When Learning Requires Unlearning

Anyone who has driven a car for years has built up in his arms, his legs, and his brain a set of conditioned reflexes. He automatically does certain things in the face of certain problems of speed and control. When he decides to fly an airplane, he faces the problem of unlearning some of the principles that apply in the two-dimension problem of an automobile but which would be foolish or even fatal in the three-dimension world of aircraft flight.

He has learned, for instance, that when faced by danger in an automobile he should slow down or stop. In an airplane precisely the opposite is true, for to slow down in the face of danger would mean the loss of control, resulting in a spin—and a graveyard spin takes one into the ground at a couple of hundred miles an hour. In flying one often does with his hands what he used to do with his feet when driving. He does with a flick of a finger what used to take strenuous effort on the road.

The entire problem of operating in an extra dimension brings the necessity of learning a new set of lessons. The training is difficult, for some people impossible. Many a student pilot decides to quit because he just can’t stand the frustrating relearning process. Those who go through, however, realize that the gain in this new training is well worth the trouble. They can now move in an extra dimension and travel several times the speed and efficiency that once they used to travel. They can now accomplish in minutes what used to take hours. They soon realize it was worth all it cost.

So it is that this campus called Earth furnishes for all of us the opportunity to train for heaven. This human life is not ultimate reality, rather it is the prelude to reality. This passing world will soon yield to the wideness and wonder of eternity. Stepping into this added dimension will lead every one of us inevitably to say, “It certainly was worth it all.”

Source: Breese, Dave. Discover Your Destiny, Chapter 10.