Cultural Creatives: 

Shared Traits

  

According to Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, a till-recently hidden, yet quite coherent subculture comprised of about 50 million Americans [publ. 2001], with comparable, recognized populations in other countries.

 

         The "Cultural Creatives" [CCs], mentioned frequently on Ahhh-TheLight.com,  comprise a population of U.S. citizens with recognized parallel constituents in other countries as well, a group identified by the two authors cited above.  The authors' demographics suggest they numbered about 50 million adults in the USA in 2000.  If anything, especially given a host of events that have occurred since the publishing date of this book [such as 9-11; the acute indifference and lack of support to those whose lives were devastated by Hurricane Katrina; the sudden acceleration of the melting of the polar caps] and the increasing of knowledge and world-wide acknowledgement and pro-action taken [such as, re:  worldwide efforts to curb the greenhouse effect, genuine strides forward to move away from the multi-destructive reality of a petroleum-driven economy, technologies and society; conflict transformation as a virtual social movement], this number has probably grown substantially since then.   

          The Cultural Creatives compare very closely to EHEers and EHE-empaths as a whole.  This is an exact match in their description of the "core" Cultural Creatives which then made up about half this population as a whole.  Ray and Anderson delineate the values that define Cultural Creatives as follows:

Personal Authenticity [speaking, living a life exemplary of the core values of who and what one believes -- talking the talk, walking the walk with heart and fearless integrity.  One's outer and communal life is a clear reflection of one's equally important inner life.  One's life and words reflect a luminous self honesty and simultaneous concern for the greater whole] Engaged Action and Whole-Process Learning ["where they can be part of  creating something from the beginning, middle, end, and through to the new beginning"] Idealism and Activism [living the talk, being personally engaged in causes and in work that makes a contribution to society and to the world] Globalism and Ecology [very attuned to a whole-systems, big-picture approach; "they want to see all the parts spread out side by side and trace the interconnections"; they are "very or extremely concerned about 'problems of the global environment...'"] The Importance of Women [What politicians often refer to as "women's issues" are a key to understanding Cultural Creatives.  They see women's ways of knowing as valid:  feeling empathy and sympathy for others, taking the viewpoint of the one who speaks, seeing personal experiences and first-person stories as important ways of learning, and embracing an ethic of caring.  They are distressed about violence and abuse" and not to mention social activism -- advocacy for the equal rights of all people, unconditionally.] Green ["Commitment to a sustainable future."] Rejection of:  "'owning more stuff,' materialism, greed, me-firstism, status display, glaring social inequalities of race and class, society's failure to care adequately for elders, women, and children, and the hedonism and cynicism  that pass for realism in modern society"; "the intolerance and narrowness of social conservatives and the Religious Right"; "almost every big institution in modern society"; "narrow analyses and are sick of fragmentary and superficial glosses in the media that doesn't depict what they see, or explain what they know from their own direct experience.*" Altruism, Self-Actualization, Spirituality [Although all Cultural Creatives "have a well-developed social conscience and a sturdy but guarded optimism about the future," only about half of them are committed to the cultivation of a spiritual life.]

          Ray and Anderson differentiate between two basic interest groups among the CCs.  Both groups have the above list of characteristics in common, except for the last one [re:  spirituality and self-actualization].    There is a  "Core" group of slightly less than half their number that as a whole is probably better off financially, since they tend to be better equipped educationally.  This population is comprised of "a huge proportion," say the authors, "of published writers, artists, musicians, psychotherapists, environmentalists, feminists, alternative health care providers, and other professionals."  The second subgroup, which the authors term "Green," statistically pans out as more secular and/or to have more traditional religious values.  Their numbers indicate "an average interest in other kinds of spirituality and in psychology and person-centered values."    Although they clearly align themselves with the ideologies of the Core group, especially those of environmental concern, they are not nearly as "intense" or accomplished as activists who tend to be more populated by the Core CCs.

          As you can see from the list of what CCs have in common as a whole, they are all noted among the aftereffects of EHEers.  Something unique to the Core group -- and of particular interest here -- is their strong commitment to spirituality and self actualization [and decidedly not based in exclusivistic traditional religions] that is mirrored in / balanced by enduring and committed  social activism and a passionate interest in ecological sustainability.  

          It would be interesting to learn how many of either group have been influenced by spiritually transformative experiences, whether as experiencers or as EHE empaths.   There is a fascinating parallel relationship in evidence between the core group and their green counterparts, with the greens as less committed but clearly led by the core group values and behavior [such as activism] on the one hand, and on the other, EHEers and their similarly inspired EHE Empaths.  Empaths share essentially the same consciousness shift point of view, yet, as a whole they are probably not as consistently or determinedly "charged" by all this as  Experiencers would tend to be.  Of special note is the crucial activism and committed concern for environmental and social issues important to all four groups [it was noted by Ray and Anderson that the "greens" have less interest in social rights problems].  

          I suspect we would find a large number of EHEers among the core CCs. 

 

*Emphasis on 'direct experience':  needless to say, that's a major factor on this experience- focused website.

 

 

 

 

 

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Culture, context, and origin of EHEs can play a powerful role in how we may be enabled [or sometimes less-abled] toward  understanding, accepting, integrating, valuing, and utilizing such Gifts as EEs/EHEs.   Compare these several different experiential points of view, which  basically all point to the same characteristics of shifted consciousness, which PMH Atwater describes as "Brain Shift / Spirit Shift":   1. An overview of the five-stage EHE Process:  Drs. Rhea White and Suzanne Brown, as a  result of their research and an exhaustive review of the pertinent literature in the early 1990s, identify five stages within the EHE process itself.  Two other short articles delineate the whole 5-stage EHE Process.  One by R. A. White offers an objective view, and S. V. Brown counterbalances with a subjective view.  Another even more direct trait-related article by White is this one:  Brief Overview of Exceptional Human Experiences.        2. Near-Death Experiences model [Kenneth Ring ; Evelyn Elsaesser-Valarino]   3. Cultural Creatives' Values [Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson]   4. Shamanic Vocation [Holger Kalweit]   5. Translucent Experiences [Arjuna Ardagh]   6. Mystical Experiences [Louann Stahl]   7. The long-studied observations of the Spiritual Emergence Network [Stanislav and Christina Grof]   8. Presencing / Presence [Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers, and also Eleanor Rosch, whose work extensively supports this perspective.]   9. Theory U [C. Otto Scharmer; this and Presence (#7) are closely related.]   10. Brain Shift / Spirit Shift [PMH Atwater's NDE-based model describes these aftereffects in the context of an explicitly unique consciousness.]   11. The collaborative, life-long lived inquiry and experiences of Sri Aurobindo Ghose and Mirra Alfasa [aka, The Mother] [see Satprem, essential biographer for both]                The surprisingly universal focus, by the time one has made a clear commitment suggestive of the values and meaning-filled lives shared with such emphasis, regardless of whichever "lens" one might look through, is about a lifepath of service to others, to the good of the whole, and to the Earth as a sacred being.   What particularly stands out is the reverence for all life that lives in Experiencers [EHEers, no matter which model you use], as well as in EHE Empaths, and their passionate and compassionate altruistic instrumentality within community and for the world, which could be deemed an active expression of "moral consciousness."  The more profoundly Shifting the experience, the more fully the Experiencer recognizes the sacredness of all life as a Living Whole.  Such EHEers live and speak and act within the perceived context of [our] ONENESS, as if there is a Singular Consciousness that pervades and is recognizable, accessible, and communicative from within all beings and being, even the most seemingly inanimate.

 

 

 

Also see "The BIG Question"

and "Such As--Secular"