Inquiry with Earth in Mind: Terrapsychological Inquiry

Abstract

Terrapsychological Inquiry (TI) is a qualitative research methodology that takes seriously our intense inner responses to the state of the natural world. How does the world get into the heart? Oceans and skies, trees and hills, rivers and soils, and even built things like houses, cities, ports, and planes: How do they show up for us inwardly? How do our moods, feelings, and dreams reflect what happens in the world? Terrapsychological Inquiry evolved over a decade of experimentation by graduate students, instructors, workshop leaders and presenters, and other embodied creatives to offer a truly Earth-honoring mode of story-based qualitative inquiry, one that changes all involved from passive spectators of the doings of the world into active, sensitive participants. We will hear an overview of TI, look at some examples of its deep work with place, and consider implications for a reenchantment of worldviews.

Presenters

Craig Chalquist
Academic Program Director, Consciousness and Transformative Studies, National University, California, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

2024 Special Focus—Traveling Concepts: The Transfer and Translation of Ideas in the Humanities

KEYWORDS

Terrapsychology, Ecopsychology, Humanities, Imaginal, Storytelling, Qualitative, Interpretive, Psychological