Week 1

Exploring Human Experience Augmenting Language (HEAL)

Our primary means of communication in early childhood are through facial expression, sound, eye contact, gesture, and touch. Based on these fundamental interactions, we develop our cognition, verbal skills, and multiple intelligences. Using the whole brain, these abilities are forged into integrated language skills at a very early age.

As we experience more emotional wounds and mentally juggle more and more information, our awareness becomes increasingly fragmented. Objectifying and language comprehension are primarily mapped to the parts of the brain that drive concentration and cognition.

The shift from integration to disintegration happens so subtly that, by adulthood, we've forgotten what it feels like to be embodied, whole, and connected. Blind spots form, and we collectively accept our fragmented state of being as the norm—“I think; therefore I am.” Due to our lack of presence, a state that integrates our being, we find ourselves unable to self-regulate, leading to crisis.

When we’re in a crisis, it feels like being lost in a maze. We can't discern the real problem we're facing and tend to come up with assumptions, hypothetical issues, and scenarios. This frantic guessing game keeps us running in circles, wasting energy, and growing increasingly confused without addressing the root cause. It's like chasing shadows while the real issue remains hidden and unresolved beneath the fragmented surface of our minds—a place we cannot reach through mere reflection or interoception. We don’t know what we don’t know.

Our inner experiences shape how we ‘use’ language and engage with life, which becomes more evident when we experience crisis. This includes how we think, feel, socially empathize, and emotionally and physically react to different situations. Imagine feeling whole and connected again. This is where HEAL comes in.

The HEAL (Human Experience Augmenting Language) framework and process enable you to internally and heuristically discover your experiences from within. It facilitates the integration of what you feel, think, with other dimensions.

When you participate in this course, you will embark on a journey to discover how it is to be authentic and learn to navigate the complexities of life from your newly discovered perspective.

Story: We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

Experience:

Throughout this 9-week journey, we will engage in and experientially explore numerous HEAL practices. Within this learning context, these experiments are where facilitators show participants how to use the multiple modes of attention to discern, discover, expand, resolve, and realize. This process evolves participants through different stages, which we will explore later in this journey.

In this first session, we will start with an experiment called ‘grounding:’

• In grounding, we become familiar with:

  • Selective (or focused) AND/OR non-selective (or open) attention. Non-selective attention is also referred to as Mindfulness.

  • We reference the linguistic “Witness,” a vacuum (non-spacetime) within each one of us from where experiences, including selective and non-selective attention, seek to integrate.

Duration:

Each week, we will have one planned synchronous meeting via Zoom, and participants can asynchronously direct message the mentor to share their experiences and get support.

• 90 minutes/week - synchronous meeting time via Zoom

• 60 minutes/week - asynchronous dialogue via WhatsApp

  At the beginning of the journey, exchanges will be more frequent, becoming less frequent as you become more independent.