Awe-Based Democratic Procedure

Kirk J. Schneider, Ph.D., June, 2005 

(Author's Note:  this proposal is copyrighted by the author and not to be reproduced without the express, written consent of the author.)

Introduction

The following is a draft proposal for an "awe-based" or "heart-based" legislative proceeding, as a contribution to the Spiritual Activism Network and Conference.

Awe-based democratic procedure is the supplementation of an awe-based deliberative component to the legislative process.  This component draws from depth-experiential therapeutic principles and the awe-based ethic developed in my book "Rediscovery of Awe" (Paragon House, 2004).

At its broadest level, awe-based democratic procedure follows from the cultivation of an awe-based life stance.  This life-stance embraces the humility and wonder, thrill and anxiety of living;  or the capacity to be moved.  Further, it is the capacity to have maximal access to experience (from the anxious to the exhilarating).

More specifically, awe-based democracy draws from the principles of an awe-based ethics as developed in Rediscovery of Awe. These principles are:

1) Appreciation: the whole bodied appreciation of (or presence to) the problem before one; 2) Struggle: the whole bodied encounter with all possible sides  of this dilemma;  3) Responsibility: the whole bodied ability to respond to and discern the meaning of the aforementioned encounter; and 4) Relinquishment: the whole bodied acknowledgement of the limits of one's meaning, and the capacity to "let go" of it as the situation (through appreciation, struggle, and responsibility) demands.

Proposal Structure:

I.  The facilitation of an awe-based encounter group-- or series of groups--during the course of a legislative session.  The time period for such a group could range between one and 3 hours (with a preference for 3).

a) Facilitation coordinated by a team of depth-experiential therapists (such as that comprising the Existential-Humanistic Institute and James Bugental's Art of the Psychotherapist staff). 

b)  This could be initiated as a voluntary pilot project at little or no expense.

c)  The confidentiality of these encounter groups is sacrosanct.  No public disclosure of group processes would be permitted, and there would be severe penalties for noncompliance.  Media could be invited to the post encounter group discussion (with the legislative body at large).

II. Ideally, the facilitation of a series of small breakout groups (say, 5 or 6 legislators) which aim at addressing:

a) What deeply matters about the (given) legislation (for each group member)and not just intellectually or politically, but in terms of this particular legislator's thoughts, feelings, and sensations?

b) What do these responses (thoughts, feelings, and sensations) bring up for other members of the group who witness them?

c) How can members stay present to and discern the salient meanings that emerge both within and between them?

d) Final group discussion (if not consensus) about the salient meanings that emerge. A recording secretary (or observer) summarizes these findings.  The findings would be written in a form that strictly prohibits the disclosure of the identity of all group members.

e) The findings are brought back to the entire group of legislators for general discussion and integration into deliberative proceedings.

Note: For those wanting or needing follow up counseling on emotional issues arising in the groups, a team of the aforementioned therapists could be designated to assist. 

Summary and Implications of Proposal

The aim of the proposal is to draw on the principles of depth-experiential psychotherapy and "awe-based ethics" as described in my recent book, "Rediscovery of awe:  Splendor, mystery, and the fluid center of life" (Paragon House, 2004) to outline a legislative strategy that I term "awe-based democracy." Specifically, I propose a feasible and realistic strategy to promote an "awe-based" (or "heart-informed") democratic component to government legislative bodies throughout the U.S.  This awe-based component would be proposed as a voluntary, pilot project, that in theory--and if assessed as beneficial--could be developed as a prototype, to be incorporated by any legislative body that deliberates an issue of significant ethical import.    By "awe-based democracy,"  I mean the supplementation of an experiential (or "mind-body-spirit") component to standard deliberative proceedings of legislatures.  This experiential component, which would be facilitated by a seasoned experiential practitioner, would supplement and inform conventional legislative procedure with the following awe-based features:  1) a working space for in-depth immersion in and attunement to the many sidedness of a given (legislative) issue;  2) a whole bodied (personal) encounter with the many sides of the given issue;  and 3) a whole bodied response to and discernment of that many sidedness, leading to a substantive integration of that response in subsequent legislative action.  (These principles echo  Buber's dialectic of "I-thou," and Tillich's notion of "listening love.")

Hence, awe-based democracy would introduce a regenerative and potentially revolutionary ethical dimension to legislative proceeding—the dimension of experiential reflection, which extends beyond the ideological and/or abstract reflections with which legislatures are typically associated. 

Such a personal encounter, finally, would be a critical component of a deepened and expanded vision of democratic debate; incorporating the profound sensibilities of body and spirit (or "heart") into the legislative process, alongside of and beyond the calculations of mind.

KIRK J. SCHNEIDER, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and leading spokesperson for contemporary humanistic psychology. He is president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute and an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook Graduate School and the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Schneider has published over 70 articles and chapters and has authored or edited five books, The Paradoxical Self: Toward an Understanding of Our Contradictory Nature, Horror and the Holy: Wisdom-teachings of the Monster Tale, The Psychology of Existence: An Integrative, Clinical Perspective (with Rollo May), The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology: Leading Edges in Theory, Research and Practice (with J. Bugental and F. Pierson), and Rediscovery of Awe.  Dr. Schneider is the 2004 recipient of the Rollo May award for "outstanding and independent pursuit of new frontiers in humanistic psychology" from the Humanistic Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association.  In the fall of 2005, Dr. Schneider will assume the editorship of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.