EHE Study Groups

I made a promise to Rhea A. White that I would implement her crucially important EHE Study Group concept in some way as integral to my work, and this is a bare beginning toward that purpose. In fact it is possibly the most exciting aspect to all of this web project [wHeretwoworldsTouch.com] and will translate into a 'presence' on all the subwebs except the Physical Death and Dying Resource Portal / PDD. The DTCII [Death-Transcendent Cooperative Inquiry Initiative] can be said to be a sublimated, deeper and broader form of this conception that will include not only individuals but also already defined groups and organizations, that will generate its own funding and research development projects.



          Re: EHE local and online study groups: I'm still deliberating about the details of how this will unfold in the sense that Rhea White and I first discussed this idea. Two articles that give insight into her visioning of this are listed at the bottom of this page. The EHEN Mission Statement emphasizes a comfortable ideological neutrality, at once welcoming and safe, that speaks volumes about the possible look and feel of these EHE Study Groups. The EHE Network, by the way, never got to establish EHE Study Groups, although it did offer other avenues of open discussion and exploration for similar purposes, and certainly to encourage people to share, to write, to process, to learn about and to understand the inestimable value of their exceptional and exceptional human experiences.

EHE Study Group -- How Might This Develop?

          Here is my plan thus far. It is not elaborate yet, but I put this here to bring attention to its essential importance to the goals and mission of wHeretwoworldsTouch.com [/.org]. As local groups, this could be implemented through MeetUps.com or something similar. Online, we will use the technologies that are available to the most people and in all countries. There will be three avenues of implementation of this activity:

1

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Some rendition of EHE study groups will be encouraged on the LLR/LAL, emphasizing the sharing of personal experiences, reading, discussion, and personal development, including everything about EHE autobiographies and their committing to doing that and sharing them with each other. Some of the more committed groups here would naturally find ways to support personal developmental efforts through other group activities as well. They would be particularly encouraged to study and discuss Rhea White's work.

2

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On the LAL, and even more so on the ESC, this activity will be ideal for providing mutual support in many ways, including the sharing of personal EHE stories, journalizing EHE autobiographies, helping each other with the various challenges that frequently come with these experiences, also finding ways to bring their incredible, EHE-sourced gifts into play in their local communities and together [online, as the umbrella group, internationally] within the global community. They will form their own international group.
The fundamental purpose of its members will be, through their consciousness, actions and practices, to cultivate a collective "crossing of the threshold [in order to] have a common experience of the spiritual world" [according to Marjorie Spock].   This is as Rudolf Steiner envisioned our task of social spiritualization of global dimensions that would allow us to re-member and accomplish the freely chosen task we had set ourselves, to strive to recognize, reclaim, honor and celebrate our essential nature as temporarily embodied spirit beings, suffering the obscuration created by the physical "bushel" under which the light of spirit in every human being and in all of life is hidden. Like the magical event for young children finding Easter eggs in the meadow or the idea of God/dess playing with us a cosmic rendition of "hide-and-go-seek," we each can Waken, which is the ultimate gift of Free Will -- to choose it, to enjoy the wonder of our true nature, innate to each and every one of us as spirit. It is for each of us to rediscover this genuine Surprise! and JOY beyond imagining, sourced in our physical forgetfulness.

3

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A rendition of the EHE study group will be essential to DTCII activities and objectives. DTCII members will continue to hone their group philosophy and to give definition and form to the collaborative research fostered in this subweb, using a number of avenues such as John Heron's co-operative inquiry approach.   This could in fact become the vehicle for pulling people with their multiplicity of experiential interests into actually sitting down at the same table with one another in order to iron out a map of collaborative exploration. Their focus will naturally evolve as the group/s settle into a workable harmony with direction and goals.   A few objectives to be encouraged:

What is most important to their philosophical approach? Some of this will be offered through a charter for this [DTCII] EHE study group [by whatever name we give it] or for EHE study groups as a whole. But they will have a lot of space in which to formulate their group goals and activities.

What do they together have most in common in terms of [EHE] experience and interest? The more types of such interests and experience they can bring into the equation, the better!

What are their most exciting questions? What do they as a group most want to explore, to study, to cultivate, to do? This will vary over time, but will include basic study, sharing of experiences and techniques that have helped them cultivate.

They are, probably through the charter itself, strongly encouraged to plan their time together around these kinds of activities:

=	Reading, study, discussion.
=	Sharing their EHE stories, experiences, autobiographies and what they are learning from them and what they want to learn or experience.
=	Studying John Heron's and also Rhea A. White's works
=	Experiential research using John Heron's co-operative inquiry approach in which they play back and forth the roles of researcher and experiencer.
=	Logging and recording their shared insights and experiences from their research and anything else they may find valuable to share outside their immediate group.
=	Group project that nurtures them as individuals and as a group, such as pursuing their most exciting questions in some organized/planned fashion.
=	Group project that would benefit others outside the group. I would recommend thinking of a particular issue or challenge in the community-at-large that they as a group could work on together, utilizing their knowledge and skills / gifts as EHEers and EHE empaths.
=	Tying in and documenting their work for themselves as a group and also as a group in the context of the umbrella organization. They may or may not wish formally to present their work / projects / insights / discoveries at conferences [online or off].
=	Each year members/groups could submit ideas for and vote on one major project that will be undertaken by the entire organization [however that will be defined in terms of who participates, etc.; hopefully, it will usually be something that will take place within each person and have an observable effect in the world]. This is something that addresses a challenge within the global community, although it may be very 'local', such as in Biafra or Paris, or [!!-] 'nonlocal'. But it is something that is intuited or felt to be resolvable using what talents and wisdom and abilities we have to offer. [How do we steer this from becoming a glamour problem is something to contemplate .. There are quieter ways to do this, as simple as putting names on a 'prayer list' ..] In fact here is something along that line that will be a proposed project for the DTCII and maybe on the LLR and/or ESC. One thing that may happen is, as projects circulate through DTCII, they may eventually be modified and introduced to either of the just-mentioned subwebs.
=	We would also have, as they come up and can be organized, certain experiential research projects for the entire organization that groups make choices as to whether to participate or not. However this is done, each person who participates, or each group, would be responsible for also collectively documenting their participation so we can study together the outcomes, etc.

	The will sooner or later have their own journal.
	Each annual conference, I hope to see prizes [such as grants] awarded for projects presented and for the given groups to do more with their work and ideas and findings.

If this project interests you, be sure to see this material by Rhea White where, with other objectives, she defined and even actively engaged much of her own thoughts about the creation of such an association. You might also wish to read "The Inward Olympics: On Finding Ways to Deepen Consciousness and Touch the Self We All Are," another approach implicit in her study-group concept. Because her whole thrust was toward engaging people actively in conversation and in ever more empowering potentialization of their exceptional experiences, you can see inferences through much of her works in which the actual words "EHE Study Group" never make an appearance.

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Here's a recommended book list specifically for group study.

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