[K-list] The Exceptional Human Experience Process #3

[Guest guest]

This will cover # 2 Examples and #3 Search focus

(See below for the 5 "stages" and 12 "characteristics.)

Stage 1: The Initiating Event/Experience

2. Examples: (Psychical) precognitive dream, telepathy, out-of-body

experience; (Mystical) ecstatic bliss, cosmic consciousness,

conversion: (Death-related) near-death experience, haunting, past

life recall; (Encounter) UFO, ancestor, shrine/power place;

(Enhanced) in the sports zone, nostalgia, déjà vu.

3. Search focus: Meaning of the EE

Stage 2: Search for Reconciliation

2 Examples: Exploring such alternative ideologies as perennial

philosophy, mystery schools, new age, theosophy, Zen, Tao,

nature-based religions (paganism); exploring such alternative health

practices as acupuncture, regression therapy, massage therapy,

homeopathy, chiropractic, meditation/breath work; learning such

divination tools as I Ching, astrology, tarot, and runes; seeking out

such alternative authorities as gurus, mystics, psychics, and

channelers.

3. Search focus: Meaning of EE in a new context

Stage 3: Between Two Worlds

2. Examples: Outsider, outlander, stranger in a strange land; walking

a fine border/line, crossing the river, caught between two worlds,

locked in irons (feeling stuck), on the edge of the shore/cliff ready

to leap; existential dark night of the soul, return to the underworld

(inner world), return to alchemists' hermetic vessel for mixing,

blending, and refining.

3. Search focus: Meaning of experiencer-self

Stage 4: In the Experiential Paradigm

2. Examples: EHEers "know" that they have "awakened,leaped into the

void,crossed the river,returned home." Life view encompasses

"double vision" where either/or dilemmas may be resolved with

both/and hybrid considerations, often spurring fresh catalytic

insights and transmuting them to EHEs. Observations may include

transcendental ecstasy, inspired creativity, frequent number and/or

intensity of serendipity, patterns of synchronicity, "good-luck,"

insights, discoveries, inventions.

3. Search focus: Meaning of higher self.

Stage 5: A New Way of Being in the World

2. Examples: The EHEer brings transcendental knowledge, "inner/outer"

calling, unique gifts "back to earth;" returns from Home to home; "as

above so below,the macrocosm is reflected in the microcosm,after

the return before the return,I am another yourself;chop wood,

carry water;" selecting an explicate order out of seemingly-implicate

chaos; the organizing principle, Self/Universe is both perfectly hole

and whole.

3. Search focus: Meaning of the universal self.

Next to come, #5 "Cognitive dissonance" ( having already done # 4 questions asked.)

Hope this isn't too confusing.

Love, Hillary

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It starts with an outline of 5 developmental stages worked out by Rhea White of the EHE Network:

1. The initiating event/experience

2. Search for reconciliation

3. Between two worlds

4. In the experiential paradigm

5. A new way of being in the world.

Suzanne V. Brown has taken these stages further, saying that "within

each of the stages there are qualitative sets of attributive

characteristics that could be used to distinguish (more or less) one

stage from the others."

So each stage is divided into 12 sets of characteristics, ultimately forming a matrix of 60 cells.

1. Definition

2. Examples

3. Search focus

4. Questions asked

5. Cognitive dissonance

6. Depotentiating activities

7. Results of depotentiation

8. Potentiating activities

9. Results of potentiation

10. Challenges

11. Critical juncture

12. Crossroads to next stage.