Spirituality in Being Deaf

Every one of us continue to tread on the planet busy with our tasks as human beings, leading lives in our own ways.  I am no different being a father, a teacher, a son, a friend, and as deaf, in addition to another prisms we live in/as with.  I ask this question, is there mysticism in being deaf?

We are humans.  Every one of us ponder on what does it means to be alive in one way or another.  Every one of us are psychic in our own ways.  What does it means to be alive as a visual person without depending on sounds in our diverse ways? Every one of us, deaf and hearing people, deem how they live with deafness, no matter what type, in our different yet common ways.  There are more non-signing than signing people if we look at the whole spectrum of all people living with hearing loss.  Mysticism in Being Deaf or in Deafhood?  If a deaf person does not use sign language and does not feel part of deaf culture or the deaf community, then that person could experience mysticism in ways common in humanity.  If a deaf person integrate the our “new” history of the deaf experience, our “new” sacred stories about being deaf, our “young” sign languages describing lives as visual signing persons, “new” rituals with paraphernalia, and “new” epistemology on deafhood, or being deaf, would all that meld into something new, something spiritual, something mystic, and uniquely psychological?  A new realm, a new reality, a new prism (deafhood) for the deaf community with the help of newly developed set of art, literature, and history to sustain our culture of visual existences.  If we do see those things being added to our lives as signers everywhere, we will then see us discussing more in topics such as sacredness, spirituality, meaning-seeking, and mysticism in being deaf or deafhood.

If in the ages past human beings delved into mysticism, then we deaf people should be no different.  Does being deaf add any differences to those who have spiritual, mystic, or paranormal experiences?  All those interrelated thoughts tickle my inner fancy as I labor to continue posting clips of the Deaf Child Myth begun 2 years ago and still continuing for many more months ahead.  Everything is strangely interrelated as one.  If you are feeling the pulse of the cyber-deaf community by following deafread and dvtv, along with the traditional media outlets such as newspapers, and with signs on the hands (”word of mouth”), you might start to feel that the deaf community awoke (or re-awoke) with anew vigor with the ascendancy of the internet into our lives.  Social activism based on non-violence resistance using the Internet.  New epistemological words such as deafhood and audism.  We are re-defining what it means to be deaf by using different and more positive words such as being a visual person.  It is a resurgence of something new, no argument. It is good to be alive and deaf right now.

Being human is probably the only species on earth saddled with the frontal lobes of our brains.  Our capabilities to create symbols for languages, our agricultural and technological mastery of the environment on the planet, our stories and religions we created to guide our lives – they all are in our enlarged brains (and inside our souls).  Are the human beings the only ones saddled with extra-conscious awareness of being alive? Probably not as every organism on earth do have their own awareness in order to exist. Yet, being himan, with our saddled psychology, spirituality, and mysticism, have created us an unique organism.  “Why?” I ask.  In the past few months, I began to follow the trails of our mystics in the past and what lessons they can give me as I create an original sacred story of the deaf based on our history and our way of life.  It is all interrelated, weird, and wonderful.  Mystical!

Mysticism?  Due to the cross-over of someone who crossed my path once, one thing led to another unexpected.  I was led from the one hour photo department to the book section at my local CostCo.  With her in my mind, I came across this book, The Sound of Butterflies by Rachael King. That one led me to crack open my Books of Light bibliography.  On the two opened pages are Life as Carola by Joan Grant and Practical Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill.  Who were they?  Thanks to the amazon website, their books came to my hands in a couple of days.  “Old” ideas infusing out of the books into me “anew.”

What is mysticism?  You can go off-tangent in other browser windows by clicking on all the brown words in this passage.  I will just use what Evelyn Underhill recently gave me, the most brief and enigmatic definition.  She defined mysticism as “having union with reality.”

Deafhood (plus ____ of who you are) is part of the ultimate reality of being deaf, no matter what type of deafness you have.  How the deaf reality (deafhood)  is understood varies by hard of hearing, profoundly deaf, or with mild loss persons.  All of them different.  Deafhood probably do stand out prominently in the lives of those profoundly and/or signing deaf.  Those with mild losses probably would not think much about deafness, let alone deafhood, and it probably is the way it is supposed to be.  In any way, deafhood is a fact and a reality of being “deaf”.

Upon the shoulders of the giants (Jung to Fowler), in my previous post (Q7) I proposed a tentative developmental stages of deafhood.  Oblivion, Detection, Orientation, Conformity, Celebration, Universalization.  With those stages of deafhood in mind, where, when, and how does mysticism manifests?  Most likely into the later stages of deafhood where issues of being deaf are resolved and harmonized.  Universalizing yourself as part of the ultimate reality as a deaf (and other) person.  I was awestruck to find another developmental stages of being, this time from Evelyn Underhill who discussed the five stages of mysticism.

1) Awakening of the Self, 2) Purgation of the Self, 3) Illumination, 4) Dark Night of the Soul, and 5) Unitive Life.

Go contemplate.

Feeling so good about being deaf, feeling chosen to be deaf as something meant to be, understanding the impact deafness have on humanity, absorbing and appreciating the whole panoramic heritage of deaf people, integrating everything “deaf”, all to create new sacred works of art and literature. We see new creative symbols being born.  Are we universalizing deafhood in our souls?  Will delving into them engender “new” mystic thoughts in the geninuely deaf and visual way among us, the visual people – or the people of the eye?  Are we going to have new mystics?  Is there mysticism in deafhood?  I look at those questions and find them utterly incomprehensible and powerfully liberating at the same time.

I would say, yes, there is some kind of mysticism and it is being born right here, right now, inside us, everywhere.

cnkatz, may 2009

We have a dream . . .

of a million signers march from Gallaudet University and Volta Bureau down the streets of Washington D.C. to the Lincoln Memorial.

* – Gallaudet University because it is the undisputed mecca of the signing deaf and hearing worldwide, the sacred core of being Deaf.

* – Volta Bureau because it is the undisputed mecca of the sacred science of teaching speech, rehabilitating hearing, and curing deafness.

* – Lincoln Memorial because he signed the charter for Gallaudet to exist and the site of the MLK’s speech “I have a dream . . .”

At the Lincoln Memorial, we will see a parade of different people signing and speaking onstage before recording cameras and the world for 24 hours.  Everyone on the planet will “see” our souls celebrating our deafhood, crying out of colonialism and audism, demonstrating that ASL is for deaf AND hearing babies, and seeking salvation in sign language everybody on this planet need.  Poetry, Speeches, Songs, Stories in Sign for 24 hours.

Onstage before the world,

- we will see a parade of old signers walking up the stage showing their indelible scars.

- we will see a parade of young signers showing their promises for the future.

- we will see a parade of deaf people from all over the world signing their sign languages.

- we will see a parade of those who wants to cry out.  Implanted signers, deaf non-signers, angry ASL monolinguals, concerned interpreters, remarkable deaf+plus people, signing speech therapists, worried hearing parents, and actually everyone hearing impaired of every colored stripes.

- we will see a parade of new and old activists. Sallie Mae Pauley, Ruthie Jordan, Karen Christie, Jehanna McCullough, MJ Bienvenu, David Eberwein, Ella Mae Lentz, Jerry Covell, Tim Rarus, Bridgette Bourne-Firl, Gregory Hlibok, and many more.

- we will see a parade of people signing to demonstrate that speech is crucial AFTER acquiring ASL for deaf babies. DBC founder John Egbert, hearing parents like Tami Hossler, deaf studies teachers like Barbara DiGi, school psychologists like Amy Cohen Efron, and many more.

- we will see a parade of vbloggers from Deaf Read and DVTV using the new powerful megaphones. LaRonda Zupp, Carl Schroeder, Elizabeth Gillespie, Donald Grushkin, Raychelle Harris, Mike Schmidt, Barry Sewall, Benjamin Vess, Ocean, MM, InsaneMisha, Vallahalian, lchaim2007, Mephisto, SeekGeo, JoeyHemp, NealLaugh, ABC, the CODA Brothers, and many more.

- we will see a parade of ASL artists using their colorful hands/bodies showcasing American Sign Language with its poetry, stories, and songs.  Ella Mae Lentz, Keith Wann, Pinky Aiello, Charles Jones, Arlene Malkinowski, Peter Cook, Nathie Marbury, John Maucere, Rosa Lee Gallimore, Jonathan Kovacs, Trix Bruce, Bernard Bragg, Terrylene Theriot, the Beethoven’s Nightmare, and many more.

- we will see a parade of codas from all over the world signing/speaking about their bi-cultural lives: Louise Fletcher, Michael Velez, Bonnie Kramer, Paul Preston, Millie Brothers, Bob Hoffmeister, Sheila Jacobs, John Schuchman, Sherry Hicks, Jack Jason and many more.

- we will see a parade of deaf school administrators speaking/signing about their programs. The president of AGBAD, the administrators of CSDFremont, John Tracy Clinic, Indiana School for the Deaf, Central Institute of the Deaf, Maryland School for the Deaf, Clarke School for the Deaf, and the president of Gallaudet University, home to MSSD and KDES, and many more.

- we will see a parade of celebrated deaf people. Paddy Ladd, Heather Whitestone,  Bob Davila, Carol Padden, Irving King Jordan, Phyllis Frelich, Frank Turk, Marlee Matlin, Ed Waterstreet, Linda Bove, John Yeh, Jane Kelleher Fernandes, Tom Humphries, and many more.

- we will see a parade of hearing social scientists who can sign. Harlan Lane, Ursula Bellugi, John Van Cleve, Charlotte Baker, James Woodward, Nancy Frishburg, Douglas Baynton, Virginia Volterra, Dirksen Bauman and many more

- we will see a parade of C.E.O.s of industries serving the deaf. Dawn Sign Press, Siemens Co., Communication Services for the Deaf, 3M Corporation, Sprint Corporation, Sorenson, Viable, the social agencies for the deaf, and many more.

- we will see a parade of hearing people: doctors, surgeons, audiologists, state and US congresspeople and senators, writers like Oliver Sacks, actresses like Jamie Lee Curtis, actors like Henry Winkler, politicians/statespeople like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and our Michelle and Barack Obama, and many millions more marching to the Lincoln Memorial.

Yes, we have a dream . . .

that there will be a cross-country caravan from California to Washington, D.C. – a peaceful green posse of walkers, bicyclists, bikers, and RVs, traveling via schools for the deaf toward Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2010 or thereafter,

bringing not a million but millions of signers from all over the world to the Lincoln Memorial.

Let us all make this dream a planetary movement of peaceful people, signers and all. Let us all roll up our sleeves, lock our arms together in a gigantic sacred circle of circles, and make this dream a reality.

Change, we can
Yes, we have a dream . . .
Change, we can
Yes, we have a dream . . .
of the Million Signers March
from Gallaudet University and Volta Bureau
down the streets of Washington, D.C.
to the Lincoln Memorial.

All in peace, sign language, and love for all . . .

cnkatz, april, 2009

Everyone “deaf” goes through still unnamed stages while living with deaf”ness” and/or being deaf.  Deafhood and audism are now entering our dictionaries of humanity.  We are now re-defining and re-framing on how we look at ourselves, on our (and their) deafness and on how all people look at “hearing impaired” people. We are now trying to removing the yoke of oralistic and audistic colonialism.  Why don’t we start trying to remake the world more audism-free and us, all, a little more visi-centered?  These concepts inspired me in the past years because they fit into the scheme of my work.  I am continuing to be inspired by what’s happening NOW.

Ask ourselves, are there stages? Of course.  They are there.  If so, what are they?  I tried to answer this question by presenting a lecture on this topic at the 2008 Deaf Studies conference at UVSC. And now with this post – a year later – the proposed stages.  Before I go on, there is something I must make clear.   I must inform you that what I am about to parley here is just the beginning.  In order for this theory on stages be further developed, it must be by those people who work with deaf people in the counseling and psycharity areas.  Jung, Piaget, Kohlberg, Fowler, Gubler-Ross all worked with the “target” people all their lives. I did not.  Except by teaching them and being as a deaf person.  I know I am not able to conduct vast studies on the lives of deaf people and complete the formulations of the psycho-sociological stages of deafhood. Therefore I have mixed credentials in proposing those stages.  Instead, I just hunker down inside my cave and do it in my laptop with the websites I made.

At the time when I first seriously thought of the deafhood stages, I simply went with my hand on the mouse and surfed away in google and amazon to get the information instantaneously and have the books onto the shelves of my library.  Here are what I came across.  For starters, we can look at Jung’s stage of individuation or Piaget’s stages of development.   Erikson improved on them and proposed his life stages. Upon Erikson’s shoulders, Kohlberg gave us stages of moral development. Also on Kohlberg’s shoulders, Fowler’s stage of faith development offered something interesting – unexplored spiritual possibilities of deafhood or being deaf.  Click onto his name carefully.   And now with an unique deaf “disabled” twist, we need to add the stages of grieving by Kubler-Ross .  Click either of her two surnames to begin your journey in that grieving-coping area.

What are the stages of deafhood?  All right.  Deafhood begins with not knowing and/or not being deaf: oblivion. Detection of deafness biologically and/or first realized being deaf comes next. Coping, bargaining, and orienteering your way being deaf before conforming to others.  Once conquering the minefields of being deaf comes to the celebration of being deaf before the final stage of which I leave alone, unsure of what it all means. The final stage does have a tentative name: universalizing your deafhood.

The Developmental Stage of Deafhood

Oblivion

Detection

Orientation

Conformity

Celebration

Universalization

I leave the list alone with the stages without any explanation and let you contemplate, especially those of you who work with the deaf.  Go to this post for more elaboration on the stages (click here to go there).  These stages will not become what it will be later on.   As of now, the stages seem to fit, for me, the plot line of my mythology about the life of a generic deaf child guided by a god into adulthood.  The stages of deafhood, especially Fowler’s faith development, offers tantalizing possibilities of the collective sense we the deaf signers and our comrades are now acquiring with the advent of the internet, our repositories of literature and art, and more new historical research: all now large enough to produce creative symbols to lead our lives as spiritual deaf people.  I look forward to the promulgation of the use of the new words, deafhood, audism, et al. (see first paragprah here) among all deaf AND people on earth.  We are putting on a multi-colored prismatic len/mirror to our (visual/deaf) selves inside.

Working toward identifying the stages of deafhood will contribute to the development and implement new pedagogues for deaf children everywhere.  Adding bilingualism into deaf education and validating the use of sign language with deaf babies and their families must be fought for in order to make better our deaf lives and and those deaf people in the future.  We need to develop new pedagogues in educating deaf and hearing people about deafhood and spirituality.  Humanity needs to deem sacred the deaf  people, their visi-centricism, and our sign languages as an important component in bringing humanity forward to become better steward-citizens on the planet earth.

If all of this words above points the direction to the need of the sanctification of the deaf experience and make it holy, then let us lock arms together – deaf and hearing signers everywhere – and go forth into the dawn of the rising sun.

First of all, we pray to the planet earth, the only home housing our bodies, AND to the Holy Spirit inside all our souls. Then, we look at the Deaf (visi-centrality) dimension inside us, along with other dimensions – gender, racial and others.  This might appear odd to you at first. This does not necessarily mean getting to the ground and prostrate, kvetching to some deaf entity/diety for advice and help. No, no. What we, the living deaf people, need to do is to beseech those deaf people from our sacred past for help in our constant struggle to better the world we live in.

Would we love to ask George Veditz for his opinion on cochlear implants and AVT? Would we love to ask Laurent Clerc to join the Deaf Bilingual Coalition and listen to his sagacious advices? Would we love to ask Edward Miner Gallaudet for advice about our communication method, a new “mask” for the same old combined method he fought valiantly for into his sacred grave? We would, very much so, sit down on the ground in a sacred circle and watch them with reverent awe. After absorbing new scientific information on sign languages, cultures, and communities (including cochlear implants), what wisdom would Alexander Graham Bell sign to us, deaf, Deaf and hearing people, in our sacred circle? Would he dig deeper his Victorian spurs? Or would his humane heart take over and proclaim something new?

Every being is spiritual, deaf people no less. Every deaf person feels differently on the role their deafness play in their lives. Some piously devoted to ASL while another person, few miles away, strongly feel that she would perish without her cochlear implants. Both feel strongly about something related to being deaf. We are now starting to ponder on “being deaf”, now termed Deafhood, with our rainbowe-colored thick crystal-glasses we now putting on in front of our eyes.

Who should the Deaf pray to? In every culture, they have older people to impart their wisdom on how to raise our children {our future} to critically continue our humynity.   Our Nelson Mandela is now involved in establishing a new Council of Elders to give wisdom to us all. What about for us, the deaf? Where are our Council of Deaf Elders (including hearing persons)? We do have those people ourselves but they are not yet elevated to higher realms deep inside our lives. We need to sprout and share more stories about them, our Elders, our Deaf brothers and sisters, now departed. The more we think about that, the more we probably will feel spiritual. We need to start working on making changes in our lives for our deaf children, or the Deaf Child Within us.

Until very recently, we do not use those words in our current signing parlance. Elders. Wise Old Wo/Myn. Our Deaf Grandfathers and Grandmothers. We do behave in reverence and awe, without realizing, toward our current living deaf Elders. At our gatherings of all kinds, we give tributes to those older Deaf people who are about ready to depart. Should all that remain the same? Or should we show more appreciation and awe? Only with Father Time, Mother Gaia will tell us.

Should we not only continue revere them and ask them for advice but elevate the way we ask. We close our eyes and beseech. Would that be considered praying? If so, then we should pray to our Deaf Elders, in addition to the Ultimate Reality in us all.

What is Sacred in Being Deaf? Several. The first might be communication. To sign, to speak, or both? Our eyes in/and our hands, the new wires in our brains, or both? We, deaf people of all different stripes, might answer yes, no, and in the between. Our answers are intertwined in fantastically complex ways which, in fact, IS the deafhood process for every deaf and hearing impaired person on earth. We need to ask ourselves deceptively simply yet, hard questions. On a collective unconscious (metaphor) level, if there is one, the Deaf Community needs to put on New Glasses, two multi-hued prisms, to look into our deafhood/ness. We need to deeply look into our minds, hearts, and souls on what it means to be deaf. Ask ourselves new hard questions, now more psychological and spiritual in nature.

Other than communication, what else is sacred in being deaf?  Our deaf children.  The work of raising and educating of our deaf children, incarnated as The Deaf Child Within Us, needs to be deemed sacred. We need to “worship” the “diety” of the Deaf Child because it represent the best and the brightest of what we can toil FOR today and FOR in the future. The Deaf Child represents our Deaf future. Look at what our comrades fought for on the green hills of Virginia . . . for the Deaf Child, of course, however mildly scratched. The Deaf Child has grown up and is restless in tight pants. Do we feel restless, yes?

You might begin to notice that I use metaphors and archetypes, the language of mythology and religion. New Colored Glasses Named Deafhood? The Deaf Child Within Us?  I absorb the ideas of Jung, Eliade, and Campbell because their works are what the culturally deaf people really need. Their books on mythology, religion, archetypes, and the collective unconscious struck me deeply, validating my work and to persevere over many years in sanctifying the Deaf Experience through the use of creative mythology. We need to sanctify our Deaf Experience and make it holy.

The Deaf Community is “young” as compared with other current communities and those in the past. Most, if not all, of those cultures have stories justifying their existences. Those stories sprung out of their lives and their histories. Those stories are, in fact, the religions the people on earth developed for the sake of their souls, or sanity. Those stories are held sacred, close to our hearts and minds. Where are those for the deaf? The DC (deaf children, deaf culture, deaf community) HAS COME OF AGE.  Rumbles have been felt in the deaf communities right now, interpreting deaf history, now readily available with scores of books, and producing much more artistic metaphors. The Sacred Metaphor is what deaf people need.

What else is sacred in being deaf? Our History written in a Book in our Language to slap Audism right into its’ face. We need to preserve and use our tragic and beautiful histories of being deaf to cry out for justice on the ongoing treatment humanity has had toward us and our deaf children. We will eventually realize everything being (with the) deaf is sacred. Everything on our circular planet under our circular sun is sacred. Look around yourself and find many things sacred in your spiritual journeys. Go into your diverse lives happy to be alive, being dDeaf. Explore your Deafhood. The road in front of you, my Deaf Child, is fraught with some potholes but with many glorious stretches out to the rising sun, the dawn of a new era for us all.

What are the places that discuss deafhood? At conferences? At universities? At deaf schools? Inside DeafRead vblogsphere? Yes to all and more. What about churches, mosques, and temples serving deaf people? Those established and ministered by deaf people. Do they mull on deafhood?

This website does raise spiritual and religious issues being deaf. It is so new for many of us. Should there be Deaf “churches”? The quotation marks are stressed. Religious edifices all over the world house sacred spaces. Do the Deaf World have a sacred space? There is almost nothing like this being contemplated by deaf people today. We will realize it is inside us, restlessly percolating. Yes, DeafHood will eventually set up a “church” but in a form so different, yet so natural to us.

The “church” of deaf Peoples, simply, is a Deaf Circle.  Anywhere on earth you can create a circle of Deaf people.  Conversations in sign language with more than two people require a circular formation.  Many of us experience education in rooms with desks and chairs in semi-circular formations. Use a chalk or your pointing finger to draw a circle on the ground. Or set up chairs in circular formations to draw one.  Deaf people could not communicate with one another if everyone is in any straight line formations. We will be unable to see each other. We need to move our bodies toward one another, forming a “D” circle, to use our beautiful visual-spatial languages.

Google “spirituality” and we find sites extolling the use of the circle in religions. The American “Indians” gave us the circular sweat lodge. Our planetary home, the only one we have, is a circle. We live in a circular mother shrine we need to vigilantly protect. We need to celebrate mother earth and our “D” lives on/in it. With the civil right movements of our blacks, the deafs, and the queers in America, there is something promising, a resurgence of mother earth spirituality to heal our home.  Deafhood and its hearing comrades will unveil our secret to the world, our languages to be more visual-based.

If we do end up establishing “churches” extolling and celebrating deafhood, what will it be?  We saw the joys and horrors religion and political institutions had produced in the history of humanity.  Should Deaf Peoples start setting up “churches” modeling after one of them? No, deafhood will go pagan-like.   Just get together in a “D” circle and discuss how to celebrate our deafhood. That’s it.

We, deaf people, will create a sacred space of a “D” circle in order to delve into this new concept, DeafHood, or being Deaf. Again to quote one of our sages, Paddy Ladd . . . .

The setting up of Deaf churches from 2010 onwards was a crucial development, The new concept of a Deity as consisting a set of guiding spirits of Deaf elders from centuries past, who were celebrated and prayed to for guidance, was at first laughed at, until it was pointed out that in many of ther world’s religions, beliefs like this were not uncommon. Once the concept was accepted, it spread like wildfire through the lands, til we have today at our conferences, our own ceremonies for honouring those who led us here and who still guide our way.

From Ladd, Paddy. (1993). The DeafHood Papers, Volume One. From Garreston, M. (Ed.) Deafness: 1993 – 2013. A Deaf American Monograph. Silver Springs, MD: National Association of the Deaf. pp. 69 – 72.

Can hearing people be “D”eaf?

In other signs, do hearing people experience some forms of deafhood? Sure. Let me give you an analogy.

I am a male.  Everyone has male and female elements inside them.  I have some feminine elements in me.  I experience some forms of  “W”omanhood in me, but not biological womanhood simply because I am not a woman. It is the same as being hearing in a Deaf World. They have strong visuality traits in them. They, either born into it or learned the language, experience some forms of deafhood. Hearing people, those having pride being associated with Deaf people, could consider themselves “D”eaf yet they are not biologically deaf simply because they are not deaf.

Deafhood probably will always be plastic and gray – it depends on how it is defined.  IT IS a culturally “D” deafhood process of being proud being Deaf.  It IS a psychological process of coping with hearing loss. Both and in between lie under the the Deafhood Sun. Maybe we could use the term, deafhood, to denote those psychologically coping with hearing loss and continue in life speaking. Maybe we could use Deafhood to denote those who psychologically celebrate being Deaf and continue in life signing. What about those who speak and sign, dD? Explorations need to be made in deafhood and spirituality, or being deaf, here.

The emergence of the concept of Deafhood comes with painful birth-pangs. The birth pangs are the conflicting feelings in the deaf community in reacting and accepting deafhood as a political ideological tool for Deaf empowerment. The birth-pangs are those violent feelings in the deaf communities, and the hearing world, in reacting to Deafhood as cultish or religion-like. Yes, deafhood is about those birth-pangs . . . and more . . . .

Professionals working with deaf people MUST deal with deafhood. Psychologists will need to use the concept of deafhood within the Jungian (or other) psychology help them treat deaf patients or not being licensed.  Educators will eventually realize that it is unethical to ignore deafhood education when teaching deaf children or not being accredited.  Parents need to consider the deafhood, or psychological, development of their own deaf children or be charged of parental negligence.

The Secrets of Deafhood will be unveiled to the hearing world. Deaf people know it. If there is one, what would it be? . . . . . . . . silence . . . . One of the secrets comes from Kendall Green, the campus of Gallaudet University. It comes from every building at this university, especially through the rituals of its student organizations. The marvelous myriad connections among Gallaudet, the NAD, the YLC, and the state schools for the deaf (and MANY more) and how they feed deaf children to Gallaudet. This story has not been told to the general wide world. That’s the beauty of being Deaf knowing the secret joy being Deaf. We feel belonged.

Just like the North American Native Peoples are now giving up their hard-held rituals to the world in order to heal our home, the planet Earth. The world out there could be very audistic for us, Deaf peoples. Out of the morass of humanity on earth, glimmers of hope for the future come from us, the Deaf Peoples. We need to give to the world the beauty behind the visual-spatial natures of signed languages. With time and revolutions of our home, humanity on Earth will slowly broaden from mainly its aural existence to a more multimodal by slowly transforming their spoken languages to be more visual-based.

Who will help us, Deaf people, bring out our Secret, once tightly-held, to the world? Hearing people! Those using signed languages and embracing the cultures of the Deaf Peoples all over the world. They are our comrades solidering with us into the future, to help us bring out the beauty of the Secret the Deaf people have to the wide world. I invoke you, hearing people who feel “D”, to come and embrace deafhood and assume your positions within the ranks of the deaf communities by using our language of signs and celebrating being “D”eaf.

Are you happy being deaf? How come? This is probably the fundamental question to the whole deafhood process.

The way you answer both questions above is your own deafhood process. The more you delve into thinking about being deaf and mediate on it, then should you consider it something spiritual being deaf? Huh? No . . . well . . . hmmm . . . maybe yes . . .

People have signed to me, “Yes, I do feel spiritual being deaf.” But what do they mean? Should we use the word, spirituality, to denote all those emotions and experiences being deaf? Probably not. Our answers, clear and vague, are part of the deafhood discourse. This website is one of the places where the discourse on the deafhood concept within the prism of spirituality can begin.

it is the beginning . . . .

. . . silence . . .

. . . Here is the second question of the website, Spirituality of Being Deaf.

Q2 – Are You Happy Being Deaf? How come?

If you say no, delve into it why. If you say yes, how come? If you feel both yes and no, how come you have mixed feelings? Are you embarrassed being deaf, then look into why you felt that way. Are you feeling proud being Deaf, then should you keep this pride in check? Your answers, in all shades, probably do revolve around the spiritual process of being deaf.

If we feel protective over us being deaf, our own deaf children, and our deaf schools, should we impose those feelings onto others? Should we impose our feelings being Deaf on other (deaf) people? Should we impose our feelings being human on others? In order for a pluralistic, diverse – multilingual and multicultural – world to operate in harmony, our answers to the above should be NO!

Every one of us live on the only ship we have. This ship, namely the Planet Earth, is our only home, very precious. Yes, there are much beauty and ugliness about that ship. Peoples and nations agree and disagree, sometimes violently, with one another. Our ship rocks from one side to another in its circular journey into the future. Billions of people, in guise of religions and other practices, have hope for ourselves, humyns, in our future. Deaf people are very much passengers, as for every one of us, on our Ship of Destiny. Who are the stewards of this ship? Who should lead in healing and maintaining our precious habitat? Native indigenous peoples like the Aboriginals or the Native Americans? Politicians and heads of state of countries all over the world? Deaf peoples? The answer is – EVERY ONE OF US!

To quote one of our sages, Paddy Ladd.

From Ladd, Paddy. (1993). The DeafHood Papers, Volume One. From Garreston, M. (Ed.) Deafness: 1993 – 2013. A Deaf American Monograph. Silver Springs, MD: National Association of the Deaf. pp. 69 – 72.

(Q1) What is Being Deaf? Do you have strong feelings being (with the) deaf? If so, what are they?

- the vigiliant feelings you have for the deaf schools you grew up at? What about those who attended mainstreaming public schools? The proud feelings of attending Gallaudet University, and those feelings never attending there? The growing dread and fear of losing your hearing or celebrating it? The discomforting feeling when seeing or approaching a signing person in public, or the natural fascinating draw one feel toward signers? The disappointment culturally deaf people later in life had realizing not being born to deaf parents or graduating from a deaf school? The satisfying feeling finding out that your own child is deaf or the opposite – abhorrent gloom finding out one’s baby is deaf? The slowly realized feelings of a proud bilingual CODA adult or a deeply embittered non-signing CODA? The death knell feelings to deafness if signing and deafness are to be eradicated from the face of the earth?

. . . All of the above, and in the between, are psychological and spiritual issues associated with deafhood – being (with the) deaf.

This blogsite has begun its journey of transformation. Next posts will be in form of asking questions. Spirituality of Being Deaf will continue with question #2 on the next post.

. . . while being silent, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . think being deaf . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . silence . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . Ephphatha . . .

. . . be opened not only our ears or mouths but our Eyes anD HANDS . . .

. . .

. . . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . . Spirituality and Deafness?

. . . Insane? . . . Impossible? . . . Incompatible? . . . Possible? . . . Sure? . . .

. . . This site is a new technological vehicle, the blogsphere, for a brand new topic to be discussed. Spirituality and Deafness? It is a totally new concept for most, if not all, of us, both deaf and hearing people. For hearing people, they might be, at worst, unable to contemplate this concept. For deaf people, they might produce various known and unknown responses until once looking and contemplating into this, IT is, of course, inside you.

. . . The spirituality of all deaf people’s life journeys is as diverse as it is for every human being on earth. Diversity is also how we define it.

. . . The spirituality of being deaf lies within the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual journey of deafhood for everyone afflicted and associated with hearing loss, all over our large globe. Yes, Deafhood as an concept is new and exciting. After people realize that the deafhood concept is not necessarily a deaf nationalistic ideology, we will eventually agree that the pride AND the shame of being deaf are both equally dDeafhood issues. The deafhood processes of a proud Deaf person and of a born-deaf non-signer are the two, however poles apart, examples of the journeys of our dDeafhoodism.

. . . let us begin with silence . . .