Letting go of Limiting Beliefs

In my fascination with Landmark Education and its programs, and why people have so many different reactions to it, I came across something that I think subtly gets at why so many people like the courses, and why at the same time it seems to upset some outside critics.

This piece barely mentions Landmark Education, it’s more about just giving success tips. It briefly says that Landmark is a great aid to letting go of self limiting beliefs, something that I agree with. And I think that’s why it sometimes attracts a lot of controversy.

Seeing a point of view that you’ve had that’s been holding you back can be incredibly powerful. I noticed it myself when I did the Landmark Forum and I saw where I unconsciously viewed myself as a failure, or at least as someone who was limited in the kind of success I could achieve.

But if you talk to some people about “letting go of beliefs”, I think it makes them a bit daffy. “That’s brainwashing!” some scream, particularly in the western world, where our cherished individuality is everything to us. People will fight and kill and argue forever about the rightness of their beliefs; it’s what you could say we’re best at. If the internet has opened up a new world of communication for people, what have people used this new world for? Well, if you look at the internet, it’s pretty obvious that a great many people are using it to argue about their beliefs. I don’t think anyone would deny this.

And if you look at someone arguing on the internet, “giving up a limiting belief” appears to be the last thing in the universe they’d ever want to do – they’d rather die first.

Which comes back to Landmark Education. I personally think this is what both gives the power to its courses and rankles some people. Something where giving up self-limiting beliefs is a big part of the programs deeply threatens some people.

The ridiculous part of it is that people then assume that if one is giving up certain beliefs, the organization must be replacing those beliefs with its own sinister beliefs. But Landmark Education doesn’t do that at all. It’s not about giving up one set of rigid beliefs so that one can embrace another set of rigid beliefs. It’s about about realizing that all beliefs are inherently limited by their own point of view and that fighting over them doesn’t give a lot of fulfillment in life. Oh well – until next time!