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Embodied Situated Cognition, and Develops an Embodied Hermeneutics Which Uses Focusing in Phenomenological Research

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Embodied Situated Cognition, and Develops an Embodied Hermeneutics Which Uses Focusing in Phenomenological Research CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by PhilPapers UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER, an accredited institution of the University of Southampton. Faculty of Arts: Department of Theology and Religious Studies. The Wisdom of the Body: Embodied Knowing in Eco-Paganism by Adrian Paul Harris Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 29th January 2008 Revised in accordance with viva voce requirements. Ph.D. awarded on 14 July 2008 1 UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER an accredited college of the University of Southampton ABSTRACT FACULTY OF ARTS. DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES. Doctor of Philosophy EMBODIED KNOWING IN ECO-PAGANISM by Adrian Paul Harris Although embodied knowing is fundamental to our experience, no previous study has detailed its role in a specific spiritual group. This thesis offers a new model of embodied situated cognition, and develops an embodied hermeneutics which uses Focusing in phenomenological research. I apply these tools to the first detailed ethnography of Eco- Paganism to reveal powerful processes of connection which have considerable significance for religious studies and ecopsychology. Chapters 2 and 3 survey the literature on Eco-Paganism and embodied cognition. Chapter 4 uses the latter to synthesise a model of embodied situated cognition which I call the 'enactive process model', because it draws primarily on enactivism (inter alia, Varela et al., 1991), and Gendlin's process philosophy (Gendlin, 1997). Current research shows that key aspects of cognition are situated and embodied (inter alia, Varela et al., 1991), such that we often think with place (inter alia, Preston, 2003). This raises epistemological questions which I address in a discussion of embodied philosophy in Chapter 5. I then explain my embodied hermeneutics methodology, and the practical application of the Focusing Interview technique, in Chapter 6. My fieldwork autoethnography, Chapter 7, provides an intuitive, felt understanding of life on a road protest site, and is followed by ethnographies of urban and protest site Eco-Paganism in Chapters 8 and 9. Chapter 10 discusses six processes which create a sense of connection to the organic environment, which include the felt sense (Gendlin, 1981) and the wilderness effect (Greenway, 1995). I conclude that a type of wilderness effect can catalyze the emergence of a complex 'nature based' spirituality amongst site Eco-Pagans, while a less intense form affects urban Eco-Pagans. Eco-Pagans sometimes use these processes of connection to think with a place. The processes of connection and thinking with place are fundamental to embodied situated knowing in Eco-Paganism, and help explain many of its distinctive aspects. By demonstrating the importance of embodied situated knowing in Eco- Paganism, I highlight the potential for further research into processes of connection and the impact of different physical spaces on religious 2 practice in general. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction SECTION I: LOCATING THE RESEARCH PROJECT Chapter 2: Eco-Paganism Literature review Chapter 3: Embodied Cognition Literature review Chapter 4: Embodied Situated Cognition: A Synthesis Chapter 5: Embodied Philosophy: My Ontological and Epistemological Grounding Chapter 6: Research Design and Methodology SECTION II: FIELDWORK Section II Introduction: Between Protest Site and Urban Life: The Spectrum of Eco-Pagan Practice Chapter 7: “You’re not studying it – you’re living it”: An Autoethnography Chapter 8: Listening to the Threshold Brook: Urban Eco Paganism Chapter 9: The Power of Place: Protest Site Eco-Paganism Chapter 10: Eco-Paganism: A "sacred relationship with the world" SECTION III: CONCLUSION Chapter 11: Conclusion APPENDICES Appendix 1: Original Aims and Objectives Appendix 2: Focusing - The Six Steps References References to works outside this thesis use the Harvard system. References to titles of thesis chapters are given in the text in single quotes, while references to sections of chapters are italicized. List of figures and illustrations Fig. 1: The Cognitive Iceberg Fig. 2: Embodied Metaphor and Habitus 3 Fig. 3: Focusing and the Felt Sense Fig. 4: The Trance State Fig. 5: The Duck/Rabbit Drawing Fig. 6: The Hermeneutic Circle Fig. 7. Topic guide showing notes on chronemic and paralinguistic aspects of the interview Fig. 8: A Typology of Eco-Paganism Fig. 9: Place and Community Table #1: Processes of Connection 4 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Adrian Paul Harris, declare that the thesis entitled 'The Wisdom of the Body: Embodied Knowing in Eco-Paganism' and the work presented in the thesis are both my own, and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that: l this work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; l where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; l where I have quoted fro the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; l I have acknowledged all main sources of help; l where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; l none of this work has been published before submission. Date: 29 January, 2008 5 Acknowledgements Researching this thesis has been an incredibly moving experience, and I would like to offer my deep thanks to all those who participated, especially those who shared my months on site. I hope you feel I've done us justice! Many thanks to my supervisory team, Graham Harvey, Elisabeth Stuart and Andrew Blake. Without Graham's encouragement, I might never have started this thesis, and without the support of my supervisory team it would never ended so well. Chrissie Ferngrove’s guidance helped me enormously through thick and thin – Thank-you! I am also very grateful to those who granted my studentship: without that funding I would never have been able to undertake the fieldwork which has been crucial to this research. 6 Chapter 1: Introduction Over ten years ago I gave a presentation that was to change my life. I was speaking at the Newcastle University conference, 'Paganism Today' about another way of knowing: The "somatic, physical knowing ... [that] is the knowledge of faith, of emotion, of the gut feeling" (Harris, 1996: 151). I concluded then that profound spiritual experiences involving nature could inspire environmental action, and that this process was grounded in embodied knowing. My words spoke of an unexplored landscape and I embarked on a remarkable journey of discovery which culminated in this thesis: I have concluded that life changing processes of connection mesh with the embodied situated knowing which underpins our being-in-the-world. My 1996 paper1 promised much, but left many questions unanswered: I have now attended to those questions, and clarified both the process of embodied knowing and its role in Eco-Paganism. My answers are as profound as I’d hoped and more surprising than I ever imagined. I begin with an overview, where I set out the deficiencies in existing research, explain my aims and objectives and provide a brief outline of the thesis. After a more detailed discussion of themes and findings, I explain my use of the terms 'organic environment', embodiment, knowing and cognition and then offer my conclusion. OVERVIEW Deficiencies in Existing Research Although I was initially inspired by the puzzle of embodied knowing in Eco-Paganism, I later realised that this revealed a much bigger question: What is the role of embodied knowing in religion and spirituality in general? With very few exceptions, current religious studies approaches are profoundly disembodied, and this question has been far from adequately addressed. This is a severe handicap to the progress of religious studies, because we lack understanding the 'knowing' which is fundamental to religious and spiritual experience. To approach the bigger questions about the role of embodied knowing in religion and spirituality, I needed to focus on one group, and Eco- Paganism was an obvious choice. In principle I could have researched any group, as embodied cognition is fundamental to being human. There is some material related to forms of embodied knowing in faith traditions, notably Christianity (Isherwood and Stuart, 1998), but Eco- 1 Although my paper was presented in 1994, I refer to it throughout by the date of its first publication. 7 Pagans are an ideal test case for several reasons. First, Eco-Pagans valorize the 'body' and 'nature' - two problematic terms I discuss below - which suggests an enhanced awareness of embodied knowing. Second, I was interested in how embodied knowing might influence motivation, and Eco-Pagans are by definition activists. Third, Eco- Paganism is a significant but under-researched spirituality. Finally, as an insider I am intimately familiar with some forms of embodied knowledge in Eco-Paganism, so I already have a privileged understanding. On a more reflexive note, I wanted to test the bold claims I'd made at the 'Paganism Today' conference with ethnography and a more nuanced autoethnography. Although embodied knowing is widely discussed across many disciplines, no existing study attempts to integrate this work into a coherent model, partly because Western “[p]hilosophy has established itself on the foundations of a profound somatophobia” (Grosz, 1994: 5). One of my first tasks was to clarify our general understanding of embodied knowing and formulate a model that could be applied to qualitative research. Initial Aims And Hypotheses Aims and Objectives2 My primary aim was to determine how notions of 'embodied knowing' could be used to interpret the practice of Eco-Paganism. Several sub- aims were required to achieve this: I first established which theories of embodied knowledge were appropriate to researching Eco-Paganism, and then used these to develop a 'hermeneutics of embodiment' methodology.
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