When we are in James's first
stage of the mystical life, we feel incomplete because we feel
unconnected to the depths and heights of ourselves, others, other forms
of life, the universe at large, and both informing and beyond all that
is created, the sacred. From my study of exceptional human experiences I
would say that in such moments, in one way or another, we experience a
sense of connection that is accompanied by awe, wonder, surprise, and
delight. This is what makes such experiences "exceptional."
Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that there is a quality about
these moments with which we cannot help but identify. It is as if a self
we experienced as disconnected, small, and unimportant looked in the
mirror and saw a radiant being looking back--one who is spontaneously
connected to everyone and everything else, which means that
automatically the bonds of selfishness, fear, anxiety, greed, envy, and
a host of other negative emotions effortlessly fall away.
Perhaps most
surprising is that, as James points out, with this new self one can
identify with what formerly was perceived as being outside. The sense of
self is no longer centered on the "me" and is perceived more
as a process than as a separate entity. One becomes centered in an
interchange between inner and outer that involves one's fullest self and
yet seems to be composed of everyone and everything else.
... In my view, identity has
two aspects: the general and the particular. The general aspect is our
story or understanding of the nature of generic human being, or at least
of human being in general in one's own particular culture. The
specific aspect is our story or understanding of who we are as an
individual human being. I think a major problem with Western
civilization in the last half of the 20th century is that we have an
impoverished view of human being in general, which in turn diminishes
our sense of the worth of individuals, including ourselves. This problem
may well grow worse. I heard on a recent radio broadcast that
significantly more minors are committing violent crimes in New York City
than ever before and that these young people have no conception of the
value of, or reverence for, human life--not even their own.
... There are many books today on how to develop one's
personality and even write an autobiography, but few of them include
instructions on how to incorporate one's EHEs into one's self-concept
and integrate it with one's life story. I propose that EHEs are the most
important ingredient of our life stories and that what Western culture's
story of identity requires is due attention to such experiences.
... "A self is made, not given. It is
a creative and active
process [italics added] of attending a life that must be heard,
shaped, seen, said aloud into the world, finally enacted and woven into
the lives of others." Myerhoff [quoted anthropologist] points out that what we
must do is search through the "treasures and debris of ordinary
existence for the clear points of intensity that do not erode, do not
separate us, that are most intensely our own, yet other people's
too" [re: Metzger, anthropologist]. I think that is the best
definition of the nature and value of exceptional human experience I
have yet come across: "clear points of intensity" in the midst
of our otherwise unexceptional lives that connect us not only to our own
depths but to that of others.
... many, if not all
EHEs, are transitional experiences. They serve as a bridge between an
old identity and a potentially new one, or in James's view, between
Stage 1 and Stage 2. They also serve as a bridge between an isolated
sense of identity and a new story in which, as priest / environmentalist
Tom Berry (1988/1990) puts it, we actually experience what it means to
be not simply an individual on the surface of this earth and in this
universe but as an aspect of the earth and the universe, a unique aspect
that has never been before and never will be again, for no other being
could possibly have the same genetic composition and be placed in
exactly the same social and cultural context with the same family
members, friends, peers, and associates. Each one of us is the universe
living the experiment of life, doing their best with whatever comes from
within and without, that is, with one's unique genetic make-up and life
circumstances. Just as the sperm seeks the egg, so each human seeks
personal knowledge of his or her unity with all things, and once that
unity is glimpsed, all of life is made new. That is the source of the
reverence for all life, human and nonhuman, animate and inanimate: the
undeniable sense of connection to the More that an EHE provides.
