Where's the Rapture?

Not long ago, I attended a dinner party. As the five of us were talking over the table after a very satisfying meal, the host said, rather Out of the Blue, "What I want to know is, why isn't anyone talking about rapture?" Indeed. A perfectly lively conversation followed. "What is rapture, anyway? Why doesn't anyone admit that that's what we're all looking for? How is rapture different than, say, 'bliss', or 'ecstacy?'" The whole thing really got me going. Since that spirited conversation, I've watched for moments of rapture in my life.

To my mind, rapture is a state of being when all time seems to stand still, and there is no sense of differentiation between what is happening and who is experiencing what is happening. Hanging the whites on the line I am hit throughout my senses by the fragrance of cotton in the sun, the warm breeze, the birds' songs, the clouds rolling by. Rapture. I'm sure of it.

Moments of rapture often come in nature. Surrounded by natural elements our ego is diminished and we become aware of our place in the grand scheme of things and our connection to all that is. Dr. David Cumes, founder of Inward Bound, coins "wilderness rapture" to describe this phenomenon as a genuine altered psychic state; "Nature is powerful tool for facilitating self-awareness; it is only when we are aware, that we can achieve a deeper sense of being and draw nearer to our higher self? No appropriate terms exist in wilderness psychology for the powerful inner effect of nature on the psyche."*

Moments of rapture also come in relationship. During the dinner party discussion, one example given was, "This afternoon, my daughter climbed up onto my lap and we hugged, and it was when I let my face come down to the top of her head and I smelled her hair." Truly, a moment of rapture. I had a moment of rapture recently when I drove with my mom to Good Harbor Bay. She's in a nursing home and has Alzheimer's. Once a week I take her for a ride, and we get ice cream. We were sitting in the car, watching kids play on the beach and licking our cones when it just hit me, and I began to cry. She isn't able to respond any more. Rapture can be such a bittersweet thing.

Moments of rapture in relationship seem to be heightened when both parties are aware of the magic. When someone allows me to really see them, without pretense or mask, defense, or shame or blame, somehow the walls between us dissolve. We enter a sacred space that is beyond the confining definitions of who we are in the outward, manifest world. We are connected&emdash;so that we recognize that there is no difference between us. We are One.

To be in sustained community with another is to be in communion with that one. Communion is being in recognition of the truth of that Oneness. It is being "in love" or in a state of grace brought on by acknowledgment of the wonder and divinity of that other one, and knowing that you too, are a mirror of the same. In yoga, the traditional greeting is namasté, which means "I honor the place in you in which the entire universe resides. I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light and peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are one."

Communion requires an intentionality that is not easy for most of us. Communion requires vulnerability. Letting down your fences, maybe giving up a little piece of the energetic pie. Meeting the other one where they are, and letting your self be seen. It's rare and truly magical to spend a length of days with others under that kind of trust-worthy agreement. I've been honored to have had the opportunity twice within the past months, among members of our own community of healers.

I find community in Natural Healing Way. Natural Healing Way is an organization of wholistic healing practitioners and resourceful supporters whose mission is to support and enhance the natural healing process of the individual, the family and the greater community. I, with four others, founded NHW in 1996. Our membership is growing steadily, and includes professionals from the traditional medical community and alternative/integrative practitioners. We have spent many hours in communication with one another about our various healing modalities, and we took the entire first year exchanging and receiving each other's work. Through that experiment, meant to familiarize ourselves with each other professionally, we were rather amazed to discover that in truth, we are all really doing the same thing. What we are doing within our varied professional practices is being present. Being in communion with an Other. Accepting the possibility of rapture.

Being present to another human being in such a way that is transcendent of the present circumstances brings a great peace, and a possibility for growth, healing, change. To really feel that you are truly being seen and heard for the unique individual that you are is profoundly gratifying. We all want our own experiences validated. We all want to be recognized for who we really are&emdash;underneath the story, the symptom, the mask we hold before us. In being seen and heard, and fully acknowledged and accepted for who we are, we are safe. And, in safety, we find our own healing, and our rapture.

Recently I had the great honor and pleasure to facilitate at the Munson Medical Center sponsored "Return to Wholeness" retreat for people with cancer. This was the third Wholeness retreat and my second opportunity to serve on the staff. This five day experience allows people at any stage of involvement in a cancer diagnosis to come together to find love and support in picking up the pieces of their lives, to move forward to an unknown outcome with grace and faith and yes, even rapture. Through the intention of presence to the other in group therapy, yoga and pranayama practice, and consciousness-raising experiences such as mask making, movement and drumming, personal transformations take place. The fences come down. The truth comes out. We all become softer, more open, more receptive. It is profoundly spiritual to be in the presence of someone in their Truth.

I have been humbled at the anguish and love of a young mother, facing the immense sadness of a potentially fatal disease. I have been awed by the honesty of a man courageously facing his fears, shame and anger over a long-suppressed old secret. I have been deeply touched by a woman's new-found willingness to accept the support and love she has craved. I have found great joy in seeing a "non-dancer" delight in the thrill of feeling his gracefully moving body. I have been brought to tears by the caring shown from each one for the other, speaking out loud the beauty they have found in each other, and the gifts they have received from each one. Sharing this kind of rapturous attention we are all healed. In the presence of these great teachers I have grown to trust my self, honor my intuition and bravely face my own fears and foibles. Presence is rapture.

Rapturous presence is being "in love". Being in a state that transcends the limits of personality, locale and circumstances. Rapture is a sense of safety and sacredness, community we create between us by our agreement to "be in love." A sustainable community becomes manifest through the intention of rapturous presence to the other.

Simply recognizing moments of rapture can sustain an individual. In healing our selves, we are better equipped to recognize our part in sustaining the extensions of our beings&emdash;our community, our society and our natural world.

I invite you, too, to watch for moments of rapture in your life. In doing so, you'll sustain your ability to be in community to the other, and to nature. Sustainable community. Ah, ... rapture.

Sandra Carden is a certified yoga teacher and yoga therapist (CYT, CYI). She is the director of Union/Yoga in Traverse City and Suttons Bay. Natural Healing Way founding members are Nancy Hayward, Julie Chai, Larry Mawby, Kathleen Campbell, and Sandra Carden. Munson Return to Wholeness Retreat 1998 was facilitated by John Schneider, PhD, Sheryl Korthals, RN, Larry Mawby CYT, CYI and Sandra Carden.

*Alternative Therapies, March 1998, Vol. 4, No. 2, Nature as Medicine: The Healing Power of Wilderness, David Cumes, M.D.

Return to the Index of Synapse 44, Summer 1998