Wayne's work on the deep underpinnings of ToP, and all ICA-related programs, and ways to make it accessible to a new generation, is one of his passions that I truly appreciated. It is an important project to keep alive. On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 11:50 AM, jlepps@pc.jaring.my <jlepps@pc.jaring.my>wrote:
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(R)(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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