We are not born with all the truths of life. In fact, assimilating new information, learning and growing is a life-long journey - if we were born with all the facts then life would actually be rather dull! Life is about new truths coming to us - stuff which we didn't previously understand.

As children we are designed to seek out and absorb new information so we can understand the world, survive better in it and ultimately pass on our genes. But as adults our approach to new information changes. We don't like to admit that we don't understand stuff as that seems to be stupid, weak and un-sexy. And if we look un-sexy that image threatens our potential to pass on our genes. So we reject truth in order to maintain our social esteem. We reject truth to protect our egos.

Another reason we don't like the truth is that it often exposes our bad side. We know that if the truth gets out that really we are not as good as we should be, then that too is un-sexy. We would then run the risk of being punished for being bad. So, very often, rather than actually changing and becoming good, we will attack the truth which is exposing our inner badness.

With both reasons, truth is attacked by people who do not want to grow spiritually, either to protect their lack of understanding, or to hide inner badness. A spiritually grown person, on the other hand, understands things clearly and also does the right thing.

So...what does rejecting the truth actually feel like?

We all do it. I still do it from time to time, and I've written a book about it!

A new truth comes to us.

There is a brief moment of confusion in our minds.

"What?"

More clarity is sought on what has been introduced to us to make sure we have understood it correctly.

Very rapidly, subconsciously, we identify that the new information is disagreeing with what we previously thought. So we ask more questions to find if there's a way to make the new truth agree with our previous incorrect notions. But it doesn't.

We begin to feel embarrassed. We don't like the feeling that our wrong perception is about to become public.

We may rapidly feel resentment, anger and even aggression towards someone exposing the truth, and often we will resort to persecuting the truth, and persecuting the person who exposes the truth.

Very often we choose not to learn, to grow and to change, but instead we choose to attack the new truth. Here are some tactics which we commonly use:

Avoidance. We can easily walk away from a person who is disagreeing with us. We can easily not read a book which is exposing our inner selves with the truth. It appears to be easier not to think, and to stay the same. We may pretend to be in a meeting in order not to talk to someone who represents the truth. Or we may pretend we never received an email. Or we might switch off a television programme which shows images of starving people in Africa.

Denial. Psychologists come up against the persecution of truth constantly throughout their working lives. We can flatly deny the truth. And this can occur against the most impressive mountain of hard physical evidence. We often want to be deluded, as it is easier than to admit we are a little bit bad, or foolish¹.

Self-delusion. We carry out little self-delusions inside our minds to try to twist the perception of truth and make it taste better. For example, a wealthy person when confronted with the reality of terrible poverty in the twenty-first century may try to convince themselves that because they gave twenty pounds earlier that year, they have done their bit. Most of us wealthy people could very easily go without a bit more for the benefit of those really in need. Or we tell ourselves that because we may make regular charitable donations we don't need to actually visit a charity and do some physical work. We like to massage our own consciences.

Rubbish the opposition. The people exposing the truth may be ridiculed. For example, environmentalists are often dismissed as "tree-huggers". In reality environmentalists don't hug trees, but the image is funny, and so a group of people who are guilty of not doing their bit for the future of the world can pull themselves together into a clique and laugh at the person doing the right thing. Rubbishing the truth may sound like: "that's just your opinion", or "you're a pompous arse" or "you're mad" or "you're wrong", or "you're a do-gooder", or "it's political correctness gone mad!" Scientists have documented this rubbishing of the opposition; psychologists call it projection. The real perpetrators will project their own badness and foolishness onto those who expose the truth. It is a common phenomenon.

Seeking out like minded deluded people. When we recognise a group which has the same delusion as ourselves we seek them out, often sub-consciously. We find their company acceptable as they don't disagree with us. They are equally bad or foolish, and so mixing in those circles allows the truth to remain hidden. In a larger group of equally deluded people we can feel more powerful; "our gang is bigger than your gang" - it is a throw-back response from our warring roots. In reality, it takes greater inner strength to stick to the truth when in a minority, confronted with a larger group of aggressive deluded people. This can happen in groups of criminals who support each other, or amongst racists. Countries often provide another deluded clique which enables a group of people to pull together against the truth. Religious organisations often have the same effect. Political parties provide another place where group delusions can persist. Or companies, or sports and social clubs, many places. Or people choose to read the newspaper which agrees with their own delusions. Groups like this allow us to try to justify our wrong actions by saying "Well he's doing it too."

Muddy the water with irrelevances. Two wrongs don't make a right, but guilty people often attempt to do this. For example, a mistake perpetrated by the truth-teller twenty years previously may be dragged up, but it still doesn't justify any badness in the present. If sufficient muddying is carried out by the guilty person, the truth can be buried in the debate, if the truth-teller is eventually distracted.

There are many tactics we use to avoid the truth.

The rejection of truth is a common phenomenon and has been studied and documented by scientists for many years. Truth rejection comes in different forms. Very frequently we will deny flatly the observable facts. For example, a woman who is deeply in love with her man, may react with denial when it is shown that there is something bad about the man she loves. It may be too painful for her to admit that the person she worships is not a nice person. In this instance, the woman may have witnessed badness in her man, and the truth may be there inside her subconscious, but her conscious mind won't let it out as it is too painful. This is being in denial. But, there is a subtly different form of truth rejection which happens when we are simply not in possession of the facts. For example, people used to believe the Earth is flat. It seemed so obvious from what could be seen that when it was discovered that the Earth is a sphere floating in space, the truth was rejected. It was a delusion. The difference between denial proper, and truth-rejection from lack of information (delusion) can be found through the use of lie-detectors. When a person is in denial, the truth is somewhere there inside them and this may be found by questioning with a lie detector. When a person is simply not in possession of all the facts they may sincerely believe something which is false - they don't realise that they believe a lie, and this is not therefore detectable.

The good news is that those who live conscientious lives don't have to live in denial.

"I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." Harry Truman

(More writing by Alex Caldon can be found in the book The Quest For Truth: On Finding The Grail, available from www.thequestftruth.co.uk. Some people are eligible for a FREE copy. Happy Questing...:)