Ontological Shock
Sunday Observations from the Intuitive Learner
Sunday Observations. One-off, or a regular series? Not sure. But here are some thoughts from my week as a sensethinker.
No AI was prompted in the writing of this article. Enjoy the creative grammar and mismatched verb tenses.
On being misunderstood (the problem with words)
Here’s what it’s like inside my body-mind when we talk: You say something, and it lands inside my awareness like a pebble in a pond.
Except it’s not a pebble. Your idea is a tiny ecosystem, and once it lands in the pond of my consciousness, the pond is actually a sensing field that is exploring the landforms and weather patterns of your ideas. In other words, I feel your ideas in my body. So when I respond to you, I’m telling you which way the winds are blowing and why the trees are bending, and you’re like: “WTF? That wasn’t an ecosystem, that was a pebble. And it wasn’t a pebble at all, it was just some words because you asked how I’m doing today.”
That happened a couple of times this week.
René Magritte, 1929, “This is not a pipe.”
We forget that words are always symbols of a deeper reality, they are never the reality itself. We have been conditioned to transact in words, to maintain narrow definitions of extracted meaning, and to reject the greater meaning that comes in through the rest of our totally ordinary and not weird intuitive perception.
In my view, the reason we can be deceived is that we have cut off our sensing from our thinking. I’ve got something to help with that, which I’ll share later.
On being understood (telepathy with words)
But THEN, I had this other exchange. I met Kerri Lake, who is often introduced as an animal communicator but is so much more. During our connection, I experienced an upleveling of communication that gave me a sense of what is possible when there are two sensethinkers in the room! The best way I can describe our exchange was telepathy with words.
What did that look like? Kerri would share her ideas. Then we would pause together and she would observe me walking around in her ideas and naming the landforms and weather patterns and she would say YES, that’s it! And we would build from there.
It reminded me of why I do what I do:
I want more people to play with.
It’s faster and has far greater depth than ordinary communication.
And, because we are working with the deeper reality, not the shallow, illusory, deceptive one that is constantly being spun to make us confused or hypnotized, we can reach the leverage points that create real change.
Ontological shock (or affirmation)
This term came to my attention this week, and now my world makes more sense.
Ontology is the way you construct your world, how you understand what is real. Your ontology creates your experience of what’s normal. An ontological shock is an experience that ruptures your sense of reality and normality. It is disorienting - or maybe deeply affirming! - but when integrated, it vastly expands your understanding of the nature of reality. You are left with a clear before and after: the world as you understood it before the event, and the world as you understand it now.
The dinner scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
A classic example is the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The entire film is about the disruption of an ontological shock, including the desire of the people closest to return you to the world you left behind, and just be normal!!! The one they still inhabit and the only one they know as true.
In 2011, I experienced the first of several ontological shocks/affirmations as a result of Family Constellation work (FC).
FC is a healing modality that takes a systemic view of the family, but what makes it unique is the process it uses to investigate the system: other people, usually complete strangers, are chosen to “represent” members of your family system. They stand there, quietly sensing their inner experience, and then within moments, these strangers are embodying your family field with shocking precision. They have no background history, often they don’t know who or what they’re even representing, yet every time they show you a mirror of your family field.
After I got over the initial shock of that experience, my question became, if this is possible, what else is possible?
Ultimately, that led to the development of Sensethinking. But that’s not what I want to talk about here.
What I want to say is that I have an invitation for you!
I’m hosting a FREE Sensethinking Inquiry this Wednesday, April 1, about ontological shock and the boundaries of normal.
It’s called Ontological Boundaries: What to do when the world doesn’t make sense. It is an experiential workshop to tap into your own sensethinking capacity and to give you a window into what’s happening when the world doesn’t make sense.
Ontological Boundaries:
What to do when the world doesn’t make sense.
A FREE Sensethinking Inquiry with Aitabé
Wednesday, April 1
12 pm ET - 2 pm ET
REGISTER HERE
Experience sensethinking and gain a deeper understanding of what to do when the world doesn’t make sense.
I hope to see you on the call! Either way, have a great week.