Certainly the values and purposes we pursue may be influenced by information or disinformation that we receive from other people. Nevertheless, each of us always remains free either to follow or to ignore the urgings of others. (Regarding mental autonomy, cf. pp. 1.3:61-2). A person of low self-esteem may exercise very little independence, appearing to act in an "automatic" mode of obedience to the consciousness of others. Yet even the actions of such an impaired individual ultimately reflect a conclusion formed by that person's own consciousness—namely, that his or her own mind is incapable of dealing with reality. (The foundations of healthy self-esteem will be examined in Section 3.)

If person Y's actions are swayed by information or disinformation provided by person X, then clearly the latter exerts an indirect causal influence upon those actions. Indeed, many of the causal factors to be observed in this course, particularly in Section 5, will be of this indirect kind. Yet Y is not just an irrelevant automaton in such situations. Has Y cultivated the habit of mental independence, or is he or she highly gullible? Or is Y perhaps psychologically rebellious, tending to act against outside advice, like a "not" circuit in a computer? Clearly, Y's nature, psychology, and values will affect how he or she will act in the presence of X's influence—and Y's nature must therefore be considered in evaluating such influences.