.

 

Triggers of Potential

Exceptional Human Experiences

Rhea A. White

Suzanne V. Brown

 

(1st ed., 1996; 2nd ed., 2000)

www.ehe.org

 

NOTE:  Here's an example of the quality of care and research, EHE Network style.  If you put this paper into a Word document format, title to final reference, it comes out to be about 21 pages.  Twelve of these pages are the references!

 

 

          Several writers have compiled lists of "triggers," or circumstances predisposing people to have exceptional human experiences.  The following list is compiled with the use of a number of sources that are cited in the list itself.  I am especially indebted to Greeley (1978), Grof & Grof (1989), Hardy (1979), Keutzer (1978), Laski (1961), and Quarrick (1989).  Space does not permit listing all the bibliographic information for the references cited, but if anyone is interested in following up on some, please contact the EHE Network.

          Some of the experiences listed are specific types of other experiences listed, e.g., precognitions as a form of extrasensory perception.  In such cases both were listed if they were cited because people may think to look under one but not the other.  

          The list also reveals several experiences one would ordinarily seek to avoid: Danger, Death of another, Illness, Loss, Psychotic states, Rejection.  These are all examples of "spiritual emergencies" (Grof & Grof, 1989).  As the Grofs point out, any experience that spontaneously interrupts the tenor of one’s life can trigger an EHE immediately or eventually.  Often it takes a jolt, such as a rejection or loss, to open us, or sometimes, as in the title of the autobiography of C.S. Lewis, to being "Surprised by Joy."

          It is readily apparent that although some of the activities are religious and some are artistic/esthetic, a rather large number have to do with movement, play, and sports. I don’t think this is because this is simply ... a special interest of mine (see Murphy & White, 1995).  Religionist David L. Miller (1970, p. 138) has observed:

     Play may be the root metaphor of an emergent mythology. ...  We may be witnessing a mythological revolution, turning toward a new frontier in which leisure, meditation, and contemplation are potentially dominant.   Instead of work being our model for both work and play, play may be the model for both our games of leisure and our games of vocation.  Play may be the mythology of the new frontier.

     An examination of the List of Potential EEs/EHEs also contains a great many "secular" or nonreligious types of exceptional or transcendent experiences.  It appears that exceptional or transcendent experiences, many of which were once associated with religion, are being experienced by more people in the midst of daily life.  This may be not so much because these experiences are becoming secularized, but because the sacred is being found in the midst of daily life.  Thus, the "new frontier" may be our own lives, wherever and however they are lived.  We may be in the beginning of the process of resacralizing the world, so that there will be no need for the term secular.

 

List of Predisposing Circumstances and Triggers

          This list was initially based on the cited sources plus White’s recollections of triggers mentioned in the many accounts she had read plus those she knew from her own experiences.  The list has been enlarged here by new triggers added by Brown and White prior to their study of 50 accounts plus the addition of new triggers that turned up in reading those accounts.  A preliminary report of that research will eventually appear on this site in the EHE Research section.

 

  • Abuse

  • Activity shared with another

  • Activity shared with group

  • Aesthetic experience (Quarrick, 1989)

  • Agony

  • Agoral gatherings (Biela & Tobacyk, 1987)

  • Alcohol

  • Alienation/ anomie, general feelings of

  • Anesthesia (James, 1902)

  • Animals

  • Archery (Herrigel, 1953)

  • Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

  • Auto and other types of racing (Manso, 1969; Moss with Purdy, 1963)

  • Automatisms

  • Baptism

  • Bathing

  • Baths, extreme temperature/ sequence of hot and cold

  • Bedside gathering around sickbed

  • Bedtime, not asleep/preparation for

  • Begging/fervent questioning for answer/help from higher power/god(dess)/universe

  • Being alone in church, cathedral, mosque, temple

  • Bible or other religious texts

  • Biofeedback (Brown, 1974; Green & Green, 1977)

  • Breathing exercises (Grof, 1988; Rossi, 1990)

  • Burnout

  • Change in health considerations

  • Change in job/business

  • Change in lifestyle

  • Change of finances

  • Change of home/ physical location/ geography

  • Change of marriage/ partner/ family

  • Chanting, drumming, and other rhythmic activities (Meerloo, 1960;Segell, 1988)

  • Charismatic personality, encounter with

  • Childbirth (Hardy, 1979; Vaughan, 1979)

  • Chorale singing (Funk, 1985)

  • Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)

  • Church, cathedral, mosque, temple, being inside a

  • Church service

  • Coma

  • Conflict at personal crossroads (on the horns of a dilemma), inner

  • Conscious dying

  • Conviction that one is dying (Stevenson, Cook, & McClean- Rice)

  • Crafts (Richards, 1962)

  • Creative activities (Ghiselin, 1952; Quarrick, 1989)

  • Crises in personal relationships (Hardy, 1979)

  • Crying/pleading for help from another

  • Dancing (Brown, 1927/1968; Greenstein, 1990; Hazzard-Gordon, 1991; Meerloo, 1960; Owen, 1983)

  • Danger, inviting

  • Danger, risk-taking

  • Danger, sense of immediate

  • Death of another

  • Déjà vu (Neppe, 1983)

  • Depression, despair (Hardy, 1979; James, 1902)

  • Development of mediumship or channeling (Hastings, 1991; Klimo, 1987)

  • Disaster

  • Distress, financial/ poverty

  • Dowsing

  • Dreaming

  • Driving a vehicle

  • Empathy

  • Encounter groups ( Burton , 1969)

  • Endurance feats such as singlehanded sailing for many weeks (Noyce, 1958; Willis , 1955)

  • Engaging in any repetitious boring chore

  • Estranged from another

  • Exceptional human performance

  • Experiencing a series of meaningful coincidences promoting belief in the interconnectedness of everything (Jung 1952/1955; Vaughan, 1980)

  • Exploration, ideas

  • Exploration, tools/methods

  • Exploration, travel/places (Noyce, 1958)

  • Extrasensory perception (Greeley, 1975; Ryback with Schweitzer, 1988)

  • Fasting (Arbesmann, 1949-51; Johnson, 1978)

  • Fatigue

  • Fear/concern for another/ children

  • Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS)

  • Films, watching

  • Flow activities (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975)

  • Flying (Lindbergh, 1953; Mishima, 1970)

  • Frustration/futility, general feeling of

  • Gardening

  • Guided imagery and/or music

  • Guru/Spiritual teacher encounter

  • Healing

  • Historical monument (e.g. Gettysburg )

  • Holotropic breathwork/breathing

  • Human interaction (Johnson, 1986; Quarrick, 1989)

  • Hypnagogic or hypnapompic experiences (Mavromatis, 1987)

  • Illness/Health (Dafter, 1990; Duff, 1993; Kunz, 1985)

  • Impasse

  • Incubus experience (Hufford, 1982)

  • Induction/revelation technique

  • Insight of finally "seeing" the long-sought key to a problem/experience (Quarrick, 1989)

  • Intense sadness (James, 1902)

  • Intimate relationships (Leckey, 1985)

  • Jewelry-making (Mozur, 1990)

  • Life-threatening situation

  • Liminal situation

  • Listening to or observing highly integrated individuals ( Greenland , 1966)

  • Listening to sermon or other stirring speech

  • Literature (Huttar, 1971; Mordell, 1921)

  • Loss (Grof & Grof, 1989)

  • Lucid dreams (Garfield, 1974; Gebremedhin, 1990)

  • Mantram, reciting

  • Martial arts (Heckler, 1985; Leonard, 1975)

  • Meditation and prayer (Heard, 1954; Underhill, 1930)

  • Mid-life crisis

  • Mirror writing

  • Moments of quiet reflection

  • Moon, phases of

  • Mountain climbing (Smythe, 1949)

  • Multiple sclerosis (MS)

  • Multiple personality (Litton, 1990; Richards, 1990)

  • Music (Crandall, 1986; Hamel, 1979; Quarrick, 1989)

  • Near-fatal circumstances (Flynn, 1986; Ring, 1984; Ring, 1992)

  • Observing animals (Lilly, 1967; Lorenz , 1952; MacDonald, 1965)

  • Observing children (Owen, 1983)

  • Ocean cruising (Csikszentimihalyi & Csikszentimihalyi, 1988)

  • Out-of-body experiences (Gabbard & Twemlow, 1984)

  • Outward Bound events (Godfrey, 1979; Miner & Boldt, 1981)

  • Performing/witnessing noble acts

  • Personal need for "more" in life

  • Physical activities (Leonard, 1975; Metheny, 1968)

  • Physical diagnosis

  • Play (Neale, 1967; Quarrick, 1989)

  • Poetry (Owen, 1983)

  • Politics (Weber, in Gerth & Mills, Eds., 1946)

  • Prayer group

  • Precognitive experiences (Ryback with Schweitzer, 1988; Vaughan, 1973)

  • Professional presentation, preparing/performing

  • Prospect of death (e.g., deathbed experiences; see Osis & Haraldsson)

  • Psychedelic drugs (Grof, 1988; Huxley, 1954; Masters & Houston, 1966; Watts, 1963)

  • Psychotic states

  • Psychotherapy (Gottesfeld, 1985; Schoen, 1991)

  • Reading about transcendent experiences and other EHEs, especially first-hand accounts

  • Recovering from an ended relationship

  • Rejection (Grof & Grof, 1989)

  • Relaxationafter a period of exercise

  • Relaxation technique

  • Religious icon

  • Religious/spiritual matters discussed

  • Remarkable coincidence of events

  • Retrocognitive experiences (Ellwood, 1971)

  • Riding in vehicle

  • Risktaking (Boga, 1988)

  • Ritual cleansing

  • Running (Sheehan, 1978; Spino, 1968; Stevens, 1988))

  • Sacred places (Jarow, 1986; Swan, 1991)

  • Scents (Owens, 1983)

  • Schizophrenia

  • Science (Hargreaves, 1990; Hayward, 1984; Weber, in Gerth & Mills, Eds., 1946, p., 135)

  • Self-hypnosis (Maltz, 1960)

  • Sensitivity training (Golembiewski & Blumberg , 1970)

  • Sensory enhancement (Otto & Mann, 1968/1971]

  • Sensory isolation tank (Hood & Morris, 1981; Lilly, 1977)

  • Sexual lovemaking (Quarrick, 1989)

  • Shamanism (Goldwort, 1992; Kalweit, 1984/1988; Walsh, 1990; Wright, 1989)

  • Sharing experience with another

  • Silence(Greene, 1940; Shafii, 1973)

  • Sleeping

  • Slow-motional meditation (Howard, 1987)

  • Soaring (Wolters, 1971)

  • Solitary ordeals (Csikszentmilayi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1988)

  • Solitude (Borgeault, 1989; Rosegrant, 1976)

  • Spiritual emergency (Grof & Grof, 1989)

  • Sport of any kind (Bates, 1982; Leonard, 1975; Millman, 1985; Murphy & White, 1995; Neal, 1972)

  • State celebrations, such as coronations, inaugurations, etc. (Bellah & Hammond, 1980; Gehrig, 1979; Hammond, 1976)

  • Stillness

  • Surgery

  • Surrender (Wolff, 1964)

  • Survival-of-death type experiences (Gallup with Proctor, 1982; Greeley, 1976; Grof & Grof, 1980; Grosso, 1985)

  • Swordsmanship (Herrigel, 1953)

  • Television watching

  • Tending others

  • Trauma (Grof & Grof , 1989)

  • UFO encounter (Strieber, 1988; Thompson, 1989)

  • Vertigo (Gell, 1980)

  • Victims, sudden awareness of other abused (human, animal, environment)

  • Visual art (Quarrick, 1989)

  • Watching performing arts (Duncan, 1928, Owen, 1983, Quarrick, 1989)

  • Watching sports

  • Wilderness (Krutch, 1952/1960; Muir, 1945; Porter, 1962/1974; Wheelwright& Schmidt, 1991)

  • Wind (Owens, 1983)

  • Work (Ennis, 1967; Weber, 1920-21/1956)

  • Workshop/retreat, psychic/spiritual development

  • Workshop/retreat, self- development

  • Yoga

 

 

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Wright, Peggy Ann. 1989. "The Nature of the Shamanic State of Consciousness : A Review." Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.21, 25-33.

 

 

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.

 RE:  Rhea A. White's "Project of Transcendence"

          Here are some of White's articles currently to be found on Ahhh-TheLight.com.  As her old or new website becomes more stabilized, this may be removed, in which case you would be able to click on these pages on her site.  As Noted below, some of these articles are written or co-written by the EHE Network's Director of Research and Development, Suzanne V. Brown, PhD.

 

 

  •  

 

What Are Exceptional Human Experiences?  [NOTE:  This article also offers an excellent description of what White calls the "EHE process."]

 

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Exceptional Human Experiences:  A Brief Overview

 

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Mission Statement of Exceptional Human Experience Network, Inc. [by Suzanne V. Brown and Rhea A. White]  [NOTE:  This is perhaps the most succinct overview, not only of the EHEN Mission, but also of the entire EHE concept.  A model and methodology of unsurpassed elegance, this approach offers a "safe, accepting, and nonideological venue" for working with this field of inquiry for both individuals and organizations.]

 

  •  

How the EHE Network’s Approach is Different [by Rhea A. White and Suzanne V. Brown]

 

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EHE and the More We Are

 

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Exceptional Human Experiences:  Rethinking Anomalies and Shifting Paradigms [by Suzanne V. Brown] [Terrific article for explaining how the EHE Process naturally comes about.]

 

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The EHE Process:  The Subjective Standpoint [by R. White]

 

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The EHE Process:  The Objective Standpoint [by Suzanne V. Brown]

 

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Stage 5 of the EHE Process:  The Aftereffects of EHEs [The objective view is by Rhea A. White and the subjective view is by Suzanne V. Brown -- this is the best article for comparing to other ways of articulating the Aftereffects.]

 

  •  

Rhea White's Definition of a Death-Related Experience

 

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The Narrative is the Thing:  The Story of “Necessary Spirit” and Psi

 

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Introduction to Writing EHE Autobiographies  

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The Inward Olympics: On Finding Ways to Deepen Consciousness and Touch the Self We All Are  

 

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Integrating, Applying, and Validating Our EHEs

 

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The Act of Sharing EHEs as a Catalyst

 

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The Import of Individual Exceptional Human Experiences for  the Species - and Beyond

 

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The Collective Message Inherent in Exceptional Human  Experience [also see a comments on this article, 'How We May Together Change the World for the Better?  An " Inside" Approach'.]

 

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EHEers and the Creation of a New Worldview

 

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Aftereffects of EHEs [A start on explaining their research and also exhaustive review of the requisite literature during the early 1990s, by Rhea A. White and Suzanne V. Brown]

 

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Dictionary of EHE-Related Terms: An Experiencer’s Guide [by Rhea A. White and Suzanne V. Brown]

 

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Classes of EE/EHEs [by Rhea A. White and Suzanne V. Brown]

 

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List of Potential EEs/EHEs

 

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FAQ:  Frequently Asked Questions [by Suzanne V. Brown and Rhea A. White]

 

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Triggers of Potential Exceptional Human Experiences [by Rhea A. White and Suzanne V. Brown]

 

 

Other Rhea A. White pages on this site

 

  •  

Who Is Rhea A. White?

 

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Dedication to Rhea A. White

 

  •  

Think 'EHE Study Groups'! -- based on this paper:  Exceptional Human Experiences as Vehicles of Grace:  Parapsychology, Faith, and the Outlier Mentality, by Rhea A. White

 

 

 

 

*    *    *    *    *    *    *   

 

 

Concerning the above material, which is currently available on this site with the blessings of the original ehe.org webmistress, Palyne Gaenir.

All website graphics, materials and content 

copyright © 1997-2003

by EHE Network. All rights reserved

Exceptional Human Experience Network:  see www.ehe.org.

 

 

*    *    *    *    *    *    *         

 

Because of her passing, Rhea White's website may continue to be in transition for a while.  It has been on and off again over much of the last several months.  White bequeathed all her work-related materials to the internationally renowned organization, the Parapsychology Foundation.  Although it may occasionally be in flux, for now it appears to be back up through their good graces, using the original web address, ehe.org. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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