The Moving Body As Catalyst for Peace

Master Thesis in the frame of the MA Program in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation at the University of Innsbruck

The Moving Body as Catalyst for Peace

On (dis)embodiment and dance within peace and conflict transformation

In order to obtain the degree Master of Arts

Submitted by

Henk Michiel van Veen

Supervised by

Norbert Koppensteiner

Nijmegen, 2020

With gratitude to all the people that have been alongside me in the journey of my master peace and conflict transformation. For your encouragements and your own courage that

have been beautiful examples.

Thanks you for the honesty, the openness and the welcoming hearts.

For the hugs, the cries, the smiles

and all the dances. Table of content

1. Introduction ...... 1 1.1. Author’s perspective ...... 2 1.1.1 My road here...... 3 1.1.2 Movement as vehicle ...... 5 1.1.3 My body and movement ...... 6 1.1.4 Embodied Relating ...... 9 1.2. Research problem ...... 10 1.3. Research question ...... 12 1.4. Methods ...... 15 1.4.1 Theoretical and empirical ...... 15 1.4.2 Empirical research ...... 16 1.4.3 Research and the researcher ...... 20 1.5. State of the art ...... 21 1.6. Thesis outline ...... 23 1.7. Language use and the use of language ...... 25 2. Disembodiment – the road here ...... 27 2.1. The body and mind dichotomy ...... 29 2.2. Drifting away from the sensuous ...... 32 2.3. Contemporary alienation of the body ...... 35 2.4. (Dis)embodiment, peaces and conflicts ...... 41 3. The Innsbruck school of Peace Studies – which peace? ...... 44 3.1. From peace to peaces...... 44 3.2. Conflict transformation ...... 46 3.2.1 What is conflict? ...... 46 3.2.2 Elicitive conflict transformation ...... 48 3.2.3 From linearity to a singing bowl ...... 50 4. A phenomenological perspective – the body and experience ...... 54 4.1. The body as basis of experience ...... 54 4.2. The primacy of movement ...... 56 4.3. Language, embodiment and experience ...... 60 5. A changing paradigm – reunion of the body/mind ...... 64

5.1. The embodied mind ...... 64 5.2. Embodied unity and perceived separation...... 68 5.3. The potential of movement ...... 70 6. Somatic psychology – a body of marks ...... 73 6.1. Predecessors ...... 73 6.2. (Neo-) Reichian ...... 74 6.3. Gestalt psychotherapy ...... 80 6.4. Emotions and the body...... 83 7. Movement practices – dancing for transformation ...... 86 7.1. 5Rhythms ...... 93 7.1.1 Foundations of 5Rhyhtyms ...... 93 7.1.2 Illustration of the rhythms ...... 95 7.2. Authentic Movement ...... 99 7.2.1 The origin of authentic movement ...... 100 7.2.2 Authentic movement in practice ...... 101 7.3. Movement and transformation ...... 103 8. Discussion ...... 107 8.1. Facilitator’s description ...... 107 8.2. Analysis ...... 113 8.2.1 The role of music ...... 114 8.2.2 Awareness and release ...... 115 8.2.3 Thinking in movement ...... 117 8.2.4 Expression and discovery...... 118 8.2.5 Rhythms and emotions ...... 120 8.2.6 Stimulated qualities ...... 124 8.2.7 Sexuality and (body) memories ...... 127 8.2.8 The role of the group ...... 128 9. Conclusion ...... 132

References ...... 137 Appendix ...... 144 A. Questionnaire ...... 144 B. Consent form ...... 146

We have come to be danced not the pretty dance not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance but the claw our way back into the belly of the sacred, sensual animal dance the unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance the holding the precious moment in the palms of our hands and feet dance.

We have come to be danced not the jiffy booby, shake your booty for him dance but the wring the sadness from our skin dance the blow the chip off our shoulder dance the slap the apology from our posture dance

We have come to be danced not the monkey see, monkey do dance one, two dance like you one two three, dance like me dance but the grave robber, tomb stalker tearing scabs & scars open dance the rub the rhythm raw against our souls dance

[…]

We have come to be danced Where the kingdom’s collide In the cathedral of flesh To burn back into the light To unravel, to play, to fly, to pray To root in skin sanctuary We have come to be danced WE HAVE COME

We Have Come to Be Danced Jewel Mathieson

1. Introduction

Without tuning into your body a good life is not possible1 (Verhaeghe 2018b)

One reason it is hard to establish peace in the world is that (…) [t]here is one element in conflict that is always present and usually ignored – the body (Linden 2015, 159)

When I got back from the hospital after surgery in May 2019, they gave me a letter with general instructions and some frequently asked questions. At the end of the letter I stumbled upon a beautiful advice: ‘’listen well to your body’’.

It made me laugh slightly and it made me wonder again how listening to the body works and what it actually is that my body has to tell me, that the body knows. For many it might have been just a nice ending of a letter, but because I was already researching exactly this topic, I was triggered in a moment when the relation to my own physical condition was not at its best.

It is important and often difficult to go along with the circumstances of the body and respect them, especially in moments when the wind gets stormy. In the face of conflict there is often an allurement to look away, to disconnect from the body.

I have experienced how especially in those moments of conflict and dissatisfaction it is hard to stay in tune with my body. I increasingly wondered what could help in these moments; in which ways I could stay tuned into the body, to keep listening even if the music might not be the genre I am used to.

1 Translated by the author: Zonder afstemming op je lijf is een goed leven niet mogelijk.

This raised certain questions. For example: why is the body so important? Why is the body often ignored? And which role does the body play within our conflicts and peaces? This research is an investigation into those questions.

The body is always present, always moving and always responding. From my own experience, movement can be a way to feel the body, to be aware of being a body. In this study I research how movement can be a catalyst to feel, express and discover ourselves. I investigate why this is so important and how movement plays this catalyst role, thereby showing how this role can be integrated in peace and conflict work.

Thus, this thesis explores the role of embodiment and movement, looking for the stories that the body holds and for ways to listen to them. Practically, I look for ways to enable these qualities in the field of peace and conflict work. Especially I explore dance as transformative method.

The focus of this research is on working with personal peaces and conflicts.

Furthermore, my personal experiences caused me to develop an interest in this field of research and they also shapes my interpretation of this topic. Therefore I will start by describing my personal perspective, thereby creating openness on my background.

1.1. Author’s perspective Sharing my personal perspective, entails sharing my own subjectivity to this research topic.

My own background colours my understanding, therefore it is impossible to ignore this aspect and it would even be a constraint. As it is especially someone’s personal experiences which are the source of understanding (Lederach 2005). Thus, I start by describing my own experiences that have led me to this topic.

1.1.1 My road here Since September 2017 my body has been of increased interest and value for me. It has been a time of self-discovery. Questions about life increased in their presence: Who am I? What is important for me in life? What do I want to do?

I consciously wanted to follow my own path, without being influenced by others too much. I was wondering which parts of myself are authentically me and what I take over from others. Wondering which choices I want to make. I can adapt relatively easy to my surroundings to fit in, therefore it has been a time of creating autonomy and experimenting with my own boundaries.

I have been looking for a compass inside myself. In this search, my body started to take a central place. It began with a breakdown in November 2017. I chose to live without permanent housing, sleeping over at friends and family. I was aiming for freedom, but this way of living turned out to be constraining me. It became so heavy that it made me feel limp, down and generally sad. It had drained all my energy.

This experience was new and it was almost impossible for me to feel what was actually going on inside me. I kept most of my feelings inside, not knowing what they were or how to express them. I remember being asked: ‘’What do you feel?’’. I did not know, because I could not feel, nor express what my body was telling me. I froze.

This has taught me that listening to my body and what is moving inside of me is a prerequisite to orientate myself in the outer world. Throughout my entire life my body sends signals to which I (un)consciously listen. I think the overwhelming aspect in the example above made it impossible to listen. It was like the body was screaming so loud, that I could not hear

its message anymore. But of course one only starts to scream when more subtle messages are left unheard.

Until the age of 22 (in 2017) my education on the body had been limited to biology and developing skills on certain sports techniques. It appeared insufficient in the sense that it did not prepare me to feel my body, to feel myself. During the master programme of Peace Studies in Innsbruck, I created a different kind of connection to my body.

I began to learn to listen to my body step by step and I am still learning every day.

Through the use of embodied inquiry, I learned that the body can be seen as messenger of the

‘unsaid’. The unsaid being things that exceed linguistic defining, but which still looks for a way out (Todres 2007). Through Eugene Gendlin’s technique of focusing I have experienced the potential of listening to my body sensations, as a tool to feel and express (International

Focusing Institute 2019).

Meditation helps me to create awareness of my body and dance enables me to explore new ways of moving. Furthermore, breathing exercises showed me that my body is so much more than a functioning object. That it entails many stories. These experiences brought me closer to my body and thereby to myself.

It made me experience that my embodied mind is an integral whole. If I think that something is exciting, my body is also excited. This also works the other way around, when I make my body move as if I am sad, I actually get sad. My bodily tension, posture and breath changes. Just test this for yourself.

This experience convinced me to regard my body as more than a tool in which I live. It is who I am. Listening to my body currently helps me to orientate in the world, to feel what is

important for me and make choices. I want to continue with two examples of how I practised this.

1.1.2 Movement as vehicle In June 2018 I was struggling with choosing my next step in life after quitting my job. I felt lost, until a study councillor advises me to write down all my options and important topics in life and to place those as a puzzle of A4’s on the ground. There I am, moving around my room from paper to paper. Restructuring them, whilst I listen to my body. How do the different parts and options of my life feel? By movement through space I am able to structure my thoughts and listen to my bodily signals.

It is a way to deal with overwhelming bodily signals and ‘isolate’ them in a way by moving through space. It helped me a lot and gave me the idea of my moving body as my compass in life. I believe that deep inside, I know what I want to do and this practise became a way to listen.

I repeated this exercise with my siblings and friends, guiding them through their own processes. Every time, it was a very intense and beautiful experience for them. It supported my idea that movement through space enables to feel and to be present with oneself. Literally, it provides the possibility to leave things behind and feel anew.

This strengthened my interest for the body and movement. It made me develop a training focussed on the body and learning through movement for the National Youth Council2 in The Netherlands. Here I was affirmed in my idea that movement provides a different type of learning, one with an enormous potential.

2 The National Youth Council (NJR) aims to stimulate participation of youth in Dutch society (NJR 2019)

Furthermore, in my work as trainer I experience how important embodiment is.

Through my body I can feel the general atmosphere. If this is ignored or not picked up upon, a possible conflict cannot be transformed. Besides, it is not constructive to target mainly on the mental aspect, because our interaction and learning always has a substantial embodied component. When this is overlooked, a training, or any form of encounter and relating will be reduced in it’s potential for learning, peace and transformation.

1.1.3 My body and movement For a long time I mainly regarded my body as a functional object of being. The functional body as limiting and enabling life itself. It enables the very existence of life. It offers enormous possibilities and it limits my life by its restrictions – the ultimate one being death (Shilling

2010). From the perspective of the functional body, I felt I had to suppress non-functional bodily effects.

Crying was one bodily process that I related with weakness and non-functionality. This made me suppress tears and shut myself off from my body. I imagine that my position as male in a western culture, strengthened my suppression of feelings - especially crying. Currently, my understanding of crying has shifted strongly. I experience crying as a beautiful and very useful means of expression and release.

Furthermore, I have often experienced my body being in a tensed state. For a long time, my strategy to achieve something, was always to put in more effort, more energy and tension. It also has been a way of literally closing myself off with muscle tension. In the meantime, I have learned that being tensed makes it harder to feel, it is in relaxation that we can feel ourselves and others (Wagner 2019). Tension was thus also a defensive mechanism not to feel.

As I reflect on my relation to my body, I recognize that I almost forgot that in 2014, I had a few stress attacks. Those attacks almost caused me to faint and I needed guidance to get home. I was overwhelmed and totally not aware that I was pushing myself too much.

Therefore, I was not inclined to relate it to stress at that time. I could not see it as a message back then, but I rather thought of it as a disturbing factor. When I look back now, it seems I was quite dissociated from my embodied experience.

Another important bodily memory I physically bring with me, is an a operation for a ruptured appendix at the age of 5. Without treatment, this complication can lead to death. It left me with a scar on my belly. Sometimes I feels like it presses into my belly or its irritating.

I never really liked it and because it is not often visible I often neglected its presence.

During the writing process of this thesis I struggled with a broken thumb and a concussion, which both caused a lot of frustration, but in a way also a revaluation of the enormous possibilities I have as being a moving body. My relation to my body has for long been, and in some moments still is, one with struggles. In which I have known repression, negligence and disconnection of its signals and feelings.

Furthermore, movement and thus also embodiment has always brought much joy. I have, for example, always practised many sports with a lot of pleasure. Gabrielle Roth3 (1998a, xiii) writes ‘’you are how you move’’. In the following section I want to elaborate on what movement means for me and how I move.

3 Gabrielle Roth is a dance teacher, theatre director and recording artist. She led workshops at the Esalen institute, developing what later became the 5Rhythms movement practice (Esalen Institute 2019; Roth 1998a). I have followed courses inspired by the 5Rhythms during my master in Innsbruck. In chapter seven I discuss this practise.

As a child I was very lively and active. My parents told me that the world opened itself for me when I was able to walk, finally able to explore autonomously. This aspect of exploration and discovery is further discussed in chapters four and seven. Also, I often have a lot of energy and I can become restless rather quickly.

Movement was frequently related to sports for me. In this regard, movement can be a way to release energy. During stressful moments or after sitting too long, movement serves to discharge. Which makes it easier for me to relax afterwards. This can also easily turn into a more unhealthy habit. Namely, pushing myself to the limits, which is also a way to feel the body more, even if it is through pain.

On the other side, movement also gives me energy and it brings my attention to my body. It creates more synchronicity between me and my body. It makes me feel alive and more lively. It often leaves me with a light, elated feeling. Movement for me is also exploring. It provides me freedom, space for experimenting and thereby for learning.

Through 5Rhythms dance, I experienced how beneficial it is to practise types of movements I was not so familiar with. For me, 5Rhythms dance is a place in which I can feel myself, my body, my emotions and be present with them. I experienced how dance can transform energies and helps to process emotions. It makes me feel one with my embodied existence and for me it is thus a powerful way to connect with my body and thereby with myself. It makes me feel whole.

Next to my own journey, I also noticed over the last years, that people around me are struggling in life. I have seen people faced with extreme tiredness, panic attacks, burn-out, depression and suicide. It makes me wonder whether there are broader possibilities to work

with personal conflicts than the current main road. It stimulates me in my search of how movement and an embodied perspective can enlarge our understanding of personal conflicts.

All in all, I benefit from movement and an increased body awareness. At the same time, for long it has been hard for me to feel myself and it can still be. I see how people around me struggle in life and wonder how movement, which has been useful for me, can be useful for others.

1.1.4 Embodied Relating I also experience how my body takes a central place in interaction with my surroundings. My body is in continues interaction with the world around me. I feel how my body responds completely different when I walk through a crowded shopping street or a calm forest.

I notice the difference of the air, the sounds, colours and the type of ground that I step upon. These differences are not just mechanical influences for orientation, but they influence my embodied being to the ground of my existence. Fresh air and rippling water speak to my body in ways that are hard to intellectually grasp. My surrounding influences my mood strongly, it can transform my energy. Personally, when I am outside in nature it gives me a peaceful feeling.

Thus, my body is not a loose entity moving through space, processing its surroundings.

It is always an integral, inseparable part of its surroundings. Or in the words of Eugene Gendlin4

(2004): ‘’we are interaction with the environment’’. As such my embodied existence is always relevant in interaction with others. My whole body resonates with its surroundings, including other bodies.

4 Eugene Gendlin was a Austro-American philosopher, psychologist and psychotherapist, who is mainly known for the Focusing practise that he developed at the University of Chicago (International Focusing Institute 2019).

In relating with others I can feel the influence the other person has on me. For example; someone can drain the energy out of my body, someone else can cause excitement. My body always responds in relating with others, I start to sweat when I’m nervous or shake when I’m scared. In relationality I experience that the role of the body is always present.

Furthermore, in relation with someone the touch of the body is essential. Body contact is the most intimate way of relating. In sexual relations, through a well felt hug, but also in comforting the other by caressing the skin. For me making healthy physical contact is the most beautiful way of relating. In addition, I experience that physical contact is a need in my embodied existence. In a period when I am alone much, I sense I miss it. Being touched by others is the most intimate way of being witnessed in my being.

1.2. Research problem In my personal perspective I have shown the problematic aspects of not being in connection with my embodied being. Now, I want to look at these aspects I discovered in my own life, and discuss them in a broader perspective. Here, I briefly discuss the research problem and I include an in depth analysis on disembodiment in chapter two.

The starting point of this thesis is the body’s own inherent knowledge, and that listening to this knowledge has an enormous potential in our life (Halprin 2003; Boot 2004;

Facci 2011). However, this knowledge is too often neglected or supressed (Lowen 1967).

Through a disembodied philosophical tradition, the sensuous body has been discarded in the western world (Damasio 2005; Dietrich 2013).

This has created a dichotomy of a disembodied mind and a mindless body. Together with the body, western man has discarded aspects of creativity, imagination and emotions

(Lakoff & Johnson 1999). People understood, and often still understand, their bodies as

machines or as tools in life. Below, I summarize circumstances that contributed to this view and exemplify the troubling effects.

One circumstance is the schism between our sensorial experience and our intellectual understanding. This schism created a drift away from our sensuous life (Husserl 1970).

Language enlarges this schism as it creates a conceptual barrier between humans and the sensuous world. Moreover, it creates a form of self-reflectivity irrelevant of the body. This has led to a wide-spread distrust of the sensuous physical realm (Abram 2017).

The second circumstance increasing the dichotomy of body and mind is the modern influences that disregard of the alive subjective body. Capitalism has stimulated the idea of the body as promoter of a performing human (Shilling 2011). There is a rise in attention for the healthy and fit body, but it is often an obsessive one in which the body serves as a tool for the ego to be able to achieve something (Lowen 1967; Heuts 2019).

It is frequently a strive for an ideal image, a perfectionistic concept. This strive is unhealthy and alienates people from their lively body and natural surroundings, as people get entangled in a never ending stressful competition between bodies that are never good enough

(Verhaeghe 2018a; De Wachter 2019). This diminishes the listening to the subjective body and its distinctive messages and shapes (Facci 2011). Thereby it creates disrespect towards the body.

This disregard has enormous consequences. It can lead to not feeling anything of embodiment and/or sexuality (Lowen 1967). Suppression can lead to topics being stored in the body at the cost of energy (Boot 2004). This will be further explained in chapter six.

Furthermore, disregarding embodiment means missing out on the potential of the body; the creativity it holds, the signals it provides in feeling own limits and in decision making processes (Damasio 2005).

The drift away from our embodied experience generates personal problems. It has regularly led to a limited and unsatisfactory way of investigating ourselves, our peaces and conflicts. It does not include the sensuous and embodied part of our existence and therefore it leaves aside an enormous potential for insight and change (Facci 2011; Verhaeghe 2018a).

This analysis shows the relevance of a different way of working with peace and conflict.

There are different methods to explore by including and embracing the embodied aspect of life. Methods in which the body and movement can take a central place.

1.3. Research question The research problem shows the relevance of taking a different perspective on the investigation of ourselves. If we let go of dichotomy and understand ourselves from a holistic perspective, there is a whole different realm available to work with peace and conflict.

Namely, to work what the body knows and learning to listen to it.

Personally, I experience how being aware of my body, its signals and messages add to a better understanding of myself. Further, I experience how movement is a way to open up this potential, to get closer to my feelings and my bodily signals. I have tasted a bit of the sweetness of the body’s potential and I am intrigued by the possibilities. Therefore, I start my research journey wondering the following:

How can increased access to body knowledge through movement enable personal

conflict transformation and the experience of peaces?

In order to clarify this question, I will concretise the separate aspects of the research question in order to create a common ground of understanding. Let me start with the one that might need the most demarcation: body knowledge.

For me, body knowledge can be understood in two ways. Firstly, body knowledge exists because our whole life history is stored within our body, through its structure and functioning

(Halprin 2003; Facci 2011). My body carries my whole history with it, even if these marks might not be present on a conscious level. This idea also entails that there are things I am not aware of, but which still play a role on my embodied level.

The second way I understand body knowledge is our way of acquiring knowledge through our body. The way we understand the world on an embodied level. Which means, I obtain knowledge through my senses, muscular tonus and kinaesthetic experience. This is knowledge through the embodied experience.

For example, if a friend approaches me without the use of words, I can still intuitively feel that she feels sad. This might be obvious in facial expression, but it does not have to be. I can feel the way she moves, hear her breath and feel her muscular tension of repressing to cry. It is something I can feel, because her body triggers a response in my body, just as everything around me does. Not because I conceptually link a certain type of movement with a certain emotion, but because that embodied experience is also ingrained in my own body. I understand her through my own body.

In such a situation my embodied experience provides me with tons of information. It can also be information that is hard to express linguistically, in that case the body ‘’provides possibilities for understanding situations that exceed any precise formulation or patterning of it’’ (Todres 2007, 5). In both cases the body becomes the way of understanding the world.

In the following example the two types of body knowledge described above are combined. I might say: ‘I feel like doing this or that’. I listen to my body, I sense how it responds to the choices I have. In this sensing, aspects of my whole life history might resonate and it results in certain bodily signals on a sensuous level. It is not an intellectual calculation of what is best for me to do, but it is listening to my body.

This body knowledge is clearly not theoretical. It can take infinite forms and it is never exhausted by a form, as the meaning lies within the sense of the body. It is not clear-cut as facts we learn, but it is always unfolding (LaMothe 2006).

When I write about increased access, I mean that we continually use this body knowledge of ours, be it conscious or unconscious. It is thus not a type of access in the sense of a door to be opened. Rather, it is shining a brighter light on something that may have been disregarded or forgotten.

In this sense, I thus understand it as an improvement of the access. Being able to listen more fully to body knowledge and to have faith in it. Increasing access is thus becoming more aware of all the messages we receive from our body. Understanding them better, being more in resonance with them.

I want to research how movement can be a way to enable increased access to body knowledge. In this sense outer bodily movement. The beating heart and the expansion and contraction of longs are of course also bodily movement. However regarding the research question I understand movement as outer physical movement.

In this research I understand conflict as a situation of struggle with incompatibility within oneself or between someone and their surroundings. It is a form of disharmony. This

can either be short term or long term. It can even take a life-long form. It can be explosive or latent. I see these situations as a natural part of life, one cannot live conflict-free.

Personal conflict transformation is finding new ways to look at or engage in such conflict situations on a personal level. It is not the solving of a conflict with a solution, it is rather opening up the possibility to transform them. It is thus not so much searching for a way out of a conflict, but rather for a different way within the conflict.

For this research question, peace is understood as an experience of peace in any form that someone might experience it. Peace is thus understood as a plural heterogeneous concept that unfolds in someone’s experience. A broader discussion on peace and conflict transformation is included in chapter three on the Innsbruck school of Peace Studies.

1.4. Methods Here I discuss the method used to answer the research question. Furthermore, I will reflect on my own position as researcher, within this research project and this research’ perspective on science.

1.4.1 Theoretical and empirical The starting point for my research is a theoretical investigation. I start with investigating the foundations of understanding movement and embodied being at the core of our existence.

Further, I discuss insights from somatic psychology and from two movement practises and their approach to peace and conflict transformation. For a broader introduction on this theoretical research I refer to the State of the art (sub-chapter 1.5.).

After this, I experiment with movement practises through a workshops with participants that will form a focus group. I want to research what works for them and why.

How can they increase access to their body knowledge and which aspects of a movement practise enable transformation for them?

Working with a group gives me the possibility to experiment with different exercises and techniques. Make them familiar with listening to their body and investigate what their body has to tell. On the other side, participants can influence each other and steer each other into a certain direction of experience. By offering space of personal contemplation within the research questionnaire I attempt to give participants space to take directions that I as researcher might not have anticipated.

1.4.2 Empirical research The aim of the empirical research part is to reflect on the theoretical part of the research. I apply a deductive research method, as the empirical part is meant to support or adjust theoretical implications. Further, personal experiences of participants can also exemplify some theoretical concepts. It thus entails the potential to make the research findings more vivid and lively, thereby making it more illustrative and easier to grasp or identify with.

For the empirical part of the research I wanted to organize two different workshops, based on 5Rhythms and Authentic Movement. I chose to start with 5Rhythms as it is guided by music to evoke experience, which is probably more comfortable to participants than movement (partly) without music in Authentic movement.

Due to the spread and risk of the coronavirus it was not possible to hold the second workshop. In spring 2020, across the world rules became stricter to avoid the virus from spreading. In the Netherlands this led to: keeping a minimum of one and a half meter distance, the advice to stay at home as much as possible and the maximum of inviting three persons at home. Later also a prohibition of assembly followed.

Within this climate of measurements it was not possible to hold a second workshop.

Also, the foresight of changes herein were uncertain, as there was much unknown about the spread of and recovery from the virus.

Regarding the focus on embodiment and the sensitivity of topics I chose not to pursue a digital variant of the workshop. The results would have been largely influenced by the use of digital means and the results would say more about the applicability of these methods through new media than provide insights on my research question.

As a consequence, the theoretical frame the space for Authentic Movement is more extensive than the applicability in the discussion. Nevertheless, the insights from this theoretical reflection provide a different lens for analysis of movement and therefore is a meaningful addition.

In the end, I held one workshop on Sunday evening the fifteenth of March 2020. The workshop was held at the room ‘De Kleine Wiel’ of an ecological living community ‘IEWAN’ in

Nijmegen Lent, the Netherlands. The workshop took two and a half hours – including filling in the questionnaire.

Due to the coronavirus participants dropped out last-minute, thereby the planned group size of twelve decreased to seven – four women and three men. Participants ranged in age from 22 to 50, with participants being mainly in their late twenties. For the sake of anonymity I have fictionally called them: Julie, David, Peter, Karin, Stella, Lisa and John. I looked for participants through my own social networks, event websites and flyers in the city.

Before the workshop all the participants received a consent form containing the aim of the workshop and an explanation of the data usage. This form is included in the appendix.

At the end of the workshop, participants have time to write down their reflections through a

questionnaire containing open questions. A second questionnaire was send two weeks after the workshop. These questionnaires are the first and main way of data collection and added in the appendix.

The second way of data gathering is through my own observations. I am inspired by the research form of participation observation. As facilitator I participate in the process and as observer I collect information which forms an understanding from that point of view. This is a method originating in anthropology, but this form of information collecting is relevant for the whole spectrum of social science (DeWalt & DeWalt 2011).

My approach deviates from this observation method, because the workshop is especially organised for this research purpose. I do not ‘just’ observe as participant of an event, but I am also the designer and facilitator of the workshop, thereby my role as participant is different to the regular approach of participation observation.

The term ‘participation observation’ shows that observation cannot be seen apart from the participation that it takes to observe a research environment. This method also entails the necessity to be aware that the data is largely dependent on the interaction of the observer with the observed. Secondly, it is dependent on the background I bring which influences the way I observe, what I do and what I do not see as researcher (DeWalt & DeWalt 2011). In this regard I have started this research from a personal perspective and I will elaborate more extensive on the role of the researcher in the following sub-chapter.

Furthermore, this way of observation provides context for the other qualitative methods, in this case the questionnaires (DeWalt & DeWalt 2011). Combining these different methods gives a broader and more complete picture. Especially as certain details might not be relevant for the participations, but they might be for the answering the research question.

It is thus a way to combine the experiences of both sides of the table to provide a more integral image for analysis purposes.

Regarding the observation description I am inspired by the idea of ‘thick description’ which aims at presenting a contextual perspective on the workshop. Not only describing what happens on a factual level, but also interpreting their meaning and underlying conceptual cultural structures of behaviour. Thereby creating a certain ‘thickness’ in the description.

Establishing a holistic impression, to capture the felt atmosphere which provides insights on the course of the workshops (Geertz 1993).

At the start of the workshop I hold an expectation check, discuss the setting of the thesis and provide room for questions. I consciously choose not to use too many words, but to aim on an embodied start. Through a warming up exercise to arrive into the room, get to know each other a bit and create an environment in which people are willing to engage and try new things. Most participants are new to these practises and therefore there might be some level of resistance. This start aims to make people more comfortable and familiar with parts of the practise.

Therefore, I let them walk around in the room, arrive in the room and in the present moment. I ask them to pay attention to the way they walk and let the participants try out different styles of moving around the room and greeting each other non-verbally. This aims at creating awareness of movement, stimulating movement experimenting and stimulating group formation.

Secondly, I want to stimulate their way of experimenting with movement a bit further in duo’s. With background music on, person ‘A’ calls out a body part and person ‘B’ explores the

possible types of movement, in which this specific body part is leading and the rest of the body is following naturally.

Thirdly, I explain the different rhythms briefly, not too many words are needed and desired as the music plays its role in evoking movements. Also, I do not want them to cognitively engage too strongly, but I want them to embody it. The explanation entails short examples of movement.

After these exercises it is time for the actual practise. For this workshop I mix music I find suitable to the rhythms with music produced by Gabrielle Roth. During the exercise I give a few brief directions, so that participants do not have to remember anything and to stimulate the group when needed. After the wave of rhythms is over, participants receive and fill in the questionnaire and at the end there is a short moment to round up as a group.

1.4.3 Research and the researcher For some readers, a research focused on bodily experiences might seem questionable.

However, from a holistic perspective, the problem with classical disembodied science is ‘’that it takes two intertwined and inseparable dimension of all experience (…) and erects them as separate and distinct entities called subjects and objects’’ (Lakoff & Johsnon 1999, 93).

It thus separates ourselves from the reality we live in, while we cannot be separated from it. In fact, it is our embodiment and our place within reality that makes science possible (Lakoff

& Johnson 1999). As such Husserl (1970) states that attention for our embodied experience is in no sense in contradiction with rational intellect, nor a rejection of science as such.

He rather calls it a wake-up call for science. That in order to keep up with integrity and meaning it has to be embedded in our day-to-day human and thus sensuous experience.

Without this integration, science meaningless. This is not just a new approach to science. It is

a fundamental revision of the traditionally set limits on acquiring knowledge (Marrone 1990;

Husserl, as cited by Abram 2017).

My influence as researcher will be substantial, as I facilitate the workshops and interpret the input of research participants. This connection between research and researcher is important, as they cannot be separated from each other (Anderson & Braud 2011;

Koppensteiner 2018). It is actually this subjective understanding that can become a basis of understanding, as ‘’reality does not exist apart from the embodied participation of a specific human being’’ (Anderson & Braud 2011, 64). Therefore, it is not possible to see the research separate from the researcher.

In fact, my whole person will influence the research I conduct, as: ‘’the observer is inseparable from the observation made’’ (Marrone 1990, 52). Thus, the idea of objectivity is obsolete (Dietrich 2013). In this way the researcher moves from bringing biases to research to a source of understanding in research (Koppensteiner 2018).

1.5. State of the art Now that the question and method have been stated, I will discuss what I conceive as the most relevant literature regarding my research topic. I start with the domain of peace and conflict studies, from there moving to philosophical foundations, including phenomenology.

Subsequently, I discuss the foundations of somatic psychology and dance/movement practises.

Regarding the field of peace and conflict I will elaborate on Wolfgang Dietrich his theoretical frame for the understanding of peaces as plural, contrary to the common singular understanding of peace. It is in his book the Interpretations of Peace in History and Culture

(2012) that he provides a basis for this understanding. This concept significantly influences the interpretation and research field on peace and conflict.

On conflict, I will discuss Wolfgang Dietrich’s (2013) reflections on humanistic psychology and the work of Winfried Wagner’s (2019; 2015) deriving from Aikido.

Furthermore, John Paul Lederach’s (2005, 2014) work takes a central place. In The little book on conflict transformation he sets out a understanding of transformation opposing to resolution and in The Moral Imagination he describes conflict transformation as a creative act, an art. Besides, John Paul Lederach and his wife Angela Jill Lederach provide a metaphoric understanding for conflict transformation in their co-published When blood and bones cry out

(Lederach & Lederach 2010).

Furthermore, from a philosophical perspective I discuss the Philosophy in the Flesh of

Lakoff and Johnson (1999). They discuss why our mind is inherently embodied and the philosophical consequences of this notion. In the same line of thought, the work of Antonio

Damasio5 (2005) is of relevance. His ideas are accounted for in Descartes’ Error.

Regarding phenomenology, the work of Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty are evident in the way they place the embodied experience as the basis of our experience. I discuss their personal work and the reflections of David Abram (2017) in his book The Spell of the Sensuous where he discusses humans as animate being. Subsequently, Maxine Sheets-

Johnstone (2011) brings forward the important role of movement. She shows how movement lies at the basis of human experience and understanding in her work The Primacy of

Movement.

5 Antonio Damasio is professor in neuroscience, psychology and philosophy. His work focusses on decision making and the relation of the brain to feelings, emotion and consciousness (Damasio 2019).

In relation to somatic psychology, I use the overviews of the main authors by Robert

Marrone (1990) and Daria Halprin (2003). Respectively in Body of Knowledge: an Introduction to Body/Mind Psychology and The Expressive Body in Life, Art and Therapy. Thereby, discussing the work of Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich (1984), Alexander Lowen (1967) and Moshe

Feldenkrais (1972) in addition to their own writings. This is followed by an exploration on the insights from Gestalt therapy and Fritz Perls (2003).

Regarding the field of dance and movement Daria Halprin (2003), Kimerer LaMothe

(2006) and Paula Facci (2011) provide a general perspective on dance and its potential for transformation. Furthermore, I will elaborate on Rudolf Laban (1980) who discusses the link between inner and outer movements in his The Mastery of Movement. In this regards Sheets-

Johnstone (2010;2011) returns with her reflections on the role of movement in self-discovery, spontaneity and expression.

Finally, on specific movement practises I will elaborate on Gabrielle Roth (1998a;

1998b) and her 5Rhythms practise, discussed in Sweat Your Prayers Out and Maps to Ecstasy.

Furthermore, on the practise of Authentic Movement I work with the edited books Authentic movement. Moving the Body, Moving the Self, Being Moved (2017) and the earlier published

Authentic movement. Essays by Mary Starks Whitehouse, Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow

(1999). Both were edited by Patrizia Pallaro and among others I discuss the writings of leading figures within this field Mary Starks Whitehouse and Janet Adler.

1.6. Thesis outline I will now describe the general framework to create an overview and a means of orientation.

At first, I will continue with a reflection on disembodiment in the second chapter, followed by

an elaboration on peace and conflict transformation in the third chapter. Hereby, I illustrate the theoretical foundations for working with conflict and transformation.

Afterwards, I show the importance of our embodiment and movement for our experience. This means chapter four is an exploration with a phenomenological basis, in which the body is described as the basis of awareness. In chapter five, I show the foundations that create a holistic understanding of an embodied mind. Bridging the often perceived gap between a disembodied mind and mindless body. Along with an explanation of the mind and body as a continuum and why you might still perceive a separation even if they form a unity.

In chapter six, somatic psychology provides an insight into the physical aspect of mental processes and the other way around. It is a therapeutic perspective. Here I discuss more extensively how our life history is stored within our bodies and which role it can play in our lives. Thereby, I set a theoretical basis for the concept of body knowledge and working with the body as means for transformation.

Following up on that, chapter seven explores the potential for movement as catalyst to increase access to that body knowledge. Through the exploration of dance and movement practises I describe different opportunities of working with the body, awareness and transformation. I argue why specifically movement can be such a powerful practise in this case.

Altogether, this sets the theoretical part of this research. Subsequently, I discuss the findings of the empirical research in chapter eight. I share the findings and compare them to the literature. This forms a basis to answer the research question in chapter nine.

1.7. Language use and the use of language In the process of writing this thesis I tended to use the words body and mind a lot in my argumentation. Even though I was arguing for the body/mind as an integrated whole, this language appeared to be confirming the view I was arguing against. How does that work?

Language influences our perception of reality, often without us even noticing it (De

Bruijn 2011). Using the two terms separately keeps the dichotomy alive. In this case, it keeps the idea of dualism and causality from mind to a body or the other way around alive (Perls

2003).

Leaving from this point of view, I am in the need of a different language. One that confirms a different reality than the psycho-somatic parallelism. Merleau-Ponty uses the term

‘body subject’ to name the living, aware body, as contradiction to the mechanical perspective

(as cited by Abram 2017).

In a similar way Marrone (1990) uses the term the ‘lived-body’ and one could think of many alternatives. In Dutch, just as in German, there exists a difference between the words lijf and lichaam (Leib und Körper), respectively the more subjective and objective version of the body. English language however lacks this differentiation.

To clarify my point in this research, the integration of body and mind is most important.

Therefore I want to literally integrate both into one term, which leaves me with the alternatives of the mindful body or the embodied mind. For me, the mindful body has a certain connotation to mindfulness practises. It could bring the implication of an aware body.

In this case however, it is about the integration of the two as one and therefore I choose to use the term ‘embodied mind’ for this research. In which the mind does not only have embodied components, but is inherently interwoven with our embodied existence.

Another critique on the discussion and reflection of the body, lies in the separation it can create between the ‘I’ and the ‘body’. Investigation and reflection can pose a false distinction (Nietzsche, as cited by LaMothe 2006). Using ‘the body’ can already be a form of distancing, though it is inevitable by making the body the subject of research. For me, it shows again the influence of language use on our perception of reality. I want to make clear that describing ‘the body’ always simultaneously understands the body as the self. I do not aim to set a separation.

Another point I want to highlight is that here are some moments in which I discuss the disadvantages of language and at the same time I still write these lines, I convey my message through that language. This makes me feel slightly ironic at times. Also, due to all the time I spent looking at written words, the awareness of my sensory experience was low at moments.

Still written language is an effective way to transfer my ideas to you as reader and the format for writing a thesis.

I aimed at including my awareness, including physical exercise, walks, deep breaths and moments of closing my eyes and scanning my body parts during the writing process. At the same time I invite you as reader to stay aware of your full embodied experience. Walk around, jump a few times, dance after some pages of text or test some of the examples I use for yourself.

2. Disembodiment – the road here

The Cartesian split pervades research and practise (Damasio 2005, 237)

[O]vervaluing the world of thoughts and concepts (…) is producing a kind of schizoid, hyperconscious madness (Marrone 1990, 11)

In the problem statement I have briefly illustrated the background of disembodiment. In this chapter I will elaborate more extensively on the problematic aspect of overlooking the embodied aspect of our being on a societal and philosophical level.

As noted before, this thesis works with the idea that the body has a lot of knowledge, but that this knowledge if too often overlooked or even discarded. For a broader discussion on the knowledge of the body and how the mind is embedded in our body, I refer to chapter five and six. For now I will illustrate the problem of a disembodied perspective, its heritage and contemporary developments that have shifted the attention away from our sensuous embodied being.

First I want to show why the prevalence of a disembodied perspective is such a problematic case. This starts with the wonder of the nature of our being. As such, Lakoff6 and

Johnson7 start their book Philosophy in the Flesh by asking the question: who are we? For them, this basic question is crucial, as a ‘’radical change in our understanding of reason is therefore a radical change in our understanding of ourselves’’ (Lakoff & Johnson 1999, 4).

6 George Lakoff used to be a professor in linguistics and cognitive science at the university of California. Currently he is director at the centre for Neural Mind & Society (Lakoff 2019). 7 Mark Johnson is professor in philosophy at the University of Oregan. He published broadly on philosophy, embodiment, cognitive science and morality (Johnson 2019).

This makes clear that a shift to a holistic understanding does not just imply a change of opinion, but it ‘’entails a shift of heart, a revisioning of the very ground-of-meaning upon which each of us establish our sense of self’’ (Marrone 1990, 8). Think about this for a moment, a holistic perspective fundamentally changes the perspective of what you and I are at the core of our beings.

And here comes the crux: it also means that our search for answers on life issues, ranging from health and violence to peace and conflict have often been within a way of investigation that is split in two itself (Marrone 1990). Thus, methods that lie within a notion of dichotomy, that only include an intellectual approach, are not adequately capturing these topics (Koppensteiner 2018). Therefore it is no surprise that also many solutions have been incomplete or fragmented (Marrone 1990).

Thus, the way of working with conflicts has often been based on a false dualism and is therefore unsatisfactory. You can imagine that if an approach to conflict mainly works with one aspect, that the approach lacks in understanding and tackling the issue at hand. A flower needs water and light to grow, if you pay attention to only one of them, the flower will have a hard time to flourish.

This shows the relevance of taking a different perspective on the investigation of ourselves. If we let go of the dichotomy and understand ourselves from a holistic perspective, there is a whole different realm available for working with peace and conflict. Once we acknowledge the unity of the embodied mind, the need for body therapies become crystal clear, because a main focus on the mental aspect limits the possibilities for peace and conflict work (Kurtz & Prestera 1976).

This leaves me to wonder which ideas and developments have led us to this situation of dualism and what further impacts it has on our conflicts and peaces. Underneath I illustrate what a disembodied mind and a mindless body actually entails. I show the origin of this notion of dichotomy, its impact and also how problematic it is seen from a holistic understanding.

2.1. The body and mind dichotomy In the discussion on the relation between body and mind, René Descartes8 takes a central place. His words: “I think, therefore I am’’ (Descartes 1998, 19) are the most famous ones in history regarding the body/mind discussion and his statement stills influences the perception on the nature of human beings (Damasio 2005).

Descartes believed the body and its senses to be misleading. For him, only thinking cannot be separated from our existence and therefore the human being is ‘’a thinking thing’’

(Descartes 1998, 65). Furthermore, Descartes argues that this thinking is supposed to be seen separate from the non-thinking mechanical body (Damasio 2005). And till this day, this dualism is spread into every corner of western culture (Slatman, as cited by Van Turnhout

2019).

Along with the body, imagination and emotions were also excluded from the essence of human nature. This has led to a dissociation and devaluing of the emotional and creative part of our life (Lakoff & Johnson 1999). Fritz Perls9 (2003) argues that the thereby created insensitivity for our emotional life is one of the most urgent problems of modern man.

8 Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher connected to the school of rationalism. His most famous publication is called Meditations on First Philosophy published in 1641 (Philosophers.co.uk 2019). 9 Fritz Perls is considered to be the founder of Gestalt therapy, which works from a holistic perspective on the human being. The Gestalt approach understands human nature as organised in patterns or wholes, thus its nature can only be understood by analysing the function of these patterns or wholes (Perls 2003; Dietrich 2013).

In Descartes’ perspective, the body, just like the rest of nature, becomes a machine without meaning, that functions by mathematical laws (Dietrich 2012). This leaves the body as nothing more than a tool. Later the metaphor of a machine developed to the mind seen as a computer programme. The mind as the software, that could run on any suiting hardware.

And the hardware - the body in this case - is seen as not determining the nature of the computer program (Lakoff & Johnson 1999).

Remarkably, the metaphor used to describe the body changed mainly with new developments. In Greek times, the body was seen as a series of ducts and later with the spread of pumps, this became the working metaphor. Until the industrial revolution gave rise to the metaphor of a machine (Marrone 1990). For me this shows that the mechanical perspective is not that normal as it might seem for some.

Moreover, one should not underestimate the power of such metaphors. They are not just a poetic manner of explanation, they structure our way of understanding and interpreting the world. Through a metaphor I understand one concept, in terms of the other one. Thus, if

I use the machine metaphor, I perceive and understand my body, through the way I perceive and understand a machine. Thereby leaving nuances and non-fitting parts of the metaphor aside (Lakoff & Johnson 1980).

It thus leaves the sensuous and emotional life aside, as a machine does not need those to function. The metaphor implicates that as a human being I do not need it either. According to folk theory in that time humans have one essence, and since the thinking was seen as the essence, the body was clearly not essential. Thereby, this philosophical tradition disrespects a whole part of our existence (Lakoff & Johnson 1999).

The inheritance of this philosophy school is that all thought is disembodied. Thought consists of formal operations on ideas without regard to the relation between those ideas and external reality. Ideas thus function like formal symbols in math. Furthermore, there is a constant struggle between reason and feelings to get control over our will, in which reason leads us to the best for the whole society. Thus, it is unfortunate that reason is sometimes defied by feelings (Lakoff & Johnson 1999).

You might not agree with some or most of the statements made above. The point however is not that everyone’s life is completely structured in this way, nor that you are like this. The point is that this line of thought is spread through-out societal systems in the western world. From education and commerce to politics and philosophy.

How did it get to this point? David Abram10 (2017) argues that the discrepancy between our sensuous experience and our intellectual understanding was a necessary basis for

Descartes‘ dualistic understanding. Abram is inspired by Edmund Husserl (1970) who argues that the origin of this schism lies in the difference between our sensorial experience and our scientific convictions. Science often leaves out our everyday lifeworld of experience and perception. This means trust in science leads to distrust of the sensuous, perceptive reality.

He uses the following example: our sensorial experience is that the sun rises, but mentally we imagine the earth to turn around the sun. This creates a discrepancy between those two worlds, two ways of understanding. This schism supported a massive distrust of our sensorial experience and thus laid a basis for further dualistic understandings.

10 David Abram is an ecologist and philosopher, who has lived with shamans of indigenous communities in Indonesia, Nepal and the Americas. Abram writes about the relation of humans with what he calls the more- than-human world, trying to open the understanding of humans as animate beings.

Another development that contributed to a dualistic understanding, is that several religious perspectives have seen and still see the body as limited and earthly. Put shortly and therefore bluntly, the mortal body does not match with the immortal soul and therefore the body is devalued and the soul has to be released form it (Facci 2011; Boot 2004). Furthermore, the body has often been seen as the basis of sin and something to be controlled and/or feared, to an extend that ‘’the body became the enemy’’ (Roth 1998a, 3).

The discrepancy between intellect and senses as means of understanding, the folk theory of one essence and the religious perspective are developments contributing to a dualistic understanding. In the examples below I will elaborate on how other developments that set the bod/mind dichotomy have created a drift away from the body’s sensual experience.

Before I continue on this path, I want to emphasize that the discussion above is focussed on the western scientific and spiritual understanding. There are other backgrounds that have a different perspective on embodiment. For example within Tantric tradition, the body is a vehicle to divine experience and no life would be possible without the physical body

(Dietrich 2013). For this research scope I constrain myself to these western understandings and situations. Nevertheless, many concepts are still relevant on a more general level.

2.2. Drifting away from the sensuous

I will now discuss one specific type of explanation on the drift away from the sensuous realm.

David Abram (2017) writes about the way we lost contact with our animate sensuous being.

In his search for an explanation, he points at what he calls a strange and potent human technology, with which we have become so familiar, that I had never questioned its existence.

That ‘technology’ is called: the alphabet.

He writes that long ago we used to read the language of the earth, the tracks of animals and the way we read and gave meaning to these tracks in the same way you do that with this written text. The difference being that this way of giving meaning was always directly related to the meeting with the other, to a sensuous experience. In contradiction, within the alphabet

I use here, a letter refers only to a sound, without any reference to the sensible world.

The senses thus became less important and according to Abram language creates a perceptual boundary between humans and the living sensuous surroundings that they inhibit.

Through linguistic education we structure sensory contact with the surroundings in a specific way. This ordering of sensations in language limits our spontaneous access to the sensuous earth around us (Abram 2017).

Furthermore, as stories or ideas are written down in words, they acquire a certain type of autonomy on their own and begin to appear permanent, independent from the context and the embodied person that spoke those ideas. This also created a new possibility of self- reflection, creating more independence of the sensuous world and others. It creates a reflectivity, which disengages from the sensuous participation in the surrounding world.

This new reflective self, [creates] a sense of relative independence of one’s verbal, speaking self from the breathing body with its shifting needs. The literate self cannot help but feel its own transcendence and timelessness relative to the fleeting world of corporeal existence. (Abram 2017, 112)

Thus, these written words when printed or available digitally become somehow independent of my bodily existence. My body has changed since I wrote my first ideas on this thesis, but these words have the possibility to be reflected on independent of the corporal aspect of my existence. Which creates the idea of timelessness of the self and independence of the aging and deteriorating body.

Moreover, James (as cited in Sheets-Johnstone 2011) writes that language can cause disturbances in our way of understanding the world. By naming things it breaks the flow of experience and it breaks the experience itself into parts. This does not correspond with the way we experience the world, namely as a whole. There is thus a reduction of in contact with reality as the symbolic is introduced (Verhaeghe 1998).

In these ways, language has contributed to a process in which humans have started to distrust the sensuous experience. As an illustration, Plato claimed that our sensual experience was not more than a reflection of pure ideas existing in a non-sensorial realm beyond the apparent world (as cited by Abram 2017). This idea is a striking example of the estrangement of the earthly world around us and bodily distrust.

Nevertheless, for peace work there exists a need to move beyond the spell of words by including the sensuous more fully. Words do and will play an important role in peace processes, but words on their own are cheap. Because dependence on one aspect of perception makes our understanding shallow and limited. Therefore there exists a need in peace work to find ways to move beyond words and include the whole spectrum of sensuous possibilities (Lederach 2005).

The elaboration above is a critique on language and the alphabet, mostly from an ecological perspective. In chapter four I will reflect more extensively on the relation between language and our embodied existence. For now, I want to note that there are also other interpretations on the link between language and our physical existence.

Eugene Gendlin (2004) downplays the critique on language. He states that: ‘’a fresh statement is physically a further development of what one senses and means to say’’ (Gendlin

2004). Language can thus also be a continuation of physical being. It is important to note, that

in this line of thought, the power of words derives from the idea that they can speak freshly from our body lived experience.

Thereby also acknowledging that for this to happen we have to get out from the underlying existing assumption structure within language, that has dropped out the bodily experience (Hendricks11 2019). Language can thus also be a bridge, but simultaneously it is often a bridge that creates the ridge that it crosses (Verhaeghe 1998).

The emerging of the alphabet is a quite specific background. It is however by far not the only historical one. What to think of the spread of agriculture, that radically transformed the relation between humans, animals and plants. Moreover, the emergence of the number system and the influence of measuring and quantification on our relation to our surrounding environment.

I cannot discuss everything at length here, but you can imagine the influence on our interaction in the world. All these developments contribute to a complete different value of our sensorial experience and thus of our body. Now that I have taken a rather philosophical and historical perspective, I want to take the perspective to contemporary societal developments and their contributions to alienation of the embodied experience.

2.3. Contemporary alienation of the body Shilling (2010) links the alienation from the body to the influences of capitalism, which has created a focus on the body as promoter of the performing human. This can be seen in a rising attention for physical exercise, diets, health and aesthetic surgery (Shilling 2010). At first sight,

11 Mary Hendricks is Executive Director of The Focusing Institute and worked together with Eugen Gendlin in developing Thinking at the Edge, which is based on Gendlin’s Focusing technique (Hendricks 2019; Gendlin 2004)

this can seem like an improvement of the position of the body, in the sense of attention for the body.

However, these measures are often still used to exercise control over the performing body. For example, the rise of aesthetic surgery is a sign of non-acceptance of our bodily form.

It focusses on the performance of the body as an object. The drive to be healthy and to fit expectation and standards, has to a large extend become obsessive, in which the body is still a tool to achieve something (Heuts, 2019).

The difference between disregarding or trying to change the body seems big, however

‘’as long as the body remains an object of the ego, it may fulfil the ego’s pride, but it will never provide the joy and satisfaction that the ‘’alive’’ body offers’’ (Lowen 1967, 208). Another problem with this health focus is that it is often not focussed at curing sickness, but at an obsessive perfectionism. The strive for this illusion of perfectionism is unhealthy and alienates people from their natural surrounding (De Wachter 2019).

We can also see this in the popularity of supplements and health apps. They are tools to control the manufacturability of the body, it lacks a perspective on creativity and diversity of our bodies (Heuts 2019). Also the normalcy and broad use of painkillers and other pills are questionable, if one gets sick she12 takes a few pills to repair the ‘machine’. It is a way to not feel the body. It numbs, just like many other forms of drugs.

It diminishes the actual listening to the body, it’s signals and rhythm (Facci 2011). Most developments have therefore only led to more disrespect towards the body. The body becomes some form of sacrifice in a struggle to live up to an ideal image, which dissociates

12 In this thesis for neutral pronouns I use she and he randomly.

from the imperfect bodily existence. This alienation is created by stress and an ongoing competition, in which the body is never good enough (Verhaeghe 2018a).

Because of the deteriorating position of the body, people are less tuned into their bodies. This creates a situation in which early signals are neglected, leading to heavier effects, like pain and sickness. In this regard, burn-out and depression are examples of a literal collapse. All in all, it has created a situation in which we have forgotten to listen to our body, which is highly unsettling as a good life in not possible without being tuned into your body

(Verhaeghe 2018b).

This loss of contact with our inner life, is wat Verhaeghe (2018b) calls ‘’deadly alienation effects’’13. It has led to a situation in which the youth develops sicknesses and disorders that are hard to explain by mainstream medical analysis. This statement shows clearly that the alienation is problematic and that there is a lack of effective approaches to tackle the issues at hand (Verhaeghe 2018b; Facci 2011).

Mariette van Attekum (1997) adds to this, that by technological development, physical work and physical interaction has diminished. She argues that we gained more power over the objective body14, but lost the power over our feelings and physical health. Furthermore, she argues that we live in a society of contact shortage and physical isolation. Take a moment to feel those words: contact shortage and physical isolation.

Maybe it is not per se the case for you, maybe it is, but for sure it is a societal development in western societies. To describe this situation, I find the term of Paul Verhaeghe

13 Translated by the author. 14 In haptonomy, the science of sense and touch, there is a distinction between the objective and subjective body. The objective body is measurable, the appearance and medical analysis. The subjective body are the (inner) sensations, feeling observations, expressions and the bodily memory (Boot 2014; Talma 2010).

(2018b) appealing when he writes in Dutch about huidhonger, which literally translates to skin-hunger and which I interpret as a shortage and thereof developed desire for more physical contact.

It illustrates how the physical aspect of our being has diminished and that it leaves the body with a certain hunger, a not met need. Simultaneously it shows how the touch of our skin, how body contact, nurtures us just like food. How the body is so much more than a machine.

Furthermore, technological opportunities interfere with the sensorial reciprocity between the sensorial body and its surroundings, as it disturbs the interaction with the living environment. Mass products and digital products also offer no surprise or stimulation anymore for our senses, in contradiction to engaging with animate forms, which entail a depth and thereby echo into our bodies (Abram 2017).

Moreover, in the search for knowledge, there exists a current surrendering from our own body sense-making to the technology that we have produced. Our senses are the gateway to gather knowledge, but many have learned to ignore these senses and correct them by relying on technological developments (LaMothe 2006). Think about people searching online for the rain forecast instead of going outside to see the clouds, feel the wind on their skin and hear the animals prepare for changes in the weather.

The technological developments also lead to a reduction of physical movement. If this development continues the importance of the body will only decrease (Houterman, as cited by Van Dijk 2019). Currently, the extent to which people learn to sit to work, write and think is unprecedented. All these ‘’ people learn to arrest their bodily movement, [and they] dissociate their sense of self from their physical sensations’’ (LaMothe 2006, 220).

It used to be natural to combine sitting and thinking with walking and running. As this embodied element misses, Kimerer LaMothe15 argues that the knowledge we acquire reflects the physical impoverishment through ignorance of the body. Disregard of embodiment thus means a disregard of potential for the creation of knowledge and meaning.

She takes it a step further by arguing that unless a person trains to discipline the body in docility, he cannot function as part of society. That is the extent to which docility and disembodiment is spread in society (LaMothe 2006).

These forms all contribute their part to the alienation from the body. From this perspective of alienation it becomes clear why Paula Facci16 (2011, 43) writes that ‘’the relationship most people have with it [the body] is more and more similar to a fight, where there are no winners’’. These words touch me. I resonate in the sense that my relation to my body has often been one with many fighting components. Many people are fighting with their body and therefore with themselves.

Furthermore, the suppression of the body blocks ‘’the flow of energy that naturally happens, bringing difficulties to human beings, as the difficulty to let go. To let go of worries, of pre concepts, prejudices, sufferings’’ (Facci 2011, 45). Verhaeghe, LaMothe and Facci clearly show the relevance of the topic in the field of peace studies as a disrupted relation to the body has consequences for the ability to live peaceful with oneself and others.

15 LaMothe is a professional dancer and choreographer and she holds a doctorate in Christian Theology. In Nietzsche’s Dancers she reflects on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham who were all concerned about the position of embodiment in Christian and scientific culture and used dance as an alternative evaluation of embodiment (LaMothe 2006).

16 Paula Ditzel Facci is facilitator at the MA program of Peace Studies at the University of Innsbruck among others. In her research she explores the potential of dance for peace and conflict transformation (Facci 2011).

Finally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that around 70 to 80 percent of the children around the globe have insufficient physical activity and the same holds for a striking high number of adolescents. These numbers are frightening, especially as research shows that movement lowers the risk of depression, cancer and diabetes (WHO 2019;

Gezondheidsraad 2017).

What I see happening around me, is that people sit on their chair all day looking at a screen to drive their car to a gym to run on a treadmill. For me, this type of movement is too often an instrumental way of movement to keep up with an unhealthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, it also constrains form of bodily creativity.

Furthermore, movement has to a large extend been reduced to those moments. I feel a threshold if I start running around the church next to the library where I study, because it is weird to run when I am not wearing my sports clothes. Let alone start dancing in the middle of the street. Society expects and imposes a bodily docility, as described above (LaMothe

2006).

The point I try to make is not that we are not moving anymore at all or that going to a gym is ‘bad’. But that the level and normalcy of movement has decreased and docility increased for many people in an age of automatization and digitalisation. Movement is a factor that can connect us to our body, to feel our body and to heal it (Roth 1998). Thus this position of movement in society is just another factor that diminishes the connection to the body.

All in all, a mechanical perspective is problematic, because it neglects an inseparable part of our existence. It does not include the sensuous and emotional part of our existence and therefore it leaves aside an enormous potential for insight and change. The drift away from our embodied experience generates personal problems and it has led to a way of

investigating ourselves and our conflicts that has often been limited and therefore unsatisfactory.

2.4. (Dis)embodiment, peaces and conflicts In this section I discuss the troubles of disembodiment for our peaces and conflicts. I have already discussed some examples of the importance of embodiment, but here I want to make it more specific. Firstly, in western cultures most people have learned to build a wall around them, to protect from all the stimuli that we are not able or not willing to integrate in our life

(Marrone 1990).

Anyone might have different reasons for their wall, but any wall limits messages and sensations being heard. The ignorance and pushing away of feelings leads to alienation and in extreme cases to not feeling anything of embodiment and sexuality. Further, these body signals show me my limits. If I am not aware of my body signals, I am not able to respect my own limits.

Secondly, conscious observation of body signals can enable them to be a compass in life, whereas they are otherwise stored in the body. This suppressing goes at the expense of a lot of energy as feelings always search for a way out. Thereby, it makes is harder to make choices and take responsibility in life (Boot 2004).

Thirdly, body signals play a role in the decision making process, where they probably increase efficiency and accuracy. This in contradiction to the focus on ‘rational' decision making, in which emotion should be left out (Damasio 2005). Thus, a disembodied life misses out on a great potential of using the body as a compass.

Another sign that disembodiment troubles our peaces, is that despite the broad use of medication, the current system of medicines appears to fall short in providing answers to the

current widespread problems as stress and depression (Facci 2011). The current objectified perspective on the body leaves out an enormous potential and there is a need to foster this potential, as our current approaches fall short.

Moreover, the body plays a significant role in interaction with others. The importance of non-verbal language in interaction is well-spread, but for me it is often used in sense of effective communication. In fact the role of the body goes way beyond that. Our bodies continuously influence each other, if I want it or not. In other words: ‘’[h]umans swim together in an ocean of body signals‘’ (Linden 2005, 160).

Thus, our body signals are in a continuous interaction and influencing each other. If I am angry, I can create anger in you (Linden 2005). For me this makes clear that unawareness of my body signals can easily contribute to conflict eruption, without me even knowing. I will continuously find the conflict within myself out there in the world. Awareness on the other side, provides me with the potential to use this effect for the benefit of my relations.

Additionally, in the words of Alexander Lowen, whose work I will discuss in chapter six on somatic psychology, we find a sharp formulation of the effects of bodily alienation. It leads to what he calls schizoid disturbance, in which people have dissociated from reality as their idea of reality is based on mental concepts in contradicting to the corporal one. With the following consequences:

The alienated individual’s love is romanticized, his sex is compulsive; his work is mechanical, and his achievements are egoistic. In an alienated society, these activities lose their personal meaning. This loss is replaced by an image. (Lowen 1967, 3)

And this replacement by an image will eventually lead to dissatisfaction or frustration that takes shape in depression and discouragement, because the formed image is incongruent with reality. So this disturbs on a personal level, but it can also disturb our relations. As it can

lead to relationships in which the image of who your partner or child is, makes them conform to that image, which pushes aside their feelings and disturbs their sense of identity (Lowen

1967).

If someone is being raised with images of success and status she will start to see others as images as well, which disturbs the relatedness and thereby creates a feeling of isolation.

On a societal level seeing other humans as images of for example authority or ‘the evil’ instead of humans of flesh and blood raises distrust, hatred and makes it much easier to kill (Lowen

1967). In chapter three I discuss humans as relational beings and in this light the above described issues are even more critical.

All this shows the problematic side of alienation from, but at the same time the potential of embodiment for living our peaces and conflicts. (Dis)embodiment influences every situation, our body is always there and it always has an impact on the situation and our relations. Whether it is decision making, small talk or difficult conversation, our body plays a significant role. Nevertheless many people have built walls around them in one way or the other. For me, this section shows again how problematic this can be and how much potential there is for transformation.

3. The Innsbruck school of Peace Studies – which peace?

Conflict is inevitable and constant in human experience (Dietrich 2013, 38)

One cannot search for peace beyond oneself, till one has found it there17 (Buber 1996, 44)

In this chapter I set a frame for the approach on personal conflict transformation and peace in this thesis. The question of peace itself is an enormous one, here I only aim to clarify the perspective on peace I work with. Before starting my master at the University of Innsbruck, I was used to a definition of peace as the absence of war and conflict. Such a negative definition already entails implications on conflict, but it also raises the question of how a positive definition of peace would sound.

3.1. From peace to peaces In a search for a positive definition of peace, I assure that you will find a broad number of possibilities. You can find them by asking the people on the street or just by looking at your own life and moments that can be described as peaceful. It could be tranquillity or silence for the one, while it can mean wild dancing on load music for the other. It can even be both for the same person.

Wolfgang Dietrich18 (2012) argues that peace is a plural concept. He thus prefers to speak of peaces. Thereby contradicting to the wide spread singular understanding of peace, which also English grammar teaches us. In his book Interpretations of Peace in History and

17 Translated by the author: ‘’Men kan de vrede nergens anders zoeken dan bij zichzelf, tot men hem daar gevonden heeft’’. 18 Wolfgang Dietrich is program director and professor of the MA Peace Studies at the University of Innsbruck, where he holds a UNESCO chair for Peace Studies. He teaches in Austria, Spain, Norway, Brazil, Costa Rica and Iraq. His life work is published in the Many Peaces trilogy (Dietrich 2012; Dietrich 2013).

Culture Dietrich lays a broad theoretical background for the understanding of five clusters or families of understanding peaces. These families of understanding peaces are formed through historical and cultural developments, but they are not mutually exclusive. This means that new forms of peaces develop and different understandings of peace can live next to each other.

For this research I do not mean to discuss all the different interpretations. I do want to stress the importance and implications that the plurality of peaces has for peace and conflict work. From a perspective of plural peaces, we cannot accept the idea of vast answers or solutions that will lead to peace. As peace is not a formula to solve with a calculation, but it is ambiguous and it unfolds context dependent.

Another theoretical basis for my understanding of peaces is the link between inner and outer peaces. Our inner peace influences our capacity to live in a sustainable peace as society, because the regulation of conflict without regulation of the self is doomed to fail (Wagner

2015). Many of the traditional peace work is focussed on the creation of an outer peace. But it is no surprise that such an approach is incomplete, when there is no attention for the inner peace of people.

In such a case, peace work unfortunately too often works on the surface. For example, explosions of violence often occur as people lack understanding of themselves and/or others

(Van Reybrouck & d’Ansembourg 2017). One can try to repress or stop the eruption of violence today, but new forms of violence will erupt tomorrow if people keep lacking ways of understanding and healthy self-expression.

Understanding that conflicts between people are interlaced with the conflicts within someone, is acknowledging the need to work on peace within to be able to be peaceful with

the world around us (Buber 1996). Or in the words of Thich Nhat Hanh19 (2004), we can only love, accept and care of others if we have learned to care for, love and accept ourselves.

Therefore it is necessary to turn to ourselves if we want to realize transformation in the world.

This clearly shows the importance on working on a personal level with peace and conflict. It implies that working on external conflicts without working on ourselves does not hold. Let us now take a closer look on the interpretation of conflict and transformation that fits to this understanding of peace.

3.2. Conflict transformation In the following chapter I discuss the meaning of conflict and the difference between conflict resolution and conflict transformation. In specific I discuss the meaning of elicitive conflict transformation and which attitudes fit to this approach. Finally I will discuss an alternative metaphor for the linear approach of conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

3.2.1 What is conflict? From an etymological perspective the Latin con- means coming together and -flict means a threatening breakdown. A conflict is thus an encounter, a relation, that is endangered

(Wagner 2015). Above all, conflict is a form of contact. Conflict is an encounter with another, through which one can also experience herself. Conflict is a specific type of contact and can become a transformative power for human relationships when handled appropriate (Wagner

2015).

In this same line of thought is Dietrich’s (2013) analysis that conflict is inevitable and constant in our existence, because conflict is natural and inherent to diversity and

19 Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Zen Buddhism monk, poet, writer and peace activist. He lived 39 years in exile in France, after his campaign for peace during the Vietnam war, for which he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace by Martin Luther King. Currently he lives in Vietnam in bad health conditions (Nhat Hanh 2004; Plum Village 2020).

relationships. At the same time it is thus also an opportunity for change. Within this understanding, conflict it thus not something to be (re)solved, but to transformed. In this way, not the conflict itself is the problem, but the way someone engages with the conflict (Dietrich

2013).

In many mainstream ways of thought however, conflict is often seen as something negative, something to be solved. This approach to conflict seeks for conflict resolution, in which the peace worker needs to cure the participant(s) as a doctor.

This approach is limited as it sees human relationships as objective processes in which conflicts can be resolved by following a recipe for peace (Dietrich, as cited by Bibic 2015). The word resolution also has the danger of being an attempt to get rid of something, searching for quick solutions with the risk of lacking constructive change. Further: how to get rid of something that is inherent to existence? (Lederach 2014).

This wish of resolution, is also something one might recognize from their personal live.

Most people are not cheering when a conflict arises (maybe apart from those who study it).

Easily one might search for a way to avoid a direct confrontation of conflict with for example their boss or lover. Conflict is often unwanted and seen as negative. However, deriving from earlier analysis conflict is natural in existence and therefore it is crucial to affirm conflict as basis of our being instead of ignoring it or steering it to a desired outcome (Dietrich 2013). In this regard, to accept conflict is to accommodate peace (Hellinger 2011).

In my perspective, there is a lot to gain by seeing conflict as natural and inevitable, because it releases the tension or the push to ‘do something’ about it. It can bring a certain level of acceptance, which does not equal inertia. It means being able to see conflict as ‘’a necessary driving force for changing the course of events, relationships, and participants

themselves’’ (Dietrich 2013, 6). In this sense conflict becomes far from just a problem, but it arises with a lot of potential. It is in fact a motor for change, an opportunity (Lederach 2014).

3.2.2 Elicitive conflict transformation To oppose the perspective of conflict resolution, John Paul Lederach20 (2014) and Wolfgang

Dietrich (20123) put forward the concept of conflict transformation. In this approach, conflicts are seen as dysfunctions in relations. This implies that also the way of transformation has to be found within the relation. Furthermore, a conflict worker is not a doctor with a vast recipe, but she creates a frame in which participants can find alternate possibilities of relating

(Dietrich 2013).

To find a different way to engage with a conflict is called transformation.

Transformation being a process that reshapes the flow of energy, by which a more open and free situation may occur. Thereby, it allows someone to become aware of alternative possibilities to engage with a situation (Dietrich 2013).

Lederach (2005) writes in this sense, that a peace worker should not push to find answers. He argues that turning points in conflict are to be explored as an artistic process, including creativity and serendipity. Not as the application of a technique. Conflict transformation is thus a creative discovery of new connections, possibilities and perspectives.

His writing clearly shows how transformation is not a linear, rational process, but that transformation needs a creative act. Let us look at four essential aspects of peacebuilding for

20 John Paul Lederach is a professor in International Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre dame. He worked mainly in the Central America and later also in South Asia and on the African continent. He is part of the Mennonite religious context in which peace is embedded in as justice (Lederach 2005; Dietrich 2013; Lederach 2014).

Lederach and afterwards discuss an alternative metaphor for the often proposed linearity of conflict and peace processes.

Firstly, Lederach underlines the importance of relationships. It is within relationships that cycles of violence repeat, but also that the energy for moving beyond violence can be found. This can be created when people can see themselves as a particle in a web of relationality. A web in which also their ‘enemies’ are included, which creates awareness on their interdependency. Moreover, one step further within this awareness of interdependency, lies the need to recognize the own role and responsibility within the pattern of unpeace

(Lederach 2005).

Secondly, Lederach (2005) stresses for the importance of what he calls paradoxical curiosity. This means that one has to be able to move beyond dualistic differentiations that often govern conflict narratives. It means seeing that the ‘truth’ lies in and beyond the understanding of conflict parties. It is also keeping a curiosity to deeper meanings and to things that are not directly understood.

Thus, a peace worker should respect the complexity and keep energies that appear as opposing together, to be able to move beyond the currently visible. It is an attempt to mobilize the imagination of conflict parties. One should not aim at a specific ground or goal to move forward, but aim at an attitude of openness, a curiosity to what emerges. Thereby it is also a very uncertain method, as staying curious means being able to adapt and go along where the transformation may lead towards.

Thirdly, Lederach (2005) focusses on the importance of providing space for a creative act. For the unexpected to happen. Turning points in situations of violence are created when people are able to imagine beyond the past and current situation. To create something anew.

This takes creativity and imagination and therefore peace work is an artistic act. It is the artist who moves on the edge of reality and systems of belief. Hereby, artists invite people to look beyond their current ways of thinking.

Finally, he names the ability or willingness to take risks, because transformation is taking a step into the unknown. Without taking risks we will not be able to move beyond the currently held possible. This is clearly completely contrary to following planned steps towards a solution. It is embracing the mystery, the unknown without exactly knowing where that will lead you. It is giving up what you have, for something you do not know. This is difficult, even if it is giving up years of violence for a possibility of peace, as peace is unknown and therefore a risk (Lederach 2005).

The umbrella for understanding this form of peacebuilding and conflict transformation is indicated by the term ‘elicitive’. This is an invented term introduced by John Paul Lederach, that comes from the verb ‘to elicit’, which means to provoke. The basis of this idea is not to come with a solution from the outside as third party to a conflict. But instead, to elicit processes and energies that are already present. Thereby also putting the authority of the transformation process with the conflict participants (Dietrich 2013).

3.2.3 From linearity to a singing bowl This perspective of elicitive conflict transformation is in contradiction with the often used metaphor of linear development of peacebuilding, because linearity implies following certain steps to reach a goal (peace) that was set form the start. This attempts to work with a manual for peace.

From the perspective of plurality of peaces, this manual approach is questionable. For example, which peace is being achieved? The peace of the peace worker or the peace of one

or multiple conflict parties? Furthermore, a manual suggest a rather mechanical way of working, which does not match with the complexity and need for artistic creative acts within conflict transformation.

Moreover, linearity defies the idea of centrality of relationality. It often suggests conflict is ‘over’ after an accord or agreement is reached. However, as discussed earlier, it is about the way people deal with a conflict, not the conflict itself. Maybe there has been an agreement on the expression of conflict, but that does not mean the relationality has necessarily transformed (Lederach 2005; Dietrich 2013).

An agreement can only been seen as continuing the relationality within a different setting. It is not the end of the conflict. Because relationality lies at the epicentre of conflict, other expressions of conflict might occur just after one has extinguished the previous fire through an agreement (Lederach 2005).

The epicentre is the source of the conflict, whereas the episode is the expression, the most visible part of the conflict (Lederach 2014). One can keep chopping the visible parts of the weeds in the garden (episode), but they will keep emerging. Therefore it makes sense to dig deeper in the ground and trace the weed all the way to their roots (epicentre). The roots always lie in the relationality.

As discussed in chapter two, metaphors shape our understanding (Lakoff & Johnson

1980; Lakoff & Johnson 1999). Therefore, Lederach and Lederach (2010) illustrate the metaphor of the Tibetan singing bowl in contradiction to the image of linearity. I want to describe this image here as it makes the idea of elicitive conflict transformation more tangible.

To create sound with a singing bowl, one circles with a wooden stick around the bowl. In the first circles it appears as nothing happens and at once, through vibration, a sound emerges.

A sound that easily spreads out through the whole room and fades out as the circling stops

(Lederach & Lederach 2010).

When the circling happens too slow or too fast, no human perceptible sound arises.

Therefore, one has to find the natural frequency from which sound arises. What can be learned regarding conflict transformation through this metaphoric lens of the singing bowl?

First of all, the movement of circling around the bowl or a topic is not the same as stagnation. On the contrary, circling around a topic can get us closer to deeply understanding it. It is creating a space and moment for something to emerge and it is also a form of tuning into the natural frequency that generates sound. A frequency that can differ per conflict.

The sound that is produced is multidirectional and springs from deep in the bowl. It is generated by many places of friction and rises deep in the core of the bowl. It spreads to resonate with all in its surroundings (Lederach & Lederach 2010).

In conflict work it is an art to elicit energies within the conflict in such a way that transformation can take place that rises from the epicentre of the conflict. This transformation is, just like sound, multidirectional and it resonates with the whole system. Thereby it is unpredictable (Lederach & Lederach 2010).

One can also just hit the singing bowl once from one side, but the sound is different. It does not rise from deep in the bowl. Thereby the metaphor brings our attention to the whole system, the whole bowl, rather than focussing on just one aspect. Transformation does not rise from the individual, but from the interaction, the vibration of the individuals in the whole

(Lederach & Lederach 2010).

Furthermore, once the sound emerges it is not self-sustained. This suggests that resonance and transformation need attention and nurturing. Transformation processes do not stop when a sound is produced, but is in fact a continuous process of resonance with no set end state (Lederach & Lederach 2010).

All in all, elicitive conflict transformation is a process in which a peace worker or facilitator never knows what the outcome will be. Also, the process as a whole is not easy to grasp, as an open attitude is needed to be able to go along with what comes up. A facilitator never knows what comes up for conflict parties or in this case workshop participants. One cannot predict what everyone’s body has to tell them or where the exploration of movement brings them.

As a facilitator I will provide a space of bodily vibration and resonance. I can elicit energies by creating friction around the singing bowl, in which I try to tune into the frequency of the participants. I am present with the participants and open for what they bring, for the unexpected. But what they will bring is theirs and therefore unpredictable.

Similarly, in human beings topics might fall into certain ideas or concepts, which asks for a form of paradoxical curiosity. To stay curious for deeper personal meanings, to see that a certain explanation might be ‘true’ and that the ‘truth’ evolves beyond that.

With an image of elicitive conflict transformation set, I will shift focus to a phenomenological understanding of embodiment. Thereby researching the role and importance of being bodies and finding theoretical basis for this understanding.

4. A phenomenological perspective – the body and experience

Without this body (…) there would be no possibility of experience (Abram 2017, 45)

We literally discover ourselves in movement (Sheets-Johnstone 2011, 117)

In this chapter I show why it is so crucial to take an embodied perspective on peace and conflict transformation. Through a phenomenological21 lens, I describe how our body and movement lay at the basis of our being. Within our moving body lies our basis of perception, our sense of self and understanding of the world.

4.1. The body as basis of experience Edmund Husserl22 laid a basis for understanding the body as the locus of experience. His observation was as follows: I am only visible and sensible to others as my body and others are to me as bodies. Therefore, the body is the way of experiencing, of interacting and being in the world (Husserl 1970). Thereby re-affirming the importance of an embodied investigation of our lives.

Furthermore, Husserl still acknowledged some form of transcendent self that could be separated from the body. On exactly this point lays the biggest difference with the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty23. He takes it one step further by re-identifying

21 Phenomenology comes from the word phenomenal, a direction within philosophy which studies the world based on realm of subjective experience. Reality as it directly presents itself to consciousness (Abram 2017; Encyclopaedia Britannica 2020). 22 Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) was a German philosopher and founder of phenomenology. He studied math, physics, astronomy, philosophy and psychology (Landgrebe 2019). 23 Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a French philosopher that takes up on and radicalizes Husserl’s work and his known for his publication Phenomenology of Perception (Merleau-Ponty 1962; Abram 2017)

the experiencing subject purely with the embodied existence, because without this body no existence would be possible (Merleau-Ponty 1962).

As I have discussed above, the Cartesian inheritance has led most people to believe that there would be something like a disembodied essence. However, this phenomenological interpretation of Merleau-Ponty radically changes this understanding. It turns it around; there is no essence beyond the body.

Merleau-Ponty visualises this by emphasizing that without my body, my eyes, my ears, my skin and voice, I would be unable to see, to hear, to feel, to speak, nor would I have anything to contemplate about as I would have no sensory experience. My body is the way of making contact and being in the world (Merleau-Ponty 1962; Lowen 1967)

This can also be seen in the way a child develops a sense of self. This is primary through body sensations. It is firstly embodied that a child develops the sense of individuality (Ogden, as cited in Stromsted & Haze 2017). Embodiment is the way we experience ourselves as differentiated from our environment. Therefore ‘’to experience embodiment is to experience being’’ (Marrone 1990, xii).

To state that I am my body, is all but diminishing the self to a set of programmed mechanical responses, locked within the physical visible boundaries of the body. The body is an open organism in constant interaction with the surroundings (Merleau-Ponty 1962; Perls

2003; Koppensteiner 2018). We only exist in participant autonomy (Cohn 1971). In this way, there is always a mutual interaction of my body and its enviroment. From this analysis derives the statement of Merleau-Ponty that ‘perception is participation’.

If I perceive you, there is always a mutual interaction and thereby my perception is directly a form of participation. This reciprocal nature of perception leads to the following idea

that ‘’to touch is also to feel oneself being touched, that to see is also to feel oneself seen’’

(Abram 2017, 69). It comes back to the point made earlier while discussing the conduct of research (sub-chapter 1.4.2), that an observation is inseparable from the observation made.

Hereby breaking with the dichotomy of subject-object (Merleau-Ponty 1962).

In this sense, perception is understood as a combined activity of all the senses of the body functioning. I cannot really separate seeing and hearing, when I look around me on the street. It happens at the same time. I see someone’s mouth opening and closing and I hear the sounds of her words at the same time. Senses are blended, humans experience the world synaesthetic (Merleau-Ponty 1962).

I discuss the understanding of a reciprocal nature of perception, because of it significant implications on the perspective of our body in interaction with other bodies and the rest of the world. The body not a loose shell, but an integrated part of its surroundings.

4.2. The primacy of movement From Husserl and Merleau-Ponty it becomes clear how central the body is in our way of being in the world, in our way of experiencing. Maxine Sheets-Johnstone24 (2011) takes this one step further, as she writes how the movement of that body lies at the basis of our experience in the world. Thus, we cannot understand our human being and thinking without understanding the way we move. For me this is not in contradiction to the previous elaboration, rather complementing.

The body is in its core a moving subject. The heart beats and the longs expand and contract. These movements keep my body – me – alive. It is also through the movement of

24 Maxine Sheets-Johnstone first had a career as dancer, choreographer and dance scholar. Currently, she is a philosopher, with her writings embedded in the moving body. She is affiliated with the University of Oregon (Sheets-Johnstone 2010).

my body that I experience it as mine and that I distinguish mine from yours. I can move my own body through space and when I touch you I feel that you are not me.

Movement is the way we discover ourselves and everything around us. It is our first access to the environment and thereby movement lies at the foundation of sense-making of ourselves and the world around us. We learn about objects because we move in relation to them and we notice changes in appearance of the object in accordance with our movement.

Or we see others things move around us (Sheets-Johnstone 2011).

Therefore, movement is ‘’the foundation of our epistemological construction of the world’’ (Sheets-Johnstone 2011, 432). Movement is thus also the way we acquire knowledge.

Knowledge is not something pre-existent that enables someone to do things. Knowledge is acquired through the process of doing things. It is through the movement itself that one learns, that knowledge unfolds.

For example, when you start riding a bicycle. Someone can explain you the concept of balance and power on the pedals, but that does not mean you know how to ride. Getting knowledge about how to ride a bicycle only happens as you move. You have to pay attention to your bodily experience, try, fall down and try again. The knowledge of how to ride a bike unfolds in the movement, not as a separate cognitive process that precedes or follows the movement.

This is what Husserl means when he writes that ‘I move’ precedes ‘I can do’. The ability of precedes the possibility. First I have to move, before I become aware of my possibilities.

The movement is primordial. Therefore, movement also ‘’lies at the root of our sense of agency’’ (Sheets-Johnstone 2011, XVII). It is the basis of becoming aware of our capabilities in life. As we move we discover them and thus ourselves.

In this way movement is not just an ability of the body, but it is the central aspect of being a body. In the beginning of our lives we are infused with that movement, therefore a child is not surprised or disappointed by it, because she feels inseparable of it(Sheets-

Johnstone 2011).

Merleau-Ponty emphasizes the reciprocal nature of perception. Sheets-Johnstone

(2011) focusses on the link between movement and perception. She argues that they are interlaced, because it is hard to say where the ones stops and the others starts.

The analysis above shows that we do not only understand the world on a level of language and conceptualisations, but first and foremost on a kinetic level. This way of understanding through movement is what Sheets-Johnstone (2011) calls thinking in movement. For her, this is clearly the primary way we make sense of the world, our primary way of thinking. This may seem odd, as the term thinking is often connected to a disembodied mind.

However, in this perspective thinking and movement are intertwined, they ‘’are aspects of a kinetic bodily logos attuned to an evolving dynamic situation’’ (Sheets-Johnstone

2011, xxxi). An infant understands the world through her movement and things moving around her. Movement and thinking go hand in hand, they are not separated processes, but intertwined. It is a form of kinetic attunement to the surroundings which creates understanding.

A first example of how we think in movement comes from Jenny Slatman25 (as cited by

Van Turnhout 2019). She writes how robots, that are incredible in calculating, are not able to

25 Jenny Slatman is professor Medical Humanities at the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. Her research focusses on philosophical and anthropological analysis of embodiment in health care.

functionally grasp an egg. They drop it immediately or break it by squeezing. As humans, this act of grasping an egg feels easy, as we do not rationally calculate the movement.

It is through our bodily movement that we know how to do it, it is kinetic bodily logos.

The fact that a smart robot is not able to achieve this, shows that it is a more intelligent skill than it seems. As behind the ‘simple’ grasping of an object lies an incredible complex combination of interlaced sensations, postural adjustments and motor performance

(Rizzolatti & Corrado 2006).

Another example of thinking in movement is improvisational dance, as there is no separation between thinking and doing. A dancer moves and thinks at the same time, the thinking is grounded in the movement. The improvising dancer does not first think I will move my arm there and then I will turn, where after a movement starts. No, improvisation happens as the dancer moves (Sheets-Johnstone 2011).

This thinking in movement is present in many aspects of our lives. If we walk we feel the texture of the ground underneath our feet, and even if we walk uphill, we do not have to think or calculate how to walk. The way we know how to do that is through our kinetic experience. If we realize that we think in movement it also makes sense that we express being unable to think as being stuck (Lakoff & Johnson 1999).

Actually, once someone is practised in a certain sport or playing an instrument, the brain activity lowers. The ‘thinking’ happens more in the body and once one starts to think about the movement conceptually it becomes harder to execute the action (Rizzolattie &

Sinigaglia 2006)

Thinking for Sheets-Johnstone (2011) is thus not per se related to language, conceptualizations or rationality. Thinking with words is actually a secondary way of

understanding the world, it is post-kinetic and less natural. For example, when children start to learn thinking in words, they can show resistance. It can be a painful and confusing experience, as it creates rupture between two world - the verbal and non-verbal one. Thereby the wholeness of the experience is disturbed (Stern, as cited in Sheets-Johnstone 2011).

In fact, words often do not fit with the experience, they are not precise or nuanced enough to cover the experience. The power of a word describing a behaviour is in no sense comparable to the power of the nonverbal behaviour itself. This lack of fit leads to the disruptive character of words in relation to the physical experience (Husserl, as cited in Sheets-

Johnstone 2011).

Of course, language also has many advantages in our lives. However, the discussion at this point, is not to argue against the use of language. The point of this elaboration is to show that it is not primary and that it can be a factor driving us away from the embodied sensuous experience. I will elaborate more extensive on this in the next sub-chapter.

To conclude, movement is not just a functional way for me to get around in the world.

Quite the contrary, it is the basis of my sense of self and understanding the world around me.

Movement is primary in our experience and awareness. This shows the importance of movement in our lives. To feel ourselves and have a sense of agency. It lies at the basis of our experience in life and of life itself.

4.3. Language, embodiment and experience For Sheets-Johnstone (2011) it is clear that movement is our mother tongue. It is the way that we relate to others in the beginning of our lives. Later we start to develop what she calls thinking in words, when we start to use language.

In chapter two I have already discussed the influence of the emerging of the alphabet on our sensuous experience. There can be no doubt as to the perspective Abram has on the use of language, as he powerfully writes that ‘’language seems to deny or deaden that life [the participatory life of senses], promoting massive distrust of sensorial experience while valorizing an abstract realm of ideas’’ (Abram 2017, 72).

In this regard it seems that The Kings of Convenience seem to cover it when the sing:

‘’I’d rather dance with you than talk with you (…) So let your hips do the talking’’26. Illustrating the difference in communication, connection and understanding through movement or language.

Nonetheless, the thinking in movement does not diminish or disappear, it becomes hidden behind the use of thinking in words (Sheets-Johnstone 2011). At the same time, also communication with words has a large embodied component and even embeddedness. As such, Merleau-Ponty describes that the meaning of communication is inseparable from the embodied sensorial experience (Abram 2017).

First of all, communication is always embodied. When we encounter a gesture, we do not see a blank behaviour, which has to be mentally linked and processed to a specific meaning. A bodily gesture communicates directly to our own body and it is also understood in this direct way, thus without previous reflection (Abram 2017).

This is also shown by the research on mirror neurons. Remarkably, the same neurons are active when we observe a specific motor event, as when we make a similar motor action ourselves. When we observe a motor action, the mirror neurons ‘represent’ this action. In

26 From the song: I’d rather dance with you.

other words, the activity is internally generated and in that way we recognize and make meaning of the motor action (Rizzolatti et al 1996).

This generates the principle that if we see someone moving (e.g. falling down) it can feel as if we are making that movement – or feeling that pain – ourselves. I experience this when I watch sports on television, I do not only watch with my eyes, but my whole body is

‘watching’. This is called kinaesthetic empathy (Wagner 2015).

Moreover, research on mirror neurons shows that the understanding of movement

(behaviour) is immediate, because the action of the other has an reciprocate element. We understand it directly without the need of a deliberate mental processing (Rizzolatti &

Sinigaglia 2006). Which explains the observation of Merleau-Ponty (1962, 215) that: ‘’It is as if the other person’s intentions inhabited my body and mine his’’

It is an understanding from the inside out, an unconscious somatic response to the other’s movement. Our primary understanding is therefore non-verbal. We have corporal integrated patterns of regularities and irregularities of our somatic experience and they develop meaning over time. Through these somatic memories we can understand the other nonverbally. This is body knowledge. It might me more vague than words, but it is definitely more true to the sensory experience (Pallaro 2017)

Secondly, language itself is embedded in our embodied existence. Rizzolatti27 and

Sinigaglia (2006) show that language has in fact gestural origins and that thus our sensory- motor capacities also lie at the basis of our capacity to communicate through language.

27 Giacomo Rizzolatti is a neurologist known for his research on mirror neurons (2006)

Furthermore, the meaning of speech is inherently related to the sound and rhythm of the words used. Meaning depends on the way words ‘feel’. Thus, communication through language stays grounded in the sensual experience. In this line of thought, Abram suggests that the way we learn language is not by mental abstraction but bodily. As he writes:

we appropriate new words and phrases first through their expressive tonality and texture, through the way they feeling the mouth or roll off the tongue, and it is this direct, felt significance – the taste of a word or phrase, the way if influences or modulates the body – that provides the fertile, polyvalent source for all the more refined and rarefied meanings which that term may come to have for us. (Abram 2017, 75).

Thus, words cannot be understood without a bodily resonance and understanding.

Concluding that I need my body to understand language, is concluding that language has a substantial impact on the body. Thereby, it also becomes clear how powerful spoken language is, to influence or transform the body and our sensorial experience. Transforming as words echo in our body (Abram 2017).

Language is thus more than words, it is rooted in our physical being in interaction with each other. The words I speak arrive directly from my body. Maybe you recognize that if you want to say something you have a bodily sense of it. According to Gendlin (2004), if you lose that felt sense, you also lose the words. Language can thus make us drift away from the sensuous, but it will always stay rooted within our embodiment.

5. A changing paradigm – reunion of the body/mind

Reason is fundamentally embodied (Lakoff & Johnson 1999, 17)

When movement changes, so does psyche (Halprin 2003, 116)

The previous chapter has shown how our body and movement are at the basis of experience.

Thereby it already shows the importance and potential of an embodied perspective. In this chapter I will discuss more broadly the idea of an embodied mind and its foundations. In the research problem I have posed the problematic aspects of a dualistic understanding, here I show how a holistic perspective looks like.

5.1. The embodied mind According to Lakoff and Johnson (1999) and Merleau-Ponty (1962) reason is not something transcendental that resides outside our human body. It is in fact in the basis embodied, because reason arises from the body, including the brain and all bodily experiences. To be clear, this goes further than just stating that we need a brain and thus a body to reason, that the mind needs a body to be housed in as it were. It is in fact ‘’a striking claim that the very structure of reason itself comes from the details of our embodiment‘’ (Lakoff & Johnson 1999,

4).

How does this claim of embodied reason work? Firstly, perception and conception are not two separate processes as often argued. The way we conceptualize is dependent on our ability to move, on the way we see other things in motion, on the basic fact that we have muscles and on the way we move them. The very nature of our body shapes the way we conceptualize.

To exemplify, Lakoff and Johnson (1999) discuss the way that concepts as front and back are constructed. I understand these concepts as such, because I am a being with a front and an back. The concept makes sense because it corresponds to my bodily experience. If all of us were a uniform stationary floating sphere with an ability to perceive equally in all directions the concepts of front and back would not exist. Because in that hypothetical case, the concepts would not make any sense, as they would not correspond with our perception.

It may seem as a bizarre example, but is shows that our bodily perception, defines the way we conceptualize. The same logic applies to concepts as pulling, pushing, supporting and balance. We understand these concepts through our bodily experience. In other words: our concepts are embodied and there is no clear distinction possible between perception and conceptualisation. Neurologically speaking, for perception and conception the same neural system plays a crucial role. Moreover, these neural mechanisms can do both jobs at the same time (Lakoff & Johnson 1999).

With this in my embodied mind, concepts can no longer be seen as objective and somehow disembodied reflections, because it is in fact the body’s structure, senses and movements that shape these concepts. In this way it makes sense that Koppensteiner (2019a) writes about embodied knowing as a constant feedback loop between pre-conceptual experiencing and a conceptually bound making of meaning. I experience something and with embodied concepts I make meaning out of them.

The bodily embeddedness of the mind can also be found in the way metaphors are used. Lakoff and Johnson (1999) show how metaphors enable us to use sensorimotor experiences for subjective mental understanding. For example when the subjective judgement of affection is expressed as ‘they greeted me warmly’, the sensorimotor domain

of temperature is used as metaphor. This is due to the primary experience of warmth while being held with affection.

Another example is the metaphoric understanding of the passage of time when expressed as ‘time flies’. In this case time is coupled with our sensorimotor perception and concept of motion. I will name a few other examples. If something makes sense, it means that it is logically, but actually it means to enliven the senses (Abram 2017). Or if something bothers me, I can say it is though on the stomach and I have to ‘digest’ it. We ‘chew’ on ideas, if we understand something we are able to ‘grasp’ it and if we ‘swallow’ something we process or accept it.

Also, when we describe thinking processes, movement is used as metaphor. We return to, approach or stay away from a topic. If we have difficulties to think, we are unable to move, as we feel ‘stuck’. All these examples shows that our conceptual system is shaped by our embodied being. We cannot talk about the mind without using such corporal metaphors

(Lakoff & Johnson 1999).

Thus, our bodily experience lays at the basis of our conceptual understanding and reason is embodied (Lakoff & Johnson 1999). Not only our reason is embodied, also our memory. Houterman (as cited by Van Dijk 2019) writes how pianist and athletes show less activity in the motoric cortex of the brain when exercising often practised movement. While this motoric cortex is often related to the memory of movement. This shows that memory is not only stored in the brain but also in the body. The idea of body memory on an emotional level will be further discussed in the sixth chapter.

Two other examples of unity lie in the biological sphere. When one part of the body moves, the whole body is always partaking in that movement. Visually, one could have the

idea that kicking happens in the feet and throwing in the arms, but the whole body is always engaged in movement, it moves as an integrated whole.

In the same way that kicking does not just happen in the leg, but in the whole body, thinking does not just happen in the brain but needs a whole body nervous-system. Thereby illustrating that ‘’[t]he idea that the brain is an organ separate from the body actually defies anatomy‘’ (Sheets-Johnstone 2011, 491). Also the mind is not something beyond the physical, but embedded within the physical being.

Another biological perspective on the embodied mind, is that the brain secretes hormones which effect the rest of the body, including the immune system. Likewise, also the brain responds to the hormones secreted by other organs in the body. In fact, research proved that long-term stress leads to physiological changes, through a hormone that supresses the body’s immune system (Marrone 1990). These processes cannot be seen as separate dynamics, they are intertwined.

There are also perspectives that take a more radical turn and start to condemn the mind, just as the body used to be condemned. For example Eckhart Tolle (2004) turns

Descartes upside down, when he writes that the mind is an instrument to be used for a specific task and afterwards laid aside. Note that here, not the body but the mind has become the tool. If we take the understanding of an embodied mind, this statement cannot hold.

Tolle (2004) asks not to pay too much attention to his words, as it is the underlying message that is of importance. Nevertheless, for academic reasoning these words are exemplifying a turn that is found more often in the body/mind discussion. The body becomes the holy grail to enlightenment and the mind the instrument to deal with life.

For example, Osho states that either we have the mind or we have peace (Osho

International Foundation 2020). It is a radical focus on the embodied experience. But the question that arises is if it is not one sided again. To only work with the body is still playing the

Cartesian game, but on the other side of the playing board, because it still reasons from a perspective of separation and dualism. It still leaves aside one part of integrated whole.

(Dietrich, personal communication, 5 July 2019).

5.2. Embodied unity and perceived separation So far, I have argued for an embodied mind. I have discussed that our conceptualisations are embedded in our embodied experience and how the interlaced nature works with practical examples. However, if it is truly an integrated whole, an unity, how can I still argue that people are too much mind focused? Or that someone is ‘in his head’?

Marrone (1990) writes that the embodied mind exists on a continuum. Thus as an integrated inseparable whole, but still distinguishable till a certain extent. Therefore, it could be possible that someone is very much on one side of the continuum. This does not mean separated from the other - as this is not possible.

It becomes especially problematic if the focus on one side of the continuum becomes chronic. This is clarified by Eckhart Tolle (2004), when he writes that many conflicts exist because most relationships are minds interacting with each other. Not full embodied human beings communicating. When it becomes chronic, we miss out on and derelict a whole aspect of our lives, that nevertheless keeps on influencing us.

Tolle (2004) sees this perceived separation within ourselves, but also with others, as an illusion. An illusion that is created by an inability to feel our connectedness, that is created

by a ‘screen’ of concepts, images and words. It is for him a hindrance to experience reality when we are only identified with the mental aspect.

Concepts, language and labels can keep us from experiencing our wholeness, even though they are grounded in embodiment. They can create a feeling of separation, which does not really exist. As a result, the idea of a dualism creates a state of false-self (Marrone 1990).

This perceived separation decreases the human potential to feel, think and act. When these aspects are being repressed, humans disconnect from themselves, others and the surrounding world. Which leaves its traces on the body (Facci 2011). This repressed and blocked body has its impact on a person.

Thich Nhat Hanh (2015) compares our consciousness with our blood circulation. If the blood in our body cannot circulate well due to a blockage, we will get hurt. It can be ‘just’ a headache, but in extreme cases of cold your toes will die off. The same goes for our consciousness, blocking aspects of our life generates a bad mental circulation, creating illnesses. As such people who block out certain themes can also suffer physically, till the extend of paralysis.

The question that arises is how to break through the perceived separation and open up the potential of identifying with the whole a person is. There are multiple techniques, such as breath and movement, that can be a way to experience the embodied mind as unity.

Breath is a sensation that moves through our body and thereby it increases our awareness. Furthermore, breath is directly linked to emotion, as a change in emotion changes the way of breathing (Rosenberg 1973; Facci 2011). Breath itself is already a form of movement, but in the next section I will describe more specifically how movement can play this role.

Cynically, as I write this text my neck hurts, which makes me wish that my body is a bit more machine-like. To put my thoughts on paper the way I want to and to be able to do sports.

But then I realize, my living body offers me so much. My sensuous body gives me pleasure, just as it provides me with pain. And my painful neck reminds me again how often it carries my head without complaint - what a blessing is that.

5.3. The potential of movement I think that the feeling I describe above, shows a response to distance from my body. However, this is impossible as the ‘’relationship of yourself to your body is indivisible, inescapable, unavoidable’’ (Roth 1998b, 19). It is in fact the distancing of the body that is problematic, not the body itself. There lies a great potential in accepting that I am a body, by identifying with the subjective body.

As described in my personal perspective, for me movement is that way. It is the way in which I enormously value my body and connect with it. Movement is a very concrete way to create awareness to our bodies sensations, gestures, posture and its emotions and thought

(Talma 2010; Facci 2011). In fact, I am always moving, but sometimes I might not be aware of myself vibrating. In that case deliberate movement can help to create awareness

(Koppensteiner 2019a).

Besides awareness creation, we can also see movement as the primary language of our body, every movement being inherently expressive. From the understanding of an embodied mind it follows naturally that there is a lot to read in someone’s movement (Halprin 2003;

Laban 1980).

Movement reveals conflicting inner impulses and thereby movement can be a method of self-discovery and expression. This is already visible in the smallest movements like raising an eyebrow or the corners of the mouth. A response is always in a form kinetic (Laban 1980).

One might give a certain answer, but your feeling might say somethings is off. That is because an inner excitement always has an embodied component which speaks directly to your body, irrelevant or despite of what words may convey.

Therefore, the ‘’ body never lies’’ (Roth 1998a, 54) or in the words of Wagner (2015,

35) ‘’the sensory-tonic-affective field never lies!’’. This sensory-tonic affective field is the energy and quality of the contact between moving bodies. Tonic referring to the organismic tension in the body. The whole thus being all the underlying forms of non-verbal communication, such as body contact, expression and non-verbal clues.

Hereby Roth and Wagner show the potential of including our embodiment in peace and conflict work. Our own body and the body of others are always present and thereby they always provide a door to access the world beyond the representational level of words. Access to the knowledge of the body. It widens the possibilities for meaning-making and understanding. On an unconscious level with an always responding body and on a more conscious level through deliberate movement.

From the understanding of an embodied mind, it makes total sense that Halprin (2003) writes that ‘’[w]hen movement changes, so does psyche’’ (p. 116). You might experience this on a daily basis. When you are restless, your body is restless, and when you are relaxed, your body is relaxed. This also works the other way around, if you start to relax your body, your thoughts will ‘follow’.

This writing above is used as illustration, though it tends to give an impression of causality. Therefore I wrote ‘follow’ in single quotation marks. In fact, you are your body, hence being restless is being a restless body. It is not a consequence. It is part of it, of the feeling, of you.

At the same time this statement shows the powerful potential of movement for transformation. If I can learn to move differently, I can become different. If I discover new ways of moving, I discover new parts of myself. Daria Halprin describes this beautifully:

When we are moving, we are moving something in our lives. (…) dances as explorations of a theme issue become resources for therapy or problem solving. Also, and most importantly, the act of drawing and dancing as process engages the senses, motions, thoughts, and imagination, taking us into a direct experience of ourselves and a productive confrontation with whatever is evoked. (Halprin 2003, 136)

For me, this description already illustrates how movement can be a method for elicitive conflict transformation. Through movement one explores the self in a sensuous experience and one is also directly in contact with what is elicited in this exploration.

In this way movement works on multiple levels: exploration, elicitation and confrontation. These are first implications on what a shifting paradigm means for the perspective on movement and embodiment. In chapter seven I discuss more extensively the potential of movement practises.

6. Somatic psychology – a body of marks

There are no lasting changes unless the body is affected (Pallaro 2017, 176)

Unresolved physical and emotional trauma is often held in the body – until it can be brought to consciousness. (Stromsted 2017, 202)

In many examples above I have shown the importance of taking an embodied perspective. In this chapter I take a look on how this perspective has got a place within the field of psychology.

This field is called somatic psychology. The soma being the body’s functioning as one singular process (Linden 2005). Because the attempt to integrate the corporal is not new, it is important to show which developments have taken place and which insights they provide.

6.1. Predecessors Friedrich Nietzsche already wrote about the differentiation of Apollo and Dynosis. He argues that neurosis is created by the repression of the energetic bodily aspects of our life in the name of reason and morality (Koppensteiner 2019a). I do not want to thoroughly discuss his work here, but mention Nietzsche as Sigmund Freud picks up on his work.

Freud, who worked as a as psychiatrist, is mostly famous for his work on sexuality, libido, the ego, dreams and the structure of the humans psyche (Marrone 1990;

Biography.com). At the same time his theories laid a basis for somatic psychology to develop.

As such, Wilhelm Reich and Fritz Perls, which I discuss below, were students of Freud.

Freud lived between 1856 and 1939, in a time when everything related to the body, sexuality and touch was very constrained and thus his ideas were radical at the time. Freud describes the body as the source of our experience and that the mind has a distance towards the primary experience that lies in the body. The paradox in Freud’s work lies in the fact that

he assumed a body/mind unity, but his therapy acted on the basis of dualism, as he strongly avoided the use of touch (Marrone 1990).

Freud stated that ongoing repression of feelings could have an impact on the bodily level. Due to repression, the energy of the emotional conflict cannot be received or contained and this leads to pain, numbness or disease at the physical level. His therapy focussed on processing these conflictual reactions through emotional release and verbal expression.

Furthermore, Freud believed that emotional pain and suffering arise from the unconscious. This focus on the unconscious material also returns numerous in the work of his students, just as the way energy can be repressed and manifested in the person (Marrone

1990).

6.2. (Neo-) Reichian Wilhelm Reich was one of Freud’s students and for some time his first assistant. Reich is seen as the founder of somatic psychology. Freud focussed on the sexual disturbance in childhood as source of neurosis. Reich however, started to see forms of disembodiment as basis for neurosis. Sexual dissatisfaction was secondary, as a consequence of this disembodiment

(Marrone 1990).

Starting from a holistic view of the human being, Reich argues that the entire life story is stored in the bodies structure and functioning (Halprin 2003). Such a body memory can be activated by attention for body signals, but also through a smell, taste or an image (Boot 2004;

Talma 2010). Reich published broadly, in his books on Character Analysis he describes that traumas affect the muscle contraction in organisms, blocking the natural flow of energy that he calls organe energy (Reich 1984; Halprin 2003).

The basis of his theory is quite simple. If energy flows healthy through our bodies, it flows in the following pattern: a) tension, b) charge, c) discharge, d) relaxation. If this pattern is not completed, problems arise. The ‘’incomplete discharge, in turn, blocks and distorts natural feelings, emotions, sexual fulfilment and, when chronic, provides the source of psychiatric disorder and psychosomatic disease’’ (Marrone 1990, 26).

The described pattern from tension to relaxation is needed to cope with life circumstance. In first instance armouring of the musculature is a method to repress our feelings, which is helpful for survival. However, when our lives are filled with stressful situations, this charge gets permanent and the energy is blocked.

This energy builds up creating psychosomatic disease and emotional defect. Body contraction protects and it enables to handle overwhelming circumstances. At the same time, when this contractions remains, the body armor diminishes the capacity to experience life fully, it restricts ones possibilities. Body therapy aims at breaking through that armor and fully open oneself to life (Kurtz & Prestera 1976).

Joachim Bauer28 (2018) adds a biological perspective to this. When I am stressed, my brain activates stress genes and creates stress substances like cortisol and this cortisol also has to be reduced again by anti-stress genes. For some people this anti-stress gene is blocked and therefore they are not able to discharge.

In chapter 5.1. (the embodied mind) I already introduced the effect of stress on the physiological state, through hormones that supress the immune system. This is a suitable example for the Reich’s energy flow pattern described earlier. The suppression of the immune

28 Joachim Bauer is neuroscientist, doctor and psychotherapist. He is known for his research on genes (Bauer 2018).

system has a function, it helps the human being in survival. However, when I get into long- term stress it means suppression of impulses and suppression of a muscular preparedness to express.

At the same time, a blockage can supress physical growth, diminish sex drive, reduce the production of reproductive hormones and lead to disease. It also appears to play a significant role in cancer, coronary heart disease, asthma and migraine, among others

(Marrone 1990).

This shows the importance of discharging and followed relaxing after a stress period.

The stress is not per se bad, it is only just functional till a certain extent. There is a tension which leads to a charge, only when this charge endures and does not get discharged it becomes an unhealthy situation.

Thus, an armouring occurs that functions as defence, but it has the risk of becoming chronic. In this case it also restricts the capacity of pleasure, just as it restricts pain. It is exactly in this armouring that one can also find the meaning and origin. As it is the muscular armouring which causes that the trauma continues to exist within us in a harmful way. In fact, it is our whole life history that leaves its marks on the body (Halprin 2003; Stromsted 2017).

This body armor, energy blockage, consists of tension in areas of the body. The muscles are used to create a dam against the flow of feeling. For example, anger being hold in the shoulders to avoid alienating others. The armor diminishes feelings we do not want to feel, but at the same time it diminishes all feelings. As under tension our sensitivity is diminished leading to a fragmentised individual (Kurtz & Prestera 1976; Wagner 2019).

The block disconnects us from our internal compass, from the core our being. This disconnection creates confusion and meaninglessness. The tragedy is that in this fleeing from

and armouring against these feelings, they are given energy. It takes a lot of courage and it is difficult to overcome this, as ‘’the fear of drowning in our own emotion is simply too great’’

(Kurtz & Prestera 1976, 15). As a consequence blocks are tightened and this tightening might lead to an explosion manifesting in rage or forms of violence (Kurtz & Prestera 1976).

This idea of blocked discharge becomes more practical when Elsworth Baker (as cited in Marrone 1990) states that next to orgasm, exercise and hard physical work, cell growth plays a role in the discharge of repressed emotions. Thereby directly linking the appearance of cancer as a way of the body for ‘releasing’ repressed energy.

Marrone (1990) discusses various diseases as psychosomatic issue. His description often comes back to a lack of acknowledgement and expression and therefore of repression feelings like anger or helplessness. This leads him to conclude that:

There can be little doubt that emotional repression, personality make-up, and stress-inducing attitudes and beliefs can function as chronic internal stressors which, in turn, significantly decrease the competence of the immunological system, and thus, play a significant role in the development of certain physical diseases and forms of emotional dysfunction. (Marrone 1990, 95)

The importance of expression also comes from Keleman’s (1975) interpretation that expression also impels us towards forming ourselves and experiencing ourselves more deeply. Understanding is formed through expression.

From Reich’s students, Alexander Lowen has become one of the most prominent.

Where Reich focussed strongly on the body, Lowen sought to find a balance on working with the psychological and the physical aspect. He is known for his work on bioenergetics, which works with the flow of energy in the body and blockages of this flow (Halprin 2003).

Such a blockage can consist of chronic muscle tension, which can be created when someone has to deal with strong emotions and conflicts. Transformation from this

perspective, is thus achieved by removing the blockage that prevents the body from spontaneous tension release. It aims to restore a healthy situation in which someone’s image of their body corresponds with the way their body looks and feels (Lowen 1967).

If a blockage remains, it leads to one sending out contradictory messages to the muscles. For example to push and to pull. You might recognize that in moments when you are absolutely sure, you experience more power than in situations of doubt. In doubt antagonist muscles will also contract. If contradictory messages are send for a long period of time, you can imagine it blocks the energy flow. It is an ineffective way of muscle and therefore energy use. Intentionality, which one might conceive as mental, is thus interlaced with the physical

(Friedman 2015).

Lowen states that the idea of a disembodied mind has created a schizoid disturbance.

This means that someone is dissociated from reality as their idea of reality is based on mental concepts in contradicting to the corporal one (as discussed in chapter two). He observed that people are not even aware of the lack of aliveness in their body as they are so used to taking the body for an instrument of the mind. This has led to the acceptance of ‘’relative deadness as a normal state’’ of the body (Lowen 1967, 208).

This loss of embodiment is problematic, because a significant reduction of motor activity or interaction of the body with its environment, leads to someone losing perception of reality. For example, long deprivation from sense stimulation leads to hallucination.

This deprivation from feeling is also often a self-inflicted method. By holding your breath you can block sensations and feelings that you do not want to feel. Children learn to immobilize the diaphragms and cramp their belly inward to minimize anxiety. Another example is lying very still to avoid feeling. All are measures not to feel the unpleasant, the

pain, which largely reduces the aliveness of the body. The grown up child may not remember this deadening of the body, but still face problems due to his split from reality (Lowen 1967).

Lowen puts a clear focus on embracing what he calls the irrational within ourselves. To embrace our feelings and impulses even though they might be irrational, or especially because they are irrational, as it is the irrational that brings us most pleasure in life. For example through love and orgasm. If we are blocked from the irrational, we might not become angry.

However, the irrational will still surface, only in troublesome ways as violent rage (Lowen

1967).

Therefore, to recover a healthy relation to our body we must accept and embrace our feelings, our impulses, our irrationality. This realization re-values the instinctive force of our lives (Lowen 1967). It also leads to the conclusion that it is not possible to block feelings selectively. Embracing life fully, means accepting all the feelings, including the unpleasant ones. At the same time, if one ‘chooses’ to block unpleasant feelings, one has to be aware that it blocks more than inteded in the first place.

Lowen integrated many of Reich’s techniques. Furthermore, he focused on using the bodies tendency to vibrate, to get blocked energy into movement. Besides, he focussed on grounding exercises, which enable the discharge of energy (Marrone 1990).

Ronald Laing calls this schizoid disturbance a state of false sense, in which we are engaged in strategies that sabotage our own lives. This leads to meaningful relations, which are being compensated with superficial relations, fuelled by success and status (as cited by

Marrone 1990). It is exactly in experiencing the lived-body, in being grounded that provides the basis for creating alternative ways of living.

In Lowen’s work, a clear connection is made between the body and the emotional state, which continuously influence each other. I find this particularly interesting and I see this idea return with different authors. For example with Jack Lee Rosenberg (1973), who writes how body movement can change our feelings and the other way around. I see it as an ongoing process influencing each other. Awareness on this continues interaction can offer interesting insights and forms a basis for working with emotions through the moving body.

Furthermore, a similar approach can be found in the work of Moshe Feldenkrais. He extensively discusses the relation between awareness of the body and movement in his book

Awareness through movement. He understands the body, emotions and the mind to be in continues interaction and changing the body structure can therefore bring change in the way

I experience or act in life (Feldenkrais 1972; Halprin 2003). In sub-chapter 6.4 I elaborate more extensive on the body and emotions. First I continue with another student of Freud whom embraced the physical aspect within therapy.

6.3. Gestalt psychotherapy Fritz Perls29 (2003) was influenced by the above discussed Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich.

He developed the Gestalt approach, which also argues against what he calls psycho-physic parallelism. He suggests that this dualism exists as we perceive thinking and doing as two distinctive human functions and therefore define them as independent.

In Perls’ (2003) perspective thoughts and action are the same, but they differ in the level of intensity that a person responds to its surroundings. They are made of the same

‘material’, both being a manifestation of being human. Therefore Gestalt does not see a

29 Fritz Perls is considered to be the founder of Gestalt therapy, it works from a holistic perspective on the human being. It understands human nature as organised in patterns or wholes, thus its nature can only be understood by analysing the function of these patterns or wholes (Perls 2003; Dietrich 2013).

separation or hierarchy between body and mind, it sees the dualism as artificial (Perls 2003;

Dietrich 2013).

The understanding within Gestalt psychotherapy is that conflicts arise from ‘unfinished business’. Here Perls distances himself from his teacher Freud, which understood conflict arising from the unconscious where instincts, aggression and sexual drives are found. The unfinished business (open Gestalt) keeps influencing new situations and experiences. An open

Gestalt wants to be processed (finished) and thereby integrated into a whole (Perls 2003). In the words of Robert Marrone (1990, 36):

situations (potential gestalts) in our lives, which are in some way unfinished or incomplete, create tension in our memory which then rise to the center of our perceptual/emotional/conceptual modes of experience where they exert an ongoing stressful influence – until completed.

Thus, it is the interruption of a situation that can lead to unfinished business. They are feelings or memories that live on in a person without expression. For example, if I cannot or do not want to experience a certain emotion, it creates an open Gestalt. Thus, when I escape feelings they will keep exerting their control over me. From this derives the necessity to experience them fully (Dietrich 2013).

For Perls, a neurotic person does not perceive herself as being whole. Furthermore, he states that one of the most problematic cases for the modern human is that he has made himself insensitive for all types of emotional responses - except for the overwhelming ones.

He writes that there are even people who literally do not feel what they do not want to feel, in order to escape from all what is being perceived as dangerous (Perls 2003). Why is the insensitivity for our emotional responses so problematic?

First of all, as discussed above, the ignored feelings do not disappear, but they build up. This can lead to psychosomatic problems. Such an energy build up can also lead to an

uncontrolled outburst of emotions. I do not have to explain that in many situations this way of releasement is not the most healthy one, for the person concerned and for their surroundings.

Secondly, to the extent that someone is insensitive, he does not have the ability to choose a relevant action (Perls 2003). Thus, it diminishes the ability to live life according to how you feel and what you might need. It diminishes the possibility to truly live the life I want myself, because I do not know what I want, due to the lack of connection with the emotional life.

Being ‘stuck’ is therefore a form of lack of contact, avoidance of it. Therefore, ‘’the point is not to channel a conflict toward its desired resolution, but to affirm the conflict as a foundation of existence’’ (Dietrich 2013, 34). It is a form of acknowledgement, that creates space for integration. Hereby we see the clear connection between Gestalt and elicitive conflict transformation.

Perls (2003) also writes about the concentration technique for transformation. By concentrating on different symptoms, someone is able to learn a lot about his conflict.

Concentration can lead to a discovery of what one actually experiences. This can create awareness of the interruption of the person, bring integration and thereby loosen the net that they have found themselves in. The client gets a chance to be himself, which finds its basis in the experiencing of himself through concentration. By enlarging the awareness, also the ability to orientate and manoeuvre enlarges (Perls 2003).

A specific link to movement is found in the work of Perls his student and later colleague

Robert Hall. Starting with the concept of an embodied mind, the unfinished business also has

its effects on the body, so to truly ‘finish’ this energy must be released from and expressed through the body in movement (Marrone 1990).

6.4. Emotions and the body The relation between emotions and our bodily experience has been discussed on different occasions. Here I want to make it more specific. The word emotion comes from the Latin word emovere, which means to move outward. Something coming from within, that is searching for a way out, for expression. Thus different emotions also lead to different movements (Boot

2004).

Eckhart Tolle (2004) writes that emotions change the biochemistry of the body. Meaning that there is thus a physical part of the emotion. From a holistic perspective, an emotion is of course always inherently embodied.

Others go as far as analysing emotions as a pure physical experience. In this case, an emotion becomes a complex physical action instead of something happening in the mind

(Linden 2005). This is a pure bodily perspective, which at least has a simplifying element to it.

When an emotion is a physical process, it is just that and we can also find ways of transformation on a physical level.

This idea however is much older than the rise of somatic psychology. Charles Darwin, a naturalist known for his theory of evolution, came to a similar analysis. He was already convinced that what is often seen as emotional expression, like changes in posture, breath and facial expression, are much more than just expressions of the emotion. They compose the emotion itself (Marrone 1990).

Another aspect of emotions and the embodied experience is the repression and expression of emotions. Repressed emotions can lead to muscles armouring. The tensions of

repression is held in the muscles, this leads to people becoming more reactive to in situations in which these emotions are threatened (Lowen 1976; Halprin 2003; Wagner 2015).

Our muscular holdings and posture are also defining our emotional state. Just tense your facial muscles into an angry face, make fists and tense your shoulders. Notice how you will start to actually feel anger. Thus, our musculature influences, or maybe I should write: they are the way we feel. The connection between body and emotion is exemplified by the fact that when our musculature is rigidly held in a particular emotional expression, it is impossible to experience any other emotional state. Try it out for yourself (Marrone 1990).

The influence of our posture even goes a step further. When someone is holding on to a specific posture, she will tend to project the emotion related to the posture into new situations. This situation can be a completely unrelated to the situation that induced the emotion in the first place.

For example, I have experienced a great deal of fear leading to a posture of raised shoulders. If not worked through this fear, I will keep experiencing it through my raised shoulders and encounter this fear in a new situation which is not necessarily fearful. I thus project my own fear into that new situation through bodily posture.

Paul Linden adds to this that your somatic experience does not just lead to projecting it on the situation, but also to initiating that somatic experience and thus feelings within the other.

In his words: ‘’when your body is in distress arousal, your non-verbal signals will elicit the same physical responses in your opponent’’ (Linden 2015, 160).

All these examples make clear how emotion and embodiment go hand in hand.

Showing the problematic aspects of repressing emotions and bringing them into the world by physical holding. On the other side, expressing of emotions gives relief and awareness of the

physical impact can creates possibilities for how one creates the world around herself. This also shows the potential of working with embodiment and movement in peace and conflict work. The next chapter follows up on this potential of movement practises.

7. Movement practices – dancing for transformation

Nothing is more revealing than movement (Graham, as cited in Stromsted & Haze 2007, 66)

Movement is medicine (Roth 1998a, 8)

In the research question I have set out my wonder how movement can be a way to increase access to body knowledge and how it enables the experience of peace and conflict transformation. Now that I have described how the body holds wisdom, I will take a closer look at the potential of movement. I am interested in what movement can tell us, which functions movement has and how movement connects me to the body.

When researching the role of movement, at first I was a little surprised to mainly meet dancers on my way. This surprise finds itself in my former image of dancing as gracefully performing studied steps. When Facci (2011, 37) states that ‘’dance is movement’’ she illustrates a broader interpretation of dance which makes it highly relevant for my research.

I will start with a general analysis on the potential of movement and dance, afterwards

I turn into a description of two specific movement practises, 5Rhythms and Authentic

Movement. I show the role of movement regarding feeling, awareness and expression.

Furthermore, I discuss that certain qualities can be enhanced through movement practises.

First of all, I have already shown that movement is the basis of our experience in chapter four. Movement is awakening feelings of aliveness, it validates being alive (Sheets-

Johnstone 2011). This is what I strongly experience myself, through movement I feel to be in my body and it gives the feeling of a higher intensity of aliveness.

Furthermore, movement is at the core of our awareness (Sheets-Johnstone 2011) and awareness, in and of itself, can already be transformative (Marrone 1990). I link this to the

idea that full attention already implies acceptance, which is a form of transformation (Tolle

2004). It can be awareness of feelings, but also of what we are (not) connected to. Dance can integrate those pieces that we are not connected to, that we would rather discard (Open Floor

International 2020; LaMothe 2006).

Awareness is the path that makes concentration possible, it enables us to look deeply into the core of our topics. Awareness also brings insight, love and freedom. It creates gentleness, which takes over from the fight and/or condemnation of pain. Thereby it allows to embrace unpleasant emotions with gentleness. So that we do not have to push away unpleasant emotions, but that we can invite them (Nhat Hanh 2004).

Furthermore, movement provides us with an integral image of our emotional and kinaesthetic body. Thus it is a way of experiencing and understanding as we move in resonance with our emotion. From this, I understand that movement can be confronting and clarifying, because our affective life becomes apparent (Halprin 2003; Sheets-Johnstone 2010).

In fact, feeling always includes a form of movement. If it is feeling the table, feeling my own arm, or feeling angry. Just hold your arm still or let a pen rest in the palm of your hand for a while and notice how your awareness decreases. Movement enables feeling and to feel something is the prerequisite to transform it (Boot 2004; Bradshaw, as cited in Talma 2010).

Similar is the principle that the body always makes an inner movement. Moving towards or away from something. In high intensity this inner movement can also result in an outer movement. ‘’Each movement originates from an inner excitement of the nerves, caused either by an immediate sense impression, or by a complicated chain of formerly experienced sense impressions stored in the memory’’ (Laban 1980, 19).

Outer and inner movements are congruent and therefore outer movements can tell a lot about the inner life (Talma 2010). It shows something about the intention and desire of a person (Boot 2004). Movement is thus inherently expressive and thereby it can make the invisible visible (Laban 1980; Open Floor International 2020).

For me, it shows that in situations when I am unclear about what I want to do, I always have a compass – my body. Outer movements can elicit inner movements, which can be useful in moments when it is hard to listen to those inner excitements. Therefore, movement can be a vehicle for insight and thereby a way to live more in congruence with our inner life.

Stromsted (2017) affirms that it can be useful to ask people to amplify or exaggerate a movement someone is making or withdrawing. Namely, movement is already happening on the inside and an exaggeration can make that inner movement more conscious. Thereby, exaggeration aims to grasp the meaning behind the expression. In this sense, movement is thus a catalyst of connecting to the inner experience.

Furthermore, in accordance with the perspective of somatic psychology, Daria Halprin argues that our whole life history is stored in and affects the body. All these ‘’life experiences can be accessed an activated through the body in movement’’ (Halprin 2003, 17). In this way, movement can thus create increased access to body knowledge. Poetically put, movement can be the carrier of messages from the world of silence (Laban 1980).

This is similar to Facci’s argument that through concentration in dance we can reach

‘’the inner space and touch the essence of being’’ (Facci 2011, 47). That it connects body and mind (Facci 2011). I would say that it is a way to experience that they are not separate, when we coincide with our movement we are able to touch the unspeakable.

Furthermore, movement is a special form of expression. With the work of Abram,

Gendlin and Rizzolatti I have already discussed the difference between the world of language and conceptual representation opposite to the world of the sensuous body and movement

(chapters 2.2. and 4.3.). Regarding expression I want to stress that movement provides the possibility to express in a more nuanced way than language (Sheets-Johnstone 2011).

Language can only touch the fringe of what the body is able to evoke when expressing feelings, sentiments and mental or spiritual states (Laban 1980).

Moreover, expression itself can be useful (also in words). For me expression is a form of acknowledgement, acceptance of its existence. It also enables release of tension that comes from holding things inside. It is a creative outlet. Moreover, expression creates meaning into our being and lies at the beginning of clarity and transformation, because when something gets a shape it becomes possible to look at it (Merleau-Ponty 1962; Sikkema 2010).

Furthermore, movement is also the most elementary form of spontaneity and playfulness. It can also stimulate these qualities. Playfulness and spontaneity can help to break through routine and patterns and enhance trust. Furthermore, playfulness is important regarding conflict transformation, because it is the driver for curiosity, creativity and exploration (Brown 2008; Lotto 2016).

Embracing uncertainty is often hard for human beings, as evolutionary uncertainty is coupled with risk of death. It is only in play that one seeks uncertainty. And the only way it is possible to do something new is to step into this uncertainty, to be able to take that risk.

Therefore play opens up a new world of possibilities. It opens one to embrace the unknown,

it opens one for transformation. This makes the stimulus of play through dance of upmost importance (Lederach 2005; Lotto 2016) 30.

The aspect of playfulness is also essential because it enables one to practise in switching between stressful and relaxed situation. In this way it is a practise for a healthy pattern of energy flow described by Reich; from tension, to charge, discharge and relaxation

– as discussed in chapter six. It also enables one to stay calmer in stressful situation. In this way one can avoid to get into a fight/flee attitude and replace it with more steadiness and compassion, which is needed to succeed in peace work (Marrone 1990; Porges 2015; Linden

2015).

Lastly, playfulness is able to break through power differences. It is through the signals of play that a basic sense of human trust is build and it can create a sense of belonging. These play signals are often lost as people grow into adulthood, therefore the stimulation of playfulness through dance can enhance this human potential (Brown 2008).

Each movement is in fact always a discovery of the self, widening the scope of being

(Facci 2011; Sheets-Johnstone 2011). Movement thus stimulates discovering new connections, new possibilities and perspectives, which lies at the heart of conflict transformation (Lederach 2005).

It allows us to engage the experiences of our lives differently. Literally, it is a way to change perspective, to experience the dynamic order of things. It enables us to resonate in a different way to our surroundings and thereby open the possibility for transformation.

30 Beau Lotto is a neuro-scientist dedicated to the human perception (Lotto 2020).

Dance is a practise in which we experience ourselves as the rhythm or our own bodily becoming. LaMothe (2006) stresses this importance as it enables us to break with the ascetic ideals we have become. Thus,

as transformative practise, dance appears as an activity in which we are always losing and finding ourselves at once, participating consciously in a logic of creation and destruction. By providing us with a concrete experience of this rhythm, dance exercises our desire, willingness, and ability to become who we are. (LaMothe 2006, 224)

We thus have to empty ourselves of what we no longer need to be able to become anew. Herein she is inspired by Nietzsche (1975) who wrote that we have to first be ready to burn in our own flame, to become ashes, before we can become new. For LaMothe, dance offers a possibility, a space for this process.

Furthermore, movement enables me to be in the present moment and it activates imagination. It gives me a more open feeling. It can also help in letting go of thoughts and prejudices. The stimulation of imagination is also transformative, because imagination nurtures action and thereby creates the conditions for something new to become possible

(Facci 2011). Similarly, as I mentioned previously, dance and movement foster creativity and curiosity. It lets us experience ourselves as inherently creative (LaMothe 2006).

Creativity as a sensitivity and interest to move beyond what currently exists. I repeat: that is the core of conflict transformation. Having the imagination and creativity to move beyond what currently exists. Moreover, in a continuously changing world we are in the need of continuously creative adaption to keep re-discovering peaces (Lederach 2005).

Another quality that dance can enhance is the ability to be flexible and free to experience life. To let energy flow, and to release pain and suffering through the untying of knots of tension and stress. Furthermore, movement can generate an attitude of embracing,

which entails accepting oneself and it stimulates the care for the body (Open Floor

International 2020; Facci 2011).

Besides, dancing together with others generates a deep connection. In this way, it can stimulate to overcome the fear of other bodies, because dancers can feel their bodies resonate with each other (Facci 2011). Lederach names the embracing of our interconnectedness as a requirement for breaking violence.

If we acknowledge that we are relational beings, that we are in relation, the importance of experiencing this deep connection for peace is evident (Lederach 2005; Dietrich

2013). Next to connection with others, dance can also strengthen the connection to ourselves, because through dance we can learn to move in ways that express love for ourselves (LaMothe

2006).

I have already named that movement provides a sense of agency and capability, which can also be described as responsibility. Besides, movement provides the feeling and affirmation of freedom – an important element for me. Altogether, movement in the rhythm of the body, experiencing responsibility and the freedom of action stimulate a change of action

(Facci 2011).

Finally, dance is a way to practise the qualities of presence, creativity and imagination, thereby it enables one to integrate them more into daily life. Movement can thus be a form of revealing the potential we have as humans for peace and conflict transformation. To experience that within ourselves, through interaction with other movers and in our capacity to be that in the world (Facci 2011; Open Floor International 2020).

I continue this research by describing two movement practises in specific. 5Rhythms and Authentic Movement both offer a slightly different perspective on how these described potentials could be worked with in a practical form.

7.1. 5Rhythms Gabrielle Roth developed the 5Rhythms dance practice. In her books Sweat your prayers out and Maps to ecstasy she works with the body as metaphor of life. Her 5Rhythms dance practice aims at surrendering to movement and thereby connecting to the body and soul. Her assumption is that the body has a natural tendency to ecstasy (Roth 1998a; Roth 1998b).

7.1.1 Foundations of 5Rhyhtyms Roth (1941 – 2012) was trained as a professional dancer. She struggled with the discipline that ballet put on her body and from this struggle she started searching for alternatives. For dance as a free explorative method. Due to a knee injury she gave up professional dance and came to the Esalen Institute in the United States. This is where she met and worked with Fritz Perls, who’s work I discussed in chapter six regarding Gestalt psychotherapy (5Rythms 2020).

In her years at the Esalen Institute she developed the 5Rhythms out of experimental work. To guide this work she also started producing her own music. At the Esalen Institute, she learned beside her most dominant inspiratory Oscar Ichazo, a psychospiritual teacher, who is the founder of the Arica school and known for the personality typology of the

Enneagram. Furthermore, she was inspired by the work of Fritz Perls, Stanislav Grof, Gregory

Bateson, Alejandro Jodorowsky and shamanic traditions of native Americans (Dietrich 2013;

5Rythms 2020).

In the previous sub-chapter, I have shown how the way we move resembles the way we feel - the way we are. Roth confirms this as she writes that ‘’you are how you move’’ (Roth

1998a, xxiii). Thereby she shows that movement is a way of self-discovery. Who am I? How do

I move and can I also move differently? I invite you, as reader, to let these questions echo in your embodied mind for a while. To see if you can understand/feel this idea in your body.

If I am the way I move, observation of movement can bring interesting insights into my life and observation of other people’s movement about them. The body reflects everything, because everything is also stored within the body. The body thus has a lot of knowledge and it speaks to us and others.

During the dance practise, each rhythm is guided by specific type of music that stimulates the experience. The role of music is important as it gets people into movement and because music itself is a form of movement. It speaks to the whole body, not only the ears, and it eases the body to express in totality. Therefore music can ease people into the flow of movement that expresses and liberates (Fux, as cited in Facci 2011).

Roth argues that when we dance for a long time, our inner rhythm will take over and thereby we can sense who we are at our core and see how great our potential is. It is a form of letting go of what she calls the world’s spell (Roth 1998a). I interpret it as letting go of our daily assumptions, ideas and expectations, to be in the current moment and open to what evolves from there.

For Roth, the 5 Rhythms movement is a spiritual practise. She writes that through ‘’the rhythm of the body we can trace our holiness (…). States of being where all identities dissolve into an eternal flow of energy’’ (Roth 1998a, xxvii). It thus connects us to the larger whole. It brings us closer to ourselves and thereby also with the part of us beyond our daily perceived borders.

She literally calls movement a medicine, because she writes that if you put yourself in motion, you will heal yourself. Movement of the body as an antidote for inertia. The five rhythms are universal and they all stand for a specific energy and matching type of movement.

The rhythms are called: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness. They are regularly danced in what is called a wave, in which the rhythms follow up on each other in the above written order (Roth 1998a).

Each rhythm has its own style and focus of movement, one might be more natural for you than the other, but they all represent a vital energy of life. By moving through different energies, one can also experience different feelings. Which is crucial regarding transformation work, because feelings are vital energies in our life and moving through them allows for transformation of their energy (Koppensteiner 2019b). I will now take a closer look at the different rhythms.

7.1.2 Illustration of the rhythms Flowing is fluid and flexible, while being connected to the ground. In flowing, there are no distinctions or separations, everything is continuous change. Flowing is sensitivity and matching movements are round and graceful. It is being loose and connecting to the base current of ourselves. Movements follow each other as organic entities, it is the rhythm of the earth, the rhythm of being (Roth 1998a).

Flowing is wandering around town without a specific goal and an open attitude to whatever comes your way. It is adaptive, soft and ease. The rhythm of flowing can be seen in the practise of Tai Chi, surfing and calligraphy. Archetypical it is the energy of the mother and the mistress. The rhythm of flowing can be hard to surrender to as it is unpredictable (Roth

1998a, Koppensteiner 2019b).

It is the life phase of birth and it entails fear for this unknown, for where the unpredictable movement might bring you. It is immersing into this universal flow of energy, of which people are often disconnected. The awareness is in loose feet that connects to the ground (Roth 1998a; Koppensteiner 2019b; 5Rhythms 2020).

Staccato is the rhythm of passion, fire and anger. It is decisive, it is action and outward oriented. Matching movements are significant and distinctive ones. Moving in angles. It is the pounding heart. Staccato is the life phase of childhood, with its short span of attention and the testing of limits. It is the young kid kicking the door. Its energy suits to Kung Fu, rap music and the chopping of wood (Roth 1998a).

It is the rhythm of fast changes in movement, but it is also knowing what you want and going to get it. It is being in touch with your passion and showing it. It is walking through a busy train station in a hurry for that appointment, rushing your way through the crowd. You might bump into someone, but it is about the goal, about getting what you want (Roth 1998a;

Koppensteiner 2019b).

Staccato is commitment and it is putting yourself out there in the world, taking space and taking action – doing. Whereas flowing is letting it in – inhaling –, staccato is letting it out

– exhaling. Archetypical it is the father and the son. The bodily focus lies with the hips, elbows and knees that lead the rest of the body (Roth 1998a; Koppensteiner 2019b).

Chaos is the collision of flowing and staccato. The feminine and masculine energies coming together. The energy can be seen in boiling water, the popping of popcorn and a roller coaster. It is the getting out of control until we dissolve. It is the world of art and visionaries.

Movement is multi-directional, breathing in and breathing out. It is falling in love and diving beyond the surface (Roth 1998a).

Furthermore, within the rhythm of chaos lies intuition, impulses and spontaneity. It is

‘’creativity seeking form’’ (Roth 1998b, xvi) and therefore unpredictable. This loss of control can make people fear this energy. Nevertheless, there is a lot of potential in chaos, giving in to an emptiness that contains a lot of potential. Life is not predictable nor secure, it is chaotic.

Through the dance of this rhythm and energy one can learn to embrace the unknown and appreciate it (Roth 1998a).

I want to recall the importance that Lederach (2005) ascribes to the willingness and ability to take risks and embrace the unknown for conflict transformation. The ability to embrace the unknown enables to look beyond the currently perceived possible – to transform.

If someone is afraid of chaos, he is blocked from his intuition and creativity. Therefore practising this energy/rhythm can help to open up to this intuitive and creative potential.

Accompanying movements are free and can be wild. Archetypical it is the artist and the lover and it is the life phase of puberty. Awareness is on a free spine, head and neck, which gives space to let go of resistance and baggage (Roth 1998a; Koppensteiner 2019b).

The rhythm of lyrical arises from chaos. After one has let go, she is able to integrate and feel light. It is an effortless, playful and expressive rhythm. It is the awaking of spring, the ring of jingle bells and the falling of snowflakes. Roth calls it the most intricate and intangible rhythm, because it is really needed to fully experience the chaos rhythm to be able to experience lyrical (Roth 1998a).

It is the energy of discovery, in which nothing is fixed. Therefore it is the rhythm of detachment and imagination. Imagining who we want to be, who we can be. To recall, the importance of play and imagination are crucial in transformation work. It stimulates new

connections, enhances trust and helps to break through routine patterns (Roth 1998a;

Lederach 2005; Facci 2011).

Lyrical regards the life phase of maturity, with its joy of having gone through puberty and adolescence. It is taking charge and responsibility of your life. Archetypical it is the shapeshifter. The movement focuses on the arms that take the rest of the body along in discovery (Roth 1998a; Roth 1998b; Koppensteiner 2019b).

Stillness is the dance of pure presence and dissolution of the individual into the larger whole. It is inward orientated and the movement is slow. It is the energy of contentment and compassion for ourselves an others. Stillness is the emptiness that one is left with after going through the other rhythms (Roth 1998a).

It can be felt in the atmosphere of a library, the endlessness of a desert or the peacefulness of a sleeping cat. It is subtle and silent, the life phase of approaching death.

Stillness is coming home after an intense day of work, taking time for yourself and turning inward. Listening to what is without need for doing.

Within stillness lies wisdom and compassion. It is the archetypical alchemist ‘’spinning fear into love and pain into prayer’’ (Roth 1998a, 190). The focus is on the breath that keeps us in the present moment (Roth 1998a; Koppensteiner 2019b).

Roth’s idea of dance relates to the earlier discussed points of Nietzsche and LaMothe, respectively that one has to be ready to burn in their own flame; that dance is a process of destruction and construction. In this regard, Roth writes that ‘’to reach the light we first shave to travel into the heart of darkness. After all, isn’t light created out of darkness?’’ (Roth 1998a, xxvii).

This rearrangement of the self is mostly found in the chaos rhythm, as it teaches ‘’how to die and be reborn’’ (Roth 1998a, 119). The process of re-emergence can also be found in the wave of the rhythms. The rhythms of flowing and staccato form a basis for collision of the two.

Furthermore, one has to go through chaos, through the collision and the wildness, to be able to arrive at lyrical and later stillness. When one is not able to connect to the chaos rhythm, the lyrical will be different as it emerges out of chaos. Neither will the turn inward with stillness touch as deeply. Getting into a new rhythm is always leaving something behind, losing something, to find something new in the next rhythm.

During my master of Peace Studies at the University of Innsbruck I have followed two courses that were strongly inspired on 5Rhythms dance. I did not feel like a dancer before, I never took classes, but this was completely different. It is not about moving gracefully at all.

The ‘ugliest’ dances were welcome, as long as it fits to your body, your rhythm and your feelings in the current moment.

This was a revelation for me. Slowly I got into it and discovered how much I love to dance and how much it brings me. I get into a state where time is irrelevant, it makes me feel connected with my body and it evokes feelings from within. Through the dance, I feel that I am part of a bigger whole and I have become more comfortable to rhythms of movement that were less familiar to me. I have experienced that stuck energies could flow and that I became more aware of my embodiment.

7.2. Authentic Movement Regarding 5Rhythms dance practise, I have described movement as way to discover, connect to the body and feel the connection with the larger whole. Similarly, within authentic

movement, someone’s movement resembles their state of being. A difference is that

5Rhythms is more structured, going through different conceptual rhythms, whereas the focus of Authentic Movement lies primarily with the rhythm of the mover.

In Authentic movement, it is about being more conscious of movements, rather than to ‘act out’ (Halprin 2003). In 5Rhythms there is a stimulation of experience through music, in which outer movements bring us closer to inner movements. Authentic Movement leaves from silence, from creating a space to let the inner movements emerge.

7.2.1 The origin of authentic movement Authentic movement is a practise that occurs in various forms, but finds its basis in the work of Mary Starks Whitehouse and the originally called movement-in-depth. Whitehouse was strongly influenced by the Carl Gustav Jung and his idea of active imagination (Lowell 2017).

She studied together with Mary Wigman and Martha Graham, who also have a focus on integrating emotional expression in dance. Bringing Jungian psychology and dance together she searched for a way to unite the body and soul in the western world of dance

(Movementindepth 2016).

The term authentic refers to a movement that is a genuine ‘truth’ for and belonging to that person (Whitehouse 1979). I would say it is the complete opposite of a practised dance step in a performance, with its origin from an external person or moment. This is an unpractised movement coming from the inside in the present moment, suiting to that specific person.

Let me clarify this description of movement being authentic. Whitehouse would often play music at some point of the practise and instead of encouraging people to move to the rhythm music, she encouraged them to keep it as background (Frieder 2017). For me, this

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shows a greater focus to the body’s inner rhythm instead of the rhythm of the music. There is no right or wrong way to move, only an authentic way.

The background of this approach lies in the idea that the creative urge of an individual is bigger than external forms can hold. Therefore, schools or techniques inhibit exploring the vast creativity of a person. Therefore there is a need to work with the inner impulses and creativity. Moreover, it is transformative because it enables this creative inner energy to flow and display (Sullwold & Ramsay 2017).

Her work was followed up by many practitioners in the field. Her students Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow became the main developers. Adler’s work deepens the understanding of the relation between mover and witness, as described later. Furthermore, she connects

Authentic movement with spiritual traditions (Haze & Stromsted 1999). For Chodorow, her work as a dance therapist is closely linked with being a Jungian analyst. She is also inspired by

Jungian forms of active imagination and links this with movement (Zenoff 1999).

7.2.2 Authentic movement in practice Now that I have discussed the background of Authentic Movement, let us see how it looks like in practise. Authentic movement may be found in various forms, but the basic structure was put together by Janet Adler. Below, I sketch a situation of how a practice could look like.

There is a person moving and another person is witnessing. It can be only two people or a group with multiple couples. The mover has her eyes closed and moves as a response to an inner impulse. Closing yourself off from external visual input enables a deep inner sensing experience. This can reach into the body’s tissues and evoke images, emotions, memories and sensations. It creates a space of active interest and receptivity to the knowledge stored in the

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body (Stromsted & Haze 2017). The mover embraces an attitude of curiosity and respect for her embodiment.

In principle the eyes are closed during movement, excluding moments of open eyes for orientation to avoid collision or in moments of exuberant movements. This does not mean that contact is not possible, it is even embraced in this practise. Contact always with respect to their own rhythm and each other’s boundaries (Lowell 2017).

The witness sits on the side of the room. There is an important difference between witnessing and observing in this practise. The task of the witness is to be fully present with the mover, thereby supporting the experience of the mover. It is not a looking as judging the way this person moves, but rather being fully present with that person’s being. The time of movement can differ from usually between 20 minutes to one hour.

After the movement and a short transition phase of rest, the mover and witness share their experiences. As a ground rule, the mover starts sharing and chooses if he wants the witness to respond. The witness will only share her own perspective, therefore she always speaks from the ‘I’ perspective. The witness does not share about what the mover might have experienced (Lowell 2017). Hereby participants also learn distinguishing the inner and outer experience (Stromsted &Haze 2017).

From a more practical perspective I will now move to a process-orientated analysis.

For Whitehouse, the process of authentic movement consists of three phases. The first phase is to improve awareness of one’s own body and movement. This strong awareness of the moving body enables deeper levels of a person to unfold. This lays within the process of finding the subjective connecting to a specific movement, which is created through awareness of movement (Frieder 2017).

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The second phase is when the ego gives up control in the movement experience. It changes from doing something to surrendering to what happens, it changes from a ‘I move’ to a ‘being moved’. Being moved not by someone else, but by an inner impulse that is followed deeply into physical movement. It is the difference between, on one side movement that is directed by the ego and on the other side movement that arises from the unconscious – the I am being moved (Whitehouse 1958; Frieder 2017).

It is what Janet Adler calls a form of direct experience, in which there is no division felt between the moving self and the inner witness of that movement. Rather one experiences a unity, ‘’there is an awareness of and immersions in the ineffable of nonduality‘’ (Adler 2017a,

29). This direct experience of pure embodied awareness creates a form of intuitive knowing

(Adler 2017b).

This idea of ‘being moved’ might stay abstract to describe for people that have not experienced it. Adler describes the process as a change from willing to surrendering, in which there is no consciousness of an ‘I’ anymore (as cited by Plevin 2017). A surrendering not as giving up, but as giving in. Not as a defeat, but as dropping whatever you are holding on to and giving in to the present moment.

The third phase is making an outer connection to the experience of movement. For this, there is a need to be open to what is coming from inside, being patient and concentrated so new ways of interacting with the world become possible (Frieder 2017).

7.3. Movement and transformation Throughout my text I have given pointers on the potential of movement for transformation.

Here I want to bundle and deepen this understanding. I also take a closer look at the

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transformative power that derives from the mover-witness dynamic within Authentic

Movement.

I have already extensively discussed the potential of working with movement as a mirror of someone’s being. Furthermore, movement is a way to connect to the unconscious and that in itself would be inherently healing (Frieder 2017). Conscious experience of movement is thus a way of making the unconscious conscious, which can be transformative.

Moreover, it is a way to reveal things beyond or regardless of what words can say. It can thus be a way to give a voice to that which cannot be expressed through words (Whitehouse 1969).

Furthermore, movement can evoke bodily memory and therefore it offers the possibility to re-experience, differentiate and restructure feelings. This makes it possible to integrate feelings in manageable parts into a new coherent whole (Wyman-McGinty, as cited in Pallaro 2017). Emotions that come up also begin to change, especially when they are expressed (Friedman 2015).

Movement makes it possible to experience the body more fully, this enables one to be more present with feelings, sensations, images and impulses. Thereby, it can re-establish the person’s sense of inner authority and the way of articulating it. Furthermore, it can soften blocks on creativity and restore ‘’a sense of hope and direction in life that springs from a deep inner source’’ (Stromsted 2017, 204).

Distinctive for Authentic Movement is the relation between the mover and the witness. From this relation also derives a transformative potential, because when something enters into a relation, in the process of seeing and being seen, transformation can take place

(Rogers 1961; Adler 2017a).

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The element of a witnessing also strengthens the capacity to be present with oneself and the other in a embodied and conscious way (Adler 2017a; Stromsted 2017). The sharing and being listened to also causes people to listen to themselves more and get clear what they think and feel. Moreover, being listened to makes people emotionally mature, less defensive and increases openness for their own experience (Rogers & Farson 1987).

Furthermore, it is especially within the act of being witnessed and mirrored, that one understands and feels understood. Because understanding takes place in a shared place of relationality (Schwartz-Salant, as cited in Stromsted & Haze 2017). Being seen is a basic human need and the power of witnessing becomes explicit in authentic movement.

As the witness tunes into the bodily movement of the mover, the witness is able to resonate with related feelings of the mover. This can be explained by the fact that our consciousness is an open system (Dietrich 2013). The sensory system converges with its surroundings, our bodies are open systems and thus interwoven, which enables us to feel what the other feels (Abram 2017).

Neurologically this can be explained through kinaesthetic empathy, as discussed in chapter four (Rizzolatti 2006; Wagner 2015; Pallaro 2017). Through mirror neurons we integrate that what we see into our own actual experience. Therefore the body immediately understands the body of the other, without deliberate mental processing.

The reflection above on the interaction between mover and witness shows how

Authentic Movement can be a method of elicitive conflict work. Namely, it places relationality at the centre. Furthermore, the practise focusses on evoking a certain experience within the participant, without aiming for a specific outcome. It works with what comes up in the moment.

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More than that, it provides a space for the unexpected to happen, for the creative act to emerge (Lederach 2005). It embraces the irrational (Lowen 1967). This enables creativity and creating something anew. Hereby it is in line with the philosophy of elicitive conflict work.

It can be seen as the rubbing around the singing bowl, waiting for a sound, a movement, to emerge from deep within.

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8. Discussion

The more I expressed myself, the more interesting the dance became

The sound of music– it takes you and lets you move in shapes of love

(Workshop participants)

From the theoretical analysis I now move to the discussion of the empirical part of the research. This exists of two ways of data collection. Firstly, my own observation of the workshops and secondly an analysis of the questionnaires as described in the methods section. It is important to note that the following reflection is a very personal and therefore subjective one. The aim is not to present the ‘truth’ of how the workshop developed, but to give an impression of the atmosphere.

8.1. Facilitator’s description The hours before the workshop I was waiting for a press conference around the Corona

virus. I felt tensed. Due to the corona virus there was a lot of insecurity about the

possibility to hold the workshop. For health reasons I asked participants to drop out with

the lightest symptoms and therefore many of them were dropping out. Because it was still

allowed to hold workshop I decided to continue with it that evening.

As the twilight slowly introduces itself, I cycle to the workshop room, which is only a few

minutes away from where I live. John31 arrives with me to prepare the room. The room

looks still quite new and the temperature is pleasant as they have already put on the

heating for us. It is a shared common room of an ecological community in Nijmegen Lent

(IEWAN).

This community is housed a bit out of town. Out of the city and close to the river with

its quite forelands. The walls of the room are made of hay and clay, we walk on a wooden

31 All the names used in the text of the discussion are fictitious for privacy reasons.

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floor and tree branches are hanging in the air of the high ceiling. This creates an intimate atmosphere. The room breathes a certain tenderness. We put pillows in a circle (with enough distance) and a candle in the middle. The microphone is tested, incense fills the air and a gentle melody spreads through the room. I am ready to receive the dancers.

At first a couple arrives. Julie and Peter just came back from a long car trip, but they are keen to prolong their day for this session. Peter arrives bare feet and with a big smile, while Julie stays a bit on the background at first. Slowly the other participants arrive. Some cannot find it at first, which makes the place feel like a hidden location. A place of which you have to know where it is to find it.

For such an embodied session it feels uncomfortable to keep distance and avoid physical contact. Or maybe it is my own accustoming to making contact and connect through physical touch. Stella and Julie greet, their bodies want to approach each other at first and then they stop. They have to keep their physical distance, which makes it harder to connect and show warmth. Because I also promoted the workshop through my own social circle, I see some familiar faces within the group. I look around, I hear them say that most do not really know what to expect, but that they arrived with an open ‘mind’.

Most of them look excited, for Lisa and Stella this excitement is mixed with a certain level of anxiety.

The participants themselves rarely know each other and they are checking out the vibe of the group. Myself? I am nervous. I have given workshops before, but never in such a setting. So the workshop starts with a level of discomfort in the group and within myself.

The group is still a bunch of individuals put together. It does not feel safe yet.

This is also what the first exercises are about, creating a group and safe environment.

So we start moving. Seven bodies start to walk around the room and I start seducing them.

Seducing to let go of judgements and ideas on how they should move or on what is accepted. We move like robots, like penguins and like queens. I call upon them to

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exaggerate their movement. I start walking with them exaggerating my own movements to show that every movement is welcome.

I feel a certain resistance within the group. Lisa starts to giggle a bit and her movements seem forced. She, and others, are holding on to their judgements, having difficulties to move out of their comfort zone. It makes me feel insecure. Are they going to be willing to go along with my exercises? To really engage with it? Am I capable to facilitate this?

Getting to the second exercise, I feel that the energy shifts in the room. The dancers are moving in duo’s and this creates much more safety. In a group of two, only one other person is watching. They connect with this one person more easily than with a whole group, and as this connection eases their movement exploration is supported.

Eyes start to open up, tingle slightly. Next to me, I see that Stella and Julie are being very curious and engaged to try out new type of movements. It even leaves John with muscle pain in his left pink, as he would later tell me that he was following this body part so deeply into his dance.

As the group engages more, a form of relaxation comes over me. I am able to be more present with the participants and simultaneously bring relaxation into the group. I look around in the room. Stella is smiling as she finds a new way to move and her partner looks intrigued by her moving body. The (self-) discovery is being shared and this connects people. They are bonding. Slowly, I see Lisa starting to let go some of her resistance, letting the movement flow more. It feels more safe now that they have experienced that the group does not judge. Their freedom of exploration has been affirmed and it brings the group together in a shared notion of trust.

As I start with the explanation of the 5Rhtyhms the last participant arrives. Karin is the only dancer who is a bit older, which makes me happy that she joins. Interestingly, my feeling tells me the group feels the same. The group had united through the exercises and they are now most welcoming and invite Karin into the group. There is almost a cheer

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going around the room that we are now complete. Karin needs some time to get into the mood, but after a while I can see that her face relaxes more. She is arriving in the room, the group and the moment.

Now is the moment that I have to exemplify the rhythms. I feel insecure, because I never thought of myself explaining others how to dance and my confidence on my own dancing skills is still developing. I feel uncomfortable for a moment, as I find it difficult to sense how the group receives the explanation. I tell them that I will give some pointers during the dance and that the music will also guide them. No question in the group, which means we can start to dance!

I put on the first song and ask the participant to slowly start moving. It is a mantra remix, slowly starting with a predictable, repeating sound. Dancers start to move in circles, flowing around in the room. As the dance proceeds I get immersed into my role as facilitator, letting go of expectations or judgements and opening up to what the group needs. I feel more relaxation and fun.

I ask them to exaggerate their movements and later to change it again. I ask the dancers to take over each other’s movements and to let it go again. I encourage them to keep moving through the room, to keep exploring.

At one moment, I share a part of the dance with the participants. On the other moment,

I am on the side of the room with my laptop mixing the music or giving pointer through the microphone. John is a DJ, so he helped me practise in advance, but I have to acknowledge it is a complete different art. The quality of the transitions differ, but it does not affect the atmosphere so much.

What does change the atmosphere is now that I put on a song that does not suit to the moment and the group. I can feel that the group does not ‘accept’ the song. They do not feel it and it blocks the flow. Movement slows down, or even stops for David. As I ask them to dance in duo’s, I notice the flow of movement returns. Dancing together stimulates

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their energies. Together they come to new movements more easily. The connection breaks the inertia.

Dancing staccato seems quite difficult for the group. The rhythm of the music slowly increases and at first they are able to go along with it. The song changes, the beats per minute rise, the melody gets a place in the background. Staccato is the rhythm of anger and passion, but most people struggle with connecting with this fire side inside of them.

The movements appears somehow artificial, not completely felt from inside. I attempt to stimulate them, to put all their energy in, to feel their fire. John, Peter and Julie feel it most. I see sweat dripping from their cheeks. The temperature rises in the room. I encourage them to make short movements, movements in angles. I see that most try to dance that way, but not be it. It makes them tired, I see their movements slowing down, waiting for the next rhythm to take over.

Throughout the dance I keep giving them pointers. I ask them to let go of their control over their movement, to let themselves be moved by the music. To experiment with movements in speed and size. To surrender to the movement, to the dance.

Some of the dancers can really surrender to the dance and let go of everything, others had more difficulty with that. To exemplify: I see Lisa dance, she moves even a bit ‘crazy’, a bit less regulated or as usual. But still I sense a level of control. My body feels a certain reticence, a holding on, when I kinaesthetically empathize with her moving body.

The music turns into the chaos rhythm. Loose necks and loose spines. Shaking bodies on the beat of the drums. For some chaos is a bit unclear as a rhythm, while others are really shaking everything off. Shaking their hands and feet in all directions. The temperature rises further and some t-shirts are being dropped on the ground.

David is struggling. He takes just another short break to drink water, and he looks like being ‘out’ of the dance. In his eyes I read that he is not present, that his thoughts were

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taking him to a place far away. I notice that I am judging about this and that it stimulates me in motivating the whole group to always keep moving. Even if it are the smallest movements, as long as they keep moving. Later, I see that he is very immersed into a specific feeling that is hard to handle for him. I sense that it is also influences the group.

Other dancers are distracted. I can see Stella and Karin frown their face and struggling while making contact with David through dancing together. They try not to show it, but their bodies tell a different story.

The music gets lighter and the group enters lyrical. This energy is though for some, or at least as a facilitator I cannot always feel the lyrical energy being in the air. I keep encouraging the participants. ‘’Use your whole body to move’’, ‘’Follow a body part deeper into your dance’’. I had not planned to give many pointers, but I feel the group can use them. I see Karin making the same type of movement over and over again and I feel she can use an impulse to take herself deeper into the dance.

Gently the music slows down. Music becomes soft and sensitive. The group is really in tune with the stillness. And also stillness comes to an end. A beautiful end to me. Along with the music, the participants slow down gently and really bring their attention inwards.

Because this feels powerful I tell them to just stand there for a while and feel their bodies.

Here I can feel what Roth means when she writes that sometimes it may take stillness, standing still, to feel the body dance. Their bodies are not just standing still, they are vibrating, dancing, in stillness.

The silence can be felt deep down to your bones. The only thing you hear is breath flowing in and out of the dancers bodies. Breath that connects, that flows naturally. I decide to do a short anchoring exercise, to put the hand on a body part that one feels most and anchor the feeling one has there. I am touched by the beauty of each participant standing there in silence. All of them let go of at least a part of the world’s spell. They have

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washed of a part of their masks and appear raw and present to me. They have partaken

in the dance of losing and finding themselves.

Everyone finds their place on a pillow to fill in the questionnaire. I walk around in a

room that is still filled with intensity. I give the dancers a candle as appreciation for the

effort they put into the questionnaire. With all the candles in the room it becomes quite a

spiritual setting. As they are writing, I appreciate that all the dancers stay silent and keep

the energy from the ending of stillness. Nobody wants to break that. My perception is that

they are in contact with a deep part of themselves.

The last person lays down her pen and we get back into a circle again. Everyone with

their own candle in front of them and a candle in the middle. I ask them to look around in

the room and thank each other for their presence today without words. Eyes go across the

room, searching and finding, and speaking of gratitude to each other by a blink of the

eyes.

Finally, I give them the opportunity to share only one word that comes up within them.

A word that is present right now. By the sound and taste of these words I could feel they

meant it. That the words are a continuation of their physical being. The words came from

the core of their being. This is what they shared: Free, Connection, Letting go, Energy,

Emotion, Rest, Calmness. My heart fills with warmth and I share my gratefulness.

So far the description of my experience. The main aspects for me are: the combination of discomfort being present in moments and that people were immersed in the dance.

Furthermore, the great influence of the music and finally the power that I felt witnessing the stillness of the dancers.

8.2. Analysis Now that the image of the atmosphere is described, I will analyse the questionnaires of the workshop participants. I will describe the role of music and movement, the experience of the

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dancers of the rhythms and subsequently the bodily observations of participants. Further, I elaborate on emotions, expression, memories and the influence of the group. As the workshop and questionnaire were held in Dutch all quotes were translated by the author.

As a first note, a few participants describe the change of being uncomfortable or hiding in the beginning, but slowly feeling more comfortable and free during the dance. Also someone started daring more and experience more pleasure. This indicates a change of atmosphere, which I also described in my observations.

In the following paragraphs I discuss the interplay between music on the one hand and movement and feeling on the other. Furthermore, I discuss how music speaks to the whole body and how it facilitates to surrender to the dance.

8.2.1 The role of music A repetitive observation of the participants is the contradiction between dancing based on their own feelings or dancing based on the (musical) rhythm with corresponding instructions.

Even though I explained that they could always follow their body, this creates a struggle for some. This could be due to my explanation, or as an example of a more general struggle between listening to the own bodily rhythm or the rhythm of the outside world.

Furthermore, the importance of the flow of the music becomes evident. When the music does not match the flow of a participant, he is not able engage with it. On the other hand, participants describe that when the music matches the way they feel like dancing, the music was a stimulation for them.

Nevertheless, the difference in rhythms and music aim to challenge the dancers to explore different forms of movement. The fact that the music does not correspond to the dancer’s flow, could also denote a difficulty for the dancer to dance a certain rhythm.

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The role of music is distinct, because music itself is a form of movement and therefore it facilitates getting people into movement. Additionally, music does not only speak to one’s ear or brain, but the whole body resonates to the music. Music is alive and therefore it penetrates the whole body. It facilitates and encourages the body in finding ways to express itself as a whole (Facci 2011). I return to the aspect of expression later in sub-chapter 8.2.4.

So the music invites and stimulates, but in a way it also creates a frame for a certain range of movements. A rhythm that is unfamiliar will not easily flow within a dancer. This discomfort might be exactly the place for learning . A participant writes: ‘’very interesting – the sound of music– it takes you and lets you move in shapes of love’’, making clear that the music plays a crucial role in this setting. Music influences the flow of energy and it is this reshaping of energy that Dietrich (2013) names as transformation.

As such, a participant describes that depending on the type of music, her feelings shifted. The role of music is thus a catalyst to the experience of feelings and movement. Music also helps in surrendering to the dance for Lisa. She is able to surrender to the dance when the emotion of the music and her own emotion are in resonance. In contrast, difficulties in this ability are caused by repetition of similar movement, frustration of not coming up with new movements and also by taking oneself too serious and being very self-aware.

8.2.2 Awareness and release Now that I have discussed the role of music, I proceed with the potential to release through movement and the interconnection between movement and awareness of feelings. Besides music, movement of the body itself also plays this catalyst role regards feeling. Within the

5Rhythms practise the music and movement style are intertwined, which makes them work together.

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In this regard John writes: ‘’moving is feeling’’. This is similar to Bob Boot32 (2004), who describes that movement and feeling are inextricably connected, because feeling something always includes a form of movement, which can be outer and inner movement.

This theoretical foundation is underlined by Stella. She reports that she created a clearer picture of what was happening inside of her through movement. Movement is giving a form of expression of what you feel and through this expression a feeling gets meaning and it is able to be deepened.

Furthermore, feeling our bodies and being aware of our feelings, can decrease repression and release blockages. A transformation of our bodily awareness can free up energy, while repression and blockages go at the cost of a lot energy - as discussed in chapter six. It is like when someone is pushing a balloon under water. When someone stops pushing it down, the balloon surfaces and the energy to repress is freed. This is transformation.

The earlier described aspect of attention and also readiness to stay with the body is crucial to connect to the knowledge of the body. Namely, ‘’[t]he willingness to pay deep attention to the inner wisdom and movement of your body is a fully sufficient teacher to move you into a state of utter wholeness and aliveness’’ (Kapora 2012, 6).

Dancing is also described as a vessel for release. Stella felt tensed inside and through the dance she lost this tension. For Peter, movement created more awareness of the body as a whole. He describes that after the dance practise he feels himself and his sensations more when he moves. In correspondence he feels more connected to the emotional and corporal aspect of his being.

32 Bob Boot is a Dutch haptotherapist, movement scientist and physical therapist (Bot 2004).

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Dancers thus become more connected to their body. They feel their body – themselves

– deeper. This stronger felt connection to the body is also crucial for conflict transformation, as this awareness is a first step to being able to act upon the knowledge of the body. ‘’It is this experience of grounded in the flesh and blood body which provides the precondition for an alternative set of possibilities as to how we live, love and heal ourselves’’ (Marrone 1990, 15).

Accordingly, a participant describes that after the dance she is not able to distract herself anymore from the feeling that arose from her body. She feels bleak, in a genuine manner and content with feeling this bleakness, as it makes her feel light again.

This combination of a risen bodily awareness and not being able to distract from the rising bodily feelings, can help people to stay more present – also in the face of conflict. Green

(2014) writes that through feeling our always responding body it is possible to avoid the allurement to disconnect from a conflict. In this way dance can stimulate an attitude in which conflicts are taken upon and thus in which they can really become an opportunity, a motor for change. Because within conflict lies energy and as such conflict can be a driving force behind the change of situations, relations and people themselves (Dietrich 2013; Lederach 2014).

8.2.3 Thinking in movement From awareness of feelings through movement, I will now continue with the interlaced character of thought and movement. Remarkable in this regard are the words Karin uses as she describes that she did not enjoy staccato. She writes that she is not someone who moves in angles, nor thinks that way, as it does not suit her. In this description, she makes a clear link between the style of thinking and the style of moving (Sheets-Johnstone 2011).

This link is found in two more descriptions. Firstly, a dancer writes that moving together has unlimited possibilities and that it completely unties the stagnation of his thinking.

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Hereby the variety and exploration of ways of movement is directly linked with variety and exploration of ways of thinking.

Secondly, a participant reports that he thought a lot about things she usually does not think about, and also made her move in ways that she moved before. This combination exemplifies the connection of thinking and moving in a striking manner.

Hereby, the participants also show that movement has an enormous potential for self- discovery and for breaking through stagnation of thought. Moving in new ways is thinking in new ways. Actually, it is being in new ways. This opens the doorway to discovering new connections and possibilities, which takes a central place in transformation work (Lederach

2005).

Additionally, I notice that I wanted to write that these examples show that our movement thus ‘shapes’ our thinking. However, this statement still focusses on the causal relation between the corporal and the mental and thereby implicating a separation (Perls

2003).

Remembering the continuum concept of Marrone (1990), the embodiment does not only shape the mental, it is an interlaced whole. Thus, experimenting with different ways of moving entails the emergence of different thoughts. In this regard, I want to recall Perls (2003) description that thought and movement (action) are the same ‘material’ and only differ in intensity.

8.2.4 Expression and discovery Further, I want to discuss the ability to express and discover through movement. I elaborate on expression as a way of forming and deepening the understanding of the self. Further, I

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discuss discovery as liberating and a way to keep looking beyond the currently held possible and widening the scope of being.

In general people are able to express themselves during the workshop, but there are also some difficulties. Julie describes it as pleasant to express through movement, but also notices a difficulty due to tiredness, which made her movements smaller - with for her less expression.

This underlines the idea that exaggerating movements can stimulate expression as when it is made bigger it becomes more visible and easier to feel – as described in seven.

Expression also has a formative character and it deepens the understanding of the self. As one puts himself out in the world through expression, the self gets form (Keleman 1975).

Stella describes expression through movement as delightful, as she feels free to express from the inside out. For her, especially the creativity in the expression is appreciated and interesting. This aspect of creativity is crucial, as it enables to move beyond what currently exists, which lies at the heart of conflict transformation (Lederach 2005; LaMothe 2006).

Giving expression through movement is also described as liberating. This is in line with the idea that expression creates more self-understanding and that it releases emotional repression in a health improving way. Repression that can lead to helplessness and decrease the competence of the immune system. This liberation can facilitate the experience of peace for people in their lives (Keleman 1975; Marrone 1990).

If there is a lack of expression, these topics can still exert control over someone on an unconscious level. An open Gestalt exerts control and takes up energy till it is closed. In this regard, it is exemplifying that a dancer names expression as liberating. Furthermore, a space

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for healthy self-expression is also a way to prevent people from expressing themselves in an unhealthy or violent way (Perls 2003; Dietrich 2013; Van Reybrouck & d’Asnembourg 2017).

Another aspect that becomes clear in my inquiry is the aspect of self-discovery through movement. For example, John describes: ‘’The more I expressed myself, the more interesting the dance became. (…) Sometimes I came into weird positions or shapes of expression that showed me new places within myself’’.

This analysis relates to the phenomenological perspective discussed in chapter four.

The movement precedes the awareness of possibilities. Movement is primary, it makes us aware of capacities and possibilities. Or in the words of Edmund Husserl, ‘I move’ precedes ‘I can do’ (Husserl, as cited by Sheets-Johnstone 2011).

The importance of (self-) discovery is already noted regards finding new possibilities and new horizons. In my personal perspective I have also described that a lack of self-discovery can cause disorientation till the extend of inertia. If one does not know who he is, it is much harder to find peace within and peace out in the world.

Without this (bodily) orientation, developed through self-discovery, one might find peace at one point, but have a hard time finding it again and again. As the plurality of peaces tells us that peaces are context depended and thus changing. Discovering the self through movement provides clarity about ways to integrate different forms of peace into our life.

8.2.5 Rhythms and emotions In the following paragraphs I discuss the experience of the different rhythms, the emotions that come up during the dance and the importance to embrace all emotions. From the questionnaire the responses to the different rhythms are divergent. For some, all the rhythms were comfortable, for others staccato and chaos were difficult. David describes that while

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dancing he clearly felt the difference between masculine and feminine and he was able to release masculine energy.

Dancing in stillness also has different effects, for many it brought sadness as I describe below, but also a feeling of emptiness was reported when dancing gently. For Lisa, dancing gently brings more attention to thoughts again than on the body. Possibly she disconnects through a less intensive impulse of the music, or through discomfort with that style and corresponding emotions.

The difference in the responses show how dance can be seen as an elicitive method. As afacilitator, I can never foretell which type of sound arises from the different singing bowls in the room. It is also not about creating one specific type of experience, it is about creating a space for people to experience. Creating a space in which they feel free to embrace the unknown and act creatively (Lederach & Lederach 2010).

Dancers are able to express all kind of feelings that they experience through their movements. Together the dancers describe a wide spectrum of feelings. Also individuals experienced a variety, including opposing feelings, which was encountered as precious. Let me list the variety: shyness, funny, surprised, vulnerability, sadness, anger, euphoric, free, loneliness, fear, happiness, irritation, tiredness and cheerfulness.

This list sounds like quite an emotional rollercoaster, which is actually the case for some of them. This is of course also what the music can elicit. A space to explore, feel and express different movements and emotions. In this way it helps to re-create the flow of energy, which is also described as such by the dancers. I want to refer once more to Dietrich’s

(2013) description of transformation as reshaping the flow of energy. This reshaping allows people to be more open and free and thereby find alternative ways to live their life.

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Remarkably, a dancer describes that all emotions pass by, but that he is able to relatively objectively look at them and let them pass, without strong influence on him in a positive or negative sense. For me it shows the absence of a judgement of the feelings, which enables the feelings to flow through naturally and not get stuck.

Generally speaking, emotions begin to transform once they have surfaced, especially once they are expressed. When they have been given a place, they can open up space for other, sometimes deeper, emotions. Thus, the exploration and expression of feelings also helps in connecting to deeper feelings (Green 2015).

In this regard, Julie writes that at the end of the dance it felt like she had tapped into or accessed something that seemed like a kind of deep anger. Interestingly, she describes that during the first exercise of experimenting with type of movement, she was not influenced by the exercise to move angry.

The combination of not feeling anger in the beginning and later tapping into a deep anger leads me to the interpretation that the anger is usually repressed within. Repression leads to not being able to let it arise easily. Through the dance Julie is able to connect to this anger, access this emotion, possibly because the experience of a variety of other emotions opens up space for deeper emotions to surface – as stated above (Green 2015).

Through this experience she might be able to welcome anger, a vital life energy, more into her life. Hereby releasing a blockage, let energy flow again and become more free and open. This analysis remains an interpretation, but the link is at least very coincidental.

Furthermore, Stella describes that it is special to be invited to put her emotion into the dance. That she does not have to hide emotions and that through expression in movement she is able get closer to the emotion. Also these emotions changed again through the dance.

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This impression that our emotions are not welcome, is something most people will probably experience in their life at some point. Therefore, expressive and explorative movement can provide a space to welcome everything. To catch up with the need to express.

The possibility to ‘catch up’ is especially meaningful as somatic psychology shows us the troubling effects of repression and blockages. The creation of a welcoming space can transform the way we (bodies) are and feel. Unfettered bodies in their place make an unfettered life easier, as the way our bodies are is also what we bring into the world (Linden

2015).

This analysis shows the elicitive character of dance. It offers a space for discovery, release or expression. The facilitator’s task is to create a space, a framework, in which others can work on themselves. It leaves the authority with the participant and how they want to use the space offered - instead of pushing for a certain outcome.

Regarding emotions, I want to look a bit closer at sadness as it returns frequently.

Especially during the stillness rhythm. Peter writes that when he turns inwards it makes him feel sad, but not in a negative sense. It is pleasant to give in to this feeling, ‘’as if it freed me from that emotion’’.

In this example Peter clearly acknowledges and accepts his feeling and afterwards it does not hold the same power over him anymore. The expression of and attention for this feeling has transformed the tension. Similarly, Karin describes the feeling of sadness as a comforting sadness. For me, this description shows the embracing of the sadness in a positive way (Nhat Hanh 2004; Tolle 2004).

Other bodily effects are: a tingling feeling in many places of the body and tiredness.

Notable is that the way this tiredness is described by the dancers overlaps largely. They

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describe the tiredness as a feeling of fulfilment and a feeling of an empty head; that the body feels looser or has come to rest, this results in a feeling of lightness and heaviness at the same time. In other words: ‘’Exhausted, but fulfilled. As if a burden is lifted from my shoulders and a warm blanket is laid over me’’.

In the context of this research it is interesting to note that a dancer feels peace by being connected with himself in an intimate manner. I interpret this as a form of inner peace. In this regard let us remember the analysis that inner peace is a prerequisite to also experience peace with others as discussed in chapter three. Thus the dance can provide an experience for the dancer(s), but from there also affect others and their experience of their peaces (Buber 1996;

Nhat Hanh 2004; Van Reybrouck & d’Ansembourg 2017).

8.2.6 Stimulated qualities From the experience of emotions, I now turn to the way dance can enhance certain qualities and facilitate to become who we are. Enhanced qualities are playfulness, curiosity and openness, which are needed to break through patterns and the ascetic life style (LaMothe

2006). Moreover, playfulness builds human trust and it practises to embrace uncertainty and to stay steady and compassionate in stressful situations. This shows its relevance for peace and conflict transformation (Brown 2008; Lotto 2016).

The noted ability to break through patterns is described as follows by a dancer:

‘’releasing from the constraints that you put unto yourself’’. This is an example of getting out of the comfort zone and thereby finding out new possibilities through the body.

Constraints that you put unto yourself, it is what Slatman (as cited by, Van Turnhout

2019) calls inhibition: learned restrains to protect the body/self. These inhibitions can differ

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per person and gender, as the way bodies connect to their surroundings is bound through cultural influences. Explorative movement is in this way a form of unlearning.

Unlearning the restraints that I and others have put unto my body/self. I use the term

‘body/self’ consciously here to emphasize that we are bodies and thereby a restrain on our body is a restrain on the self. Restrictions of the own body movement are in fact restrictions of the self, because the variety and space to move shapes our ways to live.

Let me return to the simulated qualities during the dance. The qualities of explosiveness, energy and presence were also experienced. For example, David describes that shaking everything off through movement helps to be in the present moment. As noted before, this presence within embodiment is crucial, as there is often an allurement to disconnect from our embodiment and the present moment during conflict. It offers a possibility to listen to the knowledge of our body, to let is speak to us and enable this in our handling of conflicts (Green 2015).

It is exactly this physiological retraining that people need, to not contract in tension or collapse as response to conflict. But instead, to be present, steady and compassionate in order to succeed at peace work (Linden 2015). When we are able to stay present with this wisdom it can reveal clues of the root the conflict.

Finding the epicentre of the conflict is essential, as it offers possibilities to deal with a conflict differently – transform it. When we are bodily and emotionally present within the conflict, the energy follows and this can create a more open and free space in which listening, compassion and agreement are possible (Green 2015; Dietrich 2013).

Additionally, David feels more connected to the core of his life, to his natural being.

John experienced being more grounded. Being grounded enables the discharge of energy and

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it enables one to stay more comfortable under increasing pressure. This enables one to find a way to calmly deal with the pressure of conflict. This observation shows the relevance of enhanced grounding for conflict transformation (Marrone 1990; Green 2015).

Also, three participants become more connected to their inner power through the dance. A dancer describes: ‘’I felt a powerful creature. Animate and ready for what comes ahead’’. He finds a certain power within himself through the dance. This relates to the aspect of readiness for what lies ahead and it includes a certain confidence to face life as it presents itself. This shows that dance enhances trust (Facci 2011). For me, this trust or readiness is certainly a form of inner peace.

For Peter, the practise pushes beyond his perceived boundaries, which is a way to also open up to new perspectives on the self. Just like another dancer who describes that the dance shines light on her qualities. This illustrates how dance can show someone’s great potential

(Roth 1998a). These descriptions show a level of personal transformation, as the perspective transforms the way they see themselves in life. It is finding new possibilities, moving beyond what is thought possible.

All in all, the enhanced connection to someone’s core being, shining light on personal qualities, connecting to the power inside, curiosity and being more present are examples of how LaMothe describes that dance exercises ‘’our ability to become who we are’’ (LaMothe

2006, 224). Likewise, feeling yourself exercises this ability, because ‘’[t]o know who one is, an individual must be aware of what he feels’’ (Lowen 1965, 2).

Furthermore, Stella describes that she was able to take qualities of (body) confidence and energy into her daily life. She noticed that she moves differently in other dancing

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moments at home. The feeling of relaxation and confidence about herself and her body remained with her for three days.

Likewise, Julie experienced having a more active posture during other activities and

Stella feels more tranquil and grounded after the dance. In the last case, feelings were not durable, though she is quite certain that this would happen with more frequent dance practise.

8.2.7 Sexuality and (body) memories Another important returning topic for the dancers was that of intimacy and sensuality. A dancer describes physical attraction with another dancer, with whom movement flowed together. For me it shows that resonance on movement touches a deeper layer. The way we move reflects the way we are (Roth 1998a), so if our movements are mutually synchronised, we resonate and connect with our full being and thereby deeply.

Remarkably, a dancer writes that she wondered how the date of her friend/partner would move, imagining that the energies of her partner/friend and his date are more in line.

Here she specifically links the type of movement with the type of connection and energy with someone. For others, the dance invoked memories of sexual intercourse. This was triggered by the sensuality of the dance or by a specific song. This underlines the analysis of Talma (2010,

180) that ‘’body memory can be activated by a smell, a taste, something you see or hear and through attention to bodily signals’’33.

The recurrent topic of sexuality does not surprise, as this is so strongly bodily. Just as the fact that for many writers within somatic psychology the repression of sexuality goes hand

33 Translated by the author

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in hand with the repression of the body. Releasing the body, its impulses and feelings can also release sexual tensions, repression and memories.

Other memories concern a broken heart, the love for others and tripping. A very specific one is what a dancer calls a metaphysic memory of pushing away a stone. She writes that it felt like a memory, but that she never did that. It leaves her with questions. Such a

‘memory’ tempts for a symbolic explanation, for example of having to protect or defend herself, the need to push someone or something away.

A reflection on these memories shows that through the dance people are able to reach and touch topics and memories that are normally in the unconscious. These topics have their impact on this level, and thus bringing them to consciousness can provide a way to lift the weight. According to Frieder (2017) connecting to the unconscious is inherently transforming.

For Perls (2003) it is transformative when material from the unconsciousness is integrated into a whole. This appears possible through a dance session, because through movement one is able to re-experience, differentiate and thereby restructures feelings, which enables their integration in manageable parts (Wyman-McGinty, as cited in Pallaro 2017).

One to one causal relations can be hard to prove in this regard and this research type and scope. Nevertheless, at least the correlation can be noted between the arising of memories and body aches of participants and many of them reporting a light, whole or fulfilled feeling at the end of the dance.

8.2.8 The role of the group Finally, the influence of the group was sharply reflected on by the dancers. Underneath I discuss the potential of dancing together for mutual understanding, experiencing interconnectedness and stimulating each other’s experience.

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Many find themselves more connected with others during and after the dance session.

They also feel more comfortable in the room and with more understanding for the other through the shared experience. Lisa writes that it did not feel weird anymore that they did

‘not know’ each other. I would say because they really got to know each other, but in a different way than she might be used to.

Dancers describe that they felt more like dancing together after a while and that it enabled them to appreciate others through their dance. This shows that shared movement can stimulate appreciation and understanding, which is a prerequisite to live peaceful as relational beings.

For one participant the dance exemplifies struggles he has with his partner. Through the dance, he experiences that the other does not want to be influenced; it creates inner insecurity through a perceived lack of contact from the other. He had already experienced this, but it had no clear place for her as it was mainly in her thoughts. The dance added a physical experience to this situation. The struggle in their relationship had become visible, which makes it possible to look at it (Sikkema 2010). The embodiment increases visibility and thereby insight, which is essential for transformation.

Thanks to the group, Lisa found herself to dance more free and she felt safe because of the others who danced freely. On the contrary, for another participant seeing someone else having difficulties to express freely, limited her own feeling of freedom to move. Also, as words were left aside, the relationality was more natural and pleasant for one of the dancers. All in all, a dancer describes that ‘’the effect of the energy of others is really very big’’.

I did not reflect tot such an extent on the influence of the group in this thesis, compared to the importance given by the dancers. At least, I did not discuss it in specific regarding

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5Rhythms. In more general terms, I have discussed humans as relational beings which also places relationality central in conflict transformation (chapter three).

Moreover, I have argued that our body and coupled consciousness is an open system, thus our sensorial system confluences with its surroundings (Dietrich 2003; Abram 2017). This provides us with the ability to resonate with the feelings of others through kinaesthetic empathy (Wagner 2015).

The relational basis of human existence and the confluence of sensorial systems explain the large influence of other group members and the way they feel and move. As such, a dancer specifically describes experiencing different feelings when she danced with different persons together (subsequently) and also different feelings when she danced ‘alone’. All this considered, the symbiosis of bodies has an impact to someone’s core, which also means that dancing together enlarges the possibilities for discovery, feeling and expression. Another dancer might elicit a feeling or experience, which would be harder to reach individually.

In relationality lies the basis for transformation, from this follows the vast value of experiencing interconnectedness for our peaces (Rogers 1961; Adler 2017a). This understanding makes the importance that the dancers attribute to the group even more evident.

All in all, the workshop has shown the impact of music and movement as catalysts. It also demonstrated that the way of feeling and thinking is inseparable from the way we move.

Moving differently means feeling and thinking differently. It is being differently. Therefore, a movement exploration, as practised in my inquiry, is a form of (self-) discovery, of seeing new possibilities, of moving beyond the perceived possible.

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Movement can also function to create more awareness of the self and of own feelings.

Movement provides a possibility to live through these feelings and express them. In this way movement can thereby function as a release of bodily blockages or it might prevent a blockage from being created.

Finally, dancing can stimulate qualities like playfulness and creativity. Dance can also stimulate the sensuous and sexual experience and dancing together can generate mutual appreciation, understanding and connection, which is crucial in a relational understanding of peace and conflict transformation.

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9. Conclusion

The wonder of this research has been the potential of embodiment and movement within the field of peace and conflict transformation. A personal and theoretical analysis led to posing the following research question: how can increased access to body knowledge through movement enable personal conflict transformation and the experience of peaces?

I have posed the problematic side of disembodiment on a personal, relational and societal level. Disembodiment has led to alienation of ourselves and others, leading to burn- outs, physical complaints, depression, loneliness and dehumanization of others. It disconnects from feelings, sexuality and pleasure. It blocks the flow of energy and limits the capacity to let go of worries and prejudices.

In chapter two, I argue that the current ways of dealing with peaces and conflicts are incomplete and unsatisfying, because our way of dealing with conflicts is embedded in the same logic of dichotomy that creates them. Through a variety of examples, I have argued that the embodied mind is an inseparable whole on a continuum. This understanding creates a shift in the perception of ourselves and of our peaces and conflicts; it opens a door to different methods of peace and conflict work, in which the subjective body and movement take a central place.

In chapter four, I have shown that the living body lies at the basis of our experience.

Through our sensations we develop a sense of self and through our body we are in contact with the world. We form our understanding of the world and others through direct bodily meaning making. Also, through kinaesthetic empathy we can understand others in a different frequency than the often focused cognitive form of understanding.

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Nevertheless, through cultural and religious developments, many have learned to build walls around themselves, avoiding to feel their alive body. Through disregard of the body, people are missing out on a significant part of life and of the self. For example, body armouring to repress feeling something also goes at the expense of a lot of energy. Moreover, it does not only block the fear, but also pleasant feelings. I would say it disturbs the experience of peaces.

Chapter six illustrates that the body carries our whole personal history through its structure and functioning. Everything is present on an embodied level, also material that people are not aware of anymore. The fact that these things are stored in the body means that it is also the place to trace certain problems to its core.

This is where movement comes in to shake things up a bit. The body is always vibrating, always present and always responding. However, as many people have learned to disregard this vibration, movement can facilitate feeling and this ability to feel is a prerequisite for transformation. Furthermore, movement reflects the way we feel and who we are. Thus within movement lies a potential of discovery of our self, others, our peaces and conflicts.

In chapter seven, I point out that movement reveals our intentions and desires. Our outer movements can elicit inner movements and therefore it is a way to get into contact with these inner impulses. When it is hard to listen to inner excitements movement provides a possibility to increase their volume and thereby to live more in congruence with the inner life.

It is a way to touch topics from the unconscious. Material that has been stuck there can surface and be lived through in movement. Thereby it can be integrated and release its tension.

This also leads to the idea that movement is inherently expressive. You cannot not express through movement. This shows the potential for working on themes one rather

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ignores or pushes away. Through words one might be beating around the bush, but the body never lies.

Expression through movement can be liberating and it can provide a form of self- discovery. When movers get into new shapes, they can find new places within. This discovery of the self through movement provides insight on ways to integrate different forms of peaces into life. Furthermore, through movement one is also able to express in a nuanced way. This expression can transform feelings and in this way expression through movement can unfold deeper layers within the self. Thereby movement enables to become who we are.

Movement also raises our awareness of topics from the unconscious and of our own potential and qualities. In this way movement validates the feeling of aliveness and it can be a stimulus of our inner authority. Furthermore, awareness stimulates gentleness that can take the place of a fighting attitude. This allows to embrace unpleasant aspects and thereby integrate them. An embracing attitude if important, as feelings are vital energies in life.

Moreover, movement stimulates spontaneity, playfulness and creativity, which help in breaking though patterns, routines and ascetic ideals. Dance provides a space to practise embracing uncertainty and risk, which are needed in the process of conflict transformation.

Movement also facilitates imagination, making new connections and thereby looking beyond the currently thought possible. This capacity lies at the heart of conflict transformation, as shown in chapter three.

Additionally, the creation of new possibilities also lies in the exploration of movement, because movement and thought are inextricably connected. Humans discover, gather and process information through movement. This is ‘thinking in movement’. Movement also influences the way one ‘thinks in words’, as moving in different ways entails the emergence

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of different thoughts and ideas. Therefore, movement can be a way to break through stagnation of thought and to open up for new possibilities.

Other qualities that came forward were presence, openness, confidence and trust.

Moreover, movement can re-create the flow of energy for someone and create a state of flexibility and the feeling of freedom. For me these are all qualities that can enhance the experience of peaces. Just as the possibility that dance stimulates the experience of self-love, which is for me the closest definition to inner peace. Moreover, these qualities can be sustained during the dance and from there be brought into daily life.

Moving together can also enhance the experience. It can create connection and understanding for others and movers can also elicit different feelings within each other.

Dancers thus sustain each other’s experience. Because a conflict is a dysfunction in a relation, it is in the process of seeing and being seen, in the relationality, that transformation can take place. Therefore the enhanced experience of interconnectedness through dance is precious for each other’s peaces and the potential of transformation.

All in all, the body has a lot to tell when we learn to tune into it. Movement is a way to practise this listening. To come closer to who we are. To feel and be able to follow our inner excitements. It enables the release of tension and the discovery of new territories within the self. Through expression feelings can transform as it is the start of acceptance and integration.

Movement enables people to look beyond the currently held possible. As well as living more in congruence with the inner life. Movement enhances presence and gentleness, thereby it sustains the experience of peaces within and outside. Movement can transform the way we understand and embrace ourselves, others and the world around us. Thereby the moving body can be a catalyst for peace and conflict transformation.

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‘’So let your hips do the talking’’

Kings of Convenience – I’d rather dance with you

‘’verloren sei uns der Tag, wo nicht ein Mal getantzt wurde!’’

Friedrich Nietzsche (1975, 200)

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Appendix

A. Questionnaire

A1. First questionnaire, directly after the workshop: 1. Can you describe your experience of the workshop in 10-20 sentences?

Please answer the following questions in around 10 sentences

2. How did you feel during the practice and how do you feel now afterwards?

3. Do you notice a (bodily) difference between now and when we started the workshop? If so, which one(s)?

4. Where you able to express yourself through movement? How is it to give expression through movement?

5. Which emotions did you go through during the workshop and can you describe how that was for you?

6. Did memories come up during the movement? If so, can you describe which one(s) and how that was for you?

7. Did certain struggles or conflicts come up during the workshop? If so, which one(s)?

8. Were you able to surrender to your body moving? If so, can you describe how that was for you? If not, can you describe what held you back?

Please answer the following questions in around 5 sentences

9. Did you get new insights through this workshop? If so, which one(s)? If no, do you have an idea why or did you miss anything?

10. Can you describe how it was to dance through the different Rhythms for you?

11. Were some of the Rhythms comfortable or uncomfortable for you? Do you maybe know why and how was it to dance them anyway?

12. Is there a difference between the connection you feel with the other workshop participants?

13. Did anything surprising happen? If so, please describe.

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14. Are you experienced with dance/movement practices? If so, please describe your experience in a few lines.

15. Is there anything else that wants to be shared? (No limit in answer length)

16. What is your age?

A2. Second questionnaire, two weeks after the workshop *Please try to answer as specific as possible. For example if you felt emotional, which emotion, or if you felt something in your body, where exactly? 1. How do you look back on the workshop?

2. Did the workshop(s) have an effect for you in the hours, days or weeks after? If so, can you describe this in 10-20 sentences?

3. What is the influence or effect of movement in your experience? Please describe in up to 10 sentences.

4. Which element of the workshop(s) was special for you and can you describe why in 5- 10 sentences?

5. Is there anything else that wants to be mentioned regarding your experience of the workshop?

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B. Consent form Concerning: Master Thesis Michiel van Veen - Conscious Movement and Dance

Explanation What is being researched? The research focusses on the possibilities of movement for personal conflict transformation and the experience of peace. Therefore I work with different movement- and dance methods and I am interested in your experience of those. How is the research executed and what is being expected from you? The research exists of two workshops, it is also possible to participate in one of the two. After each workshop you fill in a questionnaire. Furthermore, two weeks after the latest workshop you are being expected to hand in a short questionnaire, which you will receive digitally. The workshops contains free movement, movement guidance, following impulses of the body and sharing your experience. What is being done with your data? Your data is used anonymously. Your answers are being used to confirm, adapt or exemplify theoretical insights. Responsibility Although the workshops can bring up some personal topics, it does not have a therapeutical character. The facilitator is open for possible individual talks after the workshops. Questions or remarks If you have any questions, doubts or remarks, you can always reach the facilitator at [e-mail address] or [phone number]. Researcher My name is Michiel van Veen, these workshops are part of my thesis research for the master in Peace & Conflict studies at the University of Innsbruck. I am interested in what the body tells us and how we can improve listening to our body and integrating our embodiment as integral aspect in our life. Consent - I have read the information flyer and the explanation for participation above. I could ask additional questions and these were answered satisfying. I had enough time to decide to participate - I know that participation is voluntary and that I can decide to stop participation at any moment without having to name a reason. - My data is being handled anonyms. - I give permission to use my data of this workshop. I give consent to participate in this research Name: Signature: Date: __ / __ / __

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Affidavit

I hereby declare that I have written the presented Master thesis/Masterarbeit by myself and independently and that I have used no other than the referenced sources and materials. In addition, I declare that I have not previously submitted this Master thesis/Masterarbeit as examination paper in any form, either in Austria or abroad.

Monchique 08/11/2020

Place, Date Signature

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