We each have to learn the lessons of the elders, and usually we do so the hard way; by having to go through the same phases of life that others who came before and tried to warn us about life. As a young, assistant professor I assumed I knew it all. I was going to work hard, do a lot of research, publish well, and meet my responsibilities as a teacher. Some where along this path I realized I was incomplete. I needed something more that the scientific method to guide my life. By now I was a father and deeply involved in my career. I did accept the Headship as I knew I could do it, and I knew it had to be done. Yet, the job is very hard, and is filled with lots of inter-personal conflicts with staff and faculty. I was glad to shed that role while I was young enough to have time to do some deep explorations of my life. I believe my first step in this direction began with a newly formed Unitarian Church in West Knoxville and with our minister, Dillman Sorrells. I next credit Carol Pearson for opening up an entire new area to me. I got her first book, contacted her, and joined her seminar titled Journey Guides. I was introduced to Carl Jung anew and in a form I had not encountered in my earlier studies. Pearson?s use of archetypes was fascinating to me and I began to see how they worked in my life. By now I had begun to move out of the ego stage into the inter-mediate stage of the soul that later leads us to be archetype of the sage. I believe that my teaching improved in the latter years of my career, and I feel that I learned a great deal from my students. One of the first lessons I learned was to allow my intuition to work for me. My personality tends toward the sensing and thinking type, rather than the intuitive and feeling type. But, I learned how to work against my type. About this time I first learned of the Meyers-Briggs Type Test at a leadership school run for Unitarians. Things seemed to be coming together for me.
From Warrior to Sage
A guide for moving beyond the ego
by
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In From Warrior to Sage Bill Calhoun uses his life experiences to bear on a crucial issue in classical psychology regarding how women develop and how both men and women are changed as they experience their full life-span. From the early beginnings of Carl Jung who brought into vogue the notion of the archetype to Erik Erikson who laid out a life span theory of human development, we find an evolution of our thinking about human nature that offers a broader view than traditional developmental psychology offered even as recently as 1950.
He brings into this story the work of Anne Schaef writing about her notions of the white-male system as it related to life, therapy, and business. Many other women enter the picture along with Carol Gilligan who takes to task the theory of Kohlberg as it relates to women, and Carol Pearson who developed a theory of human development which was flexible and could easily include women. Freud and Kohlberg both believed that women were inferior to men in that they did not reach the “same” levels of development as men. Calhoun will challenge this reasoning and offer an alterative.
The author relates his personal experience regarding the “fall” that seems to be the turning point in the lives of many persons who stop and take some time to rethink their life and career. In my case this had to do with the conflict of my role as a scientist-researcher with that of the role of the teacher-scholar. While pondering this dilemma I happened to see a television program featuring Red Skelton that came to play a prominent role in this awakening to a better way of doing things. As usual, Red ended his program in whatever garb he wore for the last skit and told his audience goodnight. But, this night he added a personal note by expressing his view that he was a clown, and he hoped that he had brought some please to us this night. Bill sat up and pointed at the screen saying clearly—“And I am a teacher.
A Course in Miracles (The Course) entered into this drama with its companion theory of Attitudinal Healing by Gerald Jampolsky. The Course teaches that the ego is a poor aspect of human nature and encourages us to move beyond the ego. Taking the lead from Carol Pearson, Calhoun argues that there are potentially three major stages in our life—the Ego stage, the Soul stage, and the Self stage where we merge the Ego with the Soul to reach beyond the ego to the enlightenment of the Sage or Magician.
Beyond his life experiences, Calhoun offers example of persons who have moved beyond ego of the prominent male figures such as Jimmy Carter and Dwight Eisenhower. In this way he finds role models for making the transition from the ego driven Warrior to the seeker of wisdom of the Soul to the ultimate stage of the Sage or
One very important aspect of this book is the way that the author began to allow his teaching to move to the level of the mentor as he practiced Deep Process methods developed by Anne Schaef in the classroom. He noted a very marked change in the feeling in the classroom and in how the students reacted to his style. He reports on comments made by many students. As The Course everyone teaches, but we teach best by example. As I jokingly ask my class, can you learn to make of loaf of bread by memorizing a cook book, and passing a multi choice test over the book?
To bring the ideas together, the author argues that we as a society need to open ourselves to alternative world views beyond the limiting view of the white-male system. I hope my experiences offer an example of one person’s view of life-span thinking, and that you will find it useful in your daily life.
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Sometime in 1975 Bill Calhoun had a mystical experience, which redirected his life, as he moved into the phase that Jung called the afternoon. Bill started life on a ranch in
Somehow he made time to marry Lois Ann Heikens, be discharged from the Navy, and enter
Bill is now retired from the university and has found time to bring together many ideas he has been working with for a number of years. He offers this work as a positive way to get out of the mode of the Warrior and to move beyond the ego to a fulfilling phase of life as the Magician.