High Sensitivity

Pilgrim Band: High Sensitivity

Just as pilgrim band participation is fluid, so also pilgrim band leadership is fluid. I think it changes as people mature personally and spiritually, and as circumstances change along the way. And this is often unpredictable because “maturity” is itself an up and down process as participants feel more or less vulnerable to the world or more or less open to the Spirit, and because socio/political circumstances shift between degrees of oppression and degrees of freedom.

Nevertheless, pilgrim bands tend to form around a single leader, or perhaps a complementary couple, who are recognized as “mentors” by others. No doubt these individuals or couples feel inadequate to meet such high expectations, and, indeed, they are inadequate. But it is their courageous “optimysm" and unassuming amity that helps them learn from mistakes and be open to Spirit.

Leaders tend to be “Highly Sensitive People”. This is a specific category that has been explored by psychologists like Elaine Aron in her book of the same name. Apparently, this is a trait not just limited to humans, but one representative of about 20% of a species and useful for the survival and evolution of the species. According to Aron, Highly Sensitive People (HSP’s) display great emotional sensitivity, strong reactions to internal and external stimuli, and a complex inner life that can be both a blessing and a curse. There are four characteristics:

·         Depth of processing or the ability to synthesize disparate information

·         Susceptibility to overstimulation, easily overwhelmed, and requiring solitude to regenerate

·         Strong emotional reactivity to others or empathy for other people

·         Sensitivity to subtle small nuances of behavior or signs of significance

High Sensitivity is both genetic and learned. So, while the Pilgrim Band may form around a Highly Sensitive Person, sensitivity is gradually acquired by all. This allows leadership to be shared. This can happen “naturally” as companions deepen their individual and shared journeys, but it can also happen through crisis as HSP individuals become overwhelmed, recede into solitude to regenerate, and other step up to lead.

The “blessing” of HSP is that it helps people grow personally and spiritually, builds understanding and fosters reconciliation. The “curse” of HSP is that can be overwhelming and (unmanaged) become a psychological disorder.

There is a great deal more to say and explore about Pilgrim Band leadership, but here I want to expand the concept of High Sensitivity to the awareness of Spirit. What does it mean to know? The English language has only one word for “knowing” and it is usually tied to empirical, factual, or scientific verification. Romance languages with Latin and Greek antecedents are more nuanced. Spanish, for example, uses the term “saber” for factual knowledge, and “conocer” for relational knowledge. To “know” is to “recognize” rather than “analyze”.

Consider Plato’s well-known analogy of the cave. What we think we know is really a reflection or a shadow cast on the wall by a hidden source of light outside the cave. What we “know” is only an approximation of the truth. The Highly Sensitive Person gets this. He or she “recognizes” that the fullness of truth, goodness, and beauty lie beyond the cave, yet, in both bold and subtle ways, filters into our lives.