The Lile Circles of Human Experience
I created the following definitions of human experience in order to give my project participants limitations on the scope of formal discussions that we are having pertaining to a specific project that I am running.
Blue Circle: our body
This contains our human experience and what we have in common when all our differences are removed. Anyone who is born and dies, shares this experience. Anyone who receives input into their body and gives output from their body shares this experience. Every body has to have some kind of balance achieved to sustain life. In essence this circle is what is left when we subtract all our differences as human beings. All human beings have these things contained in this circle.
Yellow Circle: our desires
This circle contains the desire to be something more than we are born with. It contains consciousness and a willingness to examine our lives and the lives around us with a desire to change it somehow. We may differ in what our desires are and it is possible that some humans have none of these desires. This circle contains our explorations individually and together to identify and define this desire we have. Any belief system we may have about why we have this desire is not part of this circle.
Red Circle: our systems of belief
This circle contains our belief systems that we create in an effort to understand the why of our existence. We may differ in what our belief systems are and it is possible that some humans have no belief systems. This circle contains our labels, our filters, our belief structures, and every part of what we create as individuals and societies to explain the why of our existence and to interpret our own actions and the actions of others on the basis of those explanations.
