Disembodied rationalism

Happy New Year to all my dancing friends. I celebrated the new year at Winter Solstice but I am enjoying the time today to relax and do some blogging.

I am answering the DYB friend who asked about "disembodied rationalism" or "rationality". This is not my term, rather one used in philosophy, particularly phenomenology, and of course in feminist philosophy. It refers to the Western/Cartesian concept of the mind-body split which is not present in many other cultures. You will find it referred to in discussions about religion, law, and a wide range of areas exploring the role of the human body in cognition. You can google the term and find a huge amount of literature, scholarly and popular, blogs, and books.

Embodiment is the opposite of course, integrating mind and body (and emotions), or going even further, as some suggest that the dividing lines between body and mind might even be misunderstood, based on centuries of dualistic thinking in our culture. Listen to this US neurobiologist Antonio Damasio on Big Think talk about current research into the way brain and body are involved in emotion.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/23022

So when I am journalling here about experiences "in" my body, I am not talking about mindlessness -
Watch Lil Jon's "Get Outta Your Mind" (warning, not a clean version) about mindlessness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=041h-1_5yfo
Sometimes you have to be mindless to break the stronghold that rational thinking keeps us locked in
(by the way, I love that song!).

I am talking about not letting "rational" mind control the experience. I am training it to take a side seat when asked to, for the purposes of my own freedom and wellbeing. So that it can play a role as an important ally in my expanding consciousness, but not dominate the process. Rationalism is not God ruling over the temple of my body.

I will bring a copy of Spretnak's chapter on embodied/goddess religion to dance this week for anyone who'd like to read a sample of feminist thought on embodiment.