A BOOK OUTLINE

Below in italics is the outline of this second book I’ve been developing, so far called “Patterned Tumult”, not about “religion” but about the sensation of the Sacred or Holy that is somehow connected, maybe as a justification for an institute or maybe as an escape from one.  We know very little about what the numinous moment actually “is” or where it comes from.  Today we have new research that may explain it better or offer good clues.

This is NOT meant to suggest a new religion, but rather to investigate something pre-existing that might not even be considered “religious.”  I’m not looking for followers. but people who see something missing from this consideration ought to speak up now.

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How can we account for the moments of deep intensity that some people of all types and times experience?  I do not restrict epiphany to Christianity.

Not everyone thinks of the experience as “religious” and, in fact, I take the position that it is primal, underneath the “religion” that many people mean when they refer to institutions.  They may be dark episodes to the point of destruction/evil, awareness of the void.  Many of the saints who describe their memories do so in terms of inherent contradiction: extreme cold at once with extreme heat; falling v. being embraced; famishing v. repletion; and so on.

These experiences are of the “mysterium tremendum et fascinans” the other overriding description. Science has not reduced but expanded this awful mystery with instruments and images, in terms of both deep history and infinite time. It has become impossible to exclude wonder and awe from science to the point that some accuse it of being a religion. 

A reconsideration is needed and is possible because of the new research on neurology, polyvagal theory, brain networks, sensory memory and identity, and embodied cognition.  These are real, concrete, and abiding mechanisms that have many expressions.  The unique basic brain paradigm structure of  each individual is formed during gestation and the early years of learning to walk and talk, pressing up against the child’s environment which is as subtle as gravity, as obvious as mother.

The theories of the virtual time/place that develop between mother and child through the mammalian acts of cleaning, comforting, caressing, feeding, and talking offer an idea about the origin of the human ability to focus, flow and construct concepts that could become an ability to sense the virtual Sacred or Holy.  Not the conventional approved lines drawn around the highly valued or most protected, but something more intense described in technical language like “hierophany” or “epiphany.”

This opens up a new theory of human beings as an emergence from the interaction of animal and environment when explored by mutation/evolution.  Fitting one’s culture is as powerful as fitting one’s ecology, which may have determined the culture. But there remain unaccountable experiences, nearly impossible to describe.

I propose that the experience of extraordinary moments is basically located in the physical body but is also psychic/mental action of human functioning, largely subconscious and apart from the ordinary, which is why so often it is unexpected.  Though it is out of our normal awareness, it can be managed to some degree.  One way is through planned experiences that create liminal time/space, possibly liturgy.  Victor Turner has been the guide for “going over the threshold” or limen.

Since other humans are a major part of human environments, new understandings of attachment and empathy open up investigation of “virtual” constructions among people, including family, congregations and nations.   Powerful as these communication lines can be, they are only seen in behavior or reflection.  For instance, one cannot see attachment. These are key to the uniqueness of humans.  Losing them is a form of madness.  The theories in this manuscript only explain how they are possible, resting on single humans.

The next step — a whole new book — would be about the virtual structures of cultures, particularly in regard to their ecosystems.  But that’s another book.

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A book about virtual (unseen and maybe unacknowledged) ties and structures among humans is an unlikely subject for me.  Since I was thrown out of Bluebirds at about age 7, I’ve resisted groups, though my mother kept pressing me into them: dance classes, 4-H sewing, Presbyterian youth.  No use even trying to get me into something athletic but there were no teams for girls then anyway.

Even my love of theatre didn’t keep me in that context because it is an art of collaboration. It was a hardship as a teacher to never be solitary.  PNWD Leadership School pulled me into Organizational Design while I was part of the Multnomah County Animal Control team. I didn’t give up hope until I’d spent a decade as UU clergy, suffering potlucks and committees.

In part I became radicalized by watching the force of feminism grip all the men by the throat, changing the terms of religion to therapy, and making an idol of socio-economic status.  They wanted to be a mass of people with power.   I watched the men I respected be frozen out or “owned.”  I’m exaggerating to make the point.  But I see that these forces have been captured by the “right wing.”

This is why I work alone in a place where I am different and that explains my isolation.

Even as the whole new paradigm addresses the formation of a human identity, it also suggests new ways of thinking about groups.  I mean besides money and guaranteeing existence, which pandemic has rendered nonsense.  I mean extending attachment and empathy to structure identity, share goals.

The younger and less traditional people are accepting this new understanding of humans and how they should act.  The world is changing around us and they will be able to adapt for its new forms, but there is already terrible destruction to people who cling to mere habits with no sense of transcendence.