What are our ‘Laws of Life’? They are what we live by, what we base our decisions on, and what we abide by. We follow these decisions based on what we believe is the right thing to do. My central law of life, is that I follow what my conscience tells me. A person’s conscience can be their strongest weapon when traversing the complicated and sometimes irrational roads we face. Each individual person has different laws they follow, each based on their own conscience. The conscience is important, but if we are to follow its guidance, we have to differentiate intrusive thoughts from the actual conscience itself.

What are intrusive thoughts though? Simply put, they are negative ideas or actions that ‘intrude’ in the person’s thoughts. According to Lecia Bushak, from the Medical Daily Website, four out of five people experience intrusive thoughts. I myself have experienced these. The issue with these intrusions, is that people can experience thoughts of self-harm, and harm to others, such as swerving into oncoming traffic, or cutting someone with a knife. They wish to rid themselves of these ideas, because they know deep down that they are the wrong things to perform, but alas, cannot. The thoughts are like a parasite; the more someone gives in to it, the stronger it grows, the stronger it becomes, the stronger of an influence it has over someone. The more power it has, the higher of a chance that one will cave and give in to these bad thoughts. So how can one tell the difference between their conscience and intrusions, so we can steer clear of the intrusive thoughts?

The conscience one owns is very crucial, very critical, and a very central part of them. It tells the separation from right and wrong, or in other words, gives the person a feeling if they are doing something right or wrong. The way to differentiate the conscience from intrusive thoughts, is that the conscience is not going to wish harm upon oneself or another. This helps people make the right decisions, because guilt falls upon a person if they, for example, purposely tell a lie or falsify the truth. Guilt has a very powerful impact, because of the influence it has over people. It is an amazing tool we can utilize, because it works in correlation with the conscience, in telling us what the right decision is. In the past year, I have noticed something I never had before. Each person on this earth has a different level of consciousness. Some will know the feeling of guilt well, as their conscience will let them know about each and every single thing they’ve done wrong. On the other hand, many do not know it as well, because their conscience does not inform them as much when they have done something incorrect. As for myself, I found this out when I was experiencing the difficulty of having this guilt every moment of the day, and then I could see another do something incorrect, or even worse than I did, and have absolutely no issue with it. I saw this, where varying people would range from going for an activity, to hesitating, to staying clear of it. This is when I noticed that not everyone has the same sort of consciousness as myself. I have been asking myself a year and longer question since the moment that sparked in me. Why do people have different levels of consciousness?

The parasite, (being the intrusion), begins to creep into the conscience, and take over. Slowly, beginning with walking in the council of the wicked, to standing in the way of sinners, to finally sitting in the seat of scoffers, by the time one is sitting, their conscience has no effect on them anymore. Because they have trained their self to see that there is no wrong in their doing. Bit by bit, the conscience begins to fade away. Starting with walking in the presence of the parasite, to standing near it, as one begins to feel more comfortable with it, they start to sit next to it. The moment that they sit next to the parasite, they have become part of the parasite. It is the sole reason why people can mentally do activities such as murder and selling drugs. The consciousness has been effectively dulled out. One cannot just jump right to the extremes though, they slowly, piece by piece, add more despicable things that they have done to their record. “Like a snowball rolling down a hill, one day we find ourselves, in a place, we thought we would never be, doing things, we thought we would never do, but because it was so slow, we’re totally rationalizing all of it. Because people never crumble in a day. It’s always a slow fade.” – Mark Hall, Casting Crowns