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Other World

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“The Other World may be the most crucial key there is for actually turning on the processes that will snowball the arrival of  a new web of relationships that define society.”

          ~~  Joseph W. Mathews

“On the way to the play we stopped to look at the stars. And as usual, I felt in awe. And then I felt even deeper in awe at this capacity we have to be in awe about something…. I decided I would set time aside each day to do awe-robics.”

          ~~  Jane Wagner

What is the Other World in the midst of this world?

 

The Other World in the midst of this world is a metaphor for experiences of transparency which happen in our daily lives: awe experiences of fascination and dread. It may come as a tingle, a shudder, a strange silence, horror or wonder.   When awe impacts us, there is an accompanying state of being. And states of being are often expressed best through poetry, song,and metaphor.

 

Transparency resembles holding a match under a piece of paper. First there is heat; then the paper turns brown till the flame pops through. A hole appears, and we see through the paper to what lies beyond. Sometimes we can feel a hole forming before we can see it.

 

The Other World imagery breathes awe into our lives in the midst of a one-story mythology.  For myth to be effective it needs to anchor time, space and relations in an integrated way that intensifies people’s understanding of their lives as significant. Today for many people there is a disconnect between two-story mythologies and their life experiences.  The photo of the earthrise is a symbol of this new mythology coming into being.

Nelson Stover on the Other World

Bibliography

 

AI Interpreting “Recovery of the Other World” paper – April 2025

 

The Other World Journey Book, produced by Patricia Webb and David McCleskey for Abbey North, Canada, August 2005

The Call of the Awe, Rediscovering Christian Profundity in an Interreligious Era, Gene W. Marshall . Writers Club Press, 2003. 

 

The Courage to Lead by R. Brian Stanfield (Second Edition, 2012), Chapter 11: “Meaning in Everyday Life” (pp. 229-257) and Lesson Plan

 

The Other World…in the Midst of Our World, Maureen and Jon Jenkins, 1985

 

Bending History talks by Joseph Wesley Mathews:  The Recovery of the Other World, 1972, pp. 164-171.  Other talks Mathews gave introducing the Other World included: Significating Myth for Our Time (February 1973); Theological Reflections on the Other World (August 3, 1972); Introduction to the Other World, July 3, 1972; Other World Lectures (June 20, 1972); Other World Lecture Context ( June 19, 1972); and Other World Context and Methodology and Visit Context and quotes (1972)

 

Annotated Bibliography of 73 Contemporary Work on Myth, Symbol and the Other World, Writing Post, Symbolic Centrum, November 7, 1972

The Other World Charts

 

The Other World’s poetic topography was delineated as four areas: The Land of Mystery, The River of Consciousness, The Mountain of Care and The Sea of Tranquility. Each area was further categorized into four treks with descriptions of four states of being in each trek, 64 states of being in total.

The Topography of the Land of Mystery

The Land of Mystery, Gene Marshall, Summer 1972

I  Aweful Encounter (David Scott, 1972) and George West

II The Inescapable Power: Enveloped by Mystery (Sarah Buss, 1972) and Don Cramer (Summer 1972)

III The Transformed State (Joseph Slicker, 1972)

IV  The Infinite Passion (Gene Marshall,1972)

The River of Consciousness, Fred Buss, Summer 1972

V The Authentic Relation: Freedom of Awareness (Lyn Mathews 1972)

VI The Creative Existence: I am Creativity (Aimee Hilliard, 1972)

VII  The Moral Ground: Freedom of Decision (Brian Stanfield, 1972); Freedom of Decision (John Baggett, 1972)

VIII Final Accountability (David McCleskey, 1972) and Freedom of Obligation, Fred Hess 1972

IX   Original Gratitude (John Cock, 1972)

X    The Universal Concern: Agape is Compassion (Don Cramer, 1972)

XI   The Singular Mission (Ron Clutz, July 1, 1972)

XII  The Transparent Power (Patricia Scott, 1972)

XIII Radical Illumination (David McCleskey, 1972); Certitude – Joseph Mathews, October 1972)

XIV The Unknowable Peace: Problemlessness (Fred Hess, 1972); David Scott July 25, 1972

XV Unspeakable Joy (James Addington, 1972); Contentment at the Center, Charles Moore 1972

XVI The Endless Life: Eternal Life (Joseph Slicker, 1972); Forever at the Center, Gene Marshall 1972

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In the words of the original research team the Other World Charts are considered “an entry point to this new mythology”. Reflection on the Other World focuses on universal states of consciousness, or states of being.  This work with states of being allows us to have a way to relate our personal experience to a deeper universal wisdom.

 

As John Epps, a research colleague, put it: “An interior map such as the Other World charts can tell us where we are and whether or not we are lost. It gives us some guidelines for staying on track, even if the track is rough going. Most helpfully, it establishes for us that, even when we’re in unfamiliar territory and wondering about the place, people have been here before and have found this experience good. Many times we experience things in our lives that we don’t have a handle or “handhold” for.    There is a need to create models of care for one another during these experiences. These charts help us to affirm these experiences instead of passing them off with a shrug. The metaphors used in the charts give us poetic language and enable us to create our own poetry about our experiences.”