The Power of Story in Healing

Introduction from Commonweal Board Vice Chair Katherine Fulton

Over the past three years, a small band of Commonweal folks have worked with Michael on his own archive—and inevitably therefore also on the archives for Commonweal as a whole, in anticipation of our 50th anniversary in 2026. We have uncovered many treasures that we hope to use for various publications and exhibits.

The found documents—and the conversations they have stimulated–have begun to create a fascinating intellectual history of Commonweal. Looking back raises many observations and questions about what has—and has not—changed over these 50 years, as well as what the world calls for now, in a very new time.

Given Commonweal’s founding vision as a center for healing ourselves and healing the earth, I asked Michael if he would be willing to share his current thoughts on healing with the board.

Michael being Michael, he created this quite extraordinary document reflecting a lifetime of exploration and learning. This is an excerpt from the larger article, all of which you can read on Michael's website.

Thank you Michael. This piece is truly a gift.

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The Power of Story—Great Healing Pathways + Minute Particulars

William Blake said if we would help another “we must do so in minute particulars.” This is my experience from more than 220 week-long retreats in the Commonweal Cancer Help Program.

I find the unique particulars of healing to be even more powerful than the great common pathways. This is why authentic deep healing cannot be mass-produced. It can be evoked for some people at some times under some conditions. But it is never guaranteed.

The surest path to understanding the minute particulars of healing is our stories. I’ve worked with more than 1,700 people and come to know them well during these retreats. I ask each of them to write me a biographical letter in advance with prompts that include:

Where were you born?
What kind of family?
What was childhood like?
What were you like in 8th grade? As a senior in high school? As a senior in college (if you went)?
What happened after that?
What have the turning points in your life been?
Do you have any religious, philosophical, spiritual or other frame of meaning?
What matters most now?

These questions usually elicit long personal letters—often a first telling of a life story—which I go over in detail with them during our individual sessions. I do this for three reasons.

The first reason is that what usually needs healing most is our stories. Many people come with broken stories—but some come with coherent trustworthy stories that protect them and give meaning to whatever life brings. When I encounter someone with an intact story, I know they are in good hands. On a recent retreat, a man with an amputated leg and metastatic cancer who was in great pain sat with me. He had lived a very difficult life. But when I asked him how he felt about what lay ahead, he looked me in the eye and said, “bring it on.” At that moment I knew he would be OK regardless of what happened. Many people of faith have a deep serenity in the face of whatever happens. Their stories are meta-stories beyond what fate brings. We often miss the significance of serenity—whether religious, spiritual, or secular. Our stories are an essential guide to the minute particulars of deep intentional healing.

The second reason is these life reviews often help us focus on the most fundamental of all healing questions which is rarely about six of the seven healing practices—the fundamental question for all of us, I would suggest, is what matters now in our lives? And what matters now is almost always unique.

The third and final reason is to explore whether there is a place that goes beyond personal story and beyond current understandings of what matters now—what Carl Jung called the transcendent function.

“The transcendent function is the core of Carl Jung’s theory of psychological growth and the heart of what he called individuation, the process by which one is guided in a teleological way toward the person one is meant to be.” Jung approached the transcendent function as a dialogue with the unconscious.

Here we have to be exceedingly careful. Not everyone wants or can bear a dialogue with the unconscious. The transcendent function does not have meaning for everyone—and even when it does have meaning, it may not be what matters now. We are dealing with Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It is very difficult to focus on the transcendent function if basic needs for food, shelter, medical care, pain relief, finances, and the like have not been attended to.

There are people who are able to take refuge in the transcendent even when basic needs are not met. But this is where William Blake comes back in. Like a good community organizer, those in healing work need to meet people where they are now and address what matters now—and that is minute particulars more often than not.

Excerpted from Healing and the Mind by Michael Lerner, 2024

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