195
Calibrating the Body
In this view, animacy is a given, innate, quality existing ‘as one’ with its object or being. This leads
to understanding a lifeworld as an ‘entire feld of relations within which beings of all kinds, more
or less person-like or thing-like, continually and reciprocally bring one another into existence’
(ibid: 68).
Both Bohm and Ingold underline relationality, fuidity, changeability and the primacy of movement as foundational to our understanding of that which surrounds us. Such understanding challenges the assumptions and procedures of science within the western tradition, which developed
on the merits of separation, through distancing researchers and ‘objects’ and aiming for control,
predictability and repeatability (Kieft, 2018, see also Ingold, 2011: 75). We will look at this more
closely in the next section.
OPENING UP TO DIFFERENT WAYS OF KNOWING AND LEARNING
When we recognise that western ontology, which advocates the separation between body and environment, is no longer tenable, our epistemology or ways of knowing need to change accordingly.
‘Knowing’ is no longer a process that happens separately from the environment, but something that
emerges from interconnection. Knowing and being become fused. Our being, or the ‘essence of the
knower’, blends ‘with “that being known”’, a process of ‘radical knowing’ that also transforms the
knower (de Quincey, 2002: 124). 10 Since, like all matter, our whole body is pervaded by consciousness, de Quincey proposes ‘somatic feeling’ as an alternative epistemology, which can be practised
by paying attention to the body ‘as it interacts with the world’ (de Quincey, 2002: 145).
Les Todres, a philosophically oriented psychologist and researcher, also underlines the role of
feelings in the process of understanding. Drawing from the work of Dilthey and Heidegger on
emotional atmosphere, Todres describes how our (apparently refective and abstract) understanding
is never neutral, but is always preceded by ‘how we are in relation to things in a prerefective and
unthematised manner’ (Todres, 2007: 10). Hence, our emotional texture and mood form a background quality that always informs our knowing.
Feeling is determinedly not separate from the rest of our experience, including sensorial information, reason, consciousness and intuition. De Quincey describes intuition as ‘a gift of grace’,
coming from ‘somewhere else’ through ‘a different shaft of knowing’ (de Quincey, 2002: 145). This
means negotiating the channels that connect us to external, more mystical sources of knowing and
not knowing, a state of paradox-consciousness that can be reached, among other things, through
silence and meditation. Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925; a mystic, philosopher and scientist who also
founded biodynamic farming) considered intuition as a result of the meeting between imagination
(from within us) and inspiration (from the outer world and spiritual plane).
These are but a few authors who describe the role of feelings and intuition for accessing other
shafts of, or paths to, wisdom. Although this sometimes happens spontaneously, during an experience of ‘fow’ (Czikszentmihalyi, 1975) or peak experience (Maslow, 1994), many spiritual and
meditative practices offer structured approaches to increase the possibility of connecting to such
shafts of wisdom. Whatever the tradition or background, each practice provides a method or procedure that involves careful preparation, a clearly formulated intention and full focus, a change of
time–space perception and often a clear invitation for ‘otherness’ to come through. 11 Dance practices worldwide also offer a path to transcend the ordinary and communicate with other dimensions
of reality (Hume, 2007: 68, 75).
10 ‘Radical knowing’ combines (at least) four different approaches to, or gifts of, knowledge. The philosopher’s gift is based
in reason and clear thinking; the scientist’s gift in the senses, observation and method; the shaman’s gift in participatory
feeling; and the mystic’s gift in direct experience. Simultaneously, they address the levels of mind, body, soul and spirit
(de Quincey, 2005: 221–243).
11 In this respect, de Quincey proposes the POR method (Procedure, Observation, Report), for a radical science that can
process any type of inquiry, including more subjective insights gained through experiences of meditation or shamanic
journeying (de Quincey, 2005: 138, ital. in original).
Calibrating the Body
In this view, animacy is a given, innate, quality existing ‘as one’ with its object or being. This leads
to understanding a lifeworld as an ‘entire feld of relations within which beings of all kinds, more
or less person-like or thing-like, continually and reciprocally bring one another into existence’
(ibid: 68).
Both Bohm and Ingold underline relationality, fuidity, changeability and the primacy of movement as foundational to our understanding of that which surrounds us. Such understanding challenges the assumptions and procedures of science within the western tradition, which developed
on the merits of separation, through distancing researchers and ‘objects’ and aiming for control,
predictability and repeatability (Kieft, 2018, see also Ingold, 2011: 75). We will look at this more
closely in the next section.
OPENING UP TO DIFFERENT WAYS OF KNOWING AND LEARNING
When we recognise that western ontology, which advocates the separation between body and environment, is no longer tenable, our epistemology or ways of knowing need to change accordingly.
‘Knowing’ is no longer a process that happens separately from the environment, but something that
emerges from interconnection. Knowing and being become fused. Our being, or the ‘essence of the
knower’, blends ‘with “that being known”’, a process of ‘radical knowing’ that also transforms the
knower (de Quincey, 2002: 124). 10 Since, like all matter, our whole body is pervaded by consciousness, de Quincey proposes ‘somatic feeling’ as an alternative epistemology, which can be practised
by paying attention to the body ‘as it interacts with the world’ (de Quincey, 2002: 145).
Les Todres, a philosophically oriented psychologist and researcher, also underlines the role of
feelings in the process of understanding. Drawing from the work of Dilthey and Heidegger on
emotional atmosphere, Todres describes how our (apparently refective and abstract) understanding
is never neutral, but is always preceded by ‘how we are in relation to things in a prerefective and
unthematised manner’ (Todres, 2007: 10). Hence, our emotional texture and mood form a background quality that always informs our knowing.
Feeling is determinedly not separate from the rest of our experience, including sensorial information, reason, consciousness and intuition. De Quincey describes intuition as ‘a gift of grace’,
coming from ‘somewhere else’ through ‘a different shaft of knowing’ (de Quincey, 2002: 145). This
means negotiating the channels that connect us to external, more mystical sources of knowing and
not knowing, a state of paradox-consciousness that can be reached, among other things, through
silence and meditation. Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925; a mystic, philosopher and scientist who also
founded biodynamic farming) considered intuition as a result of the meeting between imagination
(from within us) and inspiration (from the outer world and spiritual plane).
These are but a few authors who describe the role of feelings and intuition for accessing other
shafts of, or paths to, wisdom. Although this sometimes happens spontaneously, during an experience of ‘fow’ (Czikszentmihalyi, 1975) or peak experience (Maslow, 1994), many spiritual and
meditative practices offer structured approaches to increase the possibility of connecting to such
shafts of wisdom. Whatever the tradition or background, each practice provides a method or procedure that involves careful preparation, a clearly formulated intention and full focus, a change of
time–space perception and often a clear invitation for ‘otherness’ to come through. 11 Dance practices worldwide also offer a path to transcend the ordinary and communicate with other dimensions
of reality (Hume, 2007: 68, 75).
10 ‘Radical knowing’ combines (at least) four different approaches to, or gifts of, knowledge. The philosopher’s gift is based
in reason and clear thinking; the scientist’s gift in the senses, observation and method; the shaman’s gift in participatory
feeling; and the mystic’s gift in direct experience. Simultaneously, they address the levels of mind, body, soul and spirit
(de Quincey, 2005: 221–243).
11 In this respect, de Quincey proposes the POR method (Procedure, Observation, Report), for a radical science that can
process any type of inquiry, including more subjective insights gained through experiences of meditation or shamanic
journeying (de Quincey, 2005: 138, ital. in original).