Dallas Willard and C.S. Lewis on Lived Experience

Last week, I shared some thoughts on the rise of “lived experience” and the need to interpret those experiences carefully—because, as I put it, lived experience is an “N of 1.”

That post sparked got me thinking more deeply about a related question: What do we use to measure our experiences against?

In this week’s post was prompted by a deep discussion with ChatGPT. I want to take the idea of lived experience a step further by looking at the insights of two profound thinkers—Dallas Willard and C.S. Lewis—both of whom have a lot to say about truth, morality, and why our personal experiences need a larger framework to have lasting meaning.

A Broader Perspective

While it’s important to respect people’s lived experience, it’s just as important to place that experience within a larger moral and philosophical framework. As I mentioned earlier, lived experience is an “N of 1.” And that’s the crux of the problem—it’s limited by the nature of personal perspective. But what happens when we act as though our one experience defines the truth?

What Dallas Willard Might Say

Dallas Willard addressed this very issue in The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge. He warned that we’ve drifted into a cultural mindset where objective moral truth has been replaced by subjective interpretation. Morality, once considered a form of knowledge, is now treated as personal opinion. Willard’s concern wasn’t that people have experiences—of course they do—but that we’ve begun to treat those experiences as the sole authority for what is right, good, or true. But as he would say, just because something is deeply felt doesn’t make it morally valid.

What C.S. Might Say

Similarly, C.S. Lewis argued in Mere Christianity that there exists a Natural Law—a shared moral framework that transcends culture and time. He pointed out that while societies may differ in how they express values, all human cultures recognize moral principles like fairness, honesty, and courage. In that view, lived experience is best understood in light of a greater moral order, not in isolation from it.

What Willard and Lewis offer is a caution: when lived experience becomes untethered from shared moral knowledge, it becomes easy to confuse personal truth with universal truth. That leads to fragmentation—not just in society, but within each of us.

Listen to Lived Experience: Value and Learn from It

While our lived experience shapes our reality, always ask: How does this experience fit within a larger moral reality? What wisdom from centuries of human reflection—across faiths, philosophies, and cultures—can help me interpret it rightly?

In a world that increasingly shouts, “my truth,” we would do well to pause and ask:
What is the truth—and how can we know it, live it, and share it wisely?

Written in conjunction with ChatGPT

Brian Ahearn

Brian Ahearn is the Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE and a faculty member at the Cialdini Institute.

An author, TEDx speaker, international trainer, coach, and consultant, Brian helps clients apply influence in everyday situations to boost results.

As one of only a dozen Cialdini Method Certified Trainers in the world, Brian was personally trained and endorsed by Robert Cialdini, Ph.D., the most cited living social psychologist on the science of ethical influence.

Brian’s first book, Influence PEOPLE, was named one of the 100 Best Influence Books of All Time by Book Authority. His follow-up, Persuasive Selling for Relationship Driven Insurance Agents, was an Amazon new release bestseller. His latest book, The Influencer: Secrets to Success and Happiness, is a business parable designed to teach you how to use influence at home and the office.

Brian’s LinkedIn courses on persuasive selling and coaching have been viewed by more than 750,000 people around the world. His TEDx Talk on pre-suasion has more than a million views!