Underneath it all, it is all echo chamber. Your awareness and insights you have gained are your greatest asset in developing yourself as a more full being.
Remember however, it is all echo chamber. That is what people freak out about on psychedelics, or when a doomed hypocrisy runs it’s full course (mid life crises, challenging existential epiphanies, etc.)
You’re just missing that everyone else struggles with their own sooner or later (normalcy is a fraud.) Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance anyone?
This is the nature of the mind, and the interface with the world it composes.
One might consider the mind and consciousness to be exactly that, an introspective echo chamber, and these entities of thought you’ve found influential are kinds of memes.
Memetic thoughts are viral information which infect and take on their own forms, eventually influencing the host and propagating themselves!
In ancient times people who come to such realizations became ascetics (sic., Siddhartha, or even Jesus, or the quarter billion who followed their trend) or alcoholics, or maybe philosophers (Rumi?)
Here are some witty self inoculations I came up with in my own time:
- undeceive the self. In a Universe governed by entropy, ignorance and confusion is the natural state of mind.
- Happiness is not the ultimate pursuit for the wayward person, fulfillment is. Sometimes one must sacrifice happiness to gain fulfillment.
- know that the present state of humanity is not its highest form. Before we were all driven useless or insane by modernity (something to do with delegating this personal responsibility that may only be resolved on one’s own), there are so many stories and accounts of greatness among us scattered throughout history. They must be found out! Follow the coattails of some notable historian or three. Learn more about how humans were before everything was spoken for. Know more about what you are than what you’ve come to assume!
Good luck!
What echo chamber... chamber... amber... ber...?
I don't really care too much about echo chambers themselves. It's more about the effect if you don't do your own research. With the right mindset, you can survive in one.
An easy way to check yourself is to seek out opposing views, try to build the thought models in your head, try variations on those models. Depending on the constituents' attitudes it might be a good idea to keep your new ideas to yourself if you want to remain part of the group.
With the high level of self awareness that you've developed as evidenced by this post I would think you would be largely immune to falling into the kind of traps you're worried about. Maybe you should ask yourself why you don't trust your self enough to avoid such traps in the future ?
I think there is also a risk in becoming too skeptical or even cynical. I agree that there is much in most religions that is not useful and can sometimes by very harmful yet at the same time I think many religions contain elements of truth that are worth being open to.
My recommendation would be to approach all ideas with openness while maintaining a healthy amount of skepticism. Try to find the nuggets of gold without becoming burdened with tons of sand.