JAIYA JOHN / SOUL WATER RISING

At seventeen, I began my college studies at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. I was exposed to a broad range of liberal arts curricula, including courses that fostered critical thinking on human nature, and also in my eventual major, psychology. I spent some time during those years living and studying in the nation of Nepal, where I shared a home with and became part of a Tibetan Lama family of Buddhist cultural background; immersed myself within a heavily Hindu society and diverse ethnic groups; and researched Tibetan medicine. Through this journey, I learned something valuable about a holistic approach to the well being of the mind, body, spirit and collective human circle.

I studied African American racial identity while in graduate school and received my doctoral degree in social psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Over the years I have served as a diversity trainer for public school educators; worked with adjudicated youth; and researched the experiences of African American employees within a large government institution (The Los Alamos National Laboratory). I have mentored; directed mentoring programs; taught literacy; trained and consulted for social workers, adoption agencies and families; spoken nationally on issues of human relations; worked as a creative writing consultant, and am currently authoring books and other literature as an additional way in which to share a message and instigate change.

In 1995, I relocated to the East Coast to take a position as a professor of social psychology at Howard University in Washington, DC. There, my vision of human nature thrived and coalesced. I worked with a vibrant and intelligent group of over thirty undergraduate and graduate students, discussing and studying the impact of identity on our own lives and cultural realities. Our core question was: How has how I have seen myself as a human being affected my life and experiences? There were numerous, richly textured answers to this question. We tied these identity insights into consequences that ranged from overall health and life attitudes, to relationships, healing and personal growth.

In the end, the group’s efforts were part of a lifelong inspiration that culminated in me developing a concept of holistic identity. I named the broader philosophy Mmoja, which is a Swahili language/culture of Africa word that means "one person or thing." We also used mmoja to mean, oneness or, one who is connected. This would be a principle of oneness. The theory behind the philosophy, I named The Holistic Attachment Theory.

This theory asserts that all things in the physical and spiritual world are connected, and it is the degree of our recognition and manifestation of this truth that ultimately determines our well being as people and groups. This belief in the oneness of life and humanity provides a window for explaining the social ailments of our contemporary communities—especially the challenges of the young—and for shaping resolutions to those ailments.

As a writer and artist, I feel creative self-expression is a prime vehicle for personal growth. As a poet and teacher, I recognize the power of love and compassion to create change. As a social scientist, I understand that identity is at the core of how a person chooses to live, as well as her or his motivation and choices in that life. As an observer of humans I have glimpsed the capacity of self-interest as an untapped motivator for selfless, communal attitudes and behavior. As a descendant of Africa and of Native America, I blatantly reject anything less than true emancipation and realization of the cultural, ancestral spirit of every person. As a child of adoption, I assert that it is the content and energy of all of one’s relationships that results in the character of each single person. As a U.S. American, I strive toward a society that would both live out its ideals and find the courage to re-examine those ideals. As a spirit, and thereby a strand in the web of life, I am humbled to the truth of our inextricable interdependence with each other, with our universe and with all in it, whether or not we like it.

Soul Water Rising is the culmination of over three decades of growth and seasoning. It is also a vehicle serving toward human spiritual maturation. Between the nature of my own spirit and the prosperity of my opportunity and preparation, I confidently and with focus invest myself in this mission. All who become part of this mission are devoted to helping our communities stand tall in ways in which we are now at less than full height, and to maintain the dignity and continuity of those aspects of our long-enduring cultures that bring us closer to our divinely endowed potential.