CONSUMER WARNING:

Shard products have been known to cause a wide range of side-effects in listeners, including isolated cases of elevated heart rate, headache, loss of appetite, and restlessness and/or difficulty sleeping.

The most common ailment experienced by Shard participants, however, is an acute sense of cognitive dissonance. This condition is defined as a sense of psychological conflict, discomfort, or anxiety felt when one is presented with information that is inconsistent with one's current beliefs or patterns of behavior. Reactions to c.d. vary, but it is important to monitor one's thinking in the wake of such conflict. Typical reactions can be as follows:

- Resisting or rejecting the new learning, especially if it is in direct opposition to one's current lifestyle or perceived body of personal knowledge.

- Professing the value of said new information, esp. if the learning process was difficult-- not admitting the usefulness of acquired data would be like confessing to being "conned" or "duped."

Negative reactions to Shard-induced cognitive dissonance should be avoided at all cost if the materials presented are to gain a foothold on the wider consciousness. Clinical studies have shown that cases of Shard-induced c.d. can be minimalized by repeated exposure to related audio & text materials, and frequent contemplation of the ideas presented therein.