“It’s hardest to see the ground directly beneath your feet.” Default Position: It’s a position that a person holds without knowing that is a position. It is also a “natural” position, requiring no burden of proof. An overlooked assumption or perspective that masquerades as reality. You take beliefs as a given, without any burden of proof. Examples ·         Atheism: They like to position themselves as having no position. They have a belief saying that there is no god. ·         Psychedelics: People assume that what they are seeing right now is Absolute Reality and with psychedelics you are just tripping. ·         Death: You believe that you will die. ·         Naïve Realism ·         Everything in the universe is rational ·         Reality is made out of discrete separate objects ·         Time is absolute ·         Energy is always conserved ·         You can’t get something from nothing ·         Occam’s Razor ·         Skepticism ·         Modern science is true because it works ·         Consciousness is in the brain ·         You are the body ·         Physical pain has to be pain and it’s bad ·         You have free will ·         Need to get married ·         Homosexuality is unnatural and unmanly ·         The educational system teaches truth ·         Enlightenment is an experience ·         Nihilism ·         Emotions are something that happens to us ·         Humanity is highly evolved ·         Society is healthy ·         Happiness comes from external conditions There are no givens and everything must be empirically investigated. How to face this? 1-      Raise your awareness 2-      Self-honesty 3-      Objectivity: Develop the capacity to look at a situation without any biases nor preferences. Stop giving your beliefs special status!