I felt much as you do, but then, I can't remember who or in which thread, I stumbled upon a up voted comment by a LWer who recommended this essay.
It's titled: What you can't say
The Conformist Test
Let's start with a test: Do you have any opinions that you would be reluctant to express in front of a group of your peers?
If the answer is no, you might want to stop and think about that. If everything you believe is something you're supposed to believe, could that possibly be a coincidence? Odds are it isn't. Odds are you just think whatever you're told.
...
Trouble
What can't we say? One way to find these ideas is simply to look at things people do say, and get in trouble for. [2]
Of course, we're not just looking for things we can't say. We're looking for things we can't say that are true, or at least have enough chance of being true that the question should remain open. But many of the things people get in trouble for saying probably do make it over this second, lower threshold. No one gets in trouble for saying that 2 + 2 is 5, or that people in Pittsburgh are ten feet tall. Such obviously false statements might be treated as jokes, or at worst as evidence of insanity, but they are not likely to make anyone mad. The statements that make people mad are the ones they worry might be believed. I suspect the statements that make people maddest are those they worry might be true.
This sentence in particular helped me overcome inappropriate emotional reactions when thinking about things. It made it much easier to recognize a few well sheltered and hidden beliefs which weren't paying rent or where free floating. Since then I've changed some parts of my world-view considerably as a consequence.
If you are already an atheist that does not believe in ghosts, what can you learn from rationality? I'd love to be wrong about lots of things but my problem is, I think I'm right.
As far as I can tell, none of this reflective thinking has lead to deeper understanding of consciousness. (A subject I wish I wasn't so interested in, because its study seems so futile).
If you feel like it, please tell me about any particular instances where actively working on your own thought processes has lead you to realize you were wrong about something (other than blatantly false things like those I mentioned above) or if the same program lead to any new understanding of consciousness.