Transcendence: Experiences of Nature that Transform Activist Identity

Abstract

This chapter is the first of several analytical categories that elucidate an essential aspect of the participants’ lived experience as activists. All participants were asked about pivotal moments and several of these have been presented above. Participants, as they reviewed their autobiography, described these interactions with non-human nature as pivotal because of their influence on their life and self-identity. But why are they so important, or why are they given such importance at least, when the participant creates a story as a response to my question? Participant stories suggest, in part, that these moments are a manifestation of their encounter with and recognition of nature’s power. This is often described as a confrontation with their relative insignificance, spatially and over time. An old-growth tree, for example, may be several centuries old compared to which the human span is so small. The forces that one witnesses in the Southern Ocean, during a storm perhaps, or experiences of its vastness may be confronting at an existential level. While a separate concept, this experience also seems to happen concurrently with experiences of nature as transcendent. This experience is significant in the participants’ accounts of themselves because recognition of the power, the scale and the complexity of ecosystems such as forests and oceans can give rise to new understandings of their place in nature.