Chapter 6: Are You Being Prepared?: Oppositional Cultural Practice—Healing Yourself While Healing the World

This chapter tells of my journey, the spiritual practices that keep me resilient, and why I have headed down this path. Oppositional cultural practice (OCP) theory (also called the Clark unitive effect) describes a way of thinking and acting. The transdisciplinary theory can be understood as both a way of comprehending how individuals come to achieve lasting social changes and also as providing a pathway for others to follow. The theory describes this journey and lays out some ways in which it might be understood. Thus, the theory is descriptive and also instructive. The theory is the practice, and the practice is the theory. This process may also help students, researchers, educators, and policymakers determine how to reduce errors in decision-making. Furthermore, it may also assist with the development of interventions, policies, educational programs, and other actions so that the broad impacts of the world’s most pressing issues may be ameliorated. This chapter intends to exemplify the possibility for peak experiences through grounding a scholarly voice in the material, aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual experiences of being human.