Contextual world-view (ICA)

This occurs when a human being wakes up to the fact that he shapes the world into which he has been placed. There are no blueprints to point the way and no-one else will do it for him. Each person becomes the architect not only of his life but of the world itself and it feels like being asked to lift a ten-ton weight, not once but many times a day. He experiences the fact that designing his world means the mundaneness of having done this or that activity at least a hundred times before and knowing he will have to do it at least a hundred times more.

A dimension of this experience is a sense of awe, that is fear and fascination. One is confronted by the reality that certain glaring perversions are bound to occur. Failure is a frightening possibility and, whether failure or victory occurs, one is responsible. What is more, there is no guarantee that anybody else will even understand what one is creating. Nevertheless, there is the titillating thought that one might make a difference, perhaps a significant difference: "This could be my most creative moment and I dare not miss it."

The experience of being the architect of one's world brings the decision to pour one's self into it. It can be like an addiction to which one is drawn to return. One realizes that one would not want to be doing anything else with one's life, even though the temptation often comes to try.

This state is number 23 in the ICA Other World in the midst of this World.