Thank you; this is amazing. I learned these ideas as 'silent knowledge', 'left hand and right hand' understanding and the position/point of awareness. They seemed prefect, elegant and obvious then and now. I am thrilled to have another language in which to grasp them and, in Polanyi, a new explorer to study.
love
Sara
________________________________________
From: Practitioner-Researcher [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brian wakeman [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 7:05 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
Geisha,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Polanyi
You might be interested
Blessings
Brian
Brian E. WakemanFree-lance Educational Consultant
________________________________
From: geisha rebolledo <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, 27 October, 2010 19:06:52
Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
Hi !!! Again thank you very much. I am writting about my praxis and practice in the classroom using Action Research and Living Theory.I am very interested in what Roy mentioned. Would you say them that Tacit Knowledge could be intangible too??? In the case of a teacher in the classroom is it part of praxis ? How can you define it ?Please send me the reference of POLANYi, from this part of the world he is not known. Greetings, G.
________________________________
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:40:59 +0100
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fw: Intangible Presence
To: [log in to unmask]
Dear Roy,
Many thanks for this very thoughtful response.
I agree with what you say, and am forwarding it to the PR list.
Love
Alan
----- Original Message -----
From: roy reynolds<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: 'Alan Rayner (BU)'<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Cc: 'Jack Whitehead'<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 8:28 PM
Subject: RE: Intangible Presence
Alan,
I love this poem and its punning tag line. I enjoyed reading it again just now.
As I reflect today on what might work to awaken folks to the imaginal wisdom of intangible presence (a phrase I also love), I come up with the following. Michael Polanyi (whom Jack appreciates so much) had the notion of ‘tacit knowing.’ I am positive that you know this, but I want to speak to it. He referred to it as a ‘from-to’ kind of knowing. Most folks don’t notice the ‘from’ when they examine and observe the world of nature. They notice the ‘what,’ and turn that into an object. These folks of whom I speak we might call the ‘what’s its?’ People like you and I might instead be thought of as the ‘what nots.’ We look not only for the what is, but also for the what not.
Well, Polanyi was a ‘what not,’ and he was well aware that hidden from plain view lies the source of what is. That is the tacit realm of the unformed and the yet ready-to-come-into-form. Polanyi was well steeped in the imaginal body. He could ‘see’ what was not there tangibly, but was nonetheless there intangibly. Saying this makes me want to go back and re-read some of his message; it was so profound.
I am not quite sure what I am trying to say here. But it does register a feeling gesture and desire for grappling with the dynamics of what and how we know whatever we come to know. People with fact-oriented minds and agendas – those who are also steeped in logics of discrete entities and objects – seem to be impatient with the process/flux/unfolding/shape-shifting dynamics of moment-to-moment change. (BTW, this m-t-m movement of imagery is what Robert calls ‘time.’ I refer to it as the ‘density of time.’ Anyway…). The impatience of which I speak is a major barrier to diving into the world of nature. The fact-oriented folks seem to approach knowledge in terms of its utility, its instrumental value. They are impatient with people who want to stop the forward instrumental orientation and deepen awareness of what is and what is not and what is the relation between those two poles. That instrumental orientation keeps them from diving into the ‘pool of space’ of which you stay swimming. Thanks for inviting me into the pool. I love this form of swimming.
I have probably rambled enough here. I just wanted to register a few reflections.
Love
Roy
________________________________
From: Alan Rayner (BU) [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 2:53 PM
To: Practitioner-Researcher
Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
Dear Geisha,
"What I can see now more clear from your interpretation is that in inclusionality you are open to both light and darkness when you consider the intermedial."
YES!
Thank you for these insightful questions.
Below is a poem, based on the painting.
It is about the co-creativity and mutual inclusion of darkness and light, not - as is so often portrayed - the 'fight' or antagonism between them.
If you visit www.bestthinking.com<http://www.bestthinking.com/>, and search under my name (Alan Rayner), you will find several essays in which the image of holding openness features. You might especially enjoy the prose-poem, Natural Co-Creation, there.
Warmest
Alan
---------------------------------
HOLDING OPENNESS
You ask me who you are
To tell a story you can live your life by
A tail that has some point
That you can see
So that you no longer
Have to feel so pointless
Because what you see is what you get
If you don’t get the meaning of my silence
Because you ain’t seen nothing yet
You ask me for illumination
To cast upon your sauce of doubt
Regarding what your life is all about
To find a reason for existence
That separates the wrong
From righteous answer
In order to cast absence out
To some blue yonder
Where what you see is what you get
But you don’t get the meaning of my darkness
Because you ain’t seen nothing yet
You look around the desolation
Of a world your mined strips bare
You ask of me in desperation
How on Earth am I to care?
I whisper to stop telling stories
In abstract words and symbols
About a solid block of land out there
In which you make yourself a declaration
Of independence from thin air
Where what you see is what you get
When you don’t get the meaning of my present absence
Because you ain’t seen nothing yet
You ask of me with painful yearning
To resolve your conflicts born of dislocation
From the context of an other world out where
Your soul can wonder freely
In the presence of no heir
Where what you see is what you get
When you don’t get the meaning of my absent presence
Because you ain’t seen nothing yet
You ask me deeply and sincerely
Where on Earth can you find healing
Of the yawning gap between emotion
And the logic setting time apart from motion
In a space caught in a trap
Where what you see is what you get
And in a thrice your mind is reeling
Aware at last of your reflection
In a place that finds connection
Where your inside becomes your outside
Through a lacy curtain lining
Of fire, light upon the water
Now your longing for solution
Resides within and beyond your grasp
As the solvent for your solute
Dissolves the illusion of your past
And present future
Now your heart begins to thunder
Bursting hopeful with affection
Of living light for loving darkness
Because you ain’t felt no thing yet
----- Original Message -----
From: geisha rebolledo<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 7:08 PM
Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
Dear Alan,
Thank you very much for this interesting talk. I was wondering how do you interpret the picture. Are they vorticeps of energy ? Also what do you mean by :
¨the nature of co-creative presence of darkness in light and light in darkness, or 'luminous darkness'¨
To my understanding and I might be wrong, are you refering to the fight between light and darkness? and how even in light you might have darkness or vice versa?
What I can see now more clear from your interpretation is that in inclusionality you are open to both light and darkness when you consider the intermedial.
Greetings, g.
________________________________
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:46:14 +0100
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
To: [log in to unmask]
Dear Delysia,
Thank you for your comment.
I have to say that my understandings of natural inclusionality and identification of 'intangible presence' with limitless indivisible invisible receptive and transfigural space neither depend upon nor do they exclude belief in God. They are rooted in my experience and reasoning as a naturalist.
They may contribute something to understanding the nature of co-creative presence of darkness in light and light in darkness, or 'luminous darkness' perhaps of the kind alluded to by the poet as a burning bush and represented in my attached painting called 'Holding Openness.
What I feel sure of is that fixed language that constrains but does not evolve with thought does not do justice to such a presence, inconvenient as that may be for easy communication.
Warmest
Alan
----- Original Message -----
From: Delysia Norelle Timm<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 1:30 PM
Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
For me definitely, I agree with Brian’s quote from the poet….I see the intangible presence as God who is the Creator of all…
From: Practitioner-Researcher [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brian wakeman
Sent: 25 October 2010 06:49 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
Geisha,
"Spirit" and "Soul" are terms which have a long history of usage in other disciplines and walks of life, so is it rather confusing to use them in a different way?
Might it grate and irritate rather than aid understanding....... unless we just make words mean what "we" want them to mean.......
but then how can we communicate with others?
Perhaps the 'intangible presence' I perceived in the autumm light this morning irradiating the woods in Ashridge Forest is after all "a bush ablaze with the glory of God", as the poet expressed?
Regards,
Brian
________________________________
From: geisha rebolledo <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, 25 October, 2010 16:07:12
Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
Alan, thank you very much for the glossary. It is of great help to learn how to comunicate this very special ideas. However some words meannings are deeply complex but my feeling is that they are helpful to clarifyed understanding. I was particularly interested in the meanning of spirit and soul. Greetings, g.
> Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:07:47 +0100
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> OOps, forgot the attchement.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Alan Rayner (BU)" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: "PHILIP TATTERSALL" <[log in to unmask]>;
> "'Practitioner-Researcher'" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 10:06 AM
> Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
>
>
> > Dear Phil,
> >
> > Many thanks.
> >
> > Meanwhile, Roy has persuaded me of the need to prepare a 'Natural
> > Inclusional Glossary'.
> >
> > I have made a start on this - see attached. Looks like it will be quite an
> > endeavour.
> >
> > Warmest
> >
> > Alan
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "PHILIP TATTERSALL" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: "'Alan Rayner (BU)'" <[log in to unmask]>;
> > "'Practitioner-Researcher'" <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2010 9:58 PM
> > Subject: RE: Intangible Presence
> >
> >
> >> Hello Alan,
> >>
> >> Many thanks for sharing these great emails!
> >>
> >> Roy's response is a beauty: "I am getting quite sure that the notions of
> >> unity and wholeness are our own human impositions on a much more complex
> >> and
> >> unpredictable flux of nature. They are our Apollonian order-seeking
> >> impulses
> >> overriding the Dionysian wildness of life (and death). Let's hear it for
> >> wildness!"
> >>
> >> Almost reads like an abstract for a very interesting paper!
> >>
> >> I love the NatureMoments initiative. It's gentle, well presented and
> >> engaging.
> >>
> >> Warmest,
> >>
> >> Phil
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Alan Rayner (BU) [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> >> Sent: Saturday, 23 October 2010 7:25 PM
> >> To: Practitioner-Researcher
> >> Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
> >>
> >> Dear Lee,
> >>
> >> Thank you very much. I do have a possible painting in mind, but whether I
> >> get around to it remains to be seen. Perhaps you could paint the image in
> >> your mind? I'd love that - real co-creativity!
> >>
> >> Yes, I think there may well be a relationship with prescience, which I
> >> might
> >> describe in terms of an electrifying sense of close attunement, affinity
> >> or
> >> rapport with my neighbourhood. It is especially strong when I experience
> >> 'NatureMoments' (see attached leaflets), when painting or writing
> >> poetically, when knowingly dreaming and when in the company of eager
> >> learners (including myself). I suspect it may be related to
> >> 'superchannel'
> >> formation (portrayed in the attached painting as a deep kind of
> >> connectivity). Some tell me that they sense an 'aura' around me on those
> >> occasions, and I have indeed experienced some kind of clairvoyance in
> >> them,
> >> which I don't know what to make of. But it's not always a 'good' feeling.
> >> One of my most prescient dreams occurred in early September 2001, when I
> >> was
> >> on a plane that was hijacked, flown into a vertical edifice and caught
> >> fire
> >> - I woke with a sense of my skin alight.
> >>
> >> As you may know, and as the poems below themselves relate, I do these
> >> days
> >> have a bit of a problem with the language of 'wholeness' and
> >> 'connectedness', which I feel does not do justice to the depth, wonder,
> >> fluidity and openness of the experience, and indeed, for me, can colonize
> >> and stifle it. This is why I feel that 'natural inclusionality' reaches
> >> beyond (whilst accommodating and transforming) abstract 'holism' and
> >> 'whole
> >> systems theory', and why I can feel very uncomfortable with glib
> >> expressions
> >> of the latter (NB I'm not accusing you of this, in fact I feel sure that
> >> your intention is natural inclusional!!!), especially in the context of
> >> 'decolonizing praxis'.
> >>
> >> My friend, Roy Reynolds, sent me the following comment last night, which
> >> I
> >> strongly agree with:
> >>
> >> "I am getting quite sure that the notions of unity and wholeness are our
> >> own
> >> human impositions on a much more complex and unpredictable flux of
> >> nature.
> >> They are our Apollonian order-seeking impulses overriding the Dionysian
> >> wildness of life (and death). Let's hear it for wildness!"
> >>
> >>
> >> Warmest
> >>
> >> Alan
> >>
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Lee Nicole Scott" <[log in to unmask]>
> >> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> >> Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2010 7:50 AM
> >> Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
> >>
> >>
> >> Hi Alan
> >> i really enjoyed Helter- Skelter. I get an incredible visual from it.
> >> Have
> >> you painted it?
> >>
> >> When i was reading about presence in your article, there were bits that
> >> clicked me through to thinking about prescience. Without sounding wierd,
> >> I
> >> felt there was quite a strong link. I think this of this because when one
> >> is
> >>
> >> well rounded, ok, when I am feeling balanced, whole, harmonious and
> >> connected to the earth; then i have 'presence'(i.e- other people can
> >> feel
> >> my energy) . Then in this presence space,i experience this foreknowledge
> >> /
> >> prescience and it is a very good place to be. What do you think hey, what
> >> do
> >>
> >> you experience?
> >>
> >> Happy days.
> >>
> >> Have a great weekend.
> >> lee
> >> ________________________________________
> >> From: Practitioner-Researcher [[log in to unmask]] On
> >> Behalf Of Alan Rayner (BU) [[log in to unmask]]
> >> Sent: 22 October 2010 08:40 AM
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
> >>
> >> Dear Geisha and Pip,
> >>
> >> Thank you for your responses. It warms me to feel that my expressions of
> >> 'A
> >> gape in natural inclusional logic', through which the 'self' can breathe,
> >> can bring some respite in the face of oppression and hope for
> >> reformation.
> >> That is indeed the 'hole point', as in the poems written below during and
> >> just after the ALARA World Congress.
> >>
> >> Warmest
> >>
> >> Alan
> >>
> >> ----------------------------
> >>
> >> Inventure - Finding the hole in One
> >>
> >> To ask where's the gap in one's logic
> >> Is to find the logic in one's gap
> >> An entry place
> >> For breath to take
> >> In where there's warmth
> >> To melt the ice
> >> That binds the self
> >> The one in the many
> >> Or the many in one
> >> That calls itself collective
> >> In solitude
> >> Where there's no way to reach
> >> Out from within
> >> Or outwith in
> >> To where the song
> >> Can sing
> >> In resonant key
> >> Through the hole of reciprocal welcome
> >> Where the leverage point is agape
> >>
> >> .....
> >>
> >> Helter-Skelter
> >> The Return of the Native
> >>
> >> Imagine yourself
> >> Born under cover of darkness
> >> In the shade of an umbrella
> >> Pierced by peepholes
> >> Into an other-worldly radiance
> >> That shines on coralline ocean
> >> Lapping up the shifting shores of landscape
> >> Flowing in rocks and water
> >> Air and fire streams
> >> Breathed in and breathed out
> >> By life itself
> >> As endless variety
> >> In this place you call home
> >> That holds and caresses you
> >> With open arms
> >>
> >> But there, at the edge of your stare
> >> Where your home finds its limit horizon
> >> Glinting with cut-glass precision
> >> Is the baseline of prismatic structure
> >> Abstracted out of kilter
> >> A multi-story high rise power block
> >> Splitting apart between seven floors
> >> Each to its own paradox
> >> Confined yet connected
> >> Point to point
> >> By a dichotomous tree
> >> Inverted
> >> With bottom at top
> >> Bifurcating to lower orders
> >> With multiple entry points
> >> Where you can enter freely
> >> From abasement
> >> So long as you close the door behind you!
> >>
> >> Once inside this glass-cut space
> >> There's no where for you to go but up
> >> Beckoned by idealism
> >> Of social or economic aspirations
> >> Coloured monotonously
> >> Red or Blue
> >> Me or You
> >> Us or Them
> >> Here or There
> >> Each a cut above the rest
> >> Reached by ladders climbed assiduously
> >> To the point where worlds collide
> >>
> >> Far above the ground you left behind
> >> In a room where All presume to be One
> >> Suffocating as a Whole
> >> That claims from aloft
> >> To be more than the parts
> >> Beneath itself
> >> From which it ascended
> >> Only to bang its head
> >> Against the ceiling
> >> So near and yet so far
> >> From what was shut outside
> >> Less than a hare's breath away
> >>
> >> Yet, deep in the core of this prism
> >> Reaches the umbrella's shaft
> >> A focal passage
> >> Receptive to all who reach for it
> >> Without resistance
> >> Lifting from base to apex
> >> But not stopping there
> >>
> >> Instead emerging into slippery spiral gutter
> >> By way of which the native returns
> >> Whizzing gleefully down slope
> >> To where he and she belong
> >> Together as children playing
> >> In the light of darkness
> >> In the darkness of light
> >> Learning along the way
> >> That gathers before into after
> >> Continually
> >> With no need to get stuck in the prism
> >> That seems to cut a dash in space
> >> But can't.
> >>
> >>
> >> .......
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: geisha rebolledo<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> >> To:
> >> [log in to unmask]<mailto:PRACTITIONER-RESEARCHER@JISCMA
> >> IL.AC.UK>
> >> Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 8:28 PM
> >> Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
> >>
> >> Pip,
> >> Thank you very much for your mail. Yes!! KIA KAHA !!! Greetings, Geisha
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ________________________________
> >> Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 08:17:49 +1300
> >> From: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> >> Subject: Re: Intangible Presence
> >> To:
> >> [log in to unmask]<mailto:PRACTITIONER-RESEARCHER@JISCMA
> >> IL.AC.UK>
> >>
> >> Dear Geisha and others
> >>
> >> Sad to hear what is happening in your country, Geisha. I know
> >> universities
> >> around the globe are under pressure - there are layoffs and union action
> >> in
> >> mine, I know. But not on the scale that you're describing.
> >>
> >> I will add your situation to my prayer list!
> >>
> >> Kia kaha (Maori expression meaning 'be strong', hang on in there)
> >>
> >> Pip
> >>
> >> On 22/10/2010 5:08 a.m., geisha rebolledo wrote:
> >> Dear Alan and all,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Thank you so much for comming back to the web. I was already wondering
> >> what
> >>
> >> happen ?? It is a long time since I heard from you all .... You made me
> >> happy again after this mail.... remember my context is full with
> >> situations
> >> that , specially in Caracas, encourege very little deep thinking like
> >> this
> >>
> >> from Alan... For example my University is on a month strike because the
> >> government reduce our salaryes and owns a debt from 2008, so there is
> >> no
> >> salary payments, we are in a real mess...... so to find this paper on
> >> the
> >> intangible is wonderful... If i could say something about it Alan I
> >> could
> >> start by telling you that thanks to the intangible we manage to survive
> >> in
> >> this context at the moment... people in order to avoid the problems,
> >> specially those with socialistic government , also the 30.0 year
> >> inflation
> >>
> >> , the killings arround, etc., turn to the intangible as the only way...
> >> For
> >> example during the past asembly elections there were pray meetings
> >> everywere
> >>
> >> ... and there are small alternative places to go to meditate and to
> >> learn
> >> about spiritual subjects in order to fight this reality with intangible
> >> weapons because that is were the fight is located at intangible fields.
> >> Last week I attended a seminar on interdimensionality, this concept I
> >> believe it is related to what you call the intangible. From my point of
> >> view it is the main characteristic of the intangible. It helped me to
> >> give a certain order to other concepts like those involve in your paper.
> >> But
> >>
> >> another part is how the brain can become an interdimentional station for
> >> communication with the intangible.... Well I stop here, I would like to
> >> continue with this topic, many greetings, geisha
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ________________________________
> >> Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 07:55:50 +0100
> >> From: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> >> Subject: Intangible Presence
> >> To:
> >> [log in to unmask]<mailto:PRACTITIONER-RESEARCHER@JISCMA
> >> IL.AC.UK>
> >>
> >> Dear All,
> >>
> >> FYPI, I have just drafted the attached short paper, and intend shortly to
> >> post it to www.bestthinking.com<http://>.
> >>
> >> Warmest
> >>
> >> Alan
> >>
> >> "This e-mail is subject to our Disclaimer, to view click
> >> http://www.dut.ac.za"
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
________________________________
"This e-mail is subject to our Disclaimer, to view click http://www.dut.ac.za"
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