I introduced the term exceptional human experience (EHE) because I
wanted a general rubric under which all types of nonordinary,
paranormal, mystical, supernatural, peak, and extraordinary experiences
could be placed. At one end it needed to encompass alien encounters,
hauntings, and extrasensory perception, for example, and at the other
fleeting moments of acute nostalgia, the euphoria of creating something
new, and the wonder of being in love. Over ... [500] specific types have been
identified. [See the List of Potential
EHEs.]
The reason I wanted a general term to cover all of these experiences is
that for the most part they have been considered as unique, discrete
experiences. Some, such as out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death
experiences (NDEs), do seem to be related. But rarely is a person who is
interested in, say, mystical experience, also interested in
poltergeists. Or, psychologists who study athletes who break a world
record in a sport rarely read up on psychic experiences, such as
extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK). Should they?
In
order to find out, I set out to identify as many of these experiences as
I could and then to compare them to see what factors they had in common
and where they differed. I did not expect to find that they were all the
same. I did expect that they could be grouped into broader categories
than had been customary and that on the whole they were more alike than
unlike. And I hoped to be able to draw some generalizations across all
or most of them, generalizations that could not be glimpsed as long as
these experiences were studied only individually or in small clusters.
One of the first
characteristics that is common to many if not all of these experiences
is that they are anomalous (i.e., inexplicable in terms of accepted
knowledge). Or, at the least, they are beyond the bounds of experiences
considered to be normal. They do not fit into the modern deterministic
paradigm, hence for the most part, science ignores them or overtly
repudiates them. Even a field such as parapsychology, which has spent
most of its efforts in the last 20 years in developing and applying
methods taken from mainstream science, is still not acceptable to many
scientists (who rarely look into its current methodology). The fact that
these experiences are anomalous is indicated by the word exceptional:
they are exceptions to "the rules" of Western civilization.
Many unusual
experiences form another large group of a different sort of
"anomaly," which I call anomalies of
experience. These are
experiences that are at the far limits of what is considered to be
"normal" experience. They are either personal
"bests" or personal "firsts." People are ... hesitant about talking about these experiences also because they are too
personal, or "not the sort of thing you talk about if you know
what's good for you." They may even be frightening, in the sense of
being so far out that if you think about them at all they might shake
the foundations of what you think is "reality" and even who
your "self" is.
Both anomalous
experiences and anomalies of experience stand out in the life of the
individual; and as I am learning, they are exceptional in another way:
they are among the most important experiences a person can have in a
lifetime. Memories of them are among the most vivid and precious in the
person's experience. People often consider them too "private"
to share. There also is fear of ridicule and that their precious
experiences would be laughed and scoffed at. Then, instead of honoring
them by sometimes sharing them, many experiencers instead try to repress
them, hide them, feel ashamed of them, or are frightened by them.
But
for our own best good and that of others, even of Earth itself, we
should be taught to heed them, encourage them, and follow them, as is
the case with many first peoples, including the Indians of the Americas.
For many people unusual and anomalous experiences are like events in
their lives that are riveted to a specific time and place. They aroused
wonder, fear, joy, and may have provided a glimpse of a new view of
reality, but as they were not considered acceptable by friends and
family and were not taught in school, they were dismissed and for the
most part forgotten.
We
are not interested in anomalous, unusual, nonordinary experiences as
such, except insofar as they can stand up to the legitimate ways in
which what appear to be exceptional experiences can be viewed as in fact
delusions or illusions of some kind, especially the psychic and
encounter types of anomalies. People need to know about subliminal
perception, rational inference, cryptomnesia, perceptual illusions, and
other ordinary explanations of what appear to be anomalous experiences
so that they don't fool themselves or are not duped by others. One
characteristic of purely anomalous experiences is that they "stay
put" in the past. They can be viewed as past happenings or events,
and that is how parapsychology has treated them. However, this is not
the case with exceptional human experiences.
One
aspect of EHEs that makes them exceptional is that they resist being
repressed. When a reasonable explanation is
presented for an anomalous experience, usually it is easy to dismiss and
forget it.. If in spite of the rationality of the counterargument
somehow it cannot be dismissed, then the experiencer needs to pay
special attention to it. It then becomes personal, as if directed at the
experiencer. Often, it begins to affect the person. Then it is no longer
simply a past event. It has become a growing, dynamic experience that is
somehow related to or relevant to the person and will not go away.
It
requires that the experiencer deal with it. Often, a strong sense of
yearning one knows not for what is associated with it. If at this point
the experiencer seeks aid from a member of the helping professions, even
from a member of the clergy, it is likely they will consider it
symptomatic of neurotic or even psychotic behavior and professionals, by
whatever means at their disposal, whether talking therapy, electric
shock, drugs, or whatever, will attempt to relieve the tension it causes
and eradicate the disturbance.
At this point it
is essential that psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and
nurses realize that the person is undergoing a spiritual emergency and
that this could be life potentiating: it could be used to help the
individual realize more of his or her human potential. If this is the
case, and if indeed it is an exceptional human experience, then the
person, in the words of Christina and Stanislav Grof, is undergoing a
spiritual emergence, or transformative experience. If treated properly
by the experiencer and those attempting to help him or her, a process of
transformation can be observed as taking place that should be assisted,
not resisted. An exceptional human experience then, is an anomalous
experience that institutes a process that potentiates more of the
experiencer's higher human potential. When a person has an exceptional
human experience, it is not so much a happening or event but a process
that goes on, sometimes for life. It makes it possible for humans to
become more than they were, and the more that they become tends to be of
the same order regardless of the type of anomalous experience that
initiated the process.
EHEs appear to
instigate further EHEs of the same or different types if the individuals
involved cooperate with the process. When they do, they often change
their attitude toward themselves, their relationships with other people;
their views concerning other life forms, and they may begin to sense a
kinship with the entire human species, with life itself, and even with
the mineral kingdom, the Earth, and beyond that, the universe.
Exceptional human
experiences are initially experienced as unique events. The experiencer
must find the meaning of the experience.
Some types of exceptional
experience, such as mystical experiences, conversion experiences, and
near-death experiences, are extremely meaningful from the start. In such
cases, the need for change and a sense of meaning are built into the
experience itself and the person is challenged to change immediately,
although it may take some time to come to terms with the fact that he or
she is no longer the same person and must become accustomed to thinking,
feeling, acting, and in fact, being different than he or she was before
the experience worked its way inside. But in regard to any EHE, even if
it is a UFO encounter, or a poltergeist, or a moment of
self-realization, or a creative insight, it demands some change. People
may take up new hobbies or develop a worthwhile cause, or switch
professions, or take up meditation or a martial art or some other
spiritual exercise that will help them to more clearly understand and
respond to the experience that has become a part of themselves. The
response to an EHE must grow out of the experiencer's unique self and
circumstances. Those who seek to help the experiencer can do so best by
helping him or her to be guided by the experience itself and those that
follow, often in the form of synchronicities, dreams--sometimes lucid
ones, and a sense of intuition, which begins to develop.
The person then
starts to relinquish dependence on what family, school, and society as a
whole decree as the "normal" response to a given situation and
to turn instead to their own inner voices and leadings, including an
awareness that something seemingly outside themselves is working to lead
them out and into a new world of connectedness. Experiencers begin to
feel more integrated and connected to themselves. They begin to meet
other exceptional human experiencers (EHEers) and to share experiences
and compare notes. They begin to network informally with other EHEers
and perhaps form a group. They educate themselves concerning the history
and pattern of the specific types of EHEs they have had. They begin to
know that they are not alone, that they are part of an invisible band of
experiencers going back as far as human history records, and that some
who have had these experiences have played an important role in the past
and some are doing so today. The experiencers begin to find their place
in this tradition, learning from fellow EHEers past and present, and
themselves starting to help those who are less advanced. For any EHEer
there is the goal and the possibility that they may be at the growing
edge of exceptional human experience and be able to bring back knowledge
concerning new ways of seeing and being. We all need to be translators,
findings ways to express the eternal verities in ways that fit the
idioms of our time and place.
EHEers of all
types also come to realize that to the extent that they explore their
inner worlds they become connected to the outer world and to other
humans and to life. Eventually, it seems that most, if not all, EHEs
awaken the individual's species consciousness, so they feel united with
humanity, past, present, and future. This sense of unity, as already
mentioned, can extend to other species as well, even as the American
Indians had special totem animals. Once one has developed a special
interest in other species, whether domesticated animals or frogs or
snakes or spiders or koala bears -- that person can't help but think
differently about all species. A reverence for life develops that
enhances one's own sense of well being because one is connected to all
life, and knows it. This connection gives rise to an awareness of the
"fitness of the environment" on this planet Earth, which has
fostered all the life forms, and many EHEers become more
ecologically-minded and aware of the importance of helping the planet to
survive, and certainly of developing ways of not destroying it any
further than humans have already. And, having sensed this unity with
Earth itself, one cannot help but turn next to the other planets in our
solar system, and beyond that to our own galaxy, and beyond that to the
most distant stars. Ultimately, one unique individual exceptional
experience that proved to be authentic because it sparked an exceptional
human experience, when honored and worked with and developed, can lead
the experiencer to realize his or her connection with the entire
creation. Beyond that there is the creator, and at that point, the
experiencer has a pretty good idea who that is. This, then, is the
import of exceptional human experiences for the species-and beyond.
