Delusion - Better Inside or Out?

I will admit, I can be quite a hypochondriac sometimes. This means that I will sometimes believe that I have some sort of illness when I don't (to be short about it). I tend to be deluded concerning my body, my health; I favor the thought of being sick and/or in pain.

I fall prey to my own delusions.

Advertising coerces people and convinces them to buy a certain product, sometimes a particular brand of a certain product. Ads on TV and in magazines and on the radio brainwash people into feeling something that they do not.

Many people fall prey to delusions caused by advertising.

My question is, which is worse? Is it better to delude yourself or to be deluded by someone else? Is it better to tell yourself a lie and believe it or to let someone else tell you one and believe it?

Discuss.

I guess if you're deluding yourself at least you only have yourself to blame.

But typically the delusion starts as external influence. You see a nice car advert and the driver has a beautiful woman and is having so much fun, and is the center of attention. The advert is telling you that you want it.

Then your brain kicks in and starts finding reasons why you need it. It's so much easier to justify something you need.

So in all, I don't think there is any such thing as pure self-delusion in todays world.

eperiential test:

seek truth

penetrate it

i spent 2 decades under (what i now think of as) an overwhelming delusion. Once out from under that rock, life re-invented itself before me. life was more fulfilling, thinking felt more free, food somehow tasted better, sleep was easier, i became less prone to depression, and everything just felt like it had somehow become more than i thought it could ever have become. I would say, that the more free we are of our delusions the better life can be since you can then know the truth. and have more ability to think for yourself the more fulfilling such choices can become.