Abstract
Heroes are not born heroic. They achieve prominence because they dare to enter into a voyage to become an entirely different human being: to transform. What happens to the hero on return? This is a qualitative investigation into the experience of integrating a transformative journey in the lives of seven women, 1 to 3 years after life-changing travel. The method used was cooperative inquiry, a heuristic approach involving cycles of action and reflection to construct knowledge based on shared lived experiences and group analysis. Coresearchers convened over a period of 13 months to examine the question, “What is our experience of integrating transformation?” Findings yielded an underlying pattern comprising nine phases: (1) displacement, (2) grief and denial, (3) disorientation, (4) dismemberment, (5) surrender and healing, (6) birth, (7) abundance and creativity, (8) power, and (9) integration. A major outcome identifies the integration of transformation as a feminine descent into one’s underworld, delineating a feminine complement to the already well-documented hero’s journey. One unexpected result shows that in combination, the journey’s ascent (transformative peak experiences) cultivates one’s masculine; the descent (integrative deep experiences) develops one’s feminine. Together, these rounds form an upright figure eight, a wholly realized transformation.
Keywords
Classic literature on the topic of mythology involves an ordinary person who intentionally or unintentionally undertakes a journey as an initiation. The rite of passage ends after the initiate returns home and receives recognition from his or her community as the one who stands in two worlds, bringer of the elixir that restores society. With the adventure complete, the hero has become a “conscious vehicle” of something larger than herself or himself, detached from longing and selfishness, “calm and free in action” (Campbell, 1968, p. 239). Or is she?
The hero’s journey involves experiences of threats from demons, consumption by challenges and fears, and, at times, danger. For most of us, an encounter with escapades such as these would cause psychological suffering or, worse, a disabling condition. Is it accurate for us to assume that on return home these heroes or we ourselves are immune from anguish? Does the hero linger in the darkness of night and long to return to the excitement of the quest? Or is it conceivable that at the very least she or he is distraught about how difficult it is to communicate her or his ordeal or enlightenment? After all, once the Buddha achieved enlightenment he “doubted whether the message of the realization could be communicated” (Campbell, 1968, p. 193). What is the process of integrating once the homecoming celebration is over?
Joseph Campbell (2004), scholar of mythology, distinguishes three different ways the initiate might react to the task of integrating on return home. The first pathway occurs if the initiate rejects society, returns into the bliss because “no one cares about this great treasure you have brought . . . there is no reception at all” (p. 120), and does not share the boon. A second possibility is that the initiate attempts to give society what it wants as opposed to offering the gift that he or she actually received, and loses the treasure. A third option is to “find a means or a vocabulary or something that will enable you to deliver” the boon in a way that society is able to receive “it” (p. 120). Campbell explained that if the initiate can succeed in this third way, “that’s how you [the initiate] get back into the world” (p. 123), meaning that the journey is not actually over until one integrates the wisdom earned through the journey (Eliade, 1958/2005, p. 102). Although Campbell maintained that integration is essential, his assertions about how integration happens lack specificity and psychological depth.
While psychological integration is necessary for people to feel a sense of completion and wholeness (Maslow, 1968; Robledo & Batle, 2015; Sheldon & Kasser, 1995), I found no research to date that specifically examined the integration of transformation. To investigate the phenomenon, I chose to study travelers, because travel has been shown to exhibit the stages of the hero’s journey in cross-sectional studies (Robledo & Batle, 2015; Tomazos & Butler, 2010) and longitudinal research (Hudson & Inkson, 2006). Studies have also shown travel to be transformative (Coghlan & Weiler, 2015; Henley, 1991; Kottler, 2002; Kottler & Montgomery, 2000; Lean, 2005, 2012; Lyon, 2002; Milstein, 2005; Moaz, 2005; Moir-Bussy, 2003; Pasle-Green, 2000; Robertson, 2002) and to be a modern rite of passage because it is reflective of anthropologists van Gennep’s (1909/1960) and Turner’s (1969) ancient ritual processes that include separation, liminal, and aggregation passages (Inkson & Myers, 2003; Teas, 1988), regardless of travel motivations (White & White, 2004). While many have long believed that travel “changes people’s lives, little evidence exists to explain what kinds of tangible changes occur and for how long” (Dwyer, 2005, p. 161), much less the patterns of experience that make up the way those changes unfold. Importantly, a feeling that one has transformed does not guarantee that one has actually transformed or consummated permanent change (Cushing, 1999; Paterson, Thorne, Crawford, & Tarko, 1999). In this article, I analyze how people sustain transformative experiences and changes in core aspects of the self.
Overview of the Study
This qualitative research examines the integration of personal transformation in the lives of individuals living in the United States, 1 to 3 years after a life-changing travel experience. The context is a faculty-led study abroad facilitated as intentional transformative travel, which I define as travel with a purpose to create conditions conducive for personal transformation. The inquiry group met in 2006 and 2007 for a period of 13 months in 18 reflection meetings averaging about 3.5 hours each, well beyond the suggested five to eight minimum cycles. The purpose of the inquiry was to answer the question, “What is our experience of integrating transformation?”
Participants
I employed purposive sampling of subjects who participated in one of two short-term study abroad university courses I led and who felt they had a transformative experience because of the study abroad. The subject pool was made up of 32 people; one group (of 17) went to Costa Rica in 2004, the other (of 15) went to Peru in 2005. Of this group, seven women committed to conduct this research; three went to Costa Rica and four went to Peru. The subjects’ age range was 23 to 37 years with a median age of 29 years and racial ethnicities of Latina (n = 1) and White (n = 6). The sample size was within the norms of a cooperative inquiry range of 5 to 15 coresearchers (J. Heron, personal conversation, February 28, 2016) and within desirable data saturation (Suen, Huang, & Lee, 2014, p. 105). For ease of communication, I refer to this group as the coresearcher group (CG).
Method
This inquiry is situated within a participatory action paradigm of social science research. This perspective presupposes that subject and object are interdependent and possibly even interconnected as matter and consciousness. The method used in this study is a cooperative inquiry (Heron, 1996) heavily influenced by collaborative inquiry (Bray, Lee, Smith, & Yorks, 2000; Kasl & Yorks, 2002), both of which are research strategies couched within action research. Each is heuristic, involving cycles of action and reflection to construct knowledge based on shared lived experiences and group analysis. For ease of explanation, I identify this study’s method as cooperative inquiry.
This method asks a small group to be in “reciprocal relation using the full range of their sensibilities to inquire together into any aspect of the human condition” (Heron, 1996, p. 10) as coresearchers (Yorks & Marsick, 2000, p. 266). Members of the group jointly determine the inquiry question(s) and data collection methods, then gather and analyze the emergent data. The investigation involves four phases or cycles (action, reflection/analysis, revision/planning, and self-reflexivity) that occur recursively until the research is complete.
Cooperative inquiry presupposes that knowledge creation employs an extended epistemology that begins with practical daily knowledge and consummates in conceptual theoretical knowledge (Heron, 1996; Reason, 2003). The method follows a fourfold extended and cumulative epistemology (Heron, 1996; Reason, 2003) that comprises experiential (direct encounters), presentational (expressing one’s experience), propositional (synthesizing meaning of experiences through concepts and ideas), and practical ways of knowing (implementing knowledge from experience). From a positivist paradigm, the central weakness of a cooperative inquiry is that it is purposefully and entirely subjective. To mitigate this fundamental weakness, a cooperative inquiry employs systematic validity procedures designed to safeguard against experimenter bias (Heron, 1996; Heron & Reason, 2002).
Data Generation and Ongoing Analysis
Cooperative inquiry requires continuous analysis and evaluation as data collection proceeds. Ongoing analysis helps the coresearchers determine adherence to validity measures, pacing, and goal achievement (Heron, 1996). I gathered information through storytelling, drawing, meditation, note-taking, journaling, story-writing, walking in nature, discourse, differing types of reflection, working with a shaman, time-off, esoteric cards, ritual, ceremony, and noticing/sharing dream content.
In this study, there are two different kinds of data: narratives and presentational illustrations. I derived narratives from coresearcher journals, full transcriptions of each action/reflection meeting, and the notes I took during each action/reflection gathering. Presentational illustrations captured experiential knowing via nonlinear, nonverbal mechanisms, and we later translated them through critical discourse. These illustrations took the form of expressive art (music, movement, drawing, poetry, experiential exercises, etc.) or schematics (conceptual drawings or concept maps) documented by photography. The CG also created a presentational illustration called an integration time line that became a valuable source of data. The integration time line was a chronological written reflection of all of the major events/experiences (both internal and external) that occurred prior to the travel and throughout the integration period.
Specifically, I employed a philosophical hermeneutic framework to analyze data. This approach views the interpretation and meaning-making process not as mainly about constructing, grasping, or even discovering new knowledge but rather as a negotiation or coming into being of new knowledge (Bernstein, 1983). Formal data analysis involves making sense and meaning of the data through a process of critical reflection and discourse while grounding the analysis in lived experiences until the group reaches full agreement (Heron, 1996). Official scrutiny of the entire data set began in the seventh month during a 3-day retreat; I completed the analysis in the following 6 months. Later, I refined and studied the data in light of theory and literature to make further meaning of the conclusions in larger contexts.
Per suggestions from literature (Bray et al., 2000), I employed two central activities: bracketing and distilling themes. Bracketing involves making explicit one’s assumptions, ontology, and axiology intentionally to view and read the data with maximum awareness of one’s own lenses. Themes are “recurring, significant patterns that express the experience” (Bray et al., 2000, p. 100) and portray “what happened, how it happened, and why it happened” (p. 100). As a group, we spent time distilling each theme as we critically discussed language and ensured we constantly referenced or grounded our conclusions in actual lived experience rather than abstraction (Sartor, 1998).
In total, the group implemented 10 validity measures (Heron, 1996; Heron & Reason, 2002). Example strategies include gaining multiple perspectives on mutual experiences, grounding themes in lived experiences, challenging uncritical subjectivity and uncritical group intersubjectivity, playing devil’s advocate, and conducting member checks.
Findings
Findings yielded an underlying pattern of a descending inward pathway to integrate transformation comprising nine phases. On his or her return, the adventurer is found to experience the following phases: (1) displacement, (2) grief and denial, (3) disorientation, (4) dismemberment, (5) surrender and healing, (6) birth, (7) abundance and creativity, (8) power, and (9) integration (Figure 1). These phases trace the multiyear journey of the initiate as he or she attempts to make sense of the adventure, the world, and his or her place in it.
The pattern of integrating transformation.
The CG discerned that although each phase has distinctive characteristics that all coresearchers experience, each person’s life events and phase durations are unique. Data reveal that the integration of transformative experience is possible, and this process culminates in the integration of the transformative experience, with aspects of one’s unconscious. For consistency of language and because I treat the process of transformation as initiatory, I identify the transforming individual as an initiate.
Phase 1: Displacement
Displacement begins on return from the transformative journey, with the first footsteps into the airport terminal. This phase consists of two distinct experiences: relief that comes from returning to one’s familiar environment and upheaval constituting an unexpected disturbance. The CG explained that once home they felt relieved to use modern amenities, eat favorite foods, sleep in their own beds, talk with loved ones, and have hot showers. This finding reflects the honeymoon phase of Gullahorn and Gullahorn’s (1959) reverse culture shock or W-curve theory.
Upheaval points to quick changes pertaining to subsistence-level life arenas such as family, job, income, housing, and health, which the CG associate with a conscious or unconscious vow, made before or during travel, to be different. For example, within the first 2 weeks after return, nearly everyone in our group experienced a major change in her place of residence, job, and/or intimate relationship. Five of the seven women either quit their jobs or started new jobs, and three people moved residences, out of choice or necessity. Three individuals ended a committed intimate relationship or began a new, serious relationship. The group noted that 8 of the 15 women who traveled to Peru either ended or began a significant relationship within 2 weeks of their homecoming.
Phase 2: Grief and Denial
This phase arises when the pleasure following the initiate’s return home has ended and she must face daily life. The data show that this period is characterized by emotional anguish embedded in a desire to return to the transformative journey and to reject the fact that one has returned home. This finding is reminiscent of the “crisis at home” or “reentry shock” in reverse culture shock theory (Gullahorn & Gullahorn, 1959).
The CG reported that grief dominated their emotional, physical, and cognitive states during this phase. In addition to feeling sadness, the CG reported existential grief as they became acutely aware of the differences between the selves they were before their travel and the not-yet-transformed selves with which they struggled. One woman described her experience during this phase by saying, “This hurts. It’s like trying to get back into the person [I was before]. I have changed . . . [I am trying to] fit into the world that didn’t change while I was gone.” The CG also describe being unable to focus on responsibilities, preferring to “get lost” in memory replay or fantasy of returning to the transformative places and people.
Phase 3: Disorientation
Disorientation begins when denial is no longer an option, when life circumstances and responsibilities become pressing and the initiate must act. Overwhelming feelings of grief shift into a period of questioning one’s self-identity and one’s life, with attempts to change one’s behaviors, thinking, relationships, and lifestyle. Here, disorientation pertains to the feelings affiliated with an existential and ontological crisis in which the CG examined their lives, their identities, and the prevailing norms endemic to the systems, institutions, and country within which they were born and live.
In one woman’s words, this period is “dis-settling because you’re still in the old world . . . I’m in my old world, my old ways of being and doing are all around and . . . then what?” During this phase, the CG reported feelings related to the irreconcilable difference between their ontological wishes for how life could be (inspired by their travel) and an outer reality that consists of barriers to their hopes for a better life.
The findings indicate that as an individual moves closer to the next phase (dismemberment), that person may sabotage the process and thereby forego forward movement. Brinton Perera (1981) said that in rite of passage experiences, “too often a woman’s strength is turned aside prematurely” (p. 83), which causes the initiate to end the initiation prematurely. This is an important observation if we consider that some might stop the integration process and seek out another transformative high. The CG members speculated that the individual will seek a diversion if she does not have sufficient ego strength to endure dismemberment: The ego/subconscious senses impending destruction and seeks out another transformative cycle as a self-protection measure. A case in point: The CG originally consisted of 10 people; 3 dropped out. All three, the CG noticed, had triggered another catalytic “high” and abandoned their process as they approached dismemberment. I suggest that future research investigate the level of ego integration necessary for a person to be capable of entering dismemberment.
Phase 4: Dismemberment
This phase involves dissolution of the outdated identity and a psychic death that begins when the initiate encounters a very emotionally distressing situation in which she has no control over the outcome. The word dismemberment refers to an initiatory death found in ancient mythology and rites of passage that is the “sin qua non for all spiritual regeneration” (Campbell, 1968; Eliade, 1958/2005, p. 131; Turner, 1969; van Gennep, 1909/1960).
The research indicates that the key factors enabling the psychic or egoic death include willingness to overcome ingrained patterns of avoiding uncomfortable emotions and dwelling in those emotions. One coresearcher experienced a traumatic long-term relationship breakup that plunged her into her darkest hours:
If you asked me how I was, I couldn’t even really tell you. I had nothing to say. I was blank. I went to Frank [a healer] and I couldn’t say a thing—couldn’t speak. I [thought], “I really don’t know how I feel.” My voice was gone. Everything was gone.
This same woman, in the depths of her darkness, did not even have a place to sleep after our reflection meeting. She said,
I’m leaving everything that I know . . . right now I’m kind of freaking out because I don’t know where I’m going to go . . . literally tonight. I have to go get my clothes, and I . . . [am wondering], “Where am I gonna go?”
Interestingly, transformative education theory explains that posttransformation, the old identity gives way to a new identity, which leaves one in a state of being even “more disoriented” as one is “suffering the loss of a significant aspect of identity and of capacity to make meaning” (Boyd & Myers, 1988, p. 278). An existential psychology theorist noted, “None of my subjects made the jump to a higher level [of existance] without a period of crisis and regression before the higher level system [consciousness] emerged” (Graves, 1974).
Phase 5: Surrender and Healing
Data show that this phase begins when the initiate has a high-stakes experience in which the only plausible course of action is to break out of a dysfunctional self-preservation pattern and enact a healthier behavior. Self-surrender and a willingness to abandon control are indispensable to transformative experience (James, 1902/2004). Data from this research indicate that surrender requires actions such as letting go of control, choosing a novel course of action, aligning with one’s integrity, becoming receptive, and/or adopting a certain kind of passivity.
After the surrender experience, the data show a period where the initiate’s daily life becomes lighter and inherently healing. A coresearcher shared the following about her experiences of healing during this phase:
I haven’t been pushing them away [feelings], I’ve been feeling it [pain] and whenever something reminds me of it [childhood abuse]—I just go with it and experience it and talk about it or write about it—whatever I have to do to get it out. But it’s weird because even with all that pain that’s there . . . I’ve still haven’t been this happy before which is really weird because . . . I’m . . . happy that I’m actually dealing with it.
This testimony speaks to how this phase helps the initiate identify with her innate humanness and reconnect with the beauty of what it is to need others. Jung (1968) explained that exploration and acceptance of our unconscious is “key to individual completeness and wholeness, in other words, to healing” (p. 137).
Phase 6: Birth
This short-lived phase encompasses moments in which the self apprehended during the life-changing peak or trauma is born. Birth is a critical turning point in the integration of transformation. The initiate finds herself in a situation where she faces challenges to use the skills, knowledge, and compassion she has developed over her journey’s course. The awkward and uncomfortable experience feels as though she is “stepping into shoes that are two sizes too big.”
A coresearcher in this phase disclosed, “I look in the mirror and it’s a different person. You know you might as well call me a different name.” One woman explained that her work situation seemed to oblige this birthing.
I’m being forced to do it because I really want someone else to speak up. I’m [thinking], “Damn, can’t someone else answer these questions?” and “Can’t someone else go to someone else to ask them?” And [the truth is] there’s not anyone else to ask. So it is a new self that is willing to say what [I] know, and willing to accept that it’s [what I have to say is] new information; to realize that what [I] have to bring . . . other people actually don’t know.
In one coresearcher’s words, “Even if the external circumstances don’t allow you . . . don’t invite you to be that [new] person, you still find a way to be that person.”
Phase 7: Abundance and Creativity
The data show that this phase involves an outpouring of serendipitous opportunities to become engrossed with creative opportunities that are tremendously satisfying. The findings show that the initiate can anticipate an abundance of openings, support, resources, and guidance to realize dreams related to career, relationships, lifestyle, and creative projects. Psychologist Robert Moore (2001) corroborated this finding when he explained that during the later parts of the initiation process, the seeker undergoes intense creative flows.
A grouping of evidence of abundance for participants was relational: One woman met a new partner whose integrity was such that she knew that she could not engage in her old dysfunctional patterns, and another woman joined with a new business partner, which helped her job become more alive, deeply creative, and satisfying. Another type of abundance was self-sacrifice toward a creative opportunity. One coresearcher explained, “While I wish I didn’t have to do this, I know I must,” or “I know I cannot do this any differently. I must move forward [with this opportunity].” A number of individuals in the CG moved to healthier locations, one purchased a home, and another obtained the job she had long sought. The CG also recounted increased self-awareness and internal stability. Illustrations of these perceptions appear in statements such as “I’m not afraid to step on people’s toes any more”; “I don’t feel guilty anymore and I don’t feel jealous”; “I feel good about myself it’s really weird, I feel good about myself and strong”; and “I found my destiny.”
Phase 8: Power
The power phase is recognizable because the demands of daily life slow to a more reasonable, healthy, and enjoyable pace, so the initiate can enjoy the fruits of her labors and creations. The findings show that during this phase, others know initiates for their gifts, and people and resources are in place, promoting a relaxed lifestyle. The internal and external challenges, discomfort, and turmoil endemic to all previous phases quietly fall away.
One coresearcher characterized her experience of “what power feels like” as follows:
I feel like I don’t have to overextend myself to prove my worth and capacities. I feel supported for the first time in over nine years. I feel a sense of worthiness and deeper confidence . . . like I have grown up in some sort of way. Before this whole process began there was a child inside with unmet needs and now that same child feels grown . . . a bit unsteady still . . . but definitely grown.
The CG explained that the ease of circumstances allows the initiate to view how far she has journeyed and to apprehend a distinctive feeling of her “inner cup” (Moore, 2001, p. 161) being capable of holding more. The initiate is internally secure, resoundingly self-accepting, relationally engaged, and interpersonally compassionate.
Phase 9: Integration
The integration phase comes when there is nothing left to do. The initiate’s life “runs itself,” and she resides in deep satisfaction, joy, love, peace, and contentment. Integration involves feelings of being more alive, capable, grounded, and at peace. Life circumstances mirror this internal state. For example, prior to travel one woman did not want to leave her emotionally abusive fiancé because she was terrified of being alone. During her travels, the woman had multiple transformative experiences in Peru from being “left alone and left behind.” At one point, she explained that the disorientation, dismemberment, and surrender and healing phases demanded extended periods alone. When she reached the Integration phase, she explained, “Now, I like to be alone. I am OK with being alone—I can actually be alone. I realize now that I can always go find people.” A different woman explained, “I am satisfied with the way that everything is going.” Although her words appear uneventful, this coresearcher had self-reported a life of turmoil. When fellow coresearchers questioned her comment, she remarked, “It was the first time in my life where everything was aligned at the same time. I knew it was rare. I wanted to savor it while it lasted.”
Integration is a state of completion achieved when the transformative life-changing experience has become embodied, and a difference no longer exists between what Carl Rogers (1961) identified as the actual self and the ideal self. To apply Maslow’s (1968) theory, the integrated person is self-actualized and, possibly, self-transcended. Once integrated and therefore transformed, the initiate enjoys health, harmony, peace, and fulfillment in all of life’s major aspects, which is reminiscent of Campbell’s (1991) description of being a hero: “Our experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive” (p. 1).
Distinctions Between the Transformative and Integrative Cycles
Although successful integration requires finding a way to share the boon (Campbell, 2004), findings from this study could imply that on return home, the initiate simply enters another hero’s journey because the 13 phases of integration have similarities to Campbell’s monomyth and other interpretations of the hero’s journey (Propp, 1968; Vogler, 2007). For example, the challenges and opportunities found in the displacement phase of integration can seem like a call to adventure; the denial and grief phase of integration could act as a refusal of the call; and the dismemberment phase of integration closely resembles the ordeal. The transformative and integrative cycles also involve internal and external processes that call on masculine and feminine traits. These likenesses underwent further data analysis, resulting in a conclusion that the monomyth and the reported 13-phase integration cycle constitute analogous yet distinct processes of which the following are clarifications.
The CG described the transformative cycle with words such as adventure, visible to others, grand, exotic, expansive, action and goal-oriented, ascending in movement, and socially rewarding because the initiate is viewed as an adventurer. One coresearcher described the hero’s journey as, “The ascending time . . . where you’re yearning, you’re reaching forward, you’re in that place of wanting to grow, wanting to heal, wanting to learn, and so then you’re seeking opportunities.” Another person in the CG commented,
[The transformation cycle] pushes you through your comfort zone, shows you what you’re capable of and the strength you have inside of you. It gives you the ability to transfer it on to other things in your life whether it be bad relationships or moving from the place you’ve lived your whole life. It will bring a whole different energy into your existence and consciousness.
Campbell (2004) stated that the great mythologies from which the monomyth emerged “are from the male point of view” (p. 145) that require action through space such as “venturing forth” (Campbell, 1968, p. 23), moving “outward” (p. 91), “entering the field of achievement” (Campbell & Osbon, 1991, p. 227), and “going beyond” (p. 82), where “the initiate seeks union with the father . . . the invisible unknown” (Campbell, 1968, p. 345). The word transform denotes movement beyond, surpassing, and transcending (as in trans-form; see “Trans-,” 2016, Definitions 1 and 2.2), which is reflected in the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, a renowned spiritual teacher in India, who taught that transformation requires “an opening upward to . . . a higher existence” and “an ascension of the mind to heights above” (Aurobindo & Saint-Hilaire, 1963/2003, pp. 73, 74). This research suggests that even though the transformative cycle is also inward, the process follows an upward movement, as opposed to downward as in Campbell’s illustration of the journey, and it is resonant of masculine initiation; a predominantly masculine voyage fostering masculine-related strengths.
The integration journey makes different demands of the initiate than the transformative pathway. The CG identified explanatory words to recognize the integration cycle as inner-focused and mostly invisible, in that the majority of people in the initiate’s everyday life cannot easily know of or see his or her emotional journey. This pathway is subtle and slow, which develops one’s abilities to be patient while encountering confusing and painful thoughts, feelings and experiences, be vulnerable and willing to surrender emotionally, immerse oneself in emotions, connect with others, be in stillness at home, accept support, and, most important, dwell in one’s internal darkness. These findings reveal how the integration process is predominantly about “being,” while the transformative process is about “doing,” the same distinction Campbell made between feminine and masculine initiation.
Women “can follow the hero’s journey” (Campbell, 2004, p. 148), but it is important to consider that “it is easier for a woman to identify with the male” than vice versa because “she’s the source of energy” (p. 150) whereas the men “are in specific action functions—hunter, shaman . . . but she encompasses them all” (p. 152). For women, there is a different yet similar journey; “there are other [italics added] calls” (p. 148).
The man has to be systematically withdrawn from the mother’s world, put into the men’s camp to find his field of action. The girl is over taken. So the initiation of the girl consists largely of sitting in a little hut at the time of first menstruation realizing, I’m a woman—that’s really all it is. The boy has to enact being a man. The girl has to realize that she’s a woman. (Campbell, 2004, p. 154)
In addition to recognizing self as the whole, “the characteristic experience of the woman is having to endure something—that is tolerance” (Campbell, 2004, p. 153), to wait in “solitude” (Campbell & Osbon, 1991, p. 227), and “to let go” (Campbell, 2004, p. 154).
A Jungian scholar of feminine initiation (Lincoln, 1981) stated that a transformative cycle per van Gennep’s (1909/1960) anthropological analysis focuses almost entirely on sociopolitical movement in status (i.e., from boy to man, man to husband, man to warrior, or warrior to chief) rather than transitions from one cosmic world 1 to another, clarifying that initiation for women addresses “ontological concerns rather than hierarchical ones” (Lincoln, 1981, p. 103), as is the case for men. This difference is an area Lincoln claims van Gennep overlooked. Lincoln explained, “The woman is not removed from the space she normally inhabits” (p. 101) and that a feminine initiation is “a decent into” experiences of one’s shadow or underworld that “changes their fundamental being” (p. 103). The CG concurred, “We had been to new heights during our travel—so why are we surprised that the period following the return can take us to new depths . . . which it did.” Both the literature and the outcomes of this research suggest that the integration cycle is reflective of a feminine initiation—a predominantly feminine journey developing feminine-related strengths.
Linking the Transformative and Integrative Cycles
The investigation suggests that when the transformative or hero’s journey and the integrative sojourn is combined (because the transformative process is not yet complete on return), these cycles form an upright figure eight with the transformative hero’s adventure as the upper round and the integrative journey as the lower round. The movement of the integration cycle corroborates with the work of Murdock (1990), a family therapist and scholar, who received a vision of the heroine’s journey while suffering severe pain. She saw the movement of a feminine journey as descending and clockwise. Campbell (2004) hinted at the direction of the movement when he clarified that the process is for men one of “dissolution,” and for woman the pathway is “more a matter of a specification, moving in the other direction [italics added]” (p. 151).
The findings of this study report that, together, the transformation and integration cycles illustrate why transformation is not complete on the initiate’s return and how transformation, the life-changing hero’s journey, is fully integrated. This research affirms Campbell’s (2004) assertions that the purpose of the hero’s journey is to bring the “treasure of understanding back and [to] integrate it in a rational life” (p. 119). This major finding extends traditional literature depicting the transformational process as having a beginning (departure), a middle (liminal peak or trauma), and an ending on return home (Campbell, 1968; Turner, 1969; van Gennep, 1909/1960; see Figure 2) and adds considerable detail and depth to Campbell’s (2004) statements about how to achieve successful integration.
Figure eight process of a complete transformation.
Some have described masculine and feminine initiations as distinctly different (Brinton Perera, 1981; Lincoln, 1981), while others contend that they are gender-specific versions of the same activity (Campbell, 1968; Turner, 1969; van Gennep, 1909/1960). Placing these two processes together offers a pathway of a wholly realized transformation—a meta-initiation, through which individuals, men and women, can bring to fruition their inner masculine and feminine. Jung describes this achievement as hieros gamos: the sacred marriage, the merging of God and Goddess within, the realization of one’s wholeness.
Clinical Application
This study offers a response to O’Hara’s (2015) call to “move beyond focusing on pathology and illness and embrace the possibility for growth and transformation” (p. 580). Like reframing client stressors and symptoms into the context of the hero’s journey (Duffy, 2010; Pearson, 1986), this research suggests an explicit emancipatory pathway by which the therapist can guide the client through a naturally occurring process of integrating life-changing experiences that eventually culminates in transformation. For example, clinicians who seek to apply the 13 phases of the figure-eight pattern to their practice can first determine the client’s location in the process of transformation. If the client is bored and complains of restlessness rooted in a desire to instigate a major life change, he or she might be in the seed phase. Conversely, if the client is having an identity crisis, feeling dissatisfied with his or her social life, struggling with implementing healthier habits, and feeling overwhelmed by how to achieve his or her dreams, he or she could be in the disorientation phase. Because each phase has specific characteristics, challenges, and opportunities, the therapist can use the figure eight as an educational tool to reframe pain and suffering as facets of a precise progression of becoming. The therapist can interpret specific situations such as the ending of significant relationships and feelings of grief or suffering as customary, predictable functions of a particular finite phase of transformation. The therapist can also teach the client to adopt strategies that maximize the lessons and opportunities unique to a phase, while a client empowered by this knowledge might feel an increased sense of control over himself or herself and his or her circumstances.
Future Research
The inspiration for the nascent field of heroism science was, in part, the assertion that each person can develop a heroic ideal, conceive a noble purpose, and act to fulfill that purpose—in short, that there exists a banality of heroism (Franco & Zimbardo, 2006). A study involving more than 189 respondents from 25 countries that found that the “most frequently mentioned hero is one’s mother” (University of Limerick, 2012, para. 3) reflects the recognition that “gifts are not the monopoly of great people” (Allison, 2015, p. 5). A different inquiry asked 450 people if they had a hero and, if so, to name the person. Results showed that roughly one third of those sampled indicated a family member (Allison & Goethals, 2011).
Even though one can perceive an ordinary individual as a hero, there remains little understanding, with exception of Campbell’s (1968) contribution of the monomyth, of the process by which common people transform, becoming heroes for themselves and others (Allison & Goethals, 2017). Humanistic-existential psychology is an ideal theoretical framework from which to explore this area because of its propensity to lead modern psychology with a phenomenological epistemology (E. I. Taylor, 2011) and its distinctive tenets of holism, embodiment, peak and transcendental experience, and global transformation. In addition to studying individuals’ perceptions about heroes, humanistic-existential psychology and heroism science will benefit by examining the experience of being a hero—focusing less on what a hero is or does and more on the hero’s lived experiences. Overreliance on approaches that objectify the hero “out there” can unintentionally perpetuate the status quo by implying that the hero does not already exist, albeit in latent form, “in here.”
Future research can examine the role of ego integration/maturation (Goethals & Allison, 2012), the effect of avoidance behaviors on achieving integration (S. Taylor, 2012), the relationship between the figure eight and human development across the life span (Rohr, 2011), and the relationship between posttraumatic growth (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1995) and a complete transformation (the figure eight) as suggested in this study.
Conclusion
Although Campbell (1968) provided us with an extraordinary account of how heroes develop, understanding the process by which this formation happens “is the most central yet most overlooked component of the monomyth of the hero” (Allison & Goethals, 2017, p. 379) and “remains a critical area of future research” (Jayawickreme & di Stefano, 2012, p. 174). From this perspective, this study is an attempt to address this literature gap. Although limited by the subjectivity of the method and a lack of gender diversity, this research provides a rich description of the process of integrating transformative peak experiences. The data indicate that the passage of transformation, of becoming the hero who is a “conscious vehicle” (Campbell, 1968, p. 239) of a boon, is only half complete at the point where scholars have considered the process to end; there exists a hidden half of transformation. Findings show that the process requires not one but two arduous, perilous journeys: one into the heights of what is possible as a transcendent superhuman (the hero’s journey) and one into the depths of the limitations of self as an earthly creature (the integration journey). An unexpected finding is that the upper cycle cultivates one’s masculine and the lower cycle develops one’s feminine; together these rounds form an upright infinity symbol or figure eight that comprises a map of the making of everyday heroes. These journeys facilitate the conception of a new self and death of an outdated one, resulting in transformation—the embodiment of one’s wholeness as divine and human, masculine and feminine, individual and group—and the apprehension of the hero within.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
I extend the deepest of gratitude to my fellow coresearchers who participated in this study: Margaret Crowder, Monique Duphily, Kayla Forester, Maribel Gutierrez, Elizabeth Hardison, and Julie Swift. Without their dedication and contributions, this study would not have been possible. This research constitutes the central outcomes of my doctoral dissertation, which was made possible through the mentorship of Drs. Connie Jones and Linda Sartor, faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Author’s Note
This research was self-funded.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared the no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.