Fishy Speakers

I remember when my friend claimed to be a spiritual guru of a kind but confessed years later he had been still smoking marijuana, Something about the way he spoke then had caused me to be cautious. Since he quit smoking dope he's humbler and real. His guitar playing and songs are a whole lot more authentic too.
When a positive person shares dates, of say, birthdays, that are really important to them, they are shared in a different way than mundane dates of negativity or neutrality.
Sometimes people use emotional 'tricks' such as maudlin reference to random death or a personal loss which rings untrue. This might then indicate some underlying level of dishonesty.
Mostly my ear seems tuned to the areas of 'specificity' versus areas of 'generality'. Carl Jung focussed on the emphasis and delays that people shared their inner character with.
There's also the criticism and expressions of superiority. These may be valid if there's more constructive reasoning and some evidence of superiority. But without these, 'preaching' often belies the dishonesty. When people other than 'preachers' 'preach' they're doing a 'one up' 'one down' thing out of a specific context.
I've even found myself asking if a person is what or who they say they are especially when they claim to be telling truth. Truth can be recited but doesn't necessarily come from the heart. I heard a young man sing a blues song once written by a very old man. It came off sounding pretty and clever.
There's a part of myself where 'discernment' lies and I'm thankful that it's like a sense of smell that says something is off without my needing to taste it. Whatever it is, isn't wasted because it can be used as compost. Yet it's not quite what I want for dinner at this point.
A lie detector might help but only if it had a sense of smell.


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