Interactive Meditation Practice as Research Method: An Introduction to Embodied Spiritual Inquiry
Integral Transpersonal Journal April 1, 2018 DOI: 10.32031/itibte_itj_10-so5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Interactive Embodied Meditations |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | The article presents Embodied Spiritual Inquiry as a participatory approach to integral education and transpersonal research that uses Interactive Embodied Meditations to access multiple ways of knowing and to inquire collaboratively into questions about the human condition. The authors argue for its value while also discussing its limitations and future horizons. |
Abstract
This article presents Embodied Spiritual Inquiry (ESI), a participatory approach to integral education and transpersonal research that has been offered since 2003 as a graduate course at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco, by core faculty Jorge N. Ferrer. Inspired by elements of participatory research (e.g., Reason, 1994a; Reason & Bradbury, 2008) and cooperative inquiry (Heron, 1996), ESI applies Albareda and Romero’s Interactive Embodied Meditations (Ferrer, 2003) to access multiple ways of knowing (e.g., somatic, vital, emotional, mental, spiritual) and mindfully inquire into collaboratively decided questions about the human condition. Past inquiries have included diverse psychospiritual topics including the experiential features of relational spirituality (Osterhold, Husserl, & Nicol, 2007), the nature of human boundaries within and between co-inquirers (Sohmer, Baumann, & Ferrer, 2018), felt-sensed markers discerning genuine versus unreliable spiritual knowledge, experiential understandings of the personal and collective “shadow,” and the multidimensionality of the human condition. After presenting an overview of the ESI methodology and two case studies, this article discusses the merits, limitations, and future horizons of this approach for integral education and transpersonal research. KEYWORDS Transpersonal Research, Integral Education, Multiple Ways of Knowing, Interactive Embodied Meditations, Cooperative Inquiry, Participatory Research, Embodied Spirituality.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |