I am going to explain an educational activity I use
to facilitate the enhancement of future consciousness. It is the
central activity I use in my workshop on enhancing future
consciousness. The idea is relatively simple and straightforward:
Ask participants to construct a concise self-narrative beginning,
but also building on the past and continuing into the future. The
future narrative to be constructed should be an ideal or preferable
future narrative focusing on the pursuit and development of
character virtues in the future. Finally, this future narrative
should not just focus on self-development but also describe how,
through the pursuit of virtue, participants could contribute to the
evolution of humanity; that is, participants need to connect their
personal future with the future of humanity.
Psychological research indicates that writing out
and making explicit one’s basic life story helps individuals bring
meaning, clarity, and order to their lives. It helps people to
identify their strengths, accomplishments, and values. It helps
people to come to terms with challenges, problems, difficulties, and
painful experiences in their life – to make sense of it all. People
are naturally drawn to the vehicle of the story (or narrative) as
both a meaning-making and a personally-inspiring mode of thinking
and expression; we psychologically resonate with stories. In fact,
according to numerous researchers, we tend to construct our sense of
self-identity in terms of an ongoing narrative which we continually
revise and embellish through our lives; Antonio Damasio calls this
inner psychological reality, which gives our conscious minds mental
coherence and purpose, our "autobiographical self." But our
autobiographical self not only incorporates the story of our past -
it connects this past narrative with some sense of where we are
going in the future. That is, the inner self-narrative we all
possess, covering past, present, and future, brings temporal
coherence and meaning to our lives.
Now it is clear that our inner self-narrative can be
more or less coherent, clear, and organized; we may to different
degrees have a fuzzy or disorganized sense of who we are, where we
have been, and where we are going. Hence, in attempting to write out
a past narrative, we will almost certainly bring some increasing
order, clarity, and meaning to our sense of who we are.
But it also seems that our sense of where we are
heading – our future self-narrative – is built upon our sense of the
past, however clear that is, and consequently, by bringing meaning
and order to our past we facilitate the development of a clearer,
more realistic and focused sense of our future self. Based on an
enhanced sense of your past, how would you describe where you are
heading in the future? Further, since the narrative appears to be
the preferred and natural mode of conceptualization for
self-understanding, especially regarding how humans organize time in
their minds, asking participants to describe their future as a
narrative resonates with normal psychological preferences and
consequently gives them a clearer, more "user friendly" sense of
their future.
Yet, to go a step further, the educational activity
requires participants to describe a preferable direction for their
future, not simply a prediction or extrapolation from the past.
Identifying preferable futures could involve setting concrete goals
or imagining ideal future personal scenarios, but the tact that I
take is to focus on character development. I do not ask participants
to imagine material bounty or prosperity. I ask participants to
conceptualize an ideal future defined or described in terms of
personal character virtues, such as honesty, wisdom, courage, or
optimism.
The identification of character virtues to be
pursued in the future can build upon those personal qualities that
show up in writing our past self-narrative, but the virtues
identified can go beyond those strengths identified in the past; the
past may reveal character weaknesses that, if rectified, would
facilitate increased happiness and self-fulfillment in the future.
Connecting character virtues with a future
self-narrative basically means asking: If one wishes to develop a
key virtue in the future what kinds of activities and what kinds of
goals should one pursue and, consequently, what kinds of challenges
and problems should one expect as well? Note, too, that defining a
preferable future in terms of virtues brings an ethical or moral
quality into one’s vision of the future. Putting an ethical
dimension into preferred future thinking is essential to defining
what the good life is for human beings in the future. But also,
psychological research indicates that the pursuit and development of
virtues is strongly correlated with long term or authentic
happiness. To wit, if you want to be happier in the future, become
more virtuous.
Further, virtue development as the center of a
preferable future brings self-responsibility and increased focus and
direction to one’s future; virtues are accomplishments – things
achieved; consequently, to realize them a person needs to bring
effort, tenacity, purpose, and determination to his or her life.
Having purpose and direction as regards the future is strongly
correlated with mental health and happiness.
Finally, I have identified a set of key virtues that
appear to be supportive, if not necessary, for an enhanced sense of
the future. As I have argued, future consciousness is facilitated
through the pursuit of such virtues as courage, wisdom, optimism,
and self-responsibility. Hence, in focusing on virtues in one’s
future, one raises one’s future consciousness. In the activity on
creating a preferable future self-narrative, I provide participants
with a list of basic human virtues (along with some short
illustrations of revered historical figures who epitomized these
virtues) that serves as a stimulus point for creating their own list
of key virtues.
As a final point, as Aristotle noted long ago,
character virtues are not simply self-serving personality traits;
invariably virtues connect with the human community. Virtuous people
contribute to the betterment of humanity. It seems to me that the
identification of preferable futures should go beyond personal ends
and should also incorporate concern for others and the world at
large. How can a life of virtue in the future positively impact the
future human condition? This is the final question participants need
to address.
In conclusion, as a subject in my own study and
research on this educational approach to enhancing future
consciousness, I have found that articulating a self-narrative, both
of the past and of the future, and connecting the elements together,
is not a task that can be completed once and for all in an
afternoon. As I explain to participants, my hope is that they will
start the process of creating and writing a self-narrative during
the workshop, but that they will continue to work on it much more
extensively afterwards. In fact, the activity can be a semester-long
assignment in a course on the future. Making sense of one’s life and
creating a positive and thoughtful direction for the future clearly
deserves both extended time and effort.
