Welcome to the Personality Hacker Podcast. My name is Joel Mark Witt.

And I'm Antonia Dodge. And I'd like to start this podcast out by reading an excerpt from one of my favorite books of all time called

Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson.

It starts out this way.

William James, father of American psychology, tells of meeting an old lady who told him

the earth rested on the back of a huge turtle.

But my dear lady, Professor James asked, as politely as possible, what holds up the turtle?

Ah, she said, that's easy.

He is standing on the back of another turtle.

Oh, I see, said Professor James, still being polite.

But would you be so good as to tell me what holds up the second turtle?

It's no use, Professor, said the old lady, realizing he was trying to lead her into a logical trap.

It's turtles, turtles, turtles, turtles, all the way.

Don't be too quick to laugh at this little old lady.

All human wines work on fundamentally similar principles.

Her universe was a little bit weirder than most,

but it was built up on the same mental principles

as every other universe people have believed in.

As Dr. Leonard Orr has noted, the human mind behaves as if it were divided into two parts,

the thinker and the prover. What the thinker thinks, the prover proves.

Say that again.

What the thinker thinks, the prover proves.

...