A person's mind or quality of consciousness is a work in progress. It evolves and develops over a lifetime. We can in fact self-referentially make choices that affect the trajectory of our mind's development. A meditation practice is one such choice that I have personally found helpful. My hoped-for trajectory is toward the following: thoughtful, mature, wise, sane. The opposites provide a useful contrast: unthoughtful, immature, unwise, insane. Other characteristics on the hoped-for trajectory: calm, aware, caring.<p>However, this all poses an evolutionary quandary. If a company or movement or institution wants to spread, one highly effective means is to facilitate a consciousness in the public that is manipulable, reactive, ignorant, and controllable. Advertising sometimes seems to be dual-purpose: convince consumers to buy products, and also, more subtly, shape consumer consciousness so that it is more amenable to manipulation.<p>Bad religion, bad companies, and bad social movements very effectively use this strategy. And they succeed. Good religion, good companies, and good social movements also exist. But these often seem less effective and less successful, at least in the short term.<p>It is a paradox: How does an institution encourage and facilitate inner freedom, wisdom, and all of those good things, and also get people to do what it needs them to do in order that the institution itself can survive and continue to exist?