In this answer to a viewer's question, "letting go" author Guy Finley talks about how self-knowledge is the power needed to triumph over any kind of chronic addiction, physical or psychological.

In this answer to a viewer's question, Guy explains that we so often end up feeling bad because we get captured over and over again by something that promises freedom, but in the end delivers nothing but unnecessary pain.

Student Talks: 5/28/2021 - Key Lesson: Since no desire can complete itself -- by itself -- through anything it imagines -- its only recourse is to imagine "more of" whatever failed to satisfy it the first time around. This unseen cycle is the mainspring of all forms of addiction, as unconscious desire keeps trying to fill a bucket with...

Topics Covered: There is no such thing as a compulsive pleasure; We are not meant to spend our lives compulsively defending and justifying ourselves. Those things are addictions; Physical hunger and thirst are natural, but being hungry for approval is not natural; Every day we go compulsively looking for what our mind says we need in order to find fulfillment. What we long for...

Classroom Talk: 5/23/2021 - Since no desire can complete itself - by itself - through anything it imagines - its only recourse is to imagine "more of" whatever failed to satisfy it the first time around. This unseen cycle is the mainspring of all forms of addiction, as unconscious desire keeps trying to fill a bucket with no bottom by pouring...

Have you ever wondered why – with so many people talking about the need to make real changes in their lives – so very little actually changes? It's pretty obvious: Addiction, dependency, and the conflict and fear they breed, are more prevalent and problematic than ever before, even if made to appear otherwise by popular justification. But what isn't so obvious is the reason...

Student Talks: 8/14/2020 - Key Lesson: Part 1: We can imagine almost anything save this one unimaginable exception: the dark walls that seem to close in on us in the midst of some unwanted moment are, in fact, nothing more than (parts of) a dark dream born of a mind so asleep to itself... it can't see it has unconsciously...

Classroom Talk: 8/9/2020 - We can imagine almost anything save this one unimaginable exception: the dark walls that seem to close in on us in the midst of some unwanted moment are, in fact, nothing more than (parts of) a dark dream born of a mind so asleep to itself... it can't see it has unconsciously imagined the meaning of that moment...

Topics Covered: Someone has to be the first; The healing of pain is in its revelation; Stop analyzing the pain and just see it instead; No reaction can heal itself; Do not oppose what opposes you; Every denial of the appearance of pain is the perpetuation of the consciousness responsible for it; Resistance to any unwanted condition is attributing power to it; If healing does not start with...

Topics Covered: Suppose when we become Truthful, less people agree with us and desert us, particularly family. What will I do in this case?; Freedom from the resistance and anger that comes up to "handle" my spouse's non-stop patronizing in her attempt to fix everything about me; "Who" is it who feels hurt?; What happens immediately after we die?...

The way we think of ourselves is a reflection of our past; Learn to live with what you see; Ideas are not action, knowledge is not wisdom; You suffer over your present understanding; Love never interferes with another person's life; All of your actions have ambition in them; There is no reaction without position; You are here to outgrow a level of consciousness; Real acts of will...

All identification is dependency; Awareness is seeing without a center; The mind is always trying to dissect life; Every wish to change something in your life is produced by fear; A thought has no substance, it's a representation of something; Fear is built-in to dependency; The way out of your pain is through humility; You must struggle with your weakness instead of use it as an excuse...