An inquiry into animism as a source of meaning in response to radical and disruptive non-ordinary experiences

Abstract

This is an autoethnographic inquiry into the experience a series of deeply disruptive non-ordinary phenomena that caused me, initially, to question my sanity and to try to understand what was happening. I explore the drama of struggle to make sense of these experiences, dismissed by my culture's dominant ontologies as invalid. The research is centred around two key questions - "How do I make sense of my experience of the nonordinary?" and "Could I find a way of fitting my experiences within my parent culture's ontological narrative" I explore animism as a possible explanatory model. Animism has long been considered to be a 'primitive' perceptual and conceptual mode, essentially erroneous, from which humans evolve. However, recently, the idea has been rehabilitated to serve environmental concerns, though not in a highly disciplined manner. I argue that animism is an innate form of perception and conception, with a complex foundation, and which merits reconsideration as a valid and valued way of knowing the world. There is yet considerable work to be done to develop animism as a mature contemporary discourse model.

Date of Award	2008
Original language	English