The New Story 2.  "The Bedrock of the New Dispensation:  EHE"

The new paradigm, or taken-for-granted worldview that is issuing forth from our very being, is not many but One.  This new view is revealed by all exceptional human experiences (EHEs), or anomalous experiences that have been personalized, and that lead to personal and transpersonal growth and the experience of being inside a new worldview, the Experiential Paradigm.  I called it this because to be known it must be experienced, not just thought out.           It is a world we are meant to inhabit.  It is a world in which one nurtures oneself by nurturing others and by not turning away from nurturing oneself as well, as each of us, too, is a person, and ultimately we are one. ...  a world in which one knows that to lie to or willfully harm another being is to be untrue to and injure oneself. ...   In a word, this new world is the Self we all are, and it will not be at an end until the whole creation travails no longer.  And even that endpoint is likely to be but a new beginning. ...           We are called not to do but to be.  Not to be practical but to be who we are.  And who we are shouts to us from any and all exceptional experiences.  Far from being chimeras, EHEs are the bedrock of the new dispensation.  If we wish to take practical steps to save ourselves and this globe, let us gravitate to the More that we are. ...  If enough of us do it, we can bring the new to pass. ...      ~~Rhea A. White [Background Papers I]     [[this is from Rhea White's article, EHEs:  A Brief Overview.]] ..   Because of their importance, our main concern has become the aftereffects.  If an experience does not have any lasting effect on the experiencer, it remains simply an anomaly, and so can be viewed objectively as a one-time happening, now finished.  However, some anomalous experiences become personalized.  They become part of the experiencer’s life.  They have become exceptional experiences (EEs).  These, in turn, can initiate a process that has ongoing transformative aftereffects.  Then the experience becomes an exceptional human experience (EHE).  We are very interested in the process by which EHEs develop and in observing how they affect the experiencer both immediately and during the rest of his or her life.  We are especially interested in any patterns that may emerge across both individuals and different types of experiences.             1 . All of these experiences, including those induced by drugs or hypnosis, occur spontaneously, at least initially.  They happen to you—you can’t make them happen. 2 . Each type of experience in one way or another is an experience of transcendence, which means “to rise above; surpass; exceed.”  In an out-of-body experience, for example, you have the experience of literally rising above your body, being able to look down upon it as if from outside.  In near-death and post-death experiences, you seem to transcend the boundary between life and death.  In clairvoyance and telepathy, you transcend space (and in the latter case, also personality).  In precognition, you transcend time; and so it goes. 3 . Each one represents a new experience of the self, of who or what we are.   Whereas we previously assumed we were bound by time, space, our bodies, personalities, individualities, and certainly death, these experiences give the lie to that view.  They tell us we are more than we thought we were.* 4 . They are all experiences of connection, first to different levels of ourselves, but also to others, to other forms of life, to the planet, to the universe, and to the sacred.* 5 . Each is an experience of opening to a reality we were taught could not be true.   This opening occurs directly.  That is, we don’t have to think about it or question it—during the experience we are there.  They also open us inwardly, thus predisposing us to have further experiences, unless we shut down the process through fear or misunderstanding of what is happening.* 6 . Although EHEs are experiences of opening, connecting, and transcending, the fact that there is no sense of separation applies both within and without the person.  There is no separation felt between mind and body, so that you respond with your whole self.  This means there is often an orgasmic element in EHEs.   You are in a heightened state physiologically, psychologically, and spiritually.   Physically, you can experience tingling, swooning, rapid heartbeat, flush, raised hairs, goosebumps, and breathlessness.  A good test of an EHE is that you can feel it in your toes.   7 . Although there are scholars and scientists willing to grant that these experiences merit investigation, they have done so using the methods of Western science and analysis.  This has led to their being treated as static events--one-time occurrences that, once they are over, are considered done with.  For example, an investigator might look into a dream that X had in May 1991 that corresponded in considerable detail to an event that occurred in June 1991, thus indicating that the dream could have been precognitive.  The investigator tries to find witnesses to both dream and event. He or she compares the details of the dream with the details of the event, notes the person’s age, sex, occupation, education, etc., and when finished, adds this information to other such statistics. It will most likely molder away in a file somewhere. We haven’t learned anything that connects to anything else.  Instead, we should view such experiences not as one-time events comparable, say to one’s first tooth or car, but more to one’s job or one’s significant relationships--in other words, to experiences that occur within an ongoing process.  Exceptional experiences are more like seeds.  They happen to us not like events but as initiators of a process, waiting to unfold in us even as the oak tree unfolds from the acorn, but with a major difference--the oak tree, as far as we know, grows spontaneously and naturally.  But the process that unfolds in a human being, at least after a certain stage is reached, requires our conscious cooperation and participation.  We need to pay attention to these experiences, try to glimpse what they may be telling us, discern where they may be leading us, trust the visions they reveal to us, and incorporate them in our lives.  So, although initially they occur spontaneously, they are invitations to participate in a process of growth that requires our cooperation.*  Instead, we tend to shelve these experiences, to repress them, and not tell others about them, because although they may be exciting, thrilling, wonderful experiences in themselves, in the context of the consensus worldview they are weird, strange, unreal, or even sick.  In this view, it is natural not to look to them for insight and guidance. 8 . In science everyone is looking for a new paradigm (or worldview) to account for everything.*  Physicists are trying to account for the mind-matter interface. Psychologists and philosophers call it the mind-body relationship. We call EHEs preparadigmatic experiences, because they seem to herald a new paradigm, or at the least, they fly in the face of the one with which we now live.  So each one really offers the experiencer (and to some extent, those who read or hear about a given experience) a window with a new view, and they provide an opportunity to choose between belief and doubt.  (This is an opportunity of unparalleled importance.)   The experiencer must decide whether to provisionally trust the experience or explain it away or dismiss it.  Those who choose to believe find they have opened a door leading to additional experiences that provide entrance to a world where their lives become charged with meaning.  They have entered what we call the Experiential Paradigm.  Those who doubt continue to remain encased in the familiar inhospitable and even abusive arms of the worldview that has been with us since the Enlightenment [the Western scientific revolution], which we were taught was the only reality.  Many people’s lives are chaotic and bereft of meaning, and many turn to drugs, not to embrace the world, but to forget it.* 9 . What we need is a story that will unite science and spirituality, self and world.  But first it must occur at the individual level,* which brings us to the ninth characteristic.  Each of us needs a story that charges our daily lives with meaning and puts us personally in touch with the sacred.  There are many books about writing, or better yet, living your own story, your own myth. But the myths of old contained an element that is missing from most stories told today, and that is a link with the sacred.  Exceptional human experiences can serve as those links; they are those happenings in our lives that can pull us out of boredom and disconnection and into a world of meaning and connection.  We have to learn how to honor these experiences and let them into our lives.  When a sufficient number of people do that, the larger story will emerge.*  Exceptional human experiences catapult us into the new paradigm.  We become a part of it and we discover it is a part of us.  When we enter the Experiential Paradigm, we are no longer apart from it.  The scientific method cannot take us there.  But once we ourselves are there, and when we are willing to take the further leap of sharing our experiences with others, we will not only be inside the new view that is needed to join physical and spiritual, mind and matter, body and mind, but we will also be playing a significant part in transforming it into consensus reality.  Once more, as in ages past, the story of each human will be the story of humankind, and vice versa. We and our times will be in step and able to move forward as one. Science can do nothing but follow, as it is right that it should.* 10 . Creating one’s story is not simply something the experiencer can do alone.   Telling it in part involves living it out in some way (i.e., acting on it).  So only does it really become real to the experiencer and to others.  One of the first ways to do this is to tell others about it, in a context where it seems relevant, even though it may be embarrassing or difficult.*  By sharing our EHEs, the other person validates the experience, even if he or she reacts negatively.  But often the response is positive, and when it is, the other person may be moved by the first person’s story to share his or her EHEs as well.  This heightens the sense of meaning and reality for both in ways that go beyond simply describing one’s EHEs.  A process seems to be initiated by such interchanges that operates independently of both persons and that leads to connectedness and interconnections.  One has entered into the process of spinning the web of the new paradigm.  We don’t think it out; we live out of it and into a new way of being in the world.  Then we can conceptualize it in the same way that we open our eyes and see.*   * [Rocamora's emphasis] =-   According to White, from her EHE Background Papers I, she explains,       I also feel that the act [of writing an EHE autobiography] has value for society, and even for the planet as a whole. This is because we need a new story to make sense of who we are as human beings and why we are here. The story of mechanistic, behavioristic science has resulted in anomie, loss of meaning and connection, boredom, and the need for ever more violent "kicks" and dangerous "highs," as in drug abuse. In our society today there is a dangerous lack of reverence towards other humans, other life forms, and life itself. Perhaps the most practical thing we can do is write a better story. What better place is there to begin than with ourselves? .... The big surprise in all of this is that in writing about our most secret, intimate, personal EHEs – those that are uniquely our own – we come to experience ourselves as rooted in our common humanity and as connected to all life. ... People who are centered in this experience are bound to live vastly different lives than those who are bent and twisted by anger, doubt, fear, and pain, such that their best hope is ... at worst, to seek kicks in killing or maiming other humans or animals or to get lost in drugs or pornography or crime.       The seeds of transcendental and connective experiences, that is, EHEs, are scattered throughout our lives. What we need to do is find them and then cultivate them. A good way to begin is to start your EHE autobiography. Beyond the EHE Autobiography            White points out, what we need is a story for each of us, [and ultimately and to the point,] for all of us. . .      ... What we need is a story that will unite science and spirituality, self and world. But first it must occur at the individual level. ... Each of us needs a story that charges our daily lives with meaning and puts us personally in touch with the sacred. There are many books about writing or better yet, living one's own story, one's own myth. But the myths of old contained an element that is missing from most stories told today, and that is a link with the sacred. Exceptional human experiences [and specifically, recording one's EHE-based story] can serve as those links; they are those happenings in our lives that can pull us out of boredom and disconnection into a world of meaning and connection. We have to learn how to honor these experiences and let them into our lives.   ["Brief Overview of Exceptional Human Experiences," IN:  EHE:  Background Papers 1]]             White explains the possible benefits of this experiential process within the context of society. She invites us to contemplate the value of a collective sense of story garnered from the amassing in our social awareness of many EHE stories and autobiographies and the fresh new washes of meaning and empowerment as a culture, perhaps as a world culture, we may experience. It is very conceivable to envision this process evolving into the realization of a whole new collective or unified understanding, a world-sized new paradigm coming in play:      When a sufficient number of people [undertake the writing of their EHE autobiography], the larger story [our cultural or world story, at least the human part of it] will emerge. Exceptional human experiences catapult us into the new paradigm [beyond our present disenchantment and lack of meaningful connection with each other, with the world, and with the sacred, i.e., the new paradigm]. We become a part of it and we discover it is a part of us. We are no longer apart from it. The scientific method cannot take us there. But once we ourselves are there, and when we are willing to take the further leap of sharing our experiences with others, we will not only be inside the new view that is needed to join physical and spiritual, mind and matter, body and mind, but we will be playing a significant part in bringing it to birth. Once more, as in ages past, the story of each human will be the story of humankind, and vice versa. We and our times will be in step and will move forward as one. Science can do nothing but follow, as it is right that it should.      ... Creating one's story is not simply something one can do alone. Part of the act of creating one's story and working out the meaning of one's life involves living it out in some way (i.e., acting on it). So only does it really become real to oneself. One of the first ways to do this is to tell others about it, in a context where it seems relevant, even though it may be embarrassing or difficult. By sharing our EHEs, the other person validates the experience, even if he or she reacts negatively. But often the response is positive, and when it is, the other person may be moved by the first person's story to share his or her EHEs as well. This heightens the sense of meaning and reality for both in ways that go beyond simply describing one's EHEs. A process seems to be initiated by such interchanges that operates independently of both persons and that leads to connectedness and interconnections. One has entered into the process of spinning the web of the new paradigm. We don't think it out; we live out of it and into a new way of being in the world.   ["Brief Overview of Exceptional Human Experiences," IN:  EHE:  Background Papers 1]]   And:             The new paradigm, or taken-for-granted worldview that is issuing forth from our very being, is not many but One.  This new view is revealed by all exceptional human experiences (EHEs), or anomalous experiences that have been personalized, and that lead to personal and transpersonal growth and the experience of being inside a new worldview, the Experiential Paradigm.  I called it this because to be known it must be experienced, not just thought out.           It is a world we are meant to inhabit.  It is a world in which one nurtures oneself by nurturing others and by not turning away from nurturing oneself as well, as each of us, too, is a person, and ultimately we are one. ...  a world in which one knows that to lie to or willfully harm another being is to be untrue to and injure oneself. ...   In a word, this new world is the Self we all are, and it will not be at an end until the whole creation travails no longer.  And even that endpoint is likely to be but a new beginning. ...           We are called not to do but to be.  Not to be practical but to be who we are.  And who we are shouts to us from any and all exceptional experiences.  Far from being chimeras, EHEs are the bedrock of the new dispensation.  If we wish to take practical steps to save ourselves and this globe, let us gravitate to the More that we are. ...  If enough of us do it, we can bring the new to pass. ...      ~~Rhea A. White [Background Papers I]    Here's another, same article, about 2nd paragraph:           In the past, the experience of having "attained" the ultimate may have been experienced as the End of all things--"the last for which the first was made." But we are in a new world now. In our day that level which was the awesome wondrous end, the ceiling of the old paradigm, is the ground floor of a new worldview. In the new paradigm, what was perceived as the end is our opportunity to begin. As the poet T.S. Eliot (1954) put it: "In my end is my beginning," or as it might more aptly be expressed today: "In our end is our beginning."   this one is in Dear Friends ...  Along that line, Rhea A. White has written,            When a sufficient number of people [undertake the writing of their EHE autobiography], the larger story [our cultural or world story, at least the human part of it] will emerge.  Exceptional human experiences catapult us into the new paradigm [beyond our present disenchantment and lack of meaningful connection with each other, with the world, and with the sacred, i.e., the new paradigm].  We become a part of it and we discover it is a part of us.  We are no longer apart from it. The scientific method cannot take us there.  But once we ourselves are there, and when we are willing to take the further leap of sharing our experiences with others, we will not only be inside the new view that is needed to join physical and spiritual, mind and matter, body and mind, but we will be playing a significant part in bringing it to birth.  Once more, as in ages past, the story of each human will be the story of humankind, and vice versa.  We and our times will be in step and will move forward as one.  Science can do nothing but follow, as it is right that it should.    ==             Not that many centuries ago, the conception of individuation was hardly present.  Identity was cultural.  But not ironically, from the time of the great explorers who set out to circumnavigate the globe, slowly [or rapidly, depending on your point of view] the awakening to one's sense of self as a unique person began, which we now take for granted.             But in the last several decades another shift has been in process, which is a both-and of this idea of collective and individual, only on a level of becoming and awakening that is exponentially expansive in scope, concerning the self / Self, as well as the re-realization of the "Self we all are."  This new Awakening is being born straight out of our personal, individual exceptional experiences, unique to each person, which collectively, we are now growing to realize is a human phenomenon -- an experience in kind that is available to all of us, is inherent in our human species.  As we have these experiences, we are one by one coming to the awareness of a far more expansive understanding of our potential and capacity to be Human, which naturally brings us into the lived consciousness of the Self that is all-inclusive.             This is not an intellectual notion.  To be known, Rhea White and others persist to insist, it must be experienced. And THIS,  Living into this consciousness, one by one and together is the NEW STORY.

As has been proffered elsewhere:   In Herbert Witzenmann's words, "We celebrate the festival of transformation" ... that is the NEW Story of Humankind!      The Call is sent. The Cosmic Dance beckons. C O M E !         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     * *  *     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   The New Story   Part 1.  In Search of a Collectively Recognizable Global Myth     Part 3.  The New-Story Hologram:  Our Collective EHE Stories