Experiences at the edge of shared understanding

Near death experiences, trauma, loss, dissociation, psychotic distortions, drug induced perceptual trips, depressive withdrawals - all valid sources of communication from a different experience of the self and of the world. We seem to be scared of engaging in a dialogue where we share our lived, experiential knowledge. The obvious question is whether we are just scared (and stigma plays a significant role in the genesis of this avoidant tendency) or in addition we lack the tools necessary for such a dialogue. The author's hypothesis is that language can bridge this void when accompanied by rich nonverbal communicative exchanges (intuition, rapport, empathy, curiosity, acknowledgement of common humanity). Sharing is thus facilitated and isolated experience transformed in the search for meaning and playfulness beyond classification