What influences may prompt or facilitate a transformation in worldview in adulthood?
"Transformation” means a thing becomes a something new and different. A caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. I transform eggs, flour, oil, and milk into a pile of crepes. A plastic car transforms into a manlike robot. Something wholly different arrives on the scene—not simply small tweakings but more akin to a major overhaul. Indeed, our views are informed and change continually, but it seems they mostly stay inside an envelope. Does a transformation in worldview suggest something expansive, boundary crossing, and more than a mere switching from coffee to tea?
I am able to reflect on three distinctive alterations in my worldview I have had as an adult. If I include the worldview established as a child into adolescence, I have tasted four such worldviews in my life. These experiences offer a helpful picture of some of the influences that prompt such profound change.
The first occurred in the years from about age 20-22. The influence was immersion into an alternative culture of what was described as “turning on and dropping out.” The impact of the music, the iconic figures of the era, the books and poetry, and the drugs, upended my relatively conservative world. When I was 24 I had another transformation in my worldview. This next radical change was precipitated by a sustained curiosity and pursuit of what I called “Truth.” This change was also influenced by an actual experience that was mystical and profound. I consumed Christian literature and immersed myself in the Scriptures. My ideas morphed drastically and quickly to a Biblical worldview. In recent years, this decade’s long worldview has been challenged by fractured trust in the delivery systems of that worldview, by reading in new areas, and by delving into new friendships providing me with objective questions for my long held assumptions. The extrinsic practices of my Biblical worldview have fallen away. What was intrinsic lingers. We all suffer from delusions and when we are informed with better or extended facts and experiences, we are led into new lands (Nicholi, 2002, p. 52).
How open are you to the worldview you do not embrace?
My openness to other worldviews is heightened now probably more than any time in my life. My month- long first visit to Europe this past summer served to enhance an internal work-in-progress. The classes I took in Italy reinforced the already-forming conviction of the hindrance inherent in my need to be right. I am learning to allow other ideas to be heard and pondered carefully. Where at one time I was almost rabid in my insistence that others think like me, I am now more inclined to think that my thoughts are not always right or safe (Freeman, 2000, p. 38). This is convenient since I am currently surrounded by many who hold another worldview. I notice in myself a kneejerk aversion to many of the platitudes and condescending attitudes of those who embrace that other paradigm, but have come to resolve it quickly with a hearty release.
Describe your thought processes as you weigh the evidence both for and against embracing a particular worldview?
It seems there is an emotional intelligence that can be nurtured by listening carefully to input and being attentive to internal responses to ideas or experiences. The more I pay attention to them, the more faithful a voice they become in selecting what I will embrace. I hold to those ideas that I am certain are true and use them as a guide to new information, hopefully with an openness to any needed reform. Though at one time I participated in a kind of groupthink which produced stringent political, social, and theological views, I hope with this in my history, I am now better able to weigh evidence objectively. (Freeman, 2000, p. 43). The conscience factor and the presence of the universal moral code seem to be a great weighing tool. (Nicholi, 2002, pp. 57-59). I think this may also link back to my thoughts on listening and emotional intelligence. Twinges of the “wrongness” of an idea are felt interiorly as well as the sense of wholeness and joy in perceiving a “right” paradigm. If an idea causes a knee-jerk judgmental or cynical response, intentionally noticing, I try to assess the source of my issue and release my attachment to my views (Freeman, 2000, p. 39). I think this kind of intentionality goes a long way toward facilitating a broader understanding without forsaking the essence of my worldview.
References
Freeman, S. (2000). Ethics: An introduction to philosophy and practice. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Nicholi, A. (2002). The Question of God. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
