Relationships Between Spontaneous Giving, Transformative Learning and the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness in a Case Study of the Superheroes

by

Aliza Weller

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Studies

at

Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia December 2007

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Appendices Copyright Releases (if applicable) Table of Contents

List of Tables ix

Abstract x

Acknowledgements xi

CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1

CHAPTER 2: Literature Review 8

I Ecological Consciousness 8

Awareness and Action: a Feedback Loop within Living Systems Theory 11

Ecologically Conscientious Action: Refraining Stories 20

Synthesis of the Ecological Consciousness Concept 22

II Transformative Learning Experiences 23

What is a Transformative Learning Experience and How is it Facilitated? 24

Group Education and Transformative Learning Experiences 28

Roots of Transformative Learning in Educational Theory and Service Learning 29

Group Transformative Learning and Systems Theory 30

Recognizing Collective Denial of Collective Impacts on the Environment 32

Transformative Learning Experiences and the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness 34

Co-Creation through Storytelling and Sharing Worldviews 35

Sense of Place: Nature Experiences That Contribute to Human-Nature Co-Creation.. 38

Synthesis of the Transformative Learning Concept 42

III Spontaneous Giving 43

Distinguishing Between Spontaneous Giving and Volunteering 44

Comparing Spontaneous Giving to Western Gift Theory 46

Contrasting Aboriginal Concepts of Giving 48

iv Spontaneous Giving within "Gift Economies" 51

Synthesis of the Spontaneous Giving Concept 54

IV Connections between Spontaneous Giving and the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness 56

Intercoiinectedness and Metanarrative as Linking Themes 57

CHAPTER 3: Methodology 61

I Participants 62

Invitation to Participate in Study 62

Group Composition and Levels of Participation 63

II Methodological Approaches 65

Grounded Theory and Mixed Methods 65

Participant Observation 65

Narrative Interviews 66

Photography 69

III Procedures 71

Logistics 71

Informed Consent 72

IV Data Analysis 72

Narrative Approach 72

Trustworthiness: Triangulation and the Iterative Process 75

V Limitations 78

Group Interviews 78

Flexibility 79

Point of View 80

CHAPTER 4: Ethnography 84

v I Overview of Ride 84

Participants 84

Overview of Service Projects and Activities 85

II Superhero Culture 87

Chore Schedule 88

Daily Rituals 89

Transitional Rituals 92

A Typical Day 96

Ongoing Group Bonding and Co-Creative Acculturation 100

III Focus Story 102

Consensus Meeting on the Ridge of Capard 102

CHAPTER 5: Findings 107

I Findings for Research Questions 107

Question 1. What are the Superheroes' experiences of what they define to be "spontaneous giving," "ecological consciousness" and "transformative learning experiences?" 107

Descriptions of Spontaneous Giving and Stories of Related Experiences 108

Transformative Learning in the Context of Giving and Cycling and its Relationship to the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness 120

Examples of Transformative Learning Stories and Connections to the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness 125

Question 2. If the Superheroes perceive a connection between their experiences of spontaneous giving, ecological consciousness and transformative learning, then how do they express this perception? 140

The Interconnectedness of All Things 141

Altruism in Nature 143

Buddhist Philosophy 145

Peace and Nonviolence: Gandhi's Teachings of Being the Change You

vi Wish to See in the World 146

Sacred Texts, Spiritual Teachings and Mystical Stories 148

Question 3. If the Superheroes promote spontaneous giving, ecological consciousness and transformative learning experiences, then how do they do this?.. 150

Planting Seeds of Possibility 150

Love Bombs: Making Optimism Cool 153

Mythmaking 154

Holding Space: Inclusiveness 157

Choosing Between Love and Fear 159

Staying Connected 161

II Findings for the Central Thesis Question..... 162

Central Thesis Question: Can spontaneous giving, as defined by the Superheroes, be used as a transformative learning tool to promote ecological consciousness? 162

"It Depends": Culture, Storytelling and Worldview 162

Cultural Conditions for the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness 163

Storytelling 166

Worldview 169

CHAPTER 6: Discussion 175

I Meaning of the Superhero Experience 179

Co-Creative Refraining of Stories and Culture 179

The Dynamics of Spontaneous Giving 191

II Implications for Environmental Education 194

CHAPTER 7: Conclusion 199

Bibliography 203

Appendix A - Interview Guide 211

vii Appendix B - Interview Consent Form 220

Appendix C - Participant Observation Consent Form 227

Appendix D - Superhero Materials 232

Superhero Badges (given during Superhero Recognition ceremonies) 232

Superhero Postcards 233

Superhero Start-Up Kit 234

"Kapow!" 246

Superhero Maps 265

Blazing Echidna's Call 272

Blazing Echidna Naming 275

Appendix E - The Golden Rule in Thirteen Sacred Texts 276

viu List of Tables

Table 1: Ireland Superhero Ride Overview 86

IX Abstract

Mainstream education often represents environmental and social problems as unconnected, neither fostering critical understanding of complex interrelationships, nor encouraging socially and environmentally responsible behaviour. Transformative learning addresses this by empowering people to adopt behaviors that reflect integrative social-environmental concern (O'Sullivan 1999). Since giving-oriented cultures often emphasize ecological consciousness (Vaughan 2007), this thesis seeks to substantiate a transformative learning relationship between "spontaneous giving" and the deepening of ecological consciousness. The case study combines participant observation in Ireland, in- depth, open-ended interviews, a narrative analysis of participant storytelling and an iterative process to construct spontaneous giving theory, a place-based, experiential learning theory of selfless giving. I find that within a cultural context that supports spontaneity and personal growth, spontaneous giving can be used as a transformative learning tool to deepen intellectual, emotional and behavioral understandings of interconnectedness (described by living systems theory) and of the equality of all beings (described by deep ecology).

x Acknowledgements I am grateful to all Superheroes everywhere for their generosity, openness, supportiveness, wisdom, inspiration and light. Awooooga! Especially, thank-you to the participants of the Ireland Haul of Justice: BE for your vision and your healing, Yikes for your courage, Green Geek for your splendor and humility, Pip for being real, Wooly Wonder for your gentle care, Zazzie for your broad view and openness, HugMan for your amazing, inspiring work, Tiger Lilly for your grace, Love Ninja for your wisdom, Free Radical for your sense of adventure, Super Zero for your compassion, Bobananda for your humour, Desert Queen for your support, Alfred for your intelligence, Somebody for your sense of wonder, Believo for being grounded, and to the one who didn't want his name included here, thank-you for our deep conversations. Go raibh mile maith agatl "A thousand thanks" also to the people I met in Ireland who shared their lives with me.

Many thanks go to my co-supervisors, Dr. Fay Cohen and Dr. Alan Warner for each showing me your gentle touch, sense of humour, unwavering support, energy, dedication, encouragement, keen insight, timely feedback and flexibility. Thank-you Fay for showing me that such a project was possible. And thanks Alan for going on the May 2007 bike trip and for our shared near-death experience, which has now taken on mythic storytelling proportions. Warm thanks go to Dr. Edmund O' Sullivan, for your willingness to participate as my external reader and for inspiring me through your work.

I would like to acknowledge the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University for providing me with financial support through a Graduate Fellowship and Research and Development Funding. Thanks Dr. Martin Willison and Dr. Ray Cote for giving me interesting and important environmental work. Thanks Martin for chairing the defense. Thanks to all the faculty and staff at SRES for giving me a home base. Thanks to all the friends who have nurtured me with laughter and insight, especially my best friend: my little seester Leah, who I'm very proud of. To Sana, Karen, Oliver, Nadine, Libby, Druker, Amy-loo, Crystal, Anne-Marie, Walter, Shannon, Brennan, Colin, David, Ivan, Danielle and Todd, Michelle, Jadon, Rick, Jen, Doug, Nikki G, Josee, Alicia, Sarah M, the Push for the Cure boys, Sarah A, Laena, Ryan, Sarah S, Gina, Lara, Nicola, Izzy, Jess Lax and the rest at Otesha, Robin, Hailey, Sadie, Erica, Lauren, Lacia, Joyce, Sunsar, Helen L, Muriel Duckworth, Betty, Compash, Henry Lickers and many others: thanks for "being the change" in your own lives and inspiring me to do the same. Merci Grandma Boudreau pour tout vous m'avez donne. To the Halifax Raging Grannies: I never thought I would lose a grandmother and gain twenty; thanks for helping me find my inner granny and apply the spirit of the Superheroes. To the Halifax Voice of Women and the Halifax Quaker Friends, thanks for giving me insight into my own exploration of peace, strength, patience and openness. Thanks everyone at the Ecology Action Centre for helping me feel at home in Humble Haligonia.

Last but certainly not least, infinite thanks Mum and Dad for your generosity and guidance on my journey of unraveling the meaning and challenge of selfless giving. You are my foundation.

XI Chapter 1: Introduction Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever does.

(Margaret Mead, quote in Superhero Start-Up Kit)

Mainstream education often represents environmental and social issues as separate subjects, neglecting to foster critical understanding of their complex interrelatedness

(Van Matre 1990; Orr 1994; Macy and Brown 1998; O'Sullivan 1999). This does not encourage socially and environmentally responsible behavior, since environmental and social problems are increasingly considered to be correlative. Transformative learning addresses this by facilitating the critical deconstruction of worldviews and inspiring paradigm shifts that empower people to modify their behavior to reflect increasing social and environmental awareness (O'Sullivan 2003; Ferrer 2005). Since giving-oriented cultures often emphasize ecological responsibility (Vaughan 2007), I seek to substantiate a transformative learning relationship between giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness. Specifically I look at spontaneous giving, a practice used by the case study group that is inspired by Peace Pilgrim's walks across the United States (Friends of

Peace Pilgrim 2007) and by Gandhi's teachings of nonviolent resistance, including his words, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

The case study group is a subculture called the "Superheroes". They are an extended group of friends who travel by bicycle for a month or longer on "Superhero rides" sometimes called "The Haul of Justice," seeking to help people spontaneously

1 while living sustainably and learning from the experience. They call themselves the

Superheroes because they take on superhero identities representing their ideals and practices of selflessness, community, love, peace, creativity, nonviolent resistance, self- discovery, social and environmental sustainability, joyfulness, equality, spontaneity, cooperation, unconditional giving, and "being the change they wish to see in the world."

Since the first four-month Superhero ride across the United States in 2000, there have been at least a dozen rides and over 300 Superheroes have participated. Superhero rides have occurred all over the United States, as well as in the UK, Canada, Ireland and

Thailand. Ridership numbers have varied from two to fifty Superheroes per ride.

Superhero rides are open to anyone who is interested. During rides the Superheroes usually camp in parks, fields and people's yards. The group communally buys their own food and they sometimes dumpster dive as a resource saving measure if local organic food is not available. Each ride has its own unique mixture of new rituals and old ones carried over from previous rides.

The Superheroes come from diverse backgrounds, from all over the world, including from South Africa, Mexico, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Ireland,

Canada and the US. Superheroes have ranged in age from seven years old to being in their eighties. While many of the Superheroes work and join rides during their time off, other Superheroes have dedicated their lives to a superhero way of life. Some have given away their possessions and have taken on a life of selfless service and spiritual practice.

Some Superheroes have created intentional communities that live off-grid, use human- powered transportation, eat local and organic food and resist using plastic or other synthetic materials. There is also a Superhero hotline based in Oregon, for those who

2 want to join a ride or who need help from the Superheroes. Supervisor is a well-known and well-loved Superhero in her eighties who answers the Superhero phone. She met the original Superheroes through the Oregon peace activist community in 2002. This was the year when the Superhero phenomenon became a movement that has seen between one and four Superhero rides each year for the past seven years.

There are many other groups who travel by bike and volunteer, such as The

Otesha Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating youth about sustainable lifestyle choices through bike-active programming (Otesha 2007), the Seeds Foundation, an organization that promotes the One Tonne Challenge which gives people the tools to make their lives carbon neutral (Seeds Foundation 2007). Unlike groups such as Otesha and the Seeds Foundation, the Superheroes have chosen not to become a non-profit organization. There are many reasons for this decision, including a desire to not be beholden to government or corporate funding and the prioritization of community- building and spontaneity within the group—without taking on the bureaucratic structure of an organization. The hope is that regardless of the size of the movement, the

Superheroes remain a group of friends living as a community who do not become an organization of "associates."

The reason I chose the Superheroes as a case study group is partly because of this emphasis on community-building and friendship. I wanted to study a group with its own unique culture that emphasizes both environmental responsibility and transformative learning through giving spontaneously. Furthermore, a storytelling culture has developed alongside or within the Superhero giving culture that provides a rich context for a study which examines stories of transformative learning experiences through participant

3 observation and narrative interviews. I also had a pre-existing relationship with some of the Superheroes, which gave me a preliminary understanding of the group and their practice of spontaneous giving.

This study focuses on three key concepts: ecological consciousness, transformative learning and spontaneous giving. The thesis definition of ecological consciousness springboards from its description as an awareness of the complexity and interconnectedness of all life forms on this planet and an appreciation for what that complexity means for one's own existence. There is a particular emphasis on the connection between awareness and action, since this study examines the connection between how awareness changes through transformative learning experiences and how this awareness can inform people's behaviour. Deep ecology and general living systems theory both figure centrally in the definition, since these help articulate Superhero beliefs that all beings are connected in an "open system" of existence, that all beings are essentially equal and are thus neither less nor more important than humans, and that all people are essentially equal and therefore deserve equanimity in compassionate acts of giving.

The definition of transformative learning is based on recent scholarship in experiential learning, psychology and integrative studies. The term refers to a shift of consciousness that alters understandings of self, of relationships with other humans and with the natural world, understandings of relations of power, of body awareness, and of possibilities for social justice, peace, personal joy and alternative ways to live in environmentally and socially responsible ways. As with the definition of ecological consciousness, this term has a particular emphasis on the connection between awareness

4 and action. It is a key term in this study because of the importance of personal growth and transformation in the Superhero culture. Descriptions of such experiences are examined, including those that relate to the deepening of ecological consciousness, along with connections to Superhero experiences of giving.

The definition of spontaneous giving is partly based on Superhero descriptions of what giving means to them and of how they give spontaneously as a group. This part of the definition relates spontaneous giving to the process of letting go of preconceived notions of what should be given and engaging in performative acts of compassion, openheartedness, creativity, joyfulness and presence "in the moment." This can also occur while developing or deepening awareness that all things are connected, realizing that "the more you give, the more you get." The definition is also partly based on recent theories of "gift economies" (Vaughan 2007) which frame giving practices in cultural, political and socio-economic terms. Relevant among influencing perspectives are some

Aboriginal traditional concepts of giving, which are closer to the Superhero concept of spontaneous giving than are some Western gift philosophies or theories of volunteering and service-based learning.

The three key terms provide background for the research question: Can spontaneous giving, as defined by the Superheroes, be used as a transformative learning tool to promote ecological consciousness? To address this question, I use ethnographic methodology as a participant observer on a month-long Superhero ride in Ireland and present a narrative analysis of Superhero interviews. These use open-ended questions to ask for participant experiences (from this and other Superhero rides) of giving, transformative learning and the deepening of ecological consciousness.

5 The analysis of the findings shows that the term ecological consciousness is problematic because it refers to intellectual, emotional and behavioral ways of understanding the self and the world that are not exclusive to the term ecological consciousness. Therefore the response to the thesis question is answered in two parts that differentiate between a belief in the term ecological consciousness and a belief in the intellectual, emotional and behavioral elements described by the Superheroes.

The thesis is divided into seven chapters, including the Introduction. Chapter 2

Literature Review, the literature review provides the theoretical context for the three key terms in the thesis question. It also provides a social and philosophical context for the

Superhero culture and practices. Then Chapter 3 Methodology provides the theoretical background for the ethnography methods used in the case study and describes how the methods were used. Chapter 4 Ethnography outlines the chronology of the Ireland

Superhero ride and describes the rituals and other social practices of the Superheroes on this ride. This chapter is largely informed by the participant observation journals in which

I recorded daily observations and personal experiences. It also describes a typical day on the ride from waking to bedtime. One specific day is recounted to provide context for

Superhero stories in the findings and analysis in Chapter 5 Findings and Chapter 6

Discussion. Chapter 5 Findings, the results, provides an in-depth examination of these observations from the perspectives of Superheroes, expressed in their interviews. This chapter also responds to three research questions to show how Superheroes experience, practice, define and promote spontaneous giving, transformative learning and the deepening of ecological consciousness. Next, Chapter 6 Discussion synthesizes the findings into a response to the central thesis question. This chapter also applies the

6 theoretical background presented in the literature review to the results found in Chapter 5

Findings. This frames a discussion about how the results are relevant to the Superhero community and what can be learned from this study to apply to environmental education and transformative learning. Finally, Chapter 7 Conclusion ties the study together by reflecting on the significance of the study and its implications for curriculum development and future areas of study.

7 Chapter 2: Literature Review Gamble everything for love, if you 're a true human being.

(Rumi, quoted in Superhero Start-Up Kit)

This chapter outlines the general thematic scope of my project. The central question of the thesis concerns the potential connection between the practice of giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness for the giver. Three key concepts must be explored to understand the complexity of this question, ecological consciousness, transformative learning and spontaneous giving. The subsequent chapter will successively explore how each of these terms has been defined in relevant literature and how they have been expressed in Western culture. I will use language that is relevant to the terminology, paradigms and cultural contexts of each of the Superheroes. At the end of the review for each concept, I will synthesize the meaning of each concept used to frame the research questions. Finally, I will show the relationships between the three key terms, differentiating between implicit and explicit connections.

I Ecological Consciousness

In terms of human consciousness, ecological consciousness can be described as an awareness of the complexity and interconnectedness of all life forms on this planet and an

8 appreciation for what that complexity means for one's own existence.l Many social scientists, literary theorists, natural scientists, educators and philosophers have explored how awareness of this interconnectedness relates to the ways in which our worldviews are shaped and how we act out of those worldviews (Leopold 1949; Nass 1973; Briggs and Peat 1989; Van Matre 1990; Orr 1994; Macy and Brown 1998; Hofstadter 1999;

Wheatley 1999; Herman 1999; McKee 2000; Suzuki and Dressel 2003; Wright 2004;

Louv 2005; Hawken 2007; Vaughan 2007).

This study uses the term ecological consciousness in a way that emphasizes the relationship between awareness and action. To understand the nature of this relationship, it is helpful to look at the etymological roots of "ecological" and "consciousness." The word ecology comes from the Greek words oikos (meaning "house," "dwelling place" or

"habitation") and logia (meaning "study of). The word ecology is now popularly used to refer to interrelationships among organisms, as well as between organisms or groups of organisms and their environment. Considering the etymology of ecology, "the environment" can be seen as the shared "house" of each organism on this planet.

Furthermore, the very structure of this house is itself made up of all the other organisms and forms of matter on the planet. An implication here is that the more conscious one

Although some of the Superheroes have expressed pantheistic beliefs or other philosophies such as deep ecology, which speculate on the consciousness—or even conscientiousness—of other creatures on this planet, my study remains focused on the human psychological-behavioral scope. In a broader perspective, this awareness can extend to a curiosity about how the ecology of this planet might fit into the rest of the universe. In this way, ecological consciousness can overlap with one's sense of spirituality or existentialism. 2 It is important to note that the etymological definition of this complex term is appropriately applied to the Superhero cultural context—of English-, French- and German-speaking individuals—since Latin and Greek are relevant parent contributors to all three languages. Furthermore, the deep rootedness of the Superheroes' languages in Greek and Latin contribute to their practice of oral storytelling, including the telling of Greek mythological teaching stories. Although the following etymological explication of the term ecological consciousness is textual, the key concepts bridge textual and oral storytelling traditions. Thus the etymological approach complements the Superhero cultural context of textual and oral meaning-making.

9 becomes of the ecosystem and of one's relationship to it, the more one realizes that causing ecological degradation is akin to destroying a part of one's own home.

Now the word consciousness comes from the Latin word conscius (meaning

"knowing, aware" and "sharing knowledge with"). Conscius comes from the Latin word conscire (meaning "conscience" and implying "active and awake"). The word consciousness continues to be popularly used to refer to "knowing, aware" and "sharing knowledge with." However, the active sense of the word conscious (as in "a conscious effort") has not carried over into popular use of the word consciousness'. Perhaps the term ecological consciousness presents an example of an exception to this trend. For, the root meanings of consciousness ("conscience" and "active and awake") imply the conscientious application of one's knowledge to one's choices of how to act in daily life.

Considering its other root meanings ("knowing, aware" and "sharing knowledge with"),

Ecological Consciousness can also be interpreted as signifying the sharing of one's knowledge of how to act appropriately to respond to one's awareness.

As many have pointed out, the deepening of ecological consciousness may drive ecologically-minded, ecologically-respectful action (Naes 1973; VanMatre 1990; Orr

1994; Macy and Brown 1998; Suzuki and Dressel 2003). This may stem from the realization that an individual cannot survive (and would not have existed in the first place) without the complexity of the whole. Therefore, the definition of ecological consciousness also implies ecological conscientiousness. Conscientiousness can be described as the ongoing interplay between one's awareness of one's surroundings, one's awareness of the impacts of one's actions, and one's subsequent choices to modify or continue one's behaviour so it reflects one's respect for the complexity of life.

10 Ecological conscientiousness involves the marriage of awareness and action, as well as the dynamic interplay of observation, judgment and choice. As one acts, one may observe the impacts of one's actions and decide if one's awareness is adequately guiding one's choices. This is an iterative process that can be described as an ecological consciousness feedback loop.

Awareness and Action: a Feedback Loop within Living Systems Theory

In order to better understand the meaning of ecological consciousness in the sense I have presented above, it is helpful to look at the relationship between awareness and action as a feedback loop. A feedback loop is a cycle in which two agents each act to reinforce the other's action. Complex organisms must also have "feedback inhibition," which is an internal control mechanism that causes reduced activity in the reinforcing agents once their goals have been met. For example, when my body needs food, hormones are produced that stimulate appetite. One of the main hormones in this process is called ghrelin and is mainly produced by the upper part of the lining of the stomach. The main feedback inhibition mechanism for ghrelin in its appetite-satiation function is another hormone called leptin, which is produced by adipose tissue (which stores fat). While ghrelin is associated with increasing hunger, leptin is associated with decreasing hunger.

If I have an impaired feedback inhibition mechanism, I will probably eat too much.

The reason I give this example is because it illustrates the complexity of feedback loops. For ghrelin production is also associated with obesity and sleep cycles, since lack of sleep produces ghrelin, which stimulates appetite and creates less leptin. This example

11 illustrates how communication within feedback loops can become confused and lead to imbalance. For fatigue can be ill-expressed as feelings of hunger. If I hypothetically do not recognize this, I may eat when I actually need to sleep, which will compound the problem by further disrupting my sleep, which will in turn increase ghrelin production.

Over time, this can cause me to gain weight which can compound the problem even more. To make matters more complex, some people who are overweight become resistant to leptin (just as Type 2 Diabetics are resistant to insulin) and this can further impair leptin's inhibition of ghrelin and of feelings of satiation. To add another level of complexity, ghrelin has been linked to enhancing memory and learning, which may be best during the day and when the stomach is empty, since ghrelin levels are higher at these times. Simply reducing ghrelin in order to control appetite could complicate other mechanisms like learning and memory. On the biological level, learning and memory production/storage have their own complex feedback loops. This illustrates that feedback loops are part of other feedback loops. This is important when applying the study of feedback loops to how we study systems in nature because when looking at complex relationships on a micro level (such as ghrelin-leptin feedback in humans), it can be easy to forget that these relationships are small parts of even more complex macro systems within nature. When one begins to learn about a complex system, it can be overwhelming to try to understand all the details at once. Therefore in a phenomenon such as digestion- hunger-satiation, one might begin by looking at the ghrelin-leptin relationship, but it is necessary to acknowledge that this is just a small part of a much larger system of interrelationships in nature. This can also be applied to other feedback loops associated with types of consciousness.

12 Self-aware consciousness has been posited as a feedback loop at a higher level of complexity, complete with its own feedback inhibition mechanisms (Macy and Brown

1998: 43). To explain this, consider the connection between my body and my mind. I have a feedback loop that monitors the homeostasis (internal stability) of other feedback loops in my body: self-reflexive consciousness. When I eat too much I feel bloated or over time I gain weight. My conscious mind can make meaning of this by realizing I have eaten too much and wondering why I have done this, why perhaps I did not feel satiated earlier. Through critical reflection guided by what knowledge I possess, I may identify something that impaired my feedback inhibition mechanism (although depending on my education, I might not use these words). Perhaps it is physical, psychological, emotional or a combination of these. I may need to increase my awareness of how the body and mind (physical, intellectual and emotional) work together in order to make an appropriate judgment that leads to an appropriate choice of action so that I do not overeat in the future. However, since I am a habitual creature, increased awareness alone might not make a difference. Also, as an adaptive creature, I might become used to the feeling of bloating and think that overeating is normal. This adaptive quality is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because it can enable me to endure unpleasant or unhealthy conditions over long periods of time when enduring those conditions is a matter of survival. It is a curse because it can enable me to abuse my own body without knowing it when it is not necessary for survival. Or worse, I might be aware that I am abusing my body but I might not believe that I can change my behaviour. Furthermore, I might perpetuate my belief of my own impotence through the stories I tell to myself and to others.

13 That is when an added level of feedback is needed: self-reflexive critical thinking.

If I can question the meaning I am making of the feedback I am receiving, I now have a

feedback loop about my own feedback loops. Furthermore, if others are able to question the stories I tell of my meaning-making, and I am able to question what's behind their

storytelling, we can begin to unravel our misconceptions of ourselves and of the world

and to take the first steps toward changing our destructive behaviour.3

Some have said that our feedback loops are interconnected with all the other

feedback loops in nature (Macy and Brown 1998: 43). Deep Ecologists say the planet is

like our body, or our body is an extension of a greater body which is the world (Naess

1973; Seed 1988). For example, pretend my body is my ecosystem and I have been

abusing it as imagined above. Perhaps this is how we are currently abusing the planet. A

person's ecological consciousness feedback loop is also interconnected with the greater

systems of the world.

It has been noted that one's perception of reality is mediated by one's interpretation of one's observations of the world, which are in turn structured within the language of one's worldview (Freire 1973: 81-83). Through critical thinking, one's perceived situation may be reframed by questioning the stories one has until now believed about one's worldview-mediated narrative (Freire 1973: 86, 92). The 'problem of meaning' is articulated as "the fact that when humans communicate they not only draw on commonly held meanings but also simultaneously create new ones. 'Meaning' in this sense, is something worked at and achieved—not simply given" (Bryman and Teevan 2005:87). The construction of reality through meaning-making during the act of storytelling is "often side-stepped in most structured interview research" by "ignoring it" (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 87). For this project, however, the 'problem of meaning' is reframed as a point of inquiry—'a question about meaning'—that is a central part of the theme of worldview, which is the essential contributing factor in the deepening of ecological consciousness. Gestalt therapy involves the process of recognizing individual and group narratives and emphasizes a connection between individual growth and collective growth (Smith 1976; Macy and Brown 1998). Furthermore, Gestalt theory has been said to be informed by its own "ecological consciousness," which can be seen in its process-oriented nature metaphors such as "growing edge" (one's point of challenge or personal growth opportunity) (Smith 1976; Goodman 1977). Gestalt language is quite prevalent among the Superheroes, as many have participated in Gestalt-inspired personal growth workshops such as Naka Ima.

14 Living systems theory is a key concept in deep ecology, which is a major stream of environmental thought that indirectly informs the philosophy of the Superheroes.4

Deep ecology is a branch of ecological philosophy that places greater value on ecosystems and processes in nature (including the role of humans in these systems) than on humans alone (Nasss 1973,1989; Devall and Sessions 1985; Bookchin 1987; Seed,

Macy, Flemming and Naess 1988; Botkin 1990; Kheel 1990; Harding 2002). The environmental ethics of deep ecology revolves around the core principle of "biospheric egalitarianism," a term developed that refers to the right of all living things to live and flourish (Naess 1973). Deep ecology is "deep" because it considers fundamental philosophical questions concerning the role of human life as a small yet integral part of the ecosphere. This differs from narrow human-centred understandings that view ecology as a branch of biological science used for utilitarian purposes such as resources management. Deep ecology also considers how people make meaning of human consciousness.

Living systems theory positions human consciousness within nature (Laszlo 1973:

170; Macy and Brown 1998: 43). Here nature is described as a "self organizing" web of

"open systems" that interactively self-regulate through feedback loops (Bertalanffy 1968;

Buckley 1968; Bateson 1972; Macy and Brown 1998: 40-43). This claim is substantiated by the four properties of Living Systems Theory. The first two properties state that:

1. Each system, from atom to galaxy, is a whole. That means it is not reducible to its components. Its distinctive nature and capacities derive from the interactive relationships between its parts. This interplay is synergistic,

4 While some Superheroes stated they had been inspired by Arne Naess' work on deep ecology, others expressed views quite similar to those of deep ecology but did not attribute those views to any one tradition or author. 15 generating "emergent properties" and new possibilities, which are not predictable fromth e character of the separate parts [...].

2. Despite continual flow-througho f matter-energy and information, and indeed thanks to that flow-through, open systems are able to maintain their balance; they self-stabilize. By virtue of this capacity, [...] systems can self-regulate to compensate for changing conditions in their environment. This homeostatic function is performed by registering/monitoring the effects of their own behaviour and matching it with their norms, like a thermostat. (Macy and Brown 1998: 41)

These properties describe a kind of awareness-action feedback loop that is relevant to the relationship between awareness and action in ecological consciousness in the following ways. First, it challenges a non-holistic worldview that some say was institutionalized in Western educational and global economic systems during the proliferation of classical science and the Industrial Revolution (Freire 1973: 84-85; Macy and Brown 1998: 40). This worldview hinges on the idea that life operates mechanistically, with separate, reducible parts that can be observed objectively and controlled externally (Macy and Brown 1998: 40).

Secondly, the above description of the awareness-action feedback loop is relevant to the relationship between awareness and action in ecological consciousness because some believe that the mechanistic worldview described above has created a blockage in the feedback loop of ecological consciousness. This blockage has enabled the proliferation of the so-called "Industrial Growth Society" which is dangerously disconnected from an awareness of nature (Macy and Brown 1998: 40). The mechanistic philosophy behind the practices of the Industrial Growth Society continues to give people

16 license to act as if their lives are separate from nature and from each other. According to some, this creates a blockage in the feedback loop of awareness and action, which allows people to destroy large parts of the very earth that sustains them (Macy and Brown 1998:

43).

The third property of Living Systems Theory describes how blockages in the awareness-action feedback loop can lead to the breakdown of the whole system. It states:

3. Open systems not only maintain their balance amidst the flux, but also evolve in complexity. When challenges from their environment persist, they can fall apart or adapt by reorganizing themselves around new, more responsive norms. [...] But if our changing behaviour are not compatible with the challenges we face, and do not achieve a new balance with them, the positive feedback loop gets out of control [...], leading eventually to systems breakdown. (Macy and Brown 1998: 41-42)

One of the ramifications of this property for human behaviour is that if the awareness-action feedback loop of ecological consciousness becomes corrupted, people can interact with the environment around them in potentially very destructive ways.

Macy says, "as systems we participate in the evolving web of life, giving and receiving the feedback necessary for its sustenance, and maintaining integrity and balance by virtue of constant flow-through" (Macy and Brown 1998: 42). She is saying that humans are an integral part of all the systems of life on earth and that our actions have consequences for every level of the system. She is also saying that our awareness of these systems is part of how we are integrated into them and how we communicate with them. Therefore,

17 ecological consciousness that is conscientious is a tool that we can sharpen and use to keep ourselves in balance with the very system that sustains us.

The fourth property of Living Systems Theory offers a cooperative view of life that suggests that our actions could better align with the worldview that all things are connected. By introducing the concept of "nested hierarchies" (systems within systems), it offers an alternative to the competitive, hierarchical "survival of the fittest" interpretation of Darwinian evolutionary theory that is often used to justify competitive, hierarchical behaviour. It states:

4. Every system is [...] both a whole in its own right,comprise d of subsystems, and simultaneously an integral part of a larger system. [They] thus [...] form "nested hierarchies," systems within systems, circuits within circuits, fields within fields. [...] Far different than the hierarchies of control familiar to societies where rule is imposed fromabove , in nested hierarchies [...] order tends to arise from the bottom up; the system self-generates from spontaneously adaptive cooperation between the parts, in mutual benefit. Order and differentiation go hand and hand, components diversifying as they coordinate roles and invent new responses. (Macy and Brown 1998: 42)

This property implies that if we are not separate from nature—even the "mind is not separate from nature" (Macy and Brown 1998: 43)—then it is in our nature to cooperate with life, rather than compete against each other. It is posited that it was through this cooperation that human intelligence arose (Macy and Brown 1998: 43). Furthermore, through our mutual, cooperative evolution, we have developed a complex level of awareness that allows us to give and receive feedback about feedback itself (Macy and

18 Brown 1998:43). This integrative "self-reflexive consciousness" is a key to developing an ecological consciousness that involves conscientious action.

Integrative self-reflexive consciousness is critical self-awareness that accepts, responds to and adds to input from the outside world. Two relevant examples of this are learning from nature and learning from other people's stories. This applies to the analogy above of my theoretical bad eating habits and their symbolic relation to habitual ecological degradation. If others are able to question the stories I tell of my meaning- making (about how I am impotent to change my own damaging behaviour) and at the same time I am able to question what's behind their storytelling, then together we can begin to unravel our misconceptions of ourselves and of the world and to take the first steps toward changing our destructive behaviour.

One of these first steps can involve looking at how our very language perpetuates the stories we tell of our misconceptions. The beginning of this section showed how the etymological roots of the term ecological consciousness imply becoming aware that contributing to ecological degradation is akin to damaging one's own home, as well as learning that self-reflexive critical thought can help one to discover the important link between awareness and action in changing damaging behaviours. Self-understanding is embedded in this process. One level of self-understanding involves recognizing the messages implicit in the stories we tell, including the language we use to tell them. By applying integrative self-reflexive consciousness (critical self-awareness that accepts, responds to and adds to input from the outside world), self-understanding will begin to take on new meaning as world-understanding.

19 In the next section I will highlight some of the ways in which people have engaged with and challenged understandings of self, world and ecological consciousness, so as to reframe what sorts of behaviour might be considered to constitute ecologically conscientious action.

Ecologically Conscientious Action: Refraining Stories

Although the fourth property of living systems theory implies that we (and our feedback loops) are not separate from nature (and its feedback loops)—that even the "mind is not separate from nature" (Macy and Brown 1998: 43)—there seem to be some blockages in self- and world-understanding feedback loops that contribute to blockages in ecological consciousness feedback loops (Macy and Brown 1998: 43). According to some, the first step to addressing the blockages in the feedback loop involving ecological consciousness and ecologically-conscientious action is to recognize what is preventing humans from mitigating large-scale ecological damage (Macy and Brown 1998: 43). These blockages have been described as being caused by socioeconomic factors such as misconceptions and diversions created by the mass media, job and time pressures, and social violence, as well as being caused by psychological factors such as fear of powerlessness to make change (Macy and Brown 1998: 43).

In response to such blockages, many people have offered suggestions, workshops and educational approaches to teaching how to act with ecological conscientiousness.

Some have suggested changing the educational system to support curriculum that emphasizes interconnectedness and relationships (von Bertalanffy 1968; Bateson 1972;

20 Freire 1973; Van Matre 1990; Orr 1994). Others have begun to demonstrate examples of interconnectedness and ecological relationships outside of the educational system by contributing to a grassroots movement of alternative environmental education in the form of workshops and other experiential learning endeavors (Coover et al 1978; Van Matre

1990; Gastil 1993; Kaner 1995; Macy and Brown 1998; O'Sullivan 1999). Others have taken an approach that comments on the success and expansion of this grassroots movement, thereby emphasizing a hopefulness that is not portrayed in mainstream media

(Suzuki and Dressel 2002; Hawken 2007). Still others have emphasized promoting spiritual growth and personal empowerment to cultivate balance with nature (Neihardt

1961; Fox 1988; Jones 1989; Nhat Hanh 1993; Gottlieb 1996; Hayden 1996; Bernstein

1998; Nisker 1998; Macy and Brown 1998).

Some say that a process of personal empowerment and personal growth must occur in order to cultivate the ability to address the corruption in ecological consciousness feedback loops (Macy and Brown 1998). This means cultivating the critical thinking skills and accruing the knowledge to recognize the actual impacts of one's actions. It also means learning how to use the personal growth tools that enable one to avoid becoming overwhelmed by this new understanding. Furthermore, it requires a desire to empower oneself to become involved in work that is outward-focused (not driven by greed or fear) and ecologically-oriented.

21 Synthesis of the Ecological Consciousness Concept

For the purposes of this thesis, based on the literature reviewed above, the term ecological consciousness refers to a set of relationships between ecological awareness and ecologically-aware action. Considering its etymological roots, Ecological

Consciousness can be interpreted as signifying two things. First it can be interpreted as the sharing of awareness of the interconnectedness of all organisms on the planet and the deepening of this awareness as a kind of self-awareness. Secondly, this involves the deepening and sharing of one's awareness of how to interact appropriately with this interconnected world. This means deepening one's awareness of how one's actions affect one's world (one's home), developing a desire to have a positive effect on one's home, and learning from nature and from each other the skills to do so. Another way to look at this is that since the self and the world are intrinsically interconnected, the deepening of self awareness (a process of awakening to what exists in the self, sometimes called personal growth or personal transformation) is a correlative to one's deepening awareness of what exists in the world (the deepening of ecological consciousness). This is a conscientious process that can be called "the deepening of ecological consciousness."

This process can be supported through educational, experiential, academic and spiritual endeavors, including in programs that promote transformative learning experiences. I will look at some of these below.

22 II Transformative Learning Experiences

The study of transformative learning experiences is crucial to this project because many of the Superheroes assert that their journeys are a transformative process that inspires personal growth, and that the key to the deepening of ecological consciousness is personal transformation. As stated above, personal transformation is a correlative to the deepening of ecological consciousness. Similarly, transformative learning experiences illuminate the relationship between personal growth and the deepening of ecological consciousness (Ferrer 2005).

In this section I will define the concept of a transformative learning experience and then explore approaches to creating transformative learning that focus on the development of ecological consciousness. I will show how mainstream and alternative education might address deep emotional work, wonderment and delight in relation to ecologically centred transformative learning. Then I will show how systems theory can inform an analysis of transformative learning experiences, and as well contribute to teaching curriculum. Finally, I will examine how storytelling and worldview relate to individual and collective transformative learning experiences that happen inside and outside of formal education. Taken together, these streams of thought help contextualize the Superheroes' views of how transformational learning may occur through their journeys and their culture of spontaneous giving.

23 What is a Transformative Learning Experience and How is it Facilitated?

Transformative learning has been described as a process of learning beyond the acquisition of factual knowledge, to have one's worldview changed by what one learns in a meaningful way. This involves questioning assumptions, beliefs and values, and considering multiple points of view (Mezirow 2000).

The theory of transformative learning grew out of the theory of perspective transformation (Mezirow 1975), which was similar to the concepts of "conscientization"

(empowerment through critical self-realization) (Freire 1973) and "emancipatory action"

(similar to conscientization but specifically within the capitalist context) (Habermas

1962). The theory posits that for learners to change their beliefs, attitudes, and emotional reactions, they must engage in critical reflection on their experiences, which in turn leads to a transformation of perspective (Mezirow 1991: 167). These beliefs, attitudes, and emotional reactions are frames of reference that are based on a person's cultural and contextual experiences that influence how one behaves and interprets events (Taylor

1998). Some believe that shifts in these beliefs, attitudes, and emotional reactions usually result from a disorienting dilemma, which is triggered by a major life transition or crisis, although it may also result from an accumulation of sub paradigm shifts (letting go of the deeply held beliefs that support one's overall worldview) over a period of time (Mezirow

1995: 50). It has been noted that less dramatic experiences, such as those created by a teacher, also promote transformation (Torosyan 2007: 13).

It has been suggested that sub paradigm shifts happen through a series of phases that begin with a disorienting dilemma, through several other phases, ending with integration of a new broader perspective into the person's life (Mezirow 1995: 50).

24 Furthermore, an important part of transformative learning is for individuals to change their frames of reference by critically reflecting on their assumptions and beliefs and consciously making and implementing plans that bring about new ways of defining their worlds (Mezirow 1997). Some say that this process is fundamentally rational and analytical (Mezirow 1997; Grabov 1997: 90-91). Others argue that rational critical reflection is not as important in this process as emotional experiences (Cranton 1994;

Taylor 1998: 33-34).

A popular emergent alternative view of transformative learning is that it is more importantly an intuitive and emotional process (Boyd and Myers 1988; Grabov 1997: 90) involving being receptive or open to receiving "alternative expressions of meaning," and then recognizing the authenticity of the experience (Boyd and Myers 1988: 277).

Grieving is often considered to be the most critical phase of the discernment process, occurring when an individual realizes that old perceptions are no longer relevant to their life (Boyd and Myers 1988: 277). Some see this grieving process as being grounded in individual ego experience (conceptions of self-identity) (Mezirow 1997). Others have interpreted it within a framework that moves beyond the ego and the corresponding emphasis on reason and logic, to a definition of transformative learning that is more psychosocial (describing interactions between people, their psychological processes and the social structures which provide the context for those interactions) (Taylor 1998).

This study relies on the definition provided by Edmund O'Sullivan:

Transformative learning involves experiencing a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. It is a shift of consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters our way of being in the world. Such a shift

25 involves our understanding of ourselves and our self-locations; our relationships with other humans and with the natural world; our understanding of relations of power in interlocking structures of class, race and gender; our body awarenesses, our visions of alternative approaches to living; and our sense of possibilities for social justice and peace and personal joy.

(O'Sullivan 2003: 326-330)

O'Sullivan says that rather than being confined to Western perspectives of learning, the study of transformative learning experiences must include other cultural understandings of how adults cope with the processes of inner and outward conflict, dialogue, change, and reintegration (O'Sullivan 2003: 326-330). One important set of practices he embraces are embodiment practices inspired by Eastern spirituality, such as those of certain

Buddhist traditions. Another practice is the "meta-analysis" practice of identifying one's

"script," which is the story people tell themselves about who they are and why they are doing something. Others have taken more intellectual interpretations to this practice

(King 2005), emphasizing critical reflection through storytelling over experiential learning. However, O'Sullivan believes that physically engaging, interactive experiences can be more powerful and have deeper results (Ferrer 2005).

One of the difficulties in defining transformative learning is that it overlaps with concepts such as "meaning-making" or "critical thinking." The term "meaning-making"

(constructing meaning about experiences and/or stories) is used often in constructivist approaches to education, which operate on the basis that learning is most effective when developmentally appropriate facilitator-supported learning is initiated and directed by the learner (Dewey 1897; Piaget 1950). In the constructivist view, meaning is constructed from knowledge.

Learning can lead to change but not all change will lead to transformation

(Mezirow 1990). Transformational learning, however, is more likely to occur when

"transactional education" is practiced. Transactional education involves the recognition that the student has valuable experiences, and learns best through experience, inquiry, critical thinking and interaction with other learners (Mezirow 1990). This is considered different than "transmissional education," which is when knowledge is transmitted from teacher to student in a more or less one-sided interaction (Mezirow 1990).

The following elements should be considered in work aimed at fostering a learning environment in which transformative learning can occur. First, the teacher's role should be considered in establishing an environment that builds trust and care, and facilitates the development of sensitive relationships among learners (Taylor 1998). The teacher's goal should be to foster an atmosphere that supports the creation of a community of individuals who are "united in a shared experience of trying to make meaning of their life experience" (Loughlin 1993: 320-321). Furthermore, the teacher also serves as a role model by herself demonstrating a willingness to learn and to change

(Cranton 1994).

The second thing is the importance of the student's role in the process. Although it is difficult for transformative learning to occur without the teacher playing a key role, participants also have a responsibility to contribute to the formation of the learning environment through their own learning processes. These learning processes have been

27 said to have two layers: the cognitive/rational/objective layer and the intuitive/imaginative/subjective layer (Grabov 1997). Both aspects have been said to be mutually complementary to the learning process of each person (Taylor 1998).

Transformative learning has been called a collaborative, "co-creative" process in which people learn from each other's learning experiences (Ferrer 2005: 1-2). This has been described as "a participatory approach to integral transformative education in which all human dimensions—body, vital, heart, mind, and consciousness—are invited to co- creatively participate in the unfolding of learning and inquiry" (Ferrer 2005: 1-2). Some say that "whole-person learning" is not possible without group co-learning (Ferrer 2005:

1-2). In the next section, I will look at how transformative learning experiences can be fostered in educational programs involving group co-learning.

Group Education and Transformative Learning Experiences

Learning can be seen as a journey of discovery (Van Matre 1990). The Latin root for the word education means "to educe, to draw forth" (Orr 1994: xii). This complements the assertion that a successful educational program is interactive and begins with dialogic

(collaborative, sharing) questions in the vernacular of the student, in order to draw out learning opportunities that already exist within the potential of the student (Freire 1973:

83). Transformative Learning applies similar methods that educe feelings of wonder (Van

Matre 1990) and/or being emotionally connected to the experience of learning

(O'Sullivan 1999). This can involve a deeply personal process of growth, discovery and transformation (Ferrer 2005: 10).

28 One thing that can distinguish a transformative learning outcome from many of the goals of mainstream education is the emphasis on the importance of experiencing a paradigm shift (O'Sullivan 1999). While current standard learning outcomes predominantly involve the development of 1) knowledge, 2) skills and 3) critical thinking, transformative learning outcomes emphasize the integration of these outcomes with a key fourth outcome that the learner undergoes a journey of personal growth and self-reflection. For ecologically-oriented transformative learning experiences, it is hoped that this outcome of personal growth and self-reflection will include new insight into how one might make the world a more peaceful, more ecologically sustained place.

Roots of Transformative Learning in Educational Theory and Service Learning

The roots of transformative learning-oriented education can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Over the past century, the study of the facilitation, process and experience of learning has generated a large body of literature that has identified a need to design educational programs that are interactive, experiential, transformative and integrative (Dewey 1916, 1938; Freire 1973; Gardner 1983, 1993).

Furthermore, some have criticized mainstream educational programs for being

"divisionist," disconnected from the world and damaging people's sense of wonder

(Leopold 1949; Illich 1973; Van Matre 1990; Orr 1994; O'Sullivan 1999). While some have suggested the "deschooling" of education as a solution to this problem (Illich 1976), service learning is perhaps the most commonly used of these programs within mainstream educational institutions. Service learning is a form of experiential education that addresses community needs while combining structured opportunities for learning and guided reflection on the normative dimensions of civic society. More recently, one stream of the educational literature has reflected an important turn toward deep ecology and earth education, the main goal of which is to promote ecological consciousness and a sense of responsibility and empowerment, through emotional encounters with nature (Van Matre 1990;

O'Sullivan 1999).

Group Transformative Learning and Systems Theory

Formal education can provide opportunities for collective growth, since educational programs are generally undertaken in group settings. However, there needs to also be a link between education that takes place in a group setting and the teacher-guided deepening of the understanding of the logic of causal relationships, as this understanding relates to the deepening of ecological consciousness that links together both awareness and action (Macy and Brown 1998: 25, 39-56). Specifically, it has been said that awareness must be fostered in these group settings of the causal relationships between human lifestyles and damaging ecological side effects (Van Matre 1990: 7). This can be done by developing and delivering "focused, sequential programs" which teach "how life functions ecologically, what that means for people in their own lives, and what those people are going to have to do in order to lessen their impact upon the earth" (Van Matre

1990: 5, 7). These focused programs can include fundamental concepts like "the flow of energy, or the cycling of building materials, or the interrelationships of all living things"

(Van Matre 1990: 6). As shown in the previous section, Joanna Macy posits the usefulness of teaching systems theory in conjunction with teaching how to teach ecology. She explains the

"feedback about feedback" nature of human "self-reflexive consciousness" (Macy and

Brown 1998: 43), which provides "the information circuit that connects perception to action" (Macy and Brown 1998: 25). She outlines the ideological and mechanistic

"blockages" in our "feedback loop" (Macy and Brown 1998: 25), which have been created by individual reactions to the meaning they make with their "fragmented" worldviews and the repression of pain experienced as a result (Macy and Brown 1998:

26-37).

One of the ways to apply systems theory to an ecologically-oriented transformative learning educational program is to create experiences that allow students to identify their own illusions that they believe about the world. The first step is to identify those beliefs that prevent one from feeling connected to nature. As stated in the last section, feelings of being connected to nature are part of a feedback loop that allows one to ascertain one's level of healthfulness and balance with life. In the context of the

Western educational system, blockages in this feedback loop have been described as a

"sickness of Western society" (Fromm 1955:13). This "sickness" involves a kind of collective denial about individual impacts on the environment, inherent in the kind of perceptions of individual-to-society relationships that occur in the paradigm of Western capitalism (Bateson 1972; Deleuze and Guattari 1972). Below I will describe how an educational program can address this collectively-produced denial on an individual level, as well as on a group level.

31 Recognizing Collective Denial of Collective Impacts on the Environment

Some have said that a powerful way to address this collectively-produced denial is by teaching systems theory and creating transformative learning opportunities for the deepening of understandings of interconnectedness (Macy and Brown 1998). Among those who have suggested changing educational approaches to emphasize interconnectedness and relationships, Van Matre and Orr have presented different methods based on their unique teaching philosophies. Both present educational theories based on an understanding of some of the principles of systems theory.

They both start by identifying a lack in mainstream culture of understandings of the way life is interconnected. They agree that this lack limits the potential for ecologically conscientious action. Both agree that ecological consciousness in the

Western general public is stunted by a mainstream educational system that is based on a mechanistic worldview (similar to the one described in the last section) that has developed alongside Western industrialization. The different approaches taken by Orr and

Van Matre can be likened to the complementary approaches of intellect and intuition.

Orr talks about the need to teach causal relationships in nature in an academic format that differentiates itself from the philosophies behind the industrial global economy. Van Matre emphasizes the importance of engaging with people's sense of wonder by fostering emotional connections with nature through observation and interaction. Both Orr's political, academic approach and Van Matre's playful, almost spiritual approach complement each other like the confluence of heart and mind.

32 One academic approach Orr suggests is to set some basic environmental

curriculum standards that should be practiced in all schools. He says that some of the core

elements of ecological awareness that would most beneficially guide ecologically

conscientious decision-making are grossly misinterpreted by or even unknown to the

Western general public. For example, he notes that the mainstream Western understandings of carrying capacity and exponential growth are predominantly either

lacking or their significance as providing guidance for our behaviour is ignored (Orr

1999: 77). This problem must not be neglected, since an understanding of carrying

capacity shows us that if we destroy enough of the ecosystem that supports an organism's

population size and genetic variation, we threaten the ability of that species to survive. He

says the education system must teach people how to apply this knowledge to an

understanding of the impacts of our own actions. He adds that a major reason why people

lack an understanding of core concepts like carrying capacity is that mainstream

curriculum has failed to differentiate itself from the economic growth-oriented

philosophies of the global industrial economy, such as that of the infinite growth potential

of the industrial growth economy embodied in the concept of "progress." Thus core

environmental curriculum becomes marginal because it refutes such culturally ubiquitous

beliefs.

Van Matre's approach has been to develop methods that foster emotional

connections with nature through experiential learning and the engagement of feelings of

wonder. Rather than emphasize names of organisms encountered in nature, he

emphasizes teaching relationships between those organisms (Van Matre 1999). This

involves a kind of storytelling and includes the student as a character in the plot. This

33 education is meant to be explorative and spontaneous rather than the more fact-based approach of Orr.

Van Matre's approach is closer to O'Sullivan's philosophy of transformative learning, as emphasized by his conception of "a shift of consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters our way of being in the world" that involves "our understanding of ourselves and our self-locations; our relationships with other humans and with the natural world" (O'Sullivan 2003: 326-330). Like O'Sullivan, Van Matre emphasizes learning through emotional or intuitive understandings of interconnectedness. While young students might not grasp the link between human interrelationships and relationships in nature, the key is for them to experientially learn that relationships in nature are very important. Both O'Sullivan and Van Matre are proposing approaches to providing transformational learning experiences which can deepen ecological consciousness.

Transformative Learning Experiences and the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness

In this section I will consider how transformative learning programs can foster the deepening of ecological consciousness. The innate "openness" of consciousness has been compared to the "self-organizing," "self-stabilizing," "open system" of life (Macy and

Brown 1998: 41). From this comparison has come the assertion that "mind is not separate from nature; it is in nature" and the "mind pervades the natural world as the subjective dimension within every open system, however primitive" (Laszlo 1973: 170, in Macy and

Brown 1998: 43). As noted above, transformative learning can be "co-created" through

34 group experiences. Some say that transformative learning experiences involving the deepening of ecological consciousness are in a sense co-created in conjunction with nature (Macy and Brown 1998). Below I will look first at how storytelling contributes to such co-creation. Then I will look at how experiences in nature can contribute to human- nature co-creation.

Co-Creation through Storytelling and Sharing Worldviews

Co-creation5 has been described as "a participatory approach to integral transformative education in which all human dimensions—body, vital, heart, mind, and consciousness— are invited to co-creatively participate in the unfolding of learning and inquiry" (Ferrer

2005: 1-2). In some programs, nature metaphors such as the four seasons have been used to engage learners in "whole-person learning" (Ferrer 2005: 1-2). Such programs can use storytelling to allow people to recognize and thus be able to question the limitations of their worldviews. In order to explain the connection between worldview and storytelling, and how they affect transformative learning experiences, I will look at how some scholars have articulated the connection in cultural and literary studies.

The link between storytelling and worldview-guided behaviour is well articulated by the assertion that "The truth about stories is that's all we are" (King 2003: 2, 32, 62,

92, 122). In his Massey Lectures The Truth About Stories (2003), Thomas King says that how we live individually and how this manifests systemically depends on what collective stories we tell ourselves through culture. King identifies and decentres Judeo-Christian

5 Ferrer spells it "cocreate." stories which dominate Western cultural meaning-making, including the production of societal norms that tolerate (or ignore) certain levels of racism and eco-social violence born of the dualistic authoritarianism inherent in these dominant stories. His groundwork for this observation is the following comparison between the Biblical creation story and an amalgam of Native creation stories that he tells in his lectures:

A theologian might argue that these two creation stories are essentially the same. Each tells about the creation of the world and the appearance of human beings. But a storyteller would tell you that these two stories are quite different, for whether you read the Bible as sacred text or secular metaphor, the elements in Genesis create a particular universe governed by a series of hierarchies—God, man, animals, plants—that celebrate law, order, and good government, while in our Native story, the universe is governed by a series of co-operations [...] that celebrate equality and balance.

In Genesis, we begin with a perfect world, but after the Fall, while we gain knowledge, we lose the harmony and safety of the garden and are forced into a chaotic world of harsh landscapes and dangerous shadows.

In our Native story, we begin with water and mud, and [...] move by degrees and adjustments from a formless, featureless world to a world that is rich in its diversity, a world that is complex and complete.

Finally, in Genesis, the post-garden world we inherit is decidedly martial in nature, a world at war—God vs. the Devil, humans vs. the elements. Or to put things into corporate parlance, competitive. In our Native story, the world is at peace, and the pivotal concern is not with the ascendancy of good over evil but with the issue of balance. (King 2003: 23-24)

Although King does not directly comment on the study of ecological consciousness, his observation of the Biblical "humans vs. the elements" dichotomy is

36 deeply applicable to the questions of 1) how this dualistic consciousness is framed and 2) how its rubric might facilitate systemic violence against nature. He says:

Perhaps we shouldn't be displeased with the 'environmental ethics' we have or the 'business ethics' or the 'political ethics' or any myriad of other codes of conduct suggested by our actions. After all, we've created them. We've created the stories that allow them to exist and flourish. They didn't come out of nowhere. They didn't arrive from another planet.

Want a different ethic? Tell a different story. (King 2003: 164)

Want a different ethic? Tell a different story. King adds, "Stories are wondrous things.

And they are dangerous" (King 2003: 9). For example, in his study of late 19th century government propaganda demonizing west coast First Nations culture and leading to the ban of the giving-based Potlatch ceremony, Christopher Bracken says, "texts have the capacity to strike out at the world with all the force of a clenched fist" (Bracken 1997:

127). Like Bracken, the story King is telling is the story of storytelling—of metanarrative.

Paulo Freire engages with metanarrative as well, in the context of politically relevant literacy curriculum development. His research with illiterate adults during the democratization of Brazil in the 1960's and '70's makes the link between education

(modeled on dialogue rather than classical hierarchical pedagogy or "communique") and the cultivation of the ability to think critically using cultural metanarrative (Freire 1973:

84). This, he says, is what is required for the deepening of self- and world-consciousness

(Freire 1973: 84-85). He says that by teaching people how to read and write the words of their own vernacular (i.e. engaging in dialogue with them at their level rather than

37 imposing upon them unfamiliar words), and by starting with relating these words to the

"anthropological concept of culture," students begin to discover themselves to be "a maker of the world of culture," with "a creative and re-creative impulse" (Freire 1973:

84-85). Using group discussion, dialogue, and experiential-explorative techniques, this process of discovery empowers individuals to become engaged in their own self- education, with an attitude of "self-transformation producing a stance of intervention in one's context" (Freire 1973: 86). In conclusion, educational approaches that empower people to see that they are "makers of the world of culture" can be paired with transformative learning programs that help people to question how they are forming culture and what that culture represents.

Sense of Place: Nature Experiences That Contribute to Human-Nature Co- Creation

Human-nature co-creation is the process of infusing nature with meaning while also deriving meaning for one's life from experiences in nature. This can be expressed through storytelling as a cultural expression of individual and group experiences. Sense of place is developed through experiences in nature, and this in turn influences how people choose to interact with the landscape. When people then change the landscape, the changed landscape in turn influences how people make meaning of their sense of place.

This is a co-creative process that reflects the referential relationships of storytelling to place and action to storytelling. In this section I will look at the relationship between the concept of "direct experience" in nature and "sense of place" and how this relationship is related to human-nature co-creation. Richard Louv says interacting with or within nature is a "direct experience" of place that increases feelings of humility (Louv 2005: 8), and a sense of perspective from feelings that "there are bigger things than yourself (Louv 2005: 50). He says that this direct experience constitutes "deep learning" (Louv 2005: 79, 81) that is not "time- bound" and is unstructured (Louv 2005: 47). The unstructured "timeless" nature of this learning experience enables people to discover and learn from their "sense of place" without being judged or told what to do. This contributes to a sense of life being

"personal" and worth engaging with (Louv 2005: 67). To show how important playful exploration and sense of place are for learning, he quotes a participant in his survey of community members who have experienced learning in nature, saying, "We learned so much more than we ever would have with someone showing us the right way to do things every time. Our failures gave us a deep, intrinsic understanding of how things worked"

(Louv 2005: 79). Louv says direct experience of place facilitates this depth of learning by inspiring a sense of wonder and unselfconscious experimentation (Louv 2005: 9). He looks at elaborate stories that unfold through "wild play" (Louv 2005: 47) such as building tree houses, to show how unstructured play-based learning contributes to discovering one's agency and new levels of maturity. He says this direct experience of place models direct experience (and personal empowerment) in the rest of one's life.

Furthermore, the human proclivity for engaging with nature in this way is hard-wired

(Louv 2005: 47).

Keith Basso (1996) defines sense of place similarly in terms of it involving direct interaction with the natural world. He also conceives of this interaction-based meaning-

39 making as an everyday activity that comes naturally to people, similar to Louv's concept of the hard-wired human proclivity for engaging with nature. Basso says:

[S]ense of place [...] is a kind of imaginative experience, a species of involvement with the natural and social environment, a way of appropriating portions of the earth. While this perspective renders sense of place no less challenging to fathom or describe, it demystifies the notion by assigning it to the familiar province of everyday events. Removed from the spectral realm of scholastic reifications—needs, attributes, mechanisms, and the like—sense of place can be seen as a commonplace occurrence, as an ordinary way of engaging one's surroundings and findingthe m significant. (Basso 1996: 143)

Basso frames sense of place within the context of cultural expression. He examines the Apache connection to place through storytelling and a practice of telling

"teaching stories" about things that once happened in sacred places such as a river, an old tree or a cluster of hills. These stories are so well-known by the community that one need only utter the name of the place to refer to the lesson in the story that took place there. A practice of "speaking with names" involves saying the name of a place in order to remind someone of a specific teaching (Basso 1996: 83). This sometimes involves humiliation and can be called "shooting an arrow" (Basso 1996: 51). He says the traditional stories of the Apache culture "have the power to establish enduring bonds between individuals and features of the natural landscape, and that as a direct consequence of such bonds, persons who have acted improperly will be moved to reflect critically on their misconduct and resolve to improve it" (Basso 1996: 40).

Basso says that since "to inhabit a language [...] is to inhabit a living universe, and vice-versa" (Basso 1996: 69), people construct the landscape just as the land

40 constructs their identity (Basso 1996: 99, 107). This is human-nature co-creation at work.

The generalization he makes is that if we tell stories about ourselves that emphasize the importance of natural places in constituting and forming our identities, we will be more inclined to protect those natural places (Basso 1996: 69).

In contrast to this scenario, Louv talks about how "commodity culture is reconstructing nature" (Louv 2005: 61). He also frames sense of place within culture— but in a very different western capitalistic form. He suggests that because people living in urbanized places are still hard-wired with the "ghosts" of wilderness, they crave nature and thus create it for advertising and other commodity-driven endeavors because that is what most successfully engages people's imaginations (Louv 2005: 47). In this way, the western capitalist world is reconstructing synthetic wilderness—the idea of nature— while at the same time destroying real wilderness to fuel the expansion of commodity culture. This is a different way of looking at Basso's conception of human-nature co- creation. In the commodification scenario, people idealize nature while destroying it. In

Basso's Apache scenario, people idealize nature while protecting it.

Basso and Louv also conceive of the co-creative place-based learning process differently. While Louv describes unselfconscious experimentation and play that leads to discovery through making mistakes, Basso describes a practice of "shooting arrows" with place names that refer to teaching stories. Louv's description is of self-guided learning inspired by nature while Basso's is of community-guided learning inspired by nature.

However, what both descriptions have in common is the concept that as people construct meaning about places, those places are in turn constructing them. For as they change the landscape based on their understandings, they are changing their own reality.

41 Synthesis of the Transformative Learning Concept

For the purposes of this thesis, based on the literature reviewed above, the term transformative learning experience refers to the process of awakening self-awareness of one's view of the world and how one fits into it. Transformative learning experiences illuminate relationships among individuals and communities and how they are interconnected with the flow of life (Ferrer 2005). Such discoveries empower people to realize that they are "makers of the world of culture," with "a creative and re-creative impulse" (Freire 1973: 84-85) that empowers them to become engaged in their own self- education, with an attitude of "self-transformation producing a stance of intervention in one's context" (Freire 1973: 86).

This is a "whole-person learning" process in which people can learn from each other's growth experiences (Ferrer 2005: 1-2) while also engaging "all human dimensions—body, vital, heart, mind, and consciousness—[...] to co-creatively participate in the unfolding of learning and inquiry" (Ferrer 2005: 1-2). This is a process in which people can be "united in a shared experience of trying to make meaning of their life experience" (Loughlin 1993: 320-321), as transformative learners are challenged by hearing each other's different perspectives to think critically about the narratives they have created in order to make meaning of themselves and their world. Through co- creating metanarratives about individual and cultural storytelling they are able to question the limitations of their worldviews and to then recognize the link between storytelling and worldview-guided behaviour (Freire 1973: 84). This "journey of discovery" (Van

42 Matre 1990) can contribute to one's experiencing of a paradigm shift (Mezirow 1995:

50).

A transformative learning experience may involve the deepening of ecological consciousness in that it heightens the deepening of an awareness of the causal relationships between human lifestyles and damaging ecological side effects (Van Matre

1990: 7). It also includes the deepening of an awareness of one's misperceptions or illusions and how these misperceptions build the narratives one tells and believes. This is apparent in the words, "The truth about stories is that's all we are" (King 2003) and the assertion: "Want a different ethic? Tell a different story" (King 2003: 164).

The implications of the above analysis of Louv's and Basso's conceptions of human-nature co-creation are that transformative learning experiences can be deepened by place-based storytelling and that this storytelling can unfold interactively through the process of acting out stories together as a group. In the next section I look at one of the central ways in which the Superheroes promote place-based transformative learning experiences, some of which include the deepening of ecological consciousness: this is the practice of spontaneous giving.

Ill Spontaneous Giving

Spontaneous giving is a kind of giving identified by the intention to give spontaneously by letting go of preconceived notions of what should be given and by engaging in performative acts of compassion, openheartedness, creativity, joyfulness, presence "in the

43 moment," and willingness to be surprised, in order to give selflessly without expectation of a return from the person to whom the gift is given and to learn from one's experience of giving in this way. Despite the "selfless" nature of this giving, spontaneous giving also involves a seemingly paradoxical awareness that all things are connected and that when one gives spontaneously, the intention of selflessness will eventually be returned in some other form.

In order to better understand the above definition, this section looks at how the ideas of giving, gifts and gift economy/gift paradigms help differentiate spontaneous giving from other forms of giving. I first show how spontaneous giving differs from volunteering. Then I examine how Western, Aboriginal and transcultural perspectives on the gift and giving are important for talking about Superhero-related spontaneous giving.

I consider how the spontaneous giving approach seeks to question or even undermine

Western capitalist culture and to glean inspiration from what is known of various other traditions, including those of different Aboriginal cultures.

Distinguishing Between Spontaneous Giving and Volunteering

In defining spontaneous giving, it is useful to first compare it to volunteering because both involve a similar element of giving without the immediate expectation of a return.

Volunteering is defined as "any activity in which time is given freely to benefit another person, group or cause," as "part of a cluster of helping behaviors, entailing more commitment than spontaneous assistance" (Wilson 2000). Spontaneous giving differs

44 because of its commitment to an intrinsic gift: the gift of giving itself. This intrinsic gift entails giving for the sake of giving; it is an infinite deferral of the need for reciprocation.

Volunteering could also be seen as giving for the sake of itself had it not always already involved a commitment to a tangible outcome in existence independent from the process of giving. An intrinsic spontaneously given gift, on the other hand, only exists through its being given. In order for a gift to be truly intrinsic, the act of giving must not be preceded by the giver's expectation of giving a specific gift. That is, the giver must not have a preconceived notion of what should be given. In this way, an intrinsic gift is defined by the connection between the giver and the receiver in the moment. An intrinsic gift is the act of giving, separate from words or other articulations of outcome.

Spontaneous giving can only involve the intention to give this sort of intrinsic gift of giving. The gift of giving is therefore always already tins performance of the gift-giving.

This is similar to oral storytelling, which is defined by the performative act of speaking a story, rather than by the narrative of the story.

Finally, an intrinsic gift can only be given spontaneously since, like oral storytelling, the uniqueness and unpredictability of each performative delivery is dictated by the time and circumstance of the receiver. In this way, spontaneous giving involves both the assertion of self (the person's unique performance) and the surrender of self (the surrender of control over time and circumstance in order to be open to surprise or the unknowable outcome). Conversely, volunteering may include these elements of assertion and surrender but, unlike spontaneous giving, they do not form its basis. In order to more fully understand what spontaneous giving is, it is necessary to look at the different gift philosophies differ from or inform the practice.

45 Comparing Spontaneous Giving to Western Gift Theory

In this section I outline some of the central elements of the Western concepts of the gift philosophy that contrast spontaneous giving. I first look at Mauss' conception of the gift and giving as a kind of exchange, differentiating it from spontaneous giving. Then I compare spontaneous giving to antecedent Western forms of exchange such as capitalism and gift economies. Finally, I show how these relate to the definition of spontaneous giving as relevant to the Superheroes.

The seminal "gift" philosophy influencing Western gift theory is from the philosophy/anthropology essay "An Essay on The Gift: The Form and Reason for

Exchange in Archaic Societies" (Mauss 1923). Mauss and subsequent traditional western concepts (Heidegger 1927; Levi-Stauss 1949; Levinas 1961; Benveniste 1966; Nietzsche

1967; Derrida 1967) reject the notion of spontaneous gifts as defined in the beginning of this section. Mauss contests the conception of gifts as "free," interpreting examples from human history as demonstrating the reciprocal nature of gifts as objects of delayed exchange.6 The distinction between Mauss' conception of delayed exchange and the

Superhero assertion "the more you give, the more you get" is the intention behind the giving. Mauss sees giving as a way of amassing respect and power, while the Superheroes see giving as a way to learn about how we are all connected.

6 He asks, "What power resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back?" (1923:3). He responds, saying the gift uses "spiritual mechanisms" to form a "total prestation," engaging the honour of both giver and receiver (Mauss 1923: 3). According to Mauss, these transactions transcend the divisions between the material and the spiritual in a way that is almost "magical" (Mauss 1923: 31). 46 For Mauss, a giver does not merely give an object but also part of the self. For, he says, "the objects are never completely separated from the men who exchange them"

(Mauss 1923: 3), the object is indissolubly tied to the giver. Because of this giver-gift bond, the act of giving creates a social bond and an obligation to reciprocate by or on the part of the recipient.7 Declining reciprocation, he says, means to lose honour and status, and the spiritual implications can have worse ramifications (Mauss 1923: 3).

For Mauss, it is because the identity of the giver is inalienable from the object given that the gift has a kind of power which compels the recipient to reciprocate.

Because gifts are inalienable in this way, the act of giving creates a gift-debt that must be repaid. Therefore this exchange leads to a mutual interdependence between giver and receiver. According to Mauss, an unreciprocated gift is a contradiction because it cannot create social ties. He says that solidarity is achieved through the social bonds created by gift exchange.

Spontaneous giving differs in that giver-gift inalienability is unnecessary.

Spontaneous givers often give to strangers who they may never see again. In most cases,

Q this eliminates the opportunity to expect individual-to-individual reciprocation. In this way, spontaneous giving occurs within an open system, as described in living systems theory above. Unlike spontaneous giving interactions, Mauss' conception of community gift interactions remains caught within the boundaries of a closed system (a particular

7 Mauss distinguishes between three obligations of giving, receiving and reciprocating. Giving is considered the necessary first step for the creation and maintenance of social relationships; receiving is the second necessary step, since the refusal of a gift is the rejection of a social bond; and reciprocating is the final step, necessary for the demonstration of one's own generosity, honour and wealth. 8 This is a scenario that would confound Mauss. He creates a giver-receiver opposition, which is antagonistic rather than selfless. Furthermore, the giver is described as the holder of objectified capitol, even though some cultures do not put stock in the object but in the action (Bracken 1997). He does not see the possibility that giving can be reciprocated across borders and languages, when least expected. 47 nation or culture), limiting the "free" giving that is actually possible in an open system.

Spontaneous giving operates on the theory that any seemingly isolated and small act of giving has the potential to change the world, since in an open system, all relationships are interconnected.

Contrasting Aboriginal Concepts of Giving

Aboriginal concepts of giving are more applicable to the philosophy behind spontaneous giving than are Western theories based on Mauss' concept of the gift. Bracken talks about

Aboriginal ways of giving in his book The Potlatch Papers. He says Mauss has misinterpreted the early west coast First Nations gift economy to have an aspect of obligation and debt (Bracken 2003: 21, 45, 130, 132, 131-32, 169, 290-10). He recounts the traditional practice of burning gifts and surplus food at potlatches—by which all perceived gift debts are forgiven and thus become null. Although some people in the community may destroy more property than others (because they have more surplus than others), everyone has the same amount of capital after the ceremony.9 Contrary to some

Western interpretations, the wasteful giving that occurred at potlatches was the great social equalizer that is the true mechanism for solidarity in this case. To illustrate this,

Bracken draws on Bataille's "solar anus," a theoretical concept based on the nature metaphor of the sun's "waste" (Bracken 2003: 45).10 This metaphor of the way the sun gives to the earth wastefully is clearly expressed in the poem:

Here is the crux of his criticism of the Canadian diplomats who worked to ban the potlatch—of their gross misinterpretation of the philosophy behind the ceremony, that they often purposefully misrepresented in order to demonize it. D Waste as gratuitous not malicious. 48 Even after all this time

The sun never says to the earth,

"You owe me."

Look what happens with a love like that,

It lights up the whole sky.

(Hafiz 1300's)

This kind of wastefulness is not maliciously destructive (as popular use of the word "wasteful" often implies); rather it is gratuitous (a synonym for "wasteful"). In contrast to its popular connotation of ugliness, intrusiveness or even violence, the word gratuitous comes from the Latin word gratuitus, meaning "free, freely given, spontaneous" and deriving from the Latin word gratus, meaning "thankful, received with thanks." Bracken's interpretation of the wasteful giving of potlatches is closer to this idea of gratuitous (free, spontaneous and thankful) giving, which is also at the core of the concept of spontaneous giving. Again, the Western concept of giving that has come from

Mauss' philosophical legacy, is refuted by the concept of spontaneous giving, which emphasizes a kind of giving that reframes popular conceptions of waste and gratuity.

Giving that is wasteful in the above sense has more to do with sustaining life and livelihood than it does with destroying or wasting elements of life. For example,

Jeannette Armstrong grew up in a Syilx gift-based community in the Okanagan desert where people had to very consciously preserve resources as a matter of survival. About her gift-based culture, she says,"[...] I was brought up this way all my life. We were told by my mother, my grandmother, my aunts, my uncles, that giving is the only way to be human, that if you don't know that giving is essential to survival, then you don't know how to be human" (Armstrong 2007: 48). She adds:

We are told this, once we can understand it, when we are growing up. When we're two or three years old, the very first thing we are taught is to give. In our families, we are shown how to give. We learn that when we receive something that we really cherish and we really care about, that it is the first thing we should give up, because our community is to be cherished on that level. Our people and our land is be cherished on that level. And if we don't know how to give like that, we are poor. We are in poverty. (Armstrong 2007: 48, sic)

Armstrong believes that the two most important things in such a gift economy are community and the land and sustaining both is a matter of survival. She says, "In a land where there is not a lot of abundance, where the fragility of the eco-system requires absolute knowledge and understanding [...], we have developed a practice, a philosophy and a governance [...] that we must always be mindful of the importance of sharing and giving" (Armstrong 2007: 41).

Similarly, the context for the daily Superhero practice of spontaneous giving is like a microcosm of the Syilx gift-based society, since the two most important things on a communal bike trip are often considered to be community and the land. At the same time, giving in the context of living close to the land can have the effect of deepening one's ecological consciousness because living close to nature reminds people how precious it is. Spontaneous Giving within "Gift Economies"

A gift Economy is a systemic (but not necessarily systematic) approach to making sure everyone in community is given what they need (Vaughan 2007). It is a relational system, but it is not an economy in the sense in which the word economy popularly signifies capitalism and/or trade. Like the word ecology, economy has the Greek word root oikos

(meaning "house," "dwelling place" or "habitation"). One distinction to be made here is that in the capitalist meaning of the word economy, the commodity is considered to be at the centre of the economic circle (or "house"), while in the gift paradigm or gift economy, theperson is at the centre of the economic circle (or "house"). More precisely, interrelationships are at the centre of the circle. Thus gift economy has a lot more in common with ecology than it does with the system of exchange popularly implied by the word economy.

This in part parallels and in part is a reversal of economist Adam Smith's description of his theory of laissez-faire markets, described as an "invisible hand" that connects people who have goods or services to those who have a need for those goods or services (Smith 1776: 477). Laissez-faire capitalism is defined as a free competitive market which ensures that those goods and services perceived as most efficient, beneficial, or of highest quality will naturally be those that are most profitable; people who seek wealth by following their individual self-interest "build the common good" by guiding the movements of the "invisible hand" with each economic exchange. What the concepts of laissez-faire capitalism and a gift economy have in common is the "invisible hand" of serendipity that theoretically links surplus to need. The two systems are different in the actual mechanism with which energy is exchanged (giving/receiving gifts

51 versus selling/purchasing goods and services). However, both systems theoretically function on the level of serendipity and the convergence of countless interactions between individuals following their own desires. It is important to note that free market capitalism in practice is also a system of power and manipulation that departs from the serendipity of Adam Smith's concept of "the invisible hand." While free market capitalism involves an object-centred exchange (goods and services are the focus) guided by the "invisible hand" of wants and needs, a gift economy involves an intention-centred exchange (the intention to give is the focus) guided by the "invisible hand" of spontaneous giving.

It is helpful to see a gift economy as an open system much as the systems theory definition of ecology as being an open system. Reconsider the etymology of the word economy: like the word ecology, economy has the Greek root oikos (meaning "house,"

"dwelling place" or "habitation"). In an open system, there is no one circle (or "house") of exchange, only an open system of many cycles of interaction between community and nature. In other words:

The law of economy is the law of the return home, and it dictates that whatever is spent has to circle back to its place of origin. Everything paid out must be paid back. Economy is best represented by the figure of the circle because economics requires that every exchange end where it began.

The gift, however, is precisely that which does not return to sender. It is related to the circle of economy but works to interrupt it. The gift does not, indeed cannot, come back home because it ceases to be a gift the moment it invokes a repayment, a debt, or a countergift. [...] The gift does not belong to any system where expenses circle home as profits: it is an event that breaks (with) the curve of circulation, distribution, reciprocity, and exchange altogether. (Bracken 2003: 100-101) 52 So a gift-based economy is not an economic system as popularly defined. It is a paradigm outside of the realm of popular economics. It is a relational system of events based on the gifting of goods or services without expectation for immediate or future quid pro quo. A gift economy is the confluence of giving-centred worldviews and is the synergistic, inclusion-oriented, conscientious co-creation of community, based on the understanding that life is an open system and we are all connected (Vaughan 2007).

Spontaneous giving is a practice that arises from this confluence of worldviews as the embodied interpretation of the philosophy of giving. Since it is unplanned, spontaneous giving can be understood as a method for giving without motives for receiving anything in return. Yet the Superheroes say, "the more you give, the more you get," which can be interpreted as a motive for giving and thus could be seen as a return. Bracken then talks about the paradoxical nature of the gift, how even when one gives altruistically, one still benefits from giving, thus contradicting the parameters of altruism which define the gift

(Bracken 2003: 101). He says one way around this might be amnesia, the repression of one's consciousness of having just given (Bracken 2003: 102). Thus "the gift event cannot occur and remain a gift. It is not a gift at all" (Bracken 2003: 102). Herein lies the difference between giving and "gift." Giving is seen as a process rather than an outcome.

This is relevant to the Superhero perspective on the connections between spontaneous giving and "living in the now." For when one lives "in the now," once an event has occurred, it no longer exists "in the now."

A common misunderstanding of the gift economy occurs when confusing the process of exchange with outcomes of exchange. Gift economies confound quid pro quo

53 exchange and competition because of a cultural emphasis on serendipity, interconnection and "giving without reserve" (Bracken 2003). A focus on cooperation manifests through collective actions driven by a belief (stated in many different ways, from karma to embodied action to honour, to nonviolence) that what goes around, comes around.

Spontaneous giving exists as a practice that stems from this belief.

In a way, the spontaneous gift economy can be seen as a gift-based, interaction- oriented interpretation of transcultural versions of The Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (see Appendix E). The idea here is that one gives so that one might be given to or so that one might be righteous. The Golden Rule and some

Aboriginal concepts of giving are more closely related to spontaneous giving than volunteering or Maussean Western concepts of giving.

Synthesis of the Spontaneous Giving Concept

For the purposes of this thesis, based on the literature reviewed above, the term spontaneous giving refers to a kind of giving identified by the intention to give spontaneously by letting go of preconceived notions of what should be given and by engaging in performative acts of compassion, openheartedness, creativity, joyfulness, presence "in the moment," and willingness to be surprised, in order to give selflessly without expectation of a return from the person to whom the gift is given, and to learn from one's experience of giving in this way. Despite the "selfless" nature of this giving, spontaneous giving also involves a seemingly paradoxical awareness that all things are connected and that when one gives spontaneously, the intention of selflessness will

54 eventually be returned in some other form. This paradox is addressed by the perspective that giving is a process rather than an outcome or the cause of an outcome, expressed by the Superhero perspective on "living in the now." An emphasis on being present while giving can lead to realizations that once an event has occurred, it no longer exists "in the now" and can therefore be let go of, along with expectations of a future return. Unlike

Bracken's idea of amnesia as a way around the paradox of selfless giving, the practice of being present allows one to give by giving up expectations for a specific outcome/return.

"The more you give, the more you get" can now be reinterpreted as a "direct experience" of timeless interconnectivity rather than an outcome-driven motivator to give. What the expression refers to is a feeling ofbemgfilled up by one's perception of wholeness, of reconnecting with what is whole (the interconnectedness of all things). To be present and to give presently in an unfolding, ongoing way is to more fully realize the "here and now" processing of spontaneous giving in practice.

Spontaneous giving occurs within an open system, as described in living systems theory, and operates on the theory that any seemingly isolated and small act of giving has the potential to change the world, since in an open system, all relationships are interconnected. Spontaneous giving emphasizes both the relationship-building and personal growth opportunities that arise when one gives not from a place of ego but from a place of curiosity. Spontaneous giving functions well within a gift economy or a gift culture that embraces some of the ideals and intentions of spontaneous giving. It is posited as a tool used by the Superheroes for promoting transformative learning experiences, including those involving the deepening of ecological consciousness. In the

55 next section I show how spontaneous giving might be conceptualized to bring about transformational learning experiences and a deeper ecological consciousness.

IV Connections between Spontaneous Giving and the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness

The central thesis question (Can spontaneous giving, as defined by the Superheroes, be used as a transformative learning tool to promote ecological consciousness?) seeks to understand transformative learning experiences involving the deepening of ecological consciousness as one of the corollaries of spontaneous giving.11

The three key terms interrelate through relationships of self to world and experience to action. While ecological consciousness and transformative learning experiences concern the self-world understanding (personal worldview and the experiential process of changing/modifying worldview), spontaneous giving concerns acting outwardly into the world, and is greatly influenced by self-world understanding.

This outward acting is also interactive in a giving-receiving relationship. Worldview effects personal interpretations of what spontaneous giving means and how it is achieved or not achieved.

Action (the decision to act and/or how to act) is influenced by awareness: how a person sees their place in the world and their perception of how much of their agency or power can be actualized within their particular climate of socio-economic restrictions and advantages. Finally, interconnectedness (as expressed by systems theory) involves both

11 Corollary: comes from the Latin word corollarium, meaning "money paid for a garland, a gift, gratuity." 56 self-world understanding and outward action based on self-world understanding.

Realizations of interconnectedness can occur simultaneously. They can involve the ecological imperative of complexity as we know it and are thus interwoven throughout experience, action, and meaning-making.

Although research has made explicit connections between volunteering and service learning (Jacoby 1996; Eyler and Giles 1999; Grey et al 1999; Hunter and Brisbin

2000), and between service learning and environmental education (North Coast

Education Summit 2006; Otesha Project 2007), this study is unique in pursuing the explicit connections between spontaneous giving, transformative learning experiences and the deepening of ecological consciousness.

Interconnectedness and Metanarrative as Linking Themes

Since spontaneous giving is by definition unstructured and emphasizes the letting go of attachments to certain outcomes, it would be contradictory to say that any spontaneous giving situation would necessarily produce a transformative learning experience involving the deepening of ecological consciousness. However, based on the exploration of terms in this chapter, two unifying themes can be identified which reinforce the connection between the terms and support the possibility that ecological learning could be a corollary of spontaneous giving. The unifying themes that recur are interconnectedness and metanarrative.

In ecological consciousness, interconnectedness figures in the term's definition and literature review as the sharing of awareness of the interconnectedness of all

57 organisms on the planet and the deepening of this awareness as a kind of self-awareness.

Metanarrative also figures in the term's definition and literature review as the process of recognizing one's own stories as this contributes to the deepening of self awareness

(sometimes called personal growth). This process of awakening to what exists in the self through one's deepening awareness of what exists in the world (or vice versa), involves the deepening and sharing of one's awareness of how to interact appropriately with the interconnected elements of the world. Interconnectedness and metanarrative interlace the concept that the deepening of ecological consciousness involves the critical deconstruction of one's own meaning-making about the relationship between self and world, and the relationship between belief and behaviour.

In transformative learning experiences, interconnectedness figures in the term's definition and literature review as the illumination of relationships among individuals and communities and how they are interconnected with the flow of life (Ferrer 2005). This includes the interweaving of the deepening of self-knowledge and world knowledge, described as the deepening of "our understanding of [...] our relationships with other humans and with the natural world; our understanding of relations of power in interlocking structures of class, race and gender; our body awarenesses, our visions of alternative approaches to living; and our sense of possibilities for social justice and peace and personal joy" (O'Sullivan 2003: 326-330).

Metanarrative also figures in the term's definition and literature review as a mechanism for discovering that people are "makers of the world of culture," with "a creative and re-creative impulse" (Freire 1973: 84-85) that empowers them to become engaged in their own self-education, with an attitude of "self-transformation producing a

58 stance of intervention in one's context" (Freire 1973: 86). "Whole-person learning"

(Ferrer 2005: 1-2) that links the interconnected elements of the self (heart-mind-body- spirit) with the interconnected elements of a group (individual perspectives told as stories and performed/enacted through interrelationships) represents an analogy for the interconnectedness of life. This is a process in which people can be "united in a shared experience of trying to make meaning of their life experience" (Loughlin 1993: 320-321) by co-creating metanarratives that deconstruct the limitations of individual worldviews.

Just as in the definition and literature review of ecological consciousness, there is an emphasis on recognizing the link between storytelling and worldview-guided behaviour

(Freire 1973: 84). This "journey of discovery" (Van Matre 1990) is asserted by the words, "The truth about stories is that's all we are" (King 2003) and the assertion: "Want a different ethic? Tell a different story" (King 2003: 164).

In spontaneous giving, interconnectedness figures in the term's definition and literature review as the assertion that since giving occurs within an open system in which all things are connected, any seemingly isolated or small act of giving has the potential to change the world. An awareness of the interconnectedness of all things encourages

"selfless" giving, because when one gives altruistically and spontaneously, the intention of selflessness will eventually be returned in some other form. Metanarrative also figures in the term's definition and literature review as the process of recognizing and critically deconstructing one's own attachments, driven by the intention to give spontaneously by letting go of preconceived notions of what should be given. By engaging in performative acts of compassion, openheartedness, creativity, joyfulness, presence "in the moment," and willingness to be surprised, one engages with one's narrative of self-identity by performing one's self-projection of one's idiosyncratic interpretation of the elements of spontaneous giving.

The recurrence of the themes of interconnectedness and metanarrative throughout the three key terms reinforces the connection between them, as this highlights similarities in the core philosophies that help define them. This supports the possibility that ecological learning is a corollary of spontaneous giving because a key relationship is apparent, the nature of which must be further explored in the results and discussion of

Superhero perceptions of their experiences of this relationship.

60 Chapter 3: Methodology Statistically the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you 'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise.

(Lewis Thomas, quoted in Superhero Start-Up Kit)

The research is inquiry-driven rather than structured by the purview of a single discipline.

Burawoy's recent commentary on grounded theory and ethnography gives philosophical direction to the inquiry-driven process (Burawoy 1991). The basis of grounded theory is to describe an iterative process in research in which theoretical knowledge, observations and theory-formation are continuously occurring in tandem with the dialogue between participant and observer (Burawoy 1991: 7). However, Burawoy distinguishes between several interpretations of grounded theory, focusing on the differences in two popular interpretations. One "treats each case study as a potential exemplar of some general law or principle that applies across space and time" (Burawoy 1991: 8). The other treats the case study as a counter-instance of an old theory that may be used to reconstruct rather than simply deconstruct it. As suggested by Burawoy, this is the approach used in this study. The focus here is to find what Burawoy calls "theoretical gaps or silences" in a given theory (in this case Western gift theory, the new construction of spontaneous giving, and their relationship to the theories of transformative learning and the deepening of ecological consciousness) to "address an aspect of a particular empirical phenomenon that, once included, compels the reconstruction of theory" (Burawoy 1991: 10).

61 The methods used in this study are to combine participant observation, individual and group interviews, a relevant literature review, and a narrative approach to data analysis. The case study approach is useful because it gives structure to a tight research time line (McTavish and Loether 2002), and is especially useful for investigating how and why certain events are connected within a complex social environment (Yin 1994).

This chapter outlines the methodological approaches. Section II describes how participants were recruited for the case study and why; Section III describes which research tools and methodological approaches were used and why; Section IV describes how the research tools were used and how the research methodology was interpreted;

Section V describes how the results were triangulated, interpreted and synthesized; and

Section VI discusses some of the limitations that emerged through the research process and how certain approaches or tools were modified to address challenges.

I Participants

Invitation to Participate in Study

The participants were chosen because I wanted to conduct a case study of the

Superheroes, and those who participated on the Ireland ride were available during my research period. The research participants were chosen by virtue of participating in the only Superhero ride available during my research window.

I chose simply to focus on the Superheroes (rather than also focusing on people they helped), since my inquiry concerns the process of learning through giving, and that

62 is the basis of much of the Superhero philosophy. Although many community members assisted by the Superheroes reciprocated giving, I would not have been able to witness the learning process in community members, since the Superheroes only stayed in each community for at most a few days. Furthermore, by focusing predominantly on the

Superheroes, I was better able to compare participant stories with my own experience as a

Superhero, which added another layer of depth to my insights on the learning process.

The inquiry is a qualitative study of the process of personal growth in terms of the potential connection between giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness.

Recruitment occurred during the ride, since the composition of ridership was unpredictable. Participants joined the group throughout the ride and were given consent forms to sign once they had acclimatized to the group and to my presence. Although I kept a participant observation journal from day one, the last person to return a form with participant observation written consent (thus assuring my status as a "true" participant observer) did not do so until literally the last day of the Ireland ride. Despite this type of overlap with participant observation practice and consent, I did not conduct interviews unless I already had a signed form from the participant in my hand.

Group Composition and Levels of Participation

There were a total of 17 participants in the Ireland ride case study (8 women and 9 men).

Consent to participate in a case study (with me as participant observer) was given by each of the 17 participants. The participants were informed that if I did not get consent from each person on the ride, I would not use a participant observation approach. Signatures

63 were requested on an individual basis and were confidential. Furthermore, consent to be interviewed was given by each of the 17 participants, however only ten Superheroes were formally interviewed (seven women and three men): Rabbi Yikes, Wild Wooly Wonder,

Love Ninja, Somebody, Tiger Lily, Pippy Tawanda, Super Zazzie, Super Zero, Green

Geek and Blazing Echidna. (To compare, there were nine men and eight women on the ride.) Each of these interviews was in-person, during the ride, except those of Super

Zazzie, who had two phone interviews within the month following the ride, and Super

Zero, who had one phone interview eight months after the ride. Super Zazzie was the only Superhero who had two interviews, although Wild Wooly Wonder's interview was conducted in three parts within one week of the ride. Informal follow-ups or check-ins happened throughout the year following the ride via email. Although Supervisor is not considered a case study participant, she actively participated in the meaning-making and storytelling of the ride from a distance on a weekly basis via telephone. Time constraints prevented interviews with more than 8 Superheroes during the ride. Timing and circumstance prevented interviews with more than 2 of the remaining participants via telephone after the ride.

The case study participants varied in age (range from 17 to 40), nationality

(American, German, Canadian, French), as well as economic, educational and ethnic backgrounds. There were both new and experienced Superheroes in the study group (6 new and 11 experienced).

64 II Methodological Approaches

Grounded Theory and Mixed Methods

Burawoy's (1991) interpretation of grounded theory has informed the mixed methods research approach of combining participation, observation and narrative interviews. The mixed methods approach provides a framework for developing categories of information that "builds a story" about their interconnectedness and sets forth discursive theoretical propositions (Strauss and Corbin 1990; Creswell 1998). At the same time, grounded theory describes a way to identify existing social theories that almost explain the interconnections in the data but must be reconstructed due to "theoretical gaps or silences" that detract from their relevance to the case study (Burawoy 1991: 10). The case study is an appropriate way to examine what the literature and data mean in context, in person and in the unfolding scenario (Creswell 1998). In this respect, the thesis strives to examine the setting in which the theory will be born and will grow and change.

Furthermore, this approach allows the researcher to use critical analysis and philosophical exploration. The transparency of the grounded theory approach also allows future researchers to build new theories by learning from the researcher's potential analytical cul-de-sacs (Buroway 1991).

Participant Observation

As a participant observer, I participated as a Superhero with my own pseudonym,

"Grasshopper." As a participant, I contributed to Superhero service work projects and community building activities. As an observer I kept a journal, taking notes of what I

65 experienced as a Superhero. This included my observations of what the Superheroes did each day and how they reflected on this in evening community building activities.

Especially of interest to me were discussions which revealed the Superheroes' impressions of what they were learning, how they were learning, how this changed their perceptions or even worldviews, and how individual personal changes may have altered the group dynamic. Because late evenings and days off became the only time available for doing interviews, I ended up journaling piecemeal throughout most days.

Narrative Interviews

Narrative analysis can be employed "to refer to both an approach—one that emphasizes the examination of the storied nature of human recounting of lives and events—and to the sources themselves, that is, the stories that people tell in recounting their lives" (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 305).

The narrative approach is appropriate, since "the narratives of a group contribute to constituting the group's identity and to holding the group together" (Mishler 1986;

Polkinghorne 1988; Kvale 1996: 200). Superheroes were interviewed both during and after a ride. Three post-ride interviews were conducted, two of which occurred within the first month afterward. The intention was to conduct interviews throughout the ride, as well as after the ride, in order to reflect different chronological stages of experience. It was also intended that interviews would not take place too long after the ride, so the stories would be fresh in the memories of the participants. However, one last interview occurred eight months after the ride, since I could not connect with that participant until

66 that time. This interview was valuable to the study because it was the only one with a strong language barrier.

An interview guide was created, using Kvale's qualification criteria (1996 in

Bryman and Teevan 2005: 187-8) and Bryman and Teevan's (2005) question type characterizations for semi-structured interviews (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 188-90).

Interviews enabled me to describe phenomena in greater depth than would otherwise have been possible if using only participant observation (McTavish and Loether 2002). A semi-structured, narrative approach was used to request participant stories (Miller 2000;

Bryman and Teevan 2005). This approach allowed specific questions to be explored, while giving the participant a great deal of leeway in how to respond (Bryman and

Teevan 2005). Therefore the direction and scope of the interviews varied depending on the participant's knowledge and background. Questions may not have followed the same order in every interview, but there was some uniformity in how questions were asked.

Due to time constraints and participant storytelling stamina on the day of the interview, interviews varied in length from thirty-five minutes to four and a half hours. During interviews with extreme time constraints, I chose to focus on exploring depth in some of the questions rather than attempting to sacrifice depth in order to cover all of the questions. In many cases, we were able to pursue follow-up interviews in order to cover more questions, but in some cases, this was not feasible. It could be said that this may present some biases when comparing interviews, but this is less important when using a narrative approach, since storytelling is already unpredictable.

Questions and follow-up questions (see Appendix A) were designed to address the three key themes of spontaneous giving, transformative learning and the deepening of

67 ecological consciousness. These terms were not necessarily words I had heard the

Superheroes use with any frequency during my pre-research experience with them. I chose these words to describe trends I felt I had observed in my pre-research experience that I needed to put names to in order to conceptualize my work. I did not define these terms to the research participants as I interviewed them. Rather, I asked them for their own definitions. I also asked if they could think of more accurate words to describe how they felt about their connection to and awareness of nature, their experiences of giving with the Superheroes, and their experiences of learning as Superheroes. Furthermore, I asked participants to share with me words that they'd heard other Superheroes use in similar contexts, whether or not they thought these other words might be more suitable.

-In addition to the interviews, three people participated in a recorded group orientation. The group orientation consisted predominantly of one person talking, while three other people (myself included) listened and occasionally asked questions. This was an introduction to the purpose and rituals (called "tendencies" since they are flexible to change), and was the closest that a recording came to being a group interview (see

Appendix D for expressions of these tendencies in the Superhero literature called

"Kapow!").

This last interview was also the only interview conducted in two languages

(French and English). It was possible to transcribe during the interview, since a language barrier resulted in slowly-spoken questions and responses. This language barrier manifested because the interview was predominantly in the participant's second language

(English), which made it difficult at times for him to respond with as much clarity and depth as he wanted to; difficulty (hence slow speaking and thus easier transcription) also arose during the French segments of the interview, which were challenging for me

(because I am no longer fluent in French), but added an element of clarity for the participant.

The interview and participant observation tools included the interview guide, a digital audio-recording device, extra batteries, earphones for listening to interviews, journals for taking notes during and after interviews, consent forms, camping gear, a bicycle and bicycle gear.

Photography

I brought a digital camera to take pictures of Superheroes working on service projects. I got permission from the Superheroes to include their pictures in presentations of the research results. In the second week of the ride I gave away the camera and the digital card with all the photographs stored on it as an experiment to explore the balance between being a Superhero/participant and being a researcher/observer. This was inspired by the Superheroes' emphasis on experiential ("direct experience") learning and personal growth, as I needed to do my own experiential learning within the Superhero context in order to better understand Superhero concepts of personal growth. I gave the camera to an

Irish grade three class as an act of spontaneous giving, since the students in the class said they'd wished they could see pictures of our adventures. I gave them the camera, saying,

"Now you have pictures of us that tell some of our story, but also, now you can take your own pictures to tell your own story of giving." I am still pen pals with some of those students. I call this spontaneous giving "an experiment" because I did not know what I

69 would learn from this giving, but as a Superhero, I did have some intuition that by giving away something important to the research process, I would learn something important about the Superhero personal growth process. Furthermore, the camera itself was deemed by many Superheroes to be symbolic of distractions that prevent people from "living in the moment." Picture-taking frames memories by selecting which moments to emphasize as important, in advance of future "spontaneous" moments of recollection. The construction of a photo collection is also a simultaneous memory-construction, which can draw a person out of "direct experience" as they become engaged in projecting their imagination into an illusory future of preconceived notions and/or attachments to seeing the world in a certain way. The artifacts of this construction (the photographs themselves) then serve to repeatedly draw people out of "the present moment" and into illusory experiences of sentimentality or other deceptive remembrances outside of the actual moment of "direct experience" (for example, experiencing the kitchen in which one looks at photographs, rather than escaping into the constructed world of the photos). My symbolic act of giving away the camera was a way of saying that although I am a researcher/observer, I commit to "living in the moment" as a Superhero and recognizing that the future is unknown—however accurately it might be speculated upon. Since many of the Superheroes believe that "one must do in order to understand," this was my way of being a Superhero in order to better understand the Superheroes.

The Superheroes did send me electronic copies of photos they had taken while on the ride and gave me permission to include the photographs in the study.

70 HI Procedures

Logistics

Because money was also a constraint, I booked a flight to Ireland in advance. Because of this, I ended up arriving part way through the first week of the ride. I was in contact with the Superheroes through Supervisor, who gave me the phone number of the place where the Superheroes were expected to be when I arrived. However, by the time I arrived in

Dublin, the Superheroes had moved on to the next town. Fortunately, two of the

Superheroes had arrived the day before me and one of them met me at the airport. They were able to stay at the Dublin Free School, where the main group had just left from.

From there, we assembled our bicycles and then took the train to the Order of Brigidene

Nuns where the main group was now working.

The Superhero ride was a month in total. I was there for just over three weeks, during which time the bulk of the interviews took place. It was difficult to find time to interview people during all the traveling, almost-daily setting up or packing up camp, and the following of a rotating schedule to take care of group needs, such as finding service work, taking care of recycling, garbage and compost, deciding which service options to chose and when to split up to do different jobs, helping to navigate the group, finding local organic food, preparing food for the group, while on an ongoing basis practicing

Superhero rituals, participating in consensus meetings, helping to balance the group's outward-going giving energy with its inward-focused nurturing energy, helping each other during severe weather conditions such as the tail end of a hurricane. It was a challenge to balance these group concerns with my own journaling and interviewing

71 tasks. Furthermore, I was experiencing my own intense personal growth at the same time.

This complex dynamic produced a wealth of experiences that have affected my own worldview deeply.

Informed Consent

Two types of consent forms were brought on the trip: Interview Consent forms and

Participant Observation Consent forms (see Appendices B and C). Each participant on the ride signed the Participant Observation forms, but only those who did interviews (or wanted to) signed the Interview Consent forms. Several types of consent were requested, including the use of real and Superhero names, participant observation and participant interviews. The terms of each type of participation were explained to each person.

IV Data Analysis

Narrative Approach

As stated above, narrative analysis is distinguished from narrative interviews in that narrative interviews employ question types that elicit storytelling responses, while narrative analysis is a way of analyzing those interviews. It entails "a sensitivity to the connections in people's accounts of the past, present, and future events and states of affairs; people's sense of their place within those events and states of affairs; the theories they generate about them; and the significance of context for the unfolding of events and

72 people's sense of their role within them" (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 305). It also

"supports a unity of form among the original interview situation, the analysis, and the final report" (Kvale 1996: 184) because it shifts the emphasis from the content or chronology of events, to a focus on the ways in which meaning is derived from events

(Bryman and Teevan: 306).

The narrative approach fits well for my inquiry-based approach, since it addresses the dynamic nature of transformative learning experiences, including the continuity and process involved in the experience of volunteering and giving. The analysis may also be

"a condensation or a reconstruction of the many tales told by the different subjects into a richer, more condensed and coherent story than the scattered stories of the separate" participants (Bryman and Teevan: 199).

Of the major styles of narrative analysis, I use a combination of two models: interactional analysis and performative analysis (Riessman: 2004). Interactional analysis focuses on "the dialogue between the teller of a story and the listener," on the "co- construction of meaning by the two parties, though content and form are by no means marginalized" (Riessman 2004; Bryman and Teevan 2005: 305). Performative analysis focuses on "narrative as a performance that explores the use of words and gestures to get across a story," including "an examination of audience responses to the narrative"

(Bryman and Teevan 2005: 305). Interactional analysis is an appropriate approach for the individual interviews, since it acknowledges the researcher's past experience and ongoing participation as a Superhero.

73 Depending on which themes emerge from the research, some structural analysis and thematic analysis is used as well. Structural analysis focuses on "the way a story is related," on the use of narrative mechanisms for increasing the persuasiveness of a story," more than on the actual content (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 305). For example, interviews are coded for emphasis on certain words, emotional conveyance through use of words or through tone of voice, and changes in tense during storytelling to emphasize immediacy. Finally, thematic analysis focuses on "what is said rather than on how it is said" (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 305). For example, themes of giving, transformative learning and the deepening of ecological consciousness are coded in the subtext of stories that may be about something else yet which refer to these themes tangentially.

Berg (1989) distinguishes narrative analysis from content analysis in that it "seeks to exhaust the meaning of the text using specified rules and principles, but maintains a qualitative textual approach (Boje 1991; Heise 1992; Manning and Cullum-Swan 1994;

Silverman 1993)," while he says content analysis "is suggested to be limited to counts of textual elements. Thus, the implication is that content analysis is more reductionistic and ostensively a more positivistic approach" (Berg 1989: 241-2). But he says that by

"identifying, organizing, indexing, and retrieving data" through content analysis, "it is a passport to listening to the words of the text, and understanding better the perspective(s) of the producer of these words" (Berg 1989: 242).

While it is not appropriate to impose too much of my own structuralist interpretations of interview stories through either narrative or content analysis, it is also impossible for my voice to be absent from my own analysis (Burawoy 1991: 4).

74 Therefore, I aim to make the process of my analysis as transparent as possible, without clouding the analysis with an overly self-referential deconstruction of the study itself.

This problem of analysis, of interpretation stems from the challenge of understanding, of meaning-making. The way I understand the text of the interviews will ultimately be limited by my own ability to make meaning, which entails a retelling of other people's stories. Therefore, my approach to narrative analysis also includes a consideration of content analysis, which Berg (1989) says allows one to stay connected to what is actually said (Berg 1989: 4). My analytic techniques involve more discursive techniques, such as "building coherence" by identifying "umbrella thoughts," and

"attention thoughts" (Creswell 1994: 198), and idea mapping, such as with the "hook- and-eye technique" of circling key words and drawing lines between connecting ideas

(Creswell 1994: 199). These textual coherence techniques are used in conjunction with oral techniques of listening to the interview to identify intonation, pauses, cadence of voice, and so on.

Trustworthiness: Triangulation and the Iterative Process

Trustworthiness is a "set of criteria advocated by some writers for assessing the quality of qualitative research" (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 387)—the qualitative equivalent of reliability and validity for quantitative research. Trustworthiness is determined by credibility (like "internal validity" in quantitative research), transferability (like "external validity"), dependability (like "reliability"), and confirmability (like "objectivity")

(Lincoln and Guba 1985; Guba and Lincoln 1994). The approach in this study to

75 addressing confirmability is inspired by Burawoy's acknowledgement of the fallaciousness of complete objectivity, while nevertheless emphasizing the importance of striving to create a metanarrative that renders one's own process more transparent

(Burawoy 1991).

The voice of the data analyst can be represented through the architecture of the techniques chosen for use in data analysis. This means that participant stories are thematically framed during coding and analysis even before this analysis is explored in the discussion. Two important methods to assure trustworthiness in this process are triangulation and the iterative process. Triangulation is a way of comparing data. For example, what is said in an interview can be compared to one's participant observation journals. Maintaining transparency of the iterative process can be accomplished by recording in the participant observation journal how one's observations have changed one's theoretical quandary and how changing theories thus contribute to understanding observations in new ways.

Dependability is a measure of trustworthiness that can be determined by the

"auditing" by peers of data (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 150). Although "peer auditing" is not a popular practice in qualitative research, I have submitted many of my observations of events to participants in order the verify chronology of events and to clarify which participants were involved. By necessity, much of this process was done by email, although some of it was done in phone conversations and interviews. I also sought

"respondent validation" (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 151) of interview transcripts by showing them to participants to check for accuracy.

76 As mentioned above, Burawoy's interpretation of grounded theory provides guidelines for an iterative process of data analysis and theory modifications. For me, this also includes modifications of the literature review, wherein lies much of the theory used to make meaning of findings. In the discussion chapter I compare my study to other qualitative, narrative approach studies of worldview, experiences of giving, deepening of ecological consciousness, transformative learning, etc. Furthermore, my theories are compared to those explored in other disciplines such as philosophy.

Bryman and Teevan (2005) show how relationships between variables can be explained, such as the causal relationships between "intervening variables," "independent variables," and "dependant variables" (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 151). Since my inquiry-based thesis focuses on relationships (on a micro level: the relationships between participants and between a participant and her/his worldview; on a macro level: the relationship between the experience of giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness), "multi-strategy research" should prove to be helpful in examining the

"puzzle" of such causal relationships (Bryman and Teevan 2005: 329). Much of my research employed what Bryman and Teevan call "unplanned triangulation" (Bryman and

Teevan 2005: 329)—which for me is the built-in method of spontaneity and flexibility.

12 Bryman and Teevan mean the combining of quantitative and qualitative research when they say "multi- strategy methods" but, although some of my data has a quantitative element to it, I am not looking at quantitative data with rigor; I am primarily focusing on qualitative storytelling. V Limitations

Group Interviews

It was intended that some group interviews occur. Group interviews were requested, but there was not group consensus to conduct any. However, I consider the group orientation of "Superhero Tendencies" to be like a group interview, since it involved an interactive exchange of ideas between Superheroes.

The reasons for planning to conduct group interviews are as follows. There can be a polyphony of interpretations of one event, which may not be identified until a group comes together to reflect on it (Kvalel996: 201-102). In the same way, there must be a method for triangulating these different perspectives (Berg 1989; McTavish and Loether

1999; Kvale 1996; Bryman and Teevan 2005). It was intended that individual stories be triangulated by comparing them to one another, as well as to group interviews, my observations, and possibly to second interviews as requested for clarification (as suggested by Bryman and Teevan 2005; Kvale 1996). As the research progressed, some interview questions were improvised in order to address group experiences and to compare people's perceptions of events to my own observations of phenomena.

This is an unfortunate limitation of the study, since group interactions and group meaning-making are an important part of the inquiries surrounding gift-based culture and worldview. Bryman and Teevan say, "the focus group offers an opportunity to study how individuals collectively make sense of a phenomenon and construct meanings around it" and it addresses the idea that "social phenomena are not undertaken by an individual in isolation" but "it is something that occurs in interaction and discussion with others"

78 (Bryman and Teevan 2005:195). Here, "focus groups reflect the processes through which meaning is constructed in everyday life and to that extent can be more naturalistic [...] than individual interviews" (Wilkinson 1998; Bryman and Teevan 2005: 195).

Nevertheless, despite any potential limitations of not doing more group interviews, there were many fruitful informal group discussions that I recorded in my participant observation journals, which helped me to make meaning of group experiences and group constructed stories.

Flexibility

I modified some of the questions in my interview guide, after it became clear that some questions were inappropriately worded, or I added questions after I discovered that I had missed something important. I improvised these changes as I discovered biases in my language and as words in the Superhero vernacular became more apparent to me during the first and second interviews. Although this helped me to adapt my interviews to better respond to the Superhero culture, an added limitation of this is that I cannot make symmetrical comparisons between the results of the first two interviews (with the original interview guide) and those that followed (with the modified interview guide). However, this becomes a relatively smaller problem when I acknowledge the larger challenge that occurs when trying to compare "incomplete" interviews (which could not cover all the questions) to "complete" interviews. These problems are addressed by the narrative approach to analysis, which was designed to work with open-ended questions (such as the ones I asked) and the resulting unpredictability of story-like responses.

79 Point of View

During the Ireland ride, my role as a researcher dovetailed with my role as a Superhero, since being a Superhero helped me to understand what I was studying and being a researcher helped me to understand what I was experiencing. As a participant observer, I was faced with the challenge of balancing both roles so as not to rely too heavily on the biases of either side. Burawoy addresses this challenge in the following ways:

The purpose of field work is not to strip ourselves of biases, for that is an illusory goal, nor to celebrate those biases as the authorial voice of the ethnographer, but rather to discover and perhaps change our biases through interaction with others. Thus, an "I-You" relation between observers and participants replaces a "we" relation of false togetherness and an "I-they" relation in which the I often becomes invisible. Remaining on the sidelines as a marginal person or positioning oneself above the [participant] not only leaves the ethnographer's own biases unrevealed and untouched but easily leads to false attributions, missing what remains implicit, what those we study take for granted.

(Burawoy 1991:4)

Here Burawoy emphasizes "neither distance nor immersion but dialogue" with the case study participants (Burawoy 1991: 4). In this spirit I explored my role as participant observer in conversations with the Superheroes, creating a dialogue about what was often referred to by the Superheroes as "balancing heart and mind." Experiential learning was considered by many to be a confluence of emotional and intellectual processing that is important for the reconciliation of the heart-mind relationship as complementary rather than conflictual.

80 This dialogue about my point of view became a storytelling theme, made reference to through the telling of the story of "Eros and Psyche," a Greek myth about the relationship between Eros, the god of love and Psyche, the human embodiment of intellect. This story arose spontaneously when a Superhero noticed a boat inscribed with the words "Eros and Psyche," while a group of us sat on a riverbank. When she told the story of Eros and Psyche, a number of other Superheroes said that "balancing heart and mind" was also a challenge for them. When I said that this was a challenge for me as a researcher and Superhero, a conversation ensued that created deeper levels of mutual understanding between the Superheroes and myself concerning my role as participant observer.

What remained unacknowledged, yet which is important to discuss is my perspective as a white, middle class, bilingual, Western woman, educated at a university level. Although I am proud of my Jewish, Acadian and Mi'qmaw heritage, my identity and thus my perspective of the world is also tied to my acculturation in white, capitalist

Canada (predominantly through the mainstream education system), as well as my own critical reflection (guided by the same educational system) on some of the political, socio-economic, power and gender relationships embedded in this system. Because I went to an alternative school that emphasized community-building and non-hierarchical,

"engaged" learning from grades 1-4,1 in this way have one foot on either side of the mainstream/alternative learning fence. Furthermore, I spent my childhood on a 95-acre organic goat farm, where I had the kinds of "direct experiences" that Louv describes above (Louv 2005: 79, 81). Yet I am aware that my point of view is more complexly related to my sense of empowerment through past experiences and family support, as

81 well as powerlessness through parallel experiences of hurt, fear or "failure" which are part of my own self-world meaning-making through internalized storytelling. Another level of complexity is my "spiritual relationship" with nature, awe of wilderness that I developed while living on the farm. This contrasts my reticence about religion, which I developed as a Jewish child living in a "WASPy" town and listening to my mother's horror stories about Catholic School.

One element that has greatly contributed to my interest in the Superheroes and my psychological interpretations of their stories has been my upbringing by a mother psychotherapist and father educator in a house full of books. My framing of storytelling as a Superhero cultural motif is also a "gut" idea inspired by an upbringing full of storytelling. The storytelling and by-proxy psychotherapy background have given me a

"gut" sense about naming and interpreting feelings that arise experientially, as well as compassion and empathy for other's experiences. At the same time, my confidence in this area can also be a limitation, since at times I may confidently form opinions when I should instead be asking questions.

Another potential limitation is the biases I carry from my previous Superhero experience before the research began, which I believe has changed my life. Feelings strong enough to elicit such a statement should be acknowledged if an attempt at transparency is to be honored. I constructed the basis of spontaneous giving theory during my first ride, when I had a deep epiphany about letting go of fears of not having enough or of opening my heart only to be hurt. The intellectual part of spontaneous giving theory was articulated out of this foundation "gut" experience. Because this experience affected me so deeply, I must recognize that I am emotionally attached to the "hypothesis" about

82 spontaneous giving that I explore through the case study. As one peer stated, I was a

Superhero before I was a researcher of Superheroes. However, as one Superhero observed, I was "indoctrinated within the mainstream Western educational system"—of which the university is an extension—long before I was a Superhero. It is interesting to note that although this is also the case for most of the research participants, the

Superheroes often say, "Everyone is a Superhero," implying that the impulse to help others and to question our own narratives is part of our underlying (uneducated) nature.

This begs the question, which came first, the Superhero or the student?

83 Chapter 4: Ethnography

Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

(Lewis Caroll, quoted in Superhero Start-Up Kit)

In this chapter I present information about the Ireland Superhero ride and the culture of the Superheroes so as to provide context for the interpretation of the interviews and observations addressing the research question in the next chapter. I joined a month-long

Superhero ride through Ireland. It began in on the west coast in Dublin and ended on the east coast in Doolin. This chapter will outline relevant details of what happened during this time.

I Overview of Ride

Participants

There were six new Superheroes and eleven experienced Superheroes (including me) on this ride. Those included in the study are Super Zazzie, Free Radical, Super Zero, Green

Geek, Alfred, Believo, Hugman, Rabbi Yikes, Blazing Echidna (sometimes called BE

Man), Love Ninja (previously called Flying Frilly Lizard), Tiger Lilly, Wild Wooly

Wonder (previously called Gutsy Gusty Gal), Somebody, Pippy Tawanda, Desert Queen and another Superhero who did not want his Superhero name included. My Superhero name is Grasshopper. One new Superhero was not included in the study because he left the ride before I asked people to sign consent forms.

84 Overview of Service Projects and Activities

The group cycled across the country, stopping to look for service work in numerous communities (see Table 1). In the second week, we went into the Slieve Bloom

Mountains to camp and spend a fully day doing consensus building work. Before we got to Lisdoonvarna in the fourth week, there were only a few Superheroes left and we decided officially to end the ride. However, we stayed together a few more days in

Lisdoonvarna and Doolin before more of us left the group and there were only four people left, some of whom traveled together for a few months afterward. After the ride officially ended, I accompanied the remaining Superheroes to Tralee, where we said good-bye.

I rode with the Superheroes for 20 days in total. During that time, we cycled approximately 658 km and did approximately 18 half or full days of work on 22 different service projects. The table below lists the service projects in detail to illustrate the variety of tasks performed by the Superheroes, as well as to show that no task was considered demeaning or insignificant. Furthermore, this summary illustrates that a common service project for the Superheroes tended to involve work on organic farms, collaboration with various spiritual leaders, or outreach with school children. Finally, the chart illustrates how often the Superheroes moved to different service projects and how much time was balanced with other activities, such as travelling by bicycle and participating in group consensus.

Table 1: Ireland Superhero Ride Overview

85 Date City Location km Service Projects & Activities

Aug Dublin Free Peace Renovating the university building (wall 30 - University stripping, painting, etc); stayed in the Sept 4 university building

Sept Dublin/Naas St. Anne's 10 Park maintenance and small projects such as 4-6 Peace Park trash clean-up and pond restoration

Sept Kildare St. Brigid's 30 Small projects such as gardening, painting the 6-9 Order fence at St. Brigid's Well; stayed at the Order

Sept Monasterevin St. Vincent's 55 Visiting with elderly people at St. Vincent's; 9-10 and Hospital stayed with a nurse in Mountmellik Mountmellik

Sept Ridge of Full day of 30 Consensus meeting and group bonding while 10-12 Capard biking and camping in the mountains (Slieve then "Day off Bloom Mountains)

Sept Camross, 1st Elementary 40- Told Superhero stories to elementary school 12-13 Roscrea; School, 70 children (at their request signed autographs); stayed on a organic farm, farm work; apple picking and lunch with farm outside Cistercian Cistercian Sisters Roscrea Order

Sept Roscrea, 2nd Elementary 40 In groups of 3 or 4 made classroom 13-14 Nenagh, School presentations about Superhero ideals such as Dromineer peace, love, respect, compassion, finding your "inner superhero"; stayed at a "public land" for travelers through Dromineer

Sept Nenagh, 3rd Elementary 60 Superhero storytelling at school in Nenagh; 14 Killaloe, School, more Superhero storytelling with teenagers in Tuamgraney, random Killaloe; organic farm work in Scarriff; visited Scarriff meetings in 1000 year-old oak tree in Tuamgraney (where we streets, organic stayed on farm, site of farm) sacred tree

Date City Location Km Service Projects and Activities

Sept Scarriff, Same organic 10 1/3 or the group continued to work on organic 15-18 Feakle farm (stayed 3 each farm (weeding in the greenhouse, mucking nights total), day barn, fixing a stone wall, repairing a bike, church, fixing up the goat barn); 1/3 of the group woman's helped a woman move her piano; 1/3 of the

86 house group worked at a church in Feakle

Sept Full day of Arrived at the 40 Biking all day; arrived at Church of Ireland 19 biking in rain Church of where we camped toEnnis Ireland

Sept Ennis Church of 5 Half the group worked on restoring the church 19-21 Ireland, pews and cleaning the church; half the group Oxfam volunteered at Oxfam for the clothing drive clothing store

Sept Full bike day A local Irish 60 On the way we warmed up in 2 pubs in 21-23 in hurricane musicians' Ennistimon and Doughmore, talked to locals to Cree (via house and fixed flat tires; arrived at musicians' house Ennistimon in Cree in evening; next day cleaned up and shoreline; on the 2nd night music and singing Doughmore)

Sept Lisdoonvarna Cliffs of 45 Superhero Defrocking Ceremony on ocean 23- (via Lahinch) Kilkee; between Cree and Lisdoonvarna; camped in 24/25 "Europe's Lisdoonvarna at the Match-Making Festival; Largest after Defrocking, the group had fun at the Match-Making festival; half the group left for Doolin on the Festival" 24th while the other half stayed one more night

Sept Doolin The group 10 Relaxing, last interviews 24/25- stuck together 27 and relaxed at a hostel

Sept A small Stayed in a 85 Took ferry from Killimer to Tarbert 27 coastal rural barn (more area between hurricane Doolin and winds) Tralee

Sept Tralee (via Stayed at a 70 Grasshopper said good-bye and the rest of the 28 Ballybunion park group caught up with Hugman and Birch Bark and Bob Ballyheige)

11 Superhero Culture

The Superheroes developed rituals and a chore schedule that served to support their gift-

87 based culture and were expressions of their creativity. While rituals provided opportunity for group bonding, personal transformation and embracing times of transition, the chore schedule provided daily structure and organization that allowed people to preserve energy for giving spontaneously. The rhythm of structure and spontaneity within the community provided a portable sense of "being at home" that the group carried with it on its nomadic journey. The Superheroes passed on this sense of home by introducing new Superheroes to the philosophies behind the ride and passing on the reasons for the rituals and chores.

Chore Schedule

The Superheroes divided themselves into four groups of four or five people who worked together throughout the ride on a rotating chore schedule so that each Superhero would get to do each chore. The four groups were Compost and Recycling, Cook Crew,

Support, Timekeeping, and Navigation. The chore schedule rotated once or twice a week.

The compost and recycling crew was responsible for carrying all the compost and recycling on their bikes until they found public compost and recycling receptacles. In some counties there was no public composting so we would ask farmers if they could use our compost. Some towns did not have public recycling, so it would be carried to the next town. Those on cook crew would be responsible for shopping every two to four days and for finding farmer's markets and organic stores. They were also responsible for maintaining a tidy food trailer and for making sure the group had enough cooking implements and eating utensils. This crew was responsible for making breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. The navigation crew was responsible for mapping safe routes between

88 service jobs and for tracking where the group was if it was moving spontaneously without a plan. The support crew was responsible for checking with other groups to see if they needed help. It was also responsible for helping individual Superheroes if they needed help packing, fixing a flat tire or any other unforeseen task. Those on support could also give massages or send their good wishes to those having a rough day. Timekeepers were responsible for reminding Superheroes of things like getting their work done in time to bike home during daylight or that lunch needed to be concluded in order to get to another service project on time. Sometimes those on the timekeeping would help the support crew.

Daily Rituals

The Superheroes practiced daily rituals that helped to maintain group cohesion and gave each day a sense of structure. These rituals were Love Bombs, Readings of the Great,

Circle-Ups, Thanking and Sharing, The Great Eyeball, and Consensus.

Love Bombs were a way of giving spontaneously that embodied the idea of

"planting seeds of inspiration." Examples I observed were swooping into a used bike shop to sing a song praising used bikes shops and leaving a Superhero post card with the words "Thank You" at a community leader's door. The idea was to give people a burst of excitement and joy from expressions of gratitude.

Readings of the Great was a practice of saying inspiring words that might be relevant to something the Superheroes were experiencing that day. It could also be the singing of a song or recitation of a poem meant to incite laughter or philosophical

89 thought. Sometimes a Superhero would say a quote that related directly to a mutual experience with another Superhero. Readings of the Great were read right before the group left camp in the morning and sometimes before lunch or dinner. This usually took about five minutes.

Circle-Ups involved bringing the entire group together before leaving in the morning and often before meals. This was a time when Superheroes could convene as a unified group to briefly discuss plans, voice small concerns and to get a sense of people's mood and energy levels. Readings of the great often occurred in circle-ups. Circle-Ups also hosted other rituals. Generally, everyone held hands during circle-ups. When this happened, the Superheroes would pass hand squeezes around the circle before the group left the circle. Circle-Ups could be anywhere from five minutes (usually in the morning) to an hour (sometimes in the evening).

Thanking and Sharing was an evening ritual partly inspired by the Quaker practice of "speaking out of the silence." This means that the group would become silent so that individuals could get in touch with their feelings and deep thoughts. If they felt moved to do so, people would share what they were grateful for from that day and how they were feeling in that moment. Some people would voice concerns or difficult personal struggles. It was important that people not respond to each other so they could focus on listening rather than on formulating responses. No one was obligated to speak.

Thanking and Sharing took place outside if the weather was nice, under a tarp if it was raining, and occasionally in someone's house when invited. It usually lasted for approximately an hour.

90 The Great Eyeball was a practice that would coincide with thanking and sharing, although it was not a nightly ritual on the Ireland ride. It would involve one person telling the group their observations of what the Superheroes had experienced that day. The person who had the task of being the Great Eyeball would be given a glass eyeball or other special object in the morning. This would remind them to stay somewhat emotionally detached and quiet throughout the day in order to observe the group like an outsider might. This person recounted observations of group experiences, individual struggles and triumphs, beautiful scenery, moving encounters with people the group had helped and any observations of occurrences that individuals might have been too engaged in to notice what was happening. Sometimes the Great Eyeball from the previous day would forget to pass on the responsibility to another Superhero. When this happened, someone might volunteer during thanking and sharing to tell the group their perspective of the day. The Great Eyeball usually lasted around five minutes.

Consensus meetings often happened four or five times a week after thanking and sharing. Once, an entire day was dedicated to a consensus meeting. Consensus meetings were decision-making rituals partly inspired by Quaker "meetings for worship with a concern for business," and by some Aboriginal opening ceremonies. Consensus meetings emphasized a primary concern of coming together as a cohesive group of equals, with a secondary concern of how technically this could be done. Often meetings would open on the basis of commonality. This means that everyone was asked to agree that they all cared about some basic things, such as community, love, peace, nature. This basis of commonality would be grounded in silence, meaning that people were asked to hold silence before speaking, much like in Thanking and Sharing. The ideals of consensus

91 were the following. Everyone is equal. Everyone listens more than they speak. Everyone allows at least three seconds of silence after the last speaker, before they begin to speak.

Everyone is respectful of each other's perspective. Everyone uses lean words to get to the heart of what they want to say. Everyone is patient to share their new thoughts, waiting to see if their ideas are still worth saying a moment later. The core ideal behind consensus was that it is not a compromise between two choices; it is a creative, loving, respectful collaboration of everyone's best intentions to find a third way to do something that individuals might not have thought of on their own.

Transitional Rituals

Unlike the daily rituals, transitional rituals took place occasionally, as required. These included Calling the Ride, Opening, Superhero Orientations, Superhero Naming,

Superhero Goodbyes, Superhero Recognition, Defrocking, and Dice of Destiny.

The tradition of calling the ride has been consistent since the beginning of the

Superhero movement. When one or more Superheroes decide they want to convene a ride, they choose a future date and meeting place and begin sending invitation letters (see

Appendix D - Blazing Echidna's Call), emails, and "putting the intention out into the universe." Usually the Superhero who has called the ride is responsible for recruiting

Superheroes, for communicating with everyone interested in joining and for organizing the bulk of the logistical details. These details may involve getting a bike trailer, stocking it with cooking gear, procuring food donations, finding a few people who might be interested in the Superheroes doing service projects for them, and so forth. The person

92 who calls the ride often "holds the space of the ride," meaning they set the primary intentions and communicate these to those who join. This could also mean that this person conducts Superhero orientations and certain rituals such as the defrocking

(closing) ceremony.

I was not present at the opening ceremony. I was told that the Superheroes had a circle-up for Superhero naming. Then each Superhero stated their intentions for what they would like to bring to the ride. Love Ninja, who called the ride, stated her intentions and told the story behind why she called the ride.

New Superheroes participated in an hour long orientation a day or two after they joined the ride. This involved a reading and explanation of the "Superhero Tendencies" by one of the experienced Superheroes. This was a list of ideals, intentions and philosophy that had been compiled by many Superheroes during the first five or six years of Superhero rides. It listed ideals that were considered to have remained constant throughout the rides. The philosophy was said to morph with every new rider but generally there was an emphasis on having "trust/faith in the universe," meaning to embrace spontaneity and to "be open to possibility," letting go of being attached to specific goals, with "no purpose except to love fully." The tendencies of a Superhero also included the fostering of "patience, tolerance and growth (expanding as human beings)."

The phrase "expanding as human beings" was elaborated upon by an emphasis on following your own journey, nurturing yourself so you can help others, and finally that this human expansion extends outward from the group and contributes to a revolution of ecological and social responsibility.

93 Superhero naming involved a circle-up in which the new Superhero would stand in the centre. This person would say their superhero name and a motto that goes with the name. For example, my motto was "I am Grasshopper. I take leaps of faith that the universe will provide—that even during times of suffering, everything will subside." (See

Appendix D - Blazing Echidna Naming for a comparable name significance that shows the spirit of fun in choosing one's name.) The circle would then get tighter so that all the

Superheroes could put their hands on the head of the person in the centre. That person would crouch down and then jump up, while everyone's hands flew up to the sky and they cried out the person's superhero name.

Superhero Goodbyes also involved a circle-up. Holding hands, they would walk around the person at the centre. Each person would spontaneously call out words that described their perception of that person, such as "kind, vulnerable, silly." As the circle moved, two Superheroes would eventually break handholding and one would lead the circle in a spiral into the centre where the person in question was standing. Everyone would continue saying descriptive words until the circle became of mass of people hugging the one in the middle. Then everyone would cry out the word, "Superhero!"

When it was time for the Superheroes to say goodbye, they would honour community members by symbolically making them a Superhero. The ceremony was the same as the Superhero goodbyes, except that a Superhero badge would be given to the person (See Appendix D — Superhero Badges), and in the circle-up, the Superheroes would thank the person for leading the community project and tell them they were making a noticeable difference in the world.

94 The defrocking ceremony was the closing ceremony that ended the ride. This involved expressing in a circle-up gratitude for one another's company on the ride and well wishes for the future. The focus of the ceremony was to let go of the intense experiences of the ride in order to provide a kind of closure and to turn the focus away from the past, into the present moment. Since the Ireland defrocking occurred on a remote beach, each Superhero picked up a stone from the beach and stood in silence thinking about their experiences of the ride and putting those memories into the stones.

Then the stones were thrown into the ocean. Finally, everyone took off their capes and squeezed each other's hands. This was a simple ritual but Superheroes said it was very meaningful after the deep experiences they had had during the ride.

Dice of destiny was not meant to be a transitional ritual but a game in which a fun group activity was chosen by rolling a dice and matching the numbers with those on a numbered list of games suggested by Superheroes. Dice of destiny was only played once on this ride and ended up marking a transition because it was played right after the group emerged from a period of dissent and internal strife. Dice of destiny was the first game played as a group since the beginning of the ride and it was refreshing to see everyone so silly. The game chosen from the list was "the triangle game," popularly played in Joanna

Macy's Work That Reconnects workshops and in earth education programs. This game is an interactive activity that models the principle of interconnectivity and how small-scale relationships (such as a friendship or the relationship between an atom and its electrons) impacts large-scale relationships (such as the relationship between the earth's weather systems and the earth's web of ecosystems). The game begins in a circle, where each person "assigns" her/himself to two other people in the group. Then the circle breaks up as people start moving within a fixed area (perhaps 20 square metres). Each person must assure that their position in relation to their two "assigned" friends forms an equilateral triangle. The triangle game was played twice. The first time was fast and people said they didn't notice what was happening with the group because they were too focused on their own triangle. The second time was in slow-motion and this time people said they could see that their subtle individual movements affected the balance and behaviour of the entire group. One Superhero said she had an "Ahah!" moment of realizing that everything she does has a reaction that ripples outward into the world.

A Typical Day

A typical day on the Ireland Superhero ride began at 6am or 7am and ended at 10pm or

11pm. The cook crew would get up at 6am to start the camping stoves and make breakfast, snacks and hot tea for the group. At 7am the rest of the Superheroes would come to breakfast. Usually three or four Superheroes would get up with the breakfast crew to meditate and do yoga. A typical breakfast would comprise of hot tea, oatmeal with raisins, sauteed seeds, organic yogurt, honey, dates, shredded coconut, peanut butter, almond butter and leftovers from the previous night's dinner. After breakfast the cook crew would hand out snacks, which were usually individually bagged mixtures of nuts, dates and raisins. The group would then pack up their tents and belongings and take care of last-minute bike repairs. During this time the navigators would plot the initial course, the compost/recycling crew would pack the compost and recycling, and the support crew would try to pack their things quickly so they could help others to heed the calls of the timekeepers. When everyone was ready to leave, the group would circle-up to communicate plans, to thank the hosts or do recognitions and to do Readings of the

Great. Although the group generally intended to leave camp by 9am, they often left by

10am, due to things like last minute bike problems and long good-byes with hosts.

The group would typically bike for two or three hours before stopping for lunch.

Superheroes at the front of the group would "post" sharp turns by standing on the corner and waving people in the right direction. Often there would be a thirty-minute lag between the cyclists at the front and the cyclists at the back. Sometimes a Superhero would post for nearly fifteen minutes, which would be a good opportunity to rest or to talk to another Superhero helping to post. Many other short stops happened when

Superheroes got flat tires or took breaks for water, snacks or toilet. Much of the Ireland ride involved biking through the countryside, down narrow roads lined with blackberry bushes or stone walls, intermittently getting chased by aggressive sheep dogs.

Occasionally the group got lost in the labyrinthine country roads, which were more numerous and intricate than represented on any map. Each Superhero carried their own water and snacks but on hot, long distance days, people had to stop into country pubs to refill their water bottles.

At lunch time the group would usually take an hour to eat, circle-up, perhaps play a game, perhaps trade massages, fetch water, make bicycle adjustments and check the maps. Occasionally there were time constraints that warranted a half-hour lunch. Other times, lunch might extend to two hours. Generally, people resisted taking long lunches because they wanted to either be biking or be spontaneously giving or working on service projects. The cook crew would prepare lunch, which typically comprised of hot tea, organic spelt bread-and-cheese sandwiches with mustard, sauerkraut, lettuce, kale,

97 zucchini, peppers, apples, peanut and almond butter, and leftover breakfast if some remained.

If the Superheroes had a specific destination where a promised service project awaited, they would bike through towns and villages, only stopping briefly for water, lunch, or to say hello. If the day was instead open to spontaneity, the group might ride into the centre of town and start asking if anyone needed help. In these cases, the group would split up into smaller "scout groups" to try to "manifest" work or a place to sleep.

The group would agree to meet back at that location within an hour. Key places to look for work were churches, volunteer bureaus, elder care facilities (if they allowed volunteers without a background check), shelters and soup kitchens. Often when on the way to one of these places, the Superheroes would meet someone curious to ask about their costumes and conversation would lead to a service project at someone's house.

While the scout groups looked for work and land to camp on, the cook crew might go to the local health food store or farmer's market to find organic local produce and other items that needed restocking. In one town, it was the cook crew who found both a service project and a place to stay. While buying apple cider vinegar outside Ennis, the crew met a musician who lived 60 km away on the shores near Cree. He invited the group to stay at his house, which was fortunate because the tail end of a hurricane went through western Ireland that night.

Most days were divided between being either cycling/manifesting days or full work days. By around 4pm on cycling/manifesting days the group needed to find a service project for the next day and a place to stay that night. After one or two full work

98 days, another cycling/manifesting day began as the group moved westward. Sometimes a nearby future service project would be offered by someone involved with a current project and the group would only have to cycle an hour before beginning another full work day.

Dinner was usually sometime between 6pm and 8pm. The group often split up into several groups to work on different service projects. Ideally the cook crew would start preparing dinner at 5pm and be finished by 6pm. On long distance days or days when there was a lot of exciting service work, the cook crew might not begin preparing dinner until 6pm or 7pm. As the days began to get shorter through September, the cook crew began preparing dinner earlier. The crew had three camping stoves and four pots. A typical dinner consisted of hot tea, organic brown rice, bean chili, organic bread and butter and ratatouille. Sometimes the cook crew would also make dessert, such as fried bananas with honey.

Meal times were charged with energy. Because of the daily athletic activity,

Superheroes were very hungry. Some rules of conduct were generally encouraged within the group to avoid impatient acts of disrespect. These included waiting until cook crew had finished before taking any food, offering to help prepare the meal if the cook crew were under time constraints, asking the group if everyone had eaten enough of something before taking more, and making room for everyone to sit together if they wished. Meal times were also very social. Superheroes would tell stories of their experiences of the day and were occasionally joined by their host or another member of the community.

Sometimes the group would become very silent while eating, smiling at each other and enjoying one another's company. Other times a meal would become a seemingly rare time for everyone to be in one place at one time and so the meal would turn into a consensus meeting to discuss logistical things or future plans. Occasionally the mood during meal time was one of frustration, anxiety and debate.

After dinner the Superheroes would often have an hour to themselves to organize their gear, write in journals, explore, followed by thanking and sharing and perhaps consensus. By this time it was usually dark. Most of the Superheroes participated in thanking and sharing every night but sometimes a Superhero needed to go to bed early.

Often Superheroes would stay up for one or two hours after thanking and sharing, getting to know community members, going to see traditional Irish music, or spending quality time with one or two close friends in the group. Superheroes were often in bed by 10pm or 11pm but once in a while the group stayed up until after midnight. Bedtime was often the only time in the day when people were available to do interviews with me. One interview went until almost 2am and I am grateful to Rabbi Yikes for having the stamina to stay mentally alert for that long.

Ongoing Group Bonding and Co-Creative Acculturation

Throughout the Superhero ride, acculturation and cultural co-creation unfolded from within the Superhero practices of orientation, ritual, play, music, storytelling, mythmaking, consensus-building, spontaneous giving, and "holding space." Holding space involved listening to another person in a "safe space" of trust and, if they decided, confidentiality. It was understood that the speaker would not be cut off by the listener expressing opinions or trying to "fix the problem" intrusively.

100 As new Superheroes learned about the Superhero tendencies through the orientation and through the guidance of experienced Superheroes, they in turn helped to shape the culture by giving their own input into the decision-making process as well as through new ideas for ritual and play. It is difficult to say what was more influential, the acculturation of new Superheroes or the co-creation of culture by all the members of the group on an ongoing basis. Both worked concurrently. This generated energy, excitement and cohesion that contributed to the synergy of the group. As friendships formed and people participated in each other's personal growth experiences the group bonded more strongly. This compounded the feeling of there being a distinct culture or family environment within the group.

There was an emphasis on individual integrity within the group. Superheroes encouraged each other to follow their own heart when it was time for the group to make decisions together. This contributed to a sense of cohesion, since individuals said they felt closer to each other when others had listened to their concerns or struggles—where there had been a "heart connection" as Love Ninja had put it.

The Superheroes had a policy of inclusiveness, meaning anyone who wants to join a ride will not be turned away. Because of this policy, there were times when newcomers joined half-way through the ride after everyone else had already bonded.

Super Zero said he had experienced this when he arrived. He said it had been difficult for him "to find a niche in the group" and because of this, he felt isolated for the first week he was there. Furthermore, the group did not have an adequate amount of time to bond without the distractions of service work, since the service work began as soon as people started to arrive in Ireland. Some Superheroes believed that lack of bonding time led to a compromised level of group cohesion. Many Superheroes said that a compromised level of group cohesion led to the need to take a full day off for consensus meetings on the Ridge of Capard, half­ way through the ride. Nevertheless, by the end of the consensus meeting, the conflict came to be seen by many Superheroes as a challenge to grow (a "growing edge"), rather than a setback. The consensus meeting, based more on listening than on discussing, was later seen as one of the most powerful tools for maintaining the spontaneity and cohesion of the Superhero culture.

HI Focus Story

Consensus Meeting on the Ridge of Capard

During the first ten days of the ride, the group began to disagree about how they should travel west. Some Superheroes wanted to take a train directly to the west coast and continue the ride there because the west coast was more rural, more beautiful and "more like Ireland." Other Superheroes thought that this was too goal-oriented and compromised their ideals of spontaneous giving and of letting go of attachments to things happening in a certain way. Out of this disagreement arose many late night consensus meetings that people left without resolution, feeling generally unsatisfied. New

Superheroes tended to reserve comment or to say they would go with whatever the group chose. However, more people began to choose sides and the level of anxiety in the group rose as consensus meetings seemed to take longer and longer. Soon people were irritated by their disagreements—they began to feel angry that they were disagreeing in the first place. Many said that the long consensus meetings were a waste of time since the reason they were here was to "put their energy outward into the world" and spread their intentions of giving.

By September 9th, Blazing Echidna identified several things that were contributing to the mood of anxiety in the group that made consensus more difficult.

First, many people had come a long way from home not only to give as Superheroes but also to see a beautiful country and culture. They had brought with them certain expectations, including seeing more of the west. Second, almost half the group (six out of fifteen people at the time) had made major changes in their lives right before the ride.

Hugman had lived part time between Canada, the US and Africa and was now moving full time to Africa; Believo was in the process of moving to another city; Love Ninja had just given away all her possessions and a large sum of money and left her job either temporarily or permanently to pursue an "open-ended Superhero quest into the unknown"; Pipi Tawanda had just moved across the country; and both Somebody and another Superhero were in the process of moving. In fact, Somebody had not yet decided where she was going to go after the ride. Blazing Echidna said that this ride was functioning as a transitional experience for nearly half the group and that this added an

"ungrounded energy" to the dynamics between people.

Another Superhero observed another factor that contributed to "ungrounded" group dynamics. First, the group had not had time to bond before beginning service work.

As soon as Superheroes arrived in Dublin, they were thrown into the excitement of service work without getting a chance to acclimatize themselves to a new place and to each other. She said that a group bonds and builds culture in four phases that are all necessary for group synergy. These are "forming" (people are together but they do not yet think like a group), "storming" (different ideas compete for consideration), "norming"

(compromise, consensus, bonding), and "performing" (working together to get things done). This group, she said, jumped right from forming to performing without bonding

(storming and norming). It was in the performing (service work and deciding where/when to do it) that conflict arose from a lack of mutual understanding which should have come from storming and norming. She said if a group experiences conflict before bonding, it will bond into that feeling of conflict and perform out of conflict. When this happens, the group must take a step back from performing and go back to bonding.

So the Superheroes decided to take a day off in the mountains to bond and then to decide whether they would stay together as a group and either go straight to the west coast or go wherever spontaneous giving would take them—or to split up and each new group go the way they wanted to. They convened a consensus meeting that lasted approximately five hours. It had been raining, so it took place under a tarp on the grass.

The group had arrived the night before, set up camp, eaten and gone to sleep. They had decided to sleep in until 1 lam and to begin the meeting at 1pm after lunch. When everyone was under the tarp, I brought them a large bowl of blackberries I had picked in the hills. The mood of the group was mixed. Some people were eager to see what would happen. Some people were cold and tired. Some people seemed a little frustrated. Others were very cheerful.

When everyone was together, the group realized that they had been having consensus meetings for ten days but they had neglected to assure that each group member understand the philosophy and ideals for consensus. So Super Zazzie, a Quaker camp

104 leader, explained the Quaker intention to "find the third way"—a solution that individuals might not have thought of on their own that arises out of the creative, loving, respectful collaboration of everyone's best intentions in consensus. She described the following ideals of consensus. Everyone is equal. Everyone listens more than they speak. Everyone allows at least three seconds of silence after the last speaker, before they begin to speak.

Everyone is respectful of each other's perspective. Everyone uses lean words to get to the heart of what they want to say. Everyone is patient to share their new thoughts, waiting to see if their ideas are still worth saying a moment later. She then opened the meeting by asking the group to focus on their "common ground," asking if everyone could agree that they believed in community, love, peace, nature and each other. She said this was part of the basis of the group's commonality and asked that this be grounded in silence. The group was silent for a few moments until Super Zazzie reminded the group that they had convened with a primary concern of coming together as a cohesive group of equals and with a secondary concern of how technically this could be done. She asked each member to think about what was really important to them, to discern between wants and needs, and to bring all their best intentions and ideas to this meeting.

The group decided they wanted to stay together and continue biking west rather than taking the train. Love Ninja articulated what others in the group thought, that what she really yearned for was to be able to give without reserve and to find her true self through giving to others. She said it wouldn't matter if they were to go straight to the west coast or to carry on from the mountains—what really mattered was that each person give more and be able to spend less time in consensus meetings. What enabled this to happen was the bonding that took place during this consensus meeting. Four hours were

105 spent listening to each other's stories of their experiences on the ride and their perspectives of how they would like to see the remainder of the ride unfold. The meeting became very moving when Love Ninja and Rabbi Yikes showed vulnerable sides of themselves that many new Superheroes had not seen before. Showing their vulnerability disarmed the group in a way that allowed consensus to come quite quickly, as a new level of mutual compassion grew out of this shared experience of openness.

Consensus meetings were smoother after this experience because people seemed more willing to listen and less likely to cut each other off disrespectfully. After the consensus meeting closed, there was a new sense of resolution for many people. That night the group celebrated by making a feast and staying up to watch the stars through the clouds from the top of the mountain. Many people continued to struggle with their own growing challenges but the consensus meeting on the Ridge of Capard helped to create the foundation for mutual support and compassion within the group.

106 Chapter 5: Findings

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic.

(Goethe, quoted in Superhero Start-Up Kit)

In this chapter I present an overview of the findings of the study. Section One responds to four research questions. Section Two synthesizes the findings for the research questions to answer the central thesis question. First, I present Superhero descriptions of spontaneous giving and stories of related experiences. Second, I describe Superhero perspectives on transformative learning experiences, including those possibly related to the deepening of ecological consciousness. I then present two examples of transformative learning stories and their association with stories of the deepening of ecological consciousness. Many of the Superheroes agreed that there is a connection between spontaneous giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness, but some said that there is not necessarily a direct causal relationship.

I Findings for Research Questions

Question 1. What are the Superheroes' experiences of what they define to be "spontaneous giving," "ecological consciousness" and "transformative learning experiences?"

This section explores how the Superheroes made meaning of their experiences of spontaneous giving, transformative learning and the deepening of ecological

107 consciousness. I look at the language and philosophical backgrounds used to define these terms and present the main themes that arose from Superhero stories. Then I present three detailed examples of Superhero transformative learning experiences in order to examine the connection between giving, transformative learning and the deepening of ecological consciousness.

Descriptions of Spontaneous Giving and Stories of Related Experiences

The first thing most Superheroes said they had initially noticed about the way the

Superheroes give was the outpouring of creativity and spontaneity. Tiger Lilly said when she first became involved with the Superheroes years ago that she was struck by a sense of "novelty." One Superhero13 who was new to the Ireland ride said, "I've never given in this way before." Green Geek, for whom Ireland was his first ride, said, "The best gifts and ideas and things come up with spontaneity and creativity." He said, "[There's an] energy generated outside yourself with a group or a situation where you jump at it and you're called. You take on the challenge beyond what you're comfortable with. [...]

That's how bigger, better things get created and given."

Another Superhero said that in a place like Ireland, where "charity" is often thought about with a certain gravitas, people were inspired by spontaneous giving "and told us so many times." One of the nuns the Superheroes had helped had explained the aforementioned gravitas as a symptom of the Irish cultural resistance to accepting help,

13 When I refer to a Superhero who did not want their Superhero name included in this study, or who did not want to be identified in the context of the reference, I will quote "one Superhero" or "another Superhero." This is not to be confused with the Superhero called Somebody. which stemmed from the historically patronizing relationship between Ireland and

England. One Superhero said, "Maybe we're helping reframe what it means to give and receive." Superheroes told me many stories recounting feedback they had received as a group about how their way to give was special. One Superhero remembered that an Irish priest had told her, "You have recaptured something very pure. What you are doing is like medieval knights." Another Superhero told me a schoolteacher had said to her, "I always thought there were people like you in the world. I just never thought I would meet one in Ireland."

The Superheroes used some "unique practices" in their spontaneous giving. The earliest spontaneous giving I witnessed or heard about involved delivering "love bombs," in which the Superheroes would swoop into a situation on bikes and give someone a positive message or a gift and then quickly bike away, crying something uplifting such as

"Be looooove!" Another time, the Superheroes changed a flabbergasted family's flat tire on the highway. Spontaneous giving also involved zestfully getting up at the crack of dawn to eat, pack up and leave camp as soon as possible in order to go anywhere to find any person, to whom would spontaneously be given a gift of undetermined kind—all driven by a magical excitement to discover how the group might help someone and what connections they would make with people that day. Spontaneous giving could take the form of improvising a song for someone and encouraging strangers to join in on an impromptu serenade—as was shown on the CBC Ideas documentary about the

Superheroes, called "Flow Girl and the Superheroes" (Bisaillon 2006). One Superhero told me that on one occasion, Superheroes found a man lying on the road who was having a heart attack. One of the Superheroes who was a nurse, helped to save the man's life. But spontaneous giving wasn't always this exciting. It could be very subtle. "In order to really understand how we give," said one Superhero, "you have to look at the quiet side of what we do." As one Superhero put it, "this kind of giving is mostly in the heart." One example of this type of giving is when the Superheroes helped a couple and their family on their organic farm. The couple expressed gratitude for the physical labour volunteered by the Superheroes but what they said helped them the most was how the

Superheroes showed concern for their emotional wellbeing by asking them about their experiences of isolation living on the farm and listening to their stories. Super Zazzie told me that the couple had each told the Superheroes that "Your caring has strengthened my resolve to continue trying." For Love Ninja, spontaneous giving involved planning how to make a vision work while also planning to not plan. This fits for the above example of helping the family on their organic farm because the Superheroes had planned to help but they also planned to not plan how they were going to help. By asking questions and listening to stories of experiences, they were able to learn "in the moment" what was needed and to spontaneously give from that place of learning.

Love Ninja said in an interview that the spontaneous part of spontaneous giving has to do with "trust and a leap of faith." She said, "People plan because they have fear as to what's going to happen next. [...] There're different types of planning. There's one

[type of] planning that is based on fear and then there's another type of planning that is

'How do I make this vision work?'" For Love Ninja, spontaneous giving involved planning how to make a vision work while also planning not to plan. This fits for the above example of helping the family on their organic farm because the Superheroes had planned to help but they also planned to not plan how they were going to help. By asking

110 questions and listening to stories of experiences, they were able to learn "in the moment" what was needed and to spontaneously give from that place of learning.

Unlike volunteering, this way of giving is almost completely unstructured and deliberately not affiliated with any one organization or cause. Blazing Echidna differentiated between spontaneous giving and volunteering, saying spontaneous giving emphasized "spreading seeds" of the idea that giving can be unconditional, whereas volunteering is more about addressing specific causes, about choosing who gets help and when. Spontaneous giving, he said, is more "universal."

How to give spontaneously was often talked about with specific relation to striving to fully "be present" or to "be in the moment." One Superhero said that spontaneous giving could only occur when one's mind was focused and awareness of one's surroundings was heightened. Furthermore, some Superheroes said that when awareness of one's surroundings was heightened, this created opportunities for "feeling that we're connected to each other and to nature." This was in contrast to any non- spontaneous form of giving, which can be performed in a distracted state of mind. Wild

Wooly Wonder said, "And 'in the moment' is just being aware of what's going on and then a way to respond to it that's meaningful." For Wooly Wonder, a "meaningful response" could involve an interaction that allowed for listening to another's (possibly differing) perspective until one might clearly see what the other actually needed and thus be able to respond appropriately.

An example of this type of interaction occurred one night during Thanking and

Sharing at the house of an environmentalist architect who had asked the Superheroes for

111 help on his property where he was building a complex of houses for an intentional community. During this Thanking and Sharing, many different things happened at once that contributed to a new depth of mutual compassion within the group, including expressions of what Wild Wooly Wonder had described earlier as finding "a meaningful response" to the needs of the architect.

After a full day of work, the architect had invited the group into his home on a cold, rainy night and offered home-made soup, thus initiating an atmosphere of welcome and safety. In fact, he invited the Superheroes into his kitchen to help him make the soup.

Despite this generosity, I witnessed guardedness in him that I thought was like self- protective arrogance. Some Superheroes had earlier that day expressed to me their distrust of the architect, having questioned his genuineness in some regards. Two

Superheroes had said they thought the architect was arrogant and perhaps wasn't

"practicing what he preached," since he was using some rare building materials that had a large ecological footprint. Nevertheless, these Superheroes wanted to give without reserve and were open to the possibility of finding out what was behind what they perceived to be his disingenuousness.

After hours of sharing stories and eating together, the group became comfortable enough with each other to speak about more personal experiences. A number of

Superheroes expressed feelings of isolation and frustration that they said they had been struggling with for the past few days during a rough portion of the ride. Two

Superheroes said that by expressing these feelings to the group, and having people just listen without responding, they gained a sense of relief and of feeling supported by each

14 These were the few days leading up to and following the consensus meeting on the Ridge of Capard. 112 other. For these Superheroes, the "meaningful response" was to just listen and give them space to speak. When the architect heard this, he said he felt that it gave him permission to speak more openly. He told the group about many deeply personal, painful challenges in his life, such as being the single parent of a disabled child, watching his father's slow return to a childlike state while dying, and struggling to live his ideals and to hold onto a basic joy for life in the face of what he perceived to be a fear-mongering, distrustful, materialistic world. After he spoke, I witnessed a transformation in the group on many levels.

First, on witnessing his vulnerable side, the same Superheroes who had previously expressed to me their distrust of the architect's level of genuineness, were now telling him that they felt closer to him and felt more generous toward him. The body language and voice of the architect softened considerably when he heard this. A Superhero reflected to me later that the architect had then said, "What the Superheroes are doing is really important: being genuine, being yourselves. Words are limiting; just be. What you're doing is like my best dream from childhood of how people can be in the world."

There were tears in his eyes and he let go of any visible vestige of arrogance.

One Superhero later speculated that the "meaningful response" for the

Superheroes to give to the architect in that moment was compassion. "Compassion cannot be faked" she said. "Compassion arises out of listening and dropping our preconceived notions about people." She added, "Like with [the architect], compassion is usually the most appropriate response to give to anybody in any situation. That is what spontaneous giving is about. Transforming my perspective of someone so I can more

113 clearly see what they need in the moment and give to them from that new level of understanding."

Similarly, Love Ninja, Blazing Echidna, Rabbi Yikes and the Superhero called

"Somebody" expressly stated that by giving up one's preconceived notions of what another might desire or need, one can more fully contribute to the healing that is needed in the world. Wild Wooly Wonder especially emphasized "healing opportunities" in this way of giving. She said spontaneous giving could enable "healing whatever's keeping me from being fully who I am [...]; being on my life's path and finding my gifts and [giving] them to the world [...]; fully living to my potential and capacity and giving to the world."

She added that she experienced this healing through both the act of giving and by being the receiver of such giving. For her, the compassionate giving that occurred in the architect's house during Thanking and Sharing provided a "healing opportunity" for individuals to more fully "be themselves" in a way that allowed them to "respond appropriately" to one another.

Healing played a very important role in experiences of spontaneous giving for many of the Superheroes. For example, when I asked Rabbi Yikes what was her favorite memory on a Superhero ride, she told me about the development of an unexpectedly deep connection a year or two earlier with a youth worker who initially "wasn't a very welcoming fellow" toward the Superheroes. This story is similar to what I witnessed in

Thanking and Sharing with the architect. The youth worker reluctantly invited the

Superheroes to stay with him while they worked for him on various service projects. The

Superheroes wanted to leave because at first he spoke and acted very coldly toward them.

However, by the end of their stay with the youth worker, Rabbi Yikes said she saw an

114 extraordinary transformation in his behaviour. The man was so moved by the

Superheroes' patience and attentiveness that he was disarmed and he wept. After that, he interacted more warmly with the Superheroes.

Rabbi Yikes felt that she had an especially close connection with the youth worker, based on both of their experiences as youth workers who do healing work. The man helped suicidal teenagers and Rabbi Yikes' impression of him was that he had sacrificed a great many things in his own life to pursue this work. She said, "I [...] valued the fact that he could find so much self-satisfaction and joy in work that he was really called to do and also the work that he was called to do was working with the earth to heal it and also healing people in pain—emotional pain [...]." When I asked her about the connection between "working with the earth to heal it" and "healing people in pain," she said that people can become depressed or ill when fundamentally disconnected from nature. Another Superhero said that studies of inner-city youth in wilderness camps have shown that reconnecting with their innate love for nature helps people to love themselves.

One Superhero said, "When I realized how much / loved nature, it came to me that I am a part of nature. And when this realization became the new context for my practice of giving to others, I realized that we're all connected. And when this happened, I saw that I am a part of nature and that I have to love myself as much as I love nature."

For Rabbi Yikes, this kind of lesson continued to deepen on an ongoing basis, into a realization about the connection between allowing herself to be vulnerable with others and self-healing. She said her experience with the youth worker was a reminder of this lesson because although his life's work involved helping others, the youth worker had great difficulty in accepting help for himself. She said she could relate to this, since she

115 herself was often uncomfortable accepting people's generosity. She said that like her, the youth worker found it difficult to receive because this involved being vulnerable with others and he did not like to show this side of himself. She described how she'd felt when the man recognized this about himself and then chose to show her his vulnerability. She said, "It was just amazing to see his turn of personality and I felt like I loved him. I just really thought he was amazing and thought he definitely had a lot of power that he shared with us [...]."

One Superhero remembered this man and mused about his transformation, saying that perhaps once the man had experienced how they gave to him, he couldn't help but to become more open to the group. Another Superhero explained the subtlety behind this kind of experience, saying the way they give is "more about appropriate action—and listening can be action; it's a stripping away of good intentions." Many of the

Superheroes said that the stripping away of good intentions has to do with healing and openheartedness. One Superhero said that openheartedness is not only the outcome of spontaneous giving but also it is what can create spontaneous giving opportunities. And this, said another Superhero, "is what can heal a closed heart."

Wild Wooly Wonder talked about the relationship between healing and openness as creating the conditions for clarity of mind. She said that, "my own stuff is put aside and I can just be present for other things that are happening or [for] other people." Rabbi

Yikes said a powerful way to open one's mind and to seek clarity is through sacrifice— the letting go of one's ego and one's perceived needs which are actually desires—in order to help others. Blazing Echidna described this as the "stripping down" of one's constructed identity to be "more fully human"—which involves the process of

116 experimentation and discovery of what it means "to give unconditionally" without judgment or reserve.

When I asked Blazing Echidna about the relationship between openness and healing as aspects of spontaneous giving, he said "nonattachment" was an important key:

'Cause the minute we attach our wellbeing to something outside of us, it is the law of physics and the law of the universe and in all sacred traditions: Things change. People die. Sometimes things are gone. Things break. If you attach yourself to an item, you're just asking for suffering. But you have to have the conversation that, "OK, I have this need now and I honor it, but I want to look at creative ways to find it in another way." A great example is sexuality. We are isolated in this country, in this [Western] culture, so what do we do? We find intimacy through sex as a way of getting close. And it's now a liberal movement—instead of saying: Is there another way to fulfill this need? Can I sit and really try to connect with someone at a heart level? Just to be curious: like what is the root of that? Finding the root of each need and working at it from a root level, as opposed to [a] slight renaming of it.

So, he said, cultivating openness, healing and clarity of mind through seeking nonattachment involves the process of becoming more fully aware of the difference between wants and actual needs. The practice of nonattachment involves sacrifice (as

Rabbi Yikes had said), and the giving up of preconceived notions of how things should be (as Love Ninja, Somebody and Wild Wooly Wonder had said). And through this practice of cultivating nonattachment lies the root of spontaneous giving.

Blazing Echidna said that this "true giving" requires root-level, heart-to-heart giving, with desires and expectations stripped away. To illustrate, he quoted ancient

Eastern wisdom, attributed to Lao Tzu: 117 The mind is like a pool of water.

Let the mind become calm and still.

As the mud of desires and expectations settles,

Truth bubbles up as insight.

Can you sit and let the mud settle?

And see with clarity what is at the bottom.

He explained that each person has their own more or less clouded perception of reality which is different than anyone else's. Someone might appear to see a situation more clearly but this does not invalidate anyone else's perspective. He said that it is through acknowledgement of their varying levels of clarity and differing qualities of perception that the Superheroes give spontaneously as a group.

Blazing Echidna said that the way this can work on a group level is that each individual has the opportunity to do their own personal work on letting go of attachments.

Then, "within a given situation, everyone sees it differently. Some people perceive it from emotional; some people are very factual [...]; some people hear what people say; some people sense intuitively—mixed with the live experiences and the gifts people have—which informs some solutions." As a group they put together their different perspectives on a situation in which there's an opportunity to give. He said:

And if you can combine [these different perspectives], you get a greater truth. And then from that greater objective truth, you can act [as a group] in a way that's beautiful, or respond clearly to the situation. So ideally that's what the Superheroes are after. So ideally, you'd be able to here come to a situation that gives everyone an 'Ahah!'

118 These "Ahah!" moments were considered by many Superheroes to be a key link between giving spontaneously and transformative learning experiences.

Thus a number of similar elements arose from the Superheroes' descriptions of spontaneous giving and stories of related experiences. They said that creativity and spontaneity were key aspects of the special Superhero way of doing service work. This involved "spreading seeds" of inspiration to help others live with "trust and a leap of faith" that allowed them to "reframe what it means to give and receive." They said that while spontaneous giving involved a spiritual approach to "being present" or "being in the moment," it also had the practical ramifications of "being aware of what's going on and then [finding] a way to respond to it that's meaningful." Some Superheroes thought that the personal work required in order to give while in this state of mind provided

"healing opportunities" to cultivate "nonattachment" and discerning the difference between wants and needs. This involved the "stripping away of good intentions" or the

"stripping away of ego" of one's constructed identity. Some saw this process as a practice of uncovering objective truth. Others believed that while there may not be such a thing as

"objective truth," the important thing is to learn to "give unconditionally" without judgment or reserve. Many Superheroes described spontaneous giving as leading to moments of clarity and insight that some called "Ahah!" moments or epiphanies.

119 Transformative Learning in the Context of Giving and Cycling and its Relationship to the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness

This section looks at how the Superheroes describe what transformative learning means, the philosophy behind it, and its importance. It also considerers how transformative learning experiences were sought or nurtured. Then it presents some of the stories the

Superheroes told of their transformative learning experiences and how they articulated the meaning of the connection between personal transformation and the deepening of ecological consciousness.

Superheroes tended to create and carry with them a cultural environment that supported the cultivation of'Ahah!' moments. Some of the Superheroes meditated and some of them practiced yoga in order to develop nonattachment and to discover how to apply it to their practice of spontaneous giving. Love Ninja said, "The greatest lessons in life come through giving to others." She added that giving has been the catalyst for the

"evolution of my own being. And I feel like I still have lots to learn about it, just releasing, knowing that everything I need will be provided for, just trusting that if I put my energy outward and give as myself, that there's no question it'll be provided for.

Trust. Leap of faith."

Blazing Echidna said of the connection between giving and transformative learning, "Well, it's to put aside of our ideas in boxes." He told a story about having his preconceived notions challenged on a Superhero ride. Because he had resolved to be spontaneous, he was put in a challenging situation of working with someone he said he would never have chosen to work with. She was a born-again Christian fundamentalist.

The Superheroes do not exclude anyone from participating as a Superhero based on their beliefs however Blazing Echidna still had to overcome his own qualms about organized religion. The more he worked with her and got to know her, the more he could empathize with the side of her that "was just another human being." This gave him the opportunity to personally transform. Through the process of listening to her perspective, he came to recognize and question his own judgmental thoughts about those who participate in organized religions. This helped him to become more open. This new level of openness allowed him to learn things that he said he may not have become ready to learn otherwise. He said:

Because I'm open, I'm sent to really different places. On the reverse side, someone who comes [...] whose a born again Christian, [now] she's working with anarchist gardeners, or monster bike mechanics, and seeing this amazing beauty in a group she would never choose to work with. [...] So I think that's part of it: when we're spontaneous, a lot more challenges come up. [...] Remove the labels and see we're all connected.

Blazing Echidna also commented on the connection between becoming more open and the deepening of ecological consciousness. He said that by coming to "see we're all connected," one can become more able to be open to a deepening in their feelings of being connected to nature. "We're all connected" extends beyond human interconnectedness to universal interconnectedness. He said that any closed-mindedness or closed-heartedness toward other people can contribute to creating a barrier to feeling close to nature. He added that it is a life's work to learn to let go of judgments and to open one's heart unconditionally to "all of life." And, as Super Zazzie said in an interview, "Our experiences can only be limited by our expectations of how they will unfold." Super Zazzie also commented on why the Superhero rides are so conducive to transformative learning "outside of the box." She said the Superhero experience is about:

educational, cultural experience, physical, biking, learning about yourself, all-in- all expanding awareness, which is the purpose of life, sped up and intensified on a ride, 'cause you're looking at all these things consciously [...]. It's concentrated, the concentrated experience of life. [...] It's a creative, nonconformist way of embracing creativity and joy and the idea of selfless service. [...] We go out on our trips and create our own universe. And just go on an adventure where we know we'll be changed inwardly.

She said this is perhaps why the Superhero experience provides opportunities for learning experiences deep enough to affect one's entire worldview: the Superheroes provide a safe community in which to challenge and question worldviews through "the concentrated experience of life." The "concentrated experience of life" refers to the fact that the month-long rides present learning opportunities about some of the most important things in life: how to live in community peacefully, solve problems, resolve conflicts, make sure everyone is taken care of, take responsibility for one's own actions, grow as an individual while also contributing to community. Yet, this "concentrated experience" is removed from one's everyday life. This provides an opportunity to look at life differently within an environment that is supportive of learning through making mistakes. Blazing Echidna commented on this "supportive environment" saying, "When someone messes up, we applaud because that person has just helped us to learn something about each other and ourselves."

122 Blazing Echidna said that the biking aspect of the rides added a key element to the

"supportive environment" and "concentrated experience of life" that Zazzie talked about.

He said:

[W]e need to evolve and learn how to make decisions and come into harmony quickly and under situations where it might be wet or cold. [...] I do a lot of interpersonal work—and it's always in these capsules of extreme comfort and safety—which is great—but we can't look at that as the end ideal [for learning]. The end ideal is: Can we carry the peace and communication through anything? [...] Sometimes we're dealing with hostile people, like police, or sometimes we're wet, or have danger to our bodies—Super Zazzie falling on her bike and hurting herself—it's real—you're not sitting on a cushion in a room. You're out in the world; some people will yell at you; some people will hug you.

Super Zazzie also said that the physical act of biking played a very important role in transformative learning experiences that included the deepening of ecological consciousness. She said this is because the experience of being exposed to the elements

(biking rain or shine) allowed people to become more aware of nature and to remember that they are a part of it. Both Love Ninja and Wild Wooly Wonder agreed that biking enhanced their experiences of being connected to nature and to each other. They both said that their favorite experiences on the ride occurred while biking as a group on days when a strong wind or a busy road forced them to ride very close together. Wooly

Wonder said that biking tightly together as a group while on the Arizona ride made her feel like "one organism because we have to be tighter and more communicative [...] everything's really heightened [...] to be connected with a group of people who are working together and creating unity together, to do something in the world [...] be in the world somehow." Love Ninja also said that biking was a way of "moving through the world in a more conscious way than if we were driving." She said the practice of biking was both "physical" and "spiritual."

Super Zazzie remembered a nurse saying that the Superheroes were "like a microcosm of life." Zazzie said this related to the "concentrated experience of life" that she had been talking about. She said that the combination of biking and spontaneous giving heightened the experience of this "microcosm of life" by making it more potent and more conducive to transformative learning experiences. She said:

I think during the ride when we were on that cutting edge all the time of not pulling back into comfort/habitual life, but putting ourself on the forefront and opening ourselves to be of service in whatever way necessary, kind of drove that: putting ourselves out there and then being able to connect with people or the projects [...]. That made me feel engaged with the whole cycle of life between people and place. Just really engaged in the interconnected, alive web of life, of everything.

Similarly, Blazing Echidna called the Superhero experience "potent" and said transformative learning tended to happen "because of the opportunity to learn. It doesn't mean anyone will learn from it. But also, it's an act of faith that the Universe has a better plan than you have. And that we can think our way to amazing plans, but if we just show up and are open, the best plan will come." The message here is that one cannot plan to have a transformative learning experience but one can be open to having such an experience by creating the conditions in which deep learning tends to occur. One

Superhero said, "Personal transformation can be shepherded into our lives by creating a culture of questioning ourselves and each other, of looking deeper, of seeking and being spontaneous." Super Zazzie said that biking was a vehicle (in both a physical and a spiritual sense) for cultivating spontaneity and personal transformation in this way. She said:

We definitely knew the mechanics of what we were doing, which was get on the bikes and move together. We had the vehicle for getting to whatever was next, even if we didn't know what [the next thing] was. At home I have all this freedom, but I don't have a vehicle, or I don't know what it is apart from surfing the web, which doesn't feel as immediate as feeling the wind in your face as you pedal into the unknown future. We were never sitting around and waiting, we were always just riding into it.

To summarize, each of the Superheroes I interviewed described a process of seeking and being spontaneous. Furthermore, each said they had learned something important from their Superhero experiences that had led to some level of personal transformation. Some of them described experiences that had the qualities of a transformative learning experience. And some of these experiences involved the deepening of feelings of being connected to nature and/or of the deepening of ecological consciousness.

Examples of Transformative Learning Stories and Connections to the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness

This section focuses on two detailed examples of Superhero transformative learning experiences, since these experiences involve a complex dynamic of emotions, events, experiences and interactions that require attention to the depth of the phenomena.

125 The first story involves changes that I saw in Rabbi Yikes' behaviour during the

Ireland Superhero ride, which were reflected in our interviews and conversations during and after the ride. During the first half of the ride, Rabbi Yikes expressed a desire to be more patient and spontaneous. In our first interview, she said this would help her to better cope with the chaos of group spontaneous giving and to develop the ability to surrender her need to control certain situations. I watched her struggle with these challenges. I saw her act frustrated on a daily basis. She would curtly urge other Superheroes to move faster and would get annoyed by setbacks such as flat tires. At times she had very little patience for the consensus meetings, which she said focused too much on group dynamics and the confluence of personal philosophies than on deciding how and when the group was going to act. Sometimes she would leave consensus meetings abruptly without explanation. During one meeting, she left angrily and then came back with Love

Ninja, who had gone after her to support her. Rabbi Yikes told me that she considered leaving the group altogether on several occasions. One morning she packed up and was ready to leave but changed her mind at the last minute because Blazing Echidna had encouraged her to ask herself if she was curious to see what might change if she stayed.

I could see that many of her challenges came from the same place as her strengths. Rabbi Yikes was great at what the Superheroes called "manifesting." This means that she had a gift for finding service work, finding places to stay, and coordinating the logistics of what the group needed to do in order to continue giving. She said this was a challenge for her because she came to realize that she was not practicing, to the extent to which she wanted, some of the key things that she believed in: spontaneous giving, surrendering ego, adding to the synergy of a group (rather than leading the group). For her, these three things were related to her central ideal of humility and the practice of contributing to the greater good of the world. She said she needed to learn experientially how to incorporate her core ideals into her daily life. She could intuitively predict the key elements of the lesson she needed to learn but she said she did not know how this might unfold in the future. She said she sought to turn knowledge into wisdom—that is to integrate ideas into practice. She had already identified that her impatience was just habitual behaviour; that the Superhero experience involved a practice of letting go of habitual behaviour and of "re-writing one's script." She said her life outside the Superheroes didn't provide opportunities to do this in as concentrated a way as perhaps she needed.

Rabbi Yikes acted as a community-builder in much of her own life outside the

Superheroes. She led community ceremonies; she organized city-wide festivals; she gave educational presentations at schools on sustainable, active transportation and community- building; she did youth outreach work; and she even did one of the Superhero rituals—

Thanking and Sharing—with her partner (another Superhero on the Ireland ride) before she went to bed most nights. Her friends also saw her as a community-builder, encouraging her to apply to rabbinical school and giving her the Superhero name Rabbi

Yikes. But for some reason, she said, the Superhero rides challenged her to realize and integrate her inner community-builder in ways that no other experience could. The challenge to more fully incorporate her strengths into her daily life could feel stressful because she found it difficult at times to live up to what she felt was her potential.

Although she found a lot of suffering in this experience, she continued to come back

127 because she knew she was on the edge of learning something very important about the integration into her daily life of patience, spontaneity and surrender.

Rabbi Yikes said that she was very close to learning this lesson. She said that sometimes deep personal change required concentrated experiences followed by times of reflection. Her experiences had shown her that new depths of understanding and integration could be sought through one's returning to a period of concentrated experience after a time of reflection on a previous potent experience. In the Canada

Superhero ride the previous year, she became more deeply aware of her challenges and she thought she had overcome them, but when she returned home, she began to question herself on a fundamental level and fell into a deep depression that caused her to want to retreat from her life. This was confusing to her and to her friends because her habitual strategy for responding to uncertainty had been to organize her highly goal-driven work and personal life. However, the Canada Superhero ride had caused her to question this habitual way of coping, to the extent that now she was withdrawing and behaving in a way that seemed opposite to her previous habits. Gradually, the momentum of old habits caught up with her and she held on to her self-questioning without experiencing complete resolution to her feelings of uncertainty. It was in Ireland—her fifth Superhero ride—that perhaps she found what she had been seeking.

It seemed to me that the shift in Rabbi Yikes began to occur during the consensus day spent camping on the Ridge of Capard in the Slieve Bloom Mountains. Rabbi Yikes was quiet for most of the first half of the meeting. She seemed to become introverted but

I also knew that she was physically very cold. I saw a shift in Rabbi Yikes after the group

128 identified the connection between spontaneity and patience, which is something that

Rabbi Yikes had told me she had been struggling with quite a bit. One Superhero said:

It's difficult to be spontaneous because we're used to wanting to get somewhere in particular. When we're faced with the unknown, we're actually faced with our true selves. That's where impatience comes from, from wanting to get away from our true selves into the distractions provided by having a seemingly real destination, a goal, really a set of attachments.

Rabbi Yikes added that what was really important was giving. She knew spontaneity was important but her foremost desire was to give. She said she felt

"extremely frustrated" on a daily basis by how much time had been taken by the group for consensus meetings and she thought the group was too disorganized to give enough by giving spontaneously. She said she was struggling to let go of the desire to organize the ride for the group so that they could spend more time on service projects. Then she was choked by tears and could not speak for a moment. When she spoke again, her body language changed in a way I had never seen from her. She looked scared and vulnerable, which seemed opposite to her familiar brave, strong, energized demeanor. From this new place of vulnerability, she began to identify things about the roots of her impatience that she said she had never told anyone before.

I will not repeat what she said because although some Superheroes had in response to the consent forms said that "confidentiality" conflicts with Superhero ideals, this particular consensus meeting had a special "safe" agreement of confidentiality, due to the delicacy of the mood in the group on that day. The details of what Rabbi Yikes said are less important to this telling of her story than the vulnerability that she showed with

129 her words and her body language. After Rabbi Yikes told her story, people who had previously said they were frustrated by some of her behaviour now said they could relate to her better and felt closer to her. After that experience, Rabbi Yikes told me that she came to learn more deeply that showing her own vulnerability was an important aspect of giving to people. She said, "When you ask for help, [...] you give them [...] your surrender and vulnerability. Vulnerability is important because you release ego and allow people more intimately into your life. The surrender creates emotional room for our hearts to connect. That's the strongest connection that we have."

Furthermore, after she showed this new depth of vulnerability to the group, the whole dynamic of the meeting changed. People were disarmed and offered a new level of mutual compassion and kinship. Consensus seemed to come together quickly after that.

One Superhero said that once the group was given the opportunity to listen to the depth of

Rabbi Yikes' struggle, this sharing of vulnerability became a key to inspiring the group to feel more compassion and intimacy for one another. Many Superheroes had thought that the group would choose to separate on that day. Instead, the group bonded more strongly than before. Rabbi Yikes was an important contributing voice to this new level of cohesion.

After the group descended from the mountain, Rabbi Yikes seemed generally quieter. However, she still seemed to be struggling with something. There were times when she needed to be alone. She said she realized that she needed to do a lot of physical activity in order to work through her impatience, so she spent a lot of time biking when others were relaxing and she often chose to participate in the service projects that were far away from camp. Six days after the consensus meeting on the Ridge of Capard, Rabbi

130 Yikes said it was time for her to leave the group. The Superheroes were at that time camping on an organic farm doing farm work. The group told Rabbi Yikes they would like her to stay. She decided to stay the day and see how she felt. By the end of the day, she was willing to try another day.

The next day, the group traveled a few kilometers to the home of the architect who was building an intentional community. It was at this point that Rabbi Yikes said she felt sure that she would stay with the group until the very end of the ride. In Thanking and Sharing in the architect's house that night, Rabbi Yikes was perhaps the most peaceful that I had seen her. She told the group that she had come out the other side of feeling like she needed to control situations. She said she had for the past two days felt the most emotional pain she had ever felt in her life. She said she had been in the process of letting go of needing to lead the group. She also said that she had been struggling to let go of a relationship that at the time she thought was ending. She added that even though she felt very relaxed now, she wondered if she would go into another depression after the

Superhero ride, as she had done after the Canadian ride.

After this Thanking and Sharing, it seemed like Rabbi Yikes had found what she'd been looking for. When she spoke, she seemed calmer. She seemed more patient in consensus meetings and during set-backs such as flat tires. I saw her riding at the back of the group of cyclists more often, whereas before I had often seen her race to the front to help lead the group. She took on more support roles in the group and let go of many of her previous inclinations toward leadership roles. The best way I can describe this is that she stopped pulling the group behind her and began to help lift it from underneath. Her

131 body language and tone of voice were more even and grounded during her supportive interactions. She seemed warmer and lighter.

Months after the ride ended, she told me that she had rekindled the relationship that in Thanking and Sharing she had said she'd thought was ending. Her relationship with her partner was now deeper and even more loving than before. She had taken a new job, and she was very, very happy. She continued to do community-building work on many levels, including working with youth and being active in environmental education.

The next summer she organized a very successful Superhero ride through California. She said she was daily surprised by and grateful for the love in her life and the passion in her work. Transformation was ongoing, she said. As she had once told me, transformative experiences can continue to unfold for years. The experiences she had had on Superhero rides during the past two years seemed to have made a lasting impact on her. She said she did not experience depression after the Ireland ride, as she had feared. She said it seemed like this time she got it; this time she learned through her experiences of questioning her habitual ways of doing things, how to better incorporate her ideals into her daily life.

Although Rabbi Yikes' transformative learning experience may not have directly involved a deepening of ecological consciousness (she had already been making many meaningful ecologically conscious choices in her life and she continued to do so), she did believe generally that the potential for an indirect relationship existed. When I asked if ecological consciousness fit into transformative learning experiences, she said that it might in the following way. While she generally thought of ecological consciousness as being aware of causal relationships in nature and the practical side of how human actions fit into those relationships, she also thought that there was a more esoteric element. Ecological consciousness involved realizing that all things are interrelated. She said that a key to getting in touch with this realization could be through a combination of silent meditation—"the heart of intuition"—and embodied meditation such as the spontaneous giving practiced by the Superheroes. She said that one level of consciousness awakening such as "we are all one" might lead to another level of consciousness awakening such as enjoying the earth and modifying our behaviour to take care of it.

To summarize, Rabbi Yikes appeared to have had a transformative learning experience involving the realization of a deeper level of intimacy with others through showing them her vulnerability. Also, her transformative learning experience was a revisiting and deepening of a previous experience from a year earlier. Her experience in

Ireland allowed her to more deeply integrate into her daily life the lessons she had been learning. This did not directly involve a deepening of ecological consciousness. However, as she said, "It's all related."

Love Ninja experienced a similar shift after the defrocking ceremony in Ireland.

Like Rabbi Yikes, she experienced an affirmation and deepening of an epiphany she had experienced a year earlier during the same type of ceremony at the end of the New

Orleans Superhero ride. She said the original epiphany had been a shift in how she saw herself in relation to the world. She had for as long as she could remember taken on helping-communicator leadership roles, and done so nearly ceaselessly since a young age. During her adult life, she rarely took a day off when she was working and she would line up jobs back-to-back, rarely planning non-working vacations. Friends had told her for years to slow down and take a break. Finally, on the New Orleans Superhero ride, she'd come to the following realization:

133 I need to go at my own slow pace. And I need to let go of responsibility and just hear my own heart again. And not that I'm not following my heart in these moments. [...] I am, but I just need to rest. So that realization actually culminated for me when we had our de-robing in New Orleans. And it became so clear - it just came to me - how about taking off this cape? [...] I'm taking this off and releasing this, but what is it that I'm going to embrace? [...] I'm going to embrace joy.

Love Ninja realized on a deeper level that she would have to take a break or risk burning out. Furthermore, she knew that if she were to take an indefinite amount of

"unstructured" time off, the process of taking the "leap of faith" required to do so could allow her to explore aspects of herself that might not otherwise be available to her.

However, it was difficult for her to implement this lesson into her life. She worked one more year and then decided to "call" the Superhero ride in Ireland.

I saw Love Ninja struggle a lot on this ride. I saw that she had tremendous strengths in group facilitation, organization, communication and support but I also came to see that (similar to Rabbi Yikes) these strengths were the source of her struggle on the ride. It became apparent that Love Ninja was doing a lot of soul searching and she needed to nurture herself and take a break from nurturing the group. She agreed with the advice of other Superheroes that she needed to step back from helping the group for a while in order to do this. Yet she found it difficult to "turn off the switch" since helping was an automatic impulse for her and she was such a natural at working with groups. Her struggle to pull back manifested as fatigue and frustration.

What I saw after the defrocking ceremony in Ireland was the lifting of a heaviness that other Superheroes had told me Love Ninja had struggled with carrying for years. She

134 said it was time for her to "celebrate life, celebrate the people around you." She said,

"Life is crazy and wacky and there's a lot to be sad about too. But at the same time, we have to embrace joy. We're here for so short a period of time. I want to celebrate the beauty that I see. [...] That's what grounds me in this world is connections with people. I have so much love for humanity and I literally have faith in humanity."

Love Ninja had been described by some of the Superheroes who had known her for years as a compassionate and "pragmatic idealist." But for as long as they could remember, she'd also had a dark side that she was reluctant to show people. A lot of her darkness came from the pathos she experienced for the suffering in the world. She had traveled to developing nations and helped some of the most sick and impoverished people in the world. On the Ireland ride Love Ninja was facing some of the darkness that she carried and was going through a process of letting go of it. She was looking within herself to find her own joyfulness. She told me that she was "grounded" in her

"heartspace," she was following her heart. Her original intention for the Ireland ride had been to listen to and follow her heart, her intuition. She told me that what her intuition was telling her was on the one hand to do service—"putting your energy outward.'''' On the other hand, she was struggling to balance her own growth with this outward giving.

This required her to recognize her strength—the pathos she felt for others and her ability to help others—as also a challenge, since this pathos distracted her from the work that she needed to do on herself. It was a way that she was holding herself back. She was making things harder for herself because her intuition was telling her it was time to do some soul searching but it was difficult to slow the momentum of helping others. Yet it was also her chosen path of self-discovery. A core belief in her worldview continued to be "the more

135 you give, the more you get." She derived a lot of energy from helping others but it seemed that she needed to find more of a balance between helping others and nurturing herself.

Finding this balance was somewhat of a struggle. She said she had been used to struggling, since she'd experienced many "upward battles." For example, she'd gone through school as a child with dyslexia and learned to work harder than some of her peers—eventually becoming an educator. She'd also grown up with "not a lot of money" and developed deep compassion for those who had more hardships than she. She told me of a story about how for a long time she had carried a lot of hidden pain for the suffering in the world. She hid this side of herself during her work as a teacher. Her students eventually began to wonder why she was so cheerful with them and if she in fact had

"bad days." When they confronted her, she told them earnestly about some of the sadness she had for people marginalized by poverty and nations in war. She showed them a vulnerable side of herself that had for a long time remained guarded. Afterward the students said they felt closer to her. One of them in particular said, "That's how I connect with people."

This memory was one of the things Love Ninja was thinking about during the

Ireland ride. That was a time when she had not thought it would be helpful to show her vulnerability, when it had turned out that it was just the thing she needed to do. Now, on the Ireland ride, Love Ninja was unsure what she needed to do to find balance. Did she need to stop giving to others or was there a different way in which she could approach her giving? She knew that her next realization would have something do to with

"embracing joy." She told me that she had come to realize that "embrace joy" could also mean being vulnerable with people. Being vulnerable didn't preclude giving; one could give from a place of vulnerability, and in certain circumstances that would be the best way to give. She realized that she needed to allow herself to "be a student again" to learn how she could do this. What she discovered leading up to and during the closing ceremony was that her next step in personal growth would be to go out on her own to "just be" and to "embrace joy" - to "leave with no structure [...] just allowing myself to go on my own flow [...], to be a student again."

She commented on how this might affect her worldview, saying:

I hope it is true all these things that I say, my belief system. Maybe I'll have to re-shuffle my belief system. This is where I've come to at this point in time in life, but maybe I need to re-shuffle that a little bit. [...] Is it true [...] that if you give so much more, you only end up receiving so much more, but is that true? I'm going to have to find out. Like is it true that I can do that on my own? If I can take care of the group needs, can I take care of my own needs? [...]

She added that part of her belief system was that her belief system should be flexible. She said:

I want to be in that place of constantly growing. [...] I don't feel 36 because when I look around me at people who are 36 - and even younger too - like people get stuck. I don't want to be stuck in patterns or belief systems. So I hope that the belief systems that I hold are flexible enough [...]. To be an educator, you have to be willing to continue learning, be willing to continue the learning process. She said that many of the Superheroes had helped her to learn more deeply how to integrate what she had been learning into her own life. Like Rabbi Yikes, she believed that this learning could indirectly involve the deepening of ecological consciousness.

Also her realization had involved learning from the landscape as well as infusing it with meaning. She said that she chose that location for the ceremony because that spot was very meaningful to her. She said it was:

[...] where a river meets the ocean, like a changing flow of energy. And that's exactly what's happening here, [...] as we move fromou r Superhero lives back into the individual experiences of life or whatever you want to call it. Like the river's flowing with all this intention of where it's going. And it's flowing pretty fast. [...] The water molecules have endless possibility of where they can move to. And that seems very fitting to what we're experiencing now. [...] Eventually I'm gonna' have to go out there on my own. And that'll be a really important part of my own personal growth.

It appears that Love Ninja gave herself permission to "just be" and was able to follow her own "flow of energy" just as "the water molecules" that "have endless possibility of where they can move to." The last time I saw Love Ninja was on the west coast of Ireland as she left the group on her own to bike south into the unknown. She had felt a lot of gratitude in her life. But now she had reached a new stage in her personal growth that the Superheroes had helped her to reach. Now that she finally made a commitment to take a break from doing service and to "just be" she was exploring a new side of herself. She recently told me that this involved falling in love with an Irish man who in her eyes was a natural at embracing joy. She is still learning from her experience with this man but it seems that she continues to live with a lot of joy in her life. Her next step is to visit and help build the newest Superhero intentional community in Missouri.

Furthermore, her belief that "the more you give, the more you get" has been strengthened by her exploration of what it means to embrace joy. Embracing joy is about embracing all the learning opportunities that life has to offer. It seems that Love Ninja has reconnected herself with what it means to be a student again.

To summarize, I have described the transformative learning experiences of Rabbi

Yikes and Love Ninja. Although the experiences did not directly involve a deepening of ecological consciousness, they were interrelated with the process of giving and learning through spontaneous giving while in the setting of being exposed to the elements of nature and within a culture that values the deepening of ecological consciousness.

Furthermore, one thing that these cases have in common is that each person experienced something on the Ireland Superhero ride that provided the psychological context in which to revisit and more fully integrate previous epiphanies. This allowed Rabbi Yikes and

Love Ninja to broaden their perspectives about themselves and their worldviews and to gain new insight about how to incorporate new levels of depth, connection and intimacy into their daily lives.

Rabbi Yikes learned to be more vulnerable by realizing through experiencing spontaneous giving that everyone is both a giver and a receiver. She put this lesson into practice in the safe place of a Superhero consensus meeting and took a risk to show a previously guarded vulnerable side of herself to the group. Love Ninja gave herself permission to "just be" and was able to follow her own "flow of energy" just as "the water molecules" that "have endless possibility of where they can move to." This flow of

139 energy carried her to a new place of personal exploration which was to go out on her own to discover what it meant to "embrace joy."

In this section I have responded to the first research question: What are the

Superheroes' experiences of what they define to be "spontaneous giving," "ecological consciousness" and "transformative learning experiences?" Superhero's stories reveal how they made meaning of their experiences of spontaneous giving, transformative learning and the deepening of ecological consciousness. Many of the Superheroes described a link between the practice of spontaneous giving and the likelihood of experiencing transformative learning that in some cases included the deepening of ecological consciousness. Many Superheroes did say that the new levels of openness and compassion reached through the practice of spontaneous giving could allow for the deepening of ecological consciousness, since one level of openness complemented another. Furthermore, some Superheroes experienced a deepening of feelings of intimacy for other people through the deepening of feelings of being connected to nature.

Question 2. If the Superheroes perceive a connection between their experiences of spontaneous giving, ecological consciousness and transformative learning, then how do they express this perception?

Not all the Superheroes who had experienced transformative learning were able to say with confidence how exactly these experiences might be connected to spontaneous giving or a deepening of ecological consciousness. However, many of the Superheroes did believe that such a connection existed and expressed a belief that such a connection was obvious. In this section I look at some of the ways the Superheroes expressed their understanding of the relationship between spontaneous giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness. These ways of understanding include perceptions of the interconnectedness of all things, observations of altruism in nature and how this is connected to human nature. These are expressed through Buddhist philosophy and practice and storytelling related to Gandhi's teaching to "be the change that you wish to see in the world," as well as through other sacred texts, spiritual teachings and mystical stories.

The Interconnectedness of All Things

As seen in the response to the first research question, many of the Superheroes expressed a belief that all life on earth or even all things in the universe are part of an interconnected, open system of being. While some of the Superheroes explained this concept scientifically, others explained it in spiritual terms, metaphorical terms, or a combination of both.

The majority of the Superheroes interviewed said that they believed giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness could be related because "all things are related." One Superhero said that giving spontaneously is a way of living more closely in line with the balance of nature, which "is not concerned with the accumulation of wealth or with tracking reciprocation." On the other hand, Green Geek said that ecological consciousness might mean an awareness of how technology affects the environment around it, as well as an awareness of how people's perceptions of the world are mediated

141 through their use of technology. He said that although a lot of human technology is created through polluting industrial extraction, production and distribution processes, it also can help us to communicate on a mass scale about environmental problems and potential solutions. However, he said, it is important to recognize that everything people do is mediated by the tools used to do it.

"For example, the bicycle," said Green Geek, is a form of technology used by the

Superheroes. And, he said, traveling by bicycle mediates the Superheroes' experiences of the landscape because they move at a certain speed and can only travel a certain amount of distance per day. Also there can be a sense of empowerment that comes from self- propelling one's journey, as well as a burgeoning awareness of one's vulnerability from being exposed to the elements. He added, "We are so integrated with the health of other things, that we could place, in a total view of looking at all ecology and how it matters, not just for people now but through generations ahead." He said it's important to develop an ecological consciousness that includes everything, "from a very artificial environment

- the way your computer's made and uses resources and pollutes," to "the way that the operating system or interface is created and how it effects your eyes, [...] your stress level, your physical strain and use of the device and so forth," to "the work it produces, how it affects all this ecology that's interrelated." He said, "If we can consider that system fully, can we just say that it's all integrated and we can consider in a longer sense, long term."

He said that this formulation of ecological consciousness could be related to spontaneous giving in the following way. Giving itself can be conceived of as a form of technology, a technology of acknowledging the interconnections that already exist between everything. Furthermore, he said, ecological consciousness can also mean an awareness of "ecology" as being each person's external physical "environment"—their home, their workplace, their community—or their internal physical environment—then- physical and mental state of being. This could include a complex set of factors, such as the emotional state determined by things like one's chemical balance or imbalance, and the habitual behaviours determined by a combination of one's genetics and one's experiences of acculturation. So, he said, giving (as seen as a form of technology) could likely influence one's deepening of ecological consciousness (as seen as awareness of others' external and internal environments), since technology has been shown to have quantifiable affects on nature such as pollution.

This explanation of the potential connection between giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness uses a scientific metaphor to explain the interconnectedness of all things. Many Superheroes used nature metaphors—especially water—to explain the same thing.

Altruism in Nature

Many of the Superheroes expressed a belief in the value of learning from nature to inform human behaviour. Some of the Superheroes said that altruism in animal behaviour had been observed in scientific studies and that this provided lessons about the human capacity for altruism. For example, Blazing Echidna and I identified the following altruistic relationships:

The Strong Share with the Weak The oldest, largest chick of Australian Rosella Parrots often regurgitates part of what it has eaten for the youngest and smallest sibling, sharing the wealth. The eldest chick could take advantage of its relative size, strength and maturity but it instead levels the playing field by sharing. This refutes the "might is right" interpretation of the Darwinian notion of "the survival of the fittest" in favour of a more cooperative, supportive model.

Service Learning: Everyone Learns By Contributing to the Greater Good

Apostle Birds help their parents build their nest until they themselves reach sexual maturity. They learn this highly specialized skill on the job, like a nest- building internship program. Sometimes a dozen birds from the same family will work to build one nest (out of mud and grass) for the breeding couple to use. It is widely believed across spiritual beliefs that the best way to learn is through giving—in mainstream culture we call it volunteering.

Another Superhero also gave examples of wolves sacrificing their own reproductive imperative to help feed their nieces and nephews, and of Australian Social Weavers building large social housing networks, saying these examples refute the individualist interpretation of the Darwinian notion of "the survival of the fittest" in favour of a more community-oriented Kinship model. He said that when people watch and learn from examples of altruism in nature, this is a way that the deepening of ecological consciousness informs our understanding of our own naturally-occurring altruism.

Super Zazzie implied that altruism might not be a universal human trait (or perhaps just not a recognized human trait), saying, "I think I'm happier than other people are maybe who don't have that automatically hard wired into them to find joy through serving others and reciprocating that energy with other people." However, she said that both giving and becoming more in touch with nature are two aspects of the human condition that can be explored in order to make our lives richer. One Superhero said that the Superhero Queen Bee had chosen her name partly because bees form kinship structures based on sacrificing personal autonomy for the greater good of the hive.

Another Superhero said she believed that like bees, wolves and many other animals in nature, humans were hard-wired for giving. She said that if one can learn through the experience of spontaneous giving that it is human nature to give, one can then come to see just how much they have in common with other animals.

Buddhist Philosophy

Many of the Superheroes said that their beliefs had been inspired by Buddhist philosophy and especially by a combination of their own discovery through a practice of meditation and embodied action. Some said embodied action was translating one's beliefs and ideals into actions and behaviour. For many, this involved deepening one's compassion not just for other people and for oneself but for all other living beings. This could involve the deepening of ecological consciousness. For example Love Ninja said, "I see myself as a truth seeker, wanting [...] to understand more about my place in this world and my impact on this world. [...] That's the most important thing in this lifetime to [become] grounded within love, find peace within [...] then you can extend that outward to the world."

Some of the Superheroes had participated in meditation retreats and believed that spontaneous giving was another form of embodied action that could extend from or complement one's meditation practice of letting go of attachments. Also, most of the

Superheroes saw spontaneous giving as a practice of cultivating and nurturing one's own sense of compassion for others. Giving and meditation were seen by some to be similar paths on the same spiritual journey toward enlightenment. One Superhero said that enlightenment by definition included the deepening of ecological consciousness, since it involved a deepening awareness of the interconnectedness of all things. When I asked

Love Ninja how she defined enlightenment and its link to the deepening of ecological consciousness, she said:

When we're not fully able to take something in, we have limited views from where we stand at any given point in time. And I think an enlightened person is able to see all of it. He's like standing at the very top, able to see everything. But many of us are just climbing that mountain. Some of us more actively than others, trying to reach that place and be fully conscious.

Another Superhero said, "Words are limiting. Don't believe what I or anyone else says about enlightenment. There's no one answer. You must practice yourself so you can find out how your enlightenment might involve the deepening or ecological consciousness— and much more."

Peace and Nonviolence: Gandhi's Teachings of Being the Change You Wish to See in the World

Many of the Superheroes said that their beliefs had been inspired by Gandhi's teaching to

"be the change that you wish to see in the world." For example, Blazing Echidna commented on the original intention of the Superhero ride that was talked about amongst 146 the first Superheroes over six years ago:

I think the two quotes that most summarizes it is Gandhi's [...]: that "you must be the changes you wish to see in the world"—[...] that you can point fingers, but in the end when^ow change, a quantifiable change has happened in the world—combined with the simplest quote fromth e Christian faith [...]: "love one another." [...] And the original intention too is just to practice simplifying your needs to just food, shelter, clothing, what we could carry, local or organic, a tent, and a superhero costume. And then through service—Gandhi called it karma yoga or the Hindu tradition—through serving you lose yourself. You lose your ego and touch true pieces of your nature. So besides the service as a tool, the real core of the ride was to awaken your true nature—your superhero or your mythic self.

Some Superheroes said that spontaneous giving was a form of being the changes they wanted to see—changes such as promoting more generosity, more humility, selflessness, more love and compassion, more sustainable, environmentally-friendly behaviour. Some of the Superheroes also said that giving was a non-violent way to counter the violence and greed in the world. Some also believed that by giving in this way, they could inspire others toward a path of nonviolence. Some Superheroes also said that when they were able to drop out of much of mainstream consumer culture and attempt to live using a gift economy, they were also avoiding contributing to a capitalist economy that flows into military and other violence-generating spending. By practicing these different levels of nonviolence, they were empowering themselves to explore new levels of compassion.

Many Superheroes also believed that an important aspect of nonviolence was nonviolence toward nature. This might require practice of cultivating self-awareness of one's daily impacts on the environment and the modification of behaviours that contribute to violence against nature.

Sacred Texts, Spiritual Teachings and Mystical Stories

Many of the Superheroes said their beliefs had been inspired by texts from The Bible,

The Torah, The Koran, Quaker teachings Wicca and other spiritual and mystical teachings and stories. Sometimes a Superhero would read to the group excerpts from sacred and spiritual texts to inspire them. One Superhero said that inspirational words could help keep someone grounded during the confusion of a transformative learning experience. However, one Superhero pointed out that some of the Superheroes had

"grown up in New Age homes," had felt alienated from religion or even family rituals or spirituality in general and thus had disliked this approach to sharing inspiration. Another

Superhero said he had grown up with a lot of disdain for religion because he saw it as the justification for much violence and many wars around the world throughout history. He added that the way the Superheroes tend to give involves "honoring the diversity of perspectives out there and learning when the best thing to do might be to do nothing, or just to listen."

At the same time, many Superheroes were inspired by sacred texts that emphasized the importance of nature. For example, during the Ireland ride, I heard three

Superheroes quote Hafiz and Saint Francis the patron saint of animals. The choice of texts quoted reflected the ongoing theme of the connection between giving, personal transformation and the deepening of ecological consciousness (among other themes such

148 as peace, nonviolence and turning beliefs into action). Two examples that I heard several times on the ride were a Hafiz poem:

Even after all this time

The sun never says to the earth,

"You owe me."

Look what happens with a love like that,

It lights up the whole sky.

and a Saint Francis quote:

Why even go to the place of worship

if the road itself is not a prayer?

Both quotes were spoken several times when the Superheroes were talking about what giving meant to them and how they could integrate the spirit of spontaneous giving into their daily lives. While the first quote was said to conjure a metaphor in nature to teach about giving (and to exemplify learning from nature), the second quote was said to comment on how the spirit of giving could enhance one's interactions with the natural world. For example, Blazing Echidna applied this Saint Francis quote to a conversation among several Superheroes who said that one can go to Ireland to give, but if one flies to

Ireland in a plane, one is doing something that is environmentally destructive. The question of whether or not one destructive act cancelled out another act of giving was often put in an environmental context during the Ireland ride. Quoting sacred or spiritual texts were often offered to provide clarity or a new perspective to a debatable question. In summary, many of the Superheroes could identify particular indirect links between spontaneous giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness. These diverse ways of understanding include perceptions of the interconnectedness of all things, observations of altruism in nature and how this is connected to human nature, expressions of Buddhist philosophy and practice, and storytelling related to Gandhi's teaching to "be the change that you wish to see in the world," as well as those of other texts, such as those attributed to Hafiz and Saint Francis the patron saint of animals.

Question 3. If the Superheroes promote spontaneous giving, ecological consciousness and transformative learning experiences, then how do they do this?

This section describes how the Superheroes promoted spontaneous giving, ecological consciousness and transformative learning experiences, as well as the values that these things embodied. These values included those of community-building, peacemaking and the deepening of an awareness of the interconnectedness of all things. They "planted the seeds of possibility" for refraining personal worldviews and questioning or even changing behaviours, and used a variety of strategies or rituals for modeling these changes.

Planting Seeds of Possibility

Many of the Superheroes said they believed that through their collective practices of spontaneous giving and of modeling ecologically-conscious lifestyle choices, they

150 inspired people to reframe their worldviews and potentially to change their behaviour.

They said they spent only a short time with each community because they were not providing a service, but were rekindling people's hope and trust that there are good people in the world. The metaphor used by some of the Superheroes to explain this was

"planting a seed." That is, some of the Superheroes said they aimed to plant the seeds of peace, community-building, giving-oriented culture, and the deepening of ecological consciousness in the hearts of the people they helped. In many cases, Superheroes commented that those who accepted help were people who already valued these things but who could use some support in continuing to do the work that mainstream society perhaps did not adequately celebrate.

Most of the Superheroes said that what they were doing was "planting seeds of possibility." Blazing Echidna said, the "Superhero ride is also about possibility." He said that when "we just don't think that's possible yet, [...] the ideal's in our hearts are possible, but we just have a limited perception of what we're capable of." So he said the

Superheroes encouraged people to think beyond their perceived limitations by giving them an opportunity to see a different way of being in the world. He said this was also true for the Superheroes themselves. He said, "It's an opportunity for people to try out a new way of being in the world. They get to chose what their intentions are, what their own myth is, and try to incorporate into the group and the people they meet." Somebody said that by creating their own new possibilities, the Superheroes were showing others alternative ways of being in the world. Blazing Echidna said, "I have known human beings that did amazing feats when they believed something different was possible."

151 The Superheroes identified many things that they believed they had promoted in different communities as possibilities or experiments for how to do things differently.

Rabbi Yikes said the Superheroes attempted to help people learn how to be more

"grounded in community" and to "connect to a larger consciousness." She said that they promoted "environmental harmony through community-building and culture formation of peace, love and harmony." She said they were working to create paradigm shifts. Wild

Wooly Wonder said the Superheroes were "looking for opportunities to contribute to other people and other people's projects" in order to "create unity," to model the merit of the struggle to "let go of ego." She said the Superheroes were "making personal change in daily life, aspiring to ideals," and "being open" and "present." Green Geek said the

Superheroes were promoting "love" and "this whole sense of interconnection of peoples."

Blazing Echidna said that through the garnering of one's own personal growth and enlightenment, one could better help others to "see the room more clearly and respond more appropriately" to each other. He added that the consensus-building model of community that the Superheroes practiced could be an example to others of how to respect equality during future times when society as a whole could be less stable and more susceptible to corruption in leadership.

Many of the Superheroes said the ultimate goal was to promote personal transformation by showing that it could be done. Blazing Echidna said that personal transformation could be scary for a lot of people who would continue to resist change.

That is why, he said, the Superheroes found it so important to find joyfulness in what they were doing. "Superheroes made it fun and palatable for people, even if you were talking about challenging subjects - to be in costume somehow made it easier for people to really hear it." Many of the Superheroes agreed that the joyfulness with which they practiced spontaneous giving made the deeper, more challenging aspects of what they were promoting more attractive to strangers.

Although the actual impacts of the Superheroes are outside the scope of this project, it is useful to look at some of the Superheroes' practices that they believed helped them promote spontaneous giving, ecological consciousness and transformative learning experiences. These include the following.

Love Bombs: Making Optimism Cool

Although spontaneous giving meant so much more than random acts of kindness, the

Superheroes did enjoy giving "love bombs," which were surprise gifts given "on the fly."

An example of this is giving Thank-You notes to independent discount bicycle and bike repair shops to show that the Superheroes appreciate the service such shops provide to communities while also promoting sustainable transportation and healthy lifestyles. I was with the Superheroes when the group saw such a shop on a street corner and decided to hand-deliver a Superhero postcard with a picture of a fiying-caped Superhero on a bicycle and the words "Awooooga!" and "Be loooooove!" written on the back.

One Superhero said that this was a high-energy way to spread the Superhero legend through more personal contact and public displays of positive energy. Blazing

Echidna said, "When there's fifteen people in costume on the road, we make people smile and laugh. A kid did a belly laugh and fell off a stool in London. That alone - if we just rode around and didn't help anyone, and just - at a red light people looked over and there

153 was fifteen people in capes -just to add something into the world that's different and fun" (sic). In these ways the Superheroes believed they were able to attract people with their joyfulness and to inspire people with their ideals.

Mythmaking

For the purposes of this thesis, a myth is defined as a teaching story. The word myth comes from the Greek creation story (mythos) describing the origins of the world and its creatures. The Greek root for the word mythology (mythologia) means "legendary lore."

Lore means "the process or act of teaching." The word "myth" is popularly used to refer to an untruth. However, while the details in a mythological story may be confabulations, deeper truths are implicit in the message of the story. The Superhero practice of mythmaking is about portraying deep truths about life.

Many of the Superheroes said that what the way they were giving was also a form of embodied storytelling. One Superhero said that they used a lot of play and improvisation to talk about or "perform" spontaneous giving and to demonstrate their values of deep learning and ecological consciousness. She said that "performing" in this way was not disingenuous acting, but rather a form of "being the change you wish to see." Some Superheroes described this as "holding intention" or "holding space" to "be what you believe in." Each Superhero described their Superhero identity (costume and pseudonym) as an embodiment of what they believe in. Hug Man said, "We're not dressed as Superheroes, we are Superheroes!" Blazing Echidna said that the costume and the genuine embodied storytelling helped the Superheroes to "awaken their mythic self."

154 He said, "So besides the service as a tool, the real core of the ride was to awaken your true nature - your superhero or your mythic self- is really at the base of it."

This "mythic self was described by some as the self as represented through stories. One Superhero said that like myths, which change in details and chronology but remain the same in core message, the true self of each person is something deeper than the details and chronology of one's life. Some Superheroes said the quest to find this true self was deeply connected to the practice of spontaneous giving. Blazing Echidna said that this practice had an important element of mythmaking in that each Superhero was following a hero's journey of self-discovery, much like those described in much of mythology.

Also like the hero stories in mythology, Blazing Echidna said that each Superhero had opportunities to "move towards their own light by working through their own darkness." He said:

But we try to incorporate that light and darkness as two essential parts of the ride. [...] Joseph Campbell has been an inspiration in the mythic journey in every culture. Hero of a Thousand Faces is a book that really inspired me. The idea that in every culture they have that myth that there is a hero that has to go into the darkness, go into the belly of the whale, go into the cave, go into the underworld, and lose a part of innocence, and lose the naive idealism which is a passive idealism. And in coming out of the darkness, with new light and with new wisdom, and actually manifesting the ideal in a more seasoned, tempered, heroic fashion, where what was once a naive ideal becomes a actual possibility. Which is what all our great saints, profits and inspirations do, they have to go down into the darkness and come out to bring light, [sic]

155 Many Superheroes believed that by going through their own journeys, they were showing others that such a journey was possible and desirable.

Furthermore, the Superheroes endowed the people they helped with Superhero badges and gave them Superhero naming ceremonies to celebrate the work that they had already been doing before the Superheroes had arrived. At the end of each service project, the Superheroes would hold such a ceremony to acknowledge the positive things that they had seen the person do and to call out words describing the strengths they had seen in that person. An important message in this ceremony was that each person can be their own superhero and can continue to spread joy, love, community-building, ecological consciousness, healing and learning in their own life. One Superhero said that this ritual provided a signpost for people along their own hero's journey of learning and growing.

Each person I observed experiencing this Superhero naming ceremony seemed greatly touched by the gesture. Many people cried throughout it. Somebody said that this ceremony made people feel special and helped to remind them that their hard work does not go altogether unseen. She added, "It means that there's still magic in the world and that people see that when they see us. Even if we don't do work for them, just in the middle of the street, seeing us bike past, to feel a little bit of the magic and the myth of who we are.

Finally, the Superheroes cultivated outward manifestations of their mythmaking through costume, storytelling and literature. Superhero literature was produced and given to people who were interested. The Superhero Startup Kit and "Kapow!" (see Appendix

D) are examples of Superhero literature that use a superhero comic book style to engage with people's sense of magic and mythic storytelling. When on the British Columbia ride,

156 the Superheroes helped build a community kitchen with a group of people called the

Mythmakers. This was a group of artists, puppeteers and improvisational performers who instantly recognized the "mythmaking culture" of the Superheroes. A wonderful example of this "mythmaking culture" being discovered was during the Ireland ride when two skeptical teenagers said, "You're not real Superheroes." So Blazing Echidna gave them the oversees Superhero hotline to call on their cell phone. When Supervisor answered,

"Superhero hotline! How may I help you?" the teenager's jaw dropped and he exclaimed,

"It's true! I can't believe it! You're real!"

Holding Space: Inclusiveness

Each Superhero I talked to said that their practice of giving was meant to be inclusive and non-judgmental. Anyone could join the Superheroes on a ride; anyone could receive help from the Superheroes; anyone could join in on Superhero ceremonies or consensus meetings; anyone could share meals with the Superheroes.

The intention behind practicing inclusiveness was not necessarily to promote

Superhero values. Inclusiveness was more a practice arising from the belief that all people are equal and have equal rights to participate in community-building.

Furthermore, since the Superheroes' activities were dependant on the people in the communities they visited—giving energy to those communities and receiving energy back—it was desirable that those people be included in any Superhero activities that they wished to participate in. Superhero inclusion of others seemed to have a side effect of inspiring people.

157 One example of this occurred after the Superheroes did some work for the

Brigidene Sisters. They invited the sisters to lead a traditional Celtic ceremony and to then participate in Thanking and Sharing. During Thanking and Sharing, the head sister said she had been thinking about making some core changes in the Brigidene Order for some time and now she wanted to model some of those changes after what she had experienced of the Superheroes. She said that Saint Brigid (the "Irish Virgin Mary" of pre-Christian Celtic pagan roots) had taught to give before taking. She said she saw the

Superheroes doing this through their spontaneous service work and so she desired to put more of an emphasis on spontaneous service in the Order. Furthermore, she said, she wanted to incorporate some of the Superheroes' environmental practices in order to more fully integrate the teachings of Saint Francis and to recapture some of the earth-centered pagan ethics of the Celtic traditions. She asked for a list of suggestions for environmental practices. The list included things like supporting environmental organizations, buying local and organic produce and using environmentally-friendly cleaning products. She said that sharing ceremonies with the Superheroes had helped to show her just how accessible these types of choices could be.

Another example occurred at the Church of Ireland, where the Superheroes were restoring the pews. The group invited to dinner the pastor as well as a homeless man who had come to ask to sleep in the church. The pastor built a bonfire for everyone to warm themselves by. After the pastor went to sleep in the rectory, the homeless man stayed with the group and participated in Thanking and Sharing. One Superhero later remembered that the man thanked the Superheroes for "tolerating" him and treating him

"like an equal." The next day, the homeless man went with the Superheroes to volunteer

158 at a homeless shelter. He said he had been moved by the Superheroes' kindness to help those who had so many times helped others in his situation. Furthermore, the pastor, who was a very humble man, was inspired to take the Superheroes suggestions for restoring the church pews with environmentally-friendly castor oil as an alternative to varnish.

Commenting on the Superheroes' spontaneous way of giving and of seeking helping opportunities, it was he who said, "What you are doing is like medieval knights."

These two examples illustrate the concurrent phenomena of inclusion, giving and accepting kindness, and being curious about new ways of doing things—including environmentally-friendly ways of doing things.

Choosing Between Love and Fear

The Superhero culture emphasized choosing between love and fear in all decision­ making endeavors, meaning to base one's decisions on love as a motivator rather than fear. This is important because it was seen to facilitate all of the other ways in which the

Superheroes promoted spontaneous giving and by extension transformative learning and the deepening of ecological consciousness. Love Ninja said in an interview that the spontaneous part of spontaneous giving has to do with "trust and a leap of faith." She said, "People plan because they have fear as to what's going to happen next. [...]

There're different types of planning. There's one planning that is based on fear and then there's another type of planning that is 'How do I make this vision work?'" Fear can manifest as a fear of not being in control or of things "not working out." Some

Superheroes said the central focus of the Superhero intentions—was to choose love over

159 fear in all situations. One Superhero said this was a difficult thing to do that can take a lifetime to learn: to "learn to discern between love and fear as motivating perspectives on a situation." Another Superhero said:

In our [Western] culture, it's socially acceptable to choose fear over love. We use different justifications to mask that the core motivation is fear, like if I take a job that I don't like—maybe with an oil company, which goes against all my beliefs but the money's good—is this because I'm afraid nothing else will come my way? And I use the word "responsible" or "prudent." But maybe a more truthful description would be: "I'm choosing to settle for fear instead of risking for love. But maybe I don't even know this 'cause no-one's ever shown me there could be another way to see things. To choose between love and fear, I have to know how and why I should do this 'cause choosing is a skill we learn when we come to know there's a choice and also knowing that I have the power to choose.

Love Ninja said that one method of cultivating the ability to discern the difference between love and fear was through spontaneous giving, involving planning how to make a vision work while also planning to not plan. By asking questions and listening to stories of people's experiences, they were able to learn "in the moment" what was needed and to spontaneously give from that place of learning. "Choosing to be a learner can be an emotional risk," one Superhero said, "and can mean choosing between love and fear."

Blazing Echidna said fear could be like a "vice," chosen when it feels safer to isolate oneself—yet fear would continue to motivate further isolating behaviour when this would no longer be healthy. He said that through giving, he learned that spontaneous giving was also a way of being vulnerable because it meant admitting that he didn't have all the answers. He also said that, like Rabbi Yikes and Love Ninja, the Ireland ride had helped him to learn "how to be vulnerable." He said, "It was an opportunity for me to see myself

160 and reveal myself to the group. The other half of it is really clarifying how I want to be in the world [...] to honor the uplifting of all beings."

Staying Connected

Staying connected was another way that the Superheroes were able to continue promoting these values. They did this by sending postcards (see Appendix D - Superhero Postcards) or maps of the ride (see Appendix D - Superhero Maps) to people they had helped or who had helped them, to give them inspiring updates on what the Superheroes had been doing. A significant number of those helped had already been practicing giving, personal growth and promoting ecological consciousness. Perhaps by staying in touch, the

Superheroes encouraged them to continue doing good work. After the Ireland trip, many school children maintained pen pal relationships with the Superheroes. Also, nearly everyone visited in Ireland had been given the Superhero headquarters contact information so they could call or write letters whenever they liked. Some of the

Superheroes went back after the ride to visit people they had met and helped in Ireland.

Perhaps this allowed people to stay connected to a part of the original, magical experience that transpired on the ride.

The Superheroes promoted spontaneous giving, ecological consciousness and transformative learning experiences, as well as some of the values that these things embodied, by inspiring people with joyfulness, by giving "love bombs," through mythmaking, through being the change they wanted to see in the world, with inclusiveness, and finally by staying connected with people after meeting them. The

161 values promoted included those of community-building, peacemaking and the deepening of an awareness of the interconnectedness of life.

II Findings for the Central Thesis Question

Central Thesis Question: Can spontaneous giving, as defined by the Superheroes, be used as a transformative learning tool to promote ecological consciousness?

"It Depends": Culture, Storytelling and Worldview

According to the Superheroes, the short answer to the central thesis question is: "It depends." The leap from giving to the deepening of ecological consciousness can depend on a number of things, and as one Superhero said, "That's not the only way to get closer to nature, but it happens. Everything's connected. How a person learns or transforms depends on what is happening around that person and inside that person."

Some Superheroes said the conditions that enable such a leap include whether or not the person giving is able to, chooses to, or has the guidance to recognize a transformative learning experience. Another condition is that the person be given the opportunity to make meaning of and bring to fruition a transformative lesson that might be inherent in a spontaneous giving experience. According to one Superhero, these conditions have a lot to do with the worldview of the person giving, the culture of the people who are closest to that person, and the extent to which the person is aware that

(s)he chooses the meaning (s)he makes out of life. Another Superhero said that the things

162 that can enable a leap from giving to the deepening of ecological consciousness can be attributed to three things: culture, storytelling and worldview.

Cultural Conditions for the Deepening of Ecological Consciousness

Some of the Superheroes believed that without the proper guidance, transformative learning opportunities might not be recognized by the person giving. One Superhero said that for spontaneous giving to lead to meaningful transformative learning, the giver requires emotional and possibly spiritual guidance from peers who have themselves been thinking deeply about giving while practicing it. Another Superhero said there must be a culture that gives within itself, creating a synergy that makes outward giving sustainable.

For example, such a culture might be "gift-oriented," or use a "gift economy" that rewards displays of generosity above acquisition of material possessions or of power.

Blazing Echidna said there must be a culture in which good questions are celebrated and explored. There must also be a culture that prioritizes deep learning by talking about it and making time for people to "process." Finally, he said, there must be a culture that reframes "mistakes" as "learning or growth opportunities for the entire group" rather than instances of blame and individual culpability.

Without these cultural conditions, said some of the Superheroes, the depth inherent in all experiences, especially giving experiences, might be lost. One might simply be practicing "random acts of kindness," which "feel good" but don't necessarily get at the soul-searching, transformative aspect of giving and its connection to the

163 deepening of any kind of consciousness, let alone ecological consciousness. The

Superheroes have developed and continue to develop a culture that addresses this issue.

One Superhero said what this looked like was that the Superheroes tended to be philosophical yet straightforward, spiritual without expressing religious dogma, spontaneous while also striving to be timely, organized and goal-oriented, compassionate, open about their thoughts and feelings, welcoming and excited to socialize with new people. They were generally curious to hear many sides of a story, seeking to be open- hearted and open-minded, helpful and nurturing to others, patient, tolerant, and trusting.

They sought to identify and let go of personal attachments by distinguishing between needs and wants. These appeared to be the main tendencies that were most celebrated, or that the Superheroes seemed to generally identify with as a group.

I observed a number of key cultural practices that supported an overall culture of giving, transformation and ecological consciousness. The Superheroes were non-violent, following Gandhi's teachings of active nonviolence which emphasized passive resistance

(such as boycotting environmentally damaging products) rather than passive aggression

(such as aggressive protesting or intrusive preaching). This was an important approach to practicing spontaneous giving. They were non-hierarchical, rotating leadership roles and focusing on "supporting the group" rather than "leading the group." They were consensus-based, using non-hierarchical methods of decision-making. These elements were also important parts of their transformative and gift-oriented culture. They were nomadic, purposefully moving without necessarily planning where they would go next.

This contributed to the immediacy and potency of spontaneous giving. They were

164 inclusive, welcoming in outsiders and including everyone in activities. This made them a fluid-member group, meaning that people could join and leave as they wished.

These elements also contributed to the transformative effect of spontaneous giving. They were gift-based, rewarding generosity rather than acquisition of wealth or power. On a deeper level, they were striving to embody the spirit of spontaneous giving through intentional acts of spontaneous generosity and listening. Part of the thrust behind their gift-centredness was that they were peace-seeking, implementing the teachings of

Gandhi to "think globally and act locally" with compassion and awareness of the impacts of their actions. Being aware of their actions was how giving and transformation connected to the deepening of ecological consciousness. For they were ecologically- responsible in practice and principle, seeking to minimize the overall ecological footprint of the group by travelling by bicycle, offsetting the carbon load of other forms of transportation, recycling, buying local organic food and using reclaimed products.

The Superheroes' key cultural elements were supported on an emotional level by their daily rituals. These gave the group cohesion through group reflection, as well as providing opportunities for bonding. They also helped the Superheroes to build synergy, as individuals became focused on contributing their strengths to the greater good of the group. The rituals were daily staple practices which helped the group to be supportive of each other during difficult times and to maintain a light-hearted perspective on minor setbacks. This helped to rejuvenate the group, which had the effect of helping to build and maintain an exciting environment in which to generate energy surrounding spontaneous giving and personal growth.

165 The Superheroes' key cultural elements were also supported on a practical level by their daily chores schedule. This gave the group organization through the delineation of daily "house-keeping" tasks. The delineation of tasks supported their spontaneous and nomadic giving-focused lifestyle by providing the group with a foundation of order from which to embrace the unpredictable realm of spontaneity. Although many of the

Superheroes considered spontaneity to be central to what they were doing, they also recognized that people must first take care of themselves before they can help others. For example, one Superhero said, "I have to nurture my own strength so I can sustain the strength from which I am able to give to others." Their devised chore schedule helped them efficiently take care of their daily needs, thus freeing up more time to give spontaneously.

Storytelling

One practice was transcendent throughout all the rituals: storytelling. Each ritual transformed individual experience into a co-creative process of storytelling about shared experiences.

Some of the Superheroes believed that the depth of a person's experience has a lot to do with their storytelling and their receptivity to learning from nature itself. Love

Ninja said, "A person may experience very deeply but not have the words to describe what's happening. Storytelling helps that. When a person can articulate their experience, even deeper learning is possible." Love Ninja said that it's not just the stories we tell about our own experiences that help us, but other stories as well. The Superheroes told

166 many stories about giving, learning and nature. Some of them were retellings of ancient myths from diverse cultures. Some were scripture, poems, or songs. Some were glorified retellings of individual experiences. Others were collectively-told or co-created stories about group experiences, the details of which grew and morphed through myth-making.

"Stories," said one Superhero, "are who we are. We have to pay attention to the stories we tell because reality is shaped through them."

One of these stories stands out in my mind as a perfect example of the process of interpreting reality which the above Superhero and Love Ninja talked about. It is an allegory told by many Superheroes, called "Crossing the River." It illustrates the nature of the connection between giving, learning and the deepening of ecological consciousness. This allegory uses a nature metaphor (the river) to represent the apparent barrier to the deepening of consciousness and the development of wisdom. The story tells of a person who has been trying to cross the river for their entire life without success. As the person becomes older and more discouraged, she finally gives up on crossing the river. Yet she continues to live at the edge of the river bank. Then one day she sees another, weaker, older person who is trying to cross the river. She forgets about her old dream to cross the river and instead begins to help the other person across. She becomes completely absorbed in helping another, forgetting about her own desires. "Watch out for that whirlpool!" she says, "Don't get sucked into that mud!" Before she is aware of what has happened, the two of them have both crossed the river together.

Blazing Echidna said the central message of the story is that we must forget about ourselves and give to others if we really want to grow. Furthermore, he said, everyone is connected, so when we give to another selflessly, we are giving to an interconnected universe that eventually gives back to us. He called it "karmic yoga or satyagraha."

Another Superhero added that the story is about letting go of ego and learning about the true nature of one's life. Another Superhero said that the story shows that since we are all connected as one organism on this planet, the woman was actually giving to another part of herself. One Superhero commented on how the story works to connect the deepening of ecological consciousness to the selfless giving, karmic yoga and letting go of ego that the other Superheroes talked about. He said:

What is so amazing about this story is that I hear it get told usually when we're taking a rest on a river bank or a lake or a pond or canal or something. Like the water itself triggers the story to come out. And it always seems to be just when someone needs to hear it. I've heard the story many times but it wasn't until the last time / told it that I realized it was about us, about connection. A person told that story. But it was inspired by nature. And I'm nature too. I'm the riveran d the people crossing. Giving and receiving.

Perhaps there is a subtle connection here: first remembering a story about a river because one is standing next to a river; then realizing new depths of meaning through retellings of the story; finally gaining insight into the meaning behind one's giving and how it is also connected to nature. The insight is, as one Superhero put it, "in some way my imagination is a part of the river itself. I feel more connected when I think this way. I want to live in a way that allows the river to thrive with me. It reminds me how to give."

Another Superhero said, "Can giving help people be more connected? Whether it's to nature or to each other, it's all the same. But some of us came here believing that already.

Maybe now I feel it more deeply though, since I'm surrounded by people who feel similarly." Rabbi Yikes said that not all the Superheroes "got it," that lessons like this

168 one remained elusive for many people for varying degrees of time. She said that everyone learns differently.

Worldview

Many of the Superheroes talked about worldview as both a barrier to learning and the context for learning. When Super Zazzie responded to the question about the connection between spontaneous giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness, she identified a key element of her own worldview that echoed the beliefs of many of the

Superheroes. She said, "The bigger idea is catching the flow." What Super Zazzie meant by this phrase was a rather Taoist view about recognizing the cycles and flows of nature

(nature including the universe) and practicing living in balance with these cycles and flows. It was widely believed by the Superheroes that behaving spontaneously was the key to what Super Zazzie referred to as "catching the flow." The dynamism laden within this phrase conjures up the mental concentration, spontaneity and agility of "catching a wave," another water metaphor that makes reference to nature as a teacher. Herein lies one of the links between the practice of spontaneous giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness.

The water metaphor is a good example of the intersection between storytelling and worldview as they relate to the connection between spontaneous giving and transformative learning experiences involving the deepening of ecological consciousness.

Water as a metaphor appeared in most of the Superhero interviews and was used by many other Superheroes on the Ireland ride. Green Geek, Blazing Echidna and two other

169 Superheroes talked about a river as a metaphor for one's life's journey toward wisdom, balance with nature and connection with community. Love Ninja talked about the convergence of Irish inland water with the ocean as a metaphor for letting go of one's ego and discovering new depths of a feeling that all things are connected. Pippy Tawanda talked about fishing in a pond as a metaphor for learning and gaining insight. Super

Zazzie, Tiger Lilly, Blazing Echidna, Wild Wooly Wonder, Rabbi Yikes, Love Ninja and one other Superhero talked about "eddies" or "whirlpools" on riverbanks as metaphors for mistaking present reality or "inertia" for "the bigger picture." One Superhero explained the whirlpool metaphor this way:

Look at the river. See how the river moves in this direction? Now look at that whirlpool. It spins in the opposite direction. If you were caught in that whirlpool, you might think the river was moving in the other direction. So the river teaches you to look outside your own situation, at the bigger picture. Maybe that's what ecological consciousness is. Giving selflessly and spontaneously to others can teach you the same thing, since each person is a river. What is that river doing? All water makes its way to the ocean. I give spontaneously to see the river for the ocean, to see beyond the whirlpool.

Another Superhero used a different water metaphor to say the same thing: "One wave said to another, 'Look out, we're going to crash into those rocks and be obliterated!' The other wave said, 'Silly wave, you're not a wave, you're the ocean!'" He explained that this is a metaphor for the individual's disillusionment that there is no isolated self, only a sea of interconnection which is everything. This relates to how one

Superhero referred to spontaneous giving as "a practice of uncovering the egoless nature of reality." According to this Superhero, there is an insight involving ecological

170 consciousness that is embedded within the practice of spontaneous giving. He said,

"When we helped clean up the shoreline and walked along the ocean, I remembered—but more deeply than before—I am not part of nature; I am nature. Therefore, so is everyone else. So when I give to another person, I am giving to nature, to myself."

Pippy Tawanda had a similar experience while volunteering to clean up a shoreline with the Superheroes. The connection, she said, was the ocean and how "oceans remind people of possibility." By experiencing herself in relation to the vastness of the ocean, she said this helped her to feel like an integral part of the interconnectedness of all things. That, she said, gave her a greater inclination to get involved with the world by volunteering. She said:

The ocean is big, with everything so far away. [...] And in a way, all you can feel is the water. There's so much water. And then all you can feel is yourself. And also [...] you know something else is there but you can't see it. That's a powerful feeling too. [...] But being next to the ocean and knowing things are in and around you, [...] being on the edge of the world does give you a sense of everything around you in every direction [...] it reminds you, the world being a whole piece.

With a greater sense of her place in this unity, she said she began to realize that her worldview that all things are connected "like a ball of yarn" was inspired by what she had learned while in nature.

One Superhero pointed out that nature-inspired learning can bring a total shift in one's worldview, especially if one comes from a predominantly individualistic culture.

Furthermore, worldview itself mediates how people make meaning of their experiences

171 of giving and the stories they tell about these experiences. Because of this, she said, the learning outcome of a person's practice of spontaneous giving would be unpredictable.

Super Zazzie identified an aspect of her beliefs to illustrate the unpredictability in the connection between worldview and ecological consciousness:

Experience the good parts, the hard parts, the bad parts, [...] developing awareness [...]. My end-all is not that we have to save our race, less species or not, contaminate this or that. Mine is more about just living life and richly experiencing many aspects, many angles on life and developing an earth-based consciousness instead of morals and ethics that fit this incarnation of where I happen to be living [...]. That involves responsibility and an incredible appreciation for the beauty of nature and all the amazing beauty and miraculousness of our world and the natural desire to protect it and sustain that.

She added that what she had just said was meant to be seen as simply one representation of what she believed in a moment in time. "Cosmologies are fluid," she said. For her, she said there had already existed a feeling of being connected to nature, years before her experiences of giving with the Superheroes. She added that she had also spent as much time giving, volunteering and doing service work. This was also the case for many of the

Superheroes. However, she said something that many other Superheroes echoed: already- existing feelings of a deepening awareness of and connection to nature were significantly affirmed by their experiences of Superhero giving. For some people, these feelings were deepened through exploration, questioning and storytelling as part of the process of reflection on past experiences of giving spontaneously.

Not all Superheroes had nature-centred worldviews involving a belief in the interconnectedness of all things. And not all the Superheroes desired to find balance within the cycles and flows of that unity. However, many of the Superheroes did embrace similar beliefs. For some, the Superhero experience was described as "an experiment" to test their worldviews and learn more about themselves. The Superhero named

"Somebody" said it could happen either way—one could learn about spontaneous giving from nature, just as well as one could learn about nature by giving spontaneously. She said she had learned some things about spontaneity from the Superheroes but she learned from nature's spontaneity how she could meaningfully give spontaneously. She said, "In the way that the weather can change so spontaneously, we sometimes have to change really spontaneously. Because of the weather - or just like the weather. Yeah, like being in the rain and still being willing to serve."

Super Zazzie pointed out that it is not helpful to look for a linear connection between giving and transformative learning experiences that involve a deepening of ecological consciousness. She said:

Service helps you connect to being in the flowo f the universe, meaning if you're connected to the flowo f the universe, if you've stepped out of ego and expectations, [...] no, attachment - if you get out of that mode and you're living truly and having a clear view of your role in the flowo r cycle of things, which committing yourself to service does, [...] then you'll automatically feel like an interconnected part of things, and ecological consciousness or at least feeling connected to nature as well as people will naturally arise. [Giving is] a vehicle. But it's convoluted. Just because it's a vehicle, doesn't mean it - it's not direct at all - except that it helps you get to [...] being connected to the flow of life, past your mind's distortion.

Here Super Zazzie makes a distinction between giving as a vehicle to insight and insight as potentially inclusive of the deepening of ecological consciousness. Many of the Superheroes agreed with this kind of delineation, saying, "It depends." Most of the

Superheroes agreed that there was a connection between giving, learning and the deepening of connections to nature, but that this connection had more to do with the worldview that all things are interconnected. Blazing Echidna said that "by touching one thing, we are touching all things. Giving is one piece of that." For many of the

Superheroes, learning to recognize this actually involved a deepening or expansion of one's own worldview.

In the next chapter I use these findings to respond to the central research question and to discuss the implications of this response.

174 Chapter 6: Discussion The more you give, the more you get.

(Love Ninja and many other Superheroes)

There is a two-part response to the central thesis question. The first part is that spontaneous giving, as defined by the Superheroes, is a transformative learning tool that deepens three major elements of ecological consciousness which are intellectual, emotional and behavioural (interactive) ways of understanding. These are intellectual in that the deepening of ecological consciousness is a process of understanding the key premises of living systems theory and deep ecology, that all things are connected, that life is an open system, and that all beings have intrinsic value and a right to exist and be treated with respect. They are emotional in that this is a process of coming to deeply realize that we are one with all beings, with nature and the earth. Finally, they are behavioral in that this is a process of acting to reduce destructive impacts on the earth while constantly learning how to do this more effectively.

The second part of the response is conditional, the "it depends" response.

Spontaneous giving, as defined by the Superheroes, can be a transformative learning tool that increases or promotes the belief in the term "ecological consciousness" if certain cultural conditions uphold a paradigm of ecological consciousness as described above.

These conditions have been identified as under the purview of culture, worldview and storytelling. The two-part response is necessary in order to distinguish between a) the deepening of intellectual, emotional and behavioral ways of understanding the interconnectedness of all things and b) the belief that these elements are what defines

175 ecological consciousness and that the deepening of this ecological consciousness is important for changing behaviours.

The two-part response is necessary because the results show an important distinction between the elements of ecological consciousness as I have defined it and a belief that those elements are called "ecological consciousness." This opens the door to revisit my use of the term "ecological consciousness," which I find to be problematic.

Although some Superheroes may have used this term with various connotations before it was introduced in the context of this study, it is not intrinsic to the Superhero culture in its application to the above stated intellectual, emotional and behavioral ways of understanding. Although mind-body-heart-spirit (whole person) understandings of interconnectivity are central to the Superhero philosophy, an intellectual-emotional- behavioral understanding of the intrinsic value of all beings is not necessarily limited to the term "ecological consciousness" in the Superhero culture. The term "ecological consciousness" thus reflects a problematic compartmentalization of a "total" experience or way of learning about the interconnectedness of all things. A parallel example will help clarify this contradiction:

Do we ever say (or think) that a birth in the family creates "parental consciousness" (or even intergenerational consciousness or evolutionary consciousness) among mom and dad? But it does. It's a more total experience, one that can't be compartmentalized. [...] Maybe "ecological consciousness" as a concept reflects a [similar] problematic compartmentalization. (Cohen 2007)

176 Like this example, the "total" experience of the Superhero ride cannot be reduced to my intellectualized explanation of the deepening of ecological consciousness and its corollary relationship to spontaneous giving. Even the use of the word "total" to describe

Superhero experiences is problematic, since the Superhero experience reinforced for me that there are always other perspectives outside of mine, that my own experience is never

"total." Even if my experience is an epiphanic discovery that everything is connected, this one experience cannot define all other epiphanies about interconnectedness.

Still, while the Superhero experience is short term for most people, it has been described as a "microcosmic experience of life," a "concentrated experience of life," and a "potent" life experience. It is a short term process of being in the world that people go through with a set of cultural norms and experiments based on testing those norms.

Because this short-term "direct experience" carries its own sense of timelessness, the lessons learned during the ride burgeon forth into the rest of one's life. I find that for the majority of the Superheroes, this experience does result in a deeper intellectual understanding that all things are connected. For the majority of the Superheroes it also stimulates a deeper emotional feeling of being one with all of life. Furthermore, it reinforces and promotes environmentally-low impact behaviour for the majority of the

Superheroes. At the same time, this reinforcement and promotion is complimented by an emphasis on "possibility" and "trust" that encourages Superheroes to keep trying to lower their ecological footprint even when it might seem difficult or impossible to do so in lifestyle contexts outside that of the Superhero experience. Thus the realization that

"anything is possible" has generally helped people to "live their ideals" in their daily lives outside the Superheroes. Of course not all individuals changed in these ways but I

177 see an overall increase in awareness and in faith that this awareness can inform people's lifestyle choices.

In the context of a culture that promotes love for all beings, spontaneous giving is a mechanism for deepening ecological consciousness. To accept and understand the value of spontaneous giving requires belief in an open system with a respect for all beings' intrinsic worth. However, one need not understand or accept these beliefs in order to practice spontaneous giving. Furthermore, one need not use the term spontaneous giving.

The definition of the term presented in this thesis is one that I have constructed from different pieces of Superhero stories and especially from my own experiences. It is not even a term used by all Superheroes. However, most Superheroes articulate various pieces of my total construction when they talk about "giving spontaneously."

Spontaneous giving has intrinsic value separate from transformative learning because it is fun and exciting. For the Superheroes, the act of spontaneous giving teaches non- attachment, which is related to the belief that a person is no more important than other beings. It also results in an increase in lifestyle choices that stem from a related belief that since a person is no more important than other beings, one therefore has no right to act with a larger footprint.

To summarize, people come to the Superhero experience with their belief systems and worldviews, so the experience does not necessarily increase the amount to which they incorporate the terms "ecological consciousness" or "spontaneous giving" in their worldview. However, spontaneous giving is a mechanism for deepening the three elements that comprise the term ecological consciousness as defined in the literature review. Spontaneous giving is therefore a tool that could be very powerful in

178 environmental education, as well as in transformative learning. In the last section of this chapter I consider this in light of the literature review as applied to the results.

I Meaning of the Superhero Experience

In this section I explore how the results uphold or challenge concepts in the literature such as systems theory, awareness-action feedback loops, refraining stories through metanarrative, group transformative learning, cultural co-creation through storytelling and worldview, human-nature co-creation, and "direct experience."

Co-Creative Refraining of Stories and Culture

In the literature review I established some connections between storytelling, awareness, action and ecologically-socially responsible behaviour. Here interconnectedness and metanarrative are linking themes between spontaneous giving, transformative learning and the deepening of ecological consciousness. They emphasize a link between storytelling and worldview-guided behaviour (Freire 1973: 84), articulated by the words,

"The truth about stories is that's all we are" (King 2003) and the assertion: "Want a different ethic? Tell a different story" (King 2003: 164). The results show that the

Superheroes are particularly concerned with the power of storytelling for shaping one's perspectives and its potential for creating change. Both Birch Bark Bob and another

Superhero expressed this by saying that we create our reality by focusing on what we believe to be reality and choosing how to react and tell stories about what we think we see. Birch Bark Bob said an important distinction exists between a) acknowledging problems while focusing on solutions and b) focusing on problems so much that the imperative to find solutions is forgotten or ignored. This distinction reflects the statements in the literature review that "Stories are wondrous things. And they are dangerous" (King 2003: 9) and that "texts have the capacity to strike out at the world with all the force of a clenched fist" (Bracken 1997: 127). One of the ramifications of this last statement is a third possibility that c) a story can divert attention away from either solutions or problems, by closing itself (as a clenched fist) to what is really going on in the world. This can happen in the form of escapist entertainment. It is difficult to define escapist entertainment but one Superhero said that it is exemplified by action films which offer eye candy but little substance or by Disney films which offer a moral message that is grossly undermined by the commodification of toys based on its characters, sending a mixed message that while the story may be popular, profit is more important than the message embedded in the story. It was observed that the stories that reach the most people in Western culture are those told in big budget films, the original storylines of which are often corrupted if it will mean increased profit through ticket sales.

Such stories play an important role in the modern history of Western culture but the Superheroes seek to differentiate themselves from this form of storytelling because they are more interested in mythmaking. As stated in the literature review, mythmaking is a Superhero practice of portraying deep truths about life. This involves pretending in order to strip away illusions of identity that distract one from seeing the deeper truths underneath. This practice differs from entertainment because although mythology can be similarly entertaining, it carries important kernel truths and observations about life that help guide those telling, hearing and enacting it, to learn and to grow. Mythology itself is not immune to being commodified ("Disneyfied") or even to being corrupted to serve political motives. As seen in Louv's description of the advertising industry commodifying nature (Louv 2005: 61), even the forest can be coopted to sell products that destroy the forest through their creation. Mythmaking itself cannot be as easily manipulated in this way because it is not a product but a process. Similarly, the elements of a story may be changed, but the act of storytelling (through any medium—oral, written, physically acted, painted, sung, played, improvised, co-created, enacted) cannot be corrupted, just as energy changes forms but is still energy. Mythmaking is the participatory act of transcending the microcosm of story and engaging with the macrocosmic "hero's journey," the universal quest to learn what lies behind storytelling.

The Superhero Recognition ritual is an articulation that anyone may be a hero; it is not power that makes one a hero but the ability to question and the desire to seek. For the word quest comes from the Latin (quasrere) meaning "seek, gain, ask."

It is interesting that the Superheroes create stories in order to deconstruct story.

This is akin to the literature review description of transformative learning as the cultivation of the ability to think critically using cultural metanarrative (Freire 1973: 84) in order to deepen self- and world-consciousness (Freire 1973: 84-85) and to discover oneself to be "a maker of the world of culture," with "a creative and re-creative impulse"

(Freire 1973: 84-85). In order to deconstruct one's "script," another story—a metanarrative of that script—must be constructed. Mythmaking is one way of collectively deconstructing collective storytelling, otherwise called culture.

181 It is also a way to co-create culture based on generally agreed-upon ideals, as well as to question those ideals. Mythmaking is a way of experimenting with beliefs, since it is a playful, "safe" way to try on different "characters" or ideas. Although the Superheroes dress as characters, their play is serious because the exploration of ideas and feelings is intensely personal. When a child asked Hugman why he was "dressed up as a Superhero" he replied, "We're not dressed up\ We are Superheroes." Another Superhero said that the costume gave her permission to let go of her constructed identity, which she considered to be a distraction from "finding [her] true self."

The experiential aspect of storytelling is very important to the type of learning that can happen when engaged in mythmaking. This is in stark contrast to mainstream

Western cultural understandings of storytelling which often present storytelling phenomena as events of either listening (passive, one-way) or telling (active, one-way).

Although some stories are enacted (such as historical reenactments or plays), storytelling as one-way entertainment (either giving or receiving but not both) proliferates in Western culture. The Superheroes participate in creating their story because it is considered important to recognize how powerful individuals actually are in co-creating their reality.

Furthermore, experience can have deeper emotional roots than storytelling. Blazing

Echidna gave a poignant example of how experiencing something can be more powerful than hearing a story about the same thing. He said he had grown up reading superhero comics and hearing stories about the importance of showing kindness, respect and love toward others. All those stories combined were nothing compared to his experience of losing his father to a car accident when he was a young teenager. He said after that, previously large problems shrunk as his perspective on what was important changed

182 dramatically. Family, friends, truth seeking, questioning things seemed of utmost importance, while it seemed that his peers continued to be caught up in more peripheral things like competition, clothes and being cool. He said that he might have been right there with them despite all the stories he had read or heard about the importance of giving and family. However, losing his father taught him to cherish life in a way that stories could not. Stories mean little without the context of experience. However, at the same time, experience without critical reflection on what meaning has been made of it can perpetuate unconscious behaviour that becomes habitual, for better or for worse.

Just as the death of his father taught Blazing Echidna to not take life and loved ones for granted and enabled him to feel and act from a place of genuine gratitude, spontaneous giving had the effect of reminding Superheroes on a deep level to cherish the preciousness of life. This was facilitated by the cultural context within which the giving was enacted. This relates to Armstrong's description of the Syilx nation's gift economy, which is based on recognition of how precious resources are and therefore the need to share those resources by giving away what is most cherished (Armstrong 2007: 48). In the same way, Blazing Echidna and Love Ninja both said that giving to this thesis their stories of their Superhero experiences is in a way giving away what is most cherished, since the Superhero quest is central to who they are in this stage of their lives. They said that once their stories are used to contribute to the overall meaning portrayed through the thesis, they could change since a story will have different meanings in different contexts.

In this way they are giving up their stories to be used in ways over which they have no control. They both said that this way of giving involves trust and faith that whatever I do with their stories will come from my own place of seeking or questing for my own truth. This in itself is spontaneous giving. It involves the letting go of preconceived notions of what should be given and the engagement in a performative act of compassion, openheartedness, creativity, joyfulness, presence "in the moment," and willingness to be surprised, in order to give selflessly without expectation of a return from the person to whom the gift is given and to learn from one's experience of giving in this way. Telling one's story as a Superhero is performative because the telling involves recollection and verbal reenactment of memories of experiences. It is also performative because this telling has its own artistry of being crafted for an audience. This does not imply deception; rather it refers to the process of listening to one's audience to find out where they come from and therefore how to "speak their language" (Freire 1973), how to craft an "appropriate" or "meaningful response."

This process is compassionate because the process of listening involves a measure of pathos to the most mundane level of understanding. It is also openhearted and creative because responding honestly out of this listening involves showing vulnerability. To truthfully respond to many of my questions, Superheroes had to candidly speak of their vulnerabilities. This process is joyful and present because this type of storytelling celebrates memory while also contextualizing it within the language of the present moment of sharing. Finally, people can learn from their own process of storytelling in surprising ways, just as one Superhero learned that "he was the river" when he told the story of "Crossing the River." Furthermore, both Rabbi Yikes and Love Ninja said that telling their stories in an interview helped them to discover things about themselves because a coherent narrative was elicited from them that they would not have sit down to articulate in the same way when alone. At one point in our interview, Rabbi Yikes said that I had asked her questions that she had never thought of. Refraining her memories within the context of these new questions helped her to shift her perspective.

The Superheroes talked about meaningful responses involving compassion as instances of letting go of attachments in order to "hold space" for others. Examples of this are the Thanking and Sharing with the architect and Rabbi Yikes' experience of seeing the youth worker's vulnerability. On a deeper level, this practice can be seen as contributing to a process of "unblocking" the so-called ecological consciousness feedback loops described in the literature review. The stripping away of good intentions to uncloud one's perception—"to put aside our ideas in boxes," to "remove the labels and see we're all connected"—is a practice that enables the deepening of the perception that since we're all connected, no one is more important than any other being on the planet.

Super Zazzie said, "Our experiences can only be limited by our expectations of how they will unfold." In this context, this can also mean that even good intentions can pose blockages to the ecological consciousness feedback loop. An example of how this might happen could be if a person has the good intention to save a species from extinction by transporting it to another part of the world. Without a better understanding of ecosystems, this person might create an imbalance like that of the cane toad population in Australia in which a foreign species with no predators creates more problems than it solves. One's preconceived notions or hopes for specific outcomes can get in the way of perceiving more appropriate action.

This was articulated by the Superheroes in many ways by referring to multiple ways of knowing. The above can be an example of a biological or scientific way of

185 knowing nature. The Superheroes also emphasized spiritual ways of knowing nature. For example, Blazing Echidna quoted this Lao Tzu poem:

The mind is like a pool of water. Let the mind become calm and still. As the mud of desires and expectations settles, Truth bubbles up as insight. Can you sit and let the mud settle? And see with clarity what is at the bottom.

It illustrates the importance of listening to one's inner wisdom as a way of knowing and uses a nature metaphor as a way of learning from nature. Similarly, the Superhero Startup

Kit, which can be found in the appendices, quotes the Hafiz poem:

Even after all this time

The sun never says to the earth,

"You owe me."

Look what happens with a love like that,

It lights up the whole sky.

As stated in the literature review, this poem presents a truth about the nature of giving as

"gratuitously wasteful" in the sense of the words that implies thankfulness and generosity without reserve. In an open system such giving is possible in a sustainable way, since giving into an open system is a way of giving to the self in a selfless (egoless) way. As

Love Ninja said, "The more you give, the more you get."

186 This kind of giving can be practiced in a gift economy because there is a culture to support individuals in giving selflessly. The literature defines a gift economy as the confluence of giving-centred worldviews and is the synergistic, inclusion-oriented, conscientious co-creation of community, based on the understanding that life is an open system and we are all connected (Vaughan 2007). Spontaneous giving is a practice that arises from this confluence of worldviews as the embodied interpretation of the philosophy of giving. Since it is unplanned, spontaneous giving can be understood as a method for giving without motives for receiving anything in return beyond the satisfaction and rewards of giving.

It is not that one type of economy is actually closed or open, but that individuals interact in ways based on their understandings of reality as inclusive or exclusive. It has been said that capitalism is in fact parasitic upon gift economies (Vaughan 2007). While the idea of the global economy upholds the concept of an open system, the capitalist model for this global system acts like a closed system because it excludes those who are impoverished from its system of exchange. As described by living systems theory, there are no closed circuits, only cycles which interact with other cycles. In contrast, the capitalist model promotes a false sense of isolation. Some of the Superheroes said that isolation can be a vice because it is a learned habitual way of making meaning that one can use as a crutch during times of stress. Others added that facing fears within a supportive community can help one learn that one is never as alone as one thinks. This is another facet of the deepening of awareness of the interconnectedness of all things, since the experience of realizing that one is not alone can reinforce an understanding that one is connected to all other beings. Super Zazzie articulated this as feeling "engaged in the interconnected, alive web of life, of everything." This she said was due to the "concentrated experience of life" that

Louv calls "direct experience" (Louv 2005: 79). The three major features of direct experience—learning from making mistakes, rather than having the answer given to one

(Louv 2005: 79-81), not being "time-bound" (Louv 2005: 47), and place-based learning

(Louv 2005: 67)—are much like the major features of the Superhero experience. Super

Zazzie also emphasized place-based experience, saying that her Superhero "direct experience" made her "feel engaged with the whole cycle of life between people and place. Just really engaged in the interconnected, alive web of life, of everything."

Many Superheroes said it was important to practice giving in an environment supportive of making mistakes. Furthermore, spontaneity operates outside the realm of planned (scheduled) time. Some Superheroes said that because of this, time seemed to slow down and it seemed like there were more hours in the day to do things. My experience was the feeling that time slowed down, as if I was experiencing life with the time perception I had as a child, when a day can feel like a week. Other Superheroes experienced this as well and attributed it to being more fully present in the moment than in their lives outside the Superheroes. Time flies when you're trying to have fun. But when you're truly engaged with life and making your fun, time actually slows down.

Place-based learning, or Louv's concept of "direct experience" has a similar timeless quality that can be addressed in the context of the Superhero practice of bicycling. Green Geek said the bicycle was a tool for traveling close to the land at a certain pace to be able to appreciate it and interact with it. Love Ninja said that biking is a more conscious way of moving through the world, a physical-spiritual vehicle connecting

188 awareness and action. It was also seen as an "opportunity to learn" while also co-creating and enacting a story about the connections between awareness and action, that action can be a simple matter of "doing what's right." While one Superhero said, "Personal transformation can be shepherded into our lives by creating a culture of questioning ourselves and each other, of looking deeper, of seeking and being spontaneous," it has been said that secondary experience (intellectual) should not be chosen over direct experience because this depersonalizes life (Dewey 1902). Van Matre agrees to the extent that "processing" (transformative learning through reflection) should be accessed or triggered emotionally. This was articulated by Love Ninja's mantra to "embrace joy" and echoed by the aspect of transformative learning that is the deepening of "our sense of possibilities for social justice and peace and personal joy" (O'Sullivan 2003: 326-330).

This also occurred through learning about interconnectedness in the triangle game played during Dice of Destiny (see above) and through storytelling about interconnectedness (such as in the story of crossing the river). Just as Freire said that learners must be engaged in their own learning (Freire 1973), the Superheroes mediated their own experiences. Ritual created the structure in which to do this. A problem I found in the structure (process) of consensus meetings is that it was identified that not all

Superheroes were able to adequately participate due to language barriers and more passive personalities. For this reason, the Superheroes wondered if consensus was not without bias, as some people might "vote" on a decision without being fully aware of all the facts involved.

Nevertheless, the majority of Superheroes benefitted from the experience of participating in consensus meetings, which modeled the conception of transformative

189 learning as a direct experience of "a participatory approach to integral transformative education in which all human dimensions—body, vital, heart, mind, and consciousness— are invited to co-creatively participate in the unfolding of learning and inquiry" (Ferrer

2005: 1-2). It has been said that learning is self-regulated or self-propelled often by feelings that "draw forth" (Orr 1994: xii) such as wonder (Van Matre 1990). This process also modeled the "feedback about feedback" nature of human "self-reflexive consciousness" (Macy and Brown 1998: 43), which provides "the information circuit that connects perception to action" (Macy and Brown 1998: 25) and counters "fragmented" worldviews and the repression of pain experienced as a result (Macy and Brown 1998:

26-37). The consensus meetings brought people together at a heart level of connecting to one another that transcended feelings of isolation. When Super Zero said he had trouble with English, he said that although he at first felt more isolated during consensus meetings, once he articulated this to the group and saw how they responded with compassion and willingness to speak more slowly, he felt more connected to the group than he had yet on the ride.

When different factors that broke down isolating barriers were combined, this reinforced the broadening of conceptions of causal relationships through "a shift of consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters our way of being in the world" that involves "our understanding of ourselves and our self-locations; our relationships with other humans and with the natural world" (O'Sullivan 2003: 326-330). These sorts of realizations were expressed as "aha!" moments articulating the innate "openness" of consciousness that has been compared to the "self-organizing," "self-stabilizing," "open system" of life (Macy and Brown 1998: 41). From this comparison has come the

190 assertion that "mind is not separate from nature; it is in nature" and the "mind pervades the natural world as the subjective dimension within every open system, however primitive" (Laszlo 1973: 170, in Macy and Brown 1998: 43). As Rabbi Yikes said, "It's all related."

The Dynamics of Spontaneous Giving

Spontaneous Giving is a confluence of the ideas of "gift," "time," and "being."

Giving spontaneously means to give in the now. Giving in the now requires being present. "Being present" means to be awake and responsive to what is happening in the moment—every moment. Cultivating this awareness is a daily practice for the

Superheroes, many of whom believe one must "truly be present" in order to give what is really needed. In many cases, said one Superhero, "being present is the real gift that we give." This is often referred to as "holding space." Holding space for someone involves listening to that person's concerns or stories and being present with them until that person feels connection and resolution. The person may not feel a resolution to a complex problem, but at least space is held for them until they feel closure of the moment of anxiety (for example) by recognizing and naming those feelings.

The concept of holding space is also practiced by Quakers (Steere 1984; Taber

1992; Abbott 2004), who have for a long time shared this and many other peace- promoting practices with Aboriginal people such as the Haudenosaunee (Lickers,

2006).I5 Some of the Superheroes have had a Quaker upbringing, and others have

15 Henry Lickers, from the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan and Director of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, Department of the Environment, is also a supporter of the annual Haudenosaunee reading of The Great 191 become teachers of Environmental Education in Quaker schools. Quaker mysticism has many parallels with the Gift Paradigm (Abort 2004), as do the mystical texts of many other religions and spiritual practices, including Buddhism (Ajahn Chah 1982,1985),

Judaism (Buber 1948), and Sufism (Bayat and Jamnia 1994).16

The gift of creating a space for storytelling can help bring forth the gift of wisdom

(the Latin root for the word education means "to educe, to draw forth"). This is perhaps most eloquently articulated by Keith H. Basso in his book Wisdom Sits in Places (1996).

This is an anthropological study of the Cibecue Apache nation and the connections in their culture between storytelling, place, and wisdom. He says storytelling about one's sense of place "also represents a culling of experience" (Basso 1996: 144). Furthermore,

"to inhabit a language [...] is to inhabit a living universe, and vice-versa" (Basso 1996:

69)—people form the land just as the land forms them (Basso 1996: 99,107). Therefore, if we tell ourselves stories about ourselves that emphasize the importance of natural places in constituting and forming our identities, we will be more inclined to protect those natural places (Basso 1996: 69). Apache consultant, Dudley Patterson (considered by the people of Cibecue to be a wise man), says:

Wisdom sits in places. It's like water that never dries up. You need to drink water to stay alive, don't you? Well, you also need to drink from places. You must remember everything about them. You must learn their names. You must remember what happened at them long ago. You must think about it and keep on thinking about it. Then your mind will become smoother and smoother. Then you

Way of Peace—an oral episteme that has many parallels with the Gift Paradigm—at which there are also annual Quaker attendees. 16 Of course these examples do not come close to reflecting the potential reach of the Gift Paradigm in transcultural mystical practices all over the world, as suggested by The Golden Rule (see footnote above). Perhaps the most prolific group of gift-based mystical practices in North America are the pagan—Wiccan, goddess-based, earth-based, or Gaia-based—practices. 192 will see danger before it happens. You will walk a long way and live a long time. You will be wise. People will respect you. (Basso 1996: 127)

In a similar way, wisdom can be a matter of survival. This is what Jeannette

Armstrong talks about (above). Wisdom can inform life-saving action (knowing how to preserve the environment for the future) and this is enabled through storytelling.

Each time the Superheroes help someone through spontaneous giving, they are telling a story to that person, as well as to themselves. While each Superhero may interpret this story differently, the overarching themes of the story are love and forgiveness. These are communicated through the process of giving and the resulting deepening of ecological consciousness through transformative learning experiences. The big story is made up of many small stories that unfold moment by moment, in the moment, through a co-creative improvisation. The Superheroes are in this way like improvisational artists.

The great improvisational musician Fred Frith said in a documentary with world- famous blind Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie called Touch the Sound:

I believe Richard Long said, "Artists are people that are in touch with the energy they had when they were children, that's never left them." And so that sense of seeing something or hearing something for the first time and being excited by it - I think you should, you know, try to hang on to that. Um, it's great. In the end it's about listening, period. I mean it starts with listening and it ends with listening. Your early life is full of sound, and that sound is always redolent of a certain part of yourself that you don't lose if you hang on to the sound. In a way, improvisation - the narrative involved in improvisation is your whole life up to that point. (Frith 2004) In a similar way, spontaneous giving can be considered to be "your whole life up to that point" of co-creative giving and receiving. He adds, "I think reality exists only in the moment of perception. It's a live first-hand experience. One cannot reproduce or film it.

It's a personal experience, which is nontransferable. And I think it's wrong to say documentaries are objective. They are as much an expression of a very personal view as any other creative work." In the same way, the improvisational nature of the spontaneous giving I experienced on the Superhero ride will not be adequately expressed in this thesis but it has a transformative quality that in one facet leads to a deepening of the elements of ecological consciousness, though not necessarily a stronger belief in the term itself.

II Implications for Environmental Education

To use spontaneous giving, as defined by the Superheroes, as a transformative learning tool that deepens three major elements of ecological consciousness which are intellectual, emotional and behavioural (interactive) ways of understanding interconnectedness, one requires a cultural context conducive to storytelling and supportive of explorative learning such as making mistakes. Two Superheroes have taken the elements of the

Superhero ride to use in learning programs outside the Superheroes. Love Ninja taught a semester-long Superhero class to grades five and six students to prepare them to participate in the second New Orleans "Hurricane Katrina Relief ride. This class taught about the Superhero philosophy, provided spontaneous giving opportunities outside the class, and involved their engagement in logistical preparations for the ride such as fund raising. Super Zazzie incorporated Superhero storytelling into a Quaker out tripping camp that focuses on spiritual quests and learning from nature. Both programs were described as successful. In fact, Love Ninja said that her Superhero class is the accomplishment that she is most proud of in her teaching career.

It is difficult to use spontaneous giving as an explicit educational tool because as stated before, it would be paradoxical to use it as a tool for accomplishing specific outcomes, since non-attachment is central to the philosophy of the practice. A comment on paradoxes is that unlike Eastern philosophies show, the Western mind does not easily comprehend that opposites can exist together at the same time. For example, a person can experience seemingly opposing feelings at the same time, about the same thing. The seemingly opposing feelings (let's say sadness and joy) can arise from the individual's differing interpretations of what it is that is causing the experience of those feelings. Part of our Western legacy of antagonistic dualism (as expressed by King in his Biblical creation story analysis in the literature review) is that we think we need to choose either one or the other of the two seemingly opposing feelings. The popular choice would likely be joyfulness, since sadness is something we're told we are meant to feel for the appropriate amount of time and then let go of to make room for happiness. Eastern traditions, such as Buddhism, tell us that all feelings are equal, that joyfulness is not the

"best" or "preferred" way of experiencing the world; it is simply one of many ways. For example, recall the poem Blazing Echidna quoted, attributed to Lao Tzu (above). One

Superhero interpreted this poem to mean that "the truth of how I feel is whatever I feel in this moment. If I am angry, this is not bad; it simply is." Furthermore, this Superhero said that Buddhism teaches that it is not impossible for opposites to exist in the same place

195 and time. From the Buddhist perspective, seemingly opposing feelings can eventually be reconciled as complementary, with their commonality stemming from the fact that they both arise as reactions to the same circumstance of self-world interaction. Contradiction arises from a paradigm of opposition. In light of Thomas King's (2003) observations that the Biblical creation story presents an interpretation of the world as made up of hierarchies of adversarial, dualistic relationships that can be reframed by Aboriginal creation stories that emphasize cooperation, diversity and equality (King 2003: 23-24), seemingly paradoxical practice of spontaneous giving can be understand as involving complementary elements. As one Superhero said, "Paradox, like conflict, comes from within."

With this in mind, perhaps the overall philosophy of spontaneous giving can be more effectively explored within a program that also emphasizes letting go of preconceived notions, balancing "going with the flow" with spiritual discipline, and focusing on confluence (interrelationships) rather than difference (contradiction or paradox). Because spontaneous giving is fun and exciting, there are many benefits to the practice for many different levels of maturity and experience. The concept of interconnectedness has deep and complex applications, yet it can be basically understood in a simple intellectual way that is graspable for young age groups. There are also intuitive ways of understanding through experience that precede intellectual context.

Furthermore, the practice of "planting seeds of inspiration" extends to the spontaneous giver, who may plant seeds of deeper understanding in themselves through the very practice of giving spontaneously. This kind of "do now, understand soon" practice is

196 similar to Buddhist meditation, which can be practiced for years before deep insight awakens out of experience.

Young learners also understand people's reactions of gratitude on an intuitive level that feeds their sense of wonder and magic and drives them to continue the practice. Perhaps the most important approach is to not compartmentalize the experience by calling it only one outcome such as "the deepening of ecological consciousness." Spontaneous giving needs to be framed as a "whole person" integrative learning approach, not as a tool for accomplishing a specific outcome. That does not mean that spontaneous giving does not accomplish the outcome hypothesized in this thesis. However, it accomplishes so much more outside of the scope of this thesis that the thesis question has served to sever it from part of its totality.

What needs to be refrained is environmental education itself. Some environmental studies university programs promote a kind of misanthropist approach to studying environmental issues. At the same time, some peace and conflict studies programs neglect to show how closely related are human rights and environmental issues. Furthermore, most programs like these neglect to promote direct action and direct experience within their curriculum. Experiential education seems to be relegated to students of elementary and high school age.

While university programs may accommodate a greater depth of understanding of philosophical issues, they do so at the expense of experiential learning and accessing the depth of emotional understanding that can be tapped to motivate socially-environmentally responsible behaviour. Also, university programs typically emphasize knowing and questioning over applying these things to action. University programs might have built-in curriculum that addresses the responsibility of the university to solve social-environmental problems on an ongoing basis.

Spontaneous giving has been shown to be a powerful transformative learning catalyst. It could be used in an interdisciplinary program that addresses environmental, social, health, economic and conflict resolution issues. It could also be used in despair work, such as that of Joana Macy's The Work that

Reconnects (1998), personal growth workshops, service learning and spiritual programs.

In light of this discussion, there is a lesson that spontaneous giving only can work in a culture and context that reinforces its values. This research has used deep ecology critiques of mainstream values and capitalism and as such is most useful in organizations and enterprises which accept that sort of critique. It is thus suggested that this critique can be useful as a tool in environmental and social justice organizations who want to incorporate or strengthen this deep ecology approach in their culture and their educational work. Furthermore, spontaneous giving can be used as a tool for organizational development to help these organizations strengthen a deep ecology approach in the face of wide ranging pressures to conform to mainstream expectations by funding, corporate or government organizations. Chapter 7: Conclusion If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

(The Dalai Lama, quoted in the Superheroes Start-Up Kit)

I have addressed a dilemma in which mainstream education often represents environmental and social problems as unconnected, neither fostering critical understanding of complex interrelationships, nor encouraging socially-environmentally responsible behaviour. I have explored how transformative learning addresses this by facilitating critical deconstruction of worldviews and "whole-person learning" to inspire paradigm shifts that empower people to adopt behaviors that reflect integrative social- environmental concern. Furthermore, I have shown how integrative social-environmental concern can arise out of experiences that enhance one's awareness of the interconnectedness of all things, as expressed by living systems theory, and the equality of all beings, as expressed by deep ecology.

I have substantiated a transformative learning relationship between spontaneous giving and the deepening of ecological consciousness by first constructing a theory of spontaneous giving and exploring its relationship to recent theories of transformative learning and ecological consciousness that emphasize the connection between action and awareness. Then through an iterative process, I have redefined the initial theory of ecological consciousness that I have come to see as problematic. Here I have differentiated between non-exclusive, "total-view" understandings of interconnectedness

199 and equality, and a belief that intellectual, emotional and behavioral understandings of interconnectedness and equality are exclusive to the term "ecological consciousness."

I have shown that spontaneous giving could only work under certain cultural conditions as a transformative learning tool to deepen a belief in the term "ecological consciousness," (as it was originally presented). However, when the theory of ecological consciousness is opened up to mean a "total experience" or awakening to the interconnectedness within natural and social realms, spontaneous giving is shown to contribute as a transformative learning tool to the deepening of elements of this "total experience." This is due to the nature of spontaneous giving experiences as applying to all areas of one's life. Furthermore, spontaneous giving has been associated with

"timeless" experiences, the transformative effects of which can last beyond the actual experience. In this way spontaneous giving memories can continue to inspire behaviour changes long after one participates in spontaneous giving exchanges. Many Superheroes described this as "healing."

These new understandings of ecological consciousness and spontaneous giving have informed reflection on the qualitative case study approaches to participant observation, in-depth interviews, narrative analysis of participant storytelling and the construction of spontaneous giving theory itself. For in order to construct and reconstruct the theory, I have undertaken my own experiential-transformative learning while on two separate Superhero rides, each a year apart. After the initial, pre-research experience, I questioned existing gift theory and developed an alternative spontaneous giving theory inspired by that experience. It was during the second experience, the Ireland ride, that I questioned the basis of my initial theory as it relates to the term "ecological consciousness." Through my own "direct experience" I was inspired to incorporate the theory of "sense of place" into a reconstruction that rings truer for my experience and how it compares to the data and results.

I thus find that spontaneous giving can be used as a transformative learning tool to deepen intellectual, emotional and behavioral understandings of interconnectedness, described by living systems theory and of the equality of all beings, described by deep ecology. I have shown that this has implications for environmental and social justice organizations who want to incorporate or strengthen a deep ecology approach in their culture and their educational work. Furthermore, spontaneous giving can be used as a tool for organizational development to help these organizations strengthen a deep ecology approach in the face of wide ranging pressures to conform to mainstream expectations by funding, corporate or government organizations.

Further research that might expand on this could be a comparison between a non- bureaucratic giving-based group like the Superheroes, who are not a non-profit or any other kind of formal organization, and another giving-based organization that is formally organized, such as a non-profit environmental organization like the Otesha Project. It would be valuable to test the theory of spontaneous giving that I have constructed, to see if spontaneity is a lynchpin for group synergy and the sustainability of giving without desiring a return.

It would also be valuable to test spontaneous giving theory in order to better understand the paradoxical nature of Superhero giving that on the one hand purports to give without expectation of a return but on the other hand celebrates feelings that "the

201 more you give, the more you get.

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210 Appendix A - Interview Guide

WARM-UP

1) Please tell me the story about how you heard about the Superheroes. 2) Please tell me your story of becoming a Superhero. a) What is the story behind your Superhero name.

b) What is the story behind your Superhero power or gift.

c) Why did you decide to join this ride?

d) Have you been on other rides? If so, why did you decide to join your first ride? Arid why did you/do you continue to come back? 3) What is your favourite memory about riding with the Superheroes?

FEELING CONNECTED TO PEOPLE AND/OR THE EARTH, AND TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCES

4) Please tell me a story about a time when you felt really connected to other people on a ride.

a) If you had such an experience, how did this effect you?

b) Is it important to you to feel connected to other people?

bi) If so, how?

c) Is it important to the Superheroes to feel connected to other people?

ci) If so, how? d) Was there a time on a Superhero ride when you felt isolated? di)If so, please tell me about it.

211 5) Did you feel connected to people in your daily life before you met the Superheroes? a) If so, how?

b) Was it important to you to feel connected to people in your daily life before the Superheroes?

bi) If so, how?

c) Do you feel connected to people in a different way than you did before you met the Superheroes?

ci) If so, how?

6) Please tell me a story about a time when you felt really connected to the earth on a ride. a) If you had such an experience, how did this effect you?

ai) What does being connected to the earth mean to you?

b) Is it important to you to feel connected to the earth?

bi) If so, how?

c) Is it important to the Superheroes to feel connected to the earth? ci) If so, how? 7) Did you feel connected to the earth in your daily life before you met the Superheroes? a) If so, how?

b) Was it important to you to feel connected to the earth in your daily life before you met the Superheroes?

bi) If so, how?

c) Do you feel connected to the earth in a different way than you did before you met the Superheroes?

ci) If so, how? 8) Do you feel like your individuality is respected on Superhero rides? a)If so, please tell me a story about a time when you felt like your individuality was respected.

ai) If you had such an experience, how did this make you feel?

b) Is it important to you that your individuality is respected?

bi) If so, how?

c) Is it important to you to respect other people's individuality?

ci)If so, how? d) Was there ever a time on a Superhero ride when you felt like your individuality was not respected?

di) If so, please tell me about it.

9) Please tell me about an experience you had on a Superhero ride, when you felt like an individual and a community member. a) If you had such an experience, how did this make you feel?

ai) Did this experience include feelings of being close to other people?

aii) Did this experience include feelings of being close to the earth?

b) Have you had such an experience outside of the Superheroes?

bi) If so, what was it?

bii) How did this make you feel?

biii) Did this experience include feelings of being close to other people?

biv) Did this experience include feelings of being close to the earth?

10) Has your personal philosophy or world view changed, since you met the Superheroes, about what it means to be an individual who is also part of a community? a) If so, how?

213 11) Have you had an experience on a Superhero ride that transformed the way you think and feel about your life and your place on the earth? a) If so, how did this effect you?

ai) Did you share this experience with the Superheroes?

aii) If so, how did they respond?

b) If you had such an experience, did you share it with someone who was important to you outside of the Superheroes?

bi) If so, how did they respond?

SPONTANEOUS GIVING, ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCES

12) Please tell me a story about your experience of giving while on a ride.

a) What (if anything) did you learn from this?

b) Do the Superheroes ever talk about giving?

bi) If so, how important is giving to the Superheroes?

c) Is giving important to you? ci) If so, how? d) Was giving important to you before you met the Superheroes? di) If so, how? e) Do you have a story you would like to share with me about being given to on a ride?

ei) Do you have a story you would like to share with me about taking or asking for something you needed while on a Superhero ride?

13) Please tell me a story about an experience you had while being spontaneous on a Superhero ride. a) What (if anything) did you learn from this?

214 b) Do the Superheroes ever talk about spontaneity?

bi) If so, how important is spontaneity to them?

bii) What does spontaneity mean to the Superheroes?

biii) What does spontaneity mean to you?

c) Is spontaneity important to you? ci) If so, how? d) Was spontaneity important to you before you met the Superheroes? di)If so, how? 14) Please tell me a story about an experience you had while giving spontaneously on a ride. a) What (if anything) did you learn from this?

b) Is there a connection between spontaneity and giving?

bi) If so, what is it?

c) Do the Superheroes ever talk about "spontaneous giving?"

ci) If so, how important is spontaneous giving to them? cii) What does spontaneous giving mean to the Superheroes? ciii) What does it mean to you? d) Is spontaneous giving important to you? di)If so, how? dii) Was spontaneous giving important to you before you met the Superheroes?

diii)If so, how?

div) Did your experience of spontaneous giving make you feel connected to other people?

dv) If so, how?

dvi) Did your experience of spontaneous giving make you feel connected to the earth?

215 dvii) If so, how?

15) How would you define ecological consciousness?

a) Is this something that the Superheroes ever talk about?

ai) If so, how do they define ecological consciousness?

aii) Is ecological consciousness important to the Superheroes?

b) Is ecological consciousness important to you?

bi) If so, how?

bii) Was ecological consciousness important to you before you met the Superheroes?

biii) If so, how?

c) Do the Superheroes ever talk about the connection between spontaneous giving and ecological consciousness?

ci) If so, how important is this connection to them? cii) Is this connection important to you? ciii) If so, how? civ) Was this connection important to you before you met the Superheroes? cv) If so, how? IMPRESSIONS OF SUPERHERO CULTURE AND PHILOSOPHY

16) How did you first feel about the Superheroes when you met them? a) Has your impression of what the Superheroes are all about changed over time?

ai) If so, how?

17) When you first joined, did the Superheroes seem to have their own distinct philosophy? a) If so, what was it?

b) [If you've been on other rides]: Has this philosophy changed?

216 bi) If so, how?

bii) If so, does the philosophy typically change from ride to ride?

biii) If not, what remains the same about the philosophy?

18) When you first joined the Superheroes, did someone give you an orientation of the group's philosophy/philosophies or vision? a) If yes, what sorts of things did they tell you or show you?

b) Do the Superheroes talk about "manifesting their dreams?"

bi) If so, what does this mean?

c) Do the Superheroes talk about "being the change you wish to see in the world?" ci) If so, what does this mean? d) When you first joined, did anyone guide you in how to "be the change you wish to see in the world?"

di) If so, how?

19) When you first joined, did the Superheroes have their own distinct culture?

a) What are some of the rituals and practices of this culture?

ai) Has this culture changed since you've known the Superheroes?

aii) If so, how?

b) If so, does the culture typically change from ride to ride?

bi) What remains the same?

c) Have any of the Superheroes talked about preserving the Superhero culture?

ci) If so, how?

d) Have any of the Superheroes talked about the sustainability of the Superheroes as a group? di)If so, how would they keep the Superheroes alive? e) Do you feel uncomfortable with any part of the Superhero culture?

ei) If so, how would you change this?

f) Is there anything you would like to change about your Superhero experience?

fi) If so, what?

DEMOGRAPHICS/BACKGROUND

20) Is this your first ride?

a) What other rides have you participated in?

b) What are some things that happened on other rides.

21) Where are you from [place of birth, place of growing up]? 22) What's your cultural background [ethnic, religious]? 23) Were you educated through a conventional school system? a) If so, how far did you go in the conventional school system?

ai)If not, please tell me about your education, of who taught you and what sort of program it was.

a) Did you feel like there was anything missing or unfulfilling or inappropriate in your previous experiences with school?

24) What do you do for work?

a) Does it include environmentally-focused groups, or programs?

ai) Are you happy where you work?

aii) If so, why? aiii) Do you feel like there has ever been anything missing or unfulfilling or inappropriate in your previous work experiences?

aiv)If so, why?

av)If so, has your Superhero experience inspired you to do anything to change this?

218 b) Have you ever felt like there has been anything missing or unfulfilling or inappropriate in your Superhero experience?

bi) If so, have any of your non-Superhero experiences inspired you to do anything to change this?

25) What environmentally-focused activities (if any) have you participated in throughout your life? a) How did you first get interested in environmental issues?

b) Was there anything missing or unfulfilling or inappropriate in your previous experiences with environmental activities/groups?

c) Would you consider your Superhero experience to be educational?

ci) If so, how?

cii) How does this experience compare to your previous educational experiences?

d) Do you have a desire to take what you have learned (if anything) from your Superhero experience into your daily life?

di) If so, how? In my past experience as a Superhero, I have observed that there is an important link between the experience of giving spontaneously and the experience of realizing one's connection to others and our interconnection with nature. I shall further investigate this perceived connection through this interview. I hope that you will be able to tell me about similar Superhero experiences in this interview (or at least Superhero experiences that have to do with giving, spontaneity, learning, community and/or ecological consciousness). It is my hope that your stories of your Superhero experiences will shed some light on the practice and study of alternative education, transformative learning experiences and environmental education.

Flexibility and Spontaneity in the Study Because spontaneity is so important to the Superheroes, the study is designed to allow me a lot of flexibility so that I can be spontenous throughout the research process. What is rigid in the study design is how I will protect Superheroe's identities and ensure their confidentiality. Since this study must pass my university's Ethics Review Board, there is a certain level of formality I must follow to ensure my research will be conducted ethically. Therefore, although I will participate as a Superhero with open-mindedness, open-heartedness and spontaneity, I must also make sure that I use discretion in a way that is appropriate for a researcher. This means using consent forms to ask your permission for each different level of research outlined on this form.

Study Design Data collection methods will combine participant observation with interviews of Superheroes. This form asks for your consent to be interviewed by me. I hope to interview Superheroes from two to three different rides. Interviews will be requested during and directly after rides, when the Superhero stories will still be fresh in their minds. Some phone interviews and follow-up phone interviews may be requested. Interviews will be semi-structured, narrative interviews, which means I will ask you to tell me stories about specific things, but you can change the focus of the interview if you think something is really important to talk about. Approximately 15 in-depth interviews will be conducted for this study, of approximately 1 to 2 hours each. Results from the interviews and my observations will be included in the thesis with your consent.

Who Can Participate in the Study? You may be asked to participate in the study if you have ever joined the Superheroes on a ride.

Who Will be Conducting the Research? The research will be conducted by Grasshopper (Aliza Weller), who is a Superhero and a student in the Master of Environmental Studies program in the Dalhousie University School of Resource and Environmental Studies. This research is the central component of my theisis, which is a major component of my degree requirements.

What Am I Asking Your Permission For On This Consent Form?

221 This is the Interview Consent Form. This consent form requests your consent to participate in an interview. The interview will take place in a quiet location away from the group, during a time that has been agreed to by both of us, which does not interrupt the group activities. You will be asked to participate in one face-to-face interview that will take approximately 1 to 2 hours. Interview questions will be given in an informal style. You will be asked questions regarding your experience as a Superhero, and your experiences of giving, learning and feeling connected to the earth. I will ask your consent to have the interview audio-recorded. A recording will help me to assure accuracy of what you tell me in the interview, since note-taking will only allow me to capture part of what you say. My recording will be kept in a locked box and will only be available to me and my supervisors.

Possible Risks and Discomforts

There are few risks to you for participating in the study. Because of the measures I will take to protect your confidentiality, there is little risk that your identity will be discovered from reading the comments you provide. Interviews will be audio recorded (with your consent) so that information is accurately and thoroughly collected. However, if you are uncomfortable with this, you will be able to refuse being audio recorded, and only written notes will be taken. You have the right to refuse to answer any questions that you feel uncomfortable with, and you may end the interview at any time. All notes will be kept in a locked box for five years (as per Dalhousie University policy).

Possible Benefits

By participating in this study, you have an opportunity to add to our understanding of giving, learning and ecological consciousness and how these concepts might be related. This may amplify current knowledge about alternative environmental education, transformative learning experiences and service-based learning.

Compensation There will be no compensation for participating in this research.

Confidentiality Signature: Date:

I give permission for my Superhero name to be used in publications.

Signature: Date:

5) I consent to my real name being included in a general list and/or the Thank-You section of my thesis.

Signature: Date:

225 6) I consent to be contacted at a later date in order to review my transcripts.

Signature: Date:

226 Appendix C - Participant Observation Consent Form

Research Services • Research Ethics Admin Office • Room 321, Henry Hicks Building • Halifax, NS, Canada • B3H 4H6 Tel: 902-494-1462 • Fax: 902-494-1595 • Email: [email protected] [H DALHOUSIE • www.dal.ca/~research Vj/UNIVERSITY Inspiring Minds

Title "Stories of Spontaneity, Giving and Transformative Environmental Learning: A Case Study of The Superheroes"

Principle Investigator Aliza Weller School for Research and Environmental Studies Dalhousie University 6100 University Ave. 5th floor Halifax, NS B3H 3E2

Supervisors Professor Fay Cohen Dalhousie University School of Resource and Environmental Studies Phone:(902)494-1364 Email: [email protected]

Professor Alan Warner Acadia University School of Recreation and Kinesiology Email: alan.warner(a),acadiau.ca

Introduction Hello fellow Superhero! I invite you to take part in a Superhero thesis. Taking part in this study is voluntary and you may withdraw from the study at any time. Below is a description which tells you about what I am asking your permission for, and the potential benefits or risks that must be considered when participating in such a study. My motivation is to create a multi-voiced account of the ways in which the Superheroes promote spontaneity, giving, learning, community and ecological consciousness. Please feel free to discuss with me or my supervisors any questions you have about this study.

Purpose of the Study Although connections have been made in research between volunteering and service- based learning, and between service-based learning and environmental education, no study has specifically looked at the experience of giving spontaneously and its potential connection to the kinds of deeply felt experiences that change people's perceptions of

227 how they are connected to the earth. I will explore this potential connection in this study. In my past experience as a Superhero, I have observed that there is an important link between the experience of giving spontaneously and the experience of realizing one's connection to others and our interconnection with nature. I shall further investigate this perceived connection through my participant observation. I hope that will tell me about similar Superhero experiences (or at least Superhero experiences that have to do with giving, spontaneity, learning, community and/or ecological consciousness). I hope that my observations will give me insight that I would not otherwise get from interviews. It is my hope that these observations will shed some light on the practice and study of alternative education, transformative learning experiences and environmental education.

Study Design Data collection methods will combine participant observation with interviews of Superheroes. Participant observation means that I will be participating as a Superhero, as well as a researcher. I will essentially be a Superhero who keeps a journal of her observations. I will participate in all the Superhero service gigs and community-building activities, and record my observations of these activities at the end of each day. I hope I'll learn things from participating that I can't learn from just asking questions in interviews. Some people may not be comfortable with my observations being included in the research, so that's why I'm asking for your consent.

Flexibility and Spontaneity in the Study Because spontaneity is so important to the Superheroes, the study is designed to allow me a lot of flexibility so that I can be spontenous throughout the research process. What is rigid in the study design is how I will protect Superheroe's identities and ensure their confidentiality. Since this study must pass my university's Ethics Review Board, there is a certain level of formality I must follow to ensure my research will be conducted ethically. Therefore, although I will participate as a Superhero with open-mindedness, open-heartedness and spontaneity, I must also make sure that I use discretion in a way that is appropriate for a researcher. This means using consent forms to ask your permission for each different level of research outlined on this form.

Who Can Participate in the Study? You may be asked to participate in the study if you have ever joined the Superheroes on a ride.

Who Will be Conducting the Research? The research will be conducted by Grasshopper (Aliza Weller), who is a Superhero and a student in the Master of Environmental Studies program in the Dalhousie University School of Resource and Environmental Studies.

What Am I Asking Your Permission For On This Consent Form? This is the Participant Observation Consent Form. This consent form requests your consent for me to research as a participant observer. This means that I will participate in all the Superhero service gigs and community-building activities, and record my observations of these activities at the end of each day. This may include my observations

228 of what the Superheroes do each day and how individuals reflect on their day in evening community building activities. Especially of interest to me may be discussions which reveal the Superheroes' impressions of what they are learning, how they are learning, how this changes them and how individual personal changes may alter the group dynamic. Because of the importance of spontaneity and "being in the moment," I will relegate my journalling time to late evenings or days off (if there are any). I hope I'll learn things from participating that I can't learn from just asking questions in interviews. Some people may not be comfortable with my observations being included in the research, so that's why I'm asking for your consent. If you are not comfortable with me being a participant observer, then I will still participate as a Superhero, but I will not include any of my journal notes as part of the research. My notes may be used to describe a typical day for the Superheroes, or to shed light on what I've learned in interviews. These descriptions will be told in such a way as to protect your identity and group confidentiality, to the extent that if another Superhero were to read my description, other Superhero identities would not be revealed. All of my journals will be kept in a locked box, and only I or my supervisors will see them. I will also ask each person's permission to take photographs. With their permission, I may use these photographs for illustrative purposes for the writing and for making presentations about the research.

When permision for participant observation is requested, the concept of participant observation will be clearly defined to the group in a meeting. Then each member will be given the opportunity to read the consent form and sign/refrain from signing the form privately. Once the forms are returned to the researcher, the results will be tallied. If the entire group consents to the researcher being a participant observer, the researcher will inform the group that she will be a participant observer. Should a member decline consent, the researcher shall inform the group that she will not be a participant observer, and so her observations will not be included in the thesis. If all members give consent but a new Superhero joins the ride who is not comfortable with giving written consent for participant observation, then the researcher will not include observations in the study from that period of time. At that time, the researcher will only rely on consented-to individual and group interviews.

Possible Risks and Discomforts There are few risks to you for participating in the study. Because of the measures I will take to protect your confidentiality, there is little risk that your identity will be discovered from reading the comments you provide. Interviews will be audio recorded (with your consent) so that information is accurately and thoroughly collected. However, if you are uncomfortable with this, you will be able to refuse being audio recorded, and only written notes will be taken. You have the right to refuse to answer any questions that you feel uncomfortable with, and you may end the interview at any time. All notes will be kept in a locked box for five years (as per Dalhousie University policy).

Possible Benefits By participating in this study, you have an opportunity to add to our understanding of giving, learning and ecological consciousness and how these concepts might be related.

229 Signature

1)1 have read the explanation about this study. I have been given the opportunity to discuss it and my questions have been answered to my satisfaction. I hereby consent to take part in this study. However, I realize that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw from the study at any time.

Signature: Date:

2) I consent to the researcher's participation as a participant observer.

Signature: Date:

3) I give permission for my Superhero name to be used in publications.

Signature: Date:

4) I consent to my real name being included in a general list and/or the Thank-You section of my thesis.

Signature: Date:

231 Appendix D - Superhero Materials

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'O Appendix E - The Golden Rule in Thirteen Sacred Texts

Baha'i Faith

Lay not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself. Baha'u'llah,o Gleanings Buddhism

Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.

The Buddha, Udana-Varga 5.18

Christianity

In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

Jesus, Matthew 7:12 t Confucianism

One word which sums up the basis of all good conduct....loving-kindness. Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.

Confucius, Analects 15.23

Hinduism

This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you.

Mahabharata 5:1517 3o Islam

Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself.

The Prophet Muhammad, Hadith

Jainism

One should treat all creatures in the world as one would like to be treated. Mahavira, Sutrakritanga 1.11.33

What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.

Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a

Native Spirituality

We are as much alive as we keep the earth alive.

Chief Dan George ® Sikhism

I am a stranger to no one; and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed, I am a friend to all.

Guru Granth Sahib, p.1299

278 Taoism

Regard your neighbour's gain as your own gain and your neighbour's loss as your own loss. oLao Tzu, T'a i Shang Kan Ying P'ien, 213-218 Unitarianism

We affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Unitarian principle l

Zoroastrianism

Do not do unto others whatever is injurious to yourself.

Shayast-na-Shayast 13.29

Acknowledgements: This original English version was prepared by Paul McKenna.

279 Published by Scarboro Missions (Toronto, Canada) Copyright © Scarboro Missions 2000

Permission to reproduce this document in print or electronic form. Scarboro Missions encourages the reproduction and use of this document for educational purposes for limited distribution. For permission to reproduce this document for commercial use or large-scale distribution, contact Paul McKenna at tel. 416-261-7135 or e-mail [email protected]

280