Wake Up

Finding Your Truth in a World of Confusion

• Douglas James Cottrell PhD • Season 2 • Episode 2

Share episode

Send us a text

What is truth, and can anyone truly claim to possess it completely? In this thought-provoking episode, Dr. Douglas James Cottrell explores the nature of personal and universal truth with co-host Les Hubert. 

"The truth is what you think it is," Dr. Douglas explains, but the wisdom lies in recognizing our limitations. Like puzzle pieces gradually coming together, our understanding of truth evolves throughout our lives. Some pieces may not immediately fit our existing knowledge framework - not because they're wrong, but because their connections haven't yet revealed themselves.

The conversation takes fascinating turns through ancient wisdom traditions, modern technology, and human psychology. Dr. Douglas uses the metaphor of a fluted column with six different sides to illustrate how different perspectives each contain validity while being unable to perceive the complete structure. With potentially 144 different psychological patterns influencing how we process information, humanity represents a multifaceted approach to truth.

When discussing artificial intelligence, Dr. Douglas acknowledges its extraordinary capabilities while emphasizing that human minds remain superior. "AI can do calculations with mechanical memory, but our minds are much more powerful," he notes, describing technology as an extension of human thinking without emotional filters.

Whether you're questioning political claims, religious doctrines, or scientific pronouncements, this episode offers a balanced approach to truth-seeking that combines conviction with openness. As Dr. Douglas concludes, "Be satisfied with what you know, move on what you know, and improve along the way." Subscribe now to continue exploring consciousness, metaphysics, and practical wisdom for navigating our complex world.

Support the show

Announcer:

Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell, your source for helpful information, advice and tips to live your life in a mindful way in this increasingly chaotic world. For over four decades, Dr Douglas has been teaching people how to develop their intuition and live their lives in a conscious way. His news and views of the world tomorrow, today, are always informative and revealing. And now here's your host, Dr Douglas James Cottrell.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Welcome to the Wake Up, the broadcast where curiosity leads to deeper understanding. I'm your host, Douglas James Cottrell, and my good friend and co-host Les Hubert is here with me, along with editor Jack Bialik, as we delve into the fascinating realms of life, metaphysics, spirituality and the pressing questions that shape our world. What is the topic today Les?

Les Hubert:

Well, people basically want to know where to find the truth. Is there a truth quote-unquote, and how to get to it. How do you discern where it is, because there's so much disinformation out there now.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, that's true. This is the age-old question, by the way. You can go back. I'm sure it's somewhere on a tomb in some pyramid, where in the Mayan world, in the Egyptian world, in the Viking world, there is "What is the truth? So the question is this it's simple and we'll explore a little further, but the truth is what you think it is. You're right. Your truth is your truth. You're right.

Douglas James Cottrell:

The wisdom is that you don't have all of the truth. That's the secret. I mean, people ask what's the meaning of life? Is there life after death? Uh, how do I do this? How do I do that? How do I have a better marriage? What's the truth? How you know, am I, am I my work, making the company rich and I'm only getting wages per hour? What's the truth? Well, you know, it's up to you, my friend.

Douglas James Cottrell:

The single most important thing is, as it's said in the Good Book, we all see through a glass darkly. In other words, there are limits of truth. There is no way you, my friend, will know the truth. No way. You will know in part, specifically and with great wisdom and achievement, parts of the truth. Now, Les, you've heard people going around saying "God wants you to do this, and God doesn't want you to do that. I know what God wants and I speak for God." That person is lying to you. There's no way anyone could know the mind of God, and so the derivative answer is the truth is the mind of God, and God is a universal mind. So how can we little, teeny grains of sand on the beach, how can we possibly know what the ocean is all about?

Les Hubert:

Hmmm..

Douglas James Cottrell:

So the short answer is you want to know what the truth is? Well, find out what you think the truth is. Explore what you know to be the truth, apply it and if you can repeat it, good chance you're onto a piece of good truth. But remember, always be a little reserved and say well, there might be a little more to it. Because if you think in your life and I'm not going to go into too many examples here, but every now and then on a science channel or history channel, somebody comes up with a new explanation for something that everybody used to know is the truth. Dinosaurs had color, they had skin with pores in it or ripples. The big bones on the back were radiating heat from their skeleton. Well, when I grew up, they were for defence, so I said they didn't know, but they told us so much as what they knew. So, if you just want to take a moment... Internet; what the heck was that, just a few years ago? Who would understand the cloud, where all the information Google and other search engines could find? And now we have AI, artificial intelligence. What is that? Well, it's the truth. They all have their resources of information that can answer your question, guide you, be your companion, talk to you. AI is just in its neophyte infant position in our life and, oh my God, what's it going to be like in the future? Is it going to take us over? Well, it already is. What do you mean? Is that the truth? Yeah, I have a relative who talks to the chat, e very night. They have a cold and they report to the AI what their symptoms are and the AI sends back suggestions as to how they're improving their temperature. And so when I hear people having chats with chat GPT or DeepSeek or the other ones out there, is that the truth? Where are these artificial intelligence machines getting that information from Someplace Out there? Well, that's how the human mind is. The human mind is faster, better and more accurate than any artificial intelligence, and we get inspiration from above.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So, if you want to know something about the truth, dream about it, contemplate, meditate, figure it out, get the crayon going on the piece of paper and try to determine what it is that you're talking about, thinking about or determining, and bang, wake up. There's the answer right in front of you. How many times, Les, have we been sitting there noodling around, all of a sudden ding. That's what I do. Where did that come from? You know what happened. How come I didn't know about that yesterday? How come it's not? Well, never mind about that. As Buddha would say you arrived, use it. Forget how you got there, just do it. But you know, the human mind goes like no that was pretty complicated. How did I do that? Where'd that come from? What day of the week is it, and what flavor ice cream do I like?

Douglas James Cottrell:

So the point being is: when you get that information, it comes from somewhere, and I'm going to call that the universal consciousness. Yahweh, God Almighty, etc. So the point being is that when you, when you're looking for something and you're looking for the truth number one, you're going to be given a piece, and that piece of truth is like a puzzle piece, the big puzzle, like the window here on this Zoom call, the rectangle window, that's the truth. That's the parameters of truth as far as we can understand it and comprehend it, and that's another thing to contemplate. You can be given the truth and if you can't contemplate it, understand it, it's like (airplane sound), it's just way over your head. So, whatever you can comprehend, the universe gives to you. But think of it as a piece of a puzzle. Puzzle fits in to-- guess what-- the other pieces of truth that you've found. And as you go through life, some magic things will happen. You'll get a piece of the puzzle that doesn't fit. Don't put it away, just put it on the side, because if it's truth, it will fit into the puzzle later on. If it's not truth, it won't ever matter and you set it aside. But as you continue to put the pieces together, sooner or later you'll have almost the whole, entire picture of what truth is for you. Remember, for you.

Douglas James Cottrell:

You know there are 12 different zodiac signs and of those 12 different signs, t hey're broken down into 12 versions of each sign.

Les Hubert:

Oh

Douglas James Cottrell:

That's 144 patterns.

Les Hubert:

Oh wow.

Douglas James Cottrell:

In In my researches. So taking that as a truth there are 144 different types or patterns of people in the world right now. Wake up. Right now, there's 144 ways of knowing what the truth is. If you had a column and you had six different sides, a fluted column with six different sides, which side is the truth? They all have their own truth, but they can't perceive the other sides, so they don't know what the other truths are, but they're one in the same, part of the whole. So if you begin to see yourself in a simplistic way of: I'm one of 144 different types of people and I perceive something, then Then my perception and my understanding and my comprehension, and then how I relate it to all the other things me, that That is my truth

Douglas James Cottrell:

. Wake up, my friends. Tomorrow you'll get more information. And then, oh my gosh, it's. Because because you've evolved, you know you've done

Douglas James Cottrell:

.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So what is the truth? What is what order? This truth, as I just said, it's what you believe, it's what your truth is to you always improving, always evolving,. A brilliant never get up on a pedestal and say this is the truth, Les is the way I guarantee the back of your hand. God, god, will be down and go no, it isn't, I it's, in There's something else you didn't think about. d l t s y. Y...

Les Hubert:

That's funny. You mentioned AI earlier and with all the hype you hear on TV and the scaremongering, I have a client of mine. He works on weapon systems for the Navy Brilliant man and I ran it by him and he said to me, les, we've been using AI for quite some time, you know. And They have we? He goes, yeah. He said it's. In many ways it's very applicable, it's very helpful, and in other ways he said it's questionable. But he said it all depends on how you apply it. But he said you going to be a boon to mankind. It's. You know, reading x-rays, um, uh, mris, uh, how about the people, people stuck at the airport, you know, scanning luggage all day? Oh my god, uh, they get very, very tired of that. So, uh, those things it does very well. But can he said also, it takes massive amounts of programming. But he said no, don't worry about it, so we're going to be said thank you for filling me in. I you know I was totally off track with that. Yeah, I would add to that to say that you know AI can do calculations. It has a mechanical memory so it doesn't forget, it's not alterated by age, but the information is there. Wherever it gets is there. And so I saw something recently about in China they're using AI to come up with cancer cures. Wow, they put on the short track, the short list, whatever, and they are now having cancer cures because of AI being able to go through all the research material that's out there and coming to some conclusion or positive results. Now, that's the power of AI, because anybody who's used it you know you write a letter and you ask it to redo it or check it before you can say abracadabra, it's done. And so the power of AI as a research tool, because it can go out and search through all the things.

Douglas James Cottrell:

The truth that's out there and come back in a concise, straight way. That's the power. But remember, humans came up with that information to start with, right right, so it's just kind of like an automatic resource, I guess you can say. But it has and does it. think.

Douglas James Cottrell:

We already know how to think, but our emotional filters tend to put doubt in our minds or, you know, we get distracted or we think is this U2 going to work with all those things that come up? Well, spy with planes that, there's no emotion. It just

Douglas James Cottrell:

doesn't up. Well with that, there's no emotion, it just doesn't. So, uh, as, as somebody in the armed force is saying you know, yes, we've always had this, ai, of course we have. .

Douglas James Cottrell:

You know, like I remember, we had supersonic jets, there were spy vehicles. Everybody said no, no, we don't have them. And then out came the u2 and all that stuff. You know, sure, we've been flying spine Boys all over Russia for years now. So here's along the way of that. If you think in your mind, my friend, something, chances are it's already been done in this new world we're in. And also sometimes, when you have deductive thinking or inspirational thinking, or you have a dream or meditation. Get on it right away, because if you don't, that's filtering out in the ethers to all the, all the telepathy ways, the telepathy waves, if I can put that, as somebody else will take your idea and produce it and I'll ask you have you ever, my friends, come up with an idea and then, a few months later, there it is on the street. Somebody invented it or produced it more exactly and you're going, I should have.

Douglas James Cottrell:

That's another way to get to the truth is to follow it, prove it out or try to disprove it. And when you try to disprove something, you're teaching yourself how to prove it, whether it's truth or not. But again, you know, this idea of AI is out here. Our minds are much more superior to it. It does things that we take a long time to do. It can do it in a fraction of a second. But I see it as an extension of the way human minds think, without emotion, without doubt. You ask AI, it doesn't say "excuse me, Mr Customer, let me think about that. I'm not sure if I can answer that. It throws back something at you really fast and sometimes it makes mistakes. The word stream gets put in place of the word dream or something like that. But in any event, remember, you as a person know many, many, many things more than you possibly comprehend or understand about yourself. You know how to make AI work. You know how to ask the questions. That's pretty good. You know what to ask. That's the same as the ask of yourself, the same of what is the truth. But always remember, I guarantee you you will know a lot about something, but not everything. And that's how you find what the truth is.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Now, when you're watching politics and you're watching religion, or you're watching people make claims, whatever, you have to be a little reserved and understand that when an election happens, half the people, or slightly more, voted for the person and the other half didn't. So when the politician says, I speak for the people, I was elected. No, he wasn't elected. He won the election, but half the people didn't elect him. So having that puts you back in some sort of calm mode. But understand this. The reason we die is so that the next guy can come along or next person, man or woman, and put their truth forward and find out what it's like to be a politician, a religious leader, a construction owner, a business owner, a teacher, et cetera, et cetera. A parent even most important job is being a parent. So that's the point is that the truth is temporary. You do not know it all. You do not know the truth. It's impossible. Only God knows the truth. We don't even know what God looks like, right, how can we possibly know what's in his mind? So beware people that tell you absolutes God wants you to do this. God's going to punish you. Well, wait a minute, let God tell me that. Who do you? Who do you? I don't even know who you are. How are thing's going in your life, by the way? A nyway. So that's the truth.

Douglas James Cottrell:

You won't know the truth, but you'll know a lot. Apply it. If it keeps on working for you repetitively, and you can demonstrate it over and over, that's the truth. And always remember, if you stand up and you say I know the truth for sure, then a big, big metaphysical hand will come down, slap you on the wrist and say no, no, no, there's something you don't know. And so be satisfied with what you know, move on what you know and improve along the way, and I guarantee you, by the time you get to be a little older, you will know considerable amounts of the truth. So rest assured, the truth's available to you as far as you can understand it. And that's another thing to take into account. Wake up. You know the facts, you know the truth to your level of understanding. You are always right, my friends, always right, the same as the other 143 people believe they're right. You're right, I'll be in respect. Today we've been talking about what the truth is. We hope we've been helpful. So thank you for joining us on the Wake Up. I'm your host, Douglas Cottrell.

Announcer:

Thank you very much for listening to Wake Up. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you'll be notified when a new episode is posted, and we'd greatly appreciate your review of our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts to let others know about the great content we're producing For more about Dr Douglas's self-development classes books and other related products, please visit his website, douglasjamescottrell. com. Until next time, we wish you all of God's blessings: health, wealth and peace of mind..