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1. I really want to take a moment to talk about confirmation bias within the occult and spiritual communities and how sharpening your discernment is crucial as a practitioner of any kind.
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2. Confirmation bias is defined by Wikipedia as "the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values."
3.Basically, once our minds reach a certain conclusion, we tend to ignore information and sources that conflict with it while favoring ones that confirm it. This is partly how people can get sucked into conspirituality.
4. Once they believe in a false claim and consider those sources to be genuine, they're more likely to trust those sources over any others even if they're confronted with proven facts that dispute their findings.
5. Confirmation bias is often why people respond favorably to tarot readings that align with their desired outcomes, such as love readings that promise they'll meet someone new when they're searching for a partner, but reject readings that say otherwise, regardless of accuracy.
6. The ways in which confirmation bias can permeate your Craft are endless, but thankfully you can combat it by diversifying your sources and practicing critical thinking. Get comfortable with being wrong sometimes and with studying sources that directly conflict with your views.
7. Discernment is vital to any occult practice. In my own practice, this means interrogating ideas before accepting them as true. If I encounter a new concept, I try to find where it came from and what information is a available about it.
8. Instead of trying to prove the idea as correct, I try to prove it wrong first. If I can't find a satisfactory reason to reject it, I may adopt it as a belief after further research.
9. I find discernment during spell work and ritual to be a bit easier. If I manifest my desired results consistently, I can accept that my tech works. This is why I recommend keeping a Book of Shadows to record the details and results of your workings.
10. If your results are coming out a bit sideways or not at all, it might help to investigate why! Similarly, with divination, you need to focus on looking for accuracy, not confirmation.
11. Sometimes a reading won't "resonate," but it still may be true. It is less about how you feel about the reading and more about how it aligns with the facts of the situation. Some scammers make money off of telling you what you want to hear or by stoking your fears.
12. If you've fallen victim to your own confirmation bias, don't beat yourself up over it. It's something that everyone deals with, even if not everyone is aware of it! Critical thinking and discernment are skills; they'll get stronger the more you exercise them!
