The dominant tradition in Western culture has constructed an idiosyncratic view of nature and consciousness, one that relationally impoverishes both humankind and the rest of the natural world. Psyche, consciousness, and mind are typically thought to exist exclusively in humans (or just our brains); nature is deemed merely an object, resource, or lower life-form. Guided by hermeneutic...
The mythical Narcissus alienated himself not only from other people but from the nonhuman beings and presences of the natural world. Gazing into a beautiful pond he saw merely his personal reflection and absolutely nothing of nature. A similar dissociation haunts our existence today, impoverishing both humankind and the rest of nature. The Zen poet Matsuo Bashō’s also had a famous encounter...
AbstractThis study, based upon empirical phenomenological research, explores an essential phenomenon of human existence: the interpermeating communion of self and world. In interpermeation, the supposed separation of self and world is transcended. The being, energy, life, and meaning of the world "flow into" one's self and become integrated as part of who one is; simultaneously, one's being,...
Abstract Experiencing the sacred is a paradigmatic spiritual phenomenon, revered across diverse eras and cultures. This empirical research is a human scientific inquiry into the sacred in everyday life. In‐depth interviews are interpreted via a rigorous phenomenological method. A dialogue involving transpersonal psychology, existential phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and the world's spiritual...