Six Billion Earthings Could Be Wrong

Jeffrey T. Guterman, Ph.D. reads adapted version of his article published in April 1998 issue of the The Advocate. Copyright © 1998 American Mental Health Counselors Association. See all article online: http://www.jeffreyguterman.com/billion.html

Here is an excerpt of the reading:

One night I awoke to a sharp pain in my head. When I stepped outside to get some fresh air, I couldn't believe what I saw.

A bright ball of light soared above my head. The ball expanded and a form emerged. A mass of twirling light encircled my body, and then a being came before me.

"Those piercing eyes," I gasped.

The black sky suddenly turned dark pink. I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I could only think, "I must be dreaming because no one would believe this." And then the being spoke.

"You call yourself a mental health counselor!?"

"A theorist!?"

"An epistemologist!?"

I would have pinched myself if I could, but I was frozen.

"You're not dreaming," the being shouted.

"Who are you, then? And why are you here?," I asked.

"My name is Generica. I come from a world far away. I am quite sure that you have a lot of questions to ask of me. But we don't have time to address all of your queries right now."

It seemed as though this Generica could read my mind.

"My mission is to enlighten you," Generica told me. "I know that you have been genuinely confused about some things lately. Things that you rightly consider important. Like the nature and limits of knowledge. The question of how you build your ideas. The problem of how to judge one idea as better than another. And how all of this informs the "doing" of counseling and psychotherapy. From where I come from, we are more epistemologically advanced than you. You're cutting edge is our old hat."

"Why me, then?," I asked.

"Don't think you're special!" Generica responded.

"You have been picked for various reasons. Your selection followed from a largely stochastic process. The most significant factor is that your location is most accessible at this time. Allen Ivey was doing a workshop somewhere in Europe. Bradford Keeney was in Africa studying some primitive healing system. And we couldn't even locate Kenneth Gergen."

"I don't mean to suggest that you are not an epistemologically-minded human," Generica went on. "But trust me, you're not special."

I suddenly felt content to remain still. But I felt moved inside as tears started to envelop in my eyes.

"Is this God?," I naively wondered.

"No!," Generica quickly replied. "I'm not God. And the domain of epistemology is not to be addressed in a teary-eyed manner."

Generica stepped back and proceeded to open up. I saw the history of human thought flash before Generica's eyes. I felt unexpectedly dizzy and overwhelmed.

"Welcome to the postmodern world!," Generica exclaimed.

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• guterman
• counseling
• philosophy
• epistemology
• postmodern
• postmodernism
• constructionism
• psychotherapy