[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Robert's Response #674

In my understanding, felt sense or BFS is more directly connected to the language that arises from it. The ‘wordless space’ is, I think, the result of moving thru a series of focusing steps as Lavender describes with the word ‘manageable.’ What you are describing sounds to me of more of an ‘aha’ moment — an ‘I totally get it’ moment that does arise and then disappear pretty quickly. Does this make sense to you?

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Sarah's Response #673

Yes, this all makes sense to me.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Impatience and Felt Sense #671

Interesting question to pose in a felt sense way to yourself…..as in “What’s underneath the impatience?”

• This reply was modified 11 years ago by Sondra Perl.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Hilarie's Response to Lavender #670

Nice point about the hyphen that may be trying to do something that our separated language doesn’t account for.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Yana\'s Response to Perl #602

Great connections, Yana. I think you may have missed the class when we discussed the differences between meditation and focusing. I’ll go over this again when we do the Guidelines for Composing — but to simplify now, in meditation one of the goals is to let go of thinking, to notice ideas or words but not to get stuck or attached to them. In composing, it is to sense into the body but to remain focused on the words that come. Practiced meditators sometimes find this hard.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Hilarie's Response #601

Hi Hilarie,
I love the way you are pulling things together, using Elbow and your notes from Gene’s video. I am with you all the way (especially about the power/usefulness/aptness of gerunds) — until you link to ‘toddlerhood.’ I take that word to mean ‘childish’ — although you may want it to mean something more akin to ‘abandon’ or ‘playfulness’ — (See Gene’s use of the words having no set meanings). But for Gene, I think, felt sense is a concept and experience that leads to mature thinking and is based on a kind of mature patience and allowing. That is why the ‘tapping into childhood’ strikes me as not quite accurate.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Ryan's Response #592

Stay tuned…we are getting there soon. The exercise is, in some ways, the opposite of free writing which asks you to keep moving forward without stopping. I like free writing and am not disparaging it at all. Just saying that the process we will use will cultivate going back as much as going forward.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Shona's Response to Chapter 3 #591

Shona, you ask:

a) What is the response to the contention that (aside from the confines of language), even the physical body is a socially constructed “thing” (and therefore, can never be felt authentically, as it is always already written upon)?

b) What is the response to the idea that speaking of felt sense in one’s body is “making an assumption” that the body one is in is the one they wish to be in?

In regard to a, Gene would ask you to focus deeply on that question and see if it rings true to you. He would also ask “where did the thing theory come from? How did it emerge? Someone had to create it freshly — from where?” He would also say they are wrong. Read over my attempt in Chapter 3 to explain why.

In regard to b, I would ask, ‘Is it?’ Can’t one speak from the discomfort of being in one’s body? It’s about paying attention to what is there, inchoately, and allowing words to come to express that….

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Shona's Response to “Perl, Felt Sense: Foreword (by Peter Elbow), Intro & Chapte #590

Yes, Shona. This captures Gene’s project and the human possibility he sees as embodied in all ways of knowing and being. Great extension or fleshing out of where this work can lead.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Hilarie's Response: Rethinking Nirvana #578

Yes, Hilarie, that makes sense. In Gene’s terms, the bodily processes are always ‘carrying us forward.’

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Erin's Response, "Understanding Composing" #563

All of this seems very physical to me. You ask if this is a ‘visual learning thing’ or a ‘felt sense thing’ — and so what strikes me is the use of the word ‘thing’ — I know what you mean but Gene would want to say that a lot of the problem in western philosophy is related to the thing model. That we put things in boxes. What he’s trying to get us to see is how process continually evolves … that’s in part what the occurring into the implying is about. He will ultimately talk about ‘carrying forward’ — another way of talking in process terms, not thing terms.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Yana's Response #560

An interesting topic: examining how anxiety plays out in your composing. You could ask yourself, “What is anxiety for me?” And see what comes.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Karyna's Response #559

Karyna, you write:

“So many times I asked myself “does it feel right?” “would my readers just laugh at me?” ”

I think these two questions point in very different directions. “Feeling right” implies feeling right to you, internally, getting the sense of what you are trying to say on paper or screen. If you have done it so that it (the words, sentences, images) resonate with your internal sense of meaning, then it ‘feels right.’ This does not, in my experience, have a lot to do with the audience. They may or may not get it — but for me that’s a later consideration and happens best by getting responses from real readers. A ‘favorable response’ may validate us — or our bodily experience — but I don’t think we actually know what readers get unless they can say back what they’ve read. Your words may mean or evoke many other meanings for your readers.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Sarah's Response #552

About the friend who writes a piece in one fell swoop: I would suggest that he does a lot of composing in his head so that by the time he gets to paper or the computer screen he’s already been revising or going back in order to go forward. It only looks linear.

[Sondra Perl]

in reply to: Robert's Response #550

Robert, you write:
“So when I conceptualize felt sense, I think not so much of tapping into the body as using the body as a conduit to better understand my brain. I’m not certain if this is the way that Sondra or Gendlin mean felt sense, and I’m not even sure that this conceptualization is compatible with their understanding, but for now I’m not certain that I can go far beyond this.”

You seem to be saying that there is something that stops you here, that you can’t get beyond, that somehow doesn’t make sense to you or fit with your own understanding of the body and the mind. I would say that there is a felt sense here — a nagging something — and Gene would say to stay with that, to inquire into what that sense is telling you, into what it means so that you can say more. This is in some ways the edge of your thinking — right here — and it will open into more saying and more thinking as you explore what prevents you from going further (what we might call your discomfort with these conceptualizations).

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by Sondra Perl.

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