In the article, "Exceptional Human Experiences as Vehicles of
Grace,"*
White remarks, "Although I customarily use 'he and she,' here I
deliberately use he, for the scientific method in which
the experimenter must remain detached from the objects he investigates
was developed about 350 years ago by white European males for
discourse with white European males, and although women [[and others
who do not fit the above description]] have
begrudgingly been allowed to play the game, they have had little or no
say determining the ground rules. ... This approach worked in the
modern Western world in which mechanics reigned. Everything was
considered to be mechanical and therefore predictable. But
quantum physics has shown that the world is probabilistic and in
process."
She makes the further point that Freud reinforced this with his
"deterministic view of humans. Their childhood
relationships determined their personality. Psychoanalysis
enabled them not to change but to become reconciled to who they
were. The modern view of how humans developed was that in
childhood and adolescence we learned who we were and how we could live
more or less unchanged."
"When I grew up [birth: 1931]," she continues, "a
common saying was, 'You can't change human nature.' It was
assumed that in becoming adult one would become crystallized, and one
would live out one's days being that way, not expecting to
change. One settled down and tried to make as much
money as possible in order to be able to buy everything one desired
and have as much time as possible to enjoy 'the good life.' One's
free time was to be spent in entertainment for entertainment's sake,
doing things for their entertainment value ..."
Then she begins to reorient us to realize we have in the meantime,
along many avenues of our lives, been turning a corner to realize how
deceived we have been by that stultifying and false perception.
White continues:
In
the postmodern view, everyone is in process, whether one knows it or
not, but it is best to know it. we are not here primarily to
find contentment but to connect with what William
James referred to as the
'more' in human experience
... to become connected to the more that we are.
The ever-present potential for growth and greater understanding is a given,
a part of
what it means to be human and thus the emphasis on human in the
term "exceptional human experience." A means toward
this realization that "everyone is in process," including
oneself, is in recognizing and engaging in the
[EHE]
process of
finding life-giving meaning in these momentous experiences in our
shared and individual lives. As we
come to terms with the exceptional experiences [EEs] in our personal lives,
typically described as "the most important thing that ever
happened to me," we also naturally waken to their inestimable
value to all of us and to the saving of our Earth. The widely
studied EHE
aftereffects
demonstrate their potential and promise in this regard. They
charge our lives with meaning and purpose in ways that grow us into
that MORE.
In the same article, Rhea White tells us,
An example of the way I suggest we should be doing this is the
consciousness-raising groups held by women in the 1960s and 1970s.
They were liberating and enlightening. Nelle Morton points out
that women engaged in "hearing
each other [in]to speech." In [Montague] Ullman's
dream-sharing groups, people listen each other's dreams into
reality. What we need are hundreds of grassroots EHE groups
that would provide the opportunity for EHEs to be heard into
reality, dwelt upon, heeded, permitted to change the experiencer's
life and those of others as well. This is how what we call
reality recreates itself in everyone, but we have to live it out [first,
through sharing our stories].
Take a look at our
plans to soon manifest EHE Study Groups around the world, a
dream long cherished by White. In a
related article, you get some of her own ideas about how this
will eventuate. Other
aspects of this web project will also be crucial to the
development and utilization of a global presence that will provide other
means of bringing to life community
and also specifically
activist interests that will further unify us within the
context of 'all things EHE.'
Finally, Dr. White describes how this unifying key, our EHEs, which
bring us together at a higher level of understanding of who and what we
are, will allow us to succeed in working together in great good spirits
and harmony, in spite of our various differences. This reminds me
of what Albert Einstein said, that in order to solve a problem, we must
do so on a higher level than that on which the problem developed.
In order to succeed in our planet-saving work, we have the opportunity
to do so through the expanded consciousness and appreciation provided
through these exceptional human[izing] experiences:
The
time has come for the exceptional human experiencers of the world to
unite. They have nothing to lose but their stigma. Exceptional
indicates they are already privileged. While others are
seeking the pot at the end of the rainbow, they are already in the
rainbow.
But the promise and privilege of the rainbow is for everyone. It
is inherent in the unfolding nature of what it means to be Human.
Whether yours or those of others, listen to, take in these "realer
than real" experiences, share
yours with others, write
your EHE autobiography. All these things nurture the
EHE process that takes us to the
More.
The More and the EHE
Aftereffects are same-same. Here is the proof and the
promise of how we may together as a
Global Movement, in the budding of this new
consensus reality, indeed, save our sacred Earth.
----------
*
"Exceptional
Human Experiences as Vehicles of Grace," by Rhea
A. White,
in: Exceptional Human Experience, Background Papers I.
~~~~~~~~
*
~~~~~~~~
For
an interesting connection with Rainbows
and
meaning, see this
story.
