A Perspective on the Felt Sense Conference, January 2023
A Perspective on the Felt Sense Conference, January 2023
One of the commitments I made when becoming a Focusing Trainer was to continue to learn about Focusing. There are many ways to do that – Focusing partnerships, reading, watching videos, going to Focusing events like workshops, roundtables, highlights, conferences etc. The covid lockdown opened up a world to us – events that were often prohibitively costly in airfare and accommodation are now accessible at a reasonable cost. There are quite a few ways from which to choose.
Every year or two there are several Focusing conferences which one can attend: the Weeklong for Newly Certified and Advanced Focusers; the Gendlin Symposium (on philosophy); the Focusing-Oriented Therapy Conference and the Children and Focusing Conference. In addition, there is the bi-annual International Conference – a general in-person event held at different locations around the world, where Focusers from all over the world convene to share ideas, insights experiences. In this piece I’m going to be looking at the Felt Sense Conference 2023.
Unlike the events listed above the Felt Sense Conference is a very accessible, inclusive online event, open to all, regardless of Focusing experience or background. It is an annual event which began in 2018 to honour the work of Gene Gendlin by exploring the many facets of felt sensing. This conference provides a space where presenters can share the far-reaching effects of Gendlin’s insights and teaching on their own lives and their work. The emphasis, over the course of the conference, is on the benefits and power of bridging or “crossing” areas of life and thought with Focusing. This year’s conference, 2023, was the fourth and the second to be online. This virtual event brought together, 15 presenters from four continents over three days to present on the theme “The Felt Sense and the Murky Edge – Sprituality”. Previous themes were Bridging Philosophy and Practice (2018), Creativity (2019) and Racial Justice (2022).
The three days were filled with opportunities for participants to listen, participate and learn; to connect across the lands and oceans of the planet; to be inspired and enlightened; and overall, to enhance their understanding and experience of Focusing. Space does not permit me to give detailed summaries of each of the 15 presentations. So, of necessity, here are just a few snapshots and hopefully a flavour of what was on offer.
Along with Elaine Goggin who ably supported the presenters, two other members of the Irish Focusing Network presented at the conference; John Keane and Marta Fabregat. John gave his presentation on “BioSpirituality and the Murky Edge - An Exploration of the Role of the Felt Sense in Spirituality”. In his presentation, John drew on such insightful thinkers as Christy Moore, Martin Buber, Karl Rahner and Richard Rohr and the two founders of BioSpiritual Focusing, Ed McMahon and Peter Campbell, through song, videos and quotes. He also drew on his own life experiences to eloquently outline the five phases of a “Foundation for a Global Spirituality” with the Felt Sense at its heart. He offered spaces throughout with prompts to take in what he had been speaking about.
Marta bilingually presented on “Sensed Ecology, the green breath within: How spiritual nature connection can affect change in our everyday focusing practice”. She began by inviting us to attune to our ‘inner habitat’ and our experience of a ‘sensed ecology’ – an experiential relationship with the environment. She, then, invited people to remember their early experiences of nature, to pick one and to invite a felt sense of that moment. With more space for reflection, she invited people to explore what prevented them from engaging with their environment. She pointed to some of principles from Gendlin’s philosophy that support the concept and reality of a sensed ecology.
In another nature-oriented presentation Peter Gill from England presented on "Nature as a doorway to spirit". Over the two hours, weaving poetry, quotes, images and music with experiential exercises, Peter took us on a journey through time and place to unfold our essential relationship with the more-than-human-world. Drawing on insights and inspiration from Gendlin and Robin Wall Kimmerer, he outlined some very doable practices to engage in nature-connection in places close to where we live.
Carla Kreft focused in on the practice of the first movement of Focusing, as developed by Gendlin with her presentation: “Clearing a Space as a path towards Dissolving Identity and Perceiving the Spirit” in which she offered CAS as “a road map to enter transcendental states”. First she clearly outlined some different prompts and approaches to CAS before going on guide some exercises which helped to explore the formulation of the words and questions that bring one to a cleared space and a place of disidentification. At the moment, Carla’s full presentation is freely available and may be viewed on youtube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY3R2OUUrd8&ab_channel=TheInternationalFocusingInstitute
Other topics and crossings included; Prayer, Zen, Spiritual Companionship, Embodiment and Symbolising. In some ways such intensive experiences of over 30 hours plus through the medium of a screen is perhaps too rich or too much to take in one go. The good news is that one has access to the recordings of these presentations for up to four months afterwards – so there is plenty of time to attend each one and to savour those that were particularly interesting or satisfying. Indeed, one can still purchase access to them – they’re available until the end of April (see below*). For me, it was (and still is) a very rewarding experience - to paraphrase an Elbow song, “one workshop like this a year will see me right”.
* https://focusing.org/event/recordings-2023-felt-sense-conference
Dublin In-Person Gathering by Fiona O'Meara
“How are you experiencing the world right now?”
This was a question that Tom Larkin posed at one of three workshops held in Glasnevin in March as part of the IFN’s first 2023 meet-up. (The first workshop was given by Elaine Goggin and the second by Therese Ryan).
How we experience the world is usually of great interest to us all. Are we happy? Are we suffering? And if we are suffering, it’s easy to spend many hours ruminating over how to stop the pain, or ‘fix’ our lives. But, as part of a guided exercise, Tom invited us to get a feel for this whole question, which brings more than simply thinking.
Tom then invited us to draw from this ‘felt sense’, after placing crayons and paper in the centre of the room. I sensed inwardly, chose some crayons, and let the colours flow. First, came sunny yellow, then carnation pink, and then, to my surprise, thick, dark strokes of black dug deep into the page. Strong, visceral feelings flowed and I enjoyed how powerful they felt in my body. After five years of Focusing, many doors inside that have been tightly-shut are opening. My partner reflected my observations beautifully, and I resolved to buy crayons on the way home.
I haven’t used them since, because of course, it’s not the same on your own. There’s something special about devoting a day to a lovely place - and how lovely the centre in Glasnevin is - and to being with other ‘bodies’ in a room.
For what is Focusing without community? It is not the same. And whilst my deepest experiences have been on my couch, through Zoom, with many partners, I also know that sitting in the same room as others who ‘get’ this Focusing thing, whilst munching biscuits and drinking tea, is something necessary for me. I love hearing others’ take on Focusing - What drew them to it? Who have they studied with? What other practices do they like? I love talking about Focusing and often, the best way is with people in a room.
Thanks so much to the hard-working IFN committee for creating community, and for hosting workshops that stimulate, inform and bring us inside… together.
Dublin In-Person Gathering by Marian Burke
Second in-person gathering March 4th 2023
Marian Neary Burke
A refreshing start to a cold March with our second in-person gathering in the beautiful Margaret Aylward centre. What would have been a larger number than fifteen, but due to various circumstances some of our friends could not attend.
Elaine Goggin led us into the day with her lovely gentle presence ensuring a guaranteed grounding for the day and reminders about “pausing” (backed up with wonderful quotes.) Elaine also got us to introduce ourselves in a fun way, which had us glued to her heart emblem, lest we introduce ourselves too soon!
Marie McGuigan, who was due to lead a poetry workshop, couldn’t make it, so Tom Larkin, stepped in and with his usual expertise and sack full of knowledge guided us through a morning of images. The first part prompted by a question about ourselves and then taking that deeper by selecting an image from his wonderful collection of pictures. This was enhanced more with our first session of Focusing. Part two was a question about how we viewed the world now with a guided exercise, which allowed us to create our own image and focus with this. By now we were well ready for lunch, which some people saying they were so hungry, they could hardly focus!
A refreshing walk in the grounds prepared us for a lovely afternoon on the Enneagram, presented by the knowledgeable Enneagram teacher Therese Ryan. She guided us through the nine personality types and cleverly got us to experience the different energies of head, heart and gut, in a walking exercise. No question was left unexplained in her limited time to explain the complex Enneagram (especially if one was new to it) followed by further time for some Focusing.
Kathleen and Mairead were remembered several times throughtout the day. Mary Rose Crowe took a photograph of the group to be included in a documentary, which is being made for the centenary of their order, in which Kathleen and Mairead will be remembered for their Focusing legacy. Also before lunch we had a smile as we paused and using their expression, checked, " What was the weather like inside.
And suddenly it was four forty-five and Mary Jennings in her relaxed calming voice closed the day and we were already talking about our next gathering! (Maybe September!?)
With grateful thanks to all the organisers.
BioSpirituality and the Murky Edge An Exploration of the Role of the Felt Sense in Spirituality
I had the privilege of being invited to present at The International Focusing Institute’s Felt Sense Conference 2023 – “Spirituality and the Murky Edge.”
This conference welcomed 170 participants from 30 countries.
The title of my 2-hour workshop was “BioSpirituality and the Murky Edge An Exploration of the Role of the Felt Sense in Spirituality”.
It was a wonderful experience to connect with many familiar faces and lots of new ones to explore the spirituality implicit in the Focusing experience/process.
The workshop was an exploration of Fr Peter Campbell’s (co-founder of the BioSpiritual Institute) assertion that any serious spiritual research “must” contain some dimension of the role of felt sensing.
In this workshop, we examined this assertion in terms of:
- The need for a developmental/felt sense model of “spiritual experiencing”.
- “Mysticism for the millions” creating a foundation for global Interspirituality.
- The felt sense as an essential reference in discovering “where you are” on your journey.
Space and time was provided for participants to sense into locating themselves in relation to their participation in the larger system/mystery of living.
It was so refreshing to witness how the Focusing process can form a common experiencing, a common platform that can support and nurture differing traditions and different interpretations of that sense of Spirituality. When we place interaction/experiencing first, then we can sense the value of other traditions. We do not feel threatened by other interpretations when we can sense into the living that animates them.
I left with a deep sense/hope that our experience of participating in some process/mystery larger than ourselves is the foundation for living a spirituality built on lived experience, rather than our interpretation of it.
I wish to thank the TIFI board especially Catherine Torpey and Darryl Commings for their warm welcome, Melanie Korpi and Elizabeth Cantor for their tireless organising. And especially our own Elaine Goggin for her expert technical support and kindness.
John Keane
International Director
BioSpiritual Institute
