At whom Are Your Fingers Pointing?

I've long been a fan of Debbie Ford. She has a real knack for being straight-up about what each of us is doing to stand in our way of being who we are. Her latest book, co-authored with the heavy hitters of spiritual practicality, Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson is called The Shadow Effect, and addresses the issue of projection:

Since projection is a natural phenomenon, a defense mechanism of our ego state, it's so easy to point out other people's projections and so difficult to snap out of our own. Why is this? Because when we are projecting, we actually believe that what we are seeing is the truth about another person. We actually believe that we are different from them and incapable of their behavior.

Now remember, like the philosopher and psychologist Ken Wilber tells us, if a person or thing in our environment 'informs' us, if we receive what is happening as information, a point of interest, we probably aren't projecting. On the other hand, if it affects us, if we're pointing our fingers and judging, if we're "plugged in", chances are that we are a victim of our own projections.