The “INNER LIGHT”

Experiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience.  Simply put, Experiential Learning is learning from experience. The experience can be staged or left open.

Aristotle once said, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."

Dr. Jeffrey Zeig presents "Ericksonian Psychotherapy & Hypnotherapy: The Fundamentals of the Ericksonian Approach".

Zeig talks about the late great Erickson using Experiential Learning. For instance, rather than say “There are exceptions to the rule” Erickson would have him look up the street and notice some trees leaned one way while one tree leaned the other. It means more when you learn from direct expeience. Being told “1 + 4 = 5” means less than figuring it out for yourself. Erickson also used Phenomenology (from Greek: phainómenon "that which appears"; and lógos "study") which is the philosophical study of the structures of subjective experience and consciousness. Before the end of the 19th century philosophical psychology  relied heavily on introspection (the self-examination of one's conscious thoughts and feelings). The speculations concerning the mind based on those observations were criticized by the pioneering advocates of a more scientific approach to psychology, such as William James

GOD is an experientialist endeavor. Your experience may not necessarily be that of others. Perhaps that explains he old adage, “never discuss politics and religion at the dinner table”.

 William Penn ( 1644 –  1718) was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Indians. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed.

In 1681, King Charles II handed over a large piece of his American land holdings to William Penn to satisfy a debt the king owed to Penn's father. This land included present-day Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn immediately sailed to America and his first step on American soil took place in New Castle in 1682. On this occasion, the colonists pledged allegiance to Penn as their new Proprietor, and the first general assembly was held in the colony. Afterwards, Penn journeyed up river and founded Philadelphia. However, Penn's Quaker government was not viewed favorably by the Dutch, Swedish, and English settlers in what is now Delaware. They had no "historical" allegiance to Pennsylvania, so they almost immediately began petitioning for their own Assembly. In 1704 they achieved their goal when the three southernmost counties of Pennsylvania were permitted to split off and become the new semi-autonomous colony of Lower Delaware. As the most prominent, prosperous and influential "city" in the new colony, New Castle became the capital.

As one of the earlier supporters of colonial unification, Penn wrote and urged for a Union of all the English colonies in what was to become the United States of America. The democratic principles that he set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. As a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply, and included a plan for a United States of Europe ("European Dyet, Parliament or Estates") in his voluminous writings.

Penn became a close friend of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers. Penn traveled frequently with Fox, through Europe and England. He also wrote a comprehensive, detailed explanation of Quakerism along with a testimony to the character of George Fox, in his introduction to the autobiographical Journal of George Fox. In effect, Penn became the first theologian, theorist, and legal defender of Quakerism, providing its written doctrine and helping to establish its public standing.

At the age of 15, Penn met Thomas Loe, a Quaker missionary who taught him the Quaker beliefs of the “Inner Light”, pacifism and equality. A few years later, while at school in Oxford, Penn developed his individuality and philosophy of life and became sympathetic to the Quaker religion. Raised an Anglican, Penn converted to Quakerism at the age of 22, much to the extreme disapproval of his father. Young Penn recalled later that “the Lord visited me and gave me divine Impressions of Himself.”

O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.William Penn