The Anthropocene, a proposed geological epoch, blurs the line between human action and planetary processes, producing distinct affective experiences. This article maps three heterogeneous expressions of Anthropocene experience: distress from environmental and climate collapse, neoliberal environmentalism, and the intersection of environmentalism with spirituality rooted in meditative phenomenologies. The analysis draws on ontological research on Vipassana and Zen meditation practices in France, Portugal, and the UK, and semi-structured interviews with members of the Portuguese Transition Network. These case studies illustrate varied ways people feel and respond to the current planetary crisis.
The Anthropocene controversy is used to reflect on alternatives to modern Western rationality and the need for non-modern ontologies to address the climate and environmental crisis. Heterogeneous examples—contemplative practices, altered states of consciousness, and planetary models—serve as allegories that confront the disruptive character of the Anthropocene, contrasting with dominant Western ontologies. The article performatively and provocatively produces alternative ways of “reacting” to the Anthropocene beyond cognition and representation, combining different epistemological and disciplinary registers as lines of escape, launching the motto for this issue of e-cadernos CES.
Alternative and non-Western practices challenge how modern selves are formed and blur the line between ancient and contemporary, prompting a rethinking of how bodies and minds are produced. Technologies of the self that combine care of the self with self-knowledge offer paths to redefine the self, questioning the dominance of Science and Technology as the sole means of radically transforming the human condition. This article proposes an ontological and performative conception of vipassana meditation, drawing on Science and Technology Studies but recognizing its limits in addressing selves and non-Western practices. Performativity here is not a naive nostalgia for pre-representational realism but explores the substantial nature of practice and ritual, questioning ontological determination and carrying anthropological and political implications.