Landmark Forum Leader Insights

The three-part myth of “is, because, and I”

By Joe DiMaggio, MD

Superman had issues with Kryptonite. For Achilles, it was his heel. For us, it’s the three-part myth of “is, because, and I.” With this myth in place, the freedom, power, and dimensionality available to us in being human are blocked—circumstances have the power, not us.

How the three-part myth plays out:
• “Is” implies there’s a “fixed” world out there—that things are just “the way they are” and that the only option available is to adjust.
• “Because” implies that the model of “cause and effect” is essentially a done deal—one thing causes another. Intervening or altering the course of events isn’t logical or likely, and the only option is to adjust.
• “I” implies that who we consider ourselves to be is who we actually are, when in fact it’s just a compilation of decisions unwittingly put together long ago to deal with failures to do or be something—that we now think of as our true and definitive nature. Again, the only option is to adjust.

But the myth is in fact a myth. “Reality” is not fixed—it’s a phenomenon that arises in language. Each moment’s meaning “occurs” against a background of understanding, and how the world “occurs” to us lives in language—it’s there that access to restoring our power lies. From there, we can reveal and dismantle old assumptions about the way things have been or the way we thought they had to be. Reality is declarative, interpretive, and actionable—we have dominion in the world of saying. Recognizing that shifts our relationship to the world. It doesn’t just lead to a different view, it gives us hands-on access to a world that’s malleable and open to being invented. It’s where transformation lives.