CHOICE: An Ability to Create in Any and All Situations 18 0f 36
It is day 3 of my Landmark Forum back in October 1993. It has been a great 3 days with introduction to some 13 design principals about what it is to be human. Indeed, Ontology (the study of being) was often mentioned back then as the context for Landmark’s education and training.
CHOCOLATE/VANILLA: Choose?
So we are in the inquiry and the Landmark Forum leader asks for a volunteer to get up on stage, in front of us all, and help distinguish the power of choice. Firstly, the volunteer is shown to replicas of ice cream cones with 2 different toppings: Chocolate and Vanilla. I am paraphrasing here (it has been a while) so I recall we were then given the definition of DECIDE “To kill off options” and CHOOSE “To select freely and have it be free from the past” as a new way of looking at CHOICE.
Forum Leader: Chocolate, Vanilla : Choose
Volunteer: I choose Chocolate
Forum Leader: Why did you choese Chocolate
Volunteer: I choose Chocolate because I prefer it to Vanilla.
Forum Leader: Was that a choice or decision?
Volunteer: It was a choice; I choose chocolate because I like it. I prefer it to Vanilla.
Forum Leader: Consider it is a decision. You killed off all alternatives, in this case vanilla, and you chose Chocolate based of a PAST EXPERIENCE where you liked it.
This exercise went back and forth, with the volunteer sticking fast to Chocolate ‘choices’ until suddenly, the volunteer understood to choose freely (and free from the past).
Forum Leader: Chocolate, Vanilla: Choose
Volunteer: I choose Chocolate because I choose Chocolate.
Forum Leader: Why did you choose chocolate?
Volunteer: I choose Chocolate because I choose Chocolate.
We all noted there was NO REASON given this time. Then the Forum Leader did something radical. She held out only one ice cream cone (happened to be vanilla) and she asked: Choose?
Volunteer: I choose vanilla because I choose vanilla.
What this new concept opened up was perhaps an unusual look at our choices in life; where we look at all alternatives and choose…aaah now consider that’s a decision because you are killing off all alternatives. To make a choice, choose freely and have it be free from the past. So I choose Mum because I choose Mum. I choose Being Short because I choose Being Short! The power here is that these choices, even if there is only option, is to choose it freely. Choose cancer, wow, read here.
CHOICE – A New Freedom
What I have found liberating from this tool is that one can really choose, with freedom, if one is clear there are no past thoughts/feelings/influences clouding one’s mind. Indeed the skill is firstly to distinguish all facets of the matter at hand, and notice all the meaning one has around it. From there, my heart skips a beat and I choose! Indeed, given these choices (from this new point of view), are transformative, consider there is no surprise that fear arises as it is certainly diving into the unknown. Saying that, one of the top 5 benefits of the landmark Forum is indeed making the right choices and pursuing what’s important to oneself. I can certainly testify to that having started both the Ceasefire Project and the Queens Peace Project with a commitment to causing World Peace by 2020.
I choose World Peace by 2020 because I choose World Peace by 2020.
What will you choose (freely) now you have an idea of a new way to look at Choice?
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