Thinking the Float Tank – Friday, August 25, 2023 (Day 2)
Seven Meditations on a First Distinction while Floating in the Tank
Speaker Bio:
Margaretha Hendrickx is an independent scholar with a background in agricultural engineering (Ir., State University of Gent, Belgium, 1987), molecular genetics (M.Sc., Purdue University, USA, 1991) and strategic management (Ph.D., Purdue University, USA, 2003). She hosts and administers the website www.ourkarlpopper.net. Currently, she is studying how human beings have been studying and (especially) reflecting on the human art of experimenting with schemas of distinctions since time immemorial, with a special emphasis on the work of Aristotle,Victoria Welby, John Dewey, Karl Popper and George Spencer-Brown. Her most recent publication, Revisiting one’s engagement with Aristotle’s triangle of reference, will appear in the upcoming 2023 issue of Athanor, Hope as a Sign. To contact Margaretha, go to: https://independent.academia.edu/MargarethaHendrickx
Abstract:
When John Lilly built his first isolation tank, one of its purposes was to get a more authentic understanding and experience of pure consciousness. The isolation tank experiment raises all sorts of interesting questions, the most important one of course being, whether it is possible to codify, put into words and share with one another what happens when one’s sensory modality inputs are reduced to a bare minimum. Or, will language inevitably fail us when one attempts to discuss experiences of pure consciousness, irrespective of whether one works with written or spoken language? Is the experience of floating in an isolation tank something that can only be grasped through living it? But before one can even begin discussing this question, one must agree on some minimal shared understanding of what is involved in the phenomenon of consciousness. In my presentation, I propose, following Edmund Husserl and others, to set up consciousness as a process of experimenting with schemas of distinctions, by adding, removing and rearranging distinctions. I then propose and develop a method of communicating that consists of nothing more than the drawing of distinctions (with pen and paper), accompanied by gesturing and the act of finger-pointing (at the distinctions brought into being). I will link this manner of communication with psychoanalysis, gestalt therapy (e.g., Fritz Perls), and the phenomenon of gestalt-switching and identify seven distinctions that may be treated as potential candidates for a so-called first distinction: (a) coming into existence in the womb; (b) being born; (c) like vs. dislike; (d) self vs. other; (e) powerful vs helpless; (f) spoken vs written word; (g) present vs. past/future.
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