Let's Talk About Hope

According to evolutionary biologists like Ryan Gregory (2009), Oliver Riepell (2010), and others, the consensus is that Homo erectus was the first human ancestor to acquire the ability to stand and walk upright on two legs. This evolutionary advancement granted him the use of two hands for making tools, hunting, and manipulating his environment more effectively. Much later, when Homo sapiens (the successor of Homo erectus) acquired the frontal lobe (of the current human brain), this significant advantage over Homo erectus granted him and his descendants (i.e., us) the ability to mentally peek into the future, dream, imagine, and visualize things that are not yet a part of reality—and thus, the capacity to hope, a major evolutionary advantage, was born.

Hope is a belief and the feeling that one’s aspirations are achievable or that what one desires is also possible. Hope is more than a mere imagination or daydream. It informs us, assures us, and motivates, strengthens, and energizes us to perform. When hope is high, your fears, worries, and doubts significantly diminish—resulting in a state of informed courage. From this, courage emanates the energy for action.

Hope has cognitive, affective, and motor components that combine to make it a practical tool for everyday human survival—particularly in emergencies. In other words, hope requires knowledge and thinking, involves feelings and emotions, and entails action and execution. According to The Hope Pentagram empirically derived by Obayuwana, Collins, Carter, et al. (1982), there are five sources from which humans derive their hope:

1. The number-one source of hope is yourself, your ego strength, your virtuous attributes, signature strengths, self-discipline, and self-esteem—collectively called your intrinsic assets.

2. The second source of hope is family, friends, colleagues, and those around you from whom you expect and get support, love, empathy, and understanding—collectively called your human family assets.

3. The third source of hope is your sense of material sufficiency, perceived resource adequacy, and good stewardship—collectively called your economic assets

4. The fourth source of hope is your intellect, experience, skills, curiosity, knowledge, and awareness—collectively known as your educational assets.

5. The fifth source of hope is your ethos, prayerfulness, religious faith, and convictions—collectively called your spiritual assets.

These five categories of assets constitute the five sources of human hope and are also known as the five essential human assets. When these assets are high or boosted, hope is enhanced. Simply put, when intrinsic assets, human family assets, economic assets, educational assets, and spiritual assets are boosted, one’s hope becomes high.

Here is a true story—essentially an unintended human experiment—that perfectly illustrates what hope is, why we need it, and where it comes from:

On August 5, 2010, 33 miners became trapped in a gold mine in Chile following an accidental explosion and consequent collapse of the walls of the mine. Immediately, these miners became completely cut off from contact with the outside world and the rest of humanity.

They became helplessly confined about half a mile deep underground without any means of communication with family and friends. It was sweltering hot—92°F—and they were not prepared for an extended stay in the mine, with only two days’ worth of emergency food and water. They had no idea how long their ordeal would last at 2,000 feet below the surface of the Earth, and, along with the heat and hunger, they were mostly in the dark.

Under such grave uncertainty and harsh conditions, the miners began to wonder if the Chileans had given up on them by assuming that they had all been killed. Even if they tried to hold on to the optimistic notion that they could and would be rescued, the thought of not knowing how long, when, or how they could ultimately be saved must have been so tormenting after 24 hours, 48 hours, or 72 hours of absolute uncertainty.

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A whole week went by, followed by a second week without any communication with the outside world. By this time, the plight of the miners had captivated people around the globe, but no one had any idea whether all—or any—of the 33 men were still alive.

With my deep research interest in the study of human hope, I began to wonder how these miners could be coping if they were still alive. Were they hopeful or in despair? If in despair, what were they doing to themselves or one another; if not in despair, what were they possibly doing to cope and keep hope alive while in such an absolute state of uncertainty—and impending death?

Fortunately, after 17 days, the first contact with the outside world became possible—and more importantly, all the 33 miners were reported to be alive. It was a real tale of human survival due to hope and the ultimate validation of my published findings about human hope—made 30 years earlier. The Chilean rescue site headquarters itself, appropriately enough, was nicknamed Camp Hope by the Chilean people.

“We knew if we broke down, we would all be doomed. Any time a different person took a bad turn, everyone rallied around to try and keep up the morale,” recalled Mario Sepulveda, one of the rescued miners.

From detailed testimonials by the 33 miners themselves, it became clear where the hope that made them survive came from:

• Individual courage and collective willpower—intrinsic assets
• Cooperation, togetherness, and assistance from one another—human family assets
• Good and efficient stewardship of the minimal resources—economic assets
• Contribution and harnessing of skills, knowledge, and expertise—educational assets and
• Organized prayers and daily sermons—spiritual assets.

What solid scientific confirmation of why we need hope, where it comes from, and how to boost it.