ABSTRACT
This chapter also addresses this major educational problem – how can a short-term experience transform a participant’s life? Jirásek does this by developing a philosophical model that connects the psychological theory of peak experience (Maslow) with a philosophical understanding of the phenomenological concept of ‘horizon’, as outlined principally in the works of Husserl and Patočka. Exceptional experiences that have the power to change human lives were first investigated in psychological and religious studies as mystical or religious experiences (James). Humanistic psychology has more recently identified such extreme, positive modes of being as peak experiences (Maslow), peak performances, peak moments, or flow (Csikszentmihalyi). Although most studies have focused on these optimal events, some also accept negative experiences that have the power to transform a human life as nadir experiences or plateau experiences. This chapter will consider not only positive experiences but all experiences with transformative potential that might occasion a change of human understanding of the self, other people, nature and the world. Here, Jirásek employs the notion of horizon that comes from phenomenology (Husserl and Patočka). Experiential educators are familiar with the situation at the top of a mountain, where the horizon of what is visible changes compared with previous points of view. The phenomenological understanding of horizon accentuates this symbol as the net of all our references and meanings of what is – of what has altogether created our world. The horizon is not only the boundary of the visible part of reality but also a symbol of the world. In applying this model to experiential education courses, the transformative experience of the concrete participant can change his/her horizon and, thus, a lifelong understanding of his/her life and its meaning and relation to other people, nature, and the world.
