Reflexive Praxis
Research by Looking Backwards –
Finding patterns in your past:
Reflexive Praxis as an Esoteric Thesis Methodology in search of Archaic Wisdom
by Paul Wildman, PhD & Iona Miller, 2012
Scientific God Journal
Finding patterns in your past:
Reflexive Praxis as an Esoteric Thesis Methodology in search of Archaic Wisdom
by Paul Wildman, PhD & Iona Miller, 2012
Scientific God Journal
September 2, 2012 The purpose and mission of Scientific GOD Journal (http://www.scigod.com) are to conduct scientific inquiries on the nature and origins of life, mind, physical laws and mathematics and their possible connections to a scientifically approachable transcendental ground of existence – we call "Scientific GOD." We believe that in this Golden Age of Science the GOD in whom we trust should be spiritual as well as scientific. Indeed, since we are all made out of the same subatomic, atomic and genetic alphabets, the scientific GOD each of us seeks should be one and the same whatever our race, religion and other differences. This is Scientific GOD Journal Volume 3 Issue 8 first published in August 2012. It is entitled "On Matter, Spacetime, Materialist Metaphysical Dogmatism & Reflexive Praxis" and contains the following Articles: (1) More Thoughts on Light, Matter, Space & Time; (2) Reflections on Materialist Metaphysical Dogmatism (Part I); (3) Reflections on Materialist Metaphysical Dogmatism (Part II); (4) Reflections on Materialist Metaphysical Dogmatism (Part III); (5) Research by Looking Backwards: Reflexive Praxis in Search of Archaic Wisdom; and (6) On Atheists’ Complaint of No Evidence for God.
Artist Invisible Allies -- "Ghost Bridge".
Gamma Brain Waves. Binaural Beats: Powerful Concentration, Focus & Manifestation - Gamma 40 Hz .
Gamma Brain Waves. Binaural Beats: Powerful Concentration, Focus & Manifestation - Gamma 40 Hz .
ABSTRACT
Many of us, as researchers, would find it challenging to let our research data speak to us rather that to see it exclusively as part of the methodological categories we have already developed. This article proposes a methodology called 'Reflexive Praxis', a form of action research, to do just this. As 'Action Research', such methodologies remain controversial compared with the more conventional Empirical Research'. Indeed any development of action research, such as reflexive praxis, may be expected to be treated with even more skepticism. Nonetheless this article seeks to explore reflexive praxis as one way with which the researcher can interrogate both her/his inner and outer worlds. It is hoped that by doing this as action researchers we may be able to apprehend new combinations and patterns in our research data and indeed our lived life. This in turn can help us as researchers encounter meta-meaning in these combinations.
INTRODUCTION
Often in life as we reflect on developments we can sometimes detect a certain 'manner' or even 'method' in our 'madness'. On reflection a certain flow of events and actions all appear to be interlinked. There are many ways of describing this type of occurrence i.e. happenstance, fate, coincidence, synchronicity, hunch or even luck. We believe that in seeking to be reflexive practitioners we need to accept the challenge of looking backwards from time to time over the years and let the patterns emerge, to surface the deep structures, patterns, processes, insights and connections. Not only individuals, but also organisations, communities and cultures could well undertake such an approach.
Such a process of long term reflection has come to represent, for us, a crucial element in any action research process. In overview it represents an attempt not to 'coerce' the research topic and its data to come within the bounds of our arbitrary theoretical categories of the inquiry, rather it seeks to find the boundaries and paths the research topic sets itself.
In this approach we reach for the spaces between the observations, the interstices. To do this we need to let the data, spaces and silences reach us through a sort of personal soliloquy on the research topic. Incidentally this is also the path of poetry, art and indeed creativity in general, that is, of synthesis rather than analysis. For example, DNA researchers described their early work as two serpents coiling themselves together and particle physicists are studying Zen to help them get beyond the data. Further we need words that can help us own these processes.
Appendix 1 presents several of these words - such as apperception, heuristic, poetic, noumenally, poetic, protean.
Links to qualitative research
This article seeks to complete the trilogy that generated our first article on the Demiurgic Manifesting Field (DUF), Miller and Wildman (2012a). In this article the second author spoke of three underpinning aspects to such a process for undertaking such qualitative exoteric research into the esoteric issues under inquiry such as the DUF. These three were (1) An archaic renaissance Miller and Wildman (2012b), (2) The esoteric thesis Wildman and Miller (2012a) and (3) a methodology for such a thesis – this article – reflexive praxis Wildman and Miller (2012b). There are many such research methodologies and the authors don’t claim to be experts therein however we have sought to chart what may be called a ‘renaissance rationality’ approach to research from the humanities perspective.[1]
In Zen there is a saying, almost a Zen parable, which suggests that the most valuable lessons to be learnt are beyond words - the more you learn the less you know in life. In several regards this is also the path of qualitative research. The challenge for such research is to acknowledge different world views, even those beyond words, and ultimately even beyond our known Western worlds. In addition we believe that qualitative research needs to engage the researcher's world view as well as that of the researched, consequently, in qualitative research, the distinctions between subject and object, researcher and researchee, reflexor and reflexee, past, present and future become blurred.
In this context, the researcher's internal thoughts, reflections, emotions and musings also become a crucial part in the overall research process. In my opinion, qualitative research requires a process to engage one's inner world as well as one's outer world where the research is to be conducted. Respectively the two processes used in this article for this purpose are 'Heuristic Inquiry' and 'Reflective Practice', integrated called 'Reflexive Praxis'.[2]
[1] The European Renaissance in the 14-16th Centuries had a deeper and broader understanding of rationality than the enlightenment. For the Renaissance writer’s imagination, emotion, dreams, creativity, metaphysics, philosophy, craft/artificer, poetry (e.g. for the first author this means Ultvansi Koans wherein the Koan form is used in an Ultvansi mode to point to the ineffability of God – unspeakable things and unknowable truths – a selection are included at the end of this article Wildman (1999), music/art, intentionality all had a place in scientific endeavour. It is a renaissance of these and more stretching into macro history wherein humanity celebrated its handiwork and thus through this experiential learning which, seen to day in village learning systems of kids and adults leaning in indigenous communities where the whole village is a learning enrichment organisation apropos of Indigenous learning systems. Wildman (1996). This then is the Archaic Renaissance we seek and dare to suggest is so vital to recovering world gone mad.
[2] Reflexive in the sense used in this article is the step beyond reflection i.e. and includes the person, the mirror and the reflection it is the whole three. So it is as if one were simultaneously observing the person and their reflection in the mirror, say as a ‘fly on the wall of our lived lives’. So reflexion in systems thinking is a higher order system integrating the person, the mirror and their reflection – which includes their environment/background. So reflective practice is reflecting on how ones practice appears to others whereas reflexive praxis is reflexing on how one has impacted ones praxis and its effect on others and their effect on one and one’s praxis, a form of Buddhist mindful mediation called mutual co-arising. This is a deeper level of consciousness.
Praxis is also used in contraposition to Practice as the latter is something that you as a discrete human does to the world where as Praxis goes further and considers you as part of your practice that is you as part of the world.
Further Reflexive in the sense used in this article is reflection inclusive of self which therefore includes history, sensibilities intuition and emotion. Here the researcher is inside the research loop of consciousness within their ‘lived life’, as Alice looking through the looking glass at her in a house where she is looking through the looking glass. Praxis then is the dialectic integration of thinking and doing, rationality and nature so to speak NOT keeping the two ‘objectively’ separate as in dualities nor, I submit are they separable. Critically RP is not about ‘object reflection’ i.e. consumption or external problem solving, rather RP seeks a cataphatic harmony between inner and outer – starting with the outer and heterotechnic harmony between the external components of task/exemplar project. The latter is the essence of Adult Learning. Here we become politically active Reflexive Praxisers a form of spiritual practice. This then is experiencing incarnation for the second, yet knowing it for the first, time…..
Often in life as we reflect on developments we can sometimes detect a certain 'manner' or even 'method' in our 'madness'. On reflection a certain flow of events and actions all appear to be interlinked. There are many ways of describing this type of occurrence i.e. happenstance, fate, coincidence, synchronicity, hunch or even luck. We believe that in seeking to be reflexive practitioners we need to accept the challenge of looking backwards from time to time over the years and let the patterns emerge, to surface the deep structures, patterns, processes, insights and connections. Not only individuals, but also organisations, communities and cultures could well undertake such an approach.
Such a process of long term reflection has come to represent, for us, a crucial element in any action research process. In overview it represents an attempt not to 'coerce' the research topic and its data to come within the bounds of our arbitrary theoretical categories of the inquiry, rather it seeks to find the boundaries and paths the research topic sets itself.
In this approach we reach for the spaces between the observations, the interstices. To do this we need to let the data, spaces and silences reach us through a sort of personal soliloquy on the research topic. Incidentally this is also the path of poetry, art and indeed creativity in general, that is, of synthesis rather than analysis. For example, DNA researchers described their early work as two serpents coiling themselves together and particle physicists are studying Zen to help them get beyond the data. Further we need words that can help us own these processes.
Appendix 1 presents several of these words - such as apperception, heuristic, poetic, noumenally, poetic, protean.
Links to qualitative research
This article seeks to complete the trilogy that generated our first article on the Demiurgic Manifesting Field (DUF), Miller and Wildman (2012a). In this article the second author spoke of three underpinning aspects to such a process for undertaking such qualitative exoteric research into the esoteric issues under inquiry such as the DUF. These three were (1) An archaic renaissance Miller and Wildman (2012b), (2) The esoteric thesis Wildman and Miller (2012a) and (3) a methodology for such a thesis – this article – reflexive praxis Wildman and Miller (2012b). There are many such research methodologies and the authors don’t claim to be experts therein however we have sought to chart what may be called a ‘renaissance rationality’ approach to research from the humanities perspective.[1]
In Zen there is a saying, almost a Zen parable, which suggests that the most valuable lessons to be learnt are beyond words - the more you learn the less you know in life. In several regards this is also the path of qualitative research. The challenge for such research is to acknowledge different world views, even those beyond words, and ultimately even beyond our known Western worlds. In addition we believe that qualitative research needs to engage the researcher's world view as well as that of the researched, consequently, in qualitative research, the distinctions between subject and object, researcher and researchee, reflexor and reflexee, past, present and future become blurred.
In this context, the researcher's internal thoughts, reflections, emotions and musings also become a crucial part in the overall research process. In my opinion, qualitative research requires a process to engage one's inner world as well as one's outer world where the research is to be conducted. Respectively the two processes used in this article for this purpose are 'Heuristic Inquiry' and 'Reflective Practice', integrated called 'Reflexive Praxis'.[2]
[1] The European Renaissance in the 14-16th Centuries had a deeper and broader understanding of rationality than the enlightenment. For the Renaissance writer’s imagination, emotion, dreams, creativity, metaphysics, philosophy, craft/artificer, poetry (e.g. for the first author this means Ultvansi Koans wherein the Koan form is used in an Ultvansi mode to point to the ineffability of God – unspeakable things and unknowable truths – a selection are included at the end of this article Wildman (1999), music/art, intentionality all had a place in scientific endeavour. It is a renaissance of these and more stretching into macro history wherein humanity celebrated its handiwork and thus through this experiential learning which, seen to day in village learning systems of kids and adults leaning in indigenous communities where the whole village is a learning enrichment organisation apropos of Indigenous learning systems. Wildman (1996). This then is the Archaic Renaissance we seek and dare to suggest is so vital to recovering world gone mad.
[2] Reflexive in the sense used in this article is the step beyond reflection i.e. and includes the person, the mirror and the reflection it is the whole three. So it is as if one were simultaneously observing the person and their reflection in the mirror, say as a ‘fly on the wall of our lived lives’. So reflexion in systems thinking is a higher order system integrating the person, the mirror and their reflection – which includes their environment/background. So reflective practice is reflecting on how ones practice appears to others whereas reflexive praxis is reflexing on how one has impacted ones praxis and its effect on others and their effect on one and one’s praxis, a form of Buddhist mindful mediation called mutual co-arising. This is a deeper level of consciousness.
Praxis is also used in contraposition to Practice as the latter is something that you as a discrete human does to the world where as Praxis goes further and considers you as part of your practice that is you as part of the world.
Further Reflexive in the sense used in this article is reflection inclusive of self which therefore includes history, sensibilities intuition and emotion. Here the researcher is inside the research loop of consciousness within their ‘lived life’, as Alice looking through the looking glass at her in a house where she is looking through the looking glass. Praxis then is the dialectic integration of thinking and doing, rationality and nature so to speak NOT keeping the two ‘objectively’ separate as in dualities nor, I submit are they separable. Critically RP is not about ‘object reflection’ i.e. consumption or external problem solving, rather RP seeks a cataphatic harmony between inner and outer – starting with the outer and heterotechnic harmony between the external components of task/exemplar project. The latter is the essence of Adult Learning. Here we become politically active Reflexive Praxisers a form of spiritual practice. This then is experiencing incarnation for the second, yet knowing it for the first, time…..
[1] The European Renaissance in the 14-16th Centuries had a deeper and broader understanding of rationality than the enlightenment. For the Renaissance writer’s imagination, emotion, dreams, creativity, metaphysics, philosophy, craft/artificer, poetry (e.g. for the first author this means Ultvansi Koans wherein the Koan form is used in an Ultvansi mode to point to the ineffability of God – unspeakable things and unknowable truths – a selection are included at the end of this article Wildman (1999), music/art, intentionality all had a place in scientific endeavour. It is a renaissance of these and more stretching into macro history wherein humanity celebrated its handiwork and thus through this experiential learning which, seen to day in village learning systems of kids and adults leaning in indigenous communities where the whole village is a learning enrichment organisation apropos of Indigenous learning systems. Wildman (1996). This then is the Archaic Renaissance we seek and dare to suggest is so vital to recovering world gone mad.
[1] Reflexive in the sense used in this article is the step beyond reflection i.e. and includes the person, the mirror and the reflection it is the whole three. So it is as if one were simultaneously observing the person and their reflection in the mirror, say as a ‘fly on the wall of our lived lives’. So reflexion in systems thinking is a higher order system integrating the person, the mirror and their reflection – which includes their environment/background. So reflective practice is reflecting on how ones practice appears to others whereas reflexive praxis is reflexing on how one has impacted ones praxis and its effect on others and their effect on one and one’s praxis, a form of Buddhist mindful mediation called mutual co-arising. This is a deeper level of consciousness.
Praxis is also used in contraposition to Practice as the latter is something that you as a discrete human does to the world where as Praxis goes further and considers you as part of your practice that is you as part of the world.
Further Reflexive in the sense used in this article is reflection inclusive of self which therefore includes history, sensibilities intuition and emotion. Here the researcher is inside the research loop of consciousness within their ‘lived life’, as Alice looking through the looking glass at her in a house where she is looking through the looking glass. Praxis then is the dialectic integration of thinking and doing, rationality and nature so to speak NOT keeping the two ‘objectively’ separate as in dualities nor, I submit are they separable. Critically RP is not about ‘object reflection’ i.e. consumption or external problem solving, rather RP seeks a cataphatic harmony between inner and outer – starting with the outer and heterotechnic harmony between the external components of task/exemplar project. The latter is the essence of Adult Learning. Here we become politically active Reflexive Praxisers a form of spiritual practice. This then is experiencing incarnation for the second, yet knowing it for the first, time…..
[1] Reflexive in the sense used in this article is the step beyond reflection i.e. and includes the person, the mirror and the reflection it is the whole three. So it is as if one were simultaneously observing the person and their reflection in the mirror, say as a ‘fly on the wall of our lived lives’. So reflexion in systems thinking is a higher order system integrating the person, the mirror and their reflection – which includes their environment/background. So reflective practice is reflecting on how ones practice appears to others whereas reflexive praxis is reflexing on how one has impacted ones praxis and its effect on others and their effect on one and one’s praxis, a form of Buddhist mindful mediation called mutual co-arising. This is a deeper level of consciousness.
Praxis is also used in contraposition to Practice as the latter is something that you as a discrete human does to the world where as Praxis goes further and considers you as part of your practice that is you as part of the world.
Further Reflexive in the sense used in this article is reflection inclusive of self which therefore includes history, sensibilities intuition and emotion. Here the researcher is inside the research loop of consciousness within their ‘lived life’, as Alice looking through the looking glass at her in a house where she is looking through the looking glass. Praxis then is the dialectic integration of thinking and doing, rationality and nature so to speak NOT keeping the two ‘objectively’ separate as in dualities nor, I submit are they separable. Critically RP is not about ‘object reflection’ i.e. consumption or external problem solving, rather RP seeks a cataphatic harmony between inner and outer – starting with the outer and heterotechnic harmony between the external components of task/exemplar project. The latter is the essence of Adult Learning. Here we become politically active Reflexive Praxisers a form of spiritual practice. This then is experiencing incarnation for the second, yet knowing it for the first, time…..
Indeed such retrospectivity often seems to be at the heart of creativity. For instance, the poet Keats described his insightful experiences as chance or magic - of something ‘given to me’. He added that often he had not been aware of the beauty of some thought or expression until after he had composed and written it down, then he was struck with astonishment. It seemed to him that it was the production of another person rather than himself.
The composer Tchaikovsky commented that for him, breakthrough experiences came suddenly and unexpectedly and had extraordinary force. Strauss said that he was conscious of being aided by more than an earthly power that was responsive to his determined suggestions, while the operatic composer Puccini described his inspiration as being dictated to him by God, and claimed he was merely instrumental in putting it on paper and communicating it to the public! Neil, (1993). In these instances acceptance and understanding comes later. Retrospectivity, reflection and a certain level of inner turmoil seem to precede the creative art.
It is through this reflexive - even meditative, poetic - rather than noetic, process (one of apperception) that we believe we can gain vital noumenal (understanding, perception, discernment) insights into and from our data. These insights can point the way for future action and theory building. That is, out of the spaces can come the patterns and linkages so vital to understanding our research process. This article seeks to explore one such process which can help uncover these deeper patterns and linkages.
Reflexive Praxis as a form of Deep Futures Reverse Causation
These patterns in the past lie unrecognised by many, indeed most of us, throughout our lives. Jung is reputed to have said near the end of his life that looking back his life, when looked at by his version of Reflexive Praxis, was more like a cathedral than a train journey. In that he could see how each segment of his life built a new floor or part thereof in the cathedral of his Magnus opus which was in effect his whole life. This synthesis is in effect in 3D, and represents an exoteric and esoteric interface terrain that has both a horizontal (life-space) and vertical (consciousness-space) dimensions respectively. In this regard it may be considered a form of Deep Futures and is the subject matter of Reflexive Praxis. Such PIP’ing (Patterns In the Past) can be considered a form of ‘Reverse Causation’.[1]
[1] Such Deep Futures methodologies such as ‘Retrocausality,’ may also be referred to as ‘backwards time causality’, ‘reverse time causality’ or ‘reverse causation’ is defined as the future influencing the past; it adds to and enlarges the idea of linear causality in the sense that it implies that the effect is not only produced by a cause, but that the effect can also precede the cause. This is to say that what might conventionally be seen as an effect that exists in the future could in some way be a causal agent affecting the outcome of events that occurred before it in linear time. Linear sequential time is a very western phenomenon.
I have used this term for instance in my futures work on the crash of Air New Zealand Flight TE910 on the 27-11-1979, into Mt Erebus killing all 257 people on board, in applying a methodology of deep futures ‘Causal Layered Analysis’ to this tragic event. Inayatullah (1998) (who originated the concept), Wildman (2004), (2010). The crash happened in a bright sunny day, with a modern fully functioning aircraft, with deeply experienced pilots in command. What had happened, as it came out only through the offices of a Royal Commission [see Verdict on Erebus Mahon (1985) which was written by the Royal Commissioner] was that the flight co-ordinates had been changed remotely before take-off by administration at ANZ without telling the pilots!! So that, using this idea of ‘reverse causation’ before the flight even took off from Auckland all those on board were dead because the new co-ordinates flew the plane straight into the side of Mt. Erebus. As an aside an amazing thing about this horrific occurrence was that during the Royal Commission no one sought to argue that the pilot could have been looking out for big rocky things sticking up that is mountains and if he saw any, by eye or radar, not to fly into them i.e. he should have been doing his own ongoing Critical Reflexive Praxis.
Nevertheless this tragic event, may be considered, in my view an example of ‘reverse causation’ as brilliantly articulated in the following quote:
Retrocausality thus implies a symmetrical treatment of time in which both past and future events can play a role in causing the present moment to happen the way it does. Such a perspective collapses our notion of sequential time as always flowing in one direction, i.e., from the past to the future, as it allows causal movement in two directions simultaneously. In this Archimedean ‘view from nowhen,’ there is a two-way contact, contract and information exchange between the past and the future. The present moment, the point where our power to shape reality is to be found, is the place in which the ‘handshake’ completing this trans-action happens.
Retrocausality, inc. svnchronicity, serendipity and non-local causation, implies that not only a future self, so to speak, is influencing us in the present, but that the questions we ask and perceptions we have in the present effect the past as well. The past is not thought to be fixed, unchangeable and already existing, but is considered to have no existence except as it is recorded in the present. This view considers that the past doesn’t exist in a solid or objective way that causes or determines our present moment experience in the way that is imagined by classical physics. Rather, the perspective of retrocausality says just the opposite – the way we observe the present moment reaches back in time and creates the past, selecting one out of many possible quantum histories for the universe. Because of the probabilistic nature of the quantum universe we live in, the arena of history is enlarged such that the past is an amalgam of all possible pasts compatible with the version of the present moment we are currently experiencing. Retrocausality greatly expands our sphere of influence, pointing out that we have a great deal more ability to influence historical events than we have previously imagined. Retrocausality is related to the shamanic perspective which considers that the shaman journeys, in the present moment, both backwards and/or forward in time so as to effect changes in the past and/or future, thereby changing the present circumstance. Levy (2012:122-3, 200).
Likewise, we submit, that like Jung, mentioned earlier, by identifying these PIP’s we can allow, and even start to see, how this type of Reverse Causation can impact our lives going forward. So RP is a form of PIP’ing with potential for RC which can also be called, synchronicity, serendipity, happen-stance, miracle etc. In this sense RC/RP may be seen as a sociological form of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle that in effect the universe manifests itself when it is observed and then only from a specific perspective as one cannot tell whether an electron (I first typed ‘election’ – hmm very Freudian indeed) exits until one measures it then in measuring one cannot tell position and velocity simultaneously without one affecting the other by the act of observation.
The composer Tchaikovsky commented that for him, breakthrough experiences came suddenly and unexpectedly and had extraordinary force. Strauss said that he was conscious of being aided by more than an earthly power that was responsive to his determined suggestions, while the operatic composer Puccini described his inspiration as being dictated to him by God, and claimed he was merely instrumental in putting it on paper and communicating it to the public! Neil, (1993). In these instances acceptance and understanding comes later. Retrospectivity, reflection and a certain level of inner turmoil seem to precede the creative art.
It is through this reflexive - even meditative, poetic - rather than noetic, process (one of apperception) that we believe we can gain vital noumenal (understanding, perception, discernment) insights into and from our data. These insights can point the way for future action and theory building. That is, out of the spaces can come the patterns and linkages so vital to understanding our research process. This article seeks to explore one such process which can help uncover these deeper patterns and linkages.
Reflexive Praxis as a form of Deep Futures Reverse Causation
These patterns in the past lie unrecognised by many, indeed most of us, throughout our lives. Jung is reputed to have said near the end of his life that looking back his life, when looked at by his version of Reflexive Praxis, was more like a cathedral than a train journey. In that he could see how each segment of his life built a new floor or part thereof in the cathedral of his Magnus opus which was in effect his whole life. This synthesis is in effect in 3D, and represents an exoteric and esoteric interface terrain that has both a horizontal (life-space) and vertical (consciousness-space) dimensions respectively. In this regard it may be considered a form of Deep Futures and is the subject matter of Reflexive Praxis. Such PIP’ing (Patterns In the Past) can be considered a form of ‘Reverse Causation’.[1]
[1] Such Deep Futures methodologies such as ‘Retrocausality,’ may also be referred to as ‘backwards time causality’, ‘reverse time causality’ or ‘reverse causation’ is defined as the future influencing the past; it adds to and enlarges the idea of linear causality in the sense that it implies that the effect is not only produced by a cause, but that the effect can also precede the cause. This is to say that what might conventionally be seen as an effect that exists in the future could in some way be a causal agent affecting the outcome of events that occurred before it in linear time. Linear sequential time is a very western phenomenon.
I have used this term for instance in my futures work on the crash of Air New Zealand Flight TE910 on the 27-11-1979, into Mt Erebus killing all 257 people on board, in applying a methodology of deep futures ‘Causal Layered Analysis’ to this tragic event. Inayatullah (1998) (who originated the concept), Wildman (2004), (2010). The crash happened in a bright sunny day, with a modern fully functioning aircraft, with deeply experienced pilots in command. What had happened, as it came out only through the offices of a Royal Commission [see Verdict on Erebus Mahon (1985) which was written by the Royal Commissioner] was that the flight co-ordinates had been changed remotely before take-off by administration at ANZ without telling the pilots!! So that, using this idea of ‘reverse causation’ before the flight even took off from Auckland all those on board were dead because the new co-ordinates flew the plane straight into the side of Mt. Erebus. As an aside an amazing thing about this horrific occurrence was that during the Royal Commission no one sought to argue that the pilot could have been looking out for big rocky things sticking up that is mountains and if he saw any, by eye or radar, not to fly into them i.e. he should have been doing his own ongoing Critical Reflexive Praxis.
Nevertheless this tragic event, may be considered, in my view an example of ‘reverse causation’ as brilliantly articulated in the following quote:
Retrocausality thus implies a symmetrical treatment of time in which both past and future events can play a role in causing the present moment to happen the way it does. Such a perspective collapses our notion of sequential time as always flowing in one direction, i.e., from the past to the future, as it allows causal movement in two directions simultaneously. In this Archimedean ‘view from nowhen,’ there is a two-way contact, contract and information exchange between the past and the future. The present moment, the point where our power to shape reality is to be found, is the place in which the ‘handshake’ completing this trans-action happens.
Retrocausality, inc. svnchronicity, serendipity and non-local causation, implies that not only a future self, so to speak, is influencing us in the present, but that the questions we ask and perceptions we have in the present effect the past as well. The past is not thought to be fixed, unchangeable and already existing, but is considered to have no existence except as it is recorded in the present. This view considers that the past doesn’t exist in a solid or objective way that causes or determines our present moment experience in the way that is imagined by classical physics. Rather, the perspective of retrocausality says just the opposite – the way we observe the present moment reaches back in time and creates the past, selecting one out of many possible quantum histories for the universe. Because of the probabilistic nature of the quantum universe we live in, the arena of history is enlarged such that the past is an amalgam of all possible pasts compatible with the version of the present moment we are currently experiencing. Retrocausality greatly expands our sphere of influence, pointing out that we have a great deal more ability to influence historical events than we have previously imagined. Retrocausality is related to the shamanic perspective which considers that the shaman journeys, in the present moment, both backwards and/or forward in time so as to effect changes in the past and/or future, thereby changing the present circumstance. Levy (2012:122-3, 200).
Likewise, we submit, that like Jung, mentioned earlier, by identifying these PIP’s we can allow, and even start to see, how this type of Reverse Causation can impact our lives going forward. So RP is a form of PIP’ing with potential for RC which can also be called, synchronicity, serendipity, happen-stance, miracle etc. In this sense RC/RP may be seen as a sociological form of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle that in effect the universe manifests itself when it is observed and then only from a specific perspective as one cannot tell whether an electron (I first typed ‘election’ – hmm very Freudian indeed) exits until one measures it then in measuring one cannot tell position and velocity simultaneously without one affecting the other by the act of observation.
[1] Such Deep Futures methodologies such as ‘Retrocausality,’ may also be referred to as ‘backwards time causality’, ‘reverse time causality’ or ‘reverse causation’ is defined as the future influencing the past; it adds to and enlarges the idea of linear causality in the sense that it implies that the effect is not only produced by a cause, but that the effect can also precede the cause. This is to say that what might conventionally be seen as an effect that exists in the future could in some way be a causal agent affecting the outcome of events that occurred before it in linear time. Linear sequential time is a very western phenomenon.
I have used this term for instance in my futures work on the crash of Air New Zealand Flight TE910 on the 27-11-1979, into Mt Erebus killing all 257 people on board, in applying a methodology of deep futures ‘Causal Layered Analysis’ to this tragic event. Inayatullah (1998) (who originated the concept), Wildman (2004), (2010). The crash happened in a bright sunny day, with a modern fully functioning aircraft, with deeply experienced pilots in command. What had happened, as it came out only through the offices of a Royal Commission [see Verdict on Erebus Mahon (1985) which was written by the Royal Commissioner] was that the flight co-ordinates had been changed remotely before take-off by administration at ANZ without telling the pilots!! So that, using this idea of ‘reverse causation’ before the flight even took off from Auckland all those on board were dead because the new co-ordinates flew the plane straight into the side of Mt. Erebus. As an aside an amazing thing about this horrific occurrence was that during the Royal Commission the flight co-ordinates had been changed remotely before take-off by administration at ANZ without telling the pilots!! So that, using this idea of ‘reverse causation’ before the flight even took off from Auckland all those on board were dead because the new co-ordinates flew the plane straight into the side of Mt. Erebus. As an aside an amazing thing about this horrific occurrence was that during the Royal Commission no one sought to argue that the pilot could have been looking out for big rocky things sticking up that is mountains and if he saw any, by eye or radar, not to fly into them i.e. he should have been doing his own ongoing Critical Reflexive Praxis.
Nevertheless this tragic event, may be considered, in my view an example of ‘reverse causation’ as brilliantly articulated in the following quote:
Retrocausality thus implies a symmetrical treatment of time in which both past and future events can play a role in causing the present moment to happen the way it does. Such a perspective collapses our notion of sequential time as always flowing in one direction, i.e., from the past to the future, as it allows causal movement in two directions simultaneously. In this Archimedean ‘view from nowhen,’ there is a two-way contact, contract and information exchange between the past and the future. The present moment, the point where our power to shape reality is to be found, is the place in which the ‘handshake’ completing this trans-action happens.
Retrocausality, inc. svnchronicity, serendipity and non-local causation, implies that not only a future self, so to speak, is influencing us in the present, but that the questions we ask and perceptions we have in the present effect the past as well. The past is not thought to be fixed, unchangeable and already existing, but is considered to have no existence except as it is recorded in the present. This view considers that the past doesn’t exist in a solid or objective way that causes or determines our present moment experience in the way that is imagined by classical physics. Rather, the perspective of retrocausality says just the opposite – the way we observe the present moment reaches back in time and creates the past, selecting one out of many possible quantum histories for the universe. Because of the probabilistic nature of the quantum universe we live in, the arena of history is enlarged such that the past is an amalgam of all possible pasts compatible with the version of the present moment we are currently experiencing. Retrocausality greatly expands our sphere of influence, pointing out that we have a great deal more ability to influence historical events than we have previously imagined. Retrocausality is related to the shamanic perspective which considers that the shaman journeys, in the present moment, both backwards and/or forward in time so as to effect changes in the past and/or future, thereby changing the present circumstance. Levy (2012:122-3, 200).
Likewise, I submit, that like Jung, mentioned earlier, by identifying these PIP’s we can allow, and even start to see, how this type of Reverse Causation can impact our lives going forward. So RP is a form of PIP’ing with potential for RC which can also be called, synchronicity, serendipity, happen-stance, miracle etc. In this sense RC/RP may be seen as a sociological form of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle that in effect the universe manifests itself when it is observed and then only from a specific perspective as one cannot tell whether an electron (I first typed ‘election’ – hmm very Freudian indeed) exits until one measures it then in measuring one cannot tell position and velocity simultaneously without one affecting the other by the act of observation
I have used this term for instance in my futures work on the crash of Air New Zealand Flight TE910 on the 27-11-1979, into Mt Erebus killing all 257 people on board, in applying a methodology of deep futures ‘Causal Layered Analysis’ to this tragic event. Inayatullah (1998) (who originated the concept), Wildman (2004), (2010). The crash happened in a bright sunny day, with a modern fully functioning aircraft, with deeply experienced pilots in command. What had happened, as it came out only through the offices of a Royal Commission [see Verdict on Erebus Mahon (1985) which was written by the Royal Commissioner] was that the flight co-ordinates had been changed remotely before take-off by administration at ANZ without telling the pilots!! So that, using this idea of ‘reverse causation’ before the flight even took off from Auckland all those on board were dead because the new co-ordinates flew the plane straight into the side of Mt. Erebus. As an aside an amazing thing about this horrific occurrence was that during the Royal Commission the flight co-ordinates had been changed remotely before take-off by administration at ANZ without telling the pilots!! So that, using this idea of ‘reverse causation’ before the flight even took off from Auckland all those on board were dead because the new co-ordinates flew the plane straight into the side of Mt. Erebus. As an aside an amazing thing about this horrific occurrence was that during the Royal Commission no one sought to argue that the pilot could have been looking out for big rocky things sticking up that is mountains and if he saw any, by eye or radar, not to fly into them i.e. he should have been doing his own ongoing Critical Reflexive Praxis.
Nevertheless this tragic event, may be considered, in my view an example of ‘reverse causation’ as brilliantly articulated in the following quote:
Retrocausality thus implies a symmetrical treatment of time in which both past and future events can play a role in causing the present moment to happen the way it does. Such a perspective collapses our notion of sequential time as always flowing in one direction, i.e., from the past to the future, as it allows causal movement in two directions simultaneously. In this Archimedean ‘view from nowhen,’ there is a two-way contact, contract and information exchange between the past and the future. The present moment, the point where our power to shape reality is to be found, is the place in which the ‘handshake’ completing this trans-action happens.
Retrocausality, inc. svnchronicity, serendipity and non-local causation, implies that not only a future self, so to speak, is influencing us in the present, but that the questions we ask and perceptions we have in the present effect the past as well. The past is not thought to be fixed, unchangeable and already existing, but is considered to have no existence except as it is recorded in the present. This view considers that the past doesn’t exist in a solid or objective way that causes or determines our present moment experience in the way that is imagined by classical physics. Rather, the perspective of retrocausality says just the opposite – the way we observe the present moment reaches back in time and creates the past, selecting one out of many possible quantum histories for the universe. Because of the probabilistic nature of the quantum universe we live in, the arena of history is enlarged such that the past is an amalgam of all possible pasts compatible with the version of the present moment we are currently experiencing. Retrocausality greatly expands our sphere of influence, pointing out that we have a great deal more ability to influence historical events than we have previously imagined. Retrocausality is related to the shamanic perspective which considers that the shaman journeys, in the present moment, both backwards and/or forward in time so as to effect changes in the past and/or future, thereby changing the present circumstance. Levy (2012:122-3, 200).
Likewise, I submit, that like Jung, mentioned earlier, by identifying these PIP’s we can allow, and even start to see, how this type of Reverse Causation can impact our lives going forward. So RP is a form of PIP’ing with potential for RC which can also be called, synchronicity, serendipity, happen-stance, miracle etc. In this sense RC/RP may be seen as a sociological form of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle that in effect the universe manifests itself when it is observed and then only from a specific perspective as one cannot tell whether an electron (I first typed ‘election’ – hmm very Freudian indeed) exits until one measures it then in measuring one cannot tell position and velocity simultaneously without one affecting the other by the act of observation
The poet Emerson, captures my ramblings about Reverse Causation well when he writes in his first published essay in 1838, Nature, Every man’s condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries he would put. He acts it as life, before he apprehends it as truth. This apprehension, following our actions, is what we are seeking here, through the Esoteric Thesis, with methodology of Reflexive Praxis.
Esotericists generally acknowledge the importance of finding and identifying and befriending these patterns in our past. Such patterns we argue are chreodes in the invisible organising principle /filed of the universe as we spoke about in our other articles the DUF – Demiurgic Manifesting field. We believe this DUF is the carrier for our collective unconscious. Indeed a field comprising omni-directionally and non-locally emanating radiant awareness throughout the entire field of consciousness. By tapping into what is called the ‘quantum vacuum’, a field of living energy with nearly boundless potentiality, luminosity and sentience, we become conduits for the over-unity technology of consciousness itself.
We can become‘over-unity human’ who step into and incarnate the part of ourselves that is a creator. Empowered, we are able to trans-fix, trans-mute, trans-form ourselves and our world with its entropic systems of finance, consumption, government and pollution. We would adduce that the counterpoint neg-entropic energy also emergent from the DUF is compassion/empathy as a nonlocal force of immense healing and wholeing, wholebeing and healbeing energy that should not be discounted nor underestimated. To become aware of the DUF is to be awakened to the nonlocal field, which is like an omnipresent multidimensional field, an etheric amniotic fluid that seamlessly connects us and in which we are all contained.
Ultimately this ‘non-locality’ i.e. the DUF, could possibly be experienced personally through the Buddhist mindfulness mediation, Lewis (2005:300-303), and poetically as say as in Ultvansi Koan such as a salt doll achieved ataman as a non-locality swimming in an electron ocean[1], and its footprints identified through RP. Space then is not empty but rather is filled with highly concentrated conscious energy, the source of everything in existence. We are as it were salt dolls are fractal holographs in a material ripple of excitation in the midst of a unimaginably vast ocean – a DUF ocean.
Being then may be seen as a co-incidence of opposites, when God/universal monadic energy incarnates by hitting the plane of manifest form, duality arises and the uniform energy splits apart and become polarised (think of Christ and Satan in the last iteration of this divine drama of Incarnation Satan did not appear until Christ did). It’s as if through the dialectic of these incarnational opposites consciousness can arise and in this sense God can recognise herself in herself in incarnation AND in spirit as braided emanations of the monadic energy.
Indeed that in 1922 Einstein endorsed the existence of an energy field between masses in space. Such a field could be relevant to obtaining ‘free’ energy. It may well be that the one way a free energy motor could possible exist, would be if a field counterpoint our present entropic fire based energy systems. Pope and Degenhardt (2012). Such a universal field energy system would interact/intersect with the physical world as depicted in the lost Greek ethical science. Such a ubiquitous field we posit could be the DUF - Tesla’s field? Hatcher-Childress (2000)[2]. Seeing the nonlocal dream-like nature is to realise that the field isn’t just [1] Atman - the spiritual life principle or essence of the universe, esp. when regarded as inherent in the real self of the individual, being part of the world soul, which as ones True self - the reality of which equates with nirvana.
Although cataphatic (we can know God personally in a positive way which can be known to humans as nirvana) some Buddhist sects critique the concept of Atman as the apparent self (our identification as souls) as a continuation of a grasping after a self i.e. a kind of ‘God-spot’ inasmuch as we have a self, we have it only through a deluded attempt to shore it up e.g. through Ataman etc. For me and as much as I can understand these things, Atman as ‘true self which is part of God’ makes sense. One can transform one's self from an ‘insignificant self’ into a ‘great self’ through practices such as loving-kindness and mindfulness (sati). Atman is the end result of the path of ‘arahant’, described as ‘the self-reliant one’ or ‘one of developed self’ (bhāvit-atto), who has carried the process of personal development, social service and self-reliance to its perfection and in doing so has released one from ones samsara’s.
[2] Tesla’s field was similar, in some regards to Einstein’s in that both identified the need for, and postulated the existence of a ubiquitous and fundamental field mostly ignored and mis-defined by the standard model. They are correct that it exists at all levels, quantum and terrestrial and cosmic. They are correct that it may be dubbed ‘creational’, since any fundamental emission field would have to be admitted to be ‘creational’ in one sense: it causes everything and its cause is unknown. Both required a that a powerful, mostly unknown field exists, intervolving Past, Present and Future (P↔P↔F viz. retro-causation), while linked to E/M and Plasma (EMP field), as well as dark and subtle energies, it is as the general theory of relativity itself claims, a medium which itself is bereft of all mechanical and kinetic properties, but which has a share in determining mechanical and electromechanical occurrences yet the cause of which is unknown. In this sense, it is our suggestion that the DUF has some parallels with the Tesla/Einstein EMP field as an unknown and unknowable ineffable matrix on which the EMP can have its being.
So in a way DUF can be considered the AUM matrix, el ar Music of the Spheres, the cosmic now, the point of eternal return, of the cosmos holding us all in relationship manifesting itself all around us, but that the field is coming through us and expressing itself in our inner subjective domain as well. Levy (2012:118). Today though we have a certain madness in this field.
Esotericists generally acknowledge the importance of finding and identifying and befriending these patterns in our past. Such patterns we argue are chreodes in the invisible organising principle /filed of the universe as we spoke about in our other articles the DUF – Demiurgic Manifesting field. We believe this DUF is the carrier for our collective unconscious. Indeed a field comprising omni-directionally and non-locally emanating radiant awareness throughout the entire field of consciousness. By tapping into what is called the ‘quantum vacuum’, a field of living energy with nearly boundless potentiality, luminosity and sentience, we become conduits for the over-unity technology of consciousness itself.
We can become‘over-unity human’ who step into and incarnate the part of ourselves that is a creator. Empowered, we are able to trans-fix, trans-mute, trans-form ourselves and our world with its entropic systems of finance, consumption, government and pollution. We would adduce that the counterpoint neg-entropic energy also emergent from the DUF is compassion/empathy as a nonlocal force of immense healing and wholeing, wholebeing and healbeing energy that should not be discounted nor underestimated. To become aware of the DUF is to be awakened to the nonlocal field, which is like an omnipresent multidimensional field, an etheric amniotic fluid that seamlessly connects us and in which we are all contained.
Ultimately this ‘non-locality’ i.e. the DUF, could possibly be experienced personally through the Buddhist mindfulness mediation, Lewis (2005:300-303), and poetically as say as in Ultvansi Koan such as a salt doll achieved ataman as a non-locality swimming in an electron ocean[1], and its footprints identified through RP. Space then is not empty but rather is filled with highly concentrated conscious energy, the source of everything in existence. We are as it were salt dolls are fractal holographs in a material ripple of excitation in the midst of a unimaginably vast ocean – a DUF ocean.
Being then may be seen as a co-incidence of opposites, when God/universal monadic energy incarnates by hitting the plane of manifest form, duality arises and the uniform energy splits apart and become polarised (think of Christ and Satan in the last iteration of this divine drama of Incarnation Satan did not appear until Christ did). It’s as if through the dialectic of these incarnational opposites consciousness can arise and in this sense God can recognise herself in herself in incarnation AND in spirit as braided emanations of the monadic energy.
Indeed that in 1922 Einstein endorsed the existence of an energy field between masses in space. Such a field could be relevant to obtaining ‘free’ energy. It may well be that the one way a free energy motor could possible exist, would be if a field counterpoint our present entropic fire based energy systems. Pope and Degenhardt (2012). Such a universal field energy system would interact/intersect with the physical world as depicted in the lost Greek ethical science. Such a ubiquitous field we posit could be the DUF - Tesla’s field? Hatcher-Childress (2000)[2]. Seeing the nonlocal dream-like nature is to realise that the field isn’t just [1] Atman - the spiritual life principle or essence of the universe, esp. when regarded as inherent in the real self of the individual, being part of the world soul, which as ones True self - the reality of which equates with nirvana.
Although cataphatic (we can know God personally in a positive way which can be known to humans as nirvana) some Buddhist sects critique the concept of Atman as the apparent self (our identification as souls) as a continuation of a grasping after a self i.e. a kind of ‘God-spot’ inasmuch as we have a self, we have it only through a deluded attempt to shore it up e.g. through Ataman etc. For me and as much as I can understand these things, Atman as ‘true self which is part of God’ makes sense. One can transform one's self from an ‘insignificant self’ into a ‘great self’ through practices such as loving-kindness and mindfulness (sati). Atman is the end result of the path of ‘arahant’, described as ‘the self-reliant one’ or ‘one of developed self’ (bhāvit-atto), who has carried the process of personal development, social service and self-reliance to its perfection and in doing so has released one from ones samsara’s.
[2] Tesla’s field was similar, in some regards to Einstein’s in that both identified the need for, and postulated the existence of a ubiquitous and fundamental field mostly ignored and mis-defined by the standard model. They are correct that it exists at all levels, quantum and terrestrial and cosmic. They are correct that it may be dubbed ‘creational’, since any fundamental emission field would have to be admitted to be ‘creational’ in one sense: it causes everything and its cause is unknown. Both required a that a powerful, mostly unknown field exists, intervolving Past, Present and Future (P↔P↔F viz. retro-causation), while linked to E/M and Plasma (EMP field), as well as dark and subtle energies, it is as the general theory of relativity itself claims, a medium which itself is bereft of all mechanical and kinetic properties, but which has a share in determining mechanical and electromechanical occurrences yet the cause of which is unknown. In this sense, it is our suggestion that the DUF has some parallels with the Tesla/Einstein EMP field as an unknown and unknowable ineffable matrix on which the EMP can have its being.
So in a way DUF can be considered the AUM matrix, el ar Music of the Spheres, the cosmic now, the point of eternal return, of the cosmos holding us all in relationship manifesting itself all around us, but that the field is coming through us and expressing itself in our inner subjective domain as well. Levy (2012:118). Today though we have a certain madness in this field.
[1] Atman - the spiritual life principle or essence of the universe, esp. when regarded as inherent in the real self of the individual, being part of the world soul, which as ones True self - the reality of which equates with nirvana. Although cataphatic (we can know God personally in a positive way which can be known to humans as nirvana) some Buddhist sects critique the concept of Atman as the apparent self (our identification as souls) as a continuation of a grasping after a self i.e. a kind of ‘God-spot’ inasmuch as we have a self, we have it only through a deluded attempt to shore it up e.g. through Ataman etc. For me and as much as I can understand these things, Atman as ‘true self which is part of God’ makes sense. One can transform one's self from an ‘insignificant self’ into a ‘great self’ through practices such as loving-kindness and mindfulness (sati). Atman is the end result of the path of ‘arahant’, described as ‘the self-reliant one’ or ‘one of developed self’ (bhāvit-atto), who has carried the process of personal development, social service and self-reliance to its perfection and in doing so has released one from ones samsara’s.
[1] Tesla’s field was similar, in some regards to Einstein’s in that both identified the need for, and postulated the existence of a ubiquitous and fundamental field mostly ignored and mis-defined by the standard model. They are correct that it exists at all levels, quantum and terrestrial and cosmic. They are correct that it may be dubbed ‘creational’, since any fundamental emission field would have to be admitted to be ‘creational’ in one sense: it causes everything and its cause is unknown. Both required a that a powerful, mostly unknown field exists, intervolving Past, Present and Future (P↔P↔F viz. retro-causation), while linked to E/M and Plasma (EMP field), as well as dark and subtle energies, it is as the general theory of relativity itself claims, a medium which itself is bereft of all mechanical and kinetic properties, but which has a share in determining mechanical and electromechanical occurrences yet the cause of which is unknown. In this sense, it is our suggestion that the DUF has some parallels with the Tesla/Einstein EMP field as an unknown and unknowable ineffable matrix on which the EMP can have its being.
[1] Tesla’s field was similar, in some regards to Einstein’s in that both identified the need for, and postulated the existence of a ubiquitous and fundamental field mostly ignored and mis-defined by the standard model. They are correct that it exists at all levels, quantum and terrestrial and cosmic. They are correct that it may be dubbed ‘creational’, since any fundamental emission field would have to be admitted to be ‘creational’ in one sense: it causes everything and its cause is unknown. Both required a that a powerful, mostly unknown field exists, intervolving Past, Present and Future (P↔P↔F viz. retro-causation), while linked to E/M and Plasma (EMP field), as well as dark and subtle energies, it is as the general theory of relativity itself claims, a medium which itself is bereft of all mechanical and kinetic properties, but which has a share in determining mechanical and electromechanical occurrences yet the cause of which is unknown. In this sense, it is our suggestion that the DUF has some parallels with the Tesla/Einstein EMP field as an unknown and unknowable ineffable matrix on which the EMP can have its being.
We need a methodology of helping these deeper underlying patterns to come into focus and be seen, identified, even communicated with and ultimately fitted together like pieces, or shards, of a higher-order jigsaw/mosaic and simultaneously a deeper order grounding/embodying. Levy (2012:111). We submit that Reflexive Praxis can be one such methodology. Possibly this is also one way that a higher order consciousness can reveal itself to us and through us i.e. through our praxis and our reflexions thereon. We are proposing for former but only positing this latter claim in relation to Reflexive Praxis.
On a more exoteric level now cognitive scientists have endorsed the idea that we will never find a fully autonomous world i.e. a ‘me and thee’, type subject object i.e. Cartesian world. Rather the world is looking more and more like a field (aka DUF?) for all our experience, a world that cannot be found apart from our handiwork and cognition. Verela et al (1993:142-144). Here we need to contend with the two extremes of ‘absolutism’ and ‘nihilism’ for instance, ‘theism’ and ‘atheism’. To do this we suggest a form of mindfulness/awareness/presentness mediation which integrates with headfullness/handfullness/heartfullness as forms of awareness.
There is the deeply embedded dominance of two strands of Cartesian thought in the social sciences: (1) the fixed idea that there is a huge gulf between humans and other animals; (2) dualistic thinking is reified viz. the belief that subject and object, body and mind, doing and thinking, are separate rather than braided even blended. In essence, humanity is the aperture through which God makes Itself known and real in time. We are the eyes through which God sees Itself from the outside, thus becoming conscious of Itself. Not merely the ‘subjects’ of our inner process, we become the ‘objects’ of a deeper, mythic, archetypal and divine process that is incarnating through us. We are the conduits through which the universe, in becoming consciously aware of itself, is waking itself up. Self-reflection i.e. reflexion, is therefore the best service we can do for ourselves and the world, as well as being the highest way for us to serve and love God. Levy (2012:126)
The world then is not pre-given as much of exoteric science requires it is co-generated through our perception a form of mutual co-arising, aka co-dependent co-origination, from the background field. All this to my mind validates ‘common-sense’ i.e. knowing practically how to negotiate and navigate our way through a world that is not fixed and pre-given but is continually shaped by the types of actions in which we individually and collectively engage as well the world itself. So that in overview the DUF tells us that the world is not pre-given but rather arises from the background field as we turn our ‘common-sense’ gaze thereon in what may be called a process of mutual conscious co-creation. A form Heisenberg’ian ‘consciousness arising’ though our gaze.
On a more exoteric level now cognitive scientists have endorsed the idea that we will never find a fully autonomous world i.e. a ‘me and thee’, type subject object i.e. Cartesian world. Rather the world is looking more and more like a field (aka DUF?) for all our experience, a world that cannot be found apart from our handiwork and cognition. Verela et al (1993:142-144). Here we need to contend with the two extremes of ‘absolutism’ and ‘nihilism’ for instance, ‘theism’ and ‘atheism’. To do this we suggest a form of mindfulness/awareness/presentness mediation which integrates with headfullness/handfullness/heartfullness as forms of awareness.
There is the deeply embedded dominance of two strands of Cartesian thought in the social sciences: (1) the fixed idea that there is a huge gulf between humans and other animals; (2) dualistic thinking is reified viz. the belief that subject and object, body and mind, doing and thinking, are separate rather than braided even blended. In essence, humanity is the aperture through which God makes Itself known and real in time. We are the eyes through which God sees Itself from the outside, thus becoming conscious of Itself. Not merely the ‘subjects’ of our inner process, we become the ‘objects’ of a deeper, mythic, archetypal and divine process that is incarnating through us. We are the conduits through which the universe, in becoming consciously aware of itself, is waking itself up. Self-reflection i.e. reflexion, is therefore the best service we can do for ourselves and the world, as well as being the highest way for us to serve and love God. Levy (2012:126)
The world then is not pre-given as much of exoteric science requires it is co-generated through our perception a form of mutual co-arising, aka co-dependent co-origination, from the background field. All this to my mind validates ‘common-sense’ i.e. knowing practically how to negotiate and navigate our way through a world that is not fixed and pre-given but is continually shaped by the types of actions in which we individually and collectively engage as well the world itself. So that in overview the DUF tells us that the world is not pre-given but rather arises from the background field as we turn our ‘common-sense’ gaze thereon in what may be called a process of mutual conscious co-creation. A form Heisenberg’ian ‘consciousness arising’ though our gaze.
So in a way DUF can be considered the AUM matrix, el ar Music of the Spheres, the cosmic now, the point of eternal return, of the cosmos holding us all in relationship.
Clearly such musings are at odds with conventional empirical research methodologies where the literature review and hypothesis precede actual experimentation and its subsequent write up. This article does not reject such conventional research methods, but seeks to 'complement' rather than 'compete' with them.
A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE
• Theory and Practice
In the physical sciences theory generally leads practice. That is, science discovers knowledge and technology develops its application to the real world. However, in the human sciences, and indeed sometimes in the ‘hard’ sciences, practice can often lead theory. See Figure 1. This arises as practitioners deal with real 'field' problems, and start to use theory to generalise principles from this field practice, which in turn lead to more effective practice and better theory. Thus is illustrated below in Figure 1. Clearly, in the human sciences, a grounded theory method of inquiry which engages these real 'field' issues or actions is a crucial starting point.
A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE
• Theory and Practice
In the physical sciences theory generally leads practice. That is, science discovers knowledge and technology develops its application to the real world. However, in the human sciences, and indeed sometimes in the ‘hard’ sciences, practice can often lead theory. See Figure 1. This arises as practitioners deal with real 'field' problems, and start to use theory to generalise principles from this field practice, which in turn lead to more effective practice and better theory. Thus is illustrated below in Figure 1. Clearly, in the human sciences, a grounded theory method of inquiry which engages these real 'field' issues or actions is a crucial starting point.
• Types of Action Research
One method of inquiry that engages practice while generating theory, that is, one that facilitates action while generating research outcomes, is action research. Carr and Kemmis, (1986); Kemmis, (1992) and Zuber-Skerritt, (1992) have distinguished three types of action research: technical, practical and emancipatory. These are outlined below:
1 Technical Action Research is about the effectiveness and efficiency of performance in organisations. The participants in this kind of research tend to be co-opted and rely on the outside 'expert'.
2 The aims of Practical Action Research are also effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, the participants develop an understanding and a change in, or transformation of. their consciousness, thereby encouraging the participants' cooperation, active participation and self-reflection.
3 In Emancipatory Action Research the aims are the same as those mentioned above, and also include the participants' (that is, the oppressed) emancipation from the dictates of tradition, self-deception, and coercion, as well as converting their critique and reflections towards the transformation of bureaucratic systems and organisations. The facilitator is a process moderator, collaborating and sharing equal responsibility with the participants.
I would like to suggest another two types of action research - liberatory and transcendent:
4 In Liberatory Action Research the aims are the same as those for emancipatory action research and include the oppressed liberating the oppressor. This implies the out-working of the full process of conscientisation commenced in number 3. Emancipatory action research can help the oppressed split themselves off from oppressive structures, whereas liberatory action research goes one step further in that the oppressed help to bring forth a unity and a restructuring of power relations in society as well as in bureaucratic systems that produced the oppression. If this does not happen, the shadow of the oppressor, which is ingrained in the oppressed, can take over, the oppressed thus becoming the new oppressor. The facilitator here is almost a liberation theologist, someone who can see the longer process with an ethical, almost spiritual, eye.
5 Transcendent Action Research, where the researchers, through a `transcendent action', transcend the barriers between, and definitions of, oppressed and oppressor to make a statement of joined humanity. Such a statement has at once a searing physical and a metaphysical reality. Transcendent action research embraces the spiritual, symbolic and physical realities of being fully human. Examples of transcendent action research include Ghand’s death. in which he forgave his killer, Christ's death on the cross, where he did the same (extending it to include forgiveness to us), and Buddha who achieved enlightenment for us. These events have been incorporated into the myths and stories representing our cultures which in turn shape our understanding of, and inquiries into, the way the world is.
Compassion, reconciliation, sharing our brokenness and re-integration can start to play an important role, especially in the last two forms of action research (liberatory and transcendent). This can result in reconciling humanity, including the oppressor and the oppressed, with their/our humanity. As Zuber-Skerritt (1992) maintains, the first three types of action research can be seen as developmental steps where one starts with a group at technical action research moving to practical and then emancipatory action research over time. We believe this process of conscientisation (consciousness and conscience with action) can be extended to include the additional two forms of action research.
An interesting reflection on the process is that when we have sought to apply it to developing local employment and training opportunities (or Community Economic Development - CED); it has led to a deepening of understanding by all parties of the action research process, itself. Further the 'currency' of the first type of action research - enhanced local employment and training opportunities - remains the same for every other action research type, The difference being, however, the way that the action research/community economic development is understood and actioned.
It is my observation that numbers 3, 4 and 5, the arena of RP, are generally perceived as very challenging to existing power systems. Often the action research/community economic development facilitators run very great personal and career security risks. Several such facilitators, with whom the author was indirectly involved in the Philippines and Seychelles, as part of a group that fought to raise funds to support their activities, were imprisoned, while another was shot dead.
• Heuristic Inquiry
As we seek to link theory and practice (see Figure 1) we need to draw meanings and understanding from our thoughts, behaviour and experiences, and this includes our own internal world. One such way of engaging our own thoughts and behaviour is through heuristic inquiry (HI). For Douglass and Moustakas (1984:42) heuristics as dialogue is one way of describing such a voyage of discovery by oneself (not only of oneself), which is concerned with the following:
One method of inquiry that engages practice while generating theory, that is, one that facilitates action while generating research outcomes, is action research. Carr and Kemmis, (1986); Kemmis, (1992) and Zuber-Skerritt, (1992) have distinguished three types of action research: technical, practical and emancipatory. These are outlined below:
1 Technical Action Research is about the effectiveness and efficiency of performance in organisations. The participants in this kind of research tend to be co-opted and rely on the outside 'expert'.
2 The aims of Practical Action Research are also effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, the participants develop an understanding and a change in, or transformation of. their consciousness, thereby encouraging the participants' cooperation, active participation and self-reflection.
3 In Emancipatory Action Research the aims are the same as those mentioned above, and also include the participants' (that is, the oppressed) emancipation from the dictates of tradition, self-deception, and coercion, as well as converting their critique and reflections towards the transformation of bureaucratic systems and organisations. The facilitator is a process moderator, collaborating and sharing equal responsibility with the participants.
I would like to suggest another two types of action research - liberatory and transcendent:
4 In Liberatory Action Research the aims are the same as those for emancipatory action research and include the oppressed liberating the oppressor. This implies the out-working of the full process of conscientisation commenced in number 3. Emancipatory action research can help the oppressed split themselves off from oppressive structures, whereas liberatory action research goes one step further in that the oppressed help to bring forth a unity and a restructuring of power relations in society as well as in bureaucratic systems that produced the oppression. If this does not happen, the shadow of the oppressor, which is ingrained in the oppressed, can take over, the oppressed thus becoming the new oppressor. The facilitator here is almost a liberation theologist, someone who can see the longer process with an ethical, almost spiritual, eye.
5 Transcendent Action Research, where the researchers, through a `transcendent action', transcend the barriers between, and definitions of, oppressed and oppressor to make a statement of joined humanity. Such a statement has at once a searing physical and a metaphysical reality. Transcendent action research embraces the spiritual, symbolic and physical realities of being fully human. Examples of transcendent action research include Ghand’s death. in which he forgave his killer, Christ's death on the cross, where he did the same (extending it to include forgiveness to us), and Buddha who achieved enlightenment for us. These events have been incorporated into the myths and stories representing our cultures which in turn shape our understanding of, and inquiries into, the way the world is.
Compassion, reconciliation, sharing our brokenness and re-integration can start to play an important role, especially in the last two forms of action research (liberatory and transcendent). This can result in reconciling humanity, including the oppressor and the oppressed, with their/our humanity. As Zuber-Skerritt (1992) maintains, the first three types of action research can be seen as developmental steps where one starts with a group at technical action research moving to practical and then emancipatory action research over time. We believe this process of conscientisation (consciousness and conscience with action) can be extended to include the additional two forms of action research.
An interesting reflection on the process is that when we have sought to apply it to developing local employment and training opportunities (or Community Economic Development - CED); it has led to a deepening of understanding by all parties of the action research process, itself. Further the 'currency' of the first type of action research - enhanced local employment and training opportunities - remains the same for every other action research type, The difference being, however, the way that the action research/community economic development is understood and actioned.
It is my observation that numbers 3, 4 and 5, the arena of RP, are generally perceived as very challenging to existing power systems. Often the action research/community economic development facilitators run very great personal and career security risks. Several such facilitators, with whom the author was indirectly involved in the Philippines and Seychelles, as part of a group that fought to raise funds to support their activities, were imprisoned, while another was shot dead.
• Heuristic Inquiry
As we seek to link theory and practice (see Figure 1) we need to draw meanings and understanding from our thoughts, behaviour and experiences, and this includes our own internal world. One such way of engaging our own thoughts and behaviour is through heuristic inquiry (HI). For Douglass and Moustakas (1984:42) heuristics as dialogue is one way of describing such a voyage of discovery by oneself (not only of oneself), which is concerned with the following:
As such, heuristic inquiry points to the symbolic 'forms of knowing' or more correctly 'realms of meaning.’ and Jungian terms three such realms of meaning may be identified:
1 Philosophical (logical/rational)
2 Symbolic (myth/metaphor)
3 Ideological (religious/political)
4 Praxial (practical/mutual)
We shall return to these realms later in the paper.
Primarily developed by Moustakas (1990), heuristic inquiry seeks to help the action scientist/action researcher interrogate their own internal world by moving through this process of internal encounter. The key steps in the process of heuristic inquiry to do just this are, in this sequence:
. Immersion
. Incubation
. Illumination
. Explication and
. Creative synthesis
Heuristic inquiry is a process of outer-inner reflexion, whereby direct involvement in the process being researched (immersion) leads to a recognition of possession of incipient knowledge and tacit understanding (incubation) generating enhanced awareness and knowledge of (illumination) one's inner world which in turn suggests the validation of this knowledge (explication). Finally, the process concludes with an integration of these illuminations (creative synthesis) into the way the researcher sees the world. Thus, heuristic inquiry includes an explication of the researcher's intuition and tacit understandings and how they impact on the research process. Patton (1990:73) and Wildman (1994).
Indeed, Moustakas (1990:11) maintains that in heuristic inquiry the researcher may even be entranced by images, intuitions, and dreams that can connect themselves to their personal quest. In heuristics then, an unshakeable connection exists between what is out there, in its appearance and reality, and what is within the researcher - the internal world of reflexive thought, tacit knowledge, feeling, and awareness.
Tacit means unexamined. A person's tacit knowing, as Michael Polanyi (1962) calls it, is that part of their knowing that plays a role in creating and shaping their choices, but of which we can give little account. For instance, we cannot tell you how we know with my tacit knowing. To say that our system of images and values is tacitly held reminds Collins and Chippendale (1991) of a statement attributed to philosopher George Santayana. We cannot know', he said, 'who first discovered water'. 'But we can be sure', he continued, 'that it was not the fish'.
To live within a tacit system of meaning and value is analogous to the situation of water and the fish, and we would argue air and us. Supported and sustained by the water, the fish has no means of leaping out of the aquarium so as to reflect on the tank and its watery contents. Likewise it is remarkably challenging for us to try to leave the atmosphere and reflect on our need for air. A person may be aware of having values and normative images. He or she articulates them, defends them and feels deep emotional investments in them, but typically has not made the value system, as a system, the object of reflection.
Heuristic inquiry as dialogue, and its role as an Insight Building Device (IBD), received substantial attention in the workshop and is explicated in Appendix 2. As dialogue, heuristic inquiry is not 'provable' or 'testable' in the normally understood empirical sense. However, it does provide a means of engaging in methods designed to improve actual situations. Please note, that as an insight building device, heuristic inquiry is an aid to scientific inquiry it is not the negation of same or indeed of rational endeavour in general. As indicated in Appendix 2, by building creative insights, heuristic inquiry can be seen as a prerequisite for scientific inquiry as it facilitates the later crystallisation of these insights into verifiable hypotheses.
• Reflexive Praxis
After considerable reflection on the methodology we developed and used in recent research (Wildman, 2011), it became clearer that we was using a somewhat eclectic approach that differed, yet drew from, several existing approaches. In undertaking this action-oriented research we had somewhat unknowingly entered an extended period of action-oriented reflection on my 12 years of praxis in the Adult and Community Learning field. Consequently I (the first author) proposed to call this methodology, in line with his now two decade long research work, Reflexive Praxis (RP).
Reflexive praxis has been developed as an action research methodology for engaging the external and internal worlds of the researcher in a way that can help identify deep patterns in one’s research work. It may be defined as; a process whereby action oriented reflection enters a transformational relationship with a period of extended practice with an eye to generating meta meaning and actionable learning insights therefrom. (Wildman, 1995, 2011).
This two way process of transformation uses the challenge of praxis to:
* Nurture, symbolise and codify a
* Process that can identify potentials and prioritise
* Initiatives that can conscientise the reflexee and reflexer and
* Provoke the disconcerting experience of new awareness thereby
* Leading to commitment to deep wisdom and new action (Prohairesis).
The reflexive praxis methodology draws from an organic process of action-oriented meta reflection on an extended period of practice. We believe reflexive praxis can contribute to what Carr and Kemmis (1986:164) call learning communities - communities of critically inquiring people, committed to learning about and understanding the problems and effects of their own strategic action. Through gaining this understanding, such learning communities can improve their strategic action and results, in this instance, with regard to community economic development opportunities. The outcomes of reflexive praxis then become a movement through the technical towards a more emancipatory type of action research.
Such a process simultaneously involves the individual and the organisation/community in becoming what Carr and Kemmis (1986:209) also call a self-reflexive community. In this context an organisation or community becomes compelled, by virtue of its own process of learning and understanding through reflection on critical[1], as in critiquing as well as synthesising, questions and actions arising from within our Reflexive Praxis, to use strategic action (a sort of social praxis or informed doing in both instances action ahead wiselfy - prohairesis) to move beyond the transformation of its own situation. This allows it to confront other constraints in the personal and social structures whether they be lack of commitment, educational, political, transport, etc.
Reflexive praxis as a proposed methodology of action research is distinguished from other methodologies because it is not:
* An in-depth specific case study i.e. it is not case study methodology
* A study of specific phenomena i.e. it is not phenomenological methodology
* An ex ante interpretive evaluation i.e. it is not a conventional evaluation methodology using pre-established criteria.
Please note that to some extent all of these methodologies overlap with one another and with reflexive praxis. Earlier in this section we identified action research as engaging the external reality of the research, and heuristic inquiry as engaging the internal reality of the researcher. These two are integrated into reflexive praxis.
Having outlined reflexive praxis, it may be useful to summarise its key dimensions. This is shown in the following table (Table 1).
[1] By including critical and critiquing questions, actions and syntheses about exoteric things such as: power, economics, inclusion, ‘othering’, the indigenous, cogno, chrio, chemo (head, hands, heart) and esoteric things such as: consciousness, ‘othering’ and archetypes.
1 Philosophical (logical/rational)
2 Symbolic (myth/metaphor)
3 Ideological (religious/political)
4 Praxial (practical/mutual)
We shall return to these realms later in the paper.
Primarily developed by Moustakas (1990), heuristic inquiry seeks to help the action scientist/action researcher interrogate their own internal world by moving through this process of internal encounter. The key steps in the process of heuristic inquiry to do just this are, in this sequence:
. Immersion
. Incubation
. Illumination
. Explication and
. Creative synthesis
Heuristic inquiry is a process of outer-inner reflexion, whereby direct involvement in the process being researched (immersion) leads to a recognition of possession of incipient knowledge and tacit understanding (incubation) generating enhanced awareness and knowledge of (illumination) one's inner world which in turn suggests the validation of this knowledge (explication). Finally, the process concludes with an integration of these illuminations (creative synthesis) into the way the researcher sees the world. Thus, heuristic inquiry includes an explication of the researcher's intuition and tacit understandings and how they impact on the research process. Patton (1990:73) and Wildman (1994).
Indeed, Moustakas (1990:11) maintains that in heuristic inquiry the researcher may even be entranced by images, intuitions, and dreams that can connect themselves to their personal quest. In heuristics then, an unshakeable connection exists between what is out there, in its appearance and reality, and what is within the researcher - the internal world of reflexive thought, tacit knowledge, feeling, and awareness.
Tacit means unexamined. A person's tacit knowing, as Michael Polanyi (1962) calls it, is that part of their knowing that plays a role in creating and shaping their choices, but of which we can give little account. For instance, we cannot tell you how we know with my tacit knowing. To say that our system of images and values is tacitly held reminds Collins and Chippendale (1991) of a statement attributed to philosopher George Santayana. We cannot know', he said, 'who first discovered water'. 'But we can be sure', he continued, 'that it was not the fish'.
To live within a tacit system of meaning and value is analogous to the situation of water and the fish, and we would argue air and us. Supported and sustained by the water, the fish has no means of leaping out of the aquarium so as to reflect on the tank and its watery contents. Likewise it is remarkably challenging for us to try to leave the atmosphere and reflect on our need for air. A person may be aware of having values and normative images. He or she articulates them, defends them and feels deep emotional investments in them, but typically has not made the value system, as a system, the object of reflection.
Heuristic inquiry as dialogue, and its role as an Insight Building Device (IBD), received substantial attention in the workshop and is explicated in Appendix 2. As dialogue, heuristic inquiry is not 'provable' or 'testable' in the normally understood empirical sense. However, it does provide a means of engaging in methods designed to improve actual situations. Please note, that as an insight building device, heuristic inquiry is an aid to scientific inquiry it is not the negation of same or indeed of rational endeavour in general. As indicated in Appendix 2, by building creative insights, heuristic inquiry can be seen as a prerequisite for scientific inquiry as it facilitates the later crystallisation of these insights into verifiable hypotheses.
• Reflexive Praxis
After considerable reflection on the methodology we developed and used in recent research (Wildman, 2011), it became clearer that we was using a somewhat eclectic approach that differed, yet drew from, several existing approaches. In undertaking this action-oriented research we had somewhat unknowingly entered an extended period of action-oriented reflection on my 12 years of praxis in the Adult and Community Learning field. Consequently I (the first author) proposed to call this methodology, in line with his now two decade long research work, Reflexive Praxis (RP).
Reflexive praxis has been developed as an action research methodology for engaging the external and internal worlds of the researcher in a way that can help identify deep patterns in one’s research work. It may be defined as; a process whereby action oriented reflection enters a transformational relationship with a period of extended practice with an eye to generating meta meaning and actionable learning insights therefrom. (Wildman, 1995, 2011).
This two way process of transformation uses the challenge of praxis to:
* Nurture, symbolise and codify a
* Process that can identify potentials and prioritise
* Initiatives that can conscientise the reflexee and reflexer and
* Provoke the disconcerting experience of new awareness thereby
* Leading to commitment to deep wisdom and new action (Prohairesis).
The reflexive praxis methodology draws from an organic process of action-oriented meta reflection on an extended period of practice. We believe reflexive praxis can contribute to what Carr and Kemmis (1986:164) call learning communities - communities of critically inquiring people, committed to learning about and understanding the problems and effects of their own strategic action. Through gaining this understanding, such learning communities can improve their strategic action and results, in this instance, with regard to community economic development opportunities. The outcomes of reflexive praxis then become a movement through the technical towards a more emancipatory type of action research.
Such a process simultaneously involves the individual and the organisation/community in becoming what Carr and Kemmis (1986:209) also call a self-reflexive community. In this context an organisation or community becomes compelled, by virtue of its own process of learning and understanding through reflection on critical[1], as in critiquing as well as synthesising, questions and actions arising from within our Reflexive Praxis, to use strategic action (a sort of social praxis or informed doing in both instances action ahead wiselfy - prohairesis) to move beyond the transformation of its own situation. This allows it to confront other constraints in the personal and social structures whether they be lack of commitment, educational, political, transport, etc.
Reflexive praxis as a proposed methodology of action research is distinguished from other methodologies because it is not:
* An in-depth specific case study i.e. it is not case study methodology
* A study of specific phenomena i.e. it is not phenomenological methodology
* An ex ante interpretive evaluation i.e. it is not a conventional evaluation methodology using pre-established criteria.
Please note that to some extent all of these methodologies overlap with one another and with reflexive praxis. Earlier in this section we identified action research as engaging the external reality of the research, and heuristic inquiry as engaging the internal reality of the researcher. These two are integrated into reflexive praxis.
Having outlined reflexive praxis, it may be useful to summarise its key dimensions. This is shown in the following table (Table 1).
[1] By including critical and critiquing questions, actions and syntheses about exoteric things such as: power, economics, inclusion, ‘othering’, the indigenous, cogno, chrio, chemo (head, hands, heart) and esoteric things such as: consciousness, ‘othering’ and archetypes.
Reflexive Praxis a grounded Qualitative Research Methodology
Having defined and examined reflexive praxis, it may now be relevant to integrate it into a conceptual action research paradigm. The incorporation of such conceptual integration is illustrated in Figure, 2. Please note this figure has been developed from my recent research (Wildman, 2011). The term 'booklets' refers to six Biochar Action Learning Circle topics along with their auspice manual community economic development booklets developed in an action learning format for use in communities in Australia and New Zealand.
In this instance the action learning circles were field trialled, inc. a facilitator’s induction session, over a 6 month period in four Australian communities which were seeking to enhance the understanding and use of Biochar as a form of carbon sequestration. The trials involved a measured process of applying a specific action learning process aimed at the self-help enhancement of these opportunities. This process, called Biochar Action Learning Circles (BCALC) was embodied in six Do-It-Yourself-BCALC booklets, each A4 and about 5 pages, including several action reflections. Each of these was keyed into the BCALC manual (40pgs), which in turn was integrated to the doxa i.e. the primary resource/text book. (Taylor, 2010). Further, this field trial was incorporated in experience and data generated through experience I (the first author) gained over a decade as Director of Kids and Adults Learning – Adult Learning Division see www.kal.net.au top right of menu-bar ‘Adult Learning’. Among other things, it sought to increase local learning and employment opportunities. These arrangements are incorporated into the following figure (Figure 2 – LHS – Left Hand Side).
At personal and professional levels we believe in, and have come to value strongly, the self-provision of local kids and adults learning and doing opportunities within communities. Overall the process worked (illustrated below in Figure 2). It was time consuming and necessitated several workshops to facilitate communities' knowledge of action learning. (Wildman, 2011). Reflexive praxis can help blend and gain wisdom from this sometimes curious experiential interaction of the personal and professional.
We believe that community economic development is not simply a fuzzy sort of romantic notion about people in a utopian community realising their true-selves through work and love in a benign world of incandescent goodwill. Rather, it is a much more hard-nosed process of realisation which draws from even utilitarian necessity. Such necessity recognises that in the reality of economic hardship, social fragmentation, environmental degradation, overpopulation, corruption in the financial sector and shrinking government budgets, we cannot keep waiting for the cavalry aka the corporate state, to save us. We have to do it ourselves. Such recognition rubs shoulders with less exalted ideals such as the provision of local learning and employment opportunities.
Having defined and examined reflexive praxis, it may now be relevant to integrate it into a conceptual action research paradigm. The incorporation of such conceptual integration is illustrated in Figure, 2. Please note this figure has been developed from my recent research (Wildman, 2011). The term 'booklets' refers to six Biochar Action Learning Circle topics along with their auspice manual community economic development booklets developed in an action learning format for use in communities in Australia and New Zealand.
In this instance the action learning circles were field trialled, inc. a facilitator’s induction session, over a 6 month period in four Australian communities which were seeking to enhance the understanding and use of Biochar as a form of carbon sequestration. The trials involved a measured process of applying a specific action learning process aimed at the self-help enhancement of these opportunities. This process, called Biochar Action Learning Circles (BCALC) was embodied in six Do-It-Yourself-BCALC booklets, each A4 and about 5 pages, including several action reflections. Each of these was keyed into the BCALC manual (40pgs), which in turn was integrated to the doxa i.e. the primary resource/text book. (Taylor, 2010). Further, this field trial was incorporated in experience and data generated through experience I (the first author) gained over a decade as Director of Kids and Adults Learning – Adult Learning Division see www.kal.net.au top right of menu-bar ‘Adult Learning’. Among other things, it sought to increase local learning and employment opportunities. These arrangements are incorporated into the following figure (Figure 2 – LHS – Left Hand Side).
At personal and professional levels we believe in, and have come to value strongly, the self-provision of local kids and adults learning and doing opportunities within communities. Overall the process worked (illustrated below in Figure 2). It was time consuming and necessitated several workshops to facilitate communities' knowledge of action learning. (Wildman, 2011). Reflexive praxis can help blend and gain wisdom from this sometimes curious experiential interaction of the personal and professional.
We believe that community economic development is not simply a fuzzy sort of romantic notion about people in a utopian community realising their true-selves through work and love in a benign world of incandescent goodwill. Rather, it is a much more hard-nosed process of realisation which draws from even utilitarian necessity. Such necessity recognises that in the reality of economic hardship, social fragmentation, environmental degradation, overpopulation, corruption in the financial sector and shrinking government budgets, we cannot keep waiting for the cavalry aka the corporate state, to save us. We have to do it ourselves. Such recognition rubs shoulders with less exalted ideals such as the provision of local learning and employment opportunities.
Reflexive Praxis intervolving vertical and horizontal dimensions
Earlier in this article we indicated that Jung is reputed to have said near the end of his life that looking back his life, when looked at by his version of Reflexive Praxis, was more like a cathedral than a train journey. In that he could see how each segment of his life built a new floor or part thereof in the cathedral of his Magnus opus which was in effect his whole life.
This synthesis is in effect in 3D, and represents an exoteric or horizontal (life-space viz. the two Action research Cycles B1) and esoteric or vertical (consciousness-space viz. the Heuristic Inquiry B2) dimensions respectively. In a sense one could say that the two major praxis cycles are like the two lenses of a set of spectacles. Those spectacles one needs to see in 3D like at the movies.
Most of the exoteric methodologies simply look at horizontal relationships where as many of the esoteric methodologies look uniquely to the vertical esp. seeing a link between spirituality and ethereality the opposite of incarnation and the whole intentionally behind the DUF. RP on the other hand seeks to use the exoteric horizontal as the foundation for the esoteric so that both are inter even mutually interdependent (Stanger, 2004), as with their incorporation in the overall figure (Figure: 2) below.
Earlier in this article we indicated that Jung is reputed to have said near the end of his life that looking back his life, when looked at by his version of Reflexive Praxis, was more like a cathedral than a train journey. In that he could see how each segment of his life built a new floor or part thereof in the cathedral of his Magnus opus which was in effect his whole life.
This synthesis is in effect in 3D, and represents an exoteric or horizontal (life-space viz. the two Action research Cycles B1) and esoteric or vertical (consciousness-space viz. the Heuristic Inquiry B2) dimensions respectively. In a sense one could say that the two major praxis cycles are like the two lenses of a set of spectacles. Those spectacles one needs to see in 3D like at the movies.
Most of the exoteric methodologies simply look at horizontal relationships where as many of the esoteric methodologies look uniquely to the vertical esp. seeing a link between spirituality and ethereality the opposite of incarnation and the whole intentionally behind the DUF. RP on the other hand seeks to use the exoteric horizontal as the foundation for the esoteric so that both are inter even mutually interdependent (Stanger, 2004), as with their incorporation in the overall figure (Figure: 2) below.
In terms of the application of heuristic inquiry (RHS of Figure 2) as part of reflexive praxis, to this research process the following stages emerge:
Immersion: Practice Stage A, in Figure 2
Incubation: Reflection Stage B, in Figure 2 with the two external field project cycles of B1.1 and B1.2 potentially being the application of the adult learning materials developed in the Practice A section, say as Action Learning Circles. One of these two could be for instance the application of an external deep futures methodology such as Causal Layered Analysis Inayatullah (1998)
Illumination: Themes emerge and can be incorporated as chapters in the esoteric thesis inc. action learning, artificering, bricoleur, local economics, community and adult learning, liberation theology, myth sparking the first author’s initial interest in social justice, learning and local area economic development
Explication: This article which represents to outline a methodology to gain insight into and through a personal and community learning development process that seeks to increase sustainable local learning and employment opportunities through action learning and action research as applied to local economic development
Creative Synthesis: Thesis writing Stage C in Figure 2 includes modifications to learning circle booklets, manual, future workshops and the introduction of an eZine to ‘spread the word’ so to speak www.crafters-circle.com .
It is hoped that reflexive praxis may be seen as seeking and generating proposals for refined, discriminating and forward oriented action aimed at 'improving' real situations by acting forward in wisdom (Prohairesis), rather than being seen as producing yet iterations of stultifying status quo or even further academic treatises and articles.
What then is an improvement?
Two key issues which continually resurface in my research work, and indeed I suggest in social research work in general, and action research in particular, are apparently simple ones originally posed, separately and respectively, by Bawden (1992) and Dick (1992:5) as personal statements.
• What then is an improvement?
• Who among us has a privileged access to reality to be able to judge?
When all is said and done, when all the texts on moral philosophy, cosmology, ontology and epistemology have been considered. We believe these two ethical questions remain. What then of their implications? For us we are compelled, indeed drawn, to the position that an action to improve a situation has:
• Embedded in it a concept of what an improvement is
• and that the action can be taken efficaciously,
• that the action process is Prohairesistic,
• can be taken efficaciously and finally
• is seen as an improvement by those directly impacted
Ultimately we believe that this does imply a privileged, though nevertheless shared access to reality by the researcher and the researched. That in seeking to do something useful and beneficial in the world, a researcher needs to acknowledge the crucial role his or her, world view included, plays in determining what an improvement is i.e. what is to be researched/measured, indeed a humbling realisation. Certainly the researcher can 'consult' the researches to co-determine the research question (Uhlmann, 1994), and co-establish common measures for of ‘success’ for the outcome (Stewart, 2009). Consequently such a statement of intent may be expressed collegiately and participatively negotiated by researcher and researched.
Yet at the end of the day the two questions remain
For me these questions compel one towards what may be called theological or spiritual insight, a vital intent of the Esoteric Thesis. For instance, of that quiet space within oneself out of which right action comes (Zen Buddhism - Meditation - Heuristic Inquiry) and/or the cross of humble service with others (Christianity - Liberation Theology - Reflexive Practice). Consequently such experience can hopefully lead to virtuous rather than vicious action. For me these are the two counterpoint spiritual values that underpin this article and hopefully, my research.
Future oriented right or virtuous belief and action (Prohairesis) is a critical component of right action. Kolb (1984:104) maintains it is from belief that knowing occurs. He offers the following quote:
We must now recognise belief once more as the source of all knowledge. Tacit assent and intellectual passion, the sharing of an idiom and if a cultural heritage, affiliation to a like-minded community; such are the impulses which shape our vision of the nature of things on which we rely for our mastering of things. No intelligence, however critical or original, can operate outside such a fiduciary framework. (Kolb, 1984:104 quoting Polanyi).
Immersion: Practice Stage A, in Figure 2
Incubation: Reflection Stage B, in Figure 2 with the two external field project cycles of B1.1 and B1.2 potentially being the application of the adult learning materials developed in the Practice A section, say as Action Learning Circles. One of these two could be for instance the application of an external deep futures methodology such as Causal Layered Analysis Inayatullah (1998)
Illumination: Themes emerge and can be incorporated as chapters in the esoteric thesis inc. action learning, artificering, bricoleur, local economics, community and adult learning, liberation theology, myth sparking the first author’s initial interest in social justice, learning and local area economic development
Explication: This article which represents to outline a methodology to gain insight into and through a personal and community learning development process that seeks to increase sustainable local learning and employment opportunities through action learning and action research as applied to local economic development
Creative Synthesis: Thesis writing Stage C in Figure 2 includes modifications to learning circle booklets, manual, future workshops and the introduction of an eZine to ‘spread the word’ so to speak www.crafters-circle.com .
It is hoped that reflexive praxis may be seen as seeking and generating proposals for refined, discriminating and forward oriented action aimed at 'improving' real situations by acting forward in wisdom (Prohairesis), rather than being seen as producing yet iterations of stultifying status quo or even further academic treatises and articles.
What then is an improvement?
Two key issues which continually resurface in my research work, and indeed I suggest in social research work in general, and action research in particular, are apparently simple ones originally posed, separately and respectively, by Bawden (1992) and Dick (1992:5) as personal statements.
• What then is an improvement?
• Who among us has a privileged access to reality to be able to judge?
When all is said and done, when all the texts on moral philosophy, cosmology, ontology and epistemology have been considered. We believe these two ethical questions remain. What then of their implications? For us we are compelled, indeed drawn, to the position that an action to improve a situation has:
• Embedded in it a concept of what an improvement is
• and that the action can be taken efficaciously,
• that the action process is Prohairesistic,
• can be taken efficaciously and finally
• is seen as an improvement by those directly impacted
Ultimately we believe that this does imply a privileged, though nevertheless shared access to reality by the researcher and the researched. That in seeking to do something useful and beneficial in the world, a researcher needs to acknowledge the crucial role his or her, world view included, plays in determining what an improvement is i.e. what is to be researched/measured, indeed a humbling realisation. Certainly the researcher can 'consult' the researches to co-determine the research question (Uhlmann, 1994), and co-establish common measures for of ‘success’ for the outcome (Stewart, 2009). Consequently such a statement of intent may be expressed collegiately and participatively negotiated by researcher and researched.
Yet at the end of the day the two questions remain
For me these questions compel one towards what may be called theological or spiritual insight, a vital intent of the Esoteric Thesis. For instance, of that quiet space within oneself out of which right action comes (Zen Buddhism - Meditation - Heuristic Inquiry) and/or the cross of humble service with others (Christianity - Liberation Theology - Reflexive Practice). Consequently such experience can hopefully lead to virtuous rather than vicious action. For me these are the two counterpoint spiritual values that underpin this article and hopefully, my research.
Future oriented right or virtuous belief and action (Prohairesis) is a critical component of right action. Kolb (1984:104) maintains it is from belief that knowing occurs. He offers the following quote:
We must now recognise belief once more as the source of all knowledge. Tacit assent and intellectual passion, the sharing of an idiom and if a cultural heritage, affiliation to a like-minded community; such are the impulses which shape our vision of the nature of things on which we rely for our mastering of things. No intelligence, however critical or original, can operate outside such a fiduciary framework. (Kolb, 1984:104 quoting Polanyi).
CONCLUSION
This paper has sought to outline a process that explores the use of action research through extended praxis oriented reflection. One such a process is Reflexive Praxis and seeks to link: (1) reflection on a period of (2) extended practice (with its external focus), with (3) Heuristic Inquiry (with its internal focus) in order to (4) leering and undertake more efficacious prohairesistic action in future in order to glimpse (5) the truth in the ineffability of knowing. In many ways this combination is also the path of meditation and soliloquy - in short the path of poetry. The use of reflexive praxis in recent research the author has undertaken was also explored.
It is important that the reader/researcher understand RP is not a naive research practice aimed at uncovering incandescent good wherever it turns its gaze. Rather there is the potential for discovering the footprints and patterns of all of the archetypes and more in one’s past, conventionally these have been seen as including good and evil, right and wrong, pure and corrupt and not necessarily in this order. Wetiko as Levy (2012) calls the negative pattern – wetiko being an indigenous North American Indian term for the evil of unconstrained ego. RP’s role is to assist one, or a group, to uncover these patterns however how best to deal with them, enhance or constrain is a matter of ‘therapy’ and the role of RP there in. This requires further research and is beyond the scope of this paper.
As researchers, we so often immerse ourselves in rational ways of knowing, initially with its quantitative survey data, and then reach for metaphor to distil the essence of the data generated by these complex research processes. In the context of this article it is hoped that reflexive praxis can be one way of assisting us as social researchers to do this and thereby help to explore meta-meaning - that is the patterns, pathways and footprints and even the name inside our skin in the poetry, the dance and ultimately our Mysterium, in our data.
'Foresight through Insight on Hindsight!'
This paper has sought to outline a process that explores the use of action research through extended praxis oriented reflection. One such a process is Reflexive Praxis and seeks to link: (1) reflection on a period of (2) extended practice (with its external focus), with (3) Heuristic Inquiry (with its internal focus) in order to (4) leering and undertake more efficacious prohairesistic action in future in order to glimpse (5) the truth in the ineffability of knowing. In many ways this combination is also the path of meditation and soliloquy - in short the path of poetry. The use of reflexive praxis in recent research the author has undertaken was also explored.
It is important that the reader/researcher understand RP is not a naive research practice aimed at uncovering incandescent good wherever it turns its gaze. Rather there is the potential for discovering the footprints and patterns of all of the archetypes and more in one’s past, conventionally these have been seen as including good and evil, right and wrong, pure and corrupt and not necessarily in this order. Wetiko as Levy (2012) calls the negative pattern – wetiko being an indigenous North American Indian term for the evil of unconstrained ego. RP’s role is to assist one, or a group, to uncover these patterns however how best to deal with them, enhance or constrain is a matter of ‘therapy’ and the role of RP there in. This requires further research and is beyond the scope of this paper.
As researchers, we so often immerse ourselves in rational ways of knowing, initially with its quantitative survey data, and then reach for metaphor to distil the essence of the data generated by these complex research processes. In the context of this article it is hoped that reflexive praxis can be one way of assisting us as social researchers to do this and thereby help to explore meta-meaning - that is the patterns, pathways and footprints and even the name inside our skin in the poetry, the dance and ultimately our Mysterium, in our data.
'Foresight through Insight on Hindsight!'
Heuristic Inquiry: Poem dedicated to Reflexive Praxis
What humanity desires to know is this ………….(the external world)
Our means to know are these…………………….(hands, heart and head)
Then how do we know these…………………….(the external world)
Only by knowing these. …………………………(hands, heart and head)
(PW 21-07-2012)
The salt doll went to market
The salt doll went to market
To sell her secret of the ocean
Only to find after she became rich
The ocean would no longer splash inside her heart
(PW 24-07-3012 – Brisbane 7.30am)
Samsara Doll
A ship lost a sea in a raging storm
Is crewed by salt doll sailors
All
eager to loose their samsara’s.
and re-join their maker
Under the waves
(PW 24-07-3012 – Brisbane 7.00am)
The salt doll’s real name
A salt doll
Went to find the name written on the inside of her skin
Only to find
The ocean – herself
(PW 24-07-3012 – Brisbane 7.20am)
A salt doll builds a submarine
A salt doll built a submarine
To explore the ocean
And found himself
Exploring
the ocean that splashed inside his heart
(PW 01-08-2012 – Brisbane 5.30am)
Christ was a salt doll
Christ was a salt doll
Who, when he came out of the ocean
And became a carpenter
bled
On the wood
That he fashioned
With our hands
(PW 10-08-2012 – Brisbane 5.30am)
The Action Researcher Salt Doll
Came out of the ocean to
Observe what she was doing
Breathed in
And
Returned
Breathed in
And
Returned
(PW 10-08-2012 – Brisbane 5.30am) [dedicated to Reflexive Praxis]
A Bush Mechanic becomes a salt doll who measures the ocean in herself
The Salt Doll became a Bush Mechanic
With measure and tools
Used her hands and
Made a boat
To go and measure the ocean
only to find
The ocean had measure of her
And in diving in
She became that measure.
(PW 10-08-2012 – Brisbane 5.30am)
APPENDIX I
Reflexive Praxis Dictionary
allegory - analogy/metaphor the linguistic component of aesthetics (Gadamer, 1985)
apperception - introspective self-consciousness - the process of understanding something perceived in terms of previous experience - apprehensioncomprehension (Tacey, 1995:129)
bildung - moving from the known to the alien in a spiral (Gadamer, 1985)
concept - an abstract thought/notion generalised from particular instances - thought is likely to suggest the result of reflecting, reasoning, or meditating rather than of imagination and ideas.
conscientisation - the results of practical consciousness raising focusing in particular on political activities
creactive – actively creative
discursive - discourse passing in reasoned manner from one topic to another - marked by analytical reasoning
discursive symbolic form - language, mathematics and empirics non discursive symbolic form - imagination, dreams, art
erlebnis - sublime mentis provoked by the mundane - temporal rupture - and reconnection to the temporal whole. (Gadamer, 1985)
hermeneutic - a method of interpretation through discourse as distinct from exposition (setting a matter forth in detail) or exegesis based on external meaning of words, ie. epistemology.
homoemorphism - a near similarity of crystalline forms between unlike chemical compounds (Howard, 1993:320)
heterotechnic learning – here each person contributes and learns something discrete and individual to a given (action) learning process that is embedded in their lived life its not the case of each student on the same page of the same book at the same time in a egg crate arranged classroom separated out in school away from community and their lived life.
heuristic - a method of inquiry/education that seeks to discover rather than merely tell - a method of inquiry relevant to empirical research but unproved or incapable of proof - serving to guide discover or reveal (Rorty, 1980:170)
idea - a transcendent entity/form that is the real pattern for which existing things are imperfect representations - derived from the imagination - thought is likely to suggest the result of reflecting, reasoning, or meditating rather than of imagination - notion suggests not much is resolved by analysis and may suggest the capricious or accidental or serendipity or even svnchronicity.
neoligism - a meaningless word coined by a psychotic (Passmore. 1985:33)
noetic - based on purely intellectual comprehension/ thinking (Gadamer, 1985:231)
noumenally
- not phenomenal, can only be apprehended by intuition (Rorty, 1980:161)
- the division between appearance and the thing itself (Gadamer, 1985:203)
poetic - writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness i.e. an apprehension, of experience in a language that is chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound and rhythm
prohairesis – ancient Greek word meaning ‘deciding ahead wisely’ and in this piece we extend this to mean ‘acting ahead wisely’. There is no English equivalent – Prudence goes some way.
protean - readily assuming different shapes or roles
APPENDIX 2
Major critiques of reflexive praxis
1 It is non-verifiable, non-empirical and non-objective
2 It is poetic rather than noetic
3 It is essentially traditionalist in that it generates patterns from hindsight. One scans one's past and admits certain patterns among them into your theory. As Foucault says this will not define a single pattern or theme but instead a dispersion. This is the operation of hindsight, however RP also uses insight via HI and then links these to present sight through AR and synthesises these in foresight for future action i.e. a form of triangulation. (Fisk, 1993). That is. foresight by insight on hindsight.
4 It is dialogue and as such is prescientific. Galtung (1995) advocates the importance of dialogue as conversation in methods designed to improve actual situations. For Galtung- such dialogue should be:
* Horizontal i.e. Between equals
* Mutually enacting i.e. An act of interdependency from a perspective of togetherness and respect
* Participatory
* Consciousness raising conscientising integrative
* With heat i.e. Emotional and intuitive content (remember heat is not the same as involvement)
Such dialogue becomes for Galtung an Insight Building Device (IBD). Many would refer to an insight building device as prescientific, however while endorsing this, Galtung does so in a way that views such devices (including HI), as a prerequisite for scientific work to emerge later in the sense of crystallising the insights into verifiable hypotheses. A dialogue needs to unfold itself freely and is closer to 'uncontrolled human life' than to controlled laboratory experiments just as the form of reporting the dialogue could be closer to literary prose than to conventional research presentations. It should simply be as another style of doing research, another mode of insight generation/production closely attached to social practice and not indeed ever as ‘T’he style. (Galtung, 1995)
For Galtung, (1995:16) only high temperature approaches have the ability to engage intuition and emotions. He continues that methods that do not disturb the power elite are seen as scientific whereas those which do are seen as politicised reactionary or even worse as subversive.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper is a second application, over a twenty year period, by the first author of the RP methodology as well as a revision, extension and further development of one originally published by the first author in 1995 which was then an application of a methodology developed by Zuber-Skerritt (1992). Susan Banks’s drawing work on Figure 2 is also gratefully acknowledged.
Author's Profile
Paul Wildman, lives in Brisbane Australia and has been involved with action learning initiatives for the last 20 years and has undertaken action learning work and in developing Adult Learning programs inc. Action Learning Circles in Australia, Tonga, Western Samoa, India (Calcutta) and Malaysia. Paul's interest in ‘deep learning’ comes from a personal and professional praxis in experiential and action learning and empowerment, and belief that there is an economic component to personal liberation/ conscientisation. Comments and critique are most welcome on this paper, please direct any comments to the author at: [email protected]
Iona Miller [email protected]
Iona Miller is an transdisciplinary independent scholar residing in Oregon, USA, a nonfiction writer for the academic and popular press, hypnotherapist (ACHE) and multimedia artist. She serves on the Board of Medigrace.org nonprofit organization for CalmBirth.org. She also serves on the Editorial Board of Craft: Community Resilience through Action for Future Transitions, on the Advisory Board of Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, Scientific God Journal, and DNA Decipher Journal, and was formerly Associate Editor of Journal of Nonlocality & Remote Mental Interactions. Website: http://ionamiller.weebly.com
REFERENCES
Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical: Education, Knowledge and Action Research. Falmer Press, London.
Collins, C. & Chippendale, P. (1991) New Wisdom: The Nature of Social Reality. Acorn, Sunnybank Hills, Brisbane.
Dick, B. (1992) Being Creative about Cultural Change, Paper presented as a keynote address at the 'Creative Processes in Action' Conference, held at the Bardon Professional Development Centre in Brisbane, 20-21 February 1992.
Dick, B., Wildman, P. and Passfield, R. (eds) (1993) ARCS (Action Research Case Studies) Newsletter 1 (1). Brisbane, Australia.
Douglass, B. and Moustakas, C. (1984). Heuristic Inquiry: The Internal Search to Know. Detroit, M1 Centre for Humanistic Studies.
Fisk, M. (1993). Community and Morality. The Review of Politics 55(Fall): 593-616.
Foster, R. (2007). Adorno: The Recovery of Experience. New York: State University of New York Press. 235pgs.
Gadamer, H. (1985) Refer Weinsheimer, J. (1985).
Galtung, J. (1995). On Dialogue as Method: Some Very Preliminary Notes. Unpublished, pgs. 2-22.
Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers - The Story of Success. Camberwell Vic Aust: Penguin. 300 pgs. Chapt 2.
Hatcher-Childress, Ed. (2000). The Tesla Papers: Nikola Tesla on Free Energy and Wireless Transmission of Power. Illinois, Adventures Unlimited Press. 215pgs.
Howard, R. (1993) Cultural Absolutism and the Nostalgia for Community. Human Rights Quarterly, (15), 315-338.
Inayatullah, S. (1998). Causal Layered Analysis: Poststructuralism as Method. Futures 30 8. pgs815-829.
Kemmis, S. (1992). Post Modernism and Educational Research. Paper prepared for a seminar on `Methodology and Epistemology in Educational Research. Sponsored by the Economic Social Research Council, Dept of Education University of Liverpool. June 2224.
Kolb, D. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Prentice Hall.
Levy, P. (2012). WETIKO: The Psychospiritual Roots of Evil. USA, Published by the author. 209pgs.
Lewis, D. (2005). The Physicist as Mystic. In Forbidden History by Douglas Kenyon (ed). Vermont: Bear & Company. Ch 42, pgs297-303.Ch 42, pgs297-303.
Mahon, P. (1985). Verdict on Erebus. Auckland: Collins. 300pgs.
Miller, I. and P. Wildman (2012a). The Demiurgic Field: It’s Patterning Role in Chaos, Creation, and Creativity. Scientific GOD Journal http://scigod.com ; http://www.scribd.com/doc/98802448/Scientific-GOD-Journal-Volume-3-Issue-5-Toward-the-Unification-of-Science-Spirituality . 3(5): pp. 43-70.
Miller, I. and P. Wildman (2012b). Ancient wisdom in the Modern Age: An Archaic Renaissance. SGJ (Scientific GOD Journal). 3(6). Unpublished: 10pgs.
Moustakas, C. (1990) Heuristic Research: Design, Methodology and Applications. Newbury Park, Sage.
Neil, E. (1993) The Hidden Tradition. Examining the Wisdom of Intuitive Knowledge. A monograph Bolda-Lok Publishing & Educational Enterprises, Stafford Heights, Australia.
Ong, W. (1982) Orality and Literacy; The Technologisation of the World. Methuen, London.
Passmore, J. (1985) Recent Philosophers. Duckworth.
Patton, M. (1990) Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. Newburg Park, Ca, Sage.
Phenix, P. (1964) Realms of Meaning: A Philosophy of the Curriculum for General Education. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Polanyi, M. (1962) Personal Knowledge. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Pope, R. and C. Degenhardt. (2012). 21st Century Renaissance. Uki, Science Art Research Centre of Australia: Uki. 180pgs.
Rorty, R. (1980) Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Basil Blackwell, UK.
Stewart, Janice. (2009) Indigenous Narratives of Success: Building Positive and Effective Communication in Group Conversation. Brisbane: Post Pressed. 256pgs.
Tacey, D. (1995) Edge of the Sacred: Transformation in Australia. Harper Collins, Melbourne.
Taylor, P. ed. (2010). The Biochar Revolution: Transforming Agriculture and Environment. Victoria - Australia: Global Publishing Group. 364pgs.
Uhlmann, U. (1994) Consulting on a Consultation Protocol. ARCS (Action Research Case Studies). Jointly published by Interchange, Prosperity Press and ALARPM Assn. Inc. Brisbane, Australia.
Varela, F., E. Thompson, and E. Rosch. (1993). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Cambridge USA, MIT Press. 308pgs.
Warnock, J. (1969) English Philosophy Since 1900. Oxford University Press, London.
Weinsheirner, J. (1985) Gadamer's Hermeneutics: A Reading of Truth and Method. Yale University Press.
Wildman, P. (1994) What is This Thing Called Poetry? Prosperity Press. 20pgs.
Wildman, P. (1995). Research by Looking Backwards: Reflexive Praxis as an Action Research Methodology. In S. Pinchen & R. Passfield (Eds.), Moving On: Creative Applications of Action Learning and Action Research (pp. 171-192). Brisbane: ALARPM (Action Learning, Action Research and Process Management Association). Extended and revised version (10-07-2012).
Wildman, P. (1996). Dreamtime Myth: History as Future (interpreting an Australian Aboriginal view of history as future). New Renaissance. (1):pgs.16-19.
Wildman, P. (1999). Total Devotion - A spiritual path of poetry. Brisbane: Prosperity Press - Multi Media CDRom.
Wildman, P. (2004). Uncovering Paradigmatic Racism - A Deep Futures Critique of the Australian Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths. In S. Inayatullah. Taipei, Tamkang University. In Inayatullah, S., Ed. (2004). The Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) Reader - Theory and Case Studies of an Integrative and Transformative Methodology. Taipei, Tamkang University. 570pgs. pgs.283-200.
Wildman, P. (2010). Engaging Poststructualism: Proactivating and Broadening Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) to Causal Layered Synthesis (CLS) through its application to Pedagogy by introducing the Causal Layered Matrix (CLM). Brisbane, The Kalgrove Institute: 20pgs. See: http://metafuture.org/causal-layered-analysis-papers.html and in particular http://metafuture.org/FINAL%20CLA%20on%20Pedagogy%20V14%20Sohail.pdf
Wildman, P. (2011a). BioChar Action Learning Circles: toward a future Nature can live with. Action Learning Circles based on Paul Taylor's The BioChar Revolution book (2010). P. Wildman. Brisbane: The Kalgrove Institute, with Topic Guides - 40pgs.
Wildman, P. (2011b). Local Economic Self-Sufficiency - a role for Biocahr? Biochar Conference. Castle on the Hill - Learning Centre at the Science Art Research Centre Uki NSW. 03-04-2011: 1-5pm. The Kalgrove Institute: Brisbane. PowerPoint show. 35slides.
Wildman, P. (2012). Work in Progress Report on the Relevance of Rediscovering the Australian Bush Mechanic as a Credible Chiro-pedagogical Modality of Critical Futures Praxis. Journal of Futues Studies - June. 16, 4: 25pgs.
Wildman, P. and I. Miller (2012a). The Esoteric Thesis: Unspeakable Things & Unknowable Truths. Scientific GOD Journal (SGJ) 3(6): unpublished.
Wildman, P. and I. Miller (2012). Research by Looking Backwards – Finding patterns in your past: Reflexive Praxis as an Esoteric Thesis Methodology in search of Archaic Wisdom. Scientific GOD Journal (SGJ). 3(7): TBA.
Zuber-Skerritt, O. (1992) Research and Development in Management and Higher Education. Submitted as an explication for entry to the degree of Doctor of Literature. International Management Centre, Brisbane, Australia.
What humanity desires to know is this ………….(the external world)
Our means to know are these…………………….(hands, heart and head)
Then how do we know these…………………….(the external world)
Only by knowing these. …………………………(hands, heart and head)
(PW 21-07-2012)
The salt doll went to market
The salt doll went to market
To sell her secret of the ocean
Only to find after she became rich
The ocean would no longer splash inside her heart
(PW 24-07-3012 – Brisbane 7.30am)
Samsara Doll
A ship lost a sea in a raging storm
Is crewed by salt doll sailors
All
eager to loose their samsara’s.
and re-join their maker
Under the waves
(PW 24-07-3012 – Brisbane 7.00am)
The salt doll’s real name
A salt doll
Went to find the name written on the inside of her skin
Only to find
The ocean – herself
(PW 24-07-3012 – Brisbane 7.20am)
A salt doll builds a submarine
A salt doll built a submarine
To explore the ocean
And found himself
Exploring
the ocean that splashed inside his heart
(PW 01-08-2012 – Brisbane 5.30am)
Christ was a salt doll
Christ was a salt doll
Who, when he came out of the ocean
And became a carpenter
bled
On the wood
That he fashioned
With our hands
(PW 10-08-2012 – Brisbane 5.30am)
The Action Researcher Salt Doll
Came out of the ocean to
Observe what she was doing
Breathed in
And
Returned
Breathed in
And
Returned
(PW 10-08-2012 – Brisbane 5.30am) [dedicated to Reflexive Praxis]
A Bush Mechanic becomes a salt doll who measures the ocean in herself
The Salt Doll became a Bush Mechanic
With measure and tools
Used her hands and
Made a boat
To go and measure the ocean
only to find
The ocean had measure of her
And in diving in
She became that measure.
(PW 10-08-2012 – Brisbane 5.30am)
APPENDIX I
Reflexive Praxis Dictionary
allegory - analogy/metaphor the linguistic component of aesthetics (Gadamer, 1985)
apperception - introspective self-consciousness - the process of understanding something perceived in terms of previous experience - apprehensioncomprehension (Tacey, 1995:129)
bildung - moving from the known to the alien in a spiral (Gadamer, 1985)
concept - an abstract thought/notion generalised from particular instances - thought is likely to suggest the result of reflecting, reasoning, or meditating rather than of imagination and ideas.
conscientisation - the results of practical consciousness raising focusing in particular on political activities
creactive – actively creative
discursive - discourse passing in reasoned manner from one topic to another - marked by analytical reasoning
discursive symbolic form - language, mathematics and empirics non discursive symbolic form - imagination, dreams, art
erlebnis - sublime mentis provoked by the mundane - temporal rupture - and reconnection to the temporal whole. (Gadamer, 1985)
hermeneutic - a method of interpretation through discourse as distinct from exposition (setting a matter forth in detail) or exegesis based on external meaning of words, ie. epistemology.
homoemorphism - a near similarity of crystalline forms between unlike chemical compounds (Howard, 1993:320)
heterotechnic learning – here each person contributes and learns something discrete and individual to a given (action) learning process that is embedded in their lived life its not the case of each student on the same page of the same book at the same time in a egg crate arranged classroom separated out in school away from community and their lived life.
heuristic - a method of inquiry/education that seeks to discover rather than merely tell - a method of inquiry relevant to empirical research but unproved or incapable of proof - serving to guide discover or reveal (Rorty, 1980:170)
idea - a transcendent entity/form that is the real pattern for which existing things are imperfect representations - derived from the imagination - thought is likely to suggest the result of reflecting, reasoning, or meditating rather than of imagination - notion suggests not much is resolved by analysis and may suggest the capricious or accidental or serendipity or even svnchronicity.
neoligism - a meaningless word coined by a psychotic (Passmore. 1985:33)
noetic - based on purely intellectual comprehension/ thinking (Gadamer, 1985:231)
noumenally
- not phenomenal, can only be apprehended by intuition (Rorty, 1980:161)
- the division between appearance and the thing itself (Gadamer, 1985:203)
poetic - writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness i.e. an apprehension, of experience in a language that is chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound and rhythm
prohairesis – ancient Greek word meaning ‘deciding ahead wisely’ and in this piece we extend this to mean ‘acting ahead wisely’. There is no English equivalent – Prudence goes some way.
protean - readily assuming different shapes or roles
APPENDIX 2
Major critiques of reflexive praxis
1 It is non-verifiable, non-empirical and non-objective
2 It is poetic rather than noetic
3 It is essentially traditionalist in that it generates patterns from hindsight. One scans one's past and admits certain patterns among them into your theory. As Foucault says this will not define a single pattern or theme but instead a dispersion. This is the operation of hindsight, however RP also uses insight via HI and then links these to present sight through AR and synthesises these in foresight for future action i.e. a form of triangulation. (Fisk, 1993). That is. foresight by insight on hindsight.
4 It is dialogue and as such is prescientific. Galtung (1995) advocates the importance of dialogue as conversation in methods designed to improve actual situations. For Galtung- such dialogue should be:
* Horizontal i.e. Between equals
* Mutually enacting i.e. An act of interdependency from a perspective of togetherness and respect
* Participatory
* Consciousness raising conscientising integrative
* With heat i.e. Emotional and intuitive content (remember heat is not the same as involvement)
Such dialogue becomes for Galtung an Insight Building Device (IBD). Many would refer to an insight building device as prescientific, however while endorsing this, Galtung does so in a way that views such devices (including HI), as a prerequisite for scientific work to emerge later in the sense of crystallising the insights into verifiable hypotheses. A dialogue needs to unfold itself freely and is closer to 'uncontrolled human life' than to controlled laboratory experiments just as the form of reporting the dialogue could be closer to literary prose than to conventional research presentations. It should simply be as another style of doing research, another mode of insight generation/production closely attached to social practice and not indeed ever as ‘T’he style. (Galtung, 1995)
For Galtung, (1995:16) only high temperature approaches have the ability to engage intuition and emotions. He continues that methods that do not disturb the power elite are seen as scientific whereas those which do are seen as politicised reactionary or even worse as subversive.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper is a second application, over a twenty year period, by the first author of the RP methodology as well as a revision, extension and further development of one originally published by the first author in 1995 which was then an application of a methodology developed by Zuber-Skerritt (1992). Susan Banks’s drawing work on Figure 2 is also gratefully acknowledged.
Author's Profile
Paul Wildman, lives in Brisbane Australia and has been involved with action learning initiatives for the last 20 years and has undertaken action learning work and in developing Adult Learning programs inc. Action Learning Circles in Australia, Tonga, Western Samoa, India (Calcutta) and Malaysia. Paul's interest in ‘deep learning’ comes from a personal and professional praxis in experiential and action learning and empowerment, and belief that there is an economic component to personal liberation/ conscientisation. Comments and critique are most welcome on this paper, please direct any comments to the author at: [email protected]
Iona Miller [email protected]
Iona Miller is an transdisciplinary independent scholar residing in Oregon, USA, a nonfiction writer for the academic and popular press, hypnotherapist (ACHE) and multimedia artist. She serves on the Board of Medigrace.org nonprofit organization for CalmBirth.org. She also serves on the Editorial Board of Craft: Community Resilience through Action for Future Transitions, on the Advisory Board of Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, Scientific God Journal, and DNA Decipher Journal, and was formerly Associate Editor of Journal of Nonlocality & Remote Mental Interactions. Website: http://ionamiller.weebly.com
REFERENCES
Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical: Education, Knowledge and Action Research. Falmer Press, London.
Collins, C. & Chippendale, P. (1991) New Wisdom: The Nature of Social Reality. Acorn, Sunnybank Hills, Brisbane.
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