Rediscovering the Lost Body Connection within Christianity Spirituality (2010)

Edwin M. Mc Mahon and Peter A. Campbell

It has been many years since I read a book on Bio-Spirituality by Ed and Pete. The above named book was completely new to me. I was captured from the first meeting as well as the recommended chapters to read before each session. It was a diverse group from many countries and I learned a lot from our reflections, questions, feedback and sharing in the break-out rooms. Aine opened the sessions with a range of guided settling and grounding experiences. The pace of the sessions was gentle and slow which tied in with one of the overarching themes of this book study.

The key areas we looked at were the practice of noticing and nurturing using the focusing process as described by Gendlin. We were invited to do a timeline of our lives exploring the lived experiences of feeling comfort and connection, termed as an “affectionate friend”. This was done most sensitively acknowledging that traumatic or negative experiences may have been part of our life stories. I enjoyed doing my timeline as it reminded me of the many experiences of people and special places that were my “affectionate teachers” and that I can continue to draw from now. From here on I shall use the term affectionate friend as this describes how the whole experience evolved for me. The process helped me to access some new affectionate friend experiences as well. We talked about times when we did not have an affectionate friend when we may have needed it, exploring ways we can bring our discovered affectionate friends experiences to all of that now. This reminds me of a comment by Dr Gabor Mate “No matter what happened in the past you can heal it in the now….. With a practice in developing self compassion and as well as reaching out for help, as this is how we are made, hardwired, for connection”. It is in relationships we are damaged and it is in relationships we are healed, a very human paradox.   

We explored symbols and metaphors and the bodily mutual interactions with the felt sense. As a lover of poetry I had a profound experience at our in-person gathering in Dublin 2024. The description in this book described exactly my actual experience of focusing with a poem. The poem “functioned as a metaphorical bridge that interacted with a deeper felt sense, opening a door and carrying me across some visceral threshold into a different place and a transformed feeling within my own body. The words of the poem, as an explanation and information, in no way could account for the sheer visceral power of this interacting relationship between the poem as  metaphor and my own body’s unique felt sensing. Gendlin suggests that there exists a deeper felt meaning, a felt sense within the body which can be accessed and encouraged to unfold further when interaction with an appropriate symbol or metaphor…allowing a further felt-revelation and visceral change to emerge from within” (Chapter 4) “Journeying into Your Own Inner World of Felt-Sensing” Pg 34. The something fresh and new that emerged for me was related to being with a loved one at the time of death. More was revealed about a connection to something beyond the whole experience. It felt like pure gift and grace in the now, just as described so eloquently in this book.

Three interesting further themes that resonated with me were process skipping, the philosophy of addiction in relation to church and faith, including the exploration of “Love your enemies” (Chapter 16) we explored this piece of scripture in relation to coping with physical and emotional pain. Bringing this approach to pain and illness has brought a tangible ease and relief to how I cope with this most natural human difficulty.

 We were invited to watch out for times when we used distraction, numbing, avoidance (busyness) and substituting (food, alcohol, work, social media) as a possible way of process skipping. This helps me to pause and take some time to sense into how I am feeling or to use a focusing question from the book “What needs my loving caring presence just now?”

I was completely fascinated with the chapter on addiction and church/faith. This has expanded and deepened my understanding regarding current issues within church and connected me to my own living faith in a new and fresh way, feeling again like gift and grace.

To conclude, “Nothing changes and everything changes” has been my experience. These are also the words of a beautiful poem “Inviting Spaciousness” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. The words capture for me a very deep connection into the wider field of focusing philosophy. I invite you to go onto the Poetry section of IFN website and listen to the recent recording.

I will be reading this book for years to come as I feel I have just began something fresh and new.

Thank you to John and Aine.

Marie Mc Guigan