Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

People like company. It's a rare individual that embraces loneliness, most of us want to talk about ourselves to someone; nothing is more interesting to yourself than you. Close friends to whom you can divulge all aspects of your inner life to are too infrequent for the endless stream of consciousness that you would like to share, hence, your psyche invents an invisible friend that pays attention to everything you do. This natural phenomenon often gets explained as something spiritual, people insisting they feel someone is watching their every action & thought, and there is, but it's themselves.

Adam Smith called this phenomenon “the observer," and discussed it in-depth in his 18th-Century book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. There need be no other mystical explanation; no god who is personally interested in you; there is only you, and you are watching & judging, constantly comparing your circumstances & actions against the morals & values that were vested in you by your parents & society. You judge yourself yet think judgment is coming from on-high. This is the source of shame as well as pride; this is the source of chagrin & exultation; this is where comfort & love come from. Having a friend who knows everything about you, and who you can discuss things with privately, is worth any price, yet it's free, because that person is you.