Make Your Own Opiate
Remember those natural endogenous opioids produced by healthy bodies—the ones Marx never knew existed? As a depressed teenager, I became addicted to them. I exercised maniacally, triggering surges of feel-good chemicals like endorphins, until my body basically fell apart. I developed a chronic pain condition that left me too crippled to do much besides lie still and breathe. Since it was one of the few things I could actually do, I began meditating.

I hated meditation, but only for about 10 years. That's how long it took me to realize that this practice could "turn on" the same natural opiates I'd once gotten from exercise. Unlike the rush-and-crash of my physical fitness addiction, however, meditation seemed to slowly fill a calm reservoir of joy that pervaded my life. I'd become my own source of connection to the divine. Literally and figuratively, I was making my own opiates.

The following is my recipe for Home-Brewed Charisma:

Embrace uncertainty. The most powerful protection from the inherent dangers of spiritual seeking is to accept that human knowledge can never be absolute. I mean, you could be dreaming right now—of course, you aren't…but if you were, how would you know?

René Descartes, one of the fathers of modern science, dwelled on this question until he felt, by his own description, "dazed." Ultimately, he decided that the only thing he was sure of was that he wasn't sure. Most people know Descartes's famous statement "Cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"). But he actually wrote "Dubito…cogito, ergo sum." "I doubt…I think, therefore I am." Though we like to ignore it, uncertainty, not certainty, is the philosophical foundation of science.

You'll be vulnerable to "bad drug" religion until you can repeat these words without freaking out: "Nobody's absolutely sure of anything, and that's okay." This frees you to do consciously what most people do unconsciously—make your best subjective judgment about the veracity or fallacy of any truth claim.