The Wilderness of Experience
with three perilous catches
How many things have to happen to you before something occurs to you?
〰 Robert Frost 〰
Measuring our Experience
We are architects of our own experience.
〰 Lisa Feldmann Barrett 〰
The anthropocentric paradigm loves to reduce phenomena to formulæ ~ or even better ~ to equations. A formula is short, sweet, and technical. An equation sounds more scientific. Here’s an example.
The statement, “it takes three positive experiences to offset one negative,” sounds perfectly reasonable. It’s been scientifically proven. It comes straight from the pen and mouth of Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, positivity researcher at the university of North Carolina.
“For every heart-wrenching negative emotional experience you endure,” Dr. Fredrickson reckons, “you need to experience at least three heartfelt positive emotional experiences that uplift you.”
The implication is clear. Three ‘heartfelt positive experiences’ can (allegedly) wipe one ‘heart-wrenching negative experience’ off the inner slate.
“The mind is like velcro for negative experiences,” Dr. Rick Hanson explains further to support this claim, “but Teflon for positive ones.”
Dr. Fredrickson is a positivity researcher at the university of North Carolina, director of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory, author of several books and winner of numerous awards. Dr. Hanson a psychologist, Senior Fellow of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times best-selling author.
Such statements of authorities in the field of human experience present the impression that they view the living organism of human Consciousness as a mathematical equation. Here is the premise:
Negative experience occupies the ‘dark space’ below zero.
Negative experience is also considered heavy, it weighs people down, which explains why it takes up more space than the positive experience, which is light, bright and cheerful.
Therefore, we need at least three positive +++s to outweigh those heavy ones (to pull them up and out from their deep dark hole so to speak). The logic seems to make perfect sense ~ to those with a materialist mindset.
1 – & 3 +++s = 0
Pondering this train of thought, my own life-experience spontaneously chips in and suggests that multiple negative experiences can be outweighed by a single positive one. An alternative equation could therefore look like this:
3 – – – s & 1 + = ∞ +
Translated into a sentence, this equation means that three or more negative experiences can be transformed by one positive experience, leading to infinite positive experience (because positive experience of a particular type can also provided immunity to future negative experiences).
I am not sharing this to argue with respected researchers in the field of human experience. I am referring to personal observations from subjective experience. I am drawing from the wealth of resources and decades of research produced by my own Consciousness, engagement with daily living, and creative work.
In lieu of a thousand scientific tests, I offer the following synopsis of one particular example:
In the slipstream of a string of failed relationships, the protagonist, who plays the leading role in my life, examines and understands the part she has been playing in the tragedy of her private drama, including an unspecified number of traumatic events. She researches, experiments, learns how to transform a self-destructive relationship pattern, and voilà ~ the heroine of my life story meets her prince, and they live happily ever after. The negative experience pattern forever resolved.
In other words, multiple negative experiences can be ‘outweighed’ by one positive experience, and the experiencer never needs to look back.
I would like to add another factor to this equation. Even if the experiencer has one single negative experience, followed by one single positive experience, the latter can be sufficient to cancel out the former. This has nothing to do with numbers.
In the illustrative setting of intimate love relationships ~ taking into account a predominantly monogamous culture ~ one positive is more than enough to override a whole string of negatives. The same principle can apply to life’s-work-experience, close-friendship-experience, finding a place-to-call-home experience, etc.
What’s more, the single positive experience, when encountered in the wake of one or more negative ones, can serve as a profound life lesson to transform virtually any experience in life ~ given that the experiencer understands and engages with the transformative process ~ thus providing immunity.
The question here is not whether the ‘scientific measurings’ of human experience are accurate and my ‘anecdotal observations’ are wrong, or vice versa. The glaring discrepancy between the conclusions must lead to the all-important question:::
what on earth do we mean when using the word |ɛkˈspɪərɪəns|?
The Semantics of Experience
There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
〰 Will Rogers 〰
Experience [from Latin experiri = to try, test › ex = out, thorough + per = through + ire = go] means literally to go through and out, or to thoroughly go through.
Having already explored the word in an earlier wordcast ~ Experience as a Synchronous Event ~ you can find more on etymological roots and word family there. On this visit to the wildwordwoods let’s take a stroll through the semantic landscape of this multifaceted verbiont.
The contemporary English noun experience covers a truly bewildering range of meanings. Here are some of them:
1 ~ the state or fact of having acquired knowledge, skill, command, know-how, mastery [expertise]
2 ~ personal acquaintance with anything, acquisition of information, receipt of news; intimacy, familiarity, knowledge [insight]
3 ~ knowledge through experimental cognition by trial or observation [experiment]
4 ~ knowledge acquired through external or internal perception or observation; subjective knowledge of the inner and outer life [empiricism]
5 ~ the totality of the cognition; all that is perceived, understood, and remembered [knowledge]
6 ~ what has been learned, studied, or done and can be considered as productive of practical judgment and skill [body of knowledge, work experience]
7 ~ the sum of practical wisdom taught by all the events, vicissitudes, and observations of one’s life [wisdom, life experience]
8 ~ what has been suffered and affected a person as an adverse event; personal acquaintance with traumatic events, illness, natural catastrophes, failure; negative experience, tribulation, trying experience [suffering, adverse experience]
9 ~ personal acquaintance with pleasant events, celebration of a milestone, achievement of success in any field, highlight; adventure, positive experience [peak experience]
10 ~ an individual or particular instance of trial or observation, test, probe [experiment]
11 ~ encounter with a supernatural being [spiritual experience]
12 ~ occurrence, event, episode, ordeal [incident]
13 ~ a high standard of knowledge developed through personal experience; competence, authority, domination [expertise]
14 ~ empiricism, mere experience or practice without scientific proof [anecdotal evidence]
15 ~ trial, experiment, exploration, research, scientific study [experimentation]
The contemporary English verb experience covers the following range of meanings:
1 ~ to learn a physical craft or mental discipline; acquire skill, proficiency, know-how [practice]
2 ~ to go through, endure, tolerate, bear [suffer]
3 ~ to encounter, meet face to face, stumble upon, be in the presence of [witness]
4 ~ to notice, become aware of, realise, gather knowledge, become acquainted with, find out [learn]
5 ~ to live through, gain personal knowledge, gather memories [savour]
6 ~ to experiment, try, probe, participate [engage]
7 ~ to travel, wander, explore, have pleasant experiences, meet as a matter of serendipity [enjoy]
These incomplete lists of definitions of the lexeme |experience| give an idea of the complexity of meanings which have been stuffed into this noun/verb combo since its adoption into English from late 14 c. onwards.
At the same time they reveal an impossible challenge. The definitions are attempting to capture a wide range of activities, from external events to a variety of internal cognitive phenomena, PLUS the effects they have on the human condition, our state of mind, AND how we cope with life overall.
Needless to say (but important to remember), the application of the word ~ ex-per-ience ~ in everyday language is (more) often (than not) as limited as it is imprecise.
The Perils of Experience
Welcome, O life!
I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience
and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.
〰 James Joyce 〰
The German language has at least five options to translate the English ‘experience’ ~ two verbs and three nouns.
Erfahren (v) means literally to explore while driving through.
The matching noun is Erfahrung.
Erleben (v) means literally to explore through living, to bear witness while alive.
This verb has two nouns Erlebnis and Erleben.
The Arabic language offers at least seven different options to translate experience. Due to the structure of the semitic language, verbs and nouns can be formed from the root words, as required in different contexts and to convey different meanings.
جرب jarab = try, test, probe, experiment
تجربة tajriba [formed from the same root as جرب jarab] = practice, test, trial, proof (for correction), temptation
حنكة hunka = life experience gained through struggle, wisdom gained from suffering and hardship
خبرة khibra = to live through, know from personal acquaintance, know-how, expertise
عانى eanaa = to tolerate, suffer hardship, encounter difficulties, undergo, go through, struggle, bear, endure
قاسى qasaa = to tolerate, endure, suffer, sustain, incur, agonise
لاقى laqaa = to meet, encounter, coincide, find, stumble upon, collide
واجه wajah = to be confronted, faced with, meet eye to eye, face to face, stand up to
The English language uses one word experience ~ with relatively minor variations expertise, experiment, experimentation ~ to juggle the same full load of meanings and definitions (just imagine that for a moment!!! One single word burdened with such a range of semantics).
In our vernacular, the range of experience has a bright and a dark side.
On the bright side, it is either something to be gained and gathered ~ like gold stars in kindergarten ~ or goals to be achieved ~ like climbing a mountain peak, or reaching the next rung on the career ladder.
On the dark side of the spectrum, experience can be hardship to be endured (and hopefully overcome), or a failure to be brushed aside by sleight of euphemism, as Oscar Wilde knew when he said,“experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
For the German poet and cultural philosopher Jean Gebser, experience is a most essential resource to ensure a meaningful life. He regards it as fuel, which gives momentum and direction to the perilous human journey from cradle to grave.
Individual subjective experience, according to Gebser, supplies the experiencer with vital private information. It is provided in a unique idiosyncratic format, and contains all the necessary elements for the unfoldment of individual human Consciousness.
This sounds enticing and promising, if it wasn’t for the catch in the equation…
Sorry, no, there are three catches:::
1st catch ~ the experience Gebser refers to often plays out on the dark side. This is not inevitable, but more often than not related to trauma.
2nd catch ~ to tap into this vital resource, the experiencer must learn from their own experience.
3rd catch ~ in order to learn from our personal traumatic experience, meeting our inner darkness face to face (usually more than once) is crucial.
If this encounter with the word ~ experience ~ has stirred your sense of wonder about the actual in-the-flesh experience itself, you may enjoy further explorations shared in my book Synchronosophy: a Rough Guide to the Feral Side of Life. Start with some theory in Chapter 10 › Subjective Experience as a Living Source of Knowledge and use that as a springboard into the practice in Chapter 20 ›› Experiencing Moments of Living.
Letting my experience carry me on,
in a direction which appears to be forward,
toward goals that I can but dimly define,
as I try to understand at least the current
meaning of that experience.
〰 Carl R. Rogers 〰
You hit a nerve with this one, Veronika; and I am glad that you did.
Expeience is another word in English that has lost its essence, and has been diluted to where it has no life force, no vitality, and I would add, no real meaning. As a result of marketing, primarily in the United States, experience is bought, consumed and paid for. Something to strike off from your to-do or bucket list.
It is often packaged as doing something exciting but fleeting. Ephemeral. With the promise that it will long be remembered. (You can most certainly bore all your friends!) Examples that come to mind is swimming with the dolphins, taking a cruise to Alaska and eating freshly caught salmon, and camping out in the African Plains to witness the wildlife.
While these might all be lovely vacations, they have little to do with the experiences of a life well-lived. One can be well-lived without the need to travel far. Now, how about that for experience.
Gifted and guided, thank you.
I know a chap who had a bad time at school because he was different, who later in life found a belief in the transmigration of souls, where a soul takes a new incarnation in order to learn what had failed in the previous life. A system of credits and penalties in a perpetuated school has never appealed to me, but a curious co-incidence happened this evening.
The co-incidence? Your post had my mind wandering. I took a quick look for 'transmigration' and Google's little machine friend turned up Pythagoras. This morning the post came with the paperback edition of 'When the Dog Speaks the Philosopher Listens. A guide to the greatness of Pythagoras and his curious Age' I have been waiting for this book for quite a while. It promises much, but I have taken a quick look in the index for 'transmigration'. Pythagoras is said to have said about the unfortunate beaten puppy, 'It is the soul of a man, a friend of mine. I recognised the voice when I heard him cry.' Which puts a different complexion on matters. Nigel McG goes on to examine the fine meaning in the translated words, and history. So we go on.