Bliss

There is a scene in one of The Matrix movies of a large gathering of people dancing in ecstasy. To me, it was the most beautiful scene of the movie. I often recall it, dwelling on the feelings it evokes from me. Moments of bliss are sought after by humanity. You have only to look at drugs, alcohol addiction, and cults to see this.

 Dr. Adam Grant says: “Peak happiness lies mostly in collective activity. We find our greatest bliss in moments of collective effervescence. It’s a concept coined in the early 20th century by the pioneering sociologist Émile Durkheim to describe the sense of energy and harmony people feel when they come together in a group around a shared purpose. Collective effervescence is the synchrony you feel when you slide into rhythm with strangers on a dance floor, colleagues in a brainstorming session, cousins at a religious service or teammates on a soccer field. And during this pandemic, it’s been largely absent from our lives.”

Thane was an expert at producing a scenario of this collective effervescence. The nostalgia we often feel for keeping things as they were is based in this sense of wanting to create this collective experience.  He was able to produce an emotional contagion of bliss and belonging.  It was as if he was conducting an orchestra drawing in different instruments to produce a harmony of spirits that was up lifting.

 Part of any successful seminar is the ability to bring the room together where everyone awakens (hatch) in a similar time frame. The example of chicks communicating so they hatch at similar times is a good example. The moment most students sat in class with Thane, awakening, if only momentary, is something we never forget. Perhaps it is the feelings of finding a way out of loneliness and despair. Whatever the reasoning, our emotions are inherently social and are woven into our everyday living.

 We can find moments of singular happiness watching a movie or talking to a stranger or a friend. But our peak moments of bliss are in a collective setting. The joy of the whole becomes greater than that of the individual and is experienced by the whole. These moments are ones of bliss.

 The challenge of a Prospero Mentor is to bring about these climatic moments of bliss in their students. Emotions are like a contagious disease that move from person to person. The current covid restrictions have produced a languishing feeling among many. How is a Mentor to produce these feelings over the internet or on Zoom?

 When Thane talked about being naked with your students, he was talking about allowing your students to explore psychically your moments of bliss and awakening.

Finding just one student in your audience allows those moments you experienced to spread. We know from our work with Translation that time and space only exist as NOW. The illusion of distance and time are just that an illusion of the eternal moment.

 If you ever watched Billye Talmadge teach, you could experience her bliss. The same with Perry Dickey and Mary Ritley. They didn’t teach facts as a class. They explored the bliss of beingness as a collective. Like any orgasmic, climatic moment, once experienced, the student will continue to reach for it again and again, as we do as Mentors.

 Bliss, unlike physical pain doesn’t fade from our emotions. The pure ecstasy of bliss is sought over and over again.

 “The Declaration of Independence promised Americans unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If we want that pursuit to bring us bliss, it may be time to create a Declaration of Interdependence. You can feel depressed and anxious alone, but it’s rare to laugh alone or love alone. Joy shared is joy sustained.” Adam Grant