym pro work out machine and if you hurry you can receive a free bonus gift of two for the price of one”.

So while this all sounds great and you feel that you are getting a great bargain in reality your are only hearing what you want to hear! If you took time to think about the offer you would either want to check out the truth of the claims before committing or realise that likelihood of it deliverying what it claims is hightly improbable.

So the simple message behind this Fifth Agreement is don’t just believe what you are told – you should  “Check it out Dogge”!