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2. Interrogate with “Is It True?”
Instructions:
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Pick a mask or belief you wrote down.
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Ask:
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Is this actually true?
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Did I discover it for myself, or did I inherit or absorb it?
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If I’m brutally honest, when has it not been true?
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Example:
Mask: “I’m the fixer.”
Questions:
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Is it true I must fix everything for people to accept me?
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Have people valued me when I didn’t fix things, or when I just listened?
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Who told me I needed to be this person, me, or them?
What to do:
Write your answers. Let yourself feel uneasy. If you don’t know, write: “I don’t actually know.”
Why “Interrogate with ‘Is It True?’” Matters
This step is the lever that pries ego’s grip from your mind. Unless you actively question and confront the truth of your stories, every bit of self-inquiry becomes clever rationalization, a never-ending performance to avoid real exposure. Here’s why practicing ruthless interrogation is essential:
1. Exposes the Hand-Me-Down Lies
Most of what you believe about yourself wasn’t born from your experience at all, it was inherited from family, culture, or old survival tactics. Asking “Is it true?” shines a light on these stories, forcing you to separate what you know from what you’ve merely absorbed and repeated.
2. Disarms Automatic Scripts
Unquestioned beliefs (“I must fix everything or I’ll be abandoned,” “My value depends on my success”) run like background programs, quietly shaping every reaction and relationship. Directly challenging these exposes their power to scrutiny, loosening their control.
3. Prevents Self-Deception
Your mind specializes in comfortable fictions, it will cling to any narrative that feels safe, whether or not it’s real. This step blocks self-delusion, demanding you face uneasiness instead of hiding behind secondhand certainty.
4. Creates Space for New Possibilities
When you see a belief isn’t actually true, you create a void, a space where new, more authentic ways of being can emerge. Instead of repeating “the fixer” or “the imposter,” you begin experimenting with living from deeper truth.
5. Cuts Suffering at Its Root
A huge portion of anxiety, stress, and shame is manufactured by unconscious beliefs. When you catch yourself clinging to a thought and actually ask, “Is this fact or habit?” you short-circuit the cycle of unnecessary suffering.
The Benefit:
You win back your mind from everything you didn’t consciously choose.
You begin, maybe for the first time, to glimpse reality unfiltered by old fear, outside opinion, or egoic habit. You move beyond comforting lies, towards truth, even when that truth means “I don’t know.” Actual freedom only begins once you stop worshipping what isn’t true.
In other words:
Until you’re brave enough to interrogate every belief, you’ll never discover what’s real.