Crossing Liminal Lines
Where does learning and knowledge come from? Is it manufactured from books and courses and masters of their craft? Perhaps we all have an innate ability to know and do things that are buried deep in our psyches? What really happens when we find new knowledge - those pure "AHA" moments of discovery? Where does understanding and ability come from and how do we become aware?
"Our greatest treasure is that which is hidden deep within our own subconscious, it is that dark unused part of our self that is in fact light that is unconscious of itself." Carl Jung
Jung explored subconscious realms and continued to probe this deep well of knowing that was "beyond the descriptive language of processing, structuring, and reasoning." (Dirkx, 2008, p. 72). Below the liminal line of consciousness sits a world that cannot be clearly identified, located, or labelled. Dirkx (2008) proposes that we become aware of its presence through creativity; music, art, poetry, story, or emotion. It is through these creative endeavors that we develop symbols, images, stories, and interpretations of understanding of our worlds; through these creative endeavors, we dip into the pools of subconscious knowledge and draw up new understanding and ability from these deep reservoirs.
We can explore our conscious realms of knowledge and understanding readily. Words, stories, graphs, drawings, and numbers all form the ways in which we understand our environments. This blog is simply a series of words and pictures that mean something to me; this blog is a conscious expression of how I understand this topic. Consciousness is a tricky thing, often so black and white and plain that we miss the truest meaning of what we consciously explore. Even through critically reflective practice, the practice of critically questioning ourselves, we only test, challenge, and stretch our consciousness. No matter how broad or uncomfortable this process is, we are still only scratching the surface of learning. The conscious world is a mere chalk outline of the 'real' world, easily brushed away, smudged, and changed.
It is in the challenge of exploring our subconscious realms of knowing, dipping below the liminal line of consciousness, where we give shape, form, flow, symbolism, imagination, and emotion to our meanings. We become aware of stirrings of subconscious knowledge through emotion. Emotions through learning are not simply a psychological reaction to new stimuli. Dirkx (2008) proposes that these emotions are symptoms of the needs and yearnings of the soul, aka "messengers of the soul" (p. 120). These emotional outpourings are the gateway between the conscious and subconscious realms - through emotional energies, we can pull knowledge from our own subconscious pools of understanding.
It is from this perspective that I propose that we know things of which we are not consciously aware; in essence, I don't know what I know. I would challenge the reader to explore the concept that we all have innate knowledge and ability tucked safely into our subconscious worlds. All we need to do is to find ways to open the gates to let that knowledge flow to our awareness. It's time that we awoke to the depth of the world that we find in these deep pools of knowing.
"Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them." Eckhart Tolle
References
Dirkx, J. (2008). Care of the self: Mythopoetic dimensions of professional preparation and development. In T. Leonard & P. Willis (Eds.), Pedagogies of the imagination: Mythopoetic curriculum in educational practice (pp. 66-83). New York, NY: Springer.
"Our greatest treasure is that which is hidden deep within our own subconscious, it is that dark unused part of our self that is in fact light that is unconscious of itself." Carl Jung
Jung explored subconscious realms and continued to probe this deep well of knowing that was "beyond the descriptive language of processing, structuring, and reasoning." (Dirkx, 2008, p. 72). Below the liminal line of consciousness sits a world that cannot be clearly identified, located, or labelled. Dirkx (2008) proposes that we become aware of its presence through creativity; music, art, poetry, story, or emotion. It is through these creative endeavors that we develop symbols, images, stories, and interpretations of understanding of our worlds; through these creative endeavors, we dip into the pools of subconscious knowledge and draw up new understanding and ability from these deep reservoirs.
We can explore our conscious realms of knowledge and understanding readily. Words, stories, graphs, drawings, and numbers all form the ways in which we understand our environments. This blog is simply a series of words and pictures that mean something to me; this blog is a conscious expression of how I understand this topic. Consciousness is a tricky thing, often so black and white and plain that we miss the truest meaning of what we consciously explore. Even through critically reflective practice, the practice of critically questioning ourselves, we only test, challenge, and stretch our consciousness. No matter how broad or uncomfortable this process is, we are still only scratching the surface of learning. The conscious world is a mere chalk outline of the 'real' world, easily brushed away, smudged, and changed.
It is in the challenge of exploring our subconscious realms of knowing, dipping below the liminal line of consciousness, where we give shape, form, flow, symbolism, imagination, and emotion to our meanings. We become aware of stirrings of subconscious knowledge through emotion. Emotions through learning are not simply a psychological reaction to new stimuli. Dirkx (2008) proposes that these emotions are symptoms of the needs and yearnings of the soul, aka "messengers of the soul" (p. 120). These emotional outpourings are the gateway between the conscious and subconscious realms - through emotional energies, we can pull knowledge from our own subconscious pools of understanding.
It is from this perspective that I propose that we know things of which we are not consciously aware; in essence, I don't know what I know. I would challenge the reader to explore the concept that we all have innate knowledge and ability tucked safely into our subconscious worlds. All we need to do is to find ways to open the gates to let that knowledge flow to our awareness. It's time that we awoke to the depth of the world that we find in these deep pools of knowing.
"Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them." Eckhart Tolle
References
Dirkx, J. (2008). Care of the self: Mythopoetic dimensions of professional preparation and development. In T. Leonard & P. Willis (Eds.), Pedagogies of the imagination: Mythopoetic curriculum in educational practice (pp. 66-83). New York, NY: Springer.
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