Doing anything successfully requires you to know your capabilities. This is crucial, yet very easy to take too far. Self-Analysis, knowing yourself, discovering yourself, being yourself; these things are all well documented, though the quality of such documentation is highly suspect, as always.

... "counsultation will be subjective to what you are capable of revealing, and the bias of your counselor." I am aware of scientific methods of discovering my traits, strengths, faults, flaws, and so on. I care little for the guru, the shaman, or the preacher; and I find that the philosopher is rarely better. Each has a place, which is usually not in my true mind or at my side. Each has their uses, but are not usually the tools I require.

That leaves me with what? Some may say, "nothing", yet I would say, "me". I enjoy the psychologist's science, I simply do not like her perception of me through the fog of her science. The psychologist's observer bias is no better than apocolyptic furor roaring from the preacher's pull-pit. I don't like it.

I keep my distance, and a salt shaker nearby at all times.

If you aren't familiar with yourself, it may be that you simply have not spent enough (much, or any) time with your own thoughts. If that time with your thoughts leads to confusion or despair, perhaps you are emotionally immature. You may seek counsel in this, of course, but the counsultation will be subjective to what you are capable of revealing, and the bias of your counselor. This seems very dangerous, to accept advice on the subject of self.

... "all guided rituals are formulated to modify your mind and behavior by the design of someone who wishes to control you"... Never meditate on a thing which you have been told to meditate upon. Not an idea, nor a statement, nor an image. Nothing that is not your own. Meditation is the deepest form of cognitive focus, and so it is a highly suggestive state, similar to hypnosis and cult brain washing. It is a ritual, and all guided rituals are formulated to modify your mind and behavior by the design of someone who wishes to control you in some way. It is dangerous.

Instead, it is healthier to meditate upon what your own mind wants you to focus on. You can get this information from your self-analysis; from previous meditation; from your concerns, and urges; from your dreams.

You can begin with what Freud called, "free association", or what Buddhism calls, "no thing". They are somewhat different, yet similar.

In free association, you allow your mind to combine any variety of ideas without limitations... you never decide or tell yourself, "no, this does not fit". The goal would be to observe your non-conscious mind behaving naturally, to see what creativity (or garbage) it is capable of.

"When you are confused so thoroughly that you are speechless and thoughtless; this is like being trapped in nothing." When focusing upon, "no thing", you are taking the concept of nothing literally. You begin by clearing your mind of all things, so there is nothing being thought about. The easiest way to know what that place feels like is by example. When you daydream, there is a moment of nothing before the day dream manifests. When you are exhausted, there are many moments of nothing destroying your concentration. When you absolutely know a subject, and you feel as if you have begun to speak automatically, the moment at which you felt that you lost yourself (often called, "in the zone", or "letting it flow") is similar to "no thing". When you are confused so thoroughly that you are speechless and thoughtless; this is like being trapped in nothing.

This is unconscious, subconscious, and preconscious mind activity. You are watching yourself from within, waiting for your non-conscious mind to give a completed (hopefully rational) thought to your conscious mind. That is where you go when you meditate. You go there for much longer than you normally experience; at first seconds, then minutes, and even hours, though you may then be taking this thing too far.

That is why you must guard that place against direct instrusion by other people. You would be allowing those people to program you in ways you would not be conscious of. That is mind control. You would then develop irrational dependencies and even addictions to what that person does to you; how they make you feel. Your non-consciousness would then be speaking to you in someone else's voice, and with someone else's ideas... perhaps you do that now, already.

"People who think, always learn something." ... "The lesson is not being taught. It is being learned." I once thought, "The lesson is not being taught. It is being learned." I believe that whole-heartedly. We are being taught, but the larger portion of what we are learning from that teaching is fantasy of our own imaginations. We do create our own reality within our minds. We call it perception.

We only learn what we perceive. Learn only what you are told, learn only what you think about what you are told, think about some things and not others. That's what you'll learn. Thinking is perceiving.

People who think, always learn something. Thinkers know all about sports, and have not one clue about politics. Thinkers grow the best ear of corn you've ever tasted, and don't know how to check e-mail. Thinkers could kick your scrawny ass in three seconds, flat, and spit on you as you fell. Those women and men thought about, thus learned how to do, those things. They are thinkers, because they think... about something.

So, that's not a traditional description of a, "thinker", I know, but think about it. You might learn something.