|
 The term "spiritual eldering", was coined
by Reb Zalman
to provide a moniker for
the potential and process that is open to adults
in the context of growing older. It is
the path of possibility that lies
within the aging process, a pilgrimage of sorts
toward finding meaning,
purpose and wisdom in our years. For sojourners from
all faiths and belief
backgrounds,
however, we sometimes find it difficult
to understand the
core ideals of "spiritual eldering" and "sage-ing"---the
concept of "conscious aging." Isn't conscious aging
just a bunch
of hooey for the boomer generation of light chasers? Scholar, author and
teacher, Rick Moody, helps put the idea of conscious aging into
perspective in the following article.
What does it mean to say that Conscious Aging represents a new
form of "growth" in later adulthood? It means that Conscious
Aging amounts to a higher level of functioning correlated to the distinct
chronological stage of later adulthood. Both level and stage, hierarchy
and chronology, are included in this definition of "Conscious
Aging."
"Conscious Aging" has emerged as a social ideal at a
specific moment in history, in the first decade of the 21st century. This
historical moment reflects the convergence of two historical trends: the
evolution of psychology to include humanistic, transpersonal and lifespan
development theory; and the widening impact of population aging in all
post-industrial societies. The evolution of psychology toward a deeper
view of the human person can now join with the societal transformation of
institutions to create new opportunities for positive development in later
life.
Within this framework of lifespan development theory and
transpersonal psychology it is possible to define more precisely what is
meant by "positive development" in later life. The psychologist
Gisela Labouvie-Vief has drawn a contrast between two very different
trajectories of "positive development" in old age (Labouvie-Vief,
2000). The first, which I will label the "holistic" line, is a
pathway characterized by increasing integration of divergent elements of
the self, both rational and emotional, to yield a more complex structure.
This is the process Jung calls individuation, a pathway that includes
growing awareness ("conscious aging") in later life.
Second, there is a trajectory for positive development, which I
will label the "adaptation," characterized by ability to
maintain optimal well-being in the face of age-associated losses. This
second trajectory is what Rowe and Kahn call "successful aging."
We know from a growing body of research that this second trajectory is
correlated with the multiple dimensions of "life satisfaction."
But what is the relationship between "Conscious Aging"
and "Successful Aging?" If they are not exactly the same, how
can they be distinguished? Let us begin by saying that the holistic
strategy of Conscious Aging is not necessary for positive aging for most
people. Conscious Aging represents an option, only one pathway, perhaps
not a typical pattern, for coping with the challenges of later life. Many
individuals can achieve mental wellness without becoming ever more and
more conscious but by simply by adapting themselves to age-related losses
and changes. They may age "successfully" but not
"consciously."
The holistic and the adaptive pathways are both viable but
different alternatives to mental wellness in later life. Individuals may
combine elements of both coping styles, but they represent distinct
trajectories for positive development.
Conscious Aging-- the holistic line of development-- is not an
easy path nor is Conscious Aging likely to appeal to a majority of those
entering old age. Far more appealing, we might imagine, would be
alternatives such as Successful Aging and Productive Aging. The reason is
not hard to imagine. Both alternative strategies of aging represent
efforts to sustain or optimize values already enshrined by mainstream
culture: namely, "success" and "productivity."
Both successful aging and productive aging are strategies for
making old age into a "second middle age," in effect denying the
losses of aging altogether. This strategy of denial can be quite
effective. Depending on life circumstances, individuals may achieve
positive life satisfaction and mental wellness without any greater growth
in consciousness or wisdom. They may simply remain themselves, adapting to
new conditions but sustained by familiar midlife habits in keeping with
Kastenbaum's definition of "aging as 'habitatuation'" as the
beginning of old age (at any chronological age).
By contrast, the strategy of Conscious Aging typically entails a
long struggle, described in detail in The Five Stages of the Soul (Moody,
1997). Conscious Aging means going beyond patterns of ego strength
acquired during youth and mid-life. This message of struggle is precisely
the one that world wisdom traditions have always conveyed. It is a message
at odds with today's culture, in its modern and "post-modern"
varieties. Rationality, assertiveness, moral certitude, mastery of the
environment, and similar qualities are very different >from the stance
recommended by spiritual paths such as Zen Buddhism, Sufism, or mystics in
the Jewish and Christian traditions.
On the contrary, mystical traditions
celebrate "the way of unknowing" (overcoming rationality),
"emptiness" (giving up self assertiveness), even entering what
Buddhists call "the Great Doubt" in the face of cosmic mystery.
Post-conventional spiritual traditions typically entail a "dark night
of the soul," which might be described as "regression in the
service of the ego." In the most profound mystical tradition, the way
of transcendence entails at its highest point the "loss of the
self:" that is, dissolution of conventional ego structures altogether
(Roberts, 1992). At this point there is a stark contrast between opposing
tendencies of holistic versus adaptive paths of positive development in
later life.
Conscious Aging, as an emerging cultural ideal, represents a
genuinely new stage and level of psychological functioning. As a way of
life and a level of consciousness, Conscious Aging has appeared at a
distinct moment in history. Yet the holistic path of late-life development
is not a new idea but a possibility long familiar in the spiritual
traditions of the world, which depict later life as a time for the growth
of consciousness and wisdom. Still, those same traditions caution us to
expect some degree of tension between dominant institutions, with their
ruling ideas about "successful aging," and the more holistic
path involved in becoming the person we were meant to be, in becoming more
conscious of ourselves and of the cosmic mystery. 
This article is adapted from the chapter by
H.R. Moody • "Conscious Aging: A Strategy for Positive Development
in Later Life" which will appear in Judah Ronch and Joseph Goldfield
(eds.) Mental Wellness in Aging: Strength-based Approaches, Human Services
Press, 2002.
Reprinted by Permission
|
