A well known and oft told story is how baby elephants are trained not to run away from their human masters. It goes something like this:

When elephants are very young, they are taken away from their mothers, but kept in sight, and a heavy leg iron and chain or rope is placed around the baby’s leg. With the chain staked to the ground, the baby continues to strain to reach its mother. Eventually, the baby elephant stops resisting and gives up. The trainers are then able to replace the chain with a very light rope or harness, and the elephant never tries to get away. After some time, the trainers can leave the other end of the rope lying on the ground. The memory of its boundaries is enough for the elephant to continually recreate its perceived limitations. At any point, the elephant could simply walk away, but it does not!

The nature of limitation as it manifests in human beings is quite similar. Limitation is by definition a perceived boundary based on past experience. One might retort by pointing out that there are certain limits, like the laws of physics, which cannot be overcome, and are therefore not affected by perception or other psychological phenomenon. The most compelling response to this argument is observance of the nature of scientific knowledge in general. Scientific knowledge is based on empirical investigations using the current map of what we “know” the world to be. This paradigm is amorphous at best and is continually being challenged and amended as new discoveries based on new ways of thinking are implemented. That is the nature of scientific progress.

Similarly, what we perceive as sacrosanct is in itself merely a current picture of what we know the world to be. So goes the nature of limitation. One must always ask oneself when the question of “why?” is posed, “why not?” We must ask ourselves, “On what foundation do our limitations rest?” It is too often the case that the foundation of our limitations rests upon the effects of years of recreating the pain of past experiences, until the present becomes a lie, a mistake of projecting the past into the future. At any moment, we can simply walk away, seeking a new paradigm, a new reality of self with which to move through the world.