Three Views on Transformation
Plus “Teaching Transformation”
from William Bridges
Accomplishing something will often trigger a transition. Sometimes the result is what we hoped for and sometimes it isn’t, but in either case, the result comes about because achieving the result necessitates not only a situational shift (a change) but an inner redefinition. At the very least, the person lets go of the idea of doing thus-and-so and turns into the person who actually did thus-and-so (p. 48).
Bridges, W. (2001). The way of transformation. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.
from Michael Crichton
What I learned [from climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro] was this: that I had defined myself as a person who didn’t like heights or cold, a person who didn’t like to be dirty, a person who didn’t like physical exertion or discomfort. And here I had spent five days cold, dirty, and exhausted; I had lost twenty pounds; and I had had a wonderful experience.
I realized then that I had defined myself too narrowly.
…I had always secretly defined myself as a physically weak and somewhat sickly person. After climbing Kilimanjaro, I had to acknowledge that I was mentally and physically tough. I was forced to redefine myself. Climbing the mountain was the hardest thing I had ever done, physically, in my life, but I had done it (p. 168).
Crichton, M. (1988). Travels. New York: Ballantine Books.
from Gregg Levoy (rejecting call to transform)
Being unwilling to bear the hurly-burly of faithfulness to our call, we court disaster―Latin for “against one’s stars”―and we end up agitated anyway. Although we have the choice not to follow a call, if we do not do so, the Sufi poet Kabir said, our lives will be infected with a kind of “weird failure.” We’ll feel alienated from ourselves, listless and frustrated, and fitful with boredom, the common cold of the soul. Life will feel so penetratingly dull and pointless that we may become angry, and turn the anger inward against ourselves (one definition of depression) or feel seized by the impulse to run madly out of the house, down to the river, and search among the bullrushes for a miracle. The calls we will not name or follow coalesce into entities that will attempt to tunnel their way into consciousness using any rough tool at hand to remind us of their imperatives, and they will do so through the impeccable logic of pain. As an old Roman saying goes: The fates lead those who will. Those who won’t they drag (p. 9).
Levoy, G. (1997). Callings: Finding and following an authentic life. New York: Harmony Books.
Teaching Tip: The Hero’s Journey
Teaching transformation
by Reg Harris
Copyright © 2010 by Reg Harris. All rights reserved. Apart from properly cited quotes and short excerpts, no part of this article can be copied or used in any form without written permission from the author. For permission to use, please contact me.
When you teach the hero’s journey, whether it’s Campbell’s mythological model or our universal model, your first step should be to teach the concept of transformation.
Transformation (not just change) is at the heart of the journey and our own lives. We tend to think of ourselves as people who change. In true growth, however, at the end of our journey we are not simply a person, with revised ideas or behaviors. We are a different person; the new ideas and behaviors are not surface differences but a new way of being that emanates from being that different person.
Transformation and the struggle or the failure to transform are at the heart of literature and life. Any story―novel, short story, poem or film―is built on transformation: a character trying to adjust to a new environment, whether that new environment is psychological or physical. Think, for example, of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird. Bob Ewell and his daughter do not grow and suffer for it. Bo Radley was not allowed to grow and suffers for it. Jem and Scout, with the help of their mentors Atticus, Maudie and others, are able to grow, a growth we see at the end of the story in Jem’s protection of Scout and in Scout’s respect for Bo Radley.
Only Atticus is not transformed during the novel. That is because he has already made his transformational journey before the story begins, giving him the perspective and skills he needs to face the challenges he faces and, as a true mentor, to guide others through the challenges they face. (In mythological terms, Atticus represents the “wise old man” archetype.) Other stories show similar patterns and similar characters, characters whose transformation or lack or transformation offer us insights into potential pathways for our own lives.
When you teach the transformational pattern, it’s important to make the distinction between transformation and change. In The Way of Transformation, William Bridges describes change as a “situational shift.” According to Bridges, losing a job is a change, moving to a new home or having a child are changes. Losing a loved one is a change. Transformation is what happens because of the change. It “is the process of letting go of the way things used to be and then taking hold of they they subsequently become” (p. 2). In this sense, a change could be considered the call to the journey of transformation.
The pattern of transformation, as Joseph Campbell and many others have pointed out, is simple:
- Separation: While we think of this as the beginning of transformation, it is actually the end of our old way of being. In this state we are separated from our known world, with its expectations, roles and supports;
- Initiation/transformation: In the journey model, this is the series of challenges in which old understandings are stripped away and new understandings take their place. Part of this is the Abyss or what Bridges called the “neutral zone,” where we are no longer our old self, but the new self has yet to be born.
- Return: After our initiation/transformation, we return to our known world as a new person with new skills, a new outlook, a new status and role, and new responsibilities and opportunities.
In psychological terms, the transformation process has four stages:
- Deconstruction: The process through which old understandings (concepts, life views and behaviors) are broken down or stripped away, leaving a person feeling void or “self-less.”
- Floating: A period when the old understandings are gone and the new understandings that will underpin the new self have not been formed. This is the creative void, a “floating” period without structure, an abyss which, because it lacks structure, is fertile in possibilities for new structures.
- Reconstruction: The new, transformed self emerges from the void and shapes itself with understandings that are more in tune with life and one’s potentials.
- Return: Transformed, we resume life at a different level, with different relationships, expectations and understandings.
Understanding this process is the foundation for understanding and using the hero’s journey. In The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life we introduce transformation with a unit on the Rite of Passage, but you can teach the concept in many ways. However you approach it, though, transformation is the first step to pursuing the many possibilities and opportunities presented by the hero’s journey.
Your feedback is always welcome. Contact me.
The Hero’s Journey: News
Three Views on Transformation
Plus “Teaching Transformation”
from William Bridges
Accomplishing something will often trigger a transition. Sometimes the result is what we hoped for and sometimes it isn’t, but in either case, the result comes about because achieving the result necessitates not only a situational shift (a change) but an inner redefinition. At the very least, the person lets go of the idea of doing thus-and-so and turns into the person who actually did thus-and-so (p. 48).
Bridges, W. (2001). The way of transformation. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.
from Michael Crichton
What I learned [from climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro] was this: that I had defined myself as a person who didn’t like heights or cold, a person who didn’t like to be dirty, a person who didn’t like physical exertion or discomfort. And here I had spent five days cold, dirty, and exhausted; I had lost twenty pounds; and I had had a wonderful experience.
I realized then that I had defined myself too narrowly.
…I had always secretly defined myself as a physically weak and somewhat sickly person. After climbing Kilimanjaro, I had to acknowledge that I was mentally and physically tough. I was forced to redefine myself. Climbing the mountain was the hardest thing I had ever done, physically, in my life, but I had done it (p. 168).
Crichton, M. (1988). Travels. New York: Ballantine Books.
from Gregg Levoy (rejecting call to transform)
Being unwilling to bear the hurly-burly of faithfulness to our call, we court disaster―Latin for “against one’s stars”―and we end up agitated anyway. Although we have the choice not to follow a call, if we do not do so, the Sufi poet Kabir said, our lives will be infected with a kind of “weird failure.” We’ll feel alienated from ourselves, listless and frustrated, and fitful with boredom, the common cold of the soul. Life will feel so penetratingly dull and pointless that we may become angry, and turn the anger inward against ourselves (one definition of depression) or feel seized by the impulse to run madly out of the house, down to the river, and search among the bullrushes for a miracle. The calls we will not name or follow coalesce into entities that will attempt to tunnel their way into consciousness using any rough tool at hand to remind us of their imperatives, and they will do so through the impeccable logic of pain. As an old Roman saying goes: The fates lead those who will. Those who won’t they drag (p. 9).
Levoy, G. (1997). Callings: Finding and following an authentic life. New York: Harmony Books.
Teaching Tip: The Hero’s Journey
Teaching transformation
by Reg Harris
Copyright © 2010 by Reg Harris. All rights reserved. Apart from properly cited quotes and short excerpts, no part of this article can be copied or used in any form without written permission from the author. For permission to use, please contact me.
When you teach the hero’s journey, whether it’s Campbell’s mythological model or our universal model, your first step should be to teach the concept of transformation.
Transformation (not just change) is at the heart of the journey and our own lives. We tend to think of ourselves as people who change. In true growth, however, at the end of our journey we are not simply a person, with revised ideas or behaviors. We are a different person; the new ideas and behaviors are not surface differences but a new way of being that emanates from being that different person.
Transformation and the struggle or the failure to transform are at the heart of literature and life. Any story―novel, short story, poem or film―is built on transformation: a character trying to adjust to a new environment, whether that new environment is psychological or physical. Think, for example, of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird. Bob Ewell and his daughter do not grow and suffer for it. Bo Radley was not allowed to grow and suffers for it. Jem and Scout, with the help of their mentors Atticus, Maudie and others, are able to grow, a growth we see at the end of the story in Jem’s protection of Scout and in Scout’s respect for Bo Radley.
Only Atticus is not transformed during the novel. That is because he has already made his transformational journey before the story begins, giving him the perspective and skills he needs to face the challenges he faces and, as a true mentor, to guide others through the challenges they face. (In mythological terms, Atticus represents the “wise old man” archetype.) Other stories show similar patterns and similar characters, characters whose transformation or lack or transformation offer us insights into potential pathways for our own lives.
When you teach the transformational pattern, it’s important to make the distinction between transformation and change. In The Way of Transformation, William Bridges describes change as a “situational shift.” According to Bridges, losing a job is a change, moving to a new home or having a child are changes. Losing a loved one is a change. Transformation is what happens because of the change. It “is the process of letting go of the way things used to be and then taking hold of they they subsequently become” (p. 2). In this sense, a change could be considered the call to the journey of transformation.
The pattern of transformation, as Joseph Campbell and many others have pointed out, is simple:
In psychological terms, the transformation process has four stages:
Understanding this process is the foundation for understanding and using the hero’s journey. In The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life we introduce transformation with a unit on the Rite of Passage, but you can teach the concept in many ways. However you approach it, though, transformation is the first step to pursuing the many possibilities and opportunities presented by the hero’s journey.
Your feedback is always welcome. Contact me.