Just to add more data to my experience: I broke the technique into steps when I tried it. The steps did seem helpful. But maybe someone who used the technique more successfully could give us better lines of approach. The steps I used (I wrote out answers to each step, since writing or speaking aloud to myself makes it easier to follow out difficult lines of thought):
Step 1: Pick a question.
Step 2: Find a reason to care about having actually an accurate answer. Find something to protect that hinges on believing whatever it is that’s accurate about this question, whether or not that accurate answer turns out to be my current belief.
Step 3: Notice any reasons I might want to stick to my current belief, even if that belief turns out to be untrue. See if they in fact outweigh the reasons to want the actual answer.
Step 4: Create doubt or curiosity: Find my current belief’s weakest points, or the points I am most afraid to consider. Go through a list of outside people I respect, and ask what points they might balk at in my beliefs. Ask if my belief has anything in common with past errors I’ve made, or if an uncharitable stranger might think so. Ask if anything I’m saying to myself makes me feel squicky. Brainstorm. Ask what the space of alternatives might look like.
Step 5: Actually do the Crisis of Faith technique. [Except that I didn’t get to this step.]
Just to add more data to my experience: I broke the technique into steps when I tried it. The steps did seem helpful. But maybe someone who used the technique more successfully could give us better lines of approach. The steps I used (I wrote out answers to each step, since writing or speaking aloud to myself makes it easier to follow out difficult lines of thought):
Step 1: Pick a question.
Step 2: Find a reason to care about having actually an accurate answer. Find something to protect that hinges on believing whatever it is that’s accurate about this question, whether or not that accurate answer turns out to be my current belief.
Step 3: Notice any reasons I might want to stick to my current belief, even if that belief turns out to be untrue. See if they in fact outweigh the reasons to want the actual answer.
Step 4: Create doubt or curiosity: Find my current belief’s weakest points, or the points I am most afraid to consider. Go through a list of outside people I respect, and ask what points they might balk at in my beliefs. Ask if my belief has anything in common with past errors I’ve made, or if an uncharitable stranger might think so. Ask if anything I’m saying to myself makes me feel squicky. Brainstorm. Ask what the space of alternatives might look like.
Step 5: Actually do the Crisis of Faith technique. [Except that I didn’t get to this step.]