is a leading spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic psychology. He is an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook University in California and

In this tech-vexed age, our life on screens prevents us from experiencing the mysteries and transformative wonder of life

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2024-11-08 13:00:07

is a leading spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic psychology. He is an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook University in California and at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. He is the president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute and a council member of the American Psychological Association. His latest book is Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane World (2023).

What if I told you – like the eerily moving Control Voice in the 1960s TV show The Outer Limits – that ‘you are about to participate in a Great Adventure’, that ‘you are about to experience the awe and mystery’ of the Universe on this journey. And what if I told you that you will witness many strange and marvellous beings, creatures and sensations along your path; that you will experience new colours, shapes and textures – make contact with fields and trees, and with people from a wealth of backgrounds; invigorating games, vehicles, animals, the touch of mud and flesh, sweet and savoury foods, new companions, the experience of love and friendship, of anger and hurt, of aloneness and contemplation. And what if I said that all these experiences will lead to fresh ideas, creations and relationships… to a personality with choice and possibility as well as limits and apprehensions; and that these limits and apprehensions will point to a vast background of sky and consciousness, a background that will give you the feeling of being a part of something much greater than yourself?

And what if I told you that you will be able to feel as I did as a 12-year-old lying on a beach near New York City in 1968 – outstretched on the sand with the wind in my hair and the waves lapping at my heels, fresh out of the water where I bodysurfed and wave-hopped to my heart’s content. It was a scene where my dad and I, and hordes of other beachgoers, gathered around transistor radios listening to tunes like ‘Time of the Season’ by the Zombies.