The intellectual type has to proceed through doubt. Do not force any belief upon yourself; that will be deceiving yourself. You cannot deceive anyone else, you can only deceive yourself. Do not force; be authentic. If doubt is your nature, then proceed through doubt. Doubt as much as possible, and do not choose any technique which is based on faith – that is not for you. Choose some technique which is scientifically experimental. No need to believe.

There are two types of methods. One is experimental. You are not told to believe, you are told to do it, and the consequence will be the belief, the faith. A scientist cannot believe. He can take a hypothesis to work on, to experiment with, and if the experiment comes out right, if the experiment proves that the hypothesis is right, then he reaches to a conclusion. Faith is achieved through experiment. So there are techniques in these one hundred and twelve techniques which do not require any faith on your part.

That is why Mahavira, Buddha, they are intellectual types, just as Ramakrishna and Chaitanya are feeling types. Because of this Buddha says that there is no need to believe in God; there is no God. He says, “Do what I say, do not believe in me. Experiment with what I say, and if your experience proves it right then you can believe it.”

Buddha says, “Do not believe in me, do not believe what I say. Do not believe something because I have said it. Experiment with it, go through it, and until you achieve your own conclusion remain in doubt. Your own experience will become your faith.”

Mahavira said, “No need to believe in anyone – not even in the master. Just do the technique.”

Science never says to believe. It says, do the experiment, go to the lab. This is for the intellectual type. Do not try faith before you do the experiment. You cannot try it – you will falsify everything. Be real unto yourself. Remain real and authentic.

Sometimes it has happened that even atheists have reached the divine because of finding their truth about themselves. Mahavira is an atheist; he doesn’t believe in God. Buddha is an atheist; he doesn’t believe in any God. So a miracle happened with Buddha. It is said about him that he was the most godless man and the most god-like. Both – godless and god-like. He was absolutely intellectual, but he reached because he never deceived himself, he went on doing experiments. For six years continuously he was doing this experiment and that, and he did not believe. Unless something were proven true by experience, he would not believe it. So he would do something, and if nothing happened he would leave it.

One day he reached. Just by doubting and doubting and doubting, experimenting, a point came… a point came when nothing remained to be doubted. Without any object, the doubt fell. There was no object to doubt now. He had doubted everything, and even doubt became futile. Doubt dropped, and in that dropping he realized. Then he realized that the doubt was not the real thing: rather, the doubter was, and you cannot doubt the doubter. The doubter is there to say, “No, this is not right.”