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HOW TO WRITE AN EHE ACCOUNT By Suzanne V. Brown & Rhea White ©1997
The key to writing any Exceptional Human Experience (EHE) narrative,
whether it is a single account, a series of accounts, or a full-blown EHE
auto biography, is to just simply begin. Find yourself about 30 minutes of
free time and a quiet place to collect your thoughts. Below are a series of
steps with questions to ponder and get you started. Once you begin, you will
find that remembering your story and writing it down from your point of view
is immensely satisfying, even wonderfully self-indulgent. Repeat as often as
desired! Your EHE narrative begins with an Exceptional Experience (EE). This may be
an EE from your earliest childhood memory, one that happened more recently,
the only one you can recall in your life, one you feel most comfortable
writing about, or the one you consider the most spectacular. STEPS AND QUESTIONS TO PONDER 1. Select your EE to write about. Bring it close to you from memory, letting it get richer, fuller, more vivid in your relaxed mind. You may actually want to try to relive it or simply observe it, whichever is more comfortable for you to start.
2. Then, begin jotting down a few reminder notes about that particular experience. Try to capture it, hold onto it in your mind while you take notes. Relive your senses and feeling of that time as best you can. What happened? Describe your experience. When did the experience happen? How long did it last? Where were you? Why did that particular experience impress you at that time? 3. Next, go backward into time and try to remember the immediate circumstances leading up to that EE. What were you doing just before the experience? What mood were you in? How were you feeling? Who was with you, if anyone? Describe your surrounding, your sense of time, and whatever else you can recall. What do you think brought about the EE, if anything? 4. Now, follow that one experience a bit further along and go forward in time, just past the actual experience. What happened? Soon after it was over, how did you feel? Were you exhilarated, frightened, awed, confused, or what? Try to express this feeling in words. Did this experience change or move you in any particular way? 5. Also, describe your actions shortly after the experience. What did you do? How did you react? Did you try to hide it as if nothing happened? Did you take it in stride? If you shared your experience, when did you do it? Did another’s reaction affect your own initial assessment and feelings about your experience?
Congratulations! You have just completed outlining your first EHE narrative account. We are very interested in your written account, what happened, what you felt, did, and learned about your experience. We would appreciate including it in our narrative databank to further research and encourage others to write their own narratives. You may submit your story anonymously, if you would like.
EXCEPTIONAL HUMAN EXPERIENCES
NETWORK
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