A HUMAN FOCUS EXERCISE
Professor Haruko Tsuge
and Eugene Haggerty
Professor Tsuge, Dean of Women, Japan
Women's University (Tokyo), lead colleague
of Dr. Carl Rogers (dec.), world-renowned
person-centered psychologist.
Mr. Haggerty, founder of World Public Forum,
was most deeply inspired by Tsuge, Rogers and many friends
in developing the Human Focus Exercise below.
Note: This exercise is critically important and effective because, although it is universally obvious that we are all humans, our differences are profoundly ingrained in our experiences and identities. While we commonly assume that we already are acting as humans, in fact, we almost always are living and acting solely out of our diverse identities.
To truly shift our relationships so that we are connecting with each other as humans, we must explore concurrently how we relate on many levels—personal, public, and worldwide. This exercise is one form of inquiry into personal identification, explored person to person. It is best if this experiment is done with two people. One person will ask the questions, and the other person will respond.
Step One
· The first person begins by asking the simple question, “Who are you?”
· The second person responds with brief answers, such as, “a man” or “a woman”; “a lawyer” or “a farmer”; “a Christian” or “a Muslim”; “an American,” “a Chinese,” or “an Indian,” etc.
Step Two
· The first person then asks, “Could you be that right now if you were not a human being?”
· The second person simply responds “Yes” or “No.”
Step Three
· The processes of Steps One and Two are repeated until the second person answers, “I am a human.”
· At this point, the first person asks: “Is there anything more basic to your identity than your humanness?”
· If the answer is “No,” the first stage of the process is complete.
· If the answer is “Yes” and something more basic is suggested, the first person returns to Step Two and then to Step Three until it is complete.
Step Four
·The second phase of the process involves each of the initial two people acting on their shared reality
as humans by including another person in this same focusing process.
This universal human inclusion process applies across every level of difference. We encourage you to share the process initially with people who have the appropriate influence, know-how, and resources to actualize the Human Unity Project—for the benefit of all. Let’s keep sharing it until, eventually, all people in the world are included as humans.
Countless activities can be created to share and communicate our humanness with one another. A paradigm shift allowing us to live and operate as humans must occur on the public and worldwide levels, as well as on the personal: see in the menu the "A Human-focused Scenario" (in The Human Unity Project) and "Forming a Human World” (in the Invitation to Agreement). Readers are encouraged to explore and tap into their own unique creativity, talents, and avenues for practicing human inclusion throughout the world.
The Human Unity Project is a forum, conversation, inquiry, and operation for facilitating people in finding and exercising their unique ways to share with each other our humanness—beyond all differences. If you would like to reach us to study, practice, more deeply develop, teach and share this and other human focus exercises at these most crucial moments in human History, you can easily contact us at any of the addresses below.
Sincerely,
Eugene A. Haggerty
2010
World Public Forum*
PO Box 12068
San Francisco, California 941122 USA
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♦ www.HumanUnity.org ♦ Fax: 415-333-1995.
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