As we move from the mysticism of the individual to a We-Mysticism that is shared between us our use of language becomes critical. Language is the medium of exchange through which we attune human behavior and consciousness and in a mystical context it is also the vehicle through which we share higher states and realizations.
In any group of individuals, be it as small as a couple or as large as a nation, there exists what we could call a relational field. This field contains a conscious and unconscious shared understanding of reality and a common language used to communicate, reinforce and adjust it. This shared understanding and the language that holds it dictates what ways of being are, and are not, possible in that particular shared space. To an extent much greater than we might realize, the relational field that we exist within governs the ways we think, feel and act as individuals.
To get a more visceral sense of the profound significance of language to our ordinary way of being, imagine an activity – maybe baking a cake. Suppose you wanted to explain to someone how to bake a cake and you couldn’t use any language. How difficult would it be? How long would it take? And how successful would the end result be? Without language the ability to communicate is severely hampered.
And many of us who have tried to share our mystical revelations with others have found the language we commonly use woefully inadequate for the job. Many, many people have ventured out into the further reaches of human experience only to find fewer and fewer people that they can share that experience with. The language we have is just not adequate to allow us to share the mystery that has grabbed a hold of our hearts.
And now it seems that more and more of us who do have mystical inclinations want to come out of seclusion and explore revelatory experiences with kindred spirits. Over the past four decades many of us have made the heroic effort to transform ourselves as individuals. Eventually the rate of growth that we experience slows down. It seems that there is only so much room for growth within the relational spaces that we occupy in our existing social and professional circles. We can only become so different before the relational space we occupy push back on us. Relational spaces are designed to maintain the status quo. The feeling of restriction awakens in many of us an undeniable urge to come together with like-minded others.
When people gather to explore the WeMystical space they inevitably run up against the limitations of language. The language we are used to is too specific, too rigid and to literal. It is rooted in our current level of thinking and anchors every new conception back into our current understanding of reality. It is not flexible or fluid enough to accommodate mystical realities. WeMysticism demands a form of language that invites novelty and promotes growth. I believe we could call this style of language Improvisational Transformative Poetics.
This use of language is improvisational because it proceeds without the benefit of preconception. We don’t get to know ahead of time. The gap between what we are experiencing and our verbal expression of it shrinks into non-existence. Our goal is not to speak about our experience, but to give our experience a voice. We are not looking at our experience and describing it. We are allowing that experience to take us over and speak through us so that even we are amazed at what comes out of our mouths. When this direct communication happens in more than one person simultaneously a spontaneous process of divine discourse unfolds. The higher mind that I described in my last post now has control of the conversation. It is thinking out loud though the voices of the individuals. It is spiritual improvisation of the highest order.
This use of language is transformative because its aim is not to inform the listener but to transform them. In WeMysticism our words have transformative power. When we allow our sublime experiences to have voice through us we speak with a sacred authenticity. A listener who is open to the extraordinary will be affected by our words and transported to a different place in the universe and a different sense of themselves. The shared intention of those coming together in a WeMystsical space is to open to the full creative potential of the higher mind that emerges between them. We serve this transformative function by surrendering our voice and giving it over to the spirit that is moving us and by allowing ourselves to be moved by the words of another.
This use of language is poetic because it is always aimed at that which lies beyond what can be expressed. We are giving voice to a level of consciousness that abides just beyond what the mind can know and cannot be captured in language. For this reason we give ourselves poetic license to be inventive with words, to allow meaning to spontaneous generate through us anchored only in the truth that moves us and free from reference to the past. Our words, liberated by the surrender of a mystical heart, form themselves fueled by the inspiration of the WeMystical experience. A poet’s words contain an intentional ambiguity because he or she is pointing beyond the words to something that could never be fully captured on a page. Improvisational Transformative Poetics is a fluid and free use of language that leaves plenty of room for the novel, the unexpected and the miraculous.
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