Introduction

We are all creatures of habit. As we grow up in childhood, we take on from our family and community the language and concepts for the world at large around us. We cannot avoid acquiring habits of per-ceiving, naming, interpreting, describing and dealing with the worlds we live in. While on the one hand these habits are essential to our learning about the world and how to function in it, on the other hand these habits often become prisons that keep us locked into limited ways of being in and relating to the world around us. For the most part, this is an unconscious process. Without realizing it, we are indoctrinated into a par-ticular range of the prevalent, accepted worldviews of our family and community in order to help us navigate through life. Far too often, there is very little opportunity or encouragement for exploring the world for ourselves. That is the worst part of this process, because we learn to accept what we are told about the world, and to a great degree we do this without awareness that we are doing it and without questions about alternate possibilities or actualities. Once weve acquired our maps and dictionaries and encyclopedias for naming, explaining and navi-gating our world, we are also discouraged for the most part by our family and community from asking questions about the explanations and rules weve been given. So we acquire the habits, which include various meta-messages that assure us the worldviews weve been taught are the true and only ways to sort out our lives. And here lies the mischief that locks us into understandings of our world and be-haviors that can be incredibly self-limiting, self-defeating and destructive. We are discouraged from opening new windows and doors in our boxes to connect with the world in new ways.