From Jason Gosnell (2005.06.23. 17:55CST)
[From Bill Powers (2005.06.23.1517 MDT)]
In Zen and her method this is done by placing more attention in the body or sometimes they say the inner energy field of the >>body. So, the heart and body or your “felt-sense” needs to be included somehow. What does PCT say of this?
Well, being basically an engineer I’m perfectly willing to accept the idea of kinesthetic senses, but not the idea of inner energy >fields. I don’t think there is any such thing. Why do people who don’t know anything about physics insist on borrowing words >like energy and field and giving them nonsense meanings? I’ve never liked that aspect of the Eastern philosophy that we read >about over here.
Okay, think of something that gives you a feeling of peace or joy or happiness. Like a daughter or something like that. Now, how do you know you are joyful or peaceful? You have to feel it in the body to notice it generally…I notice it in my chest. when I imagine my sister as a child I feel a freedom in my chest and a releasing in my body–like a feeling space and freedom in my body. Now…I don’t know if I am really feeling this “in my muscles” in the usual sense of muscular feeling or sensation. Just check our the chest area and see…is it in the muscles? or bone? It doesn’t feel to me like it is a kinesthetic sense exactly. I may not understand kinesthetic sense, but I think of muscles and movement as a sensation in the kinesthetic sense. It seems to be felt in the body, but it doesn’t feel like typical sensation on my skin, in my muscles. It feels like something else. Do you notice this?
It feels like a kind of energy or feeling or sense. But not the way most people talk about sensations. Gendlin calls it a felt-sense and says it is felt in the body, but it is more than our usual mere sensations–like someone pinching your arm or feeling an itch to scratch. So, it is not in muscle or bone or skin.
Another example, have you ever felt a heaviness in the chest stressing about something. It is not exactly a sensation in the sense of muscular or skin sensations–it feels like a heaviness is the best one can do in that case. And it is felt around the area of the chest.
What do you notice about these experiences yourself–if you don’t mind be pushing this a bit.
Regards…Jason Gosnell
All electronic mail communications originating from or transmitted to Bridgeway Center, Inc. are subject to monitoring. This message and the information contained in it, which may consist of electronic data attachments, are the confidential and proprietary communications of Bridgeway Center, Inc. and are intended to be received only by the individual or individuals to whom the message has been addressed If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please take notice that any use, copying, printing, forwarding or distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the Bridgeway Center, Inc. Privacy Officer at (850) 833-7540 and/or forward the message to hipaa@bridgeway.org and delete or destroy all copies of this message.