(Paper presented at the Plastic Turn Conference, University of North Bengal, Siliguri, India, on 08/04/23.  Blog post and paper also available  at GCRR Press website.)

by Karen Martinson Cherwien, M.Div., BCC

Introduction:

Fear seems to abound in this world for a variety of reasons.  In my recent presentation at the international Plastic Turn Conference in Siliguri, India, I introduced the concept of pneumaplasticity, our often underutilized ability to rewire our spiritual selves, and to transform our fear.  This adaptability helps us to create new spiritual pathways, connections, and perspectives.  It also allows us to evaluate and potentially reformulate how we make meaning in our lives.  This post delves into the main themes I presented:  fear, spiritual rigidity, and how pneumaplasticity transforms our fear into curiosity, courage, creativity, and compassion.

Fear and Its Influence on Spirituality:

Fear exists as an often unrecognized undercurrent in our lives, influencing our thoughts, actions, and interpretations of and responses to internal and external stimuli.  I argue that the undercurrent of fear has shaped and continues to exert significant influence on our spiritual identities and communities.  Our desire for control, security, and predictability lead us to follow familiar, reassuring spiritual pathways, because they have protected us in the past.  However, fear can also cause us to see these pathways as rigid and unchanging, leaving us without adequate ability to effectively adapt to challenges to our established frameworks.

Fear can reinforce a static worldview, making it difficult to utilize ritual to cope with the uncertainty and ambiguity in our lives, or to view diverse others as potential collaborators rather than threats.  Fear-based rituals that become rigid and exclusive limit our ability to adapt to changing and evolving circumstances, and reinforce unhealthy spiritual pathways.  Consequently, I assert that the undercurrent of fear can potentially hinder both individual and collective spiritual development and evolution over time.

Pneumaplasticity: Rewiring Fear and Spirituality:

Pneumaplasticity is our capacity to rewire our spiritual pathways and selves throughout our lives, as we work to adapt and make meaning of our experiences and emotions. It involves forming new and renewed spiritual connections, which ultimately lead us back to our authentic selves and into authentic community with our diverse neighbors. Pneumaplasticity transforms the energy of our fear into energy that we can use to build new and healthy spiritual pathways.

Cultivating Curiosity, Courage, Creativity, and Compassion:

Engaging our pneumaplasticity, the energy of fear can be redirected into pathways of curiosity.  Curiosity invites us to rewire our fear so that it becomes courage, which, in turn, sets our creativity free.  Creativity then opens us to possibilities we may not have previously considered, and helps us to remove the masks we have worn in efforts to protect our vulnerable, authentic selves.  Gradually, as we regain access to our own hearts, we also utilize our renewed curiosity, courage, and creativity to have compassion for our neighbors.

Storytelling and Its Role in Pneumaplasticity:

I emphasize storytelling and the central role it holds in developing and facilitating pneumaplasticity.  It helps us to process and integrate challenging experiences and emotions, as well as to assist us as we begin to identify both ineffective and emerging spiritual pathways in our lives.  Storytelling creates a safe space in which we can imagine both hypothetical and possible ways to author our own stories, and gives us a starting point from which to begin in real life.  Storytelling helps us to trust our selves and our hearts, and also creates a greater sense of community through weaving our individual and collective stories together.

Forming Pneumaplastic Community:

As storytelling facilitates the development of community, I assert that it also reveals how interconnected human beings are with one another and with the natural world.  As we rewire our fear in pneumaplastic community, we become more fully real.  We support and empower the curiosity, courage, creativity, and compassion already present among us.  Our stories continue to form and shape us, rewiring our fear and leading us to form new and renewed spiritual pathways together.

Conclusion:

My presentation on pneumaplasticity provides valuable insights into how individuals and communities can approach the fear and rigidity in our midst.  Tapping into our pneumaplasticity,  we can rewire fear and spiritual rigidity to cultivate curiosity, courage, creativity, and compassion.  We can transform and reform our spirituality, creating and renewing flexible, adaptable, and resilient spiritual pathways that will equip and empower us in authoring stories of meaning and purpose in this day and age.

Together

Listen.

Stories abound among us.

They connect us;

they remind us

of our common pathways,

our connected hearts,

our collective hopes and dreams.

They remind us

that we journey together.

Together,

we create new pathways,

and make new meaning

of the old.

We find new ways

to listen;

to love our neighbor;

to live together,

with curiosity, courage,

creativity, and compassion;

to “flourish in love.”