The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of betrayed includes:

1) To give information about (a person, group, country, etc.) to an enemy,

2) To hurt (someone who trusts you, such as a friend or relative) by not giving help or by doing something morally wrong, and

3) To show (something, such as a feeling or desire) without wanting or trying to.

Yet, most betrayals are to oneself. We betray ourselves multiple times in our conscious life, by denying an intuition, or action, out of fear, or some other psychological phobia, notwithstanding the apparent point of this mortal life is experiential.

In the classic psychological experiment by Stanley Milgram in 1951 and his subsequent book “Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View”, Milgram demonstrated people will obey an authority figure despite the requested actions being in conflict with the person’s morals. This can also be extrapolated to relate to obeying, or more aptly, disobeying oneself. The conscious taking on the role of authority figure.

As Gallwey indicated in his book “The Inner Game of Tennis”, we are continually arguing between our conscious and subconscious selves, where he would argue, assuming appropriate “knowledge/balance”, the subconscious should be trusted and not second guessed by the conscious self. Yet, we continually betray our subconscious, our more balanced viewpoint, everyday, multiple times per day, essentially depriving our life of the experiences it seeks.

One could argue a subconscious intuition that is contrary to one’s conscious rule is incorrect on the face of it. Though do these rules make sense? Kant indicated a moral man must never tell a lie, yet it doesn’t take much imagination to realize the absurdity of this – ISIS comes to your door looking for children to kill and asks if there are any, and full well knowing there are, what do you say? Is not “situational ethics”, or rather, trust of your subconscious the moral path, versus the more likely ineffective, brittle rules-bound conscious mind? Then you say, how to decide? This answers itself – don’t become betrayed by you.

by