Other World

“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

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)

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

 Bending History talks of Joseph Wesley Mathews:  The Recovery of the Other World, 1972, pp. 164-171.  Other talks Mathews gave introducing the Other World included: Theological Reflections on the Other World (August 3, 1972); Other World Lectures (June 20, 1972); Other World Lecture Context ( June 19, 1972); and Other World Context and Methodology and quotes

(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.

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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.”

• Other World Charts: Land of Mystery, River of Consciousness, Mountain of Care, Sea of Tranquillity

• Other World Charts Illustrations: Religious and Secular