[Oe List ...] Tribute to Wayne Nelson

[jlepps at pc.jaring.my]

The tributes to Wayne that have come in catalogue 
many of his multiple and admirable qualities.  He 
was a gifted facilitator, an extraordinary 
community developer, an artistic woodworker, a 
consummate story-teller, a skilled outdoorsman, 
and a talented IT guru. That barely scratches the 
surface, but it’s difficult at the completion of 
a life to formulate an appropriate tribute to one of such diverse abilities.

There’s one, however, that needs additional 
mention: Wayne was also a philosopher of 
considerable prowess. The question which he 
pursued with passion and intensity was: What are 
the philosophical roots of the ToP® (Technology 
of Participation) methods? And he didn't mean 
Bultmann, Niebuhr, Tillich, and Bonhoeffer. He 
meant their ancestors. He meant Heidegger and 
Husserl, Kierkegaard and Sartre, Bergson, and 
Hume and many others. And he was working to 
document how their insights influenced and shaped 
what became our methods and how these foundations 
might guide us in the future.

The aim of his research was to prevent the ToP 
methods from becoming perfunctory or shallow and 
reflecting only superficial pop-psychology. As he 
said, “That's not us, and I believe our approach 
is significantly unique and valuable enough to 
carry it firmly into this century.  This 
ontological, participatory approach to group work 
is totally necessary if the world is to move forward.” (2 May 2011)

Wayne has written a 35-page paper entitled “ToP 
Foundations: Facilitating the Consciousness of 
Consciousness of Consciousness.” That title 
clearly indicates Wayne’s passion for getting to 
the substance of what we’re all about. As he put 
it, “Where have these ideas come from? What do we 
have now? Where can they take us?”

Those pages are the Introduction and first 
chapter of a book that now he will not complete. 
It would be a fitting tribute to this great 
colleague to have them published for the ToP Network.

We will greatly miss this man of passion and depth.

--Ann and John Epps
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